-UnCon isn't officially here, but it starts circa October. I just recieved his response from the e-mail interview that Chris was so kind to have with me. As promised, here it is. It's posted a little early, but I have no interest in waiting around for UnCon, possibly forgetting it since I'm not posting here, or whatever else, so:
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LK: First thing first—tell us a little about yourself. Your name is in the credits for a lot of sourcebooks, but some people don’t who you are, or just what it is that you do. How did you get into “the business”? What brought you to the Forgotten Realms? What is it about the setting that you like, in particular?
Chris Perkins: My current job title is D&D Creative Manager. Under Bill Slavicsek, I lead the creative direction of the D&D brand in its various forms, including product planning, world building, art approvals, and campaign setting development. I joined Wizards of the Coast in 1997 as the editor of Dungeon magazine. Before that, I was one of the magazine’s most prolific freelance contributors. In 2001, I transitioned from periodicals to R&D, where I’ve been ever since. My job title has evolved over the years, but it’s safe to say that I’ve worn many hats. There was a time when I managed five product lines: Star Wars, d20 Modern, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and D&D core. In my current role, I’m focused on All Things D&D.
I’ve been a fan of the Forgotten Realms since its initial formation in the pages of Dragon magazine, yet I’ve never run a “pure” FR campaign. I prefer to build my own campaign worlds and “loot” published campaign settings for ideas. I’ve plundered entire FR adventures and stolen everything from maps to stat blocks to furnish my home campaigns over the years. What interests me about the Forgotten Realms is that it’s a treasure trove of clever adventure hooks, concepts, and lore. For example, Ed Greenwood once wrote a “Wyrms of the North” article describing Miirym, a disembodied dragon beneath Candlekeep that appears as a pair of spectral jaws. I was so enamored with the “Cheshire dragon” concept that I purloined it for my home game, keeping the spectral jaws but changing the dragon’s name.
LK: As ‘Design Manager’, you have a very unique perspective on things: What would you say is the underlying theme of the Forgotten Realms, in general? Some people say it’s tradition. Some people say it’s history. Some people say it’s the characters. Some people say it’s the ability to have a little bit of everything. Where do you fit in?
CP: It’s difficult to encapsulate the overarching theme of the Forgotten Realms. Tradition and history certainly factor into it. For me, the Forgotten Realms is a fantasy world realized, which is to say, made real—or as close to real as any fantasy world can be. It envelops you and pulls you in, it makes you feel like you’re in a real place of wonder and daily humdrum. It’s such a thorough sensory experience that you start to feel like you know the place, the way you know the streets around your own home. The richness and detail are such that you feel like you’ve literally stepped through a doorway and discovered a foreign land on Earth, populated by people painted so vividly as to seem real. This semblance of reality is reinforced by a history that begs an encyclopedia to capture every detail. Ed Greenwood and subsequent contributors have woven a tapestry so immense that you can’t really hang it anywhere, but looking into it you become lost in its splendor. No other medieval fantasy world has had so many words written about it. Not even Middle Earth. That’s staggering.
Where do I fit in? Well, my job is to pull people into the world, to invest them in it. The experience of “discovering” the Forgotten Realms (or rediscovering it, as the case may be) can easily overwhelm, which is why I wouldn’t simply hand someone an FR encyclopedia and hope that they pour through it. That’s not the way to make people fall in love with any world setting.
LK: Everyone in the Forgotten Realms community is well aware of what NDAs are. Presumably, with you being an important member of the Forgotten Realms design team for some time, you’ve been beholden to a bunch of these over the years. I’m not going to ask to reveal some of that yet-unrevealed information, so don’t worry. What is the hardest part about being subject to an NDA, an experience that most of us in the community haven’t been party to?
CP: All Wizards employees sign an all-encompassing Non-Disclosure Agreement when they join the company, and we have a different NDA that we give to select non-employees who playtest and preview our stuff. For me, the hardest part about dealing with NDAs is fending off that natural human urge to talk about things that are in the works or to provide details beyond what’s been announced officially. I could talk all day about unannounced projects I’m working on, but that would be bad for the business (not to mention my career) and ultimately counter-productive. No publically held business can or should manage information that haphazardly. Because information is such a powerful commodity that, like a caged animal, wants to be free, the exercise of restraint coupled with the suppression of information makes for a bitter cocktail, both for those who possess the information and those who crave it.
LK: When the Forgotten Realms were introduced to the world of 4e, the timeline was shifted up by about a century, with the interim years between the end of the 3e era (1,375 DR) and the beginning of the 4e era (1,479 DR) being mostly glossed over, in both sourcebooks and novels. Although it was stated that this transition era would not be highlighted and would perpetually exist in a haze, novels and RPGA adventures are beginning shedding light on this timeframe. Are there any plans in the future to further illuminate this time period in a more straightforward manner?
CP: One of the reasons for the timeline advance was to enable storytelling—to give novelists room to breathe and tell interesting stories without trapping them in a fortress of historical continuity. It is not our intention to spell out every significant event that transpired in the interim century, or to make future novelists memorize one hundred years of historical accounts to write fiction for us. Occasionally and deliberately, we will shed light on some key event during this period, but in general, we like the haze. That said, we acknowledge the overwhelming human urge to fill holes. We actively discourage writers from focusing too heavily on the interim years, but despite our efforts, some writers and designers seem dead-set on dwelling in that timeframe and playing Connect the Dots. We combat these urges by maintaining our own internal continuity documents and assuring our novel writers and game designers that they are beholden to nothing else.
LK: The Forgotten Realms has a very rich and very deep history, as I am sure you are well aware of. One aspect that many people find most disconcerting about the current business model is that, as compared to the past, the flow of information from official WotC sources to the fans has suddenly been choked, with novels, online magazine articles, and RPGA adventures that only a select few have access to being the only major sources of information about the “new” Forgotten Realms. While I don’t expect you to snap your fingers and change this, releasing a deluge of information about the world, how do you think this will impact the setting? Is this a good thing, as won’t be a flood of information “scaring away” certain fans? A bad thing, as the relative deficiency of information will cause certain fans to move on, citing a lack of interesting material? Somewhere in-between?
CP: How much information does the average consumer need to run a FR campaign, or to play in one? We explored this question at length prior to adjusting our overall content plan.
Our previous FR product line was built on novels, game supplements, and magazine support (and video games which, for purposes of this discussion, I’ll put to the side). However, the game supplements had two problems. First and foremost, they contributed to an ever-growing reference library that new players, new DMs, and novelists found intimidating and daunting. Second, people weren’t buying them in sufficient numbers. In short, the supplements were working against the success of the line. We were wasting a lot of effort providing information that the average consumer wouldn’t or couldn’t use. Thus, the ground formerly covered by game supplements became the purview of the online magazines, with tighter controls on the information flow. Under this new arrangement, we are no longer bound by page count, and we don’t need to fill pages just to fill a book. We also have the luxury to cover a wider range of topics while still leaving open the possibility of releasing the occasional book supplement if and when the community seems ready for it. Yeah, this business model can be disconcerting to the entrenched consumer accustomed to buying book after book, but it’s a wiser model for the health and longevity of the world.
By keeping the number of core FR products small, we lower the barrier to entry. However, for the invested customer we want to provide at least one online FR article or adventure per month, but getting the right FR content has been challenging. The best articles provide immediate value at the game table and focus more on clever concepts than historical or geographical minutiae. For instance, we have a new, regular FR column called “Ed Greenwood’s Eye on the Realms,” a series written by Ed (obviously). We’ve been stockpiling the articles and plan to release one or two a month. Each article is short—about 1,000 words—and presents a single useful nugget such as an NPC, location, artifact, monster, or organization that DMs can drop into their existing FR campaigns. Folks who don’t run FR campaigns can steal these ideas for their homebrew games as well. In theory, short online articles such as these allow us to cover a broader range of topics than we’d normally cover in published game supplements.
LK: Whether for good or for ill, there is no doubt that the Forgotten Realms have been changed in a major way. Can you share with us what it was like at the design table, with all of the authors, designers, and other contributors who had a hand in creating the “new” Forgotten Realms? What were some of the discussions like? Was there a lot of shouting and controversy? Did one or two people take the lead, and everyone else just follow passively? Can you share with us any ideas that were rejected, or did not make it into the final cut of the books?
CP: It was not an acceptable business option to relaunch the campaign setting with no changes of consequence. The conversations started small, with a handful of internal folks discussing ways to make FR more inviting to newbs. These formative conversations were coincident with the development of 4th Edition, and changes to the D&D rules system sparked many deep discussions about our “active” D&D campaign settings and the extent to which they would need to evolve to incorporate fundamental changes to the game system. The conversations quickly expanded to include some of our novelists, particularly R.A. Salvatore and Ed Greenwood. We gave them our notes and encouraged them to tear apart our ideas and speak their minds. Everyone came to the discussions with strong opinions and arguments, not to mention a genuine passion for the world. There was no shouting to the best of my knowledge.
As I recall, there were only two sacred elements that absolutely had to survive the revision: Drizzt Do’Urden and Elminster of Shadowdale. Beyond that, everything was up for deliberation. Folks reasoned that the FR pantheon was bloated, so efforts were made to pare down the list of gods. Compelling arguments were made that the so-called “Forgotten” Realms had too few areas left to explore, so we endeavored to put the “Forgotten” back in “Forgotten Realms” by replacing some of the less compelling regions of Faerûn with places of mystery. We also wanted to carve out space on the map for DMs and novelists to create their own stuff. Our decisions forced us to contemplate a world in which Drizzt was well and truly separated from his shorter-lived companions, and how that would help or hinder Bob’s storytelling.
I thought the concept of Abeir and Toril “colliding” was brilliant. It allowed us to legitimize new 4th Edition elements (for example, the dragonborn) as well as incorporate a bunch of Abeir lore that Ed had created but never published. However, some early effects of the collision and the Spellplague were abandoned. For example, we considered doing a fair amount of violence to Waterdeep. However, the city was a hub for many FR campaigns, so the idea was jettisoned. We had similar thoughts about Cormyr, which we left pretty much intact for the same reason. Early drafts placed more emphasis on the Abolethic Sovereignty as a major campaign threat, but the setting started to feel too steeped in Lovecraftian horror, so we reined it in. A few of us tinkered with the idea of making Elminster the new god of magic, but I honestly don’t remember the string of conversations that led us away from that particular idea.
LK: For the D&D players out there, would you care to share any highlights from your Forgotten Realms D&D campaigns, in which you were either a character or the DM?
CP: As mentioned above, I run homebrew campaigns that plunder freely from our active campaign settings, including FR and Eberron, but I’ve never DMed a purely FR game. (I also loot stuff from other “classic” D&D settings such as Spelljammer, Planescape, and Ravenloft, but that’s neither here nor there.) Over the years, I’ve played numerous stand-alone adventures set in the Realms. For example, Phil Athans once ran a group of us through an updated version of The Haunted Halls of Eveningstar, and I once played in a short-running Undermountain campaign that lasted about six sessions. For the record, three characters died, and the two surviving characters decided to retire and spend their hard-won treasure on a Waterdhavian tavern.
For my current 4E campaign, I stole a bunch of ideas from the new FR books, including swordmage powers for a clockwork swordmage villain, the Five Companies concept, the Eminence of Araunt concept, and more miscellaneous adventure hooks than I can count. One example that springs to mind is the Ordulin Maelstrom, which inspired me to introduce an adventure in which a catastrophic dragon trapped in time tricks the heroes into freeing him, thereby allowing his lost citadel to appear suddenly in the current timeline, suspended above a volcanic caldera. While not a literal translation of the floating fortress over the ruins of Ordulin, the image of a floating fortress appearing out of nowhere definitely captured my imagination.
LK: For the novel readers out there, would you be able to share some of the things that will be, or that you, personally, would like to see covered in novels or short stories in the future?
CP: I can’t speak to What Will Be, but I look forward to reading more about Waterdeep circa 1479 DR. Ed wrote a brand-new Waterdeep bible full of interesting characters and stories just waiting to be told. I’m also eager to see Drizzt forge new alliances and friendships, as well as wrestle with the tragedies of his past. We turned Netheril into the FR equivalent of Mordor, and I’m anxious to see how Cormyr holds this own against this darkening threat. I’ve always had a soft spot for stories set in the Moonshaes and wouldn’t mind exploring more of its Feywild connections. And finally I’m looking forward to the occasional foray to Returned Abeir, where the gods seem to hold less sway.
Boy are you a sight for sore eyes! Welcome back (even if this is only a cameo). I'm pretty happy with CP's responses, but it still made my eye tick when I saw him mention that nothing beyond Drizzt and Elminster were considered off-limits. Not that we didn't already know that, but still. I like this one a lot more than the BC one. Excellent work, boss.
Oh, and El was in line to be the next god of magic? Well, that suddenly caught my attention.
Excellent interview.
I for one am a big fan of "historical or geographical minutiae" 
as well as incorporate a bunch of Abeir lore that Ed had created but never published
Now this is what caught my eye...
Pretty much the standard fare. Good interview. Thanks.
We actively discourage writers from focusing too heavily on the interim years, but despite our efforts, some writers and designers seem dead-set on dwelling in that timeframe and playing Connect the Dots.
amazing how the creative director doesn't understand the basics about world-building
now I wanna see the new waterdeep bible.......
okay screw that I dont wanna see it, show me the npcs in it....
This was a good interview. I can't wait to see what is right around the corner for 'Returned Abeir' *name the continent all ready*
We actively discourage writers from focusing too heavily on the interim years, but despite our efforts, some writers and designers seem dead-set on dwelling in that timeframe and playing Connect the Dots.
amazing how the creative director doesn't understand the basics about world-building
Actually he does understand it, but there is a distinct reason why they chose to go with a 100 year gap (and taking "gap" rather literally). Filling in the gap to their minds makes the same problem and defeats the point of having the timejump to begin with. The logic makes sense in this regard, but you don't have to agree with it.
This was a good interview. I can't wait to see what is right around the corner for 'Returned Abeir' *name the continent all ready*
I believe though it hasn't been formally announced, RA's name is "Laerakond". I recall either Ed or Rich mentioning this.
We actively discourage writers from focusing too heavily on the interim years, but despite our efforts, some writers and designers seem dead-set on dwelling in that timeframe and playing Connect the Dots.
amazing how the creative director doesn't understand the basics about world-building
Actually he does understand it, but there is a distinct reason why they chose to go with a 100 year gap (and taking "gap" rather literally). Filling in the gap to their minds makes the same problem and defeats the point of having the timejump to begin with. The logic makes sense in this regard, but you don't have to agree with it.
I can understand his concerns with the designers, but I don't see why he's surprised the authors are using the transition century. I seem to recall it being mentioned by the design team many times that the authors would have the freedom to incorporate the past century in order to provide a background for their plots when need be. That's what they've been doing, and they haven't done any harm. It's certainly not as bad as he seems to think.
Oh, and El was in line to be the next god of magic? Well, that suddenly caught my attention.
I thought they were going to do that; I'm surprised that they may not...yet. :P
We actively discourage writers from focusing too heavily on the interim years, but despite our efforts, some writers and designers seem dead-set on dwelling in that timeframe and playing Connect the Dots. We combat these urges by maintaining our own internal continuity documents and assuring our novel writers and game designers that they are beholden to nothing else.
Actually he does understand it, but there is a distinct reason why they chose to go with a 100 year gap (and taking "gap" rather literally). Filling in the gap to their minds makes the same problem and defeats the point of having the timejump to begin with. The logic makes sense in this regard, but you don't have to agree with it.I can understand his concerns with the designers, but I don't see why he's surprised the authors are using the transition century. I seem to recall it being mentioned by the design team many times that the authors would have the freedom to incorporate the past century in order to provide a background for their plots when need be. That's what they've been doing, and they haven't done any harm. It's certainly not as bad as he seems to think.
I don't think Chris Perkins is surprised; more concerned about the canon issues that could arise. If anything, I'm intrigued (and pleased, to be honest) at the possibility that these writings of the interim may not be considered canon if they do not fit the internal continuity documents.
I am curious to learn more about the role of the gods and titans in Laerakond.
We actively discourage writers from focusing too heavily on the interim years, but despite our efforts, some writers and designers seem dead-set on dwelling in that timeframe and playing Connect the Dots. We combat these urges by maintaining our own internal continuity documents and assuring our novel writers and game designers that they are beholden to nothing else.Actually he does understand it, but there is a distinct reason why they chose to go with a 100 year gap (and taking "gap" rather literally). Filling in the gap to their minds makes the same problem and defeats the point of having the timejump to begin with. The logic makes sense in this regard, but you don't have to agree with it.I can understand his concerns with the designers, but I don't see why he's surprised the authors are using the transition century. I seem to recall it being mentioned by the design team many times that the authors would have the freedom to incorporate the past century in order to provide a background for their plots when need be. That's what they've been doing, and they haven't done any harm. It's certainly not as bad as he seems to think.
I don't think Chris Perkins is surprised; more concerned about the canon issues that could arise. If anything, I'm intrigued (and pleased, to be honest) at the possibility that these writings of the interim may not be considered canon if they do not fit the internal continuity documents.
I am curious to learn more about the role of the gods and titans in Laerakond.
Having read every new novel with the exception of City of Torment (which I will inevitably get to), I have yet to see any real contradictions between what the authors have written and what we've seen in the FRCG, with the exception being the effectiveness of divination magic in Waterdeep, which isn't major. So it doesn't appear to be a concern for the sanctity of canon (unless there's some major document that the common folk don't get to see). I just think it's far too early to fret about authors filling in the last century. Heck, that's why the authors were given the transition: more room to write. Don't blame the authors for being creative and taking advantage of the elbow room (not you, but CP).
Actually he does understand it, but there is a distinct reason why they chose to go with a 100 year gap (and taking "gap" rather literally). Filling in the gap to their minds makes the same problem and defeats the point of having the timejump to begin with. The logic makes sense in this regard, but you don't have to agree with it.
The timejump doesn't make sense in the first place, there was plenty of room, but I'm not going to start with this again. To quote GD a ''historical vacuum'' doesn't make sense either. That would be a complete death of the Realms, whole new world with the old brand attached to it.
Geeze, I can't believe how little interest this has generated. I recall Bruce's interview spawned quite a bit of buzz. 
Less traffic; fewer angry people.
First, thanks to LK for completing this (last) task of his. The effort is appreciated.
IMNSHO, I'm very pleased to see that there was almost no editorializing in the questions that were presented to Chris.
As to the "past tense" tone about Ed creating Abeir lore some time ago....well between that and Ed's mention over on Loremaster about the idea that Realmsian gods may seem individuals, but are all just possibly facets of greater beings, it all just goes to show what I've suspected: These changes to the Realms were made from sources a lot closer to home than most people realized.
Too bad there are few or no trolls left around so we can make them eat crow.
As to the "past tense" tone about Ed creating Abeir lore some time ago....well between that and Ed's mention over on Loremaster about the idea that Realmsian gods may seem individuals, but are all just possibly facets of greater beings, it all just goes to show what I've suspected: These changes to the Realms were made from sources a lot closer to home than most people realized.
I'd been intrigued by that comment about the shared identities of gods as well. It's pretty much how I'm dealing with a lot of the gods (whom I didn't know for the most part).
Lolz, okidoki. I'll get right on that.
[Edit: I know we're not supposed to feed them, but it's fun every now and then.]
On second reading of CP's answers, I got to thinking about this statement of his on the sourcebooks: In short, the supplements were working against the success of the line. We were wasting a lot of effort providing information that the average consumer wouldn't or couldn't use.
CP based this statement off of the low sales numbers for supplements. Makes me wonder just just how they (WotC) went about measuring what people "wouldn't or couldn't use".
I also wonder if the progression of mixed fluff and lore, to heavy cruch and little lore, then back to heavy lore with some crunch (that is, the ratio of rules and setting information you could find in Third Edition FR Sourcebooks over the life cycle of that rules edition) had anything to do with the downturn in sales?
In my not so humble opinion, if WotC hadn't fallen prey to the "crunch rules all" mindset at about the time Silver Marches was released, they'd have experienced a more regular sales curve. Especially if they'd gone on to publish a Cormyr sourcebook and/or a Sembia and Dales books.
I hope WotC is relearning what they seem to have forgotten for some time: People don't just buy Realms sourcebooks for stats.
In my not so humble opinion, if WotC hadn't fallen prey to the "crunch rules all" mindset at about the time Silver Marches was released, they'd have experienced a more regular sales curve. Especially if they'd gone on to publish a Cormyr sourcebook and/or a Sembia and Dales books.
But, Misc, if they had made a 3/3.5 E sourcebook for Sembia, we wouldn't have gotten that lovely Sembia article earlier this year.
Oh wait. 
(Note: This is not a barb at anyone or anything. It's just a joke I couldn't help but make).