This whole, changing the backstory thing...

[JohnSnow]

Hmmm... did they?

Planescape, Al-Qadim, Dark Sun, Mystara, Spelljammer... if those worlds are surviving, it's only in the meagre of ways.


Cheers,
Roger

You forgot Birthright! Why does everyone forget Birthright?

Although some of its flavor (cosmology-wise) seems to be creeping into 4e...

 

[Mercule]

A tiny part of me laments the fact that druid and bard won't be in the first PHB, but that's not really a problem

Is this certain? I know it's highly expected, but I haven't heard a definite answer to this.

Treebore, I might correct you on one tiny note: gnomes are still core, they're just in the MM instead of the PHB. They moved next door, not out of the neighborhood.

Which is probably for the best. I mean, really, who wants gnomes living under the stairs?

 

[Vigilance]

Hmmm... did they?

Planescape, Al-Qadim, Dark Sun, Mystara, Spelljammer... if those worlds are surviving, it's only in the meagre of ways.


Cheers,
Roger

I was talking about Homebrew worlds surviving actually.

But my point still stands.

The official worlds you mentioned might have ceased to be supported, but it wasn't because the new rules just changed their backstories too much.

It was because TPTB made a decision that they needed a limit on the number of worlds they were publishing.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Interesting thoughts.

Most of those notes though seem to effect characters rather than overall backstory though no?

 

[Vigilance]

Interesting thoughts.

Most of those notes though seem to effect characters rather than overall backstory though no?

Well, I was talking about the way my players interacted with my homebrew world, so the two points are somewhat intertwined.

Players see the world through their character. That's what puts the "role" in RPG.

But I'd also point out that gods no longer granting the same spells to every priest is a pretty big change from a world perspective.

And even if you didn't go with the specialty priests, the spells lists of Clerics and Magic-Users still changed, humans could suddenly multi-class, and demi-humans could suddenly advance without restriction.

And Monks were gone, and Bards and Illusionists had been morphed into some weird other things that weren't really them.

Those are changes for PCs, but they are also things that are a little hard to hand-wave while keeping verisimilitude.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Well, I was talking about the way my players interacted with my homebrew world, so the two points are somewhat intertwined.

Players see the world through their character. That's what puts the "role" in RPG.

But I'd also point out that gods no longer granting the same spells to every priest is a pretty big change from a world perspective.

And even if you didn't go with the specialty priests, the spells lists of Clerics and Magic-Users still changed, humans could suddenly multi-class, and demi-humans could suddenly advance without restriction.

And Monks were gone, and Bards and Illusionists had been morphed into some weird other things that weren't really them.

Those are changes for PCs, but they are also things that are a little hard to hand-wave while keeping verisimilitude.

Certainly. But if you went to second edition and weren't playing a half-orc assassin, would it's disapperance effect you? The effect on the planes is a simliar thing though in some ways. If you don't use the planes, then their changes won't necessarily effect your campaign. But the implications might be much larger as we've seen hints of other changes like the new classes (always fun to introduce), assumption of race situations (another fun one to insert into an ongoing campaign), and probably the changing of how magic works including things like what level spells are.

In some ways it's like comparing D&D to AD&D. The two had a lot of similiarites and I know many GMs (myself included), used material from both systems in one weird hybrd (along with Role Aids).

 

[hong]

Certainly. But if you went to second edition and weren't playing a half-orc assassin, would it's disapperance effect you? The effect on the planes is a simliar thing though in some ways. If you don't use the planes, then their changes won't necessarily effect your campaign. But the implications might be much larger as we've seen hints of other changes like the new classes (always fun to introduce), assumption of race situations (another fun one to insert into an ongoing campaign), and probably the changing of how magic works including things like what level spells are.

If you managed to add marshals, duskblades, knights, swashbucklers, binders, dragon shamangs, swordsages and crusaders to your Realms, then a piddly planar shift or two should be no problem.

 

[JoeGKushner]

If you managed to add marshals, duskblades, knights, swashbucklers, binders, dragon shamangs, swordsages and crusaders to your Realms, then a piddly planar shift or two should be no problem.

Bit of difference between adding something from a supplemental book than a core book no?

Now I personally haven't had too many issues with additions of classes. My group tends to be of the, "Let's play" as opposed to, "Man, this is bogus! This world lacks internal consistency."

The bigger problem tends to be that these unsual entities, as part of the core, will be making far more apperances than say, the marshl or swordsages have in official products.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

To me, it is simply amazing that people can sit around a table and pretend to be elves, dwarves, half-dragons and the like yet when confronted with revisional CRUNCH and fluff changes, they fold like a paper doll.

Frankly, this whole "old guard/grognard" thing is ridiculous. It's a game of imagination - I'm sure it will be easy to pretend to be elves, dwarves and half-dragons in the upcoming edition, too if you plan to convert. If not, well then hey - kudos!

Ill show them, I will play the most druidy ranger EVER.

 

[hong]

Bit of difference between adding something from a supplemental book than a core book no?

Your Realms is your Realms, and whether a book is labelled supplemental or core (either by some random people in an office in Renton, Washington or on some random forum in the Interwebs) has no effect on the impact of using that book to change your Realms. The people in your Realms do not have "supplemental" and "core" written on their foreheads.