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!)

 

[DMZ2112]

WotC is an anagram for CIA.

Wait...

Nah, if WotC had global black sites we'd already have 5th Edition translations.

 

[dd.stevenson]

This dude -- and I say this with the utmost respect for a talent that is not an easy skill to master -- this dude is /so good/ at talking at length and leaving his audience with a positive impression, while saying absolutely nothing of consequence.

And bearing that in mind, it speaks volumes that he felt comfortable saying "we lost the fans’ confidence in our stewardship of the setting" with respect to their flagship setting five years ago.

 

[Boarstorm]

Lol... they've just released an adventure path about an evil five-headed dragon queen trying to unleash havoc in the material plane, and somehow managed to conclude that the best place to set it would be a world where the lore about Tiamat defined it as one of those obscure deities of the Untheric pantheon.

I agree. With a few tweaks, Tyranny of Dragons could easily have been a re-imagining of the War of the Lance. It shares so many similarities it's kind of astonishing.

 

[Morrus]

Lol... they've just released an adventure path about an evil five-headed dragon queen trying to unleash havoc in the material plane, and somehow managed to conclude that the best place to set it would be a world where the lore about Tiamat defined it as one of those obscure deities of the Untheric pantheon.

I dunno. Having the exact same thing happen again in Dragonlance would come across as a bit silly to me, not to mention devaluing the storyline where it already happened once.

 

[Boarstorm]

I dunno. Having the exact same thing happen again in Dragonlance would come across as a bit silly to me, not to mention devaluing the storyline where it already happened once.

I don't think he's advocating doing it again. I think he's suggesting it should have been set on Krynn in the first place.

Edit: Err... not to speak for @Giltonio_Santos or anything. (sorry!)

 

[Morrus]

I don't think he's advocating doing it again. I think he's suggesting it should have been set on Krynn in the first place.

Yes, I know. But setting Tyranny of Dragons in a setting which already had the War of the Lance basically makes the setting the one where the same thing happens over and over again,

 

[Boarstorm]

Admittedly lame. But they've already gone down that route to a greater or lesser extent, haven't they?

My personal preference would be a reboot of the whole setting, but that seems unlikely given Perkins' responses to the interview.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I dunno. Having the exact same thing happen again in Dragonlance would come across as a bit silly to me, not to mention devaluing the storyline where it already happened once.

My point is that if they wanted a storyline of an evil five-headed dragon queen, they should have picked Dragonlance, not Forgotten Realms.

I know people look at the Realms as the setting where anything goes, but I disagree. I believe the Realms have a personality, there is such a thing as a Realms identity, and if WotC will release Realms stories about dragon queens and elemental evils, they could as well not create stories set in the Realms at all. If I ever intended to run Tyranny, I'd probably do so in Dragonlance. If the rumored Elemental Evil storyline is also set in the Realms, I'll take the time do adapt it to Greyhawk if I ever run it.

If things remain as they stand now, in 2018 we'll have a storyline about evil dragon sorcerers trying to enslave the people of Anauroch and Chris Perkins saying in interviews that a Dark Sun storyline will happen when the stars align and they have a good story to tell.

 

[Morrus]

My point is that if they wanted a storyline of an evil five-headed dragon queen, they should have picked Dragonlance, not Forgotten Realms.

Yes, I understood your point. I disagreed with it. Dragonlance did that already.

 

[Derren]

It would have made sense to have the ToD storyline in Krynn. But lets be honest, FR is their best selling, primary and now default setting so of course it would be the location of their launch adventures. And why dragons? Personally I think because dragons sell (WotC said something like books about dragons selling vastly better than books about other things during 3E) and WotC wanted to give the new edition launch as much traction as possible.