Are the Forgotten Realms Unfairly Hated? Or Totally Fairly Hated?

S'mon · June 16, 2017, 08:34:01 AM

Quote from: Willie the Duck;969001Let's not do this. Greenwood could be a Trumpian isolationist and have the same opinion about do-gooders stepping in to solve problems being bad. It really doesn't matter to whether the Realms are good or bad.

Does it seem like Greenwood wants to maintain control of his setting, and doesn't want PCs messing with it? That's the vibe I'm getting. Not good, if so.

Llew ap Hywel · June 16, 2017, 08:52:44 AM

Quote from: S'mon;969003Does it seem like Greenwood wants to maintain control of his setting, and doesn't want PCs messing with it? That's the vibe I'm getting. Not good, if so.

From everything I've read or seen far from it. He seems to very much advocate a 'your realms will vary' policy. Apparently his home game is very different from where the established FR has gone.

Michael Gray · June 16, 2017, 09:16:13 AM

Quote from: Omega;968919You sometimes come across faintly as an apologist? That might not be the intent. But it feels that way a little.

TSR didnt have hard guidelines other than page count and sometimes content restrictions. Instead you just had to stay more or less within the setting. Some didnt even adhere to that all that much and still got published. I know a few of the writers.

All I know is what Greenwood has described as his home game is significantly different than the published setting, at least from what I can see. And I like the little nuggets I've seen of it. I might be...over-extrapolating, maybe. But I see what I see. Forgotten Realms as published is a pretty generic "And the kitchen sink" setting that I think Pathfinder's Golarion does better.

fearsomepirate · June 16, 2017, 10:21:50 AM

Quote from: Chris24601;968766I also feel woefully misled by my education. The history books were utterly silent about who got enslaved to replace the slaves freed at the end of the US Civil War and whose voting rights were lost when they were granted to women.

As much as I dislike the FR and Greenwood, I'm going to throw him a bone here. Roughly 4 million slaves were liberated at the cost of around 618,000 young men's lives, most of them conscripts. Of those liberated slaves, about a million died of starvation and disease within the first two years of their emancipation.

School textbooks will usually mention the first, but not really invite the reader to ponder its significance. The second is usually omitted completely, as it doesn't fit the story you're supposed to be learning.

Christopher Brady · June 16, 2017, 01:57:59 PM

Quote from: S'mon;968985Civil rights for women made their greatest strides in the 60s and 70s? So, gaining the vote didn't count? :rolleyes:

Uh, they had the vote since 1920... Wasn't that the point of the Suffragettes? I'm confused.

Quote from: S'mon;969003Does it seem like Greenwood wants to maintain control of his setting, and doesn't want PCs messing with it? That's the vibe I'm getting. Not good, if so.

Well, yeah, that's why he and R.A. Salvatore when they came back to the fold, they started to wipe out anything that they didn't approve from 4e's changes. Greenwood does not like his theme park to be anything other than what his self-insertion character created.

Bedrockbrendan · June 16, 2017, 02:03:11 PM

This is the main RPG forum and this thread is supposed to be about Forgotten Realms. If you want to talk about the Civil Rights movement, this ain't the place.

Philotomy Jurament · June 16, 2017, 02:40:20 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;965457Are the Forgotten Realms Unfairly Hated? Or Totally Fairly Hated?

I dislike the setting and its support material, and have no desire to use it (or to "make it work" when there are other options that I like better and that don't require me to do any swimming against any currents). I don't think "fair" or "unfair" has any relevance. I don't care if someone thinks my opinion about FR is wrong or unfair, but I also don't have a problem with someone who holds a different opinion and thinks the FR setting and product line is excellent stuff.

People like or dislike Forgotten Realms for reasons that apply to and seem valid to them. Argument over that kind of subjective thing is just sound and fury signifying nothing.

Dumarest · June 16, 2017, 03:06:46 PM

Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;969082Argument over that kind of subjective thing is just sound and fury signifying nothing.

But that's why we come here.

Omega · June 16, 2017, 04:00:15 PM

Quote from: S'mon;969003Does it seem like Greenwood wants to maintain control of his setting, and doesn't want PCs messing with it? That's the vibe I'm getting. Not good, if so.

Some of his writing on the Realms does have that feel. But in the hands of others the Realms been fucked up quite a bit. But the impression I got was that some of that was individual writers home turf in the Realms. Its such an aglomeration now that its hard to sort out whats what.

And sometimes it seems to be saying that "adventurers are ok. As long as they are on Elminsters leash."

But as said. Most published adventures have none of that feel. Though I havent seen any specifically written by Ed that Im aware of. And it isnt very notable in the FR comics from DC either. If at all.

Now I'll have to dig out my collection and check.

Arkansan · June 16, 2017, 04:28:12 PM

I dislike the Realms solely for the fact that WoTC seemed to have basically dropped all other settings in favor of it. Speaking of that weren't there rumors of some Greyhawk stuff in the pipeline at some point?

Anyway, so far as Realms products go, I had the first edition boxed set at one point and it seemed like a pretty solid product. I could see running the Realms if that was the only thing I was going to work from.

Darrin Kelley · June 16, 2017, 04:37:38 PM

I have the current D&D 5th Edition rulebooks.

In the DMG: There is a list of the different known D&D worlds of the Material Plane. Which are all pretty famous settings. And I will list them below.

Toril = Forgotten Realms
Oerth = Greyhawk
Krynn = Dragonlance
Athas = Dark Sun
Eberron
Aebrynis = Birthright
Mystara

I don't think they would be listed. if there were no plans by WotC to use them.

Personally. I would love to see a really well done Mystara sourcebook. And definitely a new Dark Sun sourcebook.

Llew ap Hywel · June 16, 2017, 07:19:37 PM

Quote from: Darrin Kelley;969126I have the current D&D 5th Edition rulebooks.

In the DMG: There is a list of the different known D&D worlds of the Material Plane. Which are all pretty famous settings. And I will list them below.

Toril = Forgotten Realms
Oerth = Greyhawk
Krynn = Dragonlance
Athas = Dark Sun
Eberron
Aebrynis = Birthright
Mystara

I don't think they would be listed. if there were no plans by WotC to use them.

Personally. I would love to see a really well done Mystara sourcebook. And definitely a new Dark Sun sourcebook.

Birthright will never see new print and I suspect the same of most of those listed

Omega · June 17, 2017, 08:34:34 AM

Quote from: Darrin Kelley;969126I don't think they would be listed. if there were no plans by WotC to use them.

There are no plans. Its just IP buffering so they dont let another IP name slip through their butter fingers. It may also be a "throw the dogs a very tiny bone."

Omega · June 17, 2017, 10:03:36 AM

Dug out my AD&D and FR comics. FR was written by Jeff Grub, not Ed Greenwood. Though Ed did later write a really shoddy FR comic.

How much of the Realms is Greenwoof's and how much is Grubb's?

Dumarest · June 17, 2017, 03:46:19 PM

I've never played in or read any Forgotten Realm games/books. When did TSR start that setting? I only recall modules set in nameless, vague locations you can drop into your campaign as needed, but I stopped playing AD&D around 1992 or 1993 and have only played in about 10 sessions of D&D (or its clones) since then so I'm not in the loop on what goes on with it.