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6 months ago ::
Dec 07, 2012 - 1:04PM
#1
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I know opinions differ, but I really liked Points of Light as a setting. The best part was how easy it popped out, and something like Eberron, Forgotten Realms, or Dark Sun could be put into its place, because Points of Light was unobtrusive in a way that left both plenty of wiggle room and adventure-hungry players and DMs starved for details.
Forgotten Realms, though, has incredibly specific fluff. Even attempting to refluff and appropriate Forgotten Realms stuff in 4e, like the useful Masked Lord theme, leaves the abilities with a distinct undercurrent of Forgotten Realms flavor. Alone, that's not so bad, but when the entire setting has that going on - well honestly, I just don't want to feel like I'm playing Forgotten Realms with the serial numbers filed off.
Anyone else feel this way? Anyone like the idea of Forgotten Realms as a core setting? I'm open to friendly discussion.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 07, 2012 - 1:10PM
#2
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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WoTC didn't say the Forgotten Realms will be the default setting for D&D Next, only that it will be the first one published. so the question is moot. Personally, i hope Point of Light 9Nentir Vale is retained. I don't want any of the famous setting to become the default setting because this usually means it won't be published and i want all of them to be. I prefer the default setting to remain generic in the Core, such as the Nentir Vale was. A regional map, some briefly detailed locations and generic deities would suffice IMHO. What i want is a default backdrop in fact, more than a fully detailed setting. Spoiler:
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Yan
Montréal, Canada
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6 months ago ::
Dec 07, 2012 - 1:50PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Mar 11, 2008
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I agree. The worst thing that happened to Grayhawk was being named the default setting for 3E. Greyhawk is little more than a memory now, and I wouldn't wish that on ANY campaign setting. I think the core rules should be setting neutral, with advice in the DMG on world building and campaign details.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 07, 2012 - 2:05PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Aug 31, 2008
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WoTC didn't say the Forgotten Realms will be the default setting for D&D Next, only that it will be the first one published. so the question is moot.
Personally, i hope Point of Light 9Nentir Vale is retained. I don't want any of the famous setting to become the default setting because this usually means it won't be published and i want all of them to be. I prefer the default setting to remain generic in the Core, such as the Nentir Vale was. A regional map, some briefly detailed locations and generic deities would suffice IMHO.
What i want is a default backdrop in fact, more than a fully detailed setting.
Hyup, I fully agree. I loved the generic fantasy backdrop (great term for it) presented in the 4E books. It contained just enough information to be useful and spur your own creative ideas without being so bulky as to seem daunting.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 07, 2012 - 2:28PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Aug 18, 2007
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As a dyed in the wool Forgotten Realms fan, I do not see the point of making it the default setting. Forgotten Realms is not for everyone, and those that like it will use it.
I don't see the point of making anything a default setting. Even in AD&D although all the modules were taking place in Greyhawk, they could easily be dropped into any world. I basically used module N3 as the start of my Moonshaes campaign.
If there is a small village in PoL, it will be much easier to incorporate than a small village like Shadowdale. Sure, you can just use the old skull inn and the buildings, but then what is the point. Using Realms shadowdale carries a lot of baggage.
Same with a city like Waterdeep, or even the very small icy realm of 10 towns and icewind dale.
Just use PoL. It is better to present baseline generic for the core than any setting like FR, Dark Sun, or Eberron.
CAMRA preserves and protects real ale from the homogenization of modern beer production.
D&D Grognards are the CAMRA of D&D!
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6 months ago ::
Dec 07, 2012 - 9:22PM
#6
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As a dyed in the wool Forgotten Realms fan, I do not see the point of making it the default setting. Forgotten Realms is not for everyone, and those that like it will use it.
I don't see the point of making anything a default setting. Even in AD&D although all the modules were taking place in Greyhawk, they could easily be dropped into any world. I basically used module N3 as the start of my Moonshaes campaign.
If there is a small village in PoL, it will be much easier to incorporate than a small village like Shadowdale. Sure, you can just use the old skull inn and the buildings, but then what is the point. Using Realms shadowdale carries a lot of baggage.
Same with a city like Waterdeep, or even the very small icy realm of 10 towns and icewind dale.
Just use PoL. It is better to present baseline generic for the core than any setting like FR, Dark Sun, or Eberron.
The best reason for using some kind of setting for your books is because you can sell more stuff if everything is linked in some fashion.
Creating Points of Light is probably the worst thing you could do to your IP.
Pro DnD Member of the Axis of Awesome Fighters: Using socks to kill monsters since 2012 DnD Next: Now with more then 4 minutes of Roleplay per gaming hour Spoiler:
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"If you can't make an interesting human fighter, then you aren't ready to play anything else yet" Edymnion
"The idea of resting up between encounters to fill-up on hit points and spells struck my meta-gaming nine-year-old as a distinct possibility. "Are you mad?" says my seven-year-old "This place is full of monsters!" "jamesgrahamuk
All characters have a story. Spoiler:
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Sometimes that story is short and sometimes it is long. They can be tragic, comic or absurd. Some teach. Some are just to fill the empty spaces in our lives. Rarely it is a transcendent fugue only half remembered but wondered at. And frequently: "it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." -William Shakespeare
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6 months ago ::
Dec 07, 2012 - 9:54PM
#7
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As a dyed in the wool Forgotten Realms fan, I do not see the point of making it the default setting.
You'll be happy to know then, as Plague already pointed out... It's not. 
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6 months ago ::
Dec 07, 2012 - 10:34PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Nov 27, 2006
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I don't see why you would feel overwhelmed/enslaved by the amount of FR fluff - in any edition.
Are you really incapable of simply reading it & picking/choosing the bits YOU want influancing your game? Or just outright ignoring swathes of it?
Why do people read the novels as being cannon vrs just a chronicle of how some other FR campaign might've played out? Even when later the characters/details are statted out in a game book. I mean, would you listen to the tales of how MY campaign went & then feel you had to mimic it? I don't think so. So why do you do this with WoTC fluff?
And what happens if you only own certain books & not others?
(ex; I don't own any FR books - aside from a misc. module or three - past 1e. Nor have I read an FR novel since the early 90's. And yet, as people go ranting on about how spell-plagues & dragonborn ruined the setting, etc etc etc, I'm still running FR based games that work just fine.)
Along the same lines. WHY does almost everyone confine their campaigns to the areas of the map detailed by the company? If you look at a FR (or GH, or DL, etc etc) map you'll see ALOT of space.....
So why aren't you setting your own campaigns there? Afterall, you're complaining about being constrained. Yet WotC (& TSR before them) is providing you all the space you're asking for. AND you have the bennifit of being able to call it a FR campain & work in any FR detail you like. Well?
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6 months ago ::
Dec 08, 2012 - 3:51AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Sep 30, 2006
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As a dyed in the wool Forgotten Realms fan, I do not see the point of making it the default setting. Forgotten Realms is not for everyone, and those that like it will use it.
I don't see the point of making anything a default setting. Even in AD&D although all the modules were taking place in Greyhawk, they could easily be dropped into any world. I basically used module N3 as the start of my Moonshaes campaign.
If there is a small village in PoL, it will be much easier to incorporate than a small village like Shadowdale. Sure, you can just use the old skull inn and the buildings, but then what is the point. Using Realms shadowdale carries a lot of baggage.
Same with a city like Waterdeep, or even the very small icy realm of 10 towns and icewind dale.
Just use PoL. It is better to present baseline generic for the core than any setting like FR, Dark Sun, or Eberron.
this mirrors a lot of my own opinions on it. i love me some FR, but i don't want to see it foisted on people who don't like it.
as for an actual default setting, i think there was some genius in the PoL/Nentir Vale. it was vague and every detail was in passing, but that just invited you to build something cool around the skeleton it offered.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 08, 2012 - 11:00AM
#10
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Date Joined:
May 24, 2012
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I'm a bitter Realms fan too and like Mournblade, I don't it as a default. It doesn't help that the setting keeps having rediculous existential crisis based on vocal forum complaints... No matter, I thought PoL was too developed to the point that it intruded in any and every setting it could get its hands on, resulting in frustrating retcons ranging from random elements appearing out of no where to invalidation of prior lore. I want something more general than PoL, with more focus on how to build simple cities, dungeons, and local areas... Perhaps even kingdoms! (Kinda like Kingmaker)
Disgruntled ghost of the Knights of W.T.F.
(Keep D&D alive, end the edition wars!)
"And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Disclaimer: Most of my posts are based on opinions (and are sometimes humorous, other times inspirational)
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