D&D 5E Why FR Is "Hated"

[hawkeyefan]

I don't think the FR needs people to leap up and valiantly defend its honour. But yeah, geek culture is geek culture. Someone had a go at me for using an iPhone not an Android the other day. I assumed they had shares in Google.

Ha fair enough.

I'm honestly not trying to defend the Realms so much as have a bit of a chat. I found the reasoning to be a bit odd, and saw it mentioned over and over, so I thought it was worth a counterpoint.

 

[Mercule]

I ask because if you pretty much ignore everything and anything that came after the original gray box, FR is really not that bad of a setting.

This is probably quite true. As I've mentioned, my reaction to the gray box was not "Wow, what a steaming pile!" It was pure "Meh, there are some interesting things, but it just doesn't float my boat."

 

[cbwjm]

This is probably quite true. As I've mentioned, my reaction to the gray box was not "Wow, what a steaming pile!" It was pure "Meh, there are some interesting things, but it just doesn't float my boat."

That sounds like my reaction to Greyhawk. Some cool things but mostly just a bland setting.

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[Moraine]

Short answer: Mary Sue characters are hateful. The Realms are full of those pests. I have not read every novel (in fact I liked Azure Bonds veru much), but Ed Greenwood's Magic Fire is by far the worst fantasy novel I've ever read.

 

[Mercule]

That sounds like my reaction to Greyhawk. Some cool things but mostly just a bland setting.

Which is totally cool, especially when there are a handful of worlds to choose from. If I don't have to make a choice between you getting the Realms and me getting Greyhawk, then there's no hard feelings. Right now, those folks who'd be interested in something besides the Realms are in a position where the best chance of getting what they want is for the Realms to fail -- probably.

I want an updated Eberron book. If WotC has decided that they only have room to support a single setting in print, then I can't have Eberron until the Realms is out of the way. Sure, they might decide that they're successful enough that they could do two, but the odds are that they'll just be more convinced that they've done the right thing. On the other hand, because everything is set in the Realms, there's no way for them to tell whether a decline in sales is because the Realms is losing popularity or if the D&D market is capped out.

Which is why I'm pretty vocal that the reason I'm not buying more is because there's too much about the Realms. I'm not really a seething mass of nerd rage. I'm just trying to let WotC know how to gain access to my fun money.

 

[cbwjm]

I want other settings as well. I want Dragonlance and dark sun updated to 5e but I'm still going to buy any products set in FR.

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[Mercule]

I want other settings as well. I want Dragonlance and dark sun updated to 5e but I'm still going to buy any products set in FR.

Shush. This is a thread about hating the Realms.

 

[Shardstone]

I don't support a total circle jerk, and I'm not defending the Forgotten Realms, but I do think it is a great shame that people attack the setting with such vigor because of it's surrounding novels. A bad work of fiction doesn't mean the world it was set in was bad, especially when the fiction comes after the world. It'd be like hating Star Wars because the prequels were bad, in my opinion.

Of course, to play devil's advocate against myself, there are some settings I'm wholly uninterested in because of their surrounding fiction.

 

[Captain Lhurgoyf]

I mean, looking at the 5E products, Elminster hasn't shown up at all, has he? I think the closest example of this is Bruenor showing up in Out of the Abyss, but in that he serves as an employer/quest-giver to the PCs and isn't actually involved in any adventuring.

He makes an off-screen appearance in Storm King's Thunder to rescue a major NPC, so he hasn't kept his fingers out of the plot entirely. And he in-universe co-wrote Volo's Guide, if that counts.

 

[Shardstone]

If you're talking about saving the Frost Giant, wasn't that just a suggestion instead of something that 100% happens? And I don't think having a few rather pointless lines in Volo's Guide counts for him intervening in your games and adventures.