Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!news.quux.org!campaignwiki.org!.POSTED.staticline-31-183-178-178.toya.net.pl!not-for-mail From: Kyonshi Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Study: Dungeons and Dragons may improve mental health Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 01:29:42 +0200 Organization: Campaign Wiki Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2024 23:40:11 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: sibirocobombus.campaignwiki; posting-host="staticline-31-183-178-178.toya.net.pl:31.183.178.178"; logging-data="1239306"; mail-complaints-to="alex@alexschroeder.ch" User-Agent: Betterbird (Windows) Hamster/2.1.0.1548 Cancel-Lock: sha1:DQXPY7jyBrZZ+Qf0Wj2G5Gg1brk= sha256:nDvrDayxTxMRgiNsA90qHpa0IQQcix0pWPxdKRfSf2Q= sha1:Pl3kHrEK3AoELzHMsq2tqz0ffG8= sha256:s0RvpizRw/wFKM1Q9mRQcJEQwJAldnoK2tkwVDcrM+U= Content-Language: en-US In-Reply-To: Bytes: 4750 Lines: 63 On 4/19/2024 5:10 PM, Justisaur wrote: > On 4/18/2024 9:30 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: >> On Thu, 18 Apr 2024 01:15:57 +0200, Kyonshi wrote: >> >>> On 4/18/2024 12:29 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: >>> >>>> (I just wish I had more to say about frp.dnd... but I'm barely >>>> involved in the game anymore and completely out of touch with the >>>> latest trends. I mean, I guess we could rehash old issues, like: who >>>> would in a fight, Drizzt Duorden or Elminster? ;-) >>>> >>>> >>> >>> cue to me ranting how the Forgotten Realms are the worst of the DnD >>> settings and really never should have become as popular as they >>> somehow are >> >> I actually quite enjoyed the original "Forgotten Realms" setting, as >> described in the originally grey-boxed AD&D release. A lot of my own >> campaign material emulated the style of its 'Cyclopedia of the Realms' >> sourcebook. It was only later that the setting started to annoy me, as >> it became ever-more magic-heavy and every corner of it was detailed by >> TSR/WOTC, leaving no room for exploration or development by players >> and DMs. Forcing obvious fantasy-equivalents to real-world places >> (Kara Tur = China! Maztica = Central America! Al Qadim = Mythic >> Arabia!) didn't help; it just made the entire construct feel all the >> more disjointed. And once certain characters started gaining undue >> popularity, the whole thing started feeling weirdly tiny and >> soap-operaish ("Oh look, Drizzt Duorden is in this adventure too!") >> >> >> The "Forgotten Realms" was never /great/, but in its original form, it >> was a good 'starting point' - a baseline 'adventure world' -  for >> beginner players, I think. It certainly appealed to me more than the >> "Mystara" setting of BECMI D&D, or Greyhawk. >> > > I loved the original 1e gray box, the Waterdeep supplement added some > really nice tables for things like picking pockets.  2e after > spellplague was so-so.  While the novels were o.k. for high-fantasy > pulp, I found they made my job harder as a DM as many of my players knew > them far better than I did and I always felt changes to the world would > be criticized.  They weren't but I felt the imagined pressure and > pressure to constrain my adventures to the written setting. > > I came into Forgotten Realms in 2e, after already having read a few novels and played a few games I sprung for the campaign set. And I felt it was grating in ways that few other settings have been. There was the feeling about the whole setting material that this was basically just a theme park of a world, where even if you don't succeed, some high level NPC will swoop in and save everyone. I did notice the barely logical worldbuilding in other settings as well. I have a fondness for Mystara. But at least that setting didn't throw a bunch of high level NPCs at you that were just there to show you how much you and your party sucked. Even then I was ok with the setting until the switch to 3rd edition happened and the setting had a time jump of a few decades. That's basically the best sign for a setting to say: yeah, the designers don't care about this setting, why should you? It is my understanding that by now multiple further jumps have happened.