D&D (2024) Wargamer Takes Shot At WotC for Not Respecting Forgotten Realms Canon.

[Paul Farquhar]

Bayformers.

Plastic landfill junk.

Transformers: garbage in disguise.

The first movie was mildly entertaining on TV though, and they seem to have made plenty of money.

 

[Shardstone]

It's not a refinement, is the thing. It's Elminster is a Barbarian. A similar change would be if they all turned into grape-flavored half-dragons.

This is a Super Mario live action movie of a change.

I don't your analogy holds up here.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Edited to be less trite:
If story doesn't matter then there is no barrier to just changing everything. Elves can be elementals, dwarves can be aquatic blue and beardless, halflings can be 7' tall, and Elminster can be a barbarian.

If you're going to add something that has no precident you can just add something. The only reason to retcon is if the previous version was a serious problem.

Yep. The new edition of D&D is all about this deconstruction and disregard for what has come before (unless it is an iconic element that makes for good branding), and I have already tapped out, but I empathize with those who are still in the ring and bothered by the perceived arbitrariness of this lack of lore consideration. I am disappointed at the number of people who lack empathy when considering that just because they don't care about the Forgotten Realms, seem unable to recognize that others do. I have no beef in FR myself, but if I did, I'd at the minimum like some explanation for continuity as to why this subclass is suddenly so different. Change without any effort to reconcile with prior lore is pretty much a sign that the product is degrading rapidly and will soon lose all purpose and meaning (see Star Trek and Star Wars for good examples of how this can happen).

 

[Azzy]

Change without any effort to reconcile with prior lore

Do we know that they aren't going to try reconcile the changes with prior lore? No, we don't. That's just an assumption. Wait for real evidence.

Personally, I don't like this is change (because it's a big leap from what is expected), but we're in the dark about how they are going to approach this lore-wise so everything is speculation without evidence.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Do we know that they aren't going to try reconcile the changes with prior lore? No, we don't. That's just an assumption. Wait for real evidence.

Personally, I don't like this is change (because it's a big leap from what is expected), but we're in the dark about how they are going to approach this lore-wise so everything is speculation without evidence.

I agree. There could be a lot of lore that explains it. But we only have the playtest material from UA to go with right now, and it apparently alarms a lot of FR fans. So I really don't have any opinion, but suspect that even a sentence or two with the subclass saying something like, "And then the Purple Dragon Knights learned to tame the Amethyst Dragons and are now totally L33t dudes" would have eliminated all of this angst for lore fans. Maybe. I admit, I know like less about FR at this point than I do about, say Golarion or Eberron. (EDIT: but people are probably also reacting to what has been released so far, and noting the trend to cull a lot of traditional darlings from generic D&D lore without explanation, so its not much of a leap to assume this; the new edition seems actively lore-hostile, imo).

 

[Incenjucar]

It would be preferable for them to just ignore old lore and create new lore than to wear the old lore's skin.

Amethyst Riders of Pren is perfectly fine as its own new order.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It would be preferable for them to just ignore old lore and create new lore than to wear the old lore's skin.

Amethyst Riders of Pren is perfectly fine as its own new order.

And the Forgotten Realms should be sealed in aspic and locked away in a lead lined bunker so it can never change.

 

[Incenjucar]

And the Forgotten Realms should be sealed in aspic and locked away in a lead lined bunker so it can never change.

Strawmanning is not useful.

Change by adding or evolving unless something is actually a problem like that Spelljammer species depiction, or if it breaks the core mechanics somehow.

Leave retconning to Star Wars

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Change by adding or evolving unless something is actually

Nothing to say that hasn’t been done, other than paranoia. At least 30 years have passed since Cormyr was last visited. It would be surprising if there hadn’t been major changes - look at how much the real world has changed in that time.

unless something is actually a problem

Being boring and old fashioned is actually a problem for people trying to produce a modern relevant product.

 

[Incenjucar]

What is gained by calling something new by the name of an old thing you find boring?