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Razz
Senior Scribe
USA
749 Posts |
 Posted - 01 Sep 2008 : 05:28:18
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So the Design&Development of the Forgotten Realms came up on their D&D Insider and after reading through it I was still disappointed and unhappy with their decisions because the only thing behind those decisions was the dollar sign.
I will quote key passages I merely shook my head at and grumbled about and wonder what your thoughts are on the situation?
Bruce Cordell: "Many believed that if something bold wasn’t done to expand the canvas, the world would begin to die beneath its own extensive history of novels and game products.
Believed, but was this really the case?
"No one could be intimately familiar with the previous century’s happenings."
And what was wrong with that?
"The other part of the plan involved literally bringing completely “new” lands into the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting. With Ed Greenwood’s help, the real forgotten realm of Abeir returned to Toril, in the midst of a cataclysm of unleashed wild magic."
There were PLENTY of new lands to bring in. Was the whole Abeir thing truly Ed Greenwood's idea from the beginning or was it a last minute effort made for the purpose of rearing the Realms into the 4E cosmology?
Philip Athans: "By the summer of 2005, there wasn’t a whole lot left of Faerűn to discover. We’d spent the last fifteen years or so detailing just about every nook and cranny of the map, in hundreds of books, game products, short stories, comic books, Dragon articles, and Dungeon adventures. There was hardly a square centimeter on the poster map that wasn’t detailed somewhere, and frankly it was getting harder and harder to find room to tell a story. Authors, game designers, and DMs alike were being pushed farther and farther off to the edges. We knew we needed new places to discover, and the ability to refresh the core FORGOTTEN REALMS so that even the Dalelands had some surprises in store."
What is this guy talking about!? There were PLENTY of places that were hardly detailed, PLENTY of places that had no detail, and PLENTY of land to detail in the Forgotten Realms? They couldn't revisit the Old Empires, Kara-Tur, Maztica, Zhakara, color in the Hordelands, Sossal, the Utter East, Anchorome, Katashaka, the Terra Incognita Lands? The list is massive!
Bruce Cordell: "In a world where Elminster is merely the tip of an epic level legion of NPC good guys, the opportunity for less powerful PCs and less epic stories was small. Certainly, NPC good guys exist all over the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting, but few of them should be as capable as the PCs. Because of the very nature of the player characters, they are special, a cut above other folks and even potentially touched by fate to one day take up an epic destiny."
Having the PCs in a world that massive as the only special people is unrealistic. It shouldn't matter to the PCs that there's beings and people stronger than they are and those beings are busy with their own problems to meddle with low-level affairs. Can no one tell a story and run a game without throwing in a powerful NPC anymore? Just cause Elminster is in Shadowdale doesn't mean you can't have adventures in Shadowdale. Elminster either doesn't know, has no time, or is "Gone Fishing"! The same can be said about any NPC. As PCs get higher level, yes, then these are the people to consider as NPCs for the PCs to deal with and to get involved with the same affairs they are. At that point, no one will feel "unspecial" really.
"The Realms-shaking events that drive sales for the novels are a dichotomy and ongoing tension in the game. From the point of view of game setting design, it’s hard to write a definitive “Guide to the FORGOTTEN REALMS” when you know that a year down the line, three different novel lines will have killed off, altered, or in some other way changed basic features described in that putative “guide.”
But as Phil notes, moving forward is fun. Not moving the game world side of things forward with the novels would mean stagnation for the game setting. Everyone wants to feel they are part of the same dynamic world described in The Orc King, Shadowrealm, or Swordmage."
Why are they comparing novel lines to game sales? They really don't coincide with each other at all. I know Realms players that have never picked up a Realms novel. I know plenty of Realms novel readers that had no idea it was a D&D campaign setting and just a game. And the real point of the matter is why can't they draw a line between novel and game, why must the two blur into each other? Novel lines shouldn't be the end-all-be-all of game sales and vice versa. Leave the two separate. I don't believe the sales of one has anything to do with the other.
"You know, there might be a couple niggling little details that the 4th Edition rules insist upon that we may just ignore. For instance, I doubt you’ll see a three-novel epic on how halflings grew, on average, an extra foot.
But barring strange little bits like that, if a story has been told about something to establish it in the previous setting edition, then another story describes how that feature reached its current manifestation in the 4th Edition FORGOTTEN REALMS setting—even if we haven’t yet told you that story. It’s a wide world filled new opportunity. I can’t wait for my Elfharrow elf barbarian character to go on his next adventure. When’s that going to be, Phil?"
A COUPLE of niggling details? From what I've read between pre-4E and post-4E D&D Core and Forgotten Realms, there's much more than a COUPLE of niggling details that's getting everyone riled up. Heck, the same reason I hear 75% of the gamers in St. Louis region isn't buying into the whole 4E thing in the first place. The fact that everything got retconned like a DC/Marvel comic line.
My criticism may be a little harsh but I am a hardcore fan and it's irritating. I really don't see anything in this at all that tells me they had the Realms in mind when 4E came along. It's more along the lines of "We'll never ease the fans, let's say a little something and ease 5% of them...5% of profit from this is better than 0%".
Disgusted I am...what'd you think?
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Design&Development of the 4E Realms Interview
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