What's the future of the Forgotten Realms?

[Raith5]

I voted "Game Over, Man" but wanted to vote "Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

 

[Bitbrain]

My opinion is that they will most like continue to explore the Forgotten Realms through the Adventure Paths.

 

[Mercule]

What I voted: Nothing. It'll remain the default. 90%+ of adventures will be set there and most setting references in "non-setting" books will continue to be to the Realms.

What I wanted to vote: After the latest path, WotC will delete all backups from their servers and burn the building to the ground, just to ensure no cockroaches remain. Also, the Firemen will show up at your door with warrants to seize all the Realms books you own.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Continuing as its been going. They're not going to produce a hardcover setting book because the current D&D staff does not care to worry about or carry on with Forgotten Realms "canon" anymore. Worrying about the "canon" is what made them jump 100 years in the future in the first place (as it was the only way they could think of to wipe the slate clean for new products / new characters / less info for new players to digest, while at the same time not "re-writing" Realms history.)

Now that they don't care about it, they don't need to try and jury-rig explanations about how or when all their Adventure Paths fit together, nor need to keep all their novel writers up-to-date so that they don't accidentally overlap or negate each other, nor have to try and invent all manner of "stuff" to put into a campaign setting book for those regions that haven't year been covered by any of the APs (which would also then hamstring them in the future if they come up with cool ideas for new APs but then have to find places to put them that don't mess around with what they made up for the setting book.)

Right now they have an empty slate upon which they can write anything they want. And its probably a breath of fresh air for all of them.

 

[Eltab]

I voted "Hardcover Setting Book in 2020+".

Because their release schedule has been molasses-in-January so far (at least the products they do release are mostly high quality, which is a good thing).
And WotC's favorite customer relations phrase is "That could be coming out eventually, just be patient."

"2020+" can mean 2020 -or- 2021 -or- another ten years -or- …

 

[aco175]

I think the market will show that most casual gamers like it as a base world and they will keep it. If other world books sell, they will update more of it to role out stuff. I could see more regional books, but the Dalelands and Moonsea or Calimshan and Tethyr. I do not think other places not having past books will be updated.

 

[Pauper]

Worrying about the "canon" is what made them jump 100 years in the future in the first place (as it was the only way they could think of to wipe the slate clean for new products / new characters / less info for new players to digest, while at the same time not "re-writing" Realms history.)

Which is kinda weird, because they jumped 100 years into the future to 'wipe the slate clean' and then kept all the iconic characters, even bringing some back.

Right now they have an empty slate upon which they can write anything they want. And its probably a breath of fresh air for all of them.

Considering that every D&D book published is effectively a Forgotten Realms book (via Adventurers League), FR isn't going anywhere any time soon. Of course, it's also not going to retain anything resembling a unique flavor save for those iconic characters, so your mileage may vary. The joke during 4E around FR grognards in Living Forgotten Realms was "Are warforged legal in LFR?" as a way of pointing out the absurdity of including every setting's unique goodies into FR, but it's about to happen all over again as Eberron is officially re-released for 5E.

Unfortunately, I can't yet bust out my old FR character who was a warforged vampire, but thanks to themes, also a werewolf.

--
Pauper

 

[delericho]

Which is kinda weird, because they jumped 100 years into the future to 'wipe the slate clean' and then kept all the iconic characters, even bringing some back.

I think some of that was motivated by the fact that R.A. Salvatore really didn't want to give up his toys.

 

[Gradine]

Unfortunately, I can't yet bust out my old FR character who was a warforged vampire, but thanks to themes, also a werewolf.

I...

...but...


...

...what?

 

[TerraDave]

There was SCAG. There will be the Waterdeep book, which has a large setting component. And also may work as a city book for other campaigns.

This is probably the approach that they will stick to, but you never know. I certainly didn't see a MtG crossover setting coming!