The Realms WILL Be Updated!

WotC's Chris Perkins and Mike Mearls both mentioned the possibility of Forgotten Realms updates on Twitter today. A chap called Montgomery Headstrom tweeted at both of them - to Perkins he said "I don't understand why you guys did the Sundering if you weren't going to update the Realms. Can you clarify that for me?" and the Mearls he said "if WOTC isn't interested in updating the realms would corporate allow kickstarter drive to let Ed Greenwood do it?" Both replied to his his comments, confirming that they do, in fact, intend to update the Realms. Thanks to Adrian for the scoop.

Montgomery: if WOTC isn't interested in updating the realms would corporate allow kickstarter drive to let Ed Greenwood do it?
Mike Mearls: who sez we aren't interested in updating it?

Montgomery: I don't understand why you guys did the Sundering if you weren't going to update the Realms. Can you clarify that for me?
Chris Perkins: The Sundering allowed us to bring back things that the setting had lost over the years. We ARE updating the Realms.

 

[Zaran]

Just because they are updating the realms a little bit at a time doesn't change that fact that it would be a great pain for a GM to find any specific thing when it's scattered over 4 books. It will get much worse as more of these adventure paths are put out. Plus there are going to be a lot of us who won't buy the adventure paths but will buy a setting book because we want to make our own adventures and not use theirs but might actually like the setting.

 

[HobbitFan]

Zaran raises an excellent point. One I think that argues for some sort of all-in-ne summary product. Maybe not a setting hardback since they seem adverse to that for some reason. Maybe not a box set.
What that leaves for them to try I'm not sure aside from online article updates.
Or maybe they won't ever updtae the whole thing. They will just do snippets, ignore the big picture and just plod on.
I don't know....it seems like they have to do something...

 

[Xavian Starsider]

I think a lot of you are still missing the point. We don't need a new book just to throw stuff at us we don't know like "Cormyr has been fighting off waves of vicious three-headed beavers and needs heroes to investigate the problem." The big change in the 5th edition is that the Realms are basically back to the Realms of AD&D. Do you need a 300-page book to tell you what has reverted? Do you need a book to throw lots of adventure hooks at you all over the continent? Sure, I'd buy it if it came out. But I can also supply my own three-headed beavers.

My question before remains the same. What is it people NEED from a new campaign guide? Not just want, but need that the previous 4 campaign guides don't already cover in great detail?

 

[enigma5915]

Why is there an assumption that people have forgotten realms product from the past four editions? And why have people hunt down old product for current games? The realms info that is coming out is splattered among multiple books. It's not user friendly and not very welcoming or inviting. I'm not going to guess at motives as to why they(D&D) are doing what they are doing, but I would like a campaign setting in some form. Not spread out through 30 adventures which I may not even like to run.

 

[Targan]

Well I dunno what I'm gonna do. There's no way I'm going to buy all the adventures written for 4e and read 50 novels. I need some way to get a broad understanding of what's happened between early 3e and 5e, preferably without having to spend $1000 and/or 6 months of painstaking internet research. I guess I just have to get used to the idea that my cobbled together 5e campaign is going to diverge massively from a proper 5e FR campaign guide a couple of years from now.

 

[Uchawi]

Whatever they do with the realms someone is not going to be happy. That is the price WOTC is going to pay for using a setting that has been around for a while. So all they can do is present the best realms knowing that each edition added a twist. The worse thing they could do is hand waive things like the sundering, versus just suck it up and nudge the realms in a new direction.

 

[Mephista]

Well I dunno what I'm gonna do.

Candlekeep forum (much better place for FR lore than anywhere else). Forgotten Realms wiki. Ed Greenwood's website http://realmssecretariat.com/ . If you have the money to do it, Elminster's Guide to the Realms is the only book I really suggest buying on the matter.

The information is generally out there on the 'net. Ask around in the right places, and you'll get your answers.

 

[delericho]

My question before remains the same. What is it people NEED from a new campaign guide?

Probably not too much, but you also have to consider the mechanics of how WotC will provide the update. As far as I can see, they have three choices:

- They can provide a summary document detailing the changes since a previous version. That could work, but it begs the question: which version? By all accounts, the 4e one wasn't terribly well-received, but the 3e version is more than a century (in-setting) out of date. And the Grey Box predates the Time of Troubles. So, which version do you assume your audience is referencing?

- They could, of course, provide several such update documents covering all the options. The issue with that is obvious, of course: it's considerably more work, and they'll need to ensure that all the documents are consistent with one another.

- Or they can provide some sort of one-stop product that details not just the changes but the current state of the Realms. That's not necessarily a hardback book, of course - they could go with a boxed set, or an online atlas/encyclopedia, or something else.

(Of course, if they had Dragon going, they could present a series of articles giving the current state of various parts of the Realms, and build it up that way. But that's not hugely different from the third option - it's just not presented all at once.)

Assuming that their "update strategy" isn't just to put various bits of info in the APs as they come, I really expect them to choose that third option. Bear in mind: every edition is someone's first edition.

 

[dwayne]

I think an article about some of the minor campain settings would be good too like mystara, counsel of wyrms, ect.. and some small books for greyhawk, eberron, ect.. they will of course do a big thing over forgotten realms because its there favorite child. But would like to see something on others as well.

 

[delericho]

I think an article about some of the minor campain settings would be good too like mystara, counsel of wyrms, ect.. and some small books for greyhawk, eberron, ect..

Of course, Eberron has already had an article. Though it was a mechanical update, rather than any update to the setting.

I'll be surprised if WotC ever do a "small book" again, on any topic. I would expect them to either go big or not bother at all.