WotC's Chris Perkins Talks Realms & Sundering

Den of Geek has a lengthy interview with Chris Perkins about the Forgotten Realms and The Sundering. He also very briefly touches on other settings, indicating that WotC hopes that other worlds will be covered in the future if the right story comes along. On past controversial changes to settings, he says "Our guiding principle is to embrace the past and not pass judgment or rewrite history. We’d rather let the fans tell us what they like about the Realms and focus on those elements going forward." (thanks to MerricB for the scoop!)

 

[Shemeska]

What does concern me is this post by Brian R. James over at Candlekeep: What I don't like is the idea that Perkins is pointing the authors to consultants whom Perkins considers to be "continuity experts" when none of the above named people are on that list.

Who's left? Somebody with an internet connection that knows how to look thinks up on the Forgotten Realms Wiki?

EDIT: I just learned that WotC has stopped releasing Forging the Realms articles, without explanation. As well that there are still articles that WotC has received from Ed Greenwood that have not been released yet. I hope whatever is left is being saved for something interesting.

*wince*

That does not bode well.

 

[Sailor Moon]

*wince*

That does not bode well.

"feels heartbroken"

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

It's not just what Brian James has said. Think about Kobold Press. Despite being tasked with writing two fairly important adventures critical to the success of 5E and the continued publication of D&D as a tabletop RPG by WotC - and with WotC desperate to avoid the debacle of 4E when it launched with at least two of the worst D&D adventures of all time (KotS and PoS) - they were not given any details about the 5E Realms despite specifically asking for same.

Now I realise WotC has about six designers left and they are probably spending most of their time dealing with corporate crap, but Ed Greenwood is a phone call away and can write pages about the Realms extemporaneously. But nobody could be bothered putting anything together for the Kobold guys. For a company that thinks it's going to increase the value of its brands, that's really poor stewardship of its second most important brand after D&D itself.

Anyway, this is why I keep posting that the best idea is to go back in time and choose another era and run that. Personally, I like 4E and the 4E-era so that it what I use - although I also use a lot of earlier products to fill in the blanks - but if I wasn't doing that, I would probably go back to 1372DR and the 3E FRCS which was a real high water mark for the FR brand.

But wait for WotC to make up its mind about to do with the post-Sundering Realms? Nahhh, I am not that patient nor am I convinced that we're going to see anything like what we have seen in the past. And I have games to run so I'm sticking with what I have got.

(The funny thing is, I always wanted my own version of the Realms without the baggage of the novels and now I have it! )

 

[Irennan]

As far as I can see, people are already doing what you propose, Scrivener. I don't think that DMs/players feeling tied to WotC is the issue. I believe that most Realms fans, despite running their own version, still want to know what happened to the setting they love, their favorite areas, organizations, npcs, deities, because they hope to find lore about those capable to catch them back, make them interested in the story and give them possible material to add to their game (even while using their own Realms).

At least this is how I feel.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Don't me wrong, Irennan. I do understand what some fans are looking for. I've been a fan of FR since the original Dragon articles and have been running games there since the OGB so I am also a fan.

But I also understand that people are asking for things that they're not going to see. The old model for D&D products seems to have died and WotC are going to be trying new and different things, except they're not really new and different because their two adventure paths a year model seems to be firmly modelled on Paizo.

And Paizo really didn't roll out the big support for Golarion until their APs hit critical mass. I suspect we will see the same strategy from WotC....

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Scrivener do you have links to anything about Kobold not getting the information they asked for?

 

[Queer Venger]

Thing is that Ed has always stated that the Realms is part of a multiverse, and in that multiverse time is fluid. Why not release an FRCG that allows DMs to run their Realms in whatever time period they want, with rules for that? I like what Srivener is proposing (not the 4e setting, that was absolute crap IMO), a Realms that is divorced from the novel canon (like how the SW movies are not directly tied to the EU canon).

I also like how FFG is handling this with their SW brand, it lets me play adventures in a pretty big world without stepping on canonical toes.

 

[Irennan]

Don't me wrong, Irennan. I do understand what some fans are looking for. I've been a fan of FR since the original Dragon articles and have been running games there since the OGB so I am also a fan.

But I also understand that people are asking for things that they're not going to see. The old model for D&D products seems to have died and WotC are going to be trying new and different things, except they're not really new and different because their two adventure paths a year model seems to be firmly modelled on Paizo.

And Paizo really didn't roll out the big support for Golarion until their APs hit critical mass. I suspect we will see the same strategy from WotC....

I see your point. I hope that at least a broad update for FR will be released soon enough, tho. That can't really be called ''big support'', more like basic info to keep the (published) setting alive.

 

[HobbitFan]

Sanishiver, I think the info you asked scrivener about was in an episode of the Tome Show podcast that featured an interview with Steve Winter. That's where I recall hearing the info. It's been months and months now but I think I'm remembering that correctly....

around episode 238 if the internet search fu is correct

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Thankee, sir.