Everything I've been looking at tells me this. It seems pretty foolish of them, to be making such radical changes, with a lack of careful consulation.

Ed Greenwood made a very politely worded non-controversial public statement where he basically washed his hands of all the changes and reminded people that he has no control over what Baker & co. over at Wizards do to the realms, and reminded people that they can always keep playing in the pre-change realms.
(if that's not a secretly damning condemnation, I don't know what is)

Meanwhile, Wizards announces that they're not going to fast forward Eberron's timeline because they "listen to their fans". This is easily the most boneheaded thing of all so far, seeing as how they will now have hundreds of pissed off FR fans who are upset about the timeline shift they're going to do there, and Wizards has just effectively told them all that they care more about Eberron and its fans than about the Realms.

RPGPundit

what else are they going to do, really?  a new edition changes fundamental elements in the system, be it kits, prestige classes, sorcerers, etc.

you could tell the change is coming by reading the blurbs on the flap of the new salvatore drizzt book, too.  i remember looking at it in the bookstore and it practically screamed "end of this trilogy = setting revamp!!1!"  

but since i'm not a FR fan or reader of salvatore's stuff, it just gets a "meh" from me.

It can go both ways. If they take away the dead wood and add some new, inspiring stuff for the players to run wild with it, why not?

So, as a percentage, does anyone know roughly how many people play Eberron compared to FR ?

TNE put me off Traveller for ages but that was because I'd played the classic black books. I've never played in the FR  so it gets a 'meh' from me too,  as long as the ramifications of the spellplague have been thought out it might work, rather than just YEAR ZERO = COOL !

Quote from: beeberwhat else are they going to do, really?  a new edition changes fundamental elements in the system, be it kits, prestige classes, sorcerers, etc.

It has. But does it have to?

I personally would like to see much less edition churn. There tends to be churn because different people work on successive editions, and with them different designer philosophies come and go.

But I'm one of those setting-centered GMs that Jrients rants about in his blog. Every time an over-zealous designer team takes a wrecking ball to the game, I'm left playing catch-up in seeing that my vision is supported in game terms.

I appreciate making the game better, but for every edition change, it seems like there are more changes that are wild hairs in the designer's ass than real improvements. (Succubus = devil, erineyes *poof*, for example.) I think designers should go into the game design with limiting churn as a goal.

Eh.  Let 'em.  My existing books ain't gonna disappear, right?

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Eh.  Let 'em.  My existing books ain't gonna disappear, right?

naw, that feature doesn't happen until the release of 5th edition

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Eh.  Let 'em.  My existing books ain't gonna disappear, right?

no, and 3.5 books will be cheap as chips once they're off the Shelf of New Important High-Selling D&D stuff at my local store !

Quote from: RPGPunditEverything I've been looking at tells me this. It seems pretty foolish of them, to be making such radical changes, with a lack of careful consulation.

Ed Greenwood made a very politely worded non-controversial public statement where he basically washed his hands of all the changes and reminded people that he has no control over what Baker & co. over at Wizards do to the realms, and reminded people that they can always keep playing in the pre-change realms.
(if that's not a secretly damning condemnation, I don't know what is)

Meanwhile, Wizards announces that they're not going to fast forward Eberron's timeline because they "listen to their fans".

Spin, spin.

Erik Mona put forth a pretty reasonable rationale on why this might be: D&D comes with a lot of baggage that could interfere with developers of new software gaming licenses.

And guess what the first software gaming license announced for the 4e era is? FR.

So yeah, as long as there's not a big Eberron game in the hopper, let's spin it as "us listening to the customers." Oy.

I wonder if we are moving into an era where computer games drive the RPG much like the repugnant era when novels drove the RPG.

Quote from: RPGPunditMeanwhile, Wizards announces that they're not going to fast forward Eberron's timeline because they "listen to their fans". This is easily the most boneheaded thing of all so far, seeing as how they will now have hundreds of pissed off FR fans who are upset about the timeline shift they're going to do there, and Wizards has just effectively told them all that they care more about Eberron and its fans than about the Realms.

RPGPundit

Isn't that rather because Eberron has been ditched as the default setting, with FR taking its place? So, more a matter of not investing any more creative effort (misguided or not) into a setting that's slated to fade anyway? Vice versa, FR gets the sexy makeover because it's the new focus.

It's not new. I mean, the whole novels that redid the gods and what not when they moved from 1E to 2E?
Yeah. Been there done that.

So what exactly are these changes? A link would be most helpful.

Honestly I can see a fast forward in the setting.  If for anything to give writers a less cramped setting to make material for.  After a while things can get a little convoluted if everything is kept in the same static setting (the Vampire: TM setting really got bad with this).

So if they are smart they will keep some of the stuff that folks like, shake off what everyone seems to ignore and open up some room to flex the setting muscles once again.

Quote from: SeanSo, as a percentage, does anyone know roughly how many people play Eberron compared to FR ?

I'm sure that there's far more who play FR.

RPGPundit

Quote from: DrewSo what exactly are these changes? A link would be most helpful.

I don't know if there's more info out yet, but a while ago I posted this and this .