4E Forgotten Realms

[Magister Lajciak]

Since Forgotten Realms is such a major campaign world and indeed the setting of NWN2, I thought it deserves its own thread.

 

Here is some new information on Forgtten Realms in the 4th edition: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080130a

[Gfted1]

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*Casts summon Deraldin*

[Magister Lajciak]

For everyone's reading convenience:

 

Magical power and fantastic features abound in the Forgotten Realms. Arcane secrets whisper to those with the ears to hear in the eons-long movement of the continents, in rushing river rapids, in every inhalation of beasts great and small, and in the sighing cries of the wind. Raw magic is the wild stuff of creation itself, the mute and mindless will of being, suffusing every bit of matter and coursing within every manifestation of energy throughout the world.

 

Wizards, warlocks, clerics, sorcerers, bards, paladins, and even rogues, fighters, rangers, and other adventurers call upon personally derived threads of magic to cast mighty spells, enforce pacts with enigmatic entities, heal injury, ward against evil, or accomplish physical feats that transcend purely mortal means.

 

Dangerous monsters, too, call up frightful magic to accomplish their deceitful ends. Aberrations spawned by ancient magic seethe below the earth and above it, hungry for flesh and knowledge alike, waiting for the chance to feed. Dragons whose blood runs with magic wield abilities so potent that gods and primordials alike fear to face the most ancient of these mighty beings. Undead fuel their mind and protect their corpses from dissolution by powerful necromantic rituals, especially liches, whose never-ending acquisition of arcane knowledge has propelled more than a few into contention with divine designs.

 

Indeed, magic is so bountiful in Abeir-Toril that even the land bristles with fantastic landscapes. Great motes of free-hanging earth balance on nothing but air, amazing all those who chance upon these mighty demonstrations of nature

[Sand]

From all the articles I have read about how they are changing the Forgotten Realms they are basically making a new setting and tacking on the FR name on it so it can sell. No thank you.

[Deraldin]

Dragon articles require that you sign-in to D&D Insider to view the content.

 

*Casts summon Deraldin*

 

*appears in a puff of smoke*

 

Curse you Magister Lajciak for stealing my job!

 

 

Good work. Keep it up. :D

 

[Tigranes]

Rich married his college sweetheart, Kim, in 1991; they have two daughters, Alex and Hannah.

 

...Good to know.

 

I don't mind big changes to FR, and it's not such a bad idea, the Spellplague. And if an author/DM wants to avoid it I'm sure the setting allows for pockets of anomalies where practically, spells and magic still does work.

[Tigranes]

Rich married his college sweetheart, Kim, in 1991; they have two daughters, Alex and Hannah.

 

...Good to know.

 

I don't mind big changes to FR, and it's not such a bad idea, the Spellplague. And if an author/DM wants to avoid it I'm sure the setting allows for pockets of anomalies where practically, spells and magic still does work.

[newc0253]

Magic items are as plentiful as ever

 

Which just goes to show that even with its cosmology, geography, demography and everything else completely overhauled and radically changed, the Forgotten Realms are still as munchkin as ever.

Edited January 30, 2008 by newc0253

[Gorth]

Praised be Tzeentch!

 

All bow down to the Lord of Change...

 

So, that means all current (including NWN2) D&D platforms and engines are no longer good?

 

That might have a detrimental effect on expansions :sad:

[Gromnir]

am not a fan o' the fr setting. only way we can see to make more Gromnir-friendly is to take a flamethrower to it and start from scratch.

 

...

 

its greatest weakness may also be its one saving grace: lack o' identity. can pretty much find anything you want... if you look long enough and hard enough. though why anybody would look so long and hard is beyond our ken. developers sole goal seems to insure that everybody can find something they like. ice cream... thinks o' ice cream flavors. Gromnir likes vanilla and you like chocolate and john likes mint and betty likes coffee. fine. choice is a wonderful thing. problem is that we doubt anybody likes vanillachocolatemintcoffee. Gromnir hates drow as pcs, but developers know that some people love'em... so they purposefully made 'em playable and disproportionate powerful. killed off bane... but some people liked bane, so they resurrect... poorly. give everybody what they want and you end up with something horrible. nevertheless, a clever dm can isolate aspects o fr... find some workable corner of the realms.

 

...

 

Gromnir ain't target audience for fr setting, so minor/major changes mean little to us.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Tigranes]

nevertheless, a clever dm can isolate aspects o fr... find some workable corner of the realms.

 

Which, really, is what most (good) DMs/designers do, isn't it? I think it is sensible to pick only one or two settings within the FR setting (e.g. Thay/Rasheman).

[Gromnir]

the problem is that there is so much Crap in the frs, and players got access to it.

 

"But in the FRCS it says..."

 

to start a fr campaign you gotta lay down some pretty harsh ground rules from start, and there is usually a negotiation process involved.

 

player: Why can't I play a half-ogre character? It was made available as a playable race in one of the fr supplements. Oh, and I should be able to monkey-grip too. Yeah, a half-orge monkey gripping a 2-handed sword. Sweet!

 

dm: you can't play such a munchkiny character... 'cause i said so.

 

player: Well, if I can't play a half-ogre, then how about a drow anti-paladin?

 

dm: *groan*

 

player: You don't allow anti-paladins? Why not? Well, I have a list of three dozen prestige class combinations that I would like to know whether you would at least consider. All the prestige classes on my list are FR canon, so if I meet the prerequisites I don't see why I shouldn't get a shot to play them.

 

dm: perhaps we can play a Boot Hill campaign instead? nobody here has played Boot Hill, right? good.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 31, 2008 by Gromnir

[newc0253]

drow anti-paladins get a bad rap.

 

i think they would work well in a Gamma World/Boot Hill crossover campaign.

[samm]

to start a fr campaign you gotta lay down some pretty harsh ground rules from start, and there is usually a negotiation process involved.

True *sigh*

 

I think I've already stated what I dislike about the changes to the FR. Or was that on a different board? In short: Why do they keep the name, while most certainly scaring away most players, especially the fans, of the setting / rules as they were before? Very bad move imo. Draconians. Spellplague, Mystra dead - again. Mainly most represented region unscathed. Pantheons crippled. All available thumbs down (I wish I had more than two), Wizards!

Edited February 1, 2008 by samm

[steelfiredragon]

might not be buying it myself.

I might go off to hackmaster or maybe castlemourne........

 

 

all said and done, all wotc will end up doing is sending off the FR's older faqnbase just to get a good deal of the WOW children, and then all they do is break even.

 

the more i read in those articles, the more it pisses me off, then they post something i like.

[newc0253]

the FR's older fanbase

 

FR has an older fanbase? You mean, like 18 year olds?

Edited February 1, 2008 by newc0253

[Gromnir]

the FR's older fanbase

 

FR has an older fanbase? You mean, like 18 year olds?

 

as much as Gromnir would hope that we could blame fr success on the young, taht ain't the reality. frs has been 'round a good long time, and many folks who liked in the early 90s still plays. alfa were one of nwn's larger pws... had more than a thousand members at one point. were a pw attempting to recreate large portions of the frs. Gromnir spoke with many of the alfa members, and while some were young and dumb, many others were not.

 

it may seem as if only possible demographic fr could appeal to is young and foolish, but that just ain't the truth. would be so much easier to simply dismiss all fr fans 'cause of age/experience, but we cannot.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[newc0253]

feh, Greyhawk is the only true D&D setting.

 

Or possibly Blackmoor.

[Arkan]

Anybody care to summarize the changes that 4E is making?

[Pop]

To the ruleset, or to the FR?

 

The FR's oft-neglected areas (Mulhorand, Unther, Halruaa, the Shaar) are being thrown out in favor of wild magic-ravaged badlands. The popular areas are more or less exactly the same as they were before.

 

Looks like the Red Wizards are being replaced by the Shadovar as the magic using ubervillains of the setting.

 

So overall, not much has changed at all.

[Arkan]

To the ruleset, or to the FR?

 

The FR's oft-neglected areas (Mulhorand, Unther, Halruaa, the Shaar) are being thrown out in favor of wild magic-ravaged badlands. The popular areas are more or less exactly the same as they were before.

 

Looks like the Red Wizards are being replaced by the Shadovar as the magic using ubervillains of the setting.

 

So overall, not much has changed at all.

 

 

I was asking about both, I guess. Thanks for the FR info. I'll go ask in the other 4E thread.

[Gromnir]

to answer arkan, waterdeep is now a small port town, noteworthy only for the Prancing Pony brothel and its fat eunuch proprietor... a deceitful rogue named elminster who seems to traffic in information as much as he does flesh and narcotics.

 

...

 

no, wait, that is in Gromnir's version o' the frs.

 

only has run a fr campaign a couple times, but to keep our sanity we made some serious changes. too bad wotc won't do likewise... not the eunuch elminster bit, but the "serious changes" part.

 

HA! Good Fun!