Which version of the FR do you prefer, and why?

[green slime]

I prefer the original FR grey boxed set.

There was enough description to fire the imagination, but not so much detail concerning history, conflicts, and enormous baggage of "Realmslore" that FR has aquired. It was new, and you didn't have to battle players' preconceptions. The information presented was scant.

I guess FR has been victim of its own success.

Don't get me wrong, I adore the new FR books. The pics, the crunch and many of the ideas. I buy them all (WotC junkie that I am) I just cannot find the time and energy to read through all the fluff. Its just, I don't think I'd ever find the energy to try and run a realms campaign from anything other than that grey box.

 

[kuje31]

Finally, one thing to remember: WotC assumes that for an FR campaign, the only books you have are the PH, DMG, MM, and FRCS. They don't assume you have any other books. They don't require you to use any other books. Any other books you buy is your privilidge and responsibility to use in your campaign.

This might have been true but it isn't any longer. The Player's Guide makes A LOT of references to books that are not core like the BOVD or the Expanded Psionic Handbook and says "see these books for stat's, etc."

WOTC might have assumed, for FR, that you just need those four books, but that isn't true any longer.

 

[teitan]

Kuje, part of the reason they put out the player's guide was to show you how to put all these other produts together into an FR campaign as options. It was designed that way essentially. The PGtF is about as important to running a campaign as chips, nice to have (especially for 3.5) but not necessary. If you look in your FR books they have a nice little sidebar that covers monsters etc. mentioned in the book and what to use in case you don't have the root sourcebook those monsters, PrC etc. come from. All you need for an FR campaign is the core rules and the FRCS and that is WOTC assumption in all the FR products barring the PGtF

Jason

 

[jester47]

I pretty much like them all focused through the lens of 3.5.

Aaron.

 

[kuje31]

Kuje, part of the reason they put out the player's guide was to show you how to put all these other produts together into an FR campaign as options. It was designed that way essentially. The PGtF is about as important to running a campaign as chips, nice to have (especially for 3.5) but not necessary. If you look in your FR books they have a nice little sidebar that covers monsters etc. mentioned in the book and what to use in case you don't have the root sourcebook those monsters, PrC etc. come from. All you need for an FR campaign is the core rules and the FRCS and that is WOTC assumption in all the FR products barring the PGtF

Jason

So? Point being? You don't even need the FRCS then if you have the old material. That theory of WOTC's doesn't exist any more. Hells even Serpent Kingdom's makes references to the other non core books. I don't buy that theory and it might have once existed, true, but it doesn't any more.

And if you don't upgrade to 3.5, then true you don't need the Player's Guide but all future 3.5 FR material will reference that book because of the regional feat changes, etc. And page 5 of the Player's Guide makes it clear when it says it supercedes parts of the FRCS. You don't *have* to buy the Player's Guide or use any of that material in it but all future FR produects will reference it.

This is also why the BOVD, the BOED, and the Expanded Psionic Handbook, etc, is mentioned throughout its pages with lines of, "See those books for stats for so and so, etc."

 

[Teflon Billy]

Which version of the Forgotten Realms do you prefer, and why? ...

I like third edition best.

Lesbians rule Elversult, and I'm all for that (as long as these are lipstick Lesbians)!

 

[diaglo]

I like third edition best.

Lesbians rule Elversult, and I'm all for that (as long as these are lipstick Lesbians)!

the concept for those NPCs i'm sure has its origins with some male wishing he could gender bender in real life.

 

[Aaron L]

I liked the 1E Realms boxed set, the 2E set kinda left me cold, and I LOVE the 3E set. I have no problems with slight revisionism to make things fit and be consistent, I absolutely adore Races of Faerun for it's human ethnicities, the Players Guide to Faerun for it's inclusiveness (IE if you have this book, here's how it fits into the Realms) and the new Realms cosmology. I believe that the Forgotten Realms is deserving of it's own cosmology and doesn't need to be shoehorned into Greyhawks wheel (which I like, don't get me wrong, but I like it for Greyhawk)

 

[Desdichado]

3e FRCS is the only version of the setting I've ever had any real interest in whatsoever. I still don't play or run it, but I probably would, at least.