Forum:What happened to FR?

Forums: Helping Hand > What happened to FR?

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I actually haven't played D&D for a few years. Starting to get back into it and thought I'd visit WoTC's site to see what new stuff's out, even though I find their material (especially anything Greenwood touches) somewhat silly and geared towards their Hasbro customers. Regardless I noticed there's essentially NOTHING for the Forgotten Realms! What happened?! I remember skimming through 4e FR Campaign book back in '08 thinking their changes to the FR world were borderline ridiculous... but now there's nothing?

Did WoTC drop the FR setting?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.57.171.230 (talk • contribs) 13:58, 30 April 2012

Yes, with the dawn of 4th edition it was decided that there would be a Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide and very little else in the way of published source material.

There have been regular lore updates, mainly in the form of Dragon magazine and Dungeon magazine articles, but these are no longer printed and are only available in subscription form from the WotC website (although it's possible to subscribe for one month, download the entire lot, then cancel, if you're really not interested).

In my experience 4th edition has driven a lot of players away from the Realms and brought relatively few people into the game, which is a tragedy for the setting. That said, 5th edition was announced fairly recently and there have been mumblings about going back to a more Realms-centric approach in terms of official source material.

I hope that helps, and welcome to the wiki! I'm sure some of the other regulars will be able to add some more specific information if required.

Fw190a8 15:40, April 30, 2012 (UTC)

To expand on what Fw190a8 has said, they are indeed focusing more on the Realms in D&D Next (5th edition). I can't link you to an official post (I haven't been on Wizards site in a while), but I follow Wizards official D&D twitter feet and they have confirmed that the Realms will be the "core" setting in the next edition, so we're sure to see a lot more material.

I should also mention that the Halls of Undermountain sourcebook was just released and that there's a supplement coming out in August, called Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue.

Cronje ^{(talk ⋅ contribs)} 18:32, April 30, 2012 (UTC)

WotC made a bad move with 4E. At least half of the 3E gamers did not like the 4E changes, so WotC lost a lot of customers there. Then they made very, very bad changes to the Realms. And again, about half of the Realms fans did not like the changes there. So, WotC lost a huge chunk of their customers with the them two actions. And worse, they lost a huge chunk of their adult customers, the ones with money(who can afford to spend $100 a month on D&D books). And then on top of all that you have the Rescission.

So the end result has been very little published about the Realms from the start of 4E. Even the couple of online articles were very light. They still put out the novels, but they are all 4E now too.

I doubt that 5E/D&D Next will do anything much for the Realms. After all, they said the same thing about 4E.

Bloodtide 18:52, April 30, 2012 (UTC)

I am a 1st/2nd edition player, never really even got into 3rd edition. Please join us in bringing back the glory days of the Forgotten Realms or help us document the silliness that WotC games designers come up with in the future. Love it or hate it, there is enough canon material spanning over two decades to satisfy any fan or give them the launching point from which they can make their own world as they see fit. Have fun, and hope to see you around! :)

—Moviesign 20:15, April 30, 2012 (UTC)

Well spoken, guys... I began playing in the Realms in 1992... and finding the old materials online has been awesome... so I agree with Movie, get nostalgic or be a non-biased editor... because what is done... is done... but there is still a million campaigns for lovers of ALL the editions :)

Darkwynters 22:41, April 30, 2012 (UTC)

The plan was to make only one set of books per campaign setting, and no more, never again — and then they made things like the Neverwinter Campaign Setting, and some kind of Lords of Waterdeep boardgame, and so on, but without the Forgotten Realms umbrella title. So they're making stuff, but not making stuff. Or something.

I don't know, I bailed at 4th edition and the Spellplague, stopped paying attention to WotC, and fell out of the fandom, only kept playing and running my classic era games. I'm only now creeping back in to the fandom here, returning to exploring the classic Realms.

— BadCatMan 11:43, May 1, 2012 (UTC)

The Forgotten Realms was my first campaign setting, way back in the 90's when I was introduced to AD&D 2e, and So it has always been my "core" setting, in a way. To me it is...or was the essence of D&D. It made me sad to see that WotC felt the need to change it so radically in order to accommodate the radical changes introduced by 4e, which I'll admit was also not to my taste.

That said, in changing it so drastically, they also deprived it of that character that made it special- the rich, detailed, and intricate lore; familiar people, places, powers, gods... basically most that was familiar. The spellplague business was a bit ridiculous and over-the-top imo, especially coming so soon on the heels of the already world-shattering Time of Troubles, lore-wise. It's just too much, to the point where "plausibility" is gone. I simply can't embrace the changes they made, because they have destroyed the Forgotten Realms as we know them.

WotC did much the same to the D&D brand with 4e; failing to attract many new fans and driving off too many of the old ones (Pathfinder sells well these days, and 3e Forgotten Realms adapts to its rules almost effortlessly). But talking to others who loved the Realms, most of the ill will for 4th edition comes not from the radical rules changes, but from their utter trashing of the FR setting.

With 5e coming, Wizards all but acknowledged that 4th Edition was basically "New Coke", with a reboot to more familiar D&D rules. But unless they do the same with the Realms (as in "Starting with 3/3.5e material, lets just reboot and forget 4e ever happened"), I don't think there will be any salvaging the disaster in the eyes of older fans.

Ironlion45 (talk) 12:40, August 19, 2012 (UTC)