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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 7132466" data-attributes="member: 7635">I apologize if this has been said earlier...Forgotten Realms gets flack for doing things a LOT of other settings do, to a greater or lesser degree. Lets take some of the classic criticisms leveled at it...1.) Its too Generic.Of course it is, its a kitchen sink setting designed to hold a LOT of baggage from 40 years of D&D growth. Greyhawk and Mystara have similar issues; they were used as the default setting for two editions. Nentir/Nerath and Golarion were DESIGNED for it. It make sense to have a setting where all options are available. 2.) Its a mishmash of tropes and real-world analogies.Mystara says hi. Its the setting where you can describe whole nations with the sentence "its like X, but with the serial numbers filed off." (Where X = Medieval Iceland, Imperial Rome, Renaissance Italy, the Ottoman Empire, and Native American tribal lands; all sharing borders). 3.) It has Uber-NPCs and revolves around Meta-Plots/World-Shaking Events.Dragonlance laughs and laughs... Krynn's meta-plot makes the Realms look like a thumbnail sketch, and Raistlin was literally killing Gods; take that Elminster! Outside of that, even Greyhawk has the Circle of the Eight; which is "9 mean-spirited Elminsters" personified. 4.) Gods Walk the LandIuz says hi. Fizban would too if Paladine wasn't dead. 5.) It has funny names.Verbobnoc, Garyx, Furyondy. 6.) It has high-magic Wahoo factor!Eberron has magical trains. Mystara has airships. Have you SEEN the old Greyhawk modules and the magic items in those? The inherent problem is that D&D was born of a "do-it-yourself" mantra that worked fine for some ardent enthusiasts (I know, I was a homebrewer) so any attempt to create a "unified" setting (be it Faerun, Oerth, Mystara, Nerath, or even "the multiverse") is going to meet with sneers and disdainful glances. Even Golarion (which is Pathfinder's kitchen-sink generic setting) gets a pass by most Pathfinder players. The Realms are not flawless, nor are they a good example of top-down design, but I really can't think of a setting that better encapsulates the whole of D&D's rules and fluff better than Faerun. Considering no setting will ever really be able to be "D&D's Golarion", might as well use their most well-known one...</blockquote>

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