D&D 5E When did your Forgotten Realms depart from official continuity (for world-shaking events)?

[Sword of Spirit]

I'm curious to see how people who intend to run the Forgotten Realms in 5e intend to run it. Primarily, I'm interested in seeing how much of the continuity of major world-shaking events people intend to included in the history of their own campaigns.

The questions assume you will change minor points of continuity, delete NPCs you don't want, etc. I'm hoping to get an answer for if and where you depart from the published continuity for major world-shaking cataclysms, as described below.

My 5e Forgotten Realms Campaign departs from official continuity...

1. Never. It will be set whenever the official products set it, with all the assumed major historical events more or less intact (5e default?)
2. Before the Time of Troubles (1e default)
3. After the Time of Troubles, but before the Spellplague (2e/3e default)
4. After the Spellplague, but before the Sundering (4e default)
5. Other

Note that it isn't relevant when your campaign takes place, just which of these events did, or will, take place in your version of the setting.

 

[Zaukrie]

After, but I will still alter it as I see fit.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I will most likely follow the official continuity, especially if their Adventurer's League Organized Play allows for home/online play and we can participate this way.

 

[JeffB]

My realms games have always departed from official since the day I first bought the FR set.

But my games have always been set before the ToT. In fact generally in the time period of the original Pools of Radiance game..1348 ish. Before even the 1st boxed set's assumed time. So none of those RSE events have taken place and most of what was described in the DM's guide in the 1E boxed set have not taken place either.

 

[Crothian]

I still remember reading about the Time of Troubles and just not liking it. That was the last time I ran a game in the Realms.

 

[wwanno]

I wonder how we could set it in continuity after the sundering (so 5e) if we have no campaign setting yet.

 

[DMZ2112]

This is a pretty tough question. I've never been a huge FR fan, but I have /always/ been a huge Moonshae fan. My initial reaction to the Spellplague was that it seemed to be par for the course for Faerun and it represented a good opportunity for me to explore the Realms without having to worry about all the lore that had built up previously.

As time passed I began to realize that there really wasn't that much mandatory lore built up after all, and a lot of what was done for the Spellplague was pretty weak tea worldbuilding-wise. So overall, my opinion of the Spellplague became pretty negative. In particular, what was done to Neverwinter seems almost spiteful in the way it forcibly wipes the slate clean.

On the flip side of the coin I think the faewild incursion of Sarifal was a fantastic addition to the Moonshaes. Synnoria, the benign elven "hidden valley" standing in for a fae kingdom in Niles' original novels always felt appropriate but lacking in boldness.

If I run an FR campaign, I'm likely to do it in the Moonshaes, and also preserve the impact of Sarifal on the Moonshaes if not Sarifal itself. But on the whole I'm glad Wizards is brushing the Spellplague under the carpet and moving away from the Realms-shaking event strategy. It's good that Greenwood is back in the driver's seat.

 

[Remathilis]

My first real exposure to the Realms (outside computer gaming) was the 3e campaign setting. Its post Time of Troubles but Bane has returned. If I get the option to pick a Realms timeline, I'd probably use that.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

I also generally prefer the 3E era Realms, though I've actually only ever run a Realms campaign in the 2E era.

With that in mind, however, I'd probably resurrect or retcon the deaths of the gods who died during the Time of Troubles. I like Kelemvor as a non-evil death god but I also like to have lots of bad guy gods.

 

[Agamon]

My current game is set in the Silver Marches, 3e era.