Unearthed Arcana and WotC Early 2004 schedule.

[Kershek]

Ah... sharing the sentiments of another poster, it's going to be a nice cheap quarter for me.

Not one of those announced books holds even the slightest interest to me. I even DM extensively an FR campaign (for more than 10 years now), and that Player's Guide to the Realms sounds like one of the biggest wastes of money ever to me. Include changes brought on by crappy FR novels? I think not.

Perhaps it means updating the spells to 3.5 as well.

 

[Mercule]

Have you used an 3e FR stuff? Was never a fan of 2e FR, but the 3e stuff is pretty good actually.

I've looked through the FRCS. Probably _the_ best layout for a setting book I've ever seen -- almost a template for what such a book should be.

My problem with FR is twofold.

1) I just realized this in one of the art discussion threads, but the very substance of FR represents everything negative about 2E. Basically, whenever someone says "Forgotten Realms", I hear "Loraine Williams misbegotten vision of gaming".

Part of this is because the era in which FR really gained ground is also the time when I became disenchanted with AD&D as a whole. Part of it is because it has always seemed like anything that is cool from some other setting gets moved or copied into the Realms (although I don't deny that the Realms had a _lot_ of original setting material). I may be incorrect, but (as an example) I don't remember the expanded demi-human pantheons (Clengedin, Aerdae Faenia, etc.) being in FR originally. They were ripped from Greyhawk. Even if they were in there, they (and even Corellon Larethian and Lolth) shouldn't be any more than Pelor or Wee Jas should be -- they're all Greyhawk gods.

2) The setting feels like it has the kitchen sink. This extends to magic to the point where magic becomes mundane. Everyone seems to have access to magic. Raising Dead isn't awe-inspiring, it's routine.

The FRCS feels enough different from its predecessors that I _might_ be able to suck it up and get past #1. I really don't see any way to get past #2.

 

[Olive]

The FRCS feels enough different from its predecessors that I _might_ be able to suck it up and get past #1. I really don't see any way to get past #2.

You don't have too. I just use the books for rules material. I don't actually play in the realms. That would be silly

The books (magic and monsters of faerun, silver marches etc) have good rules in them. That's all I use them for.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Ill probably end up with UA and the maps, even though Im afraid UA will be a "4.0 beta" as someone posted earlier. Not that there is anything particularly wrong about that, just a lot of cash to pay for it at 35 bucks a copy.

 

[thundershot]

*adds Unearthed Arcana and Expanded Psionics Handbook to his list of "must buy" books*

Also will look at the Weapons Locker to see if it's for me...



Chris

 

[Aitch Eye]

I may be incorrect, but (as an example) I don't remember the expanded demi-human pantheons (Clengedin, Aerdae Faenia, etc.) being in FR originally. They were ripped from Greyhawk. Even if they were in there, they (and even Corellon Larethian and Lolth) shouldn't be any more than Pelor or Wee Jas should be -- they're all Greyhawk gods.

The demihuman pantheons come from a series of articles written by Roger E. Moore in Dragon #58-63 and reprinted in the 1e Unearthed Arcana. These weren't Greyhawk articles; when they mention other deities the races might worship, the examples are from real-world pantheons like the Greek and Celtic. Gary Gygax later said in Dragon #71 that "Roger Moore did such a splendid job with the non-human deities (see DRAGON issues #59-63 [sic]) that I have urged TSR to include them in the next edition of the DEITIES & DEMIGODS™ Cyclopedia, whenever such a revision takes place. Meanwhile, you should most certainly regard the work as 'Official'! (Those AD&D players who are employing the WORLD OF GREYHAWK™ setting for their campaign can likewise incorporate this material into their activities if they so desire, although some alterations should be made to make sure the non-human deities reflect the WORLD OF GREYHAWK mode, as presented in several previous issues of this Splendid Journal.)"

So they were official demihuman gods for all of D&D (however that makes sense) before there were any details of their Greyhawk existence. Moore seems to have made Corellon, Moradin and the rest the heads of the pantheons simply because they were presented as the chief gods of their races in the 1e Deities & Demigods "Nonhuman's Deities" section. I believe the introductory notes for that section present them as default gods to be used by DM's in their homebrew worlds, and I don't think their descriptions were Greyhawk-specific. I can only check the Legends & Lore reprint at the moment, so I can't be sure the relevant text was the same. If anyone reading this has the 1e Deities & Demigods, please contradict me if I'm wrong.

However, it was obviously decided for whatever reason that FR should go with what were being promoted as the generic and "official" D&D demihuman pantheons.

 

[johnsemlak]

UA, PsiHB, FR, and possibly the screen (because one can NEVER have enough DM screens... )

Cheers!

Hm, why's that? Do you use multiple DM screen's as some sort of fortification from players?

 

[Wolfmage]

Expanded Psionics Handbook

Thalmin,

Can you give us the exact blurb regarding the Expanded Psionics Handbook?

Many thanks from an anxious Psion.

 

[Arnwyn]

1) I just realized this in one of the art discussion threads, but the very substance of FR represents everything negative about 2E. Basically, whenever someone says "Forgotten Realms", I hear "Loraine Williams misbegotten vision of gaming".

This is partly true, but not for the reason that you mention below. There definitely were *atrocious* FR books in 2e - basically anytime they went away from the 4 authors who shared a "unified" vision of the Realms (Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb, Steven Schend, and Eric Boyd), the products tended to stink pretty bad.

I may be incorrect, but (as an example) I don't remember the expanded demi-human pantheons (Clengedin, Aerdae Faenia, etc.) being in FR originally. They were ripped from Greyhawk. Even if they were in there, they (and even Corellon Larethian and Lolth) shouldn't be any more than Pelor or Wee Jas should be -- they're all Greyhawk gods.

You are incorrect. See Aitch Eye's good post, above. Ed was using those deities for years.

2) The setting feels like it has the kitchen sink. This extends to magic to the point where magic becomes mundane. Everyone seems to have access to magic. Raising Dead isn't awe-inspiring, it's routine.

You're partly right here - but it all depends on the reader, I guess. Some descriptions of magic does seem fairly oppressive (for example, the constant description of inns having "sound dampening magic woven into the walls"). *sigh* Couldn't it just have said that the inns are "well built"? In any case, I've managed to easily ignore it by describing it just as I did. I substitute "magic" for "well built", and I'm done. It doesn't change anything for the players or affect gameplay at all.

As to your "Raising Dead" comment - I haven't seen that in any product in more than 16 years of FR gaming.

 

[Darkness]

Looks like UA, FR3.5 and PsiHB2 for me.

*nods*
Great minds think alike.