| Author |
 Topic  |
|
MerrikCale
Senior Scribe
USA
947 Posts |
 Posted - 06 Sep 2008 : 15:10:05
|
| Hopefully, the new Realms is a financial disaster or so disliked and they retcon, but it doesn't appear that way. I guess its time to give up on the Realms |
When hinges creak in doorless chambers and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls, whenever candlelights flicker where the air is deathly still, that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight. |
 |
|
|
arry
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
317 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2008 : 17:35:28
|
I'm not going to give up the Realms. I'm giving up on WotC's Realms.  |
|
|
|
Ahwe Yahzhe
Acolyte
Iraq
36 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2008 : 21:45:59
|
quote:
Originally posted by Swordsage
In comparison, the FRCG repeats much 1E/2E/3E information in less detail and 'updates' it for the current year with broad brushstrokes. The new elements introduced have an embarrasing lack of detail (what currency is used in Tymanther? We get told what currency is used in Cormyr ... for the FOURTH time ...) and as the book stands now with only the haphazard dangling carrot of articles in the DDI, they require significant and likely "all too hard" work on the part of FR DMs to bring up to speed in relation to hosting a campaign. The question that confronts me is: if I'm going to do all this work, why not do a homebrew setting? If I want more detail, the Realms is not where it's at anymore. Golarion looks a better bet.
Coupled with what I consider is a large amount of 'whitespace'(just look at the space left at the end of Ed's Returned Abeir section - you can't tell me that Ed underwrote here ... he's never done that in his life!) and a larger font than was used in the core rulebooks as well as filler material like the Loudwater and Treasure Table sections (which were again done in a far superior fashion in the 4E core rulebooks), I get a sense of this product being something of a rush job and/or lacking in focus.
I have it. There are parts of it I like. Some parts I like a lot. But overall this is a disappointing endpoint for the Realms in terms of published products.
The Swordsage
Surprising how well this echoes all my impressions upon receiving my copy of the FRCG. The generic overviews, the large font and big chunks of white space on the pages, etc. Great production value, and some interesting ideas: dragonmarks/spellscars in FR instead of game-wrecking Spellfire, floating earthmotes, and lots of dead gods and blown-up realms (although the return of Nethril, Vilhon, and High Imaskar look like they could be fun.) But ultimately, it simply lacks sufficient content to make me care about these places. These are the things I posted on the "FRCG Satisfaction Poll" before that scroll was locked down.
I think people get it backwards- as a DM without a lot of time, I prefer a rich background and lots of detail that I can steal off the page and use for my campaign, not a nearly-blank slate. As another poster mentioned, if the new FR has this little detail in it, why not just create a home-brew world?
I am running a campaign that started with whatever 4e materials I could get my hands on: H1 with FR conversion(pretty good), H2 w/ FR conversion (OK), FRCG, the new Cormyr article with the better area map (except for the disappearance of the Thunder Peaks near the Tilver Gap, including the Bloodhorn.) But I still have to pull all of my interesting plot points and lore from earlier products: the Arcane Age: Cormanthyr (1e), Volo's Guide to Cormyr (1e), Cormyr (2e), and FRCS (3e). Which just reminds me that most of what is in the FRCG on Cormyr is an chopped-up few paragraphs of what was in the earlier books. And what expansion is offered in the 4e product is confusing: in the article, the king is Azoun VI, in the FRCG, it's what's-his-face with the evil cousin. Who's the king, anyway?
My point is that even in sticking to a well-known part of the Realms, and using a fair amount of new support articles, I still don't have any real sense of the kingdom or its history without referring to previous materials.
So how does that save me time in creating an interesting campaign? Should I be happy with the "stop the slavers in Saruun Khel" hook? Maybe the problem is I've used the stop-the-slavers plot too many times (A1-4, anyone?)
|
Edited by - Ahwe Yahzhe on 06 Sep 2008 21:53:51 |
|
|
|
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2008 : 23:33:16
|
quote:
Originally posted by arry
I'm not going to give up the Realms. I'm giving up on WotC's Realms.
That's how I look at it. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
|
|
Realms fan trying to see some value in new realms?
