Quote from: The Butcher;572869And you thought the Time of Troubles was bad...

The books certainly were.

Im fine with time of troubles based on the story (it's not great, but it isn't that bad). What I thought was assanine was the reason for it: to conver the "in game" stuff from one edition to another.

What's I'm hoping is that the Sundering is akin to how Britannia was shattered into multiple "shards" for Ultima Online. An official campaign world where there's this explicit caveat along the lines of:

"There are countless parallel worlds of the Realms after the Sundering; no two are exactly the same. The Realms that you adventure in will not necessarily confirm to what official published material and novels state, and due to the Sundering that is exactly what the official status of the Realms are now. Your DMs version of the Realms is what they make of it and it is "official"."

So a DM can run their game in the Realms without worrying about knowing all of the Realms minutiae and needing access to every Realms resource or having to deal with Canon Lawyer players going "Actually in the Realms..."

The same way how in the Wilderlands community you have the Original JG Wilderlands, Necromancer Wilderlands, Majestic Wilderlands, Gabor/Melan's Wilderlands, James Mishler's Wilderlands, Scott Z'a Wilderlands of Darkling Sorcery, etc. and there's not a "Right" or "Wrong" Wilderlands, just a setting for DMs to run fantasy adventures as they see fit.

I found this to be a fun, light read with some good ideas for a campaign world: http://www.amazon.com/The-Shattered-World-Michael-Reaves/dp/067155951
Nothing says shattered better then a world that was... shattered.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;572880I'm not too worried about it.  Call me old school, but I'd be playing in my own homebrew campaign setting anyway

Eh, I played my homebrew Forgotten Realms setting anyway ^^

FR 4E were so dire that I would even forgive WotC if they pull a "Dallas" and announce that "it was all a dream".

Quote from: Reckall;573997Eh, I played my homebrew Forgotten Realms setting anyway ^^

FR 4E were so dire that I would even forgive WotC if they pull a "Dallas" and announce that "it was all a dream".

As would I.

RPGPundit

Neverwinter was a pretty good book, but I have never seen any FR book of any edition that wow'd me. It's a meh setting. It's D&D for people who don't have time to write a home campaign.

Quote from: Planet Algol;573798What's I'm hoping is that the Sundering is akin to how Britannia was shattered into multiple "shards" for Ultima Online.

I expect something like this.

That said, people want to move forward in timelines so 5e is going to have to have its own FR era to support its own LFR campaign.

Quote from: The Butcher;572976If you're going to change everything all over again, you might as well revert back to 1e grey box.

But of course, that would mean no new Drizzt novels, and it seems WotC would rather have people buying Drizzt novels, than people actually playing FR.

Well, when every new Driz'zt novel, by itself, outsells the entire FR gaming library, what do you expect?

Why bother with the RPG version then?

I fail to see how people is still interested in FR, it being the blandest setting ever and its novels being some of the most atrocious pieces of shit ever perpetrated. Specially the Salvatore and Greenwood ones.

Quote from: Imperator;574664I fail to see how people is still interested in FR, it being the blandest setting ever and its novels being some of the most atrocious pieces of shit ever perpetrated. Specially the Salvatore and Greenwood ones.

Speaking strictly for myself: nostalgia. The beautiful, lush 2e books and the dozen or so PC games set in the Realms all left a lasting impression on my young mind.

NPCs like Drizzt and Elminster and The Simbul can go fuck themselves, though (which incidentally is probably what Ed Greenwood would have them do anyway). They are uninteresting NPCs for which I don't think I'd have any use as a DM.

In 2 editions I went from "could anything pull me away from D&D?" to "could anything pull me back in?"

Yeesh.

I heard a rumor that WotC contracted out to a (chinese or korean) video game art studio for the concept art, in order to have a few compotent art directors decide on a unified look-and-feel.

Quote from: Imperator;574664I fail to see how people is still interested in FR, it being the blandest setting ever and its novels being some of the most atrocious pieces of shit ever perpetrated. Specially the Salvatore and Greenwood ones.

While I do not disagree with the statement that Forgotten Realms is bland and terrible, I enjoyed Salvatore's novels about the origins of Drizzt (I guess that would be his second series about Drizzt?) because they helped me envision just how a society based on evil could actually exist. The standard DnD alignment system made that impossible for me to understand.

Also, the Greenwood books were TERRIBLE. Horrible writer. I wouldn't even call it juvenile, just bad writing. However, I first read them when I was 30, and not 12, like most people who read them. Maybe that's the problem.

I'm guessing the whole reason that they aren't doing a whole Batman Begins or Star Trek is to do with the novels. You see there are people out there who just buy those and perhaps would wonder what the fuck happend if that did occur..

I haven't played or indeed read any for the Realms since second edition. Indeed, mainly 1st edition. However, I find myself after hearing about these new Sundering books suddenly quite excited. Strangely, after watching these videos I was amazed at how WOTC seem to have finally got it:

Part 1

Part 2

Just to note the above videos are by the art director guy Jon Schindehette. He talks about the art for Forgotten Realms; creating a world bible for it. One thing that is great is that Halflings look like fucking Hobbits again; well almost!

Normally I'm in the homebrew camp. BUT if they do produce this Forgotten Realms bible, remove dragonboobies and other such nonsense then you'll have something that you couldn't produce yourself! It would be amazing at the gaming table; all that detail and culture; very anthropological and 'grown-up'?