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Why FR Is "Hated"
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<blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 7135408" data-attributes="member: 5142"><p>Your post could have profited much better without these sort of insults or insinuations of bad GMing. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/erm.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":erm:" title="Erm :erm:" data-shortname=":erm:" /> </p><p></p><p>I recognize that it's not my place to sell you on the Realms, since I make it a point to veto any play in the Realms. But I suppose that's also where we have a shared problem. It's difficult for us to see the particular appeal of the setting. For us, it fails the fundamental question of the test: "So what?" Ignoring the settings identified as "niche," it's not as if we are somehow lacking generic settings: Greyhawk, Mystara, and Dragonlance. Most homebrews, despite the proud protestors pretending otherwise, would fall into generic fantasy as well. </p><p></p><p>That appears to be part of the problem. The appeal of the setting has likely shifted from its original focus and appeal of the original box. It's no longer only that it's a generic setting. There is tradition and nostalgia there. It's that it's a generic setting with a tremendous amount of accumulated lore, fiction, and media behind it. There is appeal in the mountain of material. But for us, that is also a self-defeating quality to the Realms that turns us off from it. We don't want all that detail that leaves barely anything, not even the windows, to the imagination! Forgotten Realms, for me at least, has become the homebrewer that we warn others not to become in homebrewing advice threads: "it's not healthy to detail everything" or "you may put in a lot of work and details into your setting, but players will likely not get much of it, so it's best to expend your efforts elsewhere." If I want a richly flavorful setting, I'm likely to look towards those niche settings. If I want a generic setting, particularly as a sandbox or open world, it seems that either a generic homebrew setting, Nentir Vale, or Greyhawk would be more useful for my purposes. </p><p></p><p>------------------------------- </p><p></p><p>Another fun analogy: I was discussing the Realms with another D&D gaming friend of mine, as I wanted to compare experiences. Though he voiced some admiration at the convenience of the Realms as a generic setting, he also voiced a simultaneous distaste of the Realms due to its NPCs (and its genericness). But he also offered an analogy that I found illustrative and amusing. He said, albeit not verbatim, "You know those parties that you would potentially want to go to, but don't because you don't want to run into those people that you absolutely can't stomach? You may never even see those people, but there is still the chance that you will and that they are in the same building with you? That's the Realms for me." </p><p></p><p>However, we have our differences in that he potentially would want to play in the Realms, whereas I do not. For a setting whose fanbase beams in pride at the sheer amount of information is available, I can't say that I'm impressed with its world-building. For all the lore that it supposedly has, this is the world that we have? Meh. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/erm.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":erm:" title="Erm :erm:" data-shortname=":erm:" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aldarc, post: 7135408, member: 5142"] Your post could have profited much better without these sort of insults or insinuations of bad GMing. :erm: I recognize that it's not my place to sell you on the Realms, since I make it a point to veto any play in the Realms. But I suppose that's also where we have a shared problem. It's difficult for us to see the particular appeal of the setting. For us, it fails the fundamental question of the test: "So what?" Ignoring the settings identified as "niche," it's not as if we are somehow lacking generic settings: Greyhawk, Mystara, and Dragonlance. Most homebrews, despite the proud protestors pretending otherwise, would fall into generic fantasy as well. That appears to be part of the problem. The appeal of the setting has likely shifted from its original focus and appeal of the original box. It's no longer only that it's a generic setting. There is tradition and nostalgia there. It's that it's a generic setting with a tremendous amount of accumulated lore, fiction, and media behind it. There is appeal in the mountain of material. But for us, that is also a self-defeating quality to the Realms that turns us off from it. We don't want all that detail that leaves barely anything, not even the windows, to the imagination! Forgotten Realms, for me at least, has become the homebrewer that we warn others not to become in homebrewing advice threads: "it's not healthy to detail everything" or "you may put in a lot of work and details into your setting, but players will likely not get much of it, so it's best to expend your efforts elsewhere." If I want a richly flavorful setting, I'm likely to look towards those niche settings. If I want a generic setting, particularly as a sandbox or open world, it seems that either a generic homebrew setting, Nentir Vale, or Greyhawk would be more useful for my purposes. ------------------------------- Another fun analogy: I was discussing the Realms with another D&D gaming friend of mine, as I wanted to compare experiences. Though he voiced some admiration at the convenience of the Realms as a generic setting, he also voiced a simultaneous distaste of the Realms due to its NPCs (and its genericness). But he also offered an analogy that I found illustrative and amusing. He said, albeit not verbatim, "You know those parties that you would potentially want to go to, but don't because you don't want to run into those people that you absolutely can't stomach? You may never even see those people, but there is still the chance that you will and that they are in the same building with you? That's the Realms for me." However, we have our differences in that he potentially would want to play in the Realms, whereas I do not. For a setting whose fanbase beams in pride at the sheer amount of information is available, I can't say that I'm impressed with its world-building. For all the lore that it supposedly has, this is the world that we have? Meh. :erm: [/QUOTE]
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