| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Shadowsoul |
Posted - 03 Jun 2016 : 07:59:56
*sighs*
Does everyone at Wizards of the Coast have OCD or are they just not that creative? All they seem to know how to do is these "save the world" APs that aren't that good to start with and happen under the same roof.
I could maybe, and I mean maybe, understand them happening on different worlds or different time periods but this is just ridiculous. So now we have giants as this weeks RSE. You would think the big powers of this living world would stand up and say "hold on a minute. What the hell is happening with the Sword Coast?" I would expect Elminster and the rest to come and sort things out but unfortunately enjoys everyone being in their own bubble and the whole world be static.
God I wish they would get rid of Perkins and bring in someone who can give a bit of variety. |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| CorellonsDevout |
Posted - 24 Jun 2016 : 16:17:47
Hey, I said I am working on it lol ;) *offers a hand* need some help getting up? |
| Irennan |
Posted - 24 Jun 2016 : 15:49:33
quote:
Originally posted by Adhriva
Well, if you're going to refuse this dire quest to save the Realms, CD.....
I'll accept the challenge!
*struts forward only to fall on her face due to a natural 1*
Thanks for the laugh  |
| CorellonsDevout |
Posted - 24 Jun 2016 : 15:24:06
Yeah lol, I know. I'm working on it. |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 24 Jun 2016 : 05:58:21
quote:
Originally posted by CorellonsDevout
Hehe I don't think I'm that good
Only one way to find out ...  
-- George Krashos |
| Adhriva |
Posted - 24 Jun 2016 : 00:56:13
Well, if you're going to refuse this dire quest to save the Realms, CD.....
I'll accept the challenge!
*struts forward only to fall on her face due to a natural 1* |
| CorellonsDevout |
Posted - 24 Jun 2016 : 00:55:15
Hehe I don't think I'm that good |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 24 Jun 2016 : 00:30:53
quote:
Originally posted by CorellonsDevout
Chiming in late as usual heh.
Canon lore is important to me because, well, it's canon. Sure, I could make up my own lore, but canon is the "real-life" version of the Realms, and is what is really happening. It's why many events in 4e made me angry.
If you do a really good job - ala Brian James' work - your stuff could become canon one day.
-- George Krashos |
| CorellonsDevout |
Posted - 23 Jun 2016 : 20:17:06
Chiming in late as usual heh.
Canon lore is important to me because, well, it's canon. Sure, I could make up my own lore, but canon is the "real-life" version of the Realms, and is what is really happening. It's why many events in 4e made me angry. |
| BrianDavion |
Posted - 22 Jun 2016 : 00:37:22
I don't mind em trying to keep some of the changes from 4th edition that worked and/or are popular but the entire mindset that went into 4th edition FR really puzzled me. FR was the best selling D&D setting in existance, but it wasn't the only one by any means, so when people kvitch about FR and say they dislike it... wy change FR to suit them? hell I'd say Ebberon (which is a good if differant setting) is a great place for people who have issues with FR having ltos of powerful NPCs, powerful and activie deities etc. so yeah if somone hates FR? why not play a differant campaign setting |
| TBeholder |
Posted - 21 Jun 2016 : 16:29:27
quote:
Originally posted by Shadowsoul
Oh I'm not buying.
The problem for me is the fact that we were supposed to get a Realms that was closer to the old one but that just seems to have stopped. I have money ready to pour into D&D but they just continue with this shite.
Yup. It's "totally not 4e".
Except 4e stuff is not retconned away like it retconned away anything else.
And after going through motions and empty assurances, everything continues to fall apart much the same way it did.
And there was another "coincidental" wave of mud flinging in Ed's general direction from Totally-Not-Winterfox shill upon release of 5e materials no better than it was on 4e (only lazier, looks like they really cut down the funds). And...
That's the corporate bureaucracy for you. No difference whatsoever with the other sort. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 21 Jun 2016 : 14:57:45
quote:
Originally posted by farinal
Well if you consider the levels of each of these big Adventure/Campaigns then you see they are not supposed to be played after each other by the same characters in a continuum. Then you can just pretend the other ones do not happen and just play one of them with your group. It doesn't mean every week some big event is happening in the region. Just the one you want.
Except for the fact that this is official, published material by WotC, making it canon that these things keep happening. |
| farinal |
Posted - 21 Jun 2016 : 12:19:07
Well if you consider the levels of each of these big Adventure/Campaigns then you see they are not supposed to be played after each other by the same characters in a continuum. Then you can just pretend the other ones do not happen and just play one of them with your group. It doesn't mean every week some big event is happening in the region. Just the one you want. |
| Shadowsoul |
Posted - 21 Jun 2016 : 06:54:12
quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
quote:
Originally posted by Shadowsoul
I am so sick and tired of Wizard's marketing ...
lol, just because they're selling doesn't mean that you need to be buying. If (like me) you reject a lot of Wizbro's canon Realmslore then (like me) you can simply game on without buying, reading, or adhering to it. The increment-edition-and-repeat-RSE-ad-nauseum plot mechanism is evidence enough (to me) that WotC's creative talents are not sufficiently creative to keep buying into.
Oh I'm not buying.
The problem for me is the fact that we were supposed to get a Realms that was closer to the old one but that just seems to have stopped. I have money ready to pour into D&D but they just continue with this shite. |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 20 Jun 2016 : 23:51:13
quote:
Originally posted by Shadowsoul
I am so sick and tired of Wizard's marketing ...
lol, just because they're selling doesn't mean that you need to be buying. If (like me) you reject a lot of Wizbro's canon Realmslore then (like me) you can simply game on without buying, reading, or adhering to it. The increment-edition-and-repeat-RSE-ad-nauseum plot mechanism is evidence enough (to me) that WotC's creative talents are not sufficiently creative to keep buying into. |
| Shadowsoul |
Posted - 20 Jun 2016 : 06:46:47
quote:
Originally posted by Varl
All this talk on RSEs and megagaming really makes me appreciate any new FR lore that comes from any source that fleshes out old regions or pulls the curtain back on brand new regions. Remember Ed's Everwinking Eye articles? Those were some of the best Realmslore written IMO because it didn't focus on adventure, could be inserted into any version of D&D/FR, and focused on detailing Toril itself.
Things like a mysterious stump of a giant Shadowtop tree that spawns numerous rumors about what lies beneath it, and how a stairway down could even be there to begin with.
I always love to see original content like this regardless of source; the tree doesn't have to be Silvanus incarnated for it to be interesting.
This this this!
I am so sick and tired of Wizard's marketing shite. They make it seem like needing to have epic adventures is the norm. I just want some good old lore on areas we've always heard about but not had much info on. |
| Varl |
Posted - 20 Jun 2016 : 04:35:14
All this talk on RSEs and megagaming really makes me appreciate any new FR lore that comes from any source that fleshes out old regions or pulls the curtain back on brand new regions. Remember Ed's Everwinking Eye articles? Those were some of the best Realmslore written IMO because it didn't focus on adventure, could be inserted into any version of D&D/FR, and focused on detailing Toril itself.
Things like a mysterious stump of a giant Shadowtop tree that spawns numerous rumors about what lies beneath it, and how a stairway down could even be there to begin with.
I always love to see original content like this regardless of source; the tree doesn't have to be Silvanus incarnated for it to be interesting. |
| Adhriva |
Posted - 12 Jun 2016 : 20:52:25
quote:
Originally posted by Brimstone
Maybe WotC should sub contract a couple of AP's out to say, Paizo, Green Ronin, & some others. Set these AP's in different area's of The Realms. These AP's could use some of the outstanding Lorelords that are out there for background, and away we go. I would buy that...
They do actually - game designers from previous editions have helped design such APs - but as I understand it, Wizards determine these APs take place on the sword coast as part of an intermarketing famariliarity initiative. Other products (such as Neverwinter - WotC is after all, a game company) help support the familiarity much like a brand. Until/unless another adventuring guide is published for other parts of the world, they will remain focused on the Sword Coast because of that familiarity, other products (games, novels, etc), and the foundation within a successful sourcebook. |
| Brimstone |
Posted - 12 Jun 2016 : 18:11:44
Maybe WotC should sub contract a couple of AP's out to say, Paizo, Green Ronin, & some others. Set these AP's in different area's of The Realms. These AP's could use some of the outstanding Lorelords that are out there for background, and away we go. I would buy that... |
| Gyor |
Posted - 12 Jun 2016 : 15:12:06
PRSE, potiential realms shaking events.
Honestly I would be happy if they moved the APs away from the sword coast, but not generic Cormyr, but to somewhere more exotic, like Mulhorand, Unther, Tymanther, Akanul, the Shining Plains, Calimshan, Vaasa, Lantan, Evermeet, Aglarond, ect...
Actually an AP focusing the tense political situation in the old empires region, between Mulhorand, Exiled Imaskar, Unther, Tymanther, Chessenta,Thay, could be really compelling and interesting.
Instead they orestrate these artificial crisises so everything seems to be happening on the Sword Coast, but the truth is, if not for the APs, the compelling action would be happening far from the Sword Coast (with the exception of Calimshan, if one conciders it apart of the sword coast?)
|
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 10 Jun 2016 : 23:54:03
quote:
Originally posted by Lamora
Pathfinder seems to have put out many, many novels with no long-running series. All these books have self-contained story lines with no RSE action. Why are they going with mass quantity/good quality for (I assume) a profit whereas WotC is going with very few novels with good quality. Anyone know the sales numbers to show which approach is better? I personally think I would get into Pathfinder if they would start using trilogies so I could 'care' about a character. I don't want to invest with just stand alone novels though.
Some of the books do follow prior ones -- the ones by Dave Gross, for example, follow Count Varian Jeggare and his bodyguard Radovan through a series of adventures. |
| Lamora |
Posted - 10 Jun 2016 : 23:09:47
Pathfinder seems to have put out many, many novels with no long-running series. All these books have self-contained story lines with no RSE action. Why are they going with mass quantity/good quality for (I assume) a profit whereas WotC is going with very few novels with good quality. Anyone know the sales numbers to show which approach is better? I personally think I would get into Pathfinder if they would start using trilogies so I could 'care' about a character. I don't want to invest with just stand alone novels though. |
| Seravin |
Posted - 10 Jun 2016 : 22:13:42
quote:
Originally posted by BrianDavion
I'd definatly like to see a smaller scale, but I think there's this belief that every story told in RP must be epic and world shattering, it's hardly unique to WOTC, I know I've seen it elsewhere, I blame in large part modern CRPGs which are always epic huge scope and fixated on saving the world and thats what people expect. Dragon Age 2 got bashed pretty hard for essentially being a "tale of one city"
Now now...DA2 could have been amazing if they fleshed out and made the city huge, alive, breathing, interactive and intriguing that over time could mold to choices you made over the years the game takes place. DA2 got bashed because it was a small, uninteresting and the choices were irrelevant, with the same final boss no matter what you sided with. And everyone was irrational...the monsters dropped from the sky...ugh anyway. DA2 had many problems, but the concept of one city was not one of them. IMO of course. :) Sorry got sidetracked.
I just re-read The Wyvern's Spur...a really great novel that was intimate, takes place over like 3 days, only impacts one city and one large family, but still is a great tale and connects with so much of the Realms. |
| BrianDavion |
Posted - 10 Jun 2016 : 21:19:36
I'd definatly like to see a smaller scale, but I think there's this belief that every story told in RP must be epic and world shattering, it's hardly unique to WOTC, I know I've seen it elsewhere, I blame in large part modern CRPGs which are always epic huge scope and fixated on saving the world and thats what people expect. Dragon Age 2 got bashed pretty hard for essentially being a "tale of one city" |
| Mapolq |
Posted - 10 Jun 2016 : 18:05:54
quote:
Originally posted by Firestorm
Not true. But lingo has changed in recent years.
A realms shaking event was something like the Tuigan Horde. It affected multiple nations and was large scale. Same with the rage of dragons.
A realm shattering event was one in which a lot of rules in the setting change because of a bunch of god deaths and setting rule changes.
Time of troubles, Spellplague, Sundering, etc
That's my understading of the terms as well. And with that said, most of the current Adventure Paths are definitely Realms-shaking events, only they are always assumed to end without causing much trouble to the setting at large at all, it's all in the "potential threat".
On one side I'm happy that they figured they don't need to actually destroy established places, characters, plots, etc. to tell a story. On the other, I wish they'd make the stories a little less about continent-threatening evils because it feels silly when the nth of those gets beaten without changing anything (and I'm not advocating for them changing things, I'm advocating for them not to exist in such large numbers in the first place!). That, and it's now incredibly bland as far as stories go - "another evil invasion, oh great, I guess we should do the same thing we did for the last three". Finally, I appreciate the attempts to capitalise on Realmslore that have been popping here and there, and the APs are a glaring counter-example of it, one because the solution is pretty much always the same, so there's not much need for extensive involvement of all the people, societies and realms that might be interested (yeah, the DM can do it, but the style of threat being always the same makes it hard, and many of us don't even DM, or not primarily - we want the stories); two, because - probably for marketing reasons - they keep it all in the Sword Coast, creating an odd situation (are the other places in the world also being regularly assaulted by evil? What are they doing about it? Maybe some of them could be looking at doing something about the Sword Coast given what's happening there?).
I run a NWN2 PW, and any time something even remotely important in the grand scheme of things happens, the first question the DM Team asks, before it gets into the players' hands, is "how does the world views this?". |
| BrianDavion |
Posted - 09 Jun 2016 : 22:28:10
quote:
Originally posted by Barastir
quote:
Originally posted by BrianDavion
(...) FR has the advantage in that it doesn't require half their characters to be CGI.
(...)
Let's see how they deal with non-human races, and even with the classes. The other movies had elves, wizards, barbarians and rogues with questionable characterizations, and an excess of tattoos, lipsticks and modern looks. And the props... 
well yeah trashy looks are trashy. that said the problem with the old D&D movie, as I've said plenty of times before, is D&D is a rules set. not a setting. thus it makes for a poor movie choice. Forgotten Realms, Ebberon, Dragonlance, PLanescape those are D&D settings, and are the best pick, because they actually provide a foundation for your stuff. but yeah anything silly that way clothing and prop wise would be bad, FR should look more like middle earth and less like an 80s punk band. |
| Direhammer |
Posted - 09 Jun 2016 : 18:12:55
quote:
Originally posted by BrianDavion
it's only bombed domesticly, it's apparently broken records in China, makes sense really, WC is past it's best before date domesticly and it's numbers as I understand it would be considerably more modest if you simply compared domestic sales vs compeiting games.
That's why movies are so bad now, plots and dialogue require an audience to have similar cultural backgrounds to understand but explosions and kewl monsters transcend language barriers. Hollywood doesn't make movies for American audiences, they can make way more money by make generic movies anyone can understand. |
| Barastir |
Posted - 09 Jun 2016 : 03:03:07
quote:
Originally posted by BrianDavion
(...) FR has the advantage in that it doesn't require half their characters to be CGI.
(...)
Let's see how they deal with non-human races, and even with the classes. The other movies had elves, wizards, barbarians and rogues with questionable characterizations, and an excess of tattoos, lipsticks and modern looks. And the props... |
| BrianDavion |
Posted - 09 Jun 2016 : 02:18:34
it's only bombed domesticly, it's apparently broken records in China, makes sense really, WC is past it's best before date domesticly and it's numbers as I understand it would be considerably more modest if you simply compared domestic sales vs compeiting games.
that said FR has the advantage in that it doesn't require half their characters to be CGI. the orks in WC look terriable, especially when you compare them, as people will, to the Uruks from LOTR. but yeah I'm not holding out high hopes for it as well. IMHO on a movie front they'd be better off doing animated versions of realms classic stories. |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 09 Jun 2016 : 01:35:27
After how the Warcraft movie has bombed, I have grave fears for the FR movie ...
-- George Krashos |
| Bladewind |
Posted - 08 Jun 2016 : 17:28:28
I too think Perkins attitude towards FR (and its past) is grating at times, but I like his D&D design principles. The FR-adventure lines story-based design has its pitfalls, though, as this thread shows.
If they'd hurry up and give us an Unapproachable East-like splatbook and set the next story in Thay or somesuch, my faith in Perkins would be rekindled alot.
Also the next movie might bring to life Waterdeep on the big screen, a very alluring prospect that could bring in fresh new interest and lore on one of the greatest city in D&D.
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