Yeah Elminister lost a lot of power since his height in 3e, Mystera's death in 4e had a crippling effect on him.
D&D 5E What's so great about Elminster?
Yeah Elminister lost a lot of power since his height in 3e, Mystera's death in 4e had a crippling effect on him.
[MENTION=24254]Ymdar[/MENTION] Maybe kitchen sink is to loaded, what I was trying to say is that every official material seems fine for FR (which is quite ok, because FR tolerates this). It is about not only putting every available race and deity into FR but also signature adventure themes of other settings. Again, I totally understand why.
If I personally would DM in FR atm I would use and convert old grey box stuff, but I enjoy OOTA as a player these days.
If I personally would DM in FR atm I would use and convert old grey box stuff, but I enjoy OOTA as a player these days.
I enjoy the evolving nature of FR, it makes it feel alive.
While Drizzt does take direct action and shows up with alarming frequency (seriously, he is like the Wolverine of Forgotten Realms), I personally think the biggest offender is the sheer quantity of lore instead of any one character.
I've literally been a player and watched a DM try to set a game in Westgate. He made up a fictional thieves organization and had no idea about the Night Masks, Fire Knives, or the Grandmaster of Assassins. And if they were not around, was King Dhalmass and Queen Jhalass still killed? Etc. Or another game set in Phlan where the DM didn't know anything about the influences of Zhentil Keep, the history of the city, or even the layout of the city which one of the players had memorized because he loved Phlan from the Gold Box days and the Pool of X Books.
There were a lot of things that could have been done better. The DM could have spent more time learning about the setting, or the players could have settled down and let the poor guy just run the fun game he wanted to run. But I've seen this happen in literally dozens of different forgotten realms games other people have run. Some groups handle it fine. They don't even care. It's not an issue for them. But in other groups it does become an issue, especially for DMs or Players who know a lot and have pre-existing expectations for how places are or people act.
I wish it didn't happen. But it does. My solution was to avoid the issue entirely and play homebrew.
While Drizzt does take direct action and shows up with alarming frequency (seriously, he is like the Wolverine of Forgotten Realms), I personally think the biggest offender is the sheer quantity of lore instead of any one character.
I've literally been a player and watched a DM try to set a game in Westgate. He made up a fictional thieves organization and had no idea about the Night Masks, Fire Knives, or the Grandmaster of Assassins. And if they were not around, was King Dhalmass and Queen Jhalass still killed? Etc. Or another game set in Phlan where the DM didn't know anything about the influences of Zhentil Keep, the history of the city, or even the layout of the city which one of the players had memorized because he loved Phlan from the Gold Box days and the Pool of X Books.
There were a lot of things that could have been done better. The DM could have spent more time learning about the setting, or the players could have settled down and let the poor guy just run the fun game he wanted to run. But I've seen this happen in literally dozens of different forgotten realms games other people have run. Some groups handle it fine. They don't even care. It's not an issue for them. But in other groups it does become an issue, especially for DMs or Players who know a lot and have pre-existing expectations for how places are or people act.
I wish it didn't happen. But it does. My solution was to avoid the issue entirely and play homebrew.
I get what your saying, my opinion is that if you know your DM isn't an expert on Realms History, treat that game as alternate, but related reality.
Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
My Yawning Portal group got tangled up over the fact that one of the super-liches in the Doomvault is Szass Tam … who would go on to become Head Honcho Top Chief Ruler-and-Boss of Thay; NOT stuck in one corner of any grandiosely-named Doomvault.
We expended about 45 minutes trying to figure that one out, before we realized the source material was written for late 3.5 era, not for the 5e time frame.
Hahaha, yeah. Though that is not too far fetched, since the Doomvault is located in Thay and literally owned by Tam (though not created by him).
ExploderWizard
Hero
[incoming grumpy old man ramble]
Well sonny back before the internets we had a magazine printed on genuine paper called Dragon. In this magazine, FR creator Ed Greenwood would write articles and tidbits about the Realms sometimes using fanciful storytelling detailing meetings between himself and Elminster. I remember reading about such a story that involved Mountain Dew. I do have the Dragon Magazine archive set so I might be able to find the issue.
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