There is a pdf with some interesting previews here, mainly drow, genasi and swordmage. Loads of crunch for those who care.
They can either use an one-handed weapon and keep a hand free, or go with a 2h weapon and sacrifice some defense for more damage.There is tons of information spread around the PDF that should go to the FaQ.
East Rift
Huddled on the eastern shelf of the yawning Underchasm, East Rift is a symbol of gold dwarf ingenuity and stubborness, having survived when the surface collapsed into the bowels of the Underdark. Protected by enormous towers connected by a high curtain wall, the gold dwarves are ready to defend themselves from the drow or any other horror that rises from the depths.
The star of Impiltur has fallen. The retreat of the sea, coupled with widespread corruption, has led this region in decline. The people of this once great nation huddle in fear as their kingdom unravels around them.
The interloper nation of Tymanther lies squat atop the ruins of Unther, dominated by the citadel-city of Djerad Thymar. The dragonborn citizens of this new nation are a proud race of warriors, known for their hatred of dragons and their ilk.
-Too bad the PDF isn't working for me...:raincloud
I'll email it to you.
My favourite region seems to be in dire condition
Impiltur?
Don't know if that was the one, but I have to say I was a bit surprised that it wound up in bad shape. Oh well.
-Too bad the PDF isn't working for me...:raincloud
me neither
The genasi look like they will be fun to play and of course they can fit into any campaign setting. A swordmage watersoul genasi would be fun in any setting where we would be on or near the sea alot. Their power makes them fun even when they are not by the water. :D
-Anyway, after perusing the PDF, we now have confirmation that the Faerie Fire and Darkness abilities Drow have are a gift from Lolth, not a "departing gift" from Corellon Larethian and/or the Selu'Taar during The Descent. I was kinda hoping it was the latter, since that sounds a bit more in-character, but the former is fine as well.
-I like how there are more feats for the Genasi, and how each one gets more..."customized" abilities. The 3e Genasi always seemed very "blah" to me. This stuff gives them some more life.
The drow are lifted right from the back of the new MM. There are several playable "monster" races in that book and the drow are the same as they were in the MM.
The new genasi are better to me than the 3E ones.
-Anything was better than 3e Genasi. So much potential there, so little actually done.
I hope there a way to get Para-elmental souls (like if you have fire and earth soul you could take a feat to give you magmasoul and a power that goes with it and so on.)
I like the swordmage... My first 4e FR PC is going to be a Earthsoul (or water) swordmage that uses either a glaive or flachion
Sounds like Waterdeep is in pretty good shape. That's good news for me.
-Other than being attacked by "Living Monoliths", we already knew that it was going to be more or less the way it was.
I hope there a way to get Para-elmental souls (like if you have fire and earth soul you could take a feat to give you magmasoul and a power that goes with it and so on.)
-I don't remember if people were just talking, and fooling around, or if this was based on an actual leaked rule, or something, but people were talking about this. There is a 3e era Planescape netbook that you can download, that covers this.
I always felt Selune was kinda boring compared to Sehanine.The new gensai are nice. The 3.5 versions seemed to lack flavor.
I really like the new Sword Mage - I want to know the requirements to multiclass into them as I am currently playing an eladrin.
Oh and I really really like the backgrounds!
Yeah. I kind of expect Impiltur to be a shining kingdom of paladins. I guess a certain succubus is still alive and kicking. Some people can really hold a grudge.
-She is a Devil now right? I wonder how many Retcons this is going to cause. I liked the whole Eltab, N'dulu, Demon Lands story hook.
18DELTA ;)
I'm drooling over the map... and note that non-canon locations that I created were included.
I may have to just play 4e FR now, since I have a stake in it. :P
-Anyway, after perusing the PDF, we now have confirmation that the Faerie Fire and Darkness abilities Drow have are a gift from Lolth, not a "departing gift" from Corellon Larethian and/or the Selu'Taar during The Descent. I was kinda hoping it was the latter, since that sounds a bit more in-character, but the former is fine as well.
Isn't that how I wrote it for the DarkElf/Drow article I wrote?
Its been so long, I don't really remember, but thats how I always imagined it to be (a gift from Lolth, allowing her people a better chance of survival in the hostile Underdark).
and note that non-canon locations that I created were included.
Wow, very cool
Could you let us know which ones they were and point to threads/pages that have information on them? Isn't that how I wrote it for the DarkElf/Drow article I wrote?
Its been so long, I don't really remember, but thats how I always imagined it to be (a gift from Lolth, allowing her people a better chance of survival in the hostile Underdark).
-The "gift" from Lolth was the Darkvision. Coupled with Infravision, It'd give you "Drowvision", which allows the Drow in question to see in both spectrums at once.
-The initial Infravision, as well as other Drow abilities, we never put much thought into. There was either the theory that Lolth gave them to the Drow, to help them survive in the Underdark, or that Corellon Larethian/Elven High Magi gave it to them, as a "parting gift", knowing even though that the Drow were evil to the core, they were still Elves, and thus, an incy-wincy bit of love there.
The drow are a little more detailed than in the MM, but not too much more. I suppose that the racial feats will help flesh them out. I like that, because it means that the MM write-ups really are almost completely sufficient as is. I was interested to see that the "wants to rise above his/her heritage" bit was restored to the drow, because isn't that what led to the Eilistraee "problem" to begin with?
I deeply dig the genasi. The preview says that they make swordmages and warlords, but that list can be expanded to fighters and wizards. The powers look very juicy, and I love that there are feats that allow players to take more of them.
The swordmage is, of course, the piéce de resistance. Wow. It is a true arcane defender. Bravo.
The regional backgrounds section was very interesting. I'm glad that they stuck with it. My only comment is that some of the granted abilities really do trump others.
Fluffwise:
- The Silver Marches is now officially "Luruar." I think it's a good change, because it's a sign that the confederacy is now a true nation.
- Baldur's Gate might be the biggest city on Faerûn? I wonder what happened to Calimport and Waterdeep.
- The Great Rift is now the East Rift? There's a story here...
Impiltur?
Don't know if that was the one, but I have to say I was a bit surprised that it wound up in bad shape. Oh well.
Personally, I think there was some 'spite' involved there, but I don't want to get into that.
The swordmage is, of course, the piéce de resistance. Wow. It is a true arcane defender. Bravo.
Yep. I especially like that it can do the job without wearing heavy armor (and in fact only wears leather armor). Pretty nice all around.
Yep. I especially like that it can do the job without wearing heavy armor (and in fact only wears leather armor). Pretty nice all around.
-In all of my playing D&D, I think I've only had 1 character who wore heavy armor. I always stick to Medium or Light. Same thing with weapons. Hell, and food as well. Big and bold doesn't appeal to me, whereas finesse and such does.
Blame it on the movie Excalibur, I guess (first saw it when I was five or six). Not only has that movie influenced my character choices in D&D, but I developed a love of the Arthurian mythos and medieval romances as a result of it.
:P Hah, yeah, that was weird. Uther, you sick bastard.
I can't imagine it being comfortable for the woman, that's for sure.
Show
As I write these words, in just a few short weeks the LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign will debut worldwide. On August 14, the first of many, many adventures will be released for our newest shared-world program. After all the talk over the past months of the history of the RPGA's old programs, now we look to a new program to lead the 4th Edition charge. So what's changed? What's still the same?
The main goal of the LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS (or LFR) campaign is to create an organized play experience that is as inclusive and accessible as possible, while still keeping the considerations of a massive shared-world campaign in mind. The barriers for getting involved in LFR have been significantly reduced over past campaigns. The focus of this campaign is on creating fun gameplay.
To start, LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS will have a regional system for your characters. However, it will work differently than Living campaigns have in the past -- no longer is play dictated by where you live in the real world. Rather, you determine your character's region from a list of twelve allowed in the campaign. You can play an adventure from any region, but you might find that playing your character's regional adventures proves more advantageous to you, at times, than to characters who are strangers to your home.
Your ability to access all of the adventures for LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS means that you'll have plenty of opportunities for play right in your own home. In the first two months of the campaign, at least eighteen adventures will become available for play in LFR. Adventures will be rolled out on a weekly basis, meaning that you'll rarely have want for a new play experience.
Mapping real-world locations to regions in the FORGOTTEN REALMS still exists, but really only for administrative and community-building purposes. One of the great strengths of the regional system is localization. Being able to talk to a campaign administrator that lives nearby, as well as helping to organize local events, is all made easier through the regional system. So, while your character might be from one of many different regions, your area falls into a certain administrative boundary that is associated with a particular region.
Adventure play has also evolved. Adventures are tightly focused on a narrower grouping of eligible character levels than in the past. In the days of LIVING GREYHAWK, you might have had an adventure written for characters levels 1–15, now the adventure will be written for a four-level spread. This gives the adventure a better sense of cohesion and improves its play.
We've also made a change in your ability to replay adventures. In the past, you could only play each adventure once. Now, you can play each adventure once with each appropriate character you possess. If you DM an adventure, you can play it afterwards. LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS is meant to be a casual play experience, and giving players additional play options allows them to interact with the campaign the way they want.
Our character creation rules have also been overhauled. All too often in the past I've heard "How do I create a character for the RPGA?" The answer's always been a little too complex -- each campaign had so many custom rules for character creation. Now, a standardized document that gives base rules for all RPGA character creation is available, and each campaign has an appendix with additional considerations.
LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS also gives you more freedom to make the character you want without having to jump through a bunch of burning hoops. We want you to get a lot of use out of your books and D&D Insider. Other shared-world RPGA programs assume that most material is unavailable for your character without special access. But in LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS, most material you'd want as a player is accessible right when the book hits the shelves or the monthly issue of Dragon is compiled. We'll even let you try out playtest classes (such as the artificer from issue #365) from Dragon in LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS!
Treasure and rewards has been brought in-line with the rules for distribution in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Characters will receive about one magic item per level, and they can buy more with gold they accumulate. Characters don't adventure to just gain access to items -- they actually find magic items during play and can choose to select a found item at the end of the adventure.
Recording your adventure play is straightforward. Each player maintains his or her character's adventure log, which contains just the important information: adventure name, XP totals, gold totals, and magic items gained. Heavy bookkeeping is now a thing of the past.
If you want to leave your mark on the Realms, this is the campaign to do it. Close cooperation with R&D and our books team ensures that we're able to provide adventures that fit into the official Realms while still providing you with plenty of variety in adventure locales. Most adventures have adventure questions that are collected to determine the future direction of the campaign. Decisions you and your adventuring company make have an impact on the future!
But perhaps the most important thing that's changed is the philosophy behind being a DM for our shared-world games. In the past, emphasis was placed on tournament-style play. Under this philosophy, adventures had to be run "as written" to provide a "consistent" play experience. Tournament-style play is an artifact of the past, and while it does have its place (like the D&D Championship Series) it runs counter to the experience of an accessible shared-world campaign. Now, the DM has been given one golden rule: Make decisions and adjudications that enhance the fun of the adventure when possible. DMs are now empowered to adjust adventures to accomplish this task, just like they would in their home games. Having a good play experience is now the number one priority.
LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS excitement is building, and if you like what you've read here, go to the RPGA website at www.wizards.com/rpga to get more information on the campaign. Character creation rules and many more details are available right now. LFR has evolved from over 20 years of other shared-world games -- come join us and see what the future holds!
This concludes the first series of installments for the RPGA Report. Next month, stay tuned for a new series!
The main goal of the LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS (or LFR) campaign is to create an organized play experience that is as inclusive and accessible as possible, while still keeping the considerations of a massive shared-world campaign in mind. The barriers for getting involved in LFR have been significantly reduced over past campaigns. The focus of this campaign is on creating fun gameplay.
To start, LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS will have a regional system for your characters. However, it will work differently than Living campaigns have in the past -- no longer is play dictated by where you live in the real world. Rather, you determine your character's region from a list of twelve allowed in the campaign. You can play an adventure from any region, but you might find that playing your character's regional adventures proves more advantageous to you, at times, than to characters who are strangers to your home.
Your ability to access all of the adventures for LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS means that you'll have plenty of opportunities for play right in your own home. In the first two months of the campaign, at least eighteen adventures will become available for play in LFR. Adventures will be rolled out on a weekly basis, meaning that you'll rarely have want for a new play experience.
Mapping real-world locations to regions in the FORGOTTEN REALMS still exists, but really only for administrative and community-building purposes. One of the great strengths of the regional system is localization. Being able to talk to a campaign administrator that lives nearby, as well as helping to organize local events, is all made easier through the regional system. So, while your character might be from one of many different regions, your area falls into a certain administrative boundary that is associated with a particular region.
Adventure play has also evolved. Adventures are tightly focused on a narrower grouping of eligible character levels than in the past. In the days of LIVING GREYHAWK, you might have had an adventure written for characters levels 1–15, now the adventure will be written for a four-level spread. This gives the adventure a better sense of cohesion and improves its play.
We've also made a change in your ability to replay adventures. In the past, you could only play each adventure once. Now, you can play each adventure once with each appropriate character you possess. If you DM an adventure, you can play it afterwards. LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS is meant to be a casual play experience, and giving players additional play options allows them to interact with the campaign the way they want.
Our character creation rules have also been overhauled. All too often in the past I've heard "How do I create a character for the RPGA?" The answer's always been a little too complex -- each campaign had so many custom rules for character creation. Now, a standardized document that gives base rules for all RPGA character creation is available, and each campaign has an appendix with additional considerations.
LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS also gives you more freedom to make the character you want without having to jump through a bunch of burning hoops. We want you to get a lot of use out of your books and D&D Insider. Other shared-world RPGA programs assume that most material is unavailable for your character without special access. But in LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS, most material you'd want as a player is accessible right when the book hits the shelves or the monthly issue of Dragon is compiled. We'll even let you try out playtest classes (such as the artificer from issue #365) from Dragon in LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS!
Treasure and rewards has been brought in-line with the rules for distribution in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Characters will receive about one magic item per level, and they can buy more with gold they accumulate. Characters don't adventure to just gain access to items -- they actually find magic items during play and can choose to select a found item at the end of the adventure.
Recording your adventure play is straightforward. Each player maintains his or her character's adventure log, which contains just the important information: adventure name, XP totals, gold totals, and magic items gained. Heavy bookkeeping is now a thing of the past.
If you want to leave your mark on the Realms, this is the campaign to do it. Close cooperation with R&D and our books team ensures that we're able to provide adventures that fit into the official Realms while still providing you with plenty of variety in adventure locales. Most adventures have adventure questions that are collected to determine the future direction of the campaign. Decisions you and your adventuring company make have an impact on the future!
But perhaps the most important thing that's changed is the philosophy behind being a DM for our shared-world games. In the past, emphasis was placed on tournament-style play. Under this philosophy, adventures had to be run "as written" to provide a "consistent" play experience. Tournament-style play is an artifact of the past, and while it does have its place (like the D&D Championship Series) it runs counter to the experience of an accessible shared-world campaign. Now, the DM has been given one golden rule: Make decisions and adjudications that enhance the fun of the adventure when possible. DMs are now empowered to adjust adventures to accomplish this task, just like they would in their home games. Having a good play experience is now the number one priority.
LIVING FORGOTTEN REALMS excitement is building, and if you like what you've read here, go to the RPGA website at www.wizards.com/rpga to get more information on the campaign. Character creation rules and many more details are available right now. LFR has evolved from over 20 years of other shared-world games -- come join us and see what the future holds!
This concludes the first series of installments for the RPGA Report. Next month, stay tuned for a new series!
The rules for magic items just sound so much like 'drops' in a video game, though, that it's funny. :D
I almost... but not quite... am intersted in this. The adventures and fluff sound like something I want to get my hands on, but I'm afraid these LFR groups will be made entirely of 'power-gamers', and I don't roll that way.
I almost... but not quite... am intersted in this. The adventures and fluff sound like something I want to get my hands on, but I'm afraid these LFR groups will be made entirely of 'power-gamers', and I don't roll that way.
Believe me, we're not like that at all.
As an example, compare the Character Optimisation forum to the Living Greyhawk Character forum; there are enough healthy accusations of cheese! flying around on the latter to suggest that the RPGA campaigns are at worst on a par with regular gamers and at best contain fewer power-gamers per capita.
This is backed up by my experience. So come Markus, come to the dark side...
Joe
;) :P
-Some new info from Chris Tulach
-Was that anything we didn't already know? I don't get it.
-I got the PDF, thanks to a beautiful, lovely, great person (who isn't Merrik).
there's one besides me?
As yes, the movie where people wear full plate armor when having sex.
believe me, it doesn't work
there's one besides me?
-Obviously.
-Obviously.
true enough
they all look like car-bumpers off a '57 Chevy. :P
And I loved every minute of it...
"Anul Nathrek, Uthvarse Bithird..."
