| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Shadowsoul |
Posted - 19 Dec 2014 : 19:40:51
What kind of campaign guide do you expect we will get? What will make you happy and return to the current FR if you left during the Spellplague? What will make you happy if you liked the Spellplague? Do you expect us to get lots of support via plenty of products?
I want 2nd edition quality products. I really hope Ed cuts loose and gives us loads of material that I can sink my teeth in to. |
| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Delwa |
Posted - 20 Dec 2014 : 15:11:10
I have a hope that a CS will actually be just an update. Elminster's Forgotten Realms is still in print, use that as your "Player's Guide" for daily life stuff, and then just give us a region-by-region update on what's happened since the last Campaign Setting. Give me a picture of the current state of affairs, enough to run the world with just the Campaign Setting, that way I don't have to read six novels and flip through four years of adventures just to catch up.
Save the history for an updated Grand History book, keep the pantheon to a table like in the 5E PHB, just who's who and the info players need to play their characters. Save the details of how those gods came back for the Deity book.
As an aside, in one of the Adventurers League pdfs, it refers you to the 3E FRCS for Realms details, and the Volo's Guides for region specifics. |
| Swordsage |
Posted - 20 Dec 2014 : 13:26:40
That's a very interesting concept for the 5E FRCS but I can't agree that it contain no regional/geographical information. Reality is that there is no such thing as a regional sourcebook anymore - and certainly not enough of them to cover the Realms if they were to be produced. I agree that the book should be hardcore Realms-centric in that it should be filled with FR minutiae and details.
What I expect however is 14 point font size, cursory detail on places, the same re-hashed deity, calendar, flora, basic vocabulary/language information but with an emphasis on making the setting a place for everything. So the kitchen sink approach will be used to its fullest extent, showcasing every fantasy trope and genre with little actual FR flavor or cohesive reasoning or basis for including that 'dragon realm'/'undead realm'/'orc realm' etc.
It will be a bland, generic offering that will be memorable solely for how once again an opportunity has been missed to set things right.
The Swordsage |
| xaeyruudh |
Posted - 20 Dec 2014 : 08:28:08
I'm gonna be the weird unpopular guy... I don't want to see geography or deity information in the Campaign Guide... because those things get their own books, so either they'll have to repeat it (meaning that space in the Campaign Guide is wasted as soon as the geography/gods books come out) or else we'll have to have to constantly flip through the Campaign Guide in addition to geography books for geography and gods books for gods.
We've gotten used to our campaign setting books being piles of little blurbs, without enough space to go into anything in depth because it's trying to tell us a little bit about Everything. Inevitably some of it gets repeated elsewhere, and some of it doesn't, so we have to look through several books at the beginning and a whole bunch of books by the end of the edition, just as if nothing were repeated... only it was, so some of that space could have been better used. A little bit of that is maybe unavoidable, but I think it's been excessive. And before you criticize me for criticizing them, I'm just sayin there's limited wordcount. Books are only going to have X pages, and some of them are going to be pictures, and a couple of them are going to be lazy stupid annoying useless garbage advertisements. Half of what the authors write is cut, and we generally never see it. So I'd like for them to use the wordcount wisely.
And who are the ads for, anyway? We're already fans, we're already going to see the upcoming books when they're available. Advertising is neither necessarily nor helpful. And it just looks stupid later when we notice an ad for a book that came out 10 years ago, wasting valuable space in our campaign guide.
In my opinion, leave 99% of the geography to regional sourcebooks and leave 99% of the gods info to pantheon sourcebooks. Name the continents and some of the major political/economic influences, and move on. Maybe include a list of deities and their portfolios... symbols and favored weapons are useless on that table. And leave it at that. And leave history to an updated Grand History book. Pleeeeease leave NPC and monster stat blocks out... they don't belong. No prestige classes, etc.
Use the Campaign Guide to talk about stuff that won't be getting its own books. The Campaign Guide should be 100% fluff, and only the stuff that isn't going to be elaborated on elsewhere. Trade, currency, the calendar of Harptos, etc. Talk about the differences between the Realms and other campaign settings, and the similarities... and the connections; tell us about a couple of portals linking Faerun with Oerth, so that DMs can yoink their Greyhawkers into the Realms for a couple nights, and vice versa. Mystara, too.
Looking at the 3e Campaign Setting book... Chapter 3 is the only thing that belongs in the Campaign Guide. Everything else has its own books and belongs there rather than here. In the 4e Campaign Guide it was Chapter 2, and I'm okay with a sample adventure like the Loudwater one (and several in the 3e FRCS) being included. Unnecessary, but it's neat to get a free adventure here and there.
But I anticipate that most will disagree with me, and you'll undoubtedly get your way because force of habit as well as the majority of customers' demands will win the day. 
Edit: I do agree on the map, but I want to see a return to the 4 posters format and I suspect that won't happen. |
| Gyor |
Posted - 20 Dec 2014 : 05:16:39
An update on the various regions of the realms, all the major effects of the Sundering, a full pantheon with all the details needed to run a cleric or Paladin a God. |
| eeorey |
Posted - 20 Dec 2014 : 00:36:00
MAP!!! I sure hope it provides one.
I hope that when we get the FRCG it explains the changes that the sundering brought.
I want to know what has/will happen to my favorite places on which so far information has been a bit scarce, those being - The Vilhon Reach (specifically Chondath or w/e came/comes after it's destruction during the SP, but also the other nations around those lands, I got a little info in The Reaver, but it wasn't much and it only makes me want more), The Old Empires (I know the next Brimstone Angels novel will deal with some of that) and the Lands of Intrigue(Interested in seeing how Calimshan will deal with the genasi problem there, and also Tethyr). |
| The Arcanamach |
Posted - 19 Dec 2014 : 22:29:20
Sadly I think the proof already exists for what we're going to get in a FRCG. Each area will be lightly introduced with a few NPCs mentioned, nothing with the awesomeness that we received in the 2e days (though I will admit that toward the end of 2e their material was getting somewhat skimpy...mostly because they didn't want to delve into other regions of the setting).
Ed gives me hope but we will see. If they'd just let him do what he does best the Realms could shine again. If they'd let him have the reigns and really allow him to cut loose we could see something that outstrips even the 'golden age' of DnD and the Realms.
But I'm not holding my breath. |
| Jeremy Grenemyer |
Posted - 19 Dec 2014 : 22:03:11
I think we are going to get a gorgeous, detailed and color-filled book.
It won't come close to covering the entire Realms, but it will be very expensive. |
| xaeyruudh |
Posted - 19 Dec 2014 : 21:51:02
I expect it to be a lot of simplifying.
I will be happy if it's the opposite of that. It should be the opposite, since Chris Perkins (I think) has said they're embracing the diversity of the Realms, or somesuch.
I'm optimistic, because Ed is, and because Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms is so awesome.
But the Tyranny of Dragons campaign is (in my opinion) half-baked, and useless without a major overhaul. No offense to those who like it; I'm glad it works for you. I know it was outsourced, but WotC signed off on it rather than providing better direction and sending it through a few more rounds of editing, and my brain apparently isn't up to the task of interpreting that as a positive sign.
I think the 5e ruleset is oversimplified in some ways. But some see that as a good thing, so I'm looking for the positives. But the simplifying in the ruleset suggests to me that the same approach will be taken in the Realms, and their first official 5e Realms adventure is not contradicting that.
So I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised. In the meantime, though, I'm cool with using Ed Greenwood Presents as my 5e campaign setting, and thinking/writing around it for myself.
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| Irennan |
Posted - 19 Dec 2014 : 19:49:11
If I have to judge from WotC's current approach, we are going to get FR 5.0 lite, with less lore and more ''mystery'' (i.e. ''lol, make up your own lore. Now pay us for giving you the permission to do that''), if they are actually making a FRCS at all.
Of course, I hope to be dead wrong, to be eating my words back soon, and that Ed will get to write it as he sees fit. However all the talks about ''not forcing'' stuff points to a watered down version of the Realms. |
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