I know I sure do.
Here's why:
Call me crazy, call me a traitor, call me whatever. I really enjoy playing D&D in the 4E Realms.
I like leaving the house every other Monday to go to game with just two rulebooks (FRCG, FRPG) and a binder with my adventure and DM’s screen in it.
I don’t even need to bring the core rulebooks since my buddies have them.
Contrast this with the veritable wooden log of books I carry around for my 3.5 Realms game.
I like the simplicity of it. I’m a very experienced DM and I enjoy making stuff up as I go along. Having just two and three page explanations in the FRCG of the places in the Realms I like to use makes it easy for me to build on the information therein.
I like the challenge of it. When things change in the Realms, it puts players and DMs and Realmsfans (that don’t play D&D) on the spot. Some don’t like to see changes, sure. But I do when it’s a wholesale set of changes due mostly to the advancement of time.
I like returned Abeir.
MarkusTay has asked me in another thread why I wanted to go “down south” in my 4E Realms game.
Two big reasons are Tymanther and Akanûl. A third is the Abolethic Sovereignty, which conveniently lay in between Cormyr (where my campaign is at) and those two realms.
I enjoy the change of flavor. When you’ve gamed in the Realms as long as I and my players have, a change of pace is very enjoyable. It lets us treat places and things we “know” about the Realms as unknowns again. Add to that our choice to treat both our ongoing 3.5 and 4E Realms games as being in the same Realms instead of separate and you have an additional layer of uncertainty owing to the unique path our 3.5 game has already taken.
That’s fun because discovering something new or discovering a big change in the Realms during play is always a blast and so a big motivation to play.
But most of all I like the advanced timeline. That’s got to be one of best fuels for creative DM thought out there for DMs that are somewhat familiar with the Realms. It basically pushes you to consider the new setting from a “what’s transpired?” point of view.
When Manshoon the vampire has lived for a century through the Spellplague, consolidated his power over Westgate and the surviving Zhentarim, what does that mean? How did he do it? What secrets of magic and of returned Abeir has he uncovered? Is he dealing with the Eminence of Aurant or the Ironfell Council? Has he restarted any of his long term plots that were thwarted when all of his clones awoke? Have any of those plots come to fruition?
Basically, Manshoon being Manshoon, what can he have accomplished in 100 years beyond what the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide tells us?
My bet is: A LOT.
That’s what’s so fun about it for me as a DM. All these ideas and possibilities constitute fun thought exercises and are the seeds of future adventures and campaign arcs.
I invite those of you who have pondered things as I have to include your thoughts here.
I invite those of you who enjoy playing in the 4E Realms to post why you enjoy it, especially if your reasons are different then mine.
Lastly, let’s be careful not to let an edition war ignite here. Webster has the power to close threads and he will use it if we give him reason to.
Then it is the new stuff that is now drawing you to those regions...
Thats cool.
As much as I'd like to sit here and tell you (and everyone else) how great Unther and Mulhorand was, the truth is I never went there.
So while I found them intersting, I obviously didn't find them interesting enough to play in before.
So if the new material is making people visit areas they never wanted to before, then more power it to it, I say.
Peace --- Mark.