| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Shadowsoul |
Posted - 23 Dec 2014 : 17:12:01
http://www.denofgeek.com/books-comics/dungeons-dragons/32990/chris-perkins-interview-dungeons-dragons-the-sundering-and-shared-worlds
Would someone please tell me what is the association with Chris Perkins and the Realms? I'm sure there are plenty of other people who are a lot more knowledgeable about the Realms who could have done this or even worked on it.
Why him? |
| 21 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Entromancer |
Posted - 06 Jan 2015 : 00:49:14
Perkins is an Eberron fan? Sweet, I loved those books and the setting. But I totally get where you're all coming from in respect to the new realms/old realms. I hopped into the realms after Eberron was more or less dropped, so seeing some of those elements creeping in with 4th edition left me pleased as punch. |
| Marc |
Posted - 05 Jan 2015 : 21:29:00
I don't know about his work in the Realms. Warriors of Heaven is considered the worst planar sourcebook tough. |
| TBeholder |
Posted - 03 Jan 2015 : 23:00:34
quote:
Originally posted by GMWestermeyer
Looking at the development methods of TSR in the old days (https://medium.com/@increment/quagmire-the-making-of-a-1980s-d-d-module-c30e788ea5f2) it is a miracle FR ever made it into print to start with.
Yeah, impressed me, too, even on top of what we know about Ed's adventures with editors.
To phrase it in the style of "Seventy Maxims"... Production pipelines and anti-tank hedgehogs should be easier to tell apart. |
| GMWestermeyer |
Posted - 02 Jan 2015 : 19:29:35
My observation over 30 years is that no one in charge at TSr or WotC or Hasbro knew or cared what the Realms was, how well it was done, or any other aspect of it. they were simply marketers trying to market. Expecting anything of value form the system is just kidding yourself. Looking at the development methods of TSR in the old days (https://medium.com/@increment/quagmire-the-making-of-a-1980s-d-d-module-c30e788ea5f2) it is a miracle FR ever made it into print to start with.
Simply put, don't expect art or continuity from Hasbro. They won't deliver and don't care. |
| Gustaveren |
Posted - 02 Jan 2015 : 19:21:02
The part i used to care about was the high complexity high lore setting part were i understood the current relations between npcs, realms, gods, ... and how they fitted into past events and ongoing political conflicts..
Example; knowing the line of royalty, high nobles, court wizards several hundred years into the past. Understanding how and why borders had changed, how architecture had changed with time, what crown laws there had changed with time and so forth.
|
| xaeyruudh |
Posted - 02 Jan 2015 : 19:13:08
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
The problem is, you don't remove THE PAST by jumping forward in time. In fact, you add a whole 'nother century, making it even worse. 
Truth, but it's only worse for us. High Command has been laboring under the delusion that "if it happened more than 8 years ago, it doesn't matter anymore" since the TOT. 2e started in 1367/8, less than 10 years after Ao's dramatic "hiya folks" speech. Other than a couple mentions of wild magic and magic-dead zones, and the ongoing drama of Cyric's church developing and Waukeen's church dissolving, TSR considered the biggest event in Realms history up to that point OVER and DONE and absolutely devoid of further impact on the Realms.
So, in the bizarro world of the Powers That Be, since they restored the Realms to full operation in 8 or 9 years after downsizing the pantheon, 94 years should be way more than enough to clear the etch-a-sketch so that new players will come into the bright and shiny new Faerun without any need to stress about past lore. After all, basically everything in the world has changed. Who in 1480 gives a flying fart about Luiren or Halruaa or Lantan. Those places are so 100 years ago.
The Realms is like the site of a nuclear power plant meltdown; of course it's a pretty crazy place to be during the event, but a few years later... pft, you're fine. Sure, some things look a little different, but there's no ongoing damage and the area has settled into a new vibrant coolness in which we actually have places to write stories about. Because, as we all know, everything that could be written about had already been written about pre-4e. Now we can enjoy the Realms again.
Yes, that is utterly insane. It makes somewhere between little and zero sense to look at the Realms that way. But that's been standard operating procedure --not by all the authors or designers, but by the folks in charge at TSR and WotC-- since 1989, even before WotC arrived on the scene.  |
| Gustaveren |
Posted - 02 Jan 2015 : 18:25:16
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
The problem is, you don't remove THE PAST by jumping forward in time. In fact, you add a whole 'nother century, making it even worse.
I agree with that sentence |
| BEAST |
Posted - 25 Dec 2014 : 19:26:05
quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
The time jump was to get rid of the baggage. Unfortunately, WotC decided to travel so light that they traded in five steamer trunks for a wallet. Wallets can only hold so much.
-- George Krashos
Or an entire library of musty books and scrolls for a shiny 2GB flash drive? |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 25 Dec 2014 : 18:58:32
quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
The time jump was to get rid of the baggage. Unfortunately, WotC decided to travel so light that they traded in five steamer trunks for a wallet. Wallets can only hold so much.
-- George Krashos
A wallet filled with monopoly money at that |
| Markustay |
Posted - 25 Dec 2014 : 16:43:42
The problem is, you don't remove THE PAST by jumping forward in time. In fact, you add a whole 'nother century, making it even worse.
I can't understand how they could have missed that.
A soft reboot would have worked better for them (IMO)- just restart the Realms around 1350 or so, and tell everyone that everything written before still applies, UNLESS over-written by future material (because history will mostly work out the same way). Then they could just be rid of any silliness, inconsistencies, and derivations without losing what made FR great - its monumental boatload of lore.
They could have just revamped the old books with fresh art and some great editing - talk about a time/money saver! "Meet the NEW REALMS... same as the old Realms!" It could have been great. Instead we got, "Meet the new Realms... forget the old Realms". It alienated the old fans, and didn't create (many) new ones. It was just a VERY bad plan. 
I still have very high hopes for the Forgotten Realms moving forward, because Ed has been so gosh-darn busy (which usually means amazing lore for us). I think great things are in store. You can't just look at the game-products WotC is producing - you have to step back and look at the big picture. Right now its like we have our faces pressed up against the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and saying, "this is terrible!". We have to step back and realize its a glorious panorama - pick a spot and enjoy it. Or pick another, and enjoy that. You needn't jump right to end... unless thats the part you like.  |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 24 Dec 2014 : 22:31:21
The time jump was to get rid of the baggage. Unfortunately, WotC decided to travel so light that they traded in five steamer trunks for a wallet. Wallets can only hold so much.
-- George Krashos |
| Dark Wizard |
Posted - 24 Dec 2014 : 21:50:50
If Eberroning was the only issue inflicting the Realms, we'd all be running along a relatively smoother set of transitions.
The team picked the worst of all possible choices* for the Realms, the largest RSE ever and a time jump. Eberron came away relatively unscathed and Dark Sun got a reset of sorts to the more interesting iteration of setting conflicts with later stuff. Being first full setting out the gate hasn't bode well for the Realms going on two editions, we'll see if 5E is any different.
*Well, it could conceivably be worse, but I'm not sure Wizards is that far off the rails, yet. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 24 Dec 2014 : 14:45:39
I'm not a fan. Someone once suggested I "take a look at his earlier work" (because they agreed that his latest offerings were 'sub-par').
I did - I went back to the very first published adventure he did. The back-story on the first page had a major continuity gaff. On a single page, he disagreed with himself.
And that was what someone told me was 'his best work'. Not sure what he is good at (its gotta be something), but it isn't writing RPG story-elements. In 4e - when all that "Rich Baker must be stopped!" crap was flying about, he came forward and said, "blame me".
I DO.
But I don't think he is having as much a hand in the story-aspects as he would like anymore, so the 'Eberroning' of the Realms will stop, I am sure. Ed's got a firm hand on the reigns. They'll listen to him... or they won't have jobs inside of two years. At least not working on D&D anyway. I think 4e's lackluster performance was a nice slap in the face.
And BTW, I really like the 5e core books thus-far, so if he is the one behind those, then we found what he is good at. They are excellent, IMO. Great editing and layout, and very concise and easy to understand (major plus for any RPG rules-book). |
| Dark Wizard |
Posted - 23 Dec 2014 : 22:46:03
His live GMing is probably an inconsequential part of his day-to-day job, but it's another skill he has on his resume to make him a little more indispensable compared to other WotC staffers. He posted his personal campaign notes for his island hopping campaign on Wizards.com and it's quite good, his game design is probably ahead of most persons Realms fans would think to place before him (imo). He also approaches the Realms in terms of what a non-Realms fan can take away from it, so I think Wizards sees a lot of value in that objectivity.
Interestingly, he was the designer for the beginning and the end chapters of the first Adventure Path, the Shackled City, in Dungeon magazine. While others were involved, he was a major contributor for the product model that Paizo staked their banner into with regards to their place in the hobby. Beyond Pathfinder, the Adventure Paths are what Paizo is known for and since they started in 3.5E, even if Pathfinder went belly up tomorrow, Paizo could likely rally around the Adventure Paths lines using another system. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 23 Dec 2014 : 22:21:35
And the duration of one's involvement with the Realms is not an indicator of anything, really. Some folks here have been fans for years, but haven't delved too deeply into the lore, while others are relative newcomers, but have dived in feet-first and eagerly began learning everything they can.
All of us were newcomers to the setting, once, even our best lorelords. |
| Fellfire |
Posted - 23 Dec 2014 : 22:20:55
Just my two coppers...I've seen a few adventures run by the man at various Cons over youtube, and while funny, he never struck me as a GREAT DM. Not sure what relevance, if any, that holds for his current job. |
| Dark Wizard |
Posted - 23 Dec 2014 : 22:05:37
quote:
Originally posted by Shadowsoul
http://www.denofgeek.com/books-comics/dungeons-dragons/32990/chris-perkins-interview-dungeons-dragons-the-sundering-and-shared-worlds
Would someone please tell me what is the association with Chris Perkins and the Realms? I'm sure there are plenty of other people who are a lot more knowledgeable about the Realms who could have done this or even worked on it.
Why him?
His association goes back for a while. Remember the "Rich Baker Must Be Stopped" days at the transition towards 4E. Chris Perkins came forth and said to ease off Rich (or any of the 4E architects) because as (what his position was, probably senior creative director), the buck ultimately stopped at him (when in actuality, probably went above him and involved all of the individuals named and unnamed).
Beyond that, his credentials include contributing to major milestones for the game such as Star Wars SAGA, the prototype for 4E mechanics. Chris Perkins had adventures published in Dungeon magazine as a teenager and I believe he became editor of said magazine for a time. He seems to be one of the more better regarded adventure designers (at least according to forums like EnWorld, etc.) of the current eras (and he's been published since the late 80s, thus at least since 2E, so he's been around for at least four editions of the game as of 5E).
He also GMs of the Acquisitions Inc games at PAX amongst other venues. All in all, on top of his varied experience (his position probably involves a lot of project management), he's one of the more visible staffers at WotC, which in and of itself is rare for a game designer.
Why him? And not someone else more Realms oriented?
He's the right person for the job at the right place. Not every "better Realms qualified" candidate wishes to give up their day job and relocate to WotC HQ in Washington. Some of the Realms qualified persons have no experience as project managers or creative directors. Some of the lore-heavy experts aren't the best game designers and vice versa. In short, because he probably gets things done, lots of behind the scenes work that is less glamorous and at the forefront than "Lead Designer" or "Author". |
| Irennan |
Posted - 23 Dec 2014 : 18:01:09
He is talking about the Realms because -AFAIK- he is the story development leader, including that of FR. However I agree with The Arcanamach about Ed controlling its direction (and just to clarify, this is absolutely not because I have a low esteem of or something against Chris Perkins). |
| The Arcanamach |
Posted - 23 Dec 2014 : 17:54:01
Eberron is his thing. Regardless of who the team leader is, the Realms needs Ed essentially controlling its direction. |
| Shadowsoul |
Posted - 23 Dec 2014 : 17:47:09
quote:
Originally posted by Irennan
He is the D&D story/world building lead and creative manager, as far as I know.
That's great and all but I don't really remember his name being associated with the Realms through the years. |
| Irennan |
Posted - 23 Dec 2014 : 17:39:52
He is the D&D story/world building lead and creative manager, as far as I know. |
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