What's so special about Forgotten Realms?

[Weregrognard]

What is so special about the Realms?

The truth?

It was my first campaign setting.

 

[Piratecat]

I was never a fan. But with the amount of detail put into it over the years, and the many, many fans, I consider what was recently done with it to be disrespectful. Why even call it FR?

Hey, folks.

The 4e Forgotten Realms is, shall we say, highly polarizing. Let's use this thread to talk about what makes the Realms unique and special, and not for voicing opinions about the recent changes. That would only get the thread sidetracked.

Thanks for this.

 

[Hereticus]

The 4e Forgotten Realms is, shall we say, highly polarizing. Let's use this thread to talk about what makes the Realms unique and special, and not for voicing opinions about the recent changes. That would only get the thread sidetracked.

I like the new Realms.

4.0E is a new game, and the setting was customized for the new game.

Trying to play 4.0E characters in a 3.5E setting exactly as it was or similar could not work.

And if you prefer the old FR... then use it!

 

[doctorhook]

What's special about FR? The simplest answer is that, like Dragonlance and Eberron, it has been a major property associated with D&D. (Greyhawk falls into a slightly different category on account of having been the default setting for so long, as well as the brainchild of the de facto Father of Roleplaying.)

Like the others, it has made a lot of money for D&D's publishers, and it has inspired a lot of fans; everything else is secondary.

 

[Bumbles]

Let's see....Myth Drannor. Thay. The Zhentarim. The Harpers. Waterdeep. Spellfire.

I'm sure you could find a thousand other things people think is special about the Realms, and probably a thousand people to hate each of those things and a dozen more.

 

[tylerthehobo]

My take is that the detail by the time you hit the end of 2nd edition and into 3rd started to get a little too much for casual play. The Gray Box was fantastic - 2 booklets w/ enough intriguing NPCs, maps, and plot hooks to last literally years of play, without the players having to know the intricacies of Thayan nobility. The FR folios during 1e and the boxed sets that were released during 2nd edition added on to this - "hey, want to know more about myth drannor and find some treasure there? here's some stuff." It varied in quality, but the approach of parceling out info into geographic sections that the players could explore was great. (Something Runequest is doing successfully w/ Glorantha now, I'd argue.)

For those of you who only know the FR through the 3.x FRCS, check out some of the older materials. The new 4e books are decent enough for sandbox play, too, in my opinion.

So, back to the question at hand - unique? Well, it's accessible and scalable for play more than most settings out there. Definitely worth exploring.

 

[Piratecat]

Speaking for myself: Forgotten Realms taught me a cubic buttload about good world design.

For instance, I delayed putting my group into a big city for literally years, because I didn't think I could do it justice. I studied the 2e Waterdeep boxed set up and down, and slowly I started to understand what it was that made a city exciting and fun. When I used a big city (along with an adapted FR adventure), it was the best adventure of the game up to that point. That one product completely revitalized my campaign, and I loved the results.

Same thing with the FR magic books. The Realms always had a rich history of cool magic items and spells. I stole good ideas left and right, and they worked wonderfully in my game.

Mind you, I also learned about some things I didn;t want to do, like don't overdevelop the world or use too many powerful NPCs. But the positive lessons I got from FR were far more useful.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

I tried to DM an FR adventure for a group once (I didn't feel strongly one way or another at the time) and I was continuously interrupted by streams of : "He wouldn't do that, he's not like that", "The sewer entrance is 50 feet that way, and we'll find a secret door 100 ft up the passage way ", "They don't have that ability, instead they do X". Most Frustrating DMing session of my life. But I decided to do my research after the session before I gave up entirely and borrowed a campaign guide. Got half-way through it before I finally gave up.

See at this point you as " how do you know that?" and when they tell you simply say " Ah the volo guilds, thought you would know better then to believe all that made up stuff in them book, Thats how adventuers end up in trouble after all"

You are the DM , if you say there is no secret tunnel then it is not there, that simple

 

[Desdichado]

I tried to DM an FR adventure for a group once (I didn't feel strongly one way or another at the time) and I was continuously interrupted by streams of : "He wouldn't do that, he's not like that", "The sewer entrance is 50 feet that way, and we'll find a secret door 100 ft up the passage way ", "They don't have that ability, instead they do X". Most Frustrating DMing session of my life. But I decided to do my research after the session before I gave up entirely and borrowed a campaign guide. Got half-way through it before I finally gave up.

That's not a problem with the setting. That's a problem with your players.

 

[WayneLigon]

I was a fan of the early stuff, when they concentrated more on the 'faerie olde England' aspect; the Dales, Waterdeep, Cormyr, etc and not so much on the kitchen sink approach to fantasy. I loved the detail, but soon it became too much detail.