18DELTA (Chosen of Cyric) :D
I'm not going to get the RPGA adventures for the Realms.
Good for you.
I am going to be able to get this information somewhere? Will DDi (which I am purchasing) cover it?
Cover what? What information?
Cover what? What information?
I can only assume he meant any "canon" that stems from LFR
Cover what? What information?
The information in RPGA adventures. I am trying to keep my games as up to date as possible. To do that I'll need to know what things the RPGA is changing/altering/updating.
-Go to the Living Realms Forum. It is under the Running the Realms Forum. They should be able too answer your questions. You will need to join the RPGA to get Living Realms material.
18DELTA (Chosen of Cyric) :D
Theres no way to get the information then? I need things like summaries. I am not joining though. I cant stand the RPGA. I've known a few people who were involved in it, with Greyhawk, and they were condescending to the max (as in,your games don't matter, mine do) the DMs and the players.
If it doesn't cost aything why not?
Can't you just join and never really participate?
Because to be able to download adventures you need to have taken the Herald GM test. And to continue to download them you need to report back to the RPGA with the results of the adventures you have run. You are allowed to be a couple of adventures in defult (downloaded but not reported) and then the site suggests they will cut you off.
That is why not.
There was talk by an RPGA member of somehow getting the setting information contained in the modules to us, but I haven't heard from the on the boards in a while.
Subject to the Living Realms Guidelines of course. Wealth, Level, Character Creation, Ect.18DELTA (Chosen of Cyric) ;)
I'm not going to get the RPGA adventures for the Realms. I am going to be able to get this information somewhere? Will DDi (which I am purchasing) cover it?
-Unless you want to jump through plenty of loops, hoops and hurtles, you can't, asides for finding someone who knows things, and asking them, and them giving you a faithful and accurate summation of what is happening.
-Now the OP could join the LPGA and take the Heralds Level DM's Test, and have his group play the game at his or her place. The player's would have to join the LPGA to, but the OP wouldn't have to deal with snotty RPGAer's.
18DELTA (Chosen of Cyric) ;)
Like I said I hate the RPGA. I hate almost every thing that they stand for. There is a 0% chance that I join it. I don't want to run their adventures or make LFR/LG characters, I just want to know the plots that unfold in RPGA games and how they change the Realms.
I'll admit that at first I liked the idea that the FRCG/FRPG were very info-lite, but it's been bugging me more and more lately. Thats why I came back to this message board.
Or you could befriend someone* who runs LFR games, and ask them.
Though I note that it is generally not smart to spit people in the face and then demand information from them...
I will post a question on whether there are any plans for releasing RPGA adventure content (may take a while to get an answer though, and my guess is the answer is negative - but you never know).
Gomez
*) someone else - who is not an admin :P
Like I said I hate the RPGA. I hate almost every thing that they stand for. There is a 0% chance that I join it. I don't want to run their adventures or make LFR/LG characters, I just want to know the plots that unfold in RPGA games and how they change the Realms.
I'll admit that at first I liked the idea that the FRCG/FRPG were very info-lite, but it's been bugging me more and more lately. Thats why I came back to this message board.
-Ok.
18DELTA (The Chosen of Cyric that came down with the flu today, and Cyric is making me suffer for His Glory!) :P
I have always seen it as a means to play games with people all over the world without worrying too much about how to organize it.
But that is my take: I don't have a regular gaming group. I have friends to game with, but getting a party for a campaign together is a bit like rocket science. RPGA (living) games allow me to get a game organized without worrying who shows up or not. And you always have content to use and games to run.
I wouldn't say that 'my' campaign is better, and I would eb hard pressed to find someone that does say that.The campaign is simply one with different advantages (and disadvantages) than a regular home campaign.
I would like people to try it out - partly so I have a chance to game with them, and partly so that more people play the adventures I write.
We promote the things we like.
But it has little to do with it being better.
Pierre 'Gomez' van Rooden
LFR Dalelands Writing Director
-Let me rephrase that: I dont like the RPGA in that it stands for raising some people's campaigns above others. "Your campaigns don't count (and matter less) while mine do count (and matter more)".
Look at it this way--who cares? If everyone's having fun in a campaign, it's "real" to them even if WotC doesn't regard it as official.
"Lookit my tier-3 gear! I killed Arvolac the unholy!"
"Really? So did I! I have the same gear, too..."
Its worse in a MORPG, though, because you have to run the SAME instance a bazillion times to get the right drops, so everyone's done the same Instances a BAZILLION times.
At least the drops aren't so random with a living DM... if he's any good. ;)
Look at it this way--who cares? If everyone's having fun in a campaign, it's "real" to them even if WotC doesn't regard it as official.
I'm guessing its probably more of a principle issue... as in not belonging to a group of people who behave that way. While I haven't had much of anything to do with the RPGA, I do recall running into a great deal of people with the sort of attitude BlackMasque described several years back, which utterly turned me off of them as well. Maybe they've changed, maybe they haven't... don't really care any way it goes personally, since that style of play doesn't much appeal to me from the start.
I'm guessing its probably more of a principle issue... as in not belonging to a group of people who behave that way. While I haven't had much of anything to do with the RPGA, I do recall running into a great deal of people with the sort of attitude BlackMasque described several years back, which utterly turned me off of them as well. Maybe they've changed, maybe they haven't... don't really care any way it goes personally, since that style of play doesn't much appeal to me from the start.
Yeah, it doesn't appeal to me, either.
If a group of people have an "attitude", I wouldn't want to play with them anyway.18DELTA (Chosen of Cyric)
You all really seem to meet other people than I do...
-Stigger does have another point.
18DELTA (Chosen of Cyric)
-And, he's in Amsterdam*, of all places! No wonder everyone you play with seems mellow and nice!
*Is it really as "crazy" as it is portrayed?
Most of the D&D players I meet are obviously RPGA people, as most of my current games are RPGA ones. But those I know would just shrug if LFR would fold, and go back to their old home games. For them, RPGA is an easy way to get games together. They don't go rabid on non-RPGAers, and most have their own home campaigns.
I will probably try to restart one too if living campaigns die out in NL, though my experience was often that you start a campaign, play three games, then have some people not show up for some reason, and the campaign folds, and we'ld create a new one with a slightly different group, then play a few games... etc.
Fun games, but you never got to finish a campaign...
Though the main reason I am currently in the RPGA is that I get to design part of the Realms, in a fashion (if it isn't shot down by R&D, ofcourse).
Gomez
Keith
18DELTA (Chosen of Cyric)
It might not be so hard to summarize the sinppets of lore we include in the adventures on the boards, but I don't know if we are allowed to do that either.
Gomez
You all really seem to meet other people than I do...
Suffice it too say that most Americans enjoy 'lording' things over other Americans, even something as silly as membership in the RPGA.
Its childish, and its annoying, and most of us do it to some degree.
In fact, we even have a bunch of incredibly stupid laws and rules now, pertaining to making others 'feel bad' about stuff. It's a wonder we ever get anything done.
I don't think that is what the RPGA stands for at all.
I have always seen it as a means to play games with people all over the world without worrying too much about how to organize it.
But that is my take: I don't have a regular gaming group. I have friends to game with, but getting a party for a campaign together is a bit like rocket science. RPGA (living) games allow me to get a game organized without worrying who shows up or not. And you always have content to use and games to run.
I wouldn't say that 'my' campaign is better, and I would eb hard pressed to find someone that does say that.The campaign is simply one with different advantages (and disadvantages) than a regular home campaign.
I would like people to try it out - partly so I have a chance to game with them, and partly so that more people play the adventures I write.
We promote the things we like.
But it has little to do with it being better.
Pierre 'Gomez' van Rooden
LFR Dalelands Writing Director
you have been quoted
however, you might not, doesnt mean that others in the lfr do.
i work nights, so lfr is a no go.
even if i had the time.....
I would like to see WotC make websites available/official that we could publish regional Forgotten Realms information on, which would supplement the adventures, and provide fuller descriptions of NPCs, taverns, inns, other businesses, local sights, etc. Until the Gleemax effort was cancelled, that looked to be a possibility. We are not hearing much from WotC or seeing much progress on that front.
Keith
Dark and Empty, I hope they dont make you beg for new Realmslore! :embarrass Sounds kinda Kinky, now that I think about it.
Dark and Empty...
Dark and Empty....;)
As a side note, I can say that I just started the RPGA (again) with LFR and so far I'm loving it. The people have been super nice and helpful. I've not yet run into a single bad attitude at the 3 cons I've been at. If you ran into some badness in the past, you might want to try again.
Just a thought.
Makes me wonder who the Real threat to The Realms is...
Hasbro.
Thats the new Overgod that killed Ao and took his stuff. :P
-"Beg for your Realmslore...That's right. Beg. Oh yeah...You like Waterdeep? You like Waterdeep?"
As long as they don't try to scratch my belly...
Once my leg starts going, I better not be over a fault line...
On the bright side, most mod's in LFR so far don't really alter anything big so much as they simply showcase various places or whatnot.
For me, it is the shiwcasing itself that is of interest not the changes made to the setting through the actions and conquests of the adventurers within the module itself.
It also seems that although those results might be recounted in puclic, the showcasing will not.
The 'small stuff' is what's important to the game, and it seems this setting has Forgotten that.
The 'small stuff' is what's important to the game, and it seems this setting has Forgotten that.
I think that is exactly what they remembered.
Don't be fooled by savy corporate BS - the novels ruined the game, not the sourcbooks. Nowhere in the sourcebooks is Drizzt or Elminster or anyone else made out to be anything other then high-level charatcers with lots of friends.
If anything made player's character feel small, it was the authors; don't blame Ed's setting for what others thrust upon it (and in so-doing, broke it).
You may be right with the sourcebooks Kerym - I'd say there is a difference between 'small' and 'inferior' - but as long as they keep writing novels for FR, they will break it all over again. You can't say you are trying to make the PCs more important, while at the same time creating a bunch of pet 'Mary-Sues'; That's called "talking out of both sides of your mouth".
They need to decide what's more important to them - the novels or the game - and it's plainly evident which (from a financial point-of-view). Their strategies concerning the two had grown so far apart during 3e, that I really felt they were two completely different worlds. I can see how someone coming into the game from the novels would be confused.
Exactly - I'd rather read a pice of Homebrew (which is what the LFR stuff is, but just made official by their title)
Why do you think LFR is a Homebrew Setting? It's WotC run and owned. It's got people guiding the writing of the whole thing, it has paid staff, it has paid mod writers. It's as official as you can get without selling it at the game store.
or is it just that you can't pay money for the mod's that makes it somehow not "FR normal" for you?
note, I'm just curious. your commentary *seemed* dismissive of the LFR stuff, but I'm not sure why. Much like I'm not sure why the OP actually is concerned about the LFR stuff when he so clearly can't stand the organization which publishes it all.
They need to decide what's more important to them - the novels or the game - and it's plainly evident which (from a financial point-of-view). Their strategies concerning the two had grown so far apart during 3e, that I really felt they were two completely different worlds. I can see how someone coming into the game from the novels would be confused.
Well that would depend on which novels they do, and more importantly don't write from now on. By this I mean to say that you can write FR novels that are neither Realms or even Region Shaking that can remain interesting... an amazing concept I know. I have always been more of a fan of Character Driven Plot (CDP) over Plot Driven Characters (PDC). I much prefer a young farmhand/accountant/monkey that sets off on their own way through the world and makes things happen, to the story of the impending total end of all things that just happens to bring up the perfect hero(ine) to save it all at just the right moment... as a novel. As a game? Make me the bally hero, please! But as a book it feels a bit contrived.
So in a way I agree with you MT, do approach them in different ways. Keep the game PDC but make the novels CDP, not least because it is easier to keep the focus of the novels tighter that way ;).
Much like I'm not sure why the OP actually is concerned about the LFR stuff when he so clearly can't stand the organization which publishes it all.
FR =/= WotC. A person is perfectly capable of adoring the Forgotten Realms without liking WotC at all. In the same was as I like and respect Mr Baker as a person even if I abhor some of his design decisions.
note, I'm just curious. your commentary *seemed* dismissive of the LFR stuff, but I'm not sure why. Much like I'm not sure why the OP actually is concerned about the LFR stuff when he so clearly can't stand the organization which publishes it all.
I thought someone might take exception to that; Here's what I said - note the highlighted word:
Exactly - I'd rather read a piece of Homebrew (which is what the LFR stuff is, but just made official by their title) concerning a specific locale, organization, or PC, then read a novel about planet-juggling Uber-characters that single-handedly fight off entire armies, establish Kingdoms, or prevent the end of the world.
In other words, I find the material created by the LFR guys to be superior to published (for sale) lore, because it is written by DMs - NOT corporate -types who probably don't even play this game (they are too busy writing novels to play silly games).
Everything I create is Homebrew - do NOT take that word as an insult. Homebrew, to me at any rate, means it was crafted with love and special attention to detail, to be used to entertain a group of players.
Not to be sold and make money.
I've never read a piece of Homebrew that was concerned with Font Sizes and Page counts. ;)
AS long as the authors continue their 'doomsday escalations' in the novels, this setting is no longer for RPG players.
No more or less than it has been for the last ten years or so.
Don't be fooled by savy corporate BS - the novels ruined the game, not the sourcbooks. Nowhere in the sourcebooks is Drizzt or Elminster or anyone else made out to be anything other then high-level charatcers with lots of friends.
Agreed.
If anything made player's character feel small, it was the authors; don't blame Ed's setting for what others thrust upon it (and in so-doing, broke it).
I don't blame Ed for anything except his FR novels. Sorry just don't like his writing style. His short stories are okay, but when ti comes to novels the hokey cheeziness gets to me like someone scraping their fingernails across a blackboard.
You may be right with the sourcebooks Kerym - I'd say there is a difference between 'small' and 'inferior' - but as long as they keep writing novels for FR, they will break it all over again. You can't say you are trying to make the PCs more important, while at the same time creating a bunch of pet 'Mary-Sues'; That's called "taliking out of both sides of your mouth".
There is a difference between small and inferior. From a gaming standpoint they current supplements provide a framework, detailed enough to use, while leaving enough open for a beginning DM to not feel constrained it. I also don't know how much of it is really creating Mary Sues vis carrying over some rather than all of them.
They need to decide what's more important to them - the novels or the game - and it's plainly evident which (from a financial point-of-view). Their strategies concerning the two had grown so far apart during 3e, that I really felt they were two completely different worlds. I can see how someone coming into the game from the novels would be confused.
If they stuck to writing good novels, vis D&D meets Harlequin Romance while Remo Williams dances on by, and Galactus eyes Toril hungrily type novels, we might avoid the biggest issue which is RSE's. I have little hope that they will do anything to rectify this. Though I am happy for the reset the real potential of it will most likely be lost as we get buried under an avalanche of stark raving mediocre novels. We will see.
FR =/= WotC. A person is perfectly capable of adoring the Forgotten Realms without liking WotC at all. In the same was as I like and respect Mr Baker as a person even if I abhor some of his design decisions.
I totally get that. I have a similar approach to White Wolf/Vamp actually. I was just curious why the fascination with LFR given that it does no free standing fluff - just adventures.
It's not a big deal really.
I thought someone might take exception to that
I took no exception and was not insulted in the least. I was simply curious.
Much like I'm not sure why the OP actually is concerned about the LFR stuff when he so clearly can't stand the organization which publishes it all.
-I have a similar (if not less..."angry") opinion on the matter. At the end of the day, he (or, at least me) wants to be caught up on what is happening in the setting.