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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davelozzi" data-source="post: 7132414" data-attributes="member: 771">It seems like this argument is getting a little silly.  What you and your group want to consider a Realms game is really between you and them, but sure, I will admit that most folks would probably agree that the two examples you listed are stretching it quite a bit.  I would call the former a homebrew combo of FR & Dark Sun and call the latter a homebrew that uses the FR map.  But whatever.  There is a long way from there to "You have to know something about the Realms to claim you are running a Realms game, and once you accept you have to know something, you really need to learn a lot to make it work."In my opinion, it's pretty straightforward.  If you are using the the Forgotten Realms campaign setting as the primary basis for setting info in your game, it's a Realms campaign.  Which FR campaign setting?  Any of the above.  I am running a FR campaign using the old gray box.  I am running a FR campaign using the SCAG.  I am using a FR campaign using the 2e box, but without the Time of Troubles.  I am running a Realms campaign setting during The Spellplague using the 4e setting.  Or as is presently the case for my game, I am running Storm King's Thunder, but set in 1378 rather than 1489 or whatever they are up to in the standard 5e timeline.  Pretty straightforward if you ask me.I happen to have a large library of old school FR products, and I may reference a small handful of them occasionally, but it is certainly not necessary.  The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide provides plenty to run a good Sword Coast-based Realms campaign without any need for any materials from any older editions.  Hell, Storm King's Thunder on its own provides plenty enough setting material that you don't really need anything else.Now, I understand that some folks don't like the Realms, sure fine, don't use them.  And likewise, I understand the frustration that some of those folks have with the fact that the other campaign worlds aren't being supported...sure that is annoying if you don't like the Realms.  I am not disputing that fact or suggesting that people shouldn't be frustrated.Further, I agree with Mercule and others who have argued that the some of the new APs are tied closely enough to the Realms that it is probably not worth the effort to decouple them.  I don't have OotA, Tyranny of Dragons, or CoS, but Storm King's Thunder definitely fits into that camp.  I own but have only skimmed PoTA and that may as well but I'm not sure.  I would say Lost Mine of Phandelver could probably be ported pretty easily as the area featured is relatively small and the individual sites could easily be dropped into another frontier region without needing to have the map and travel directions line up in any direct fashion.So, I am not trying to argue that everyone should like the Realms...of course not, to each their own.  However to argue that using the Realms necessitates reading the gigantic backlog of published Realms game products/novels or even a significant chunk thereof is ridiculous.  Every version of the campaign setting* contains plenty enough material to run a game set in the Realms.  And to argue that doing so defeats the purpose of using the Realms in the first place just doesn't hold water.  Some of us love the setting as presented.  The Sword Coast is chock full of lost empires, and adventure sites of all sorts.  It has vast wildernesses dotted with remote cities standing as bastions of high culture scattered throughout.  That's a lot of material to work with for a traditional D&D game.  Some of us don't love it, but still like enough of it that we still want to use it and are happy to just drop the stuff that doesn't personally appeal.  Some of us think it's good enough and though not our top choice, are busy enough in other aspects of life that we don't have the bandwidth to homebrew our D&D games.  We may want to use the APs and don't have the time/inclination to do all the work to port them over to our preferred settings.  Those are plenty valid reasons to chose to run a game in the Realms.  * I don't own and haven't read the 4e Realms setting books but I assume the same holds true there as it does of the other editions in that respect at least.</blockquote>

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