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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MackMcMacky" data-source="post: 7131625" data-attributes="member: 6876074">I am absolutely sure of some of the reasons I dislike the setting and this thread has helped me identify another issue, its overuse by TSR/WOTC/Hasbro. I had high hopes with the original grey box until I read it more carefully. My interest in D&D is greatly fueled by my interest in folklore, mythology, history, and fantasy. The "Realms" just didn't make much sense. Some of the governments are essentially unworkable. The politics, society, and economics would not produce the odd culture the FREALMS possesses. There is simply a lack of structure.Then the supplements came out which sort of doubled down on an approach that just screamed of an incoherent patchwork world that just ignores how the pieces don't really fit together. The adventures I purchased seemed more geared to getting me to buy novels or video games than being playable and re-playable. There were so many powerful players there wasn't really room for player characters to grow and make their stamp without either ignoring many of those powerful players or centering quite a bit around them.  (And yes, I know you can leave them out but, frankly, that's leaving quite a bit of Forgotten Realms out so what's the point of using it then.)And then the people who insisted on using FRealms were another drawback. I have never read the Drow Ranger books and have no intention of reading them, especially after dealing with their fans in pick-up games at stores. The folks who ran FRealms dropped references to the novels I had no intention of reading, supplements I didn't care about, etc. And they ran boring railroad games.The people who ran Mystara settings and Greyhawk settings ran adventures that were more interesting with challenges designed for players to overcome rather than narrated through by the DM. Forgotten Realms is a thing because Gygax was ousted and Greyhawk was his baby. They threw everything and the kitchen sink around Greenwood's actual campaign and made it as KEWL as possible emphasizing powerful NPCs, powerful magic, and encouraging a multitude of character races and builds that essentially ignores that what makes a setting distinctive is as much what you CANNOT DO as what you CAN DO. They also took what Dragon Lance started with the plots on rails and ran with it. Another annoying thing is how little is really that original concerning FRealms. I don't know how many times I roll my eyes reading some young whippersnapper attribute so many things that originated elsewhere to the FRealms, for example, the Drow. I am sure in 10 years I am going to hear about how Acererak is really a FRealms creation.This thread was created by someone who wanted to know why the FRealms are hated so I jumped in and offered my perspective. Trust me, I'm okay. I have a crew that plays CoChthulhu, 2E Greyhawk, Pathfinder Golarion (which I don't care for as it is very much like FRealms to me but I play and make the best of it), and 5E Greyhawk. I still have my FRealms modules and I still try to mine them for useful bits with much less success than I have from the 1E modules and the Judges Guild adventures as well as some free stuff out there on the net. If you like FRealms good for you! You are well-served by the business decisions that have made concerning D&D. Your love of the FRealms really doesn't change why other people hate it or don't care for it.</blockquote>

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