... and, no, it is not a campaign setting but some form of regional guide book.
It's the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide which looks like it's going to follow the example of 4E's Neverwinter Campaign Setting and focus on a smaller area. And I mention the Neverwinter Campaign Setting because that seemed to be almost uniformly praised even by those whose natural reaction is to hate FR products.
But it's also interesting that, as expected, there's no campaign guide for FR. I don't think this is going to win the Candlekeepers (ie, diehard FR fans) back but I suspect it will, like the Neverwinter Campaign Setting, have fairly broad appeal especially if the CRPG Sword Coast Legends turns out to be a good product.
While I am not interested in 5E or the 5E Realms, I will still be grabbing this as the Sword Coast is a big part of why I am a fan of FR.
I'm excited to see the new state of FR after the Spellplague and the second Sundering. That is useful info no matter what version of D&D is used.
ReplyDeleteFor example, with the Spellplague gone, do the Earthmotes come down (or crashing down). What effect would that have if, say, the Moonstone Mask (Neverwinter) came crashing back down onto the harbor...
I wonder if those questions will be answered?
DeleteDo the authors even know about the Moonstone Mask?
The thing I am most interested in is an update on the Zhentarim but I don't think it will be in this book. I could be wrong, though, considering how the Zhents have been "promoted" to one of the five factions for PCs.
Anyway, I think it is a good idea to start on a region and go from there rather than attempting a campaign guide when there is only a skeleton staff to do the work.
The news article on the WotC site says this:
Delete"Discover the current state of the Forgotten Realms and its deities after the Spellplague and the second Sundering. You’ll also get updated maps of this area of the Realms."
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/scag
I tend to ignore marketing-speak.
DeleteHopefully it does answer those questions. :)
Most of the speculation about post spellplague/sundering Forgotten Realms has been they will be returning the world back to its pre 3e state.
ReplyDeleteObviously they can's sell a product which says 'just use your old books and that's what FR looks like'.
The question will be: will they just give us a blurb "why" things changed back to a previous state, OR will things change beyond just warranting a 'reset'?
I wonder if they have their own internal answer beyond "4E didn't sell well enough"?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it will be interesting to see which of those questions will be answered.
Dunno if by this point you've read or bought the book, but it appears that very few questions were answered. It gives a decent "state of the Realms" address, but really doesn't attempt to explain how the Spellplague went away and how the map was put back to its present state other than "it was."
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a retcon, but it was as close to a "Bobby Ewing in the Shower" as possible. They do their best to just go back to the way it was and handwaive as much as they dare get away with.
I'm not really sure what else they could have done though. 4e brought such drastic changes that to explain it all would have not been worth it. For those ready to move on past 4e this will suffice although there will be a bitter aftertaste that I don't think will ever go away.
For me, I'm still undecided. Having been an old school fan of Realms for many years, its tempting to just move back to the old status quo. However, I can remember back in 2008 welcoming 4e Realms as a breath of fresh air after years of story stagnation. I didn't like all the changes but Faerun seemed to become a far more dynamic world than it once was.
To go back? Undecided.
I must admit, the 4E Realms really is best for my own purposes. It has plenty of blank space, no novels to keep track of, and I can still use all my old products. But I also understand those who felt like the Realms lost something when the 4E version arrived.
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