My campaign, which is the Cormyr based one I mentioned elsewhere, somehow manages to keep going without my PC's demanding to go to Elminster, Calednai, Alusair or any of the other major NPC's and telling them to go solve all the problems. I've not had any player complain that 'That's not how Cormyr works! That's not how this small shop in Arabel should look' etc etc, which is amazing given the comments of some here. If I went just by those, I'd assume that the Realms leads all players to do that. But somehow I manage.
The large amount of lore is a boon to me, not a burden. But then again, I read the section in the FRCS saying I should make the Realms my own, and did that, rather then feeling enslaved to the canon. I made use of various resources, but never felt like I had to use all the sources, and everything within them.
Not that this is proof of any subjective quality in the Pre-Spellplague Realms, but simply my own feelings on the matter, given that I've managed to run a game in the 3rd Edition Realms. While I do indeed have lots of resources to draw upon for my campaign in the long term, I'd have mightily appreciated the Cormyr supplement that looked for all the world like it was just around the corner. That's one of the many losses for me with the new regime.
18DELTA (The Realms gave me CYRIC!) :P
Uzzy, I bet you stewed and stewed before you came up with the idea for this thread, didn’t you? :P But I'm happy you're running a successful 3E game nonetheless.
Anyway, I began my 3E Realms game before the FRCS was released (thanks to the Core Rulebooks being released first) and started it in Cormyr, and that game is still going today.
We moved north for a bit and traipsed around Daggerdale, the Desertsmouth Mountains and the outlying edges of Tethyamar, but then came right back to Cormyr in time for the War with Nalavarra and the return of Shade.
I used the three Cormyr Saga books -laden with lore as they were- for my campaign backdrop and threw everything + the kitchen sink into our game (that is, Dragon Magazine stuff, an adventure in the FRCS, Sword and Sorcery Studios products, WotC’s own series of 3E adventures [before they got away from printing adventures for a few years] and so on).
Since then we’ve been all over the Realms and to planes beyond. My players have destroyed Ashardalon in the Bastion of Unborn Souls and received thanks from Ao himself for it, brought final death to one of Manshoon’s clones, become heroes of renown in Cormyr and Waterdeep, stolen artifacts out from under the noses of The Shades, played off one noble against another in Cormyr’s Royal Court and on the streets of Waterdeep, brought civilization to the Stonelands, stood against the lost army of Shade and prevented them from overtaking the ruins of Tilverton, braved the halls of Undermountain and overcome the worst that Muriel could throw at them, discovered the Netherese portals at Blister, obliterated fiendish armies mustering in Myth Drannor, recovered their honor after being duped into murdering nobles and banished Orcus for one hundred years for taking it, haggled with Mystra over the fate of magic in Cormyr (thank you Ed Greenwood for your help on that), defeated Malar’s Chosen (an advanced Tarrasque -thank you Dragon Magazine for that writeup!), angered Azuth to the point where he nearly obliterated them, matched wits with the gods Kelemvor, Deneir, Aumanator and Kiaransallie (sorry if the names are spelled wrong), defeated every last one of Vaerhaun’s Fey Champions, fought Baazim Gorag to a standstill and kept the Githyanki from stealing the core of Aumanator’s power lost on the Astral Plane, and stood watch over Azoun as he lay dying.
When my favorite game designer advised not using Ghazneths, I did anyway. And my players battled and defeated the Ghazneths with brilliant tactics and teamwork.
And this my friends is just a sampling of all that my wonderful players have accomplished.
I’ve used every single Chosen of Mystra and several other noteworthy NPC personages in my game. My players have sought them out for advice and aid, to complain to them and even to battle them!
The Simbul has fooled them into thinking she was Elminster in order to manipulate them. Khelben has stolen Shadow Weave magic items from them after deeming the PCs unfit to have them. Alustriel has bartered with them over loads of magical paraphernalia to aid in their epic spell research, while Qilue had mentored one of their number.
My players have saved their lives (including Khelben’s) and rallied to defend the Realms when the Chosen were felled.
I’ve never shied away from portraying in the extreme the demeanors, attitudes and unique characteristics each NPC is best known by (there’s so much written in novels and sourcebooks about all of them over the last two decades) to enhance my game and our play experience.
I’ve portrayed Allusair like a caged animal, barely restrained at court. I’ve shown Elminster to be weak, hurt, insane and old. I’ve revealed the folly in The Blackstaff’s arrogance and manipulativeness, and the true depth of Laeral’s unswerving love and loyalty to him regardless of his faults.
And I’ve stolen, borrowed or otherwise conjured up adventuring ideas and information from wherever I could find it.
To me the experience of running a 3E Realms game has always been about finding ways to match the needs and wants of my players with my own ideas for grand plots and stories, by successfully managing the staggering mass of lore that makes up the Realms, shining the spotlight briefly on its iconic NPCs and then moving it back to the players (so they can make the decisions) and mating this all up with outside adventure and rules resources in order to propel my game ever forward.
And now I have a great (so far) 4E Realms game with those same players. Does it get any better than this?
Short of sitting down for a Realms session with Ed Greenwood himself, I don’t think so.
I know, shocking. It's especially surprising in light of the various designer comments which leave one of the mind that they feel its a train wreck of a setting that needed nuking from orbit, but gosh darn it, I somehow managed to get a game running in the Forgotten Realms, and enjoy it too!
I'm not running a non-Spellplague Realms game, but I am playing in one and having a fun time of it too!
Almost everyone in the group is a "loremaster", and yet there have been no arguments about how the DM isn't doing it right, and no one has suggested that we "run" to the nearest high level NPC to solve our problems. Nope, we're having fun solving our problems on our own, and gaining local reknown because of it.Of course I wil begin a new game using 3.5 rules from first level in September.
Pre-spellplague of course. ;)
I know, shocking. It's especially surprising in light of the various designer comments which leave one of the mind that they feel its a train wreck of a setting that needed nuking from orbit, but gosh darn it, I somehow managed to get a game running in the Forgotten Realms, and enjoy it too!
Please, the Design and Development team despise both the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk. They have proven that their taste is questionable.
And that's putting it politely.