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10 months ago ::
Aug 10, 2012 - 6:02PM
#21
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The fact that they're not canon to each other doesn't mean that people don't get the material they want and like,
Except when they like to follow the development of the one setting.
While I can read a novel about some character/storyline of a past era, I know that the end of all of that -as long as the Realms as a setting are concerned- is set in stone, and it's horrible, and this reduces my whole interest in it to 0.
And for me it's the excat opposite. I won't read a novel about some character/storyline of a past era if I know that it's not part of the one canon timeline but splits off in an alternate future.
about the one timeline fading into dust matter, it'd happen with multiple eras approach as well. The era which sells more gets more and more books, while the others fade into dust. That's exactly the same.
It's not the same, because no matter which wins, it's the same setting. With a split setting it's not.
1) They would still get to follow one setting, just pick the timeline they enjoy. They'd still have the current one with all the canon stuff and continuity preserved, just as it is now, but there would be also another one for the (many) people who dislike the current status of the Realms.
2)Novels about a character/deity/storyline who will disappear from canon in X year because ''too much lore'', barring any actual possibility of development beyond what's set in stone just hold no interest to me. Whatever happens there, the ending is decided, and it will feel ugly, rushed and unfitting for many stories. With a split timeline, you would still get your canonical novels in the original timeline, and other open-ended still canonical stories in the other one. This could also be solved by restoring the elements of the past who were unjustly removed because ''too much lore'', and it would work for me, as long as novels are concerned. For game materials, supporting all eras looks like a fine approach. Honestly, I don't care if they split the timeline or simply go with the restoring things route, as long as stories about what I used to enjoy, and whose endings are not ultimately decided (and not so unpleasant) get published.
3)Err... I don't get this. Why would you care if one era is ''still considered canon'', if the support for it fades into dust? It'd be a soft retcon too, because -say- 1300s gets most of the development resources, and 1400s -while ''being still there''- become ''distant'' and, with the passing of time, basically forgotten. Anyway, either with 2 timelines or multiple eras, it's up to WotC to not let this happen. So this argument doesn't really hold against a split.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 10, 2012 - 6:15PM
#22
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both eras are canon.
alienate one fanbase??
well they already did that so....
a mask everyone has at least two of, one they wear in public and another they wear in private.....
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 12:19AM
#23
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All this means is you're getting double the Drizzt. Ponder on that.
That's quite possibly the worst news I've heard in the last year.
More sex and gender equality and racial equality shouldn't even be an argument--it should simply be an assumption for any RPG that wants to stay relevant in the 21st century.
I could say anything in D&D is silly though, because it's a silly game and we are silly people.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 2:45AM
#24
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both eras are canon.
But they are entirely different settings. No reason to call both FR.
alienate one fanbase??
well they already did that so....
And now they can alienate even more fans. Why ever care for some protagonist and his heroics again if the damocles sword of him being shoved of in some alternate universe with the next edition has been hung up.
One of the great thing about the Realms was that it was a living developing setting. One cared about what happed to it because when it happened it happened and the Realms were changed for better or worse. If they split the Realms nothing matters anymore as anything could just be shoved into some alternate Realms version any time. What happens no longer matters because there is no guarantee that it will stay to have happened in X years from now. If someone remember my post in the old forums prior to 4e he knows that I hated the spellplague and 4e Realms with a passion. Yet now I have to defend them because the now suggest way of handling the Realms is even worse, a thousand times worse. I'd rather be stuck in a Realms I like less and be on board to see how they change and maybe get back to a state I like then being presented with two bizzard Realms, even if I would have normally liked the new bizzaro version better
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 5:43AM
#25
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And now they can alienate even more fans. Why ever care for some protagonist and his heroics again if the damocles sword of him being shoved of in some alternate universe with the next edition has been hung up.
One of the great thing about the Realms was that it was a living developing setting. One cared about what happed to it because when it happened it happened and the Realms were changed for better or worse. If they split the Realms nothing matters anymore as anything could just be shoved into some alternate Realms version any time. What happens no longer matters because there is no guarantee that it will stay to have happened in X years from now. If someone remember my post in the old forums prior to 4e he knows that I hated the spellplague and 4e Realms with a passion. Yet now I have to defend them because the now suggest way of handling the Realms is even worse, a thousand times worse.
There's no threat of characters being shoved into an alternate timelines. You have two of them, equal up to X year, and separated after it. Some events could fit nicely in both, but many others are independent. Besides one can still care about what happens in the Realms, because it will have effects. If your want to have the feel of ''one Realms'' just follow the original timeline, it'd be still there, unaltered. If you want to see what you like developed without the barrier of an ugly canon which says in X year a character/nation/deity that you like is going to disappear, follow the other timeline. Either way, what happens in stories will keep having impact on the Realms, so there will be reasons to follow the development.
To me, the solution is either a split timeline or continuing the current story, while bringing back what added depth, variety and characterization to the Realms, but that was lost with the simplifying and the streamlining of the setting. As I said, multiple eras support can do well only from a gaming PoV, but it won't solve much if one wants to see his/her favorite elements of the setting they like developed without the constraint of canonical ''impending doom''. Only those two possibilities can provide it without alienating whole fanbases (something that a reboot or simply continuing with the current Realms, without restoring anything, would do).
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 6:10AM
#26
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and I'd like to take the time to tell everyone to chill out for a momet.
Do we even know what the sundering is yet???
or are we just speculating and getting a little to hot under the collar??
a mask everyone has at least two of, one they wear in public and another they wear in private.....
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 6:27AM
#27
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Uhm, we're just speculating, discussing what a split timeline would bring... but none's getting hot, I guess. If it sounded like I was getting angry, well.. I apologize about it, but I didn't mean to be hostile or aggressive.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 8:27AM
#28
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Date Joined:
Jan 18, 2012
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I highly doubt that it will be a split timeline, given that every author I have seen post has talked about how they don't like the concept. Although, I do agree with you Irennan knowing the ending often times does ruin the book / movie. I would love a split timeline, but if that is not possible then I would like to see a serious effort to make the current realms appealing to a broader audience. I really don't care about events leading up to the spell plague or what happened during it. If we are stuck with it, I would like to move on and attempt to put it as far in the rearview mirror has possible.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 8:34AM
#29
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Until we know more on the sundering..... debating on what it is , is pointless.
Dual timelines, yeah that would be the first opionion, it works and it does not.
a reset button and thus retconning everything back to tthe grey box era could also work and mind you it resets everything making every novel obsolete. This also works, but only partially.....
Sundering away from the 4e mess of 4e relams and abeir it could also mean....... anyway, as I said pointless as we could put our colective heads to gether and still only be eating porriage
a mask everyone has at least two of, one they wear in public and another they wear in private.....
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10 months ago ::
Aug 11, 2012 - 9:08AM
#30
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or continuing the current story, while bringing back what added depth, variety and characterization to the Realms, but that was lost with the simplifying and the streamlining of the setting.
That would be my favorite announcement from GenCon.
As I said, multiple eras support can do well only from a gaming PoV, but it won't solve much if one wants to see his/her favorite elements of the setting they like developed without the constraint of canonical ''impending doom''.
Well, the "doom" is only impending if they did something that is explicitly rendered void by the spellplague (e.g. negotiating a better trade agreement between Amn and Matztica), otherwise the spellplague is just annother event happening to them. Being hit by the spellplague is not a death sentence, a great lot of people where hit and not slain and not mutated and simply left to cope with the changed Faerun around them.
Unless their previous adventure was about something that was explicitly destroyed, the spellplague is just a bad day or month and then on to the next adventure. And the FR could really need some novels set in the years during and after the spellplague to fill the gap between end of 3e and start of 4e. Uhm, we're just speculating, discussing what a split timeline would bring... but none's getting hot, I guess. If it sounded like I was getting angry, well.. I apologize about it, but I didn't mean to be hostile or aggressive.
Well, I am actually getting a little hot. Not at the fellow posters here but at WotC and 5e in general.
So far I felt fairly secure in the eye of approaching 5e. Sure, so far the rules alienated me, but that's OK, I don't have to actually play the game, I can be content with just reading the sourcebook and novels for lore without ever playing a round of 5e. And from what WotC has stated so far I felt fairly secure that I could continue to enjoy the stories and lore. But this thread now gave me the dread feeling in my stomach that "I might lose it all". That their fix to the FR will turn it into something I just can't stomach anymore. I was so close to having read all FR novels ever published (at least temporarily until the next one comes out), after 14 years I am now at 230/265* read and still reading faster than Wotc publishes and I have the fear that they completly ruin the setting for me before I can say that I have at least once for a short time catched up to the bleeding edge of new releases. Although, I do agree with you Irennan knowing the ending often times does ruin the book / movie.
But you don't know how it ends. You know the heroes will eventually run in the spellplague (unles the novel set even deeper in the past and the heores won't live to see the spellplague a 200 years in the future anyway), but whatever that actually means is open.
They could die, a lot people did. They could be horribly mutated, also a lot of people did. They could only gain some minor mutation with beneficial powers, some people did. Or they could survive unscathed and be left to deal with the afermath, most people had to. back to tthe grey box era could also work
Could it really? How many of the current FR fans even know the Grey Box? Sure, the oldest hard core of FR fans, but for most fans FR gained over the lifetime (e.g. during the time of great PC games like Baldur's Gate) wouldn't recognize it and simply see that many things they have taken for granted about the FR, since they were in the FR since they started following them 20 years ago, would suddenly not be there anymore.
I mean sure, the Motorwagen 1 was the first car, but I certainly would not buy it if Mercedes decides to re-offer it as their next new model *as of 15th of Juli, some new novels might have been announced now that raise the total count a little higher
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