Why is Forgotten Realms your least favorite setting?

[rounser]

There is a land called Thar.

Hold on a sec, yeah, you're right: IIRC, The Great Grey Land of Thar.

My bad.

Again, I don't recall it having anything to do with the Mystara Thar with the (vampiric? orc) Old King Thar and his cronies, though...

 

[jaerdaph]

While I voted "Actually, I Kinda Like the Forgotten Realms", what almost killed it for me were those Dragon of the Month articles by Ed Greenwood in DRAGON Magazine. I was beginning to think there were more dragons than people (humans AND demihumans combined) on Toril...

Seriously, I love the Realms, always will, and I have loved every single minute of Ed Greenwood et al.'s storytelling about Faerun

 

[Randolpho]

I don't understand why so many people complain about the powerful NPC's. Why is it so unrealistic to assume that someone besides the PC's has gained a few levels? And who says these powerful NPC's ever need to show up at all? I've DM'd in the realms off and on for 5 or 6 years or so, and I think I've used Azoun once, and even then the PCs didn't even meet him.

...
Yes, Elminster is a high level wizard. He's a staple of the campaign world because he's Ed Greenwood's alter ego, right down to the beard and all. Last I checked, Mordenkainen was Gygax's alter ego as well.

I'd just like to point out that complaints about powerful NPCs are the same beef people have with Dragonlance. For those who want to defend one over the other on that subject.