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the developers had a wealth of issues to face when developing the 4th edition realms, most notably the introduction of the dragonborn and the splitting of elves into eladrin and elves. there's not much to say about this that hasn't already been said. the realms responded to these issues to varying degrees of success; the setting used to have a huge emphasis on elves and their many sub-races and i feel that the eladrins introduction was somewhat awkward, but there was no easy way around it.overall, the writers took a setting that was generic high fantasy and turned it into something unique and, for the first time, focused on the players as opposed to the many high-level npc's that dominate the world. i think this book got a bad rap from all the hardcore realms nerds out there who were unwilling to see their favorite setting change. it seems that the forgotten realms, being one of the oldest settings in d&d and one deeply tied to the games' roots, had to make considerable changes to its lore than the more recent settings, such as eberron. some realms fans seem to oppose this, but in my opinion each of the fourth edition settings should serve a purpose. if you want a generic setting, play the core "points of light" setting, if you want swashbuckling adventure play eberron, and if you want to play in a high fantasy world on the brink of ruin, now you have the forgotten realms.
All the lore I have fallen in love with, the balances put in place in the world, interesting larger then life characters. It looks like the DM whose only job is to kill players has taken over Forgotten Realms. I purchased "The Ghost King" not realizing the travestys that were occuring in Forgotten Realms. GONE. Well I decided to start reading this book to find out what the hell is going on. Its just another Magic is dying story arc. I couldn't finish the book I was so emotionally sad. DND 4.0 has killed the game for me.
Look no further than Wotc attempting to pimp out its new Swordmage class by mentioning them in every other paragraph in the book. A poor product conceived in a completely backwards manner. Robbing the richness of a setting in order to shoehorn it into an equally banal system conceived for the ADD MMORPG generation(I say this as a 24 year old). Production qualities are quite poor, as indicative of the map for the Realms. Turn elsewhere.
after purchasing and subsequently reading this book and then reading the eberron campaign and player's guides (at a bookstore) i've detirmined that wizards has decided that eberron will be the flagship setting of 4th edition, they put so much more effort and care in the conversion of eberron then the forgotten realms, this book is awful and the player's guide is barely better (the drow, genasi, and dark pact warlock are it's saving grace), the spellplague is stupid, advancing the timeline is worse, and the complete lack of explanation is just plain lazy. the map is one of the worst i've ever seen, and why did they wipe out luiren, they didn't do anything stupid like that with eberron, so why the forgotten realms.
It is great, but if I already have the book on my shelf (which I think most DnDers do.). I am fine with that. Why make a book people just aren't going to buy. WotC isn't in business to just get by. I don't know how many times the Forgotten Realms setting has been released, but I know the 2nd edition setting had a load of supplements, as I own a bunch of them along with the older setting. I enjoy new settings to create adventures in. Similar locales, but with a twist. If you want to try something new, pick this one up.
There is no need to completely abandon the old setting if you don't want to. I would probably buy it regardless because I love the stuff, and because I feel responsible to support one of my favorite hobbies. why bother with a new book. Wizard of the Coast made a bold move, that is all there is too it.My perception changed after I talked with a local game store owner.
Re-releasing the same campaign over and over starts to turn into something akin to re-releasing Lord of the Rings again and again. I don't like the new version of the Realms as much as the old, but I accept it for what it is. I personally like the gamble. There is no reason one could not use both versions together.
It only seems bad because it isn't what people expected. Four stars. Or even magically move from the old to new world or vice versa in some fashion. A lot of complaints stem from not enough information about some changes. This is just another option.If you like the 3.x style buy that one, it is still available and very cheap. I am sure there will be more supplements, but to fit a entire fleshed out world into one book is an accomplishment if you ask me.
Another 100 pages of fluff might have won me over haha. D&D will die eventually if new products do not continue to come off the production line and actually generate sales. Why would WotC offer the same setting AGAIN. This even provides some interesting ideas if you know both settings. My dearest Forgotten Realms got an unwanted face lift. It isn't exactly a bargain, but I feel a lot better knowing this is not simply another rehash of the 3.x Realms book. A lot of casual gamers may not feel the same way. They even threw in a new continent.
To get 5 stars from me, this would probably have to be an entirely new setting altogether. This setting is unfortunately misunderstood.I had bad feelings about this book initially. we have one book to encompass an entire world. Seriously. I am thankful to have another option with a solid foundation presented in the new book. All in all I am pleased. I have the freedom to choose whichever version of the realms I want to use. Then version 3.0 came out with a great well polished campaign book.
I think this book is great because it actually provides new content to work with.(I am a tough critic. An avenue to present something new to both players and even myself. Changing something isn't always better than the original, but that doesn't mean it won't have any good qualities. I dare you to complain about that.Bottom line. The foundation for this book was laid out decades ago).
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