Whole new world?

[pawsplay]

I have a definite concern that 4e will be a game of which D&D novels written heretofore could not be the novels of. Not because they are classics of the English language. Rather, that is just the best way I can come up with to express fundamental changes in the assumptions of what a D&D world is like. I don't just mean "magic shops" or what have you. Rather, I think the picture of what an adventuring party looks like may have changed substantially.

The new elves raise some interesting questions as to what will happen to classic worlds. Will elves in FR be retconned into elves and eladrin? Or will wood elves, the default, now simply meet "high elves" or "moon elves" or such in setting sourcebooks? It would be a curious thing if "standard elves" became a variant elf race, one found in multiple settings. Wood elves have a stronger precedent in swords-and-sorcery, but "high elves" have a firmer place in previous editions of D&D.

Tieflings imply a lot more interplanar stuff than in previous, non-FR worlds. Warforged imply a lot more wild magic floating around ... in Mystara, they would probably be the singular inhabitants of a particular location in a particular module, in FR they would be a rare secret in the possession of a handful of mage cabals... Dragonlance?

 

[Tinker Gnome]

The various DnD worlds will probably not change much. For instance, there are no Orcs in Dragonlance, thus there are no Half-Orcs. So, Dragonlance has been ignoring a core race in DnD lore since its beginning.

 

[Shayuri]

I don't see that the changes in the core rules will require any changes in established settings. Those settings are already, by definition, non-core.

 

[pawsplay]

Non-core, yes. "Has different kinds of clerics...." that one's a bit stickier. Prior to now, we haven't had in-setting characters with 4e abilities. There was a change just from AD&D to 3e, but more incremental.

So will the new Forgotten Realms get metaplotted, retconned, or ultimated?

 

[Shayuri]

Hard to say. I -suspect- the changes won't be so sweeping that they can't be just sort of...overlooked in past incarnations, though I'm sure they'll be updated in future products.

But, if Elminster in 4e can do something he couldnt' before, it's not like they'd go and say, "Oh, and the ending to this book is now different because he can now cast spells without having to prep them."

 

[freyar]

Non-core, yes. "Has different kinds of clerics...." that one's a bit stickier. Prior to now, we haven't had in-setting characters with 4e abilities. There was a change just from AD&D to 3e, but more incremental.

So will the new Forgotten Realms get metaplotted, retconned, or ultimated?

The talk on Candlekeep is that FR will be metaplotted. I think the source was the FR info session at GenCon, but the upshot is that there will be a "Spellplague" around 1385DR to "explain" the changes, and presumably the new FRCS book will be set at that time.

 

[Khairn]

I always worry about meta-plotting very dramatic changes in any setting. The writers / developers will naturally be more focused on the end result that they have already determined and less worried about how they shoe-horn the setting to reach that result.

Even though I thought the Tmes of Troubles was "cool" when it took place, in retrospect its been the cause of a number of storyline problems (from my point of view) for Faerun.

Should be very interesting to see how it all turns out.