This is kind of worrying me because if wht they've been saying about the previews is right I would much rather they tell everyone they're establishing a new campaign setting and having 4e Faerun come out in 2009 even if it means putting 4e Eberron back a year because it would at least show they have some sense.
I can't see how they can pull off what they have planned unless they've planning to turn 4e faerun into a combined PHB, DMG and MM all in one...
Adding new races getting rid of old ones, reducing the list of the pantheon... it might be a good idea if planned properly but is the timeline truly long enough for such a decision and have they truly understood who they're advertising 4e towards to risk alienating those who would have bought 4e Faerun had they put more thought into it?
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For some reason, we are not privy too, they think that nuking the setting and rebuilding it will attract a new batch of younger fans.
I think that maybe some of the writer's might also have worked on the James Cameron Directed classic Aliens
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure....
Taking off and nuking the Realms from orbit means not having to provide stats for Elminster or Khelben Blackstaff. It allows them to write the realms anew, which is going to annoy a great many readers & fans, but also provide fresh directions for everything to go in. People expressed disdain for the idea that they feel compelled to nuke FR every time the game system changes to justify the change in the world, but consider that they didn't do that for the other gaming worlds and just imposed the changes... and they pretty much stopped supporting those worlds. Aside from the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer, I don't remember seeing any d20 supplements for Greyhawk, but I have an entire shelf full of FR stuff for d20. All of which has had extensive rewrites to explain the differences in using it, compared to what I had already bought for 1st and 2nd edition.
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Those changes cured me of my "FR addiction".
Meaning: Since I heard about the changes we know about, I decided that I won't buy any more FR stuff:
No more novels (before that, I read them all. I have all the novels up until a couple of months before).
No more FR rulebooks.
And, since Wizards clearly thinks that me liking the Realms as they were is a stupid thing and they don't want my money (as with so many changes in 4e, they often talk about that the changes really had to be done, like the great pruning of the deities - something I really liked about FR, and among the deities they artibrarily killed off in ridiculous fashions were several of my top 5 favourites), I won't force it upon them. That means that I won't rob them of their miniatures any more (I used to complete all sets, now I don't buy any miniatures - at least not Wizards ones: Reaper's Legendary Encounters looks very promising), and if they want to sell me any 4e rulebooks, they better do their best to make it possible for other companies, like Paizo or Necromancer, to use the rules. And even then I'll only buy the stuff that will be put into the SRD so other companies can use the material therein - otherwise, I don't see why I should buy it, if it has no chance to show up in Pathfinder or other adventures or if other companies won't have a chance to fix the errors Wizards does.
Honestly, back in 2e I used to be a huge Realms fan; but back then, I didn't have the cash to keep up with the setting, and so I weaned off of it in favor of homebrew settings, just because I couldn't find enough Greyhawk material to run anything in it. the constant advancing of the setting through novels and the myriad sourcebooks - a trend continuing in 3/3.5 - hasn't done much to respark my enthusiasm.
I even used to like Drizzt - until I noticed that the annoying little punk never does anything, really, but angst and whine and behave in a generally emo fashion. I'm surprised he doesn't cut himself with his swords on a regular basis, or cry in the panther's fur. "Boo hoo, I am so sad despite having all these friends even among races traditionally my foes and I give myself over to hate and rage and rawr to get vengeance all by myself for I am SuperEmoDrow." The endless cloning of players trying to be like 'the cool drow' doesn't help either.
That said, I like the complex history of the Realms. It entertains me to see how a really high-magic setting can develop. For me, it has nothing to do with the gods, the drow, or anything else in the Realms; it's that the Realms are THE high fantasy setting. The changes I keep hearing about destroy that.
I do not think anyone I know will be drawn in by it, even among the MMO addicts 4e seems to be gearing itself toward.
I think that maybe some of the writer's might also have worked on the James Cameron Directed classic AliensI say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure....
That seems to be the line that can be applied to the majority of the 4e changes, though. Years of history in the game overall, being nuked to usher in some new game entirely with the D&D logo slathered on it to fool people.
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Taking off and nuking the Realms from orbit means not having to provide stats for Elminster or Khelben Blackstaff. It allows them to write the realms anew, which is going to annoy a great many readers & fans, but also provide fresh directions for everything to go in. People expressed disdain for the idea that they feel compelled to nuke FR every time the game system changes to justify the change in the world, but consider that they didn't do that for the other gaming worlds and just imposed the changes... and they pretty much stopped supporting those worlds. Aside from the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer, I don't remember seeing any d20 supplements for Greyhawk, but I have an entire shelf full of FR stuff for d20. All of which has had extensive rewrites to explain the differences in using it, compared to what I had already bought for 1st and 2nd edition.
Greyhawk was the 'core setting' for 3.5 - all those generic soucebooks were supposedly designed to be plug-n-play for 3.5 Greyhawk. All those gods and classes and adventures were meant to be default Greyhawk.
Etcetra and so forth.