Subject line says it all . . . my question is, how hard would it be to do? The extent of the Realms knowledge I have is what is comtained in the 3.0 FRCS. I didn't even get around to picking up the 3.5 update.
Of course, dragonborn would be excessively rare, "elves" would be able to refer to either Elf or Eladrin, but aside from a few minor changes, what's the big roadblock?
Is it that Magic works so differently? Okay, so Mystra had PMS one day (uh, she is female right), or any other reason you can think of for having her modify how the Weave works, and there ya go . . . magic now works differently.
Is it the abundance of High Level NPC's? From what I've picked up, the DM's who use the realms, don't use those NPC's anyway, so I fail to see why that would be a problem.
If I have my 4e Core 3, and my 3.X FR books . . . what problems am I looking at not wanting to jump forward 110 years and have a spellplague?
/sits in a corner with some popcorn and waits for the show...
Subject line says it all . . . my question is, how hard would it be to do? The extent of the Realms knowledge I have is what is comtained in the 3.0 FRCS. I didn't even get around to picking up the 3.5 update.
Of course, dragonborn would be excessively rare, "elves" would be able to refer to either Elf or Eladrin, but aside from a few minor changes, what's the big roadblock?
Is it that Magic works so differently? Okay, so Mystra had PMS one day (uh, she is female right), or any other reason you can think of for having her modify how the Weave works, and there ya go . . . magic now works differently.
Is it the abundance of High Level NPC's? From what I've picked up, the DM's who use the realms, don't use those NPC's anyway, so I fail to see why that would be a problem.
If I have my 4e Core 3, and my 3.X FR books . . . what problems am I looking at not wanting to jump forward 110 years and have a spellplague?
Totally agreed. You don't even need to rationalize the magic system change. Hey, rules are just rules and fluff-free. It is just the way it always was.
You'll just need doing quite a lot of house conversions for Realms-specific stuff (monsters, magic, items, the CG can be of some help, for the non-nuked areas).I have played Realms for years with just the grey 1st ed books (and a couple FR supplements). NPCs back then just had level indication (and a note saying the DM could adapt that) and some salient abilities. The rest was fluff and story notes.
You'll just need doing quite a lot of house conversions for Realms-specific stuff (monsters, magic, items, the CG can be of some help, for the non-nuked areas) . . .
But that's the point of this thread . . . wwhat are the conversions to be done?
I think your biggest problem is going to be how to handle all the basic classes (like Bards) that are still AWOL from the 4E rules. Without some reasonable subsitute for those missing classes, both your players and your iconic NPC's (Storm Silverhand, Dantillo, many of the lower level Harpers, etc) will be drastically different.
Until the 4E PHB2 comes out next year, using the 4E rules to represent the pre-spellplague would be complicated at best.
I use quite a few D&D resources as fluff for my Hero games. Trying to convert using some kind of magical formula is the path to madness. Use the fluff as fluff. What does ability X mean in the game world? How do the rules you want to convert to express such a game world ability?
True, some classes may pose a problem. Couldn’t a Rogue or Warlord serve the role of a Bard? Fighter or Rogue for a Monk? It is not like you had to try and fit square pegs in round holes before with character concepts and class limits.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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I'd just play it by ear and not worry about the changes. There's two basic approaches to a paradigm shift like the change of editions:
1. Destroy the old fluff and replace with new fluff.
2. Ret-Con the fluff.
I prefer 2, so I would just say something along the lines of "Magic has always worked this way, that's what the weave does". It's like Batman - he is the same character even though details of his origin change dramatically from telling to telling. Similarly, the flavor of the Realms is about the cultures, the heroes, and the tremendous volume of world material.
I would personally jettison the dragonborn, but that's just me. I don't see the point in forcing them into the campaign world when they're just not a part of it and never have been.
As for the missing classes and NPC abilities, the abilities are largely irrelevant. How often do you need to have the leader of Silverymoon use her bardic music ability in the game? It's relatively easy to mock up such abilities using the 4e rules (at least for NPCs/Monsters). I find it very liberating not to have NPCs bound to classes, so if you have a leader in 3e who was a bard, you could still say she is a bard and just give her a bardic flavored ability or two (assuming you even want to spend the time to create such an ability given that it is highly unlikely to be used).
So, that's my take. Run 3.0 FR with 4e rules and don't sweat the mechanical differences.
It's interesting. One of my biggest challenges with 4.0 FR is that 4.0 hasn't caught up with all the necessary crunch to run it. For example - there are still druids on Moonshae, but no details on druids yet; genasi play a big role, but have yet to be released as monsters (apparently the race will open up in the FR Player's Guide); and there are more minor examples like use of monsters that I assume will be revealed later.
I personally don't think it's any more challenging to play 3e FR than 4e FR with the information currently out there. The main difference with 4e FR is that it's a "points of light" setting. The rest is just details that can be changed by any enterprising DM.
Ok I dont play 4E ,but this should not be that hard.
This is my take , please keep in mind I DONT PLAY 4e. So you may need to adjust.
1. Magic. Mystra after discovering the shadow weave combines it with the weave the result changers her toward LN and rearranges the way magic works. AL spell caster "know" how it changed just as all living spell caster knew how it changed after the fall of nethril.
2.Dragon Born are from a new unknown land[there are a few on the map p.231 FRCS] Making them new to the land, do change the name though.
3.Tieflings. They were always there hell 20% of unther is tifeling
4. elves. Use both types Eldrin are moon and sun elf the wood elves are the wood and wild elves easy enough
5. Missing classes. well there still around just Do not use NPC'S with them Pc's do not often run into high level NPC'S in most games anyhow.Bards are still there so are druids but if your player 4e ya have to work without em so just dont use NPC'S of that class for now
that should cover they bases if I missed something let me know.
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It is not that hard. We converted a game from 3.5 to 4e set in the realms c.1373 or 1374 I think (after the silence of Loth).
they had just finished fighting ettins in 3.5 and in 4e they became a lot tougher, so I had to retcon the fluff to say that the 3.5 ettins were degenerate ettin/ogre crossbreeds (and then added a head to several ogre premades from the MM and made them the weak ogres).
When the PCs did attack said ettin lair with degnerates and real ettins, two got killed.
I would just say something along the lines of "Magic has always worked this way, that's what the weave does". It's like Batman - he is the same character even though details of his origin change dramatically from telling to telling. Similarly, the flavor of the Realms is about the cultures, the heroes, and the tremendous volume of world material.
This is the way I approach all conversions. Just play it by ear and have fun. it doesn't need to be super detailed. Just say: "this is how it's always been" and go with it. If you don't want Dragonborn, throw 'em out. If there's no rules for druids, don't encounter them or just make them clerics. It doesn't need to be complicated.
It is with this philosophy that I pull sources from all editions of the games I run and even pull stuff from other game systems. Call of Cthulhu in World of Darkness, easy. 1E D&D in Shadowrun, easy.
I was thinking more like all those sorcerors from 3e they were drastically latered by the spellplague some turned into dragonborn, some turned into tieflings whilst the eladrin were elven sorcerors.
Maybe a little too much though.