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Message: <blockquote data-quote="teitan" data-source="post: 7963913" data-attributes="member: 3457">Greyhawk’s edge in the 80s was that until Dragonlance it was the only official AD&D setting and even then had minimal support. The folio and then the boxed Set with the adventures “tacked in” as an afterthought when they published the boxed set. Sure it could be argued the demihuman deities were GH specific but I think they were meant to be more generic to those races.with Dragonlance TSR saw that settings could be a big draw because the novels and adventures sold well so they bought FR from Ed based on his articles in Dragon. It sold like gangbusters because the production values were amazing. Putting it in a boxed set like Greyhawk plus the gorgeous maps and overlays to accomodate overland travel? The Moonshaes novels were great. The video games were good and that Ed could write like Jack Kirby could draw? He just cranked that stuff out! That faux parchment paper was very nice as well!Greyhawk got dumped like a bad prom date. It couldn’t keep up because up to that point it was a DM’s setting. With little development after its release DMs had built their own Greyhawk stories. It had nothing to do with production values and everything to do with “dragonlancing” and “realmsifying” Greyhawk when they tried to do similar support and introduce meta plot. Greyhawk was very much a DMs setting. Metaplot doesn’t work for Greyhawk.back to the Realms though, that metaplot is what kicked it up a notch. The backbone was the novels from Driz’zt to the Avatar trilogy. It was like a comic book with ongoing, in depth stories and continuing characters in a living world that evolved with the novels, supplements and video games. The same model is why Vampire the Masquerade thrived in the late 90s and early 2000s before they Dragonlanced it and blew that WoD up in the Last Nights sourcebooks. That lack of development is why FR is not the cash cow it once was. Yeah the novels died off. 4e nWoDed the Realms. Changed way too much and now, like Vampire, which was largely supported through pdf publishing picked up a few years after the end of the original line, it needs a revival to get back to glory. WOtC needs to call Ed and put out a book with ED’s name on it. Not Green Ronin. Ed. Not a region guide. Ed. And not a POD book with Ed’s name on it. A bookshelf stocked, brick and mortar store book.</blockquote>

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