Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Golorious 09-06-07, 12:29 AM	So now that we have the 12 geographically defined regions when do we get to learn how they correspond to the Forgotten Realms Regions? http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=rpga/news/20070905a Inquiring Minds want to know... :) Will it be decided by interactive initiatives like polls/voting or does the novel team have area's they want explored? I'm just curious on how the 12 regions will be picked even if I don't know the real world correlations. PS -- good job on clearly defining the admin roles. Paul SHL - Triad
jhorred 09-06-07, 12:36 AM	in the press release soliciting applications for the administration positions they said the FR regions would be announced at DDXP 08.
WotC_Tulach 09-06-07, 12:40 AM	We're working with R&D and Novels to pick regions that are interesting and have lots of potential. Many of them will be "big names", and a few might be a little less known but really cool. Basically, we're looking for regions with great adventure story potential with some other criteria in mind.
Southernskies 09-06-07, 12:57 AM	Hmmm... Makes me think I should contact Paul Kidd and see if he's doing some more FR novels. (Paul is an Australian author who has done some in the past)
WotC_Tulach 09-06-07, 01:36 AM	Keep in mind when I say "big names", I'm talking regions, not authors. :)
GeorgeFHarris 09-06-07, 10:28 AM	Keep in mind when I say "big names", I'm talking regions, not authors. :) I'd prefer that LFR stay away from geographic regions that are going to be popular with authors. I could see a little overlap, but a city like the current Waterdeep where every third novel passes through it would seem like a nightmare to get approved so that a mod doesn't mess up an author and vice versa. GH
Andyr 09-06-07, 12:06 PM	Will the entirety of Faerun be covered by these regions, or will some parts not be in any region?
jhorred 09-06-07, 04:37 PM	I get the impression from what he said before that only select areas will get a region.
Thane Goldstone IV 09-06-07, 05:30 PM	I see California got hosed, again, while Ohio continues to enjoy life. Yes, there's the Latin American region to the south, but I'll be very (pleasantly) surprised if there are conventions in Tijuana and Encenada(sp?) where all the gamers speak enough English for me to game with them. (I took French in High School and college, sorry!) Alternately, I can drive 300+ miles from L.A. to Phoenix. D&D Insider better have all the LFR mods available, else there will be much griping from those far away from other regions. The loss of Nevada as a separate region hurts, though I can understand the perspective of Idaho and Utah gamers. Nyrond's been broken into three regions essentially, and without WotC proprietary data, I have no idea why... So... care to point out the top 3 facts for it? (they can be vague things like "highest play areas in the SW USA were A, B and C, so we broke apart Nyrond to enable people to travel between the three.") If D&DI gets all regional mods, I predict the end of physical travel to other regions, since $10/month completely beats gas/hotel/flight/etc. I'll miss meeting new gamers in person though...
Golorious 09-06-07, 06:25 PM	We're working with R&D and Novels to pick regions that are interesting and have lots of potential. Many of them will be "big names", and a few might be a little less known but really cool. Basically, we're looking for regions with great adventure story potential with some other criteria in mind. Awesome.... So what other criteria in mind? hmmm? I think it is great that you are working with both R&D and Novels. It seems like there will be an unprecedented amount of support for this campaign from with in WotC. Will there be a Core Region... or Meta-Regions? Or even Meta-Factions as I think Troy suggested somewhere? Meta-Factions would be interesting there are quite a number of large organizations with in the FR world. Though it will depend on the timing of the new campaign. Far enough in the future and the current groups like the harpers and silver stars aren't all that useful.
ankhwearer 09-06-07, 07:30 PM	I see California got hosed, again, while Ohio continues to enjoy life. How do you mean? The posting was quite clear: a character from any region can play a scenario from any region. All non-special LFR adventures will be available for play no matter where you live in the world. The same number of conventions are going to happen in California as happened before. Same for Ohio. What we don't know: What does it mean to belong to a region? What are the restrictions, what is special to only members of that region?
opa 09-06-07, 08:58 PM	Well I dont think anyone gets hosed but I am a bit concerned with having too many opportunities for play being a bad thing.... Im from Bissel and before I had a Keoland character for when I made my trips to Keoland conventions ( 4 hours), and i wasn't the only one who attended solely for the purpose of playing out of region... I won't be attending now because I can play them at home.. which is bad for conventions... secondly I see some of this happening...alot... hey lets have module x from region y at apl 4 at the game day.. sorry I can't make it my region Y character is 8th maybe ill start 12 characters and then when they hit 4th ill start 12 more ...and so on...and so on.... I hope there will be metaregions encompassing alot of regions so I can start 3 or 4 characters instead of 12....lol All in all play opportunities are cool... although I will miss travelling to out of region conventions to get a taste of another region... its quite possible the powers that be will have some sort of answer to that, and there will be some sort of incentive for me to travel 4 hours in a car full of gamers... ;) -Opa
mmockus 09-06-07, 09:13 PM	Will there be a Core Region... IIRC, Toril will not covered by the 12 regions, thus unaffiliated areas reserved for WotC Staff Developed content/Core Content. I'm thinking Waterdeep, etc... or Meta-Regions? Or even Meta-Factions as I think Troy suggested somewhere? With 12 regions instead of 30. I doubt we'll see metaregions. They made more sense for some regions than others and were a bit cludgy. With fewer region, likely no reason for a meta. Meta-Factions would be interesting there are quite a number of large organizations with in the FR world. Though it will depend on the timing of the new campaign. Far enough in the future and the current groups like the harpers and silver stars aren't all that useful. I would hope they do present these, whatever you call them. My guess is they will be called Affiliations.
SteveMND 09-06-07, 11:11 PM	We're working with R&D and Novels to pick regions that are interesting and have lots of potential. Many of them will be "big names", and a few might be a little less known but really cool. Although quotes like the above offer little hope, I was actually hopping that none of the "Big Name" areas of the Realms would become player regions. One of the biggest strengths of the Greyhawk campaign setting, and one of the reasons that the regional system was able to work so well there, was the fact that with very few exceptions, the regions were laregly wide-open areas with little explicit cannon to weigh the triads and players down; there was a lot of potential for the players to take that region and "make them their own," as it were. If player regions in LFR end up being Big Name places like Cormyr and the Dalelands, which have had thousands of pages of material written about them over the years, there will be less opportunity to truly develop the regions into living, breathing entities which served LG so well over it's eight-year run.
LGMoses 09-06-07, 11:29 PM	I think a poll of regions in each area will be a good way to select regions. If you could break it down into 12 regions for us to choose from and then have a poll. BTW, where do I call dibs? :schemes:
mmockus 09-07-07, 01:22 AM	If player regions in LFR end up being Big Name places like Cormyr and the Dalelands, which have had thousands of pages of material written about them over the years, there will be less opportunity to truly develop the regions into living, breathing entities which served LG so well over it's eight-year run. I can see your thoughts and thought the limited amount of canon and lack of newly created canon was the strength of Living Greyhawk. But you could look at it a different way. There are as you say thousands of pages of canon materials written, and with all that canon, Forgotten Realms is by far the most played in campaign ever. We now have thousands more hooks already set in place, just waiting for us to take and run with them.
Golorious 09-07-07, 01:31 AM	One of the biggest strengths of the Greyhawk campaign setting, and one of the reasons that the regional system was able to work so well there, was the fact that with very few exceptions, the regions were laregly wide-open areas with little explicit cannon to weigh the triads and players down; there was a lot of potential for the players to take that region and "make them their own," as it were. Well being from the Shield Lands there was a good amount of source material that referenced our region and meta-region. Significantly more than some regions and possibly less than a few others. I would have to say that I disagree, from my writing and playing experiences. The cannon material for SHL really was and still is the core of our story lines and feel of our region. It was that cannon material that really gave us a definitive region. When we have had a module that was more out of bounds people would often say this doesn't feel like a shield lands module even though it was fun. With out the cannon material I think it would have been very different, and we would have never gotten that response. So I really do think that in the forgotten realms there are plenty of places that will work well. Having a strong cannon in my experience leads to strong regional definition. I don't think any region is over written to the extent that there isn't room for PCs. Now I have played in lots of regions with far less cannon material and it always seemed to me that the region felt completely different depending on the author. I often found the lack of a regional feel being a significant detriment to the overall story line of that region. (which there didn't seem to be one) With every few years it was almost like a different region with each change over. A stronger Cannon I think would have prevented some of that.
KoboldChieftain 09-07-07, 09:10 AM	I see California got hosed, again, while Ohio continues to enjoy life. Yes, there's the Latin American region to the south, but I'll be very (pleasantly) surprised if there are conventions in Tijuana and Encenada(sp?) where all the gamers speak enough English for me to game with them. (I took French in High School and college, sorry!) Oh YEAH! Game day in TJ! The mind absolutely boggles. The border patrol won't know what to think. Alternately, I can drive 300+ miles from L.A. to Phoenix. And we would be glad to have you. You know there is only love here for all our Nyrond brothers and Sisters! D&D Insider better have all the LFR mods available, else there will be much griping from those far away from other regions. The loss of Nevada as a separate region hurts, though I can understand the perspective of Idaho and Utah gamers. Nyrond's been broken into three regions essentially, and without WotC proprietary data, I have no idea why... So... care to point out the top 3 facts for it? (they can be vague things like "highest play areas in the SW USA were A, B and C, so we broke apart Nyrond to enable people to travel between the three.") Well, for starts it stops the "Where does Nyrond end and the Pale begin" questions. I can't tell you how many times I answered that question. :) I am sure one of the key considerations for breaking things up they way that they did was for the pool of support people. This may be where I screwed up. ;) Without getting into details, breaking up Nyrond does make some sense from an administrative point of view. If you look at the LG regions and think about the major cities in them you can see that some regions are very rich and some are exceedingly poor. The new regions are much more balanced. With this in mind, take a look at the new US-West region. It now has Salt Lake City, Denver and Kansas City (Well, part of it anyway). The County of Urnst just has Denver. Much more balanced. If D&DI gets all regional mods, I predict the end of physical travel to other regions, since $10/month completely beats gas/hotel/flight/etc. I'll miss meeting new gamers in person though... Ummm...and that is exactly why going to out of region cons ROCKS! Meeting new gamers is 80% of why I do this (90% if it is meeting new girl gamers :angel:). There is still going to be regional specials of one sort or another, that is made clear by the Event coordinator application. What form these specials will take is something I am sure the staff will address in short order. I am confident, however, that it will be cool!!
mmockus 09-07-07, 10:24 AM	With out the cannon material I think it would have been very different, and we would have never gotten that response. Unless the material you speak of are large cast iron balls, I believe you mean CANON materials. ;)
Andyr 09-07-07, 10:49 AM	... so, living in the UK am I supposed to go to South Africa for regional conventions? ;) I suppose putting the UK, Ireland and South Africa together makes sense from a language point of view but I am not certain about how much interaction we'll get across the hemisphere.
Thane Goldstone IV 09-07-07, 03:02 PM	Andyr, you won't need to. Just take the Chunnel over to France, or fly, or the new Eurostar high-speed train, etc. etc. Or do what I expect to happen: many LFR players will pay $10/month for a virtual game table and voice chat and pre-programmed LFR mods that a DM can immediately begin running with little prep, and you and I and your South African buddies can be at the same "table." You guys have it even worse on gas prices, so when someone tells you L5 Sterling (no pound symbol here) (equiv of $10 US/month) per month to play LFR to your heart's content, vs. L5 per 4 Litres, (see, I can spell like you! ;-) ) it'll be just like the Full Frontal Nerdity webcomic where "Gencon and Taco Bell" are the only two reasons to expose oneself to the sun. (Change Taco Bell to the UK gamer's favorite inexpensive fast food location) I can meet and play with new gamers online. It's the content that was the #1 draw for me travelling out of region, mostly, with meeting new gamers as #2. (I'm the "I want a small-midsize regular circle of friends" person, not the "I am a social butterfly and I'm not happy unless I meet 50 new people every week" type.) You'll meet your S.A. buddies, just online :-)
Kithran 09-07-07, 03:33 PM	... so, living in the UK am I supposed to go to South Africa for regional conventions? ;) I suppose putting the UK, Ireland and South Africa together makes sense from a language point of view but I am not certain about how much interaction we'll get across the hemisphere. Well I know there was at least one gm at Gen Con UK from South Africa (admitedly who is currently living in the UK but its a start). I'm not certain about players from Ireland at Gen Con UK but I know there have been Irish players at UK Conventions - indeed I'm hoping all members of the current Onnwal Triad will be at Conception at the begining of next year along with a number of Irish players. With a bit of luck even more countries will be represented than last year (off the top of my head Sweeden, Poland, Switzerland, Holland, France, Germany, USA). Kithran
darrell_uk 09-07-07, 03:43 PM	You want to push to get us a fiesta slot then Kithran? :) Come on, there must be more LG tables played at Conception than any other UK convention, possibly even more than all the others put together (cons only).
Kithran 09-07-07, 04:16 PM	You want to push to get us a fiesta slot then Kithran? :) Come on, there must be more LG tables played at Conception than any other UK convention, possibly even more than all the others put together (cons only). Actually in terms of LG tables Conception and Gen Con UK were on a par, in terms of RPGA tables in general Gen Con UK had 35% more. I do wish DDXP and Conception were the other way round in the calender, as I could then make a very good case for Conception being able to showcase the new modules from DDXP. The problem with getting a fiesta slot for Conception is that normally conventions that have a fiesta slot are not able to run regional adventures, and a lot of the LG played at Conception is regional and meta-regional play. Kithran
mmockus 09-07-07, 05:01 PM	Im from Bissel and before I had a Keoland character for when I made my trips to Keoland conventions ( 4 hours), and i wasn't the only one who attended solely for the purpose of playing out of region... I won't be attending now because I can play them at home.. which is bad for conventions... According to Chris, he is aware of the importance for conventions, and intends to maintain a reason for players to participate in regional conventions but was unable to speak to the exact mechanic at this time.
Andyr 09-08-07, 08:28 AM	Well I know there was at least one gm at Gen Con UK from South Africa (admitedly who is currently living in the UK but its a start). I'm not certain about players from Ireland at Gen Con UK but I know there have been Irish players at UK Conventions - indeed I'm hoping all members of the current Onnwal Triad will be at Conception at the begining of next year along with a number of Irish players. With a bit of luck even more countries will be represented than last year (off the top of my head Sweeden, Poland, Switzerland, Holland, France, Germany, USA). Kithran Yeah, I'd hope to become quite an active LFR player if there are opportunities near me (Oxford, where there is currently an active LG group). It'd be fun to have the occassional trip over to Ireland, but as a postgraduate student I don't know whether I could afford to make it to South Africa!