| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Joozey |
Posted - 11 Aug 2018 : 14:08:13
Hi, I was wondering if anything is known about the cities around Vilhon Reach past the Second Sundering. Before the Spellplague it was a bustling place. The lands and water vanishing after the spellplague, partly transposed with Abeir, I can imagine that place became an unpleasant mess. After the Second Sundering, most of the land was healed or restored again, with cities thought lost having returned. I wondered if there is any more known about this area. I did find a map from Mike Schley showing Akanûl as it presently is, one of Abeir's few places still remaining, but Vilhon Reach falls just outside. |
| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| cpthero2 |
Posted - 10 Oct 2018 : 01:05:01
Master Zeromaru X,
I want to begin by saying...my inner cynic, and experience as a marketer is unfortunately going to play a role here, and I say unfortunate, because I love the Realms so much, and I hate to think such things are at play, but I am being honest. That being said...
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I believe that (with some corroboration of evidence that has appeared in a variety of places over the internet over the years) the marketing team looked at sales figures after they were told that they were insufficient, and planned to increase those in the short and long term. They likely looked at the elasticity demand models and realized that Realms consumers had a moderately elastic price point, and that informed them that rather than altering the price point, they needed to affect the market size.
They looked at their market size and likely penetration into it and realized they had a high saturation rate, and retention rate. So, they looked to the up and coming age demographic of (at the time) 10 - 15 year olds'ish, and realized that would be a good sized cohort of potential future customers. They then conducted market analysis focused on psychographics of the gaming market segment using interviews and focus groups. After figuring out what that age demographic wanted, they felt that barriers to enter were the following:
- Knowledge of the campaign setting
- To much focus on fluff and not enough on mechanics
- An MMORPG-centric interlpay
- A clear, concise indicator of success in game play
- A greater inclusion of team based mechanics
I feel that their interest in expanding their current market size was so laser focused on particular things that they did an inadequate job at understanding the nature of that segment and thereby made incorrect decisions. This I feel is supported is by the atrocious sale figures, powerful and negative response for 4th edition, and apprehension still regarding the Realms post-Spellplague.
I gather that WotC realizes that if they continue on pushing lore as they did in previous editions, they are just going to have younger folk feeling like there is a huge barrier to enter still (though I feel that entire premise is enormously flawed). The issue, as I assume we can agree on is that the watered down lore is just going to turn off Realms enthusiasts such as ourselves. They likely feel that by doing just enough with adventures, that they can control the narrative enough to keep getting people involved and not having to build up the rest of the Realms which just keeps the lore thing going in a circle. Bottom line, I feel it sucks for the Realms. I could be wrong here of course (especially without having actual primary data to examine), but it seems to be the case.
Best regards,
quote:
Originally posted by Zeromaru X
It's different with 5e. It seems they are not to release any relevant sourcebook. Dunno why, but their new business model is to release adventures and focus only in the Sword Coast, with one or another adventure based in strange regions in between (like, Chult or Barovia).
So, the areas they aren't going to use are up to you.
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| Zeromaru X |
Posted - 09 Oct 2018 : 23:46:02
It's different with 5e. It seems they are not to release any relevant sourcebook. Dunno why, but their new business model is to release adventures and focus only in the Sword Coast, with one or another adventure based in strange regions in between (like, Chult or Barovia).
So, the areas they aren't going to use are up to you. |
| cpthero2 |
Posted - 09 Oct 2018 : 23:41:34
Master Zeromaru X,
I always find this particularly frustrating with edition expansions: WotC takes its sweet time releasing relevant and needed canon information that customers very much want. I almost wish that sites such as Candlekeep would just start getting the awesome people here, such as Snowblood, Markustay, and others, to push off on unofficial canon, and call it good, leaving behind WotC forever. I never really get a feeling that they are really after our interests in this amazing world of the Realms.
Best regards,
quote:
Originally posted by Zeromaru X
As far as I know, there is some change as Akanûl still exist in the 5e Realms. However, that is the only thing we know. Can be like what happened to Tymanther: yeah, Unther returned, but just taking up its northern lands, the south remaining as part of Tymanther as it was in 4e. My point is that, beyond Akanûl's eastern borders things can be as described in the original Vilhon Reach sourcebook.
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| Zeromaru X |
Posted - 09 Oct 2018 : 23:33:34
As far as I know, there is some change as Akanûl still exist in the 5e Realms. However, that is the only thing we know. Can be like what happened to Tymanther: yeah, Unther returned, but just taking up its northern lands, the south remaining as part of Tymanther as it was in 4e. My point is that, beyond Akanûl's eastern borders things can be as described in the original Vilhon Reach sourcebook. |
| cpthero2 |
Posted - 09 Oct 2018 : 21:06:05
Great Reader Brimstone,
It's true. I tell you what: while I have Realms enthusiasts for sure at my table, they don't scrutinize to the degree where they would look at the different maps. Plus, I don't run 5th edition, "current year" campaigns, so the good ole stuff if working beautifully! 
Great recommendation Great Reader Brimstone.
Best regards,
quote:
Originally posted by Brimstone
Just use this. Your players probably wouldn't notice the difference...
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| Brimstone |
Posted - 08 Oct 2018 : 17:42:45
Just use this. Your players probably wouldn't notice the difference... |
| cpthero2 |
Posted - 08 Oct 2018 : 16:04:58
Good morning Mr. Costa,
Dang it, I completely missed the Second Sundering part. Thank you for that correction!
Best regards,
quote:
Originally posted by TomCosta
I think he meant what the Vilhon looks like in 5E. The maps you found are 3E and 4E era.
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| TomCosta |
Posted - 08 Oct 2018 : 14:28:39
I think he meant what the Vilhon looks like in 5E. The maps you found are 3E and 4E era. |
| cpthero2 |
Posted - 08 Oct 2018 : 04:58:05
Acolyte Joozey,
There are a couple of really great maps I found that may help you.
Check them out. Let me know what you think of them if you don't mind!
https://goo.gl/images/McVZW6
https://www.realmshelps.net/faerun/vilhon.shtml
The compare and contrast is quite helpful I feel.
Best regards,
quote:
Originally posted by Joozey
Hi, I was wondering if anything is known about the cities around Vilhon Reach past the Second Sundering. Before the Spellplague it was a bustling place. The lands and water vanishing after the spellplague, partly transposed with Abeir, I can imagine that place became an unpleasant mess. After the Second Sundering, most of the land was healed or restored again, with cities thought lost having returned. I wondered if there is any more known about this area. I did find a map from Mike Schley showing Akanûl as it presently is, one of Abeir's few places still remaining, but Vilhon Reach falls just outside.
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| TomCosta |
Posted - 11 Aug 2018 : 19:15:33
I think it's completely up in the air. No idea if Chondath or Hlondeth are restored or folk are just starting to resettle them. |
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