The revision of the Forgotten Realms in 4th Edition is probably the most controversial change association with the game.  Pundit mentioned that this action might have turned more people off than the rules themselves.

So my question is this: How much did the Spellplague factor into your dislike of 4E, if at all?

Quote from: Libertad;632259The revision of the Forgotten Realms in 4th Edition is probably the most controversial change association with the game.  Pundit mentioned that this action might have turned more people off than the rules themselves.

So my question is this: How much did the Spellplague factor into your dislike of 4E, if at all?

Not much, IF at all (voted: "A little bit"). It's just a footnote to me, like "yeah, the game has this and this and that problem and .. oh wait, they came up with Spellplague for the FRs to retroactively make sense of the rules change too? LOL WTF BBQ" kind of way.

Ditto the Times of Troubles with 2e. It's a consequence of the actual changes. Not a cause.

It didn't really factor in but simply highlighted how odd a fit the new mechanics were for the flavor of D&D.

Not at all , never heard of it until now. I read the PH when it came out, cover to cover, and then returned it to the library confident I would never play whatever game that was that for some reason used the name "Dungeons & Dragons".


Oh, and that French guy kinda pissed me off too.

I don't run Forgotten Realms, so it didn't impact my opinion of 4e at all.

Then again, they should have simply had the balls to keep FR the same without trying to shoehorn Dragonborn into the setting.

Quote from: Libertad;632259The revision of the Forgotten Realms in 4th Edition is probably the most controversial change association with the game.  Pundit mentioned that this action might have turned more people off than the rules themselves.

So my question is this: How much did the Spellplague factor into your dislike of 4E, if at all?

Not at all.  4e was an abortion.  FR4e was finding out the abortion was a two-headed mutant.  A goddamn shame, but immaterial.

It wasn't what they did with the realms that bothered me; it was the fact that they felt the need to shoehorn all of their new cool bits into a setting, that had been going along for the 20 years or so, to make it fit their new game.

Tie that with the whole, don't bother to convert your own stuff just start new, and it made perfect sense to me. Holy fuck, 4e is so far fucking removed from the past editions, don't bother trying to adapt your lame little campaign to the new and far superior rules. Oh, and just to show you what would happen if you try to adapt your twenty-year-old setting to the new game, here is how the realms would look when you warp reality to fit all of the stupidity that is 4e in.

You know because of that everything is core bullshit, and everything has to be in there or you are fucking your players over nonsense. Can't have the little emo crying because there are no dragonborn paladins there and he/she just has to play one.
/rant

Quote from: JasperAK;632311You know because of that everything is core bullshit....
/rant

in fairness, this ethos is really rooted in dnd 3x.

I have no idea what the "spellplauge" actually is.

So not at all.

Idea: a way to give the FR a clean slate.
Premise: cataclysmic event; hey, it worked for Dragonlance's narrative, right?
Execution: OH GODS IN HEAVEN, WHY, WHY OH SWEET AND MERCIFUL LORD!!!

The idea to have "something big" happen, that cleared away bloat, to make the Realms attractive to new players, was a marketing idea. Not the direction I would have gone (destroying your largest, most profitable, setting. And invalidating the mountain of old splatbooks for the Realms), but hey, marketing decision. Roll with it.

But it felt like the marketing department is the ones that got to axe aspects of the Realms, rather than the creative team. Gods did wonky shit, totally out of character and often arbitrary. So much was out of character, it would have made more sense for Obril to have been invaded by the forces of Xoriat, from Eberron (madness plane).

Good ideas, poor execution. Pretty much sums up 4th Edition, in my mind.

Didn't have any effect on my disdain for Fourth Edition. Single-handedly responsible for my decision to stop reading new FR novels.

Spellplague is the most interesting thing that's happened to Forgotten Realms.

It took FR from some dude's "just OK" home campaign to something with some zip. But hey, with Golarion, the bar for Official Setting is pretty low.

Faerun's what now?

The 4E PHB and Keep on Shadowfell were more than sufficient to demonstrate the feculence of 4E. Also, Forgotten Realms was something I'd lost interest in decades ago.

So no influence all, really. I think it's a bit of a stretch to blame the setting rather than the shitness of the rules themselves. It sounds like the setting perfectly emulated the crappy aesthetic of 4E. Yet more proof that you can't polish a turd.

Not in the slightest, and I didn't even think much of the Spellplague, and played in a post-Spellplague game.

D&D4e is still the best edition of D&D I've ever played and something I'd happily return to time and again. Though I wouldn't only play it, nor have it as my main game.