Anyone heard more information or rumours?
I just feel like we have been left on a cliff hanger since the Sundering.
Whenever I run the Realms, I no longer know what era to run it in!
Last I heard no Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting was in development.
Haven't heard a thing. A lack of news for many moons does not inspire confidence.
*crickets*
Its just strange you know. They are launching adventures in the Forgotten Realms yet offer no products that explains what the Forgotten Realms are.
As an edition that claims to be aimed at new players, this is quite condradictory.
It also leaves the rest of us who were so hyped about the 'new realms' completely hanging.
Anyway, I know they are short on resources and they want to 'get it right' ... but this doesn't 'feel right'
You have to support the product you are advertizing.
There have been many speculations (based on what Mearls said here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?1590-What-is-Happening-to-Tabletop-Roleplaying-Games#.VQIHs45wtGQ ) about WotC using the RPG and FR just as some sort of base to focus their actual resources on licensed products and on the ''brand'' (board games, pc games, t-shirts, smartphone apps and the likes), while giving D&D itself bare bones development. The adventures are set in FR, but looking at the ''weight'' of actual realmslore development that they offer, FR seems to be a sort of placeholder for them as well (in fact they are supposed to be easily usable in any world).
Basically -according to some- WotC isn't interested in selling RPG or setting books, but is investing more heavily in side-products.
Irennan wrote:
Well, reading the last few lines by Mearls, I get the feeling that he doesn't like the idea of big, 300-pages campaign settings anymore (he doesn't explicitly say it, but there's some kind of udertone that points against them getting significant attention). That said, it is quite ironic, as there seem to be a high demand for CS http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?428366-Products-You-Would-Like-to-See-WotC-Publish-For-5E (granted, 1 poll doesn't mean much, even if taken on a quite big site like ENWorld, but it still is worthy of some consideration...).
But at this point, If they are so much focused on side products, I don't know if they are actually interested in that kind of data anymore 
Looking at it from another perspective, there are already 4 editions worth of sourcebooks for the FR (Although you could discount 4th, I guess?) It's possible they don't feel the need for another big book, but rather want to release tidbits through published adventures (they need to officially finish this Sundering business, after all), and then perhaps posting a small update marking all the major changes to the realms, and then leaving it at that - our imaginations can fill in the rest.
It sucks, I guess, but I'm already using a lot of 3rd edition material as is base (and that stuff is quite good - love the sourcebook in the Silver Marches, for example), and I wouldn't be surprised if everyone else is in lieu of a proper 5th edition source book.
If they really are shying away from big, hundreds of pages sourcebooks, I can see anything further they do do will be more piece-meal, similar to the evolution of the videogames market with regards to DLC.
But their adventures provide very little Realmslore and are crafted so that they could be used in any world, they definitely aren't enough to define the post-Sundering Realms (remeber that the Sundering was supposed to be this HUUUGE RSE that would have brought back continents, lands, deities and so on, and that we only got to see a very narrow part of it). I could get behind a broad update document (describing what happened to the returned lands, which deities are back and their current goals, organizations and so on)+ referencing the 3e FRCS as the main source of info (As they are currently doing), but I want to know how the 5e FR looks like and we currently have extremely little on it...
The thing is that their main interest don't really seem to be in the RPG itself anymore, not merely shifting from big books to little ones (in fact, their only releases are those huge 1-20 adventure paths, without any smaller books, like regional/thematic sourcebooks or shorter adventures).
There are those things called the Core Rulebooks they just finished.
Let's not swing the pendulum so far in another wild direction just because WotC are adapting to the task of handing out licenses and dealing with subcontractors.
The notion that WotC are not interested in D&D except for the sake of publishing adventures simply is not true.
It may be true, though. That's why I talked about ''speculations''. We can't say that it's a sure thing, but we can't dismiss it either (especially not when we have at least some talks that could hint to that). And their interest in D&D wouldn't just be publishing adventures, but mainly building a brand to sell various side products.
If WotC were no longer interested in publishing D&D books, they would not have spent years producing and publishing the 5E core rulebooks.
I think you are right to say WotC's attention is being spread out to some of the other things you mentioned, but I can't think of a good reason to believe it's more than that.
The core books and a new edition are always source of major income and therefore something worth doing. Besides they had to do that. If they want to sell the ''brand'', they must have one to begin with, but the previous D&D rules left the fan base extremely fractured and -for that reason- were bad for the foundation of a strong brand (pretty much like Realms fans are fractured). The thing is, while Drizzt/the novel line forces them to not reboot the FR (or this is my take on it, at least), they can do away with the rules as they wish and replace them with something that the majority of fans would like (and they knew that people would like them because that was the whole point of the huge playtest).
My apologies if I sound like a naysayer or as some prophet of doom, I really don't want to and I'd be very happy to be proven wrong (because what I want is to see the Realms restored, nurtured and developed), but I just can't ignore all the hints that WotC has been leaving around.
Irennan wrote:
The funny thing is that in their organized play document, they refer the 3e FRCS as the primary source for info, despite the current era being post-Sundering. This means that the new FR will probably look like it used to in 3e. At this point I'd even settle for a mere broad update document, using the 3e FRCS as the main source and then giving general info on the full extent of changes brought by the Sundering (like the restored lands, detieis and so on), but I don't know if WotC would even bother with that...
I'm totally fine with that. Next to the grey box, the 3e FRCS is my favorite iteration.
Irennan wrote:
Ralif_Redhammer wrote:
I think they might want people to check out the pdfs on FR material on their D&D classic site. There is so much info out there already in print, PDF, or wiki form that they are not concerned with redoing another Campaign book just yet. Ten years ago this would drive me nuts but I am cool with it now and am okay with running the Realms without any training wheels. If something comes out that does not jive with my story I just ignore it since my players are not big Realms fans.
If that's what they wanted, then why not just 'reboot' the Realms ... what's the point of the Sundering if they arn't gonna follow up on it or support it?
For now, I have rebooted back to 2E/3E because at least the Realms of that time are detailed. Lately I find myself buying more used 2nd Edition stuff then anything.
They can't reboot mainly because of the novel line (especially Drizzt, which gives them a substantial income).
Irennan wrote:
That is a matter of opinion, especially when then setting goes through a ''masked'' reboot anyway, and said ''mask'' doesn't really make a whole lot of sense (I mean, Ao let the world explode and people die and god battle themselves to no end because he ''wanted to teach them a lesson''? And now it(?) snaps its finger and stuff comes back? This is just like saying: ''yo, we're resetting stuff, but we need a Deus ex Machina to do that'').
That already is comic standard tbh. However, I don't really care about suspension of disbelief anymore, I just want all the unique elements that were unjustly destroyed/killed/removed because of a design philosophy, and want more stories and lore about those and about the new things as well.
I just ignored a bunch of the 4e stuff for my game. The plague happened but magic is different now. We are dealing with fiends now and one player asked a fiend why they just did not summon more fiends. He told them "That sort of magic died off 100 years ago, magic is different now"
There is alot of material out there on the Realms, yet it would be nice to have a little article every month or so...."Word around Waterdeep", "Banter in Baldurs Gate", "Nonsense from Neverwinter", , "Lies in Luskan'', "Cries from Cormyr", "Hear-say in the Heartlands", "Digress of the Dalelands", "Rumors in Rashemen", "Additives from Amn"..
..Just some updates on possibilities, ideas, rumors, news, propaganda, Trade Deals. Nothing WORLD Shattering but some creative spunk of what might be happening or could be happening which might fit in your game or not at all. It doesn't have to have alliteration but Bards have to be singing about something. 
"There is no pain without gain, I must be gaining alot, I'll give it all that got, Bring it on!"
Yet only time will tell and perhaps with all this talk in Forbes we will see a bit more Propaganda about all the settings but more importantly the Realms.
There is alot of material out there on the Realms, yet it would be nice to have a little article every month or so...."Word around Waterdeep", "Banter in Baldurs Gate", "Nonsense from Neverwinter", , "Lies in Luskan'', "Cries from Cormyr", "Hear-say in the Heartlands", "Digress of the Dalelands", "Rumors in Rashemen", "Additives from Amn"....Just some updates on possibilities, ideas, rumors, news, propaganda, Trade Deals. Nothing WORLD Shattering but some creative spunk of what might be happening or could be happening which might fit in your game or not at all. It doesn't have to have alliteration but Bards have to be singing about something. "There is no pain without gain, I must be gaining alot, I'll give it all that got, Bring it on!"
Yet only time will tell and perhaps with all this talk in Forbes we will see a bit more Propaganda about all the settings but more importantly the Realms.
Right now, I am using the goings on in the current Companions Codex series (which is the same storyline that is going on in Table Titans, web comic). The orcs of Many Arrows has started a war as a part of Menzoberranzan's plot to discredit and destroy Drizzt Do'Urden. The drow gain the backing of two white dragons and a clan of Frost Giants to add to the armies of Many Arrows. They trap the dwarves in their citadels (Adbar, Felbar, and Mithral Hall) while they destroy Nesme and Sundabar. They were assualting Silverymoon for a while, but the wizards were repelling them, and the elves of the Moonwood were holding their own with small strike teams, but could not gain any advantage.
My campaign has the PCs as members of the Luruar and they have to move toward uniting their strengths to defeat the orcs. I think it is pretty cool. The PCs have met the Companions of the Hall, but largely are expected to make impacts of their own.
I am using that event as a background to the players main threat which is the Cult of the Dragon. Long story short, the players have been dealing with the cult and all of a sudden this new threat pops up. The Cult and Pcs have to deal with this new problem but not really team up to stop it. Since my game is set in Nesme I have Silverymoon gett taken over. Everlund is "protected" now by the Cult. Obould is going to send envoys of peace to Nesme but one of the cities leaders (and father of a pc) wife was killed recently by an orc horde.