I myself, will use some of the ideas for the 100 yr. jump they decided to make, but, some of the major changes are this:
4e FR will now be Pathfinder rules. 4e sucks in my opinion, so it will stay 3.5ish with the Pathfinder rules set.
Old deities all still exist as is prior to 4e - events described in 4e FRCG still happened, but with the following changes - Ao, being the Overlord he is, spanked the gods again when Cyric murdered Mystra at the behest of Shar because Shar did what Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul did - she overstepped her portfolio bounds. The resulting chaos is the spellplague while a new Mystra was being found, which Ao let play out for one century to punish them (the gods) all by going after them where it hurts, their followers. Tyr did die, but, being a "newcomer" god, he just made his way back to the FR thanks to loyal faithful after a decade of near silence. Mystra still the goddess of magic as before, however, she no longer can cut off magic from anyone, and anyone can access it, including 10-12 level spells now. (A copy of the spell Karsus's Avatar is still missing.) Shar no longer controls the shadow weave, Ao took away her toy and made them both director free to help stop the squabbling, once the new Mystra will appear.
Returned Abier did indeed return to Toril, however, it did so in a different location than Maztica. All previous explored lands - Zahkara, The Far East, Maztica, Spelljamming planets still around, but also affected by the spellplague. Returned Abier as described in the book, with portals to transplanted Toril located there within. Landscape of Toril changed as described, with earthmotes, some of the old empires hit hard by the rifts caused when Returned Abeir transplanted some of the land, so a mix of ruins, new peoples, and portals leading to "familiar" lands inside of a strange world.
Spellplague - I almost see this as the cinnabryl ingestion/"Red Curse" of the Red Steel campaign. Pockets of active infectious areas still dot the landscape. It has been somewhat figured out how to get spellscarred status without a huge chance of becoming plaguescarred, but, there is always that chance.
Primordials - New gods, like Ishtishia, Grumbar, Kossuth, and Akadi - once they waken and possibly fight for new portfolios.
Land/country/NPC changes - as is, natural progression of things. Some of the missing 7 Sisters have done what they have done in the past, go missing, letting people think they are dead so they can work in secret again. If players are really interested, then, they get to go find out what happened to them.
That's all I have for right now, but, as things come up I am sure to make more changes to the horrendously fact-lite & dumbed down version of the newest FRCG for new players.
So what's everyone else doing to their Realms?
Really, I don't feel the need to change anything and am quite happy to just add what I want to the resources I've been given as needed.
Old deities all still exist as is prior to 4e - events described in 4e FRCG still happened, but with the following changes - Ao, being the Overlord he is, spanked the gods again when Cyric murdered Mystra at the behest of Shar because Shar did what Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul did - she overstepped her portfolio bounds. The resulting chaos is the spellplague while a new Mystra was being found, which Ao let play out for one century to punish them (the gods) all by going after them where it hurts, their followers. Tyr did die, but, being a "newcomer" god, he just made his way back to the FR thanks to loyal faithful after a decade of near silence.
The use of the FR effect of bringing dead gods back via worship is a good way to do this; I like this one (the gods that you want to die, do die, but they come back). I think Ao's a bit much of a "beatstick"/"deus ex machina" thing but it's not like they haven't done it before.
Returned Abier as described in the book, with portals to transplanted Toril located there within. Landscaped of Toril changed as described, with earthmotes, some of the old empires hit hard by the rifts caused when Returned Abeir transplanted some of the land, so a mix of ruins, new peoples, and portals leading to "familiar" lands inside of a strange world.
How would you describe the manner in which portals exist between RA and Toril? Did people make them after it arrived? (They do have 100 years to do so). Where would you put them in RA and in the FR? Would they be big enough for the dragon lords to send dragons through?
So what's everyone else doing to their Realms?
Check out the link in my sig about Alternate Forgotten Realms; that covers my entire campaign file.
The use of the FR effect of bringing dead gods back via worship is a good way to do this; I like this one (the gods that you want to die, do die, but they come back). I think Ao's a bit much of a "beatstick"/"deus ex machina" thing but it's not like they haven't done it before.
True, but he has a proven track record of spanking gods when the spanking is needed. Besides, the faithful can all blame Ao once again for what happened, it wasn't like it was any of their fault this time.. at least that's what they tell their faithful.
How would you describe the manner in which portals exist between RA and Toril? Did people make them after it arrived? (They do have 100 years to do so). Where would you put them in RA and in the FR? Would they be big enough for the dragon lords to send dragons through?
They are "natural" rifts that happened at the time of the great rejoining/conjoining. Scattered throughout the land, natural ones can be found. Some are very tiny, some are large enough for dragons/primoridals/merchant caravans to come through. They work like modified true portals, the ones too tiny to sufficiently "engulf" a person have no effect on a person as they walk through, however, drop a coin or similiar small item up to it's max. size through, and it is gone.
True portals have been established by some brave travelers, but, they are highly secret, and not for general use by everyone.
We like 4e rules, but the 4e Realms are a total bore to us, so we will probably continuing building our homebrew world using the few things mentioned in the core rukebooks.
We borrow heavily from lots of sources, so some 4eFR stuff might make it in, but we are more likely to pick form earlier editions that have more information.
1. Gruumsh and the Orc Pantheon are now unaligned, and their ethos is softened slightly away from overt evil.
2. Retconning portfolios out of existence. Dumb idea IMO. Evil gods are in opposition to the natural order, and aren't part of it.
3. Gods are distant, and are forces of nature, not NPCs. Exarchs are less so.
It strikes me as hasty and contrived.
Weapons;
All one handed wpn can be used in the off-hand.
Critical hit is as in 3.5ed (so rapiers score a crit at rolls of 18-20, however only a 20 roll is a natural crit and hit automatically as per 4E rules).
Rapier is a military melee weapon. (thus becoming useful again)
Small sized humanoids can use two-handed weapons.
Weapons do damage as in 4E.
Spells;
Spells with duration will use the 3.5ed timer rather than the 4E's 'until the end of your next turn'. The invisibility spells don't have a range (they're personal or on target). Greater invisibility does not end when you attack. They are per-day power at the level they were in 3.5ed.
The summon monster/animal spells are back in, lasting as per 3.5. They are per-day power. You summon the same, named monster/animal every time so tell us a little bit background about it.
The stat-spells are back as per-encounter spells or 5 minutes per level both for wizards and clerics.
If there's a spell from 3.5ed PHB you'd like ask me and I'll see if we can get it in. The same goes for skills and feats.
Equipment;
Adventuring gear (not armor or weapons) (p. 222) items costing up to 20gp is free. You have 100gp to spend.
The climbing kit include climbing gloves as in 3.5ed.
If there's equipment from 3.5 PHB or DMG (that isn't in 4E) you'd like, I'll see if I can convert it to 4E.
Magic equipment only; we'll use the 3.5ed or 4E price, wichever cost less.
Other;
Let's start at level 1, 250 exp.
For stats use 18 16 14 12 10 8 before race bonuses.
Races; PHB. And some from the MM but only; doppelganger, drow, gnome, warforged from page 276-279. You can also try to convert a changeling, aasimar, nixie, dryad, nymph or other non-evil human-looking humanoids from 3.5ed of small and medium size, just ask first.
wizards gain a clay scout OR iron defender from p. 156 (they have 15 HP) as a guardian. (tell us a little bit about it). It is free.
clerics get the phantom warrior from p. 116 (have 15 HP) as a guardian. Must be a dead family member or friend loyal to you (tell us who and why s/he remains among the living). Your cleric replaces the 'another phantom warrior' needed for the phantom tactics to work. It is free.
anyone can have a pet. These cost 75 gp; small animals from 3.5ed MM not in the 4E MM (like birds), giant rat (p. 219), riding horse (p. 159). Costing 100gp; fire beetle (p. 30), dire rat (p. 219), spiretop drake (p. 90).
Gods; Mystra did not die, but was gone into hiding a short while. That's why magic returned so fast. Mystra never controlled all magics; remember the ancient Narfelli and Imaskari that cast magic from whitin themself rather than depending on a god's weave. Elven mythals is the same way I belive. Mystra's weave is only for humans, like Coreallon's is for elves. But in truth wizards do not have to depend on any gods for magic; just look at the RA wich never had gods. So the 'forbidden' 10 level spells is aviable in my campaign if they can find the scrolls, typically in narfell and imaskari ruins.
Elistrae isn't dead; instead Lloth and her plane dies and vanish. They were a bad idea anyway.
Vharyg_Sorrow; the primordials of RA isn't gods. Do you make them into gods in your campaigns?
I like most of the new Faerun, including the RA, but I strongly detest what they did to the City of Shade, the shadovars, that Sembia and several dalelands are under the shadovar rule. So I remove them shadows and rather have Anauroch grow into a frontier/wilderness with no rulers; lots of monsters. But nature have returned to this land as per 4E. I still call it Anauroch to mark that the netherese and their shadovars are gone for good.
Sembia and the Dalelands is a friendly and happy area, mostly, and the elves return to Cormathor driving away every drow and sealing all exits from the underdark.
So what's everyone else doing to their Realms?
My Realms isn't moving forward 100 years, and there won't ever be a Spellplague there.
I do like the 4E rules, though.
The only thing even remotely interesting about the book was the Returned Abeir jive
Agreed, although I'd use it in a different setting. Oh yeah, and I liked the glossary too.
My Realms isn't moving forward 100 years, and there won't ever be a Spellplague there.
I do like the 4E rules, though.
-I'm still waiting for you to run that game...
So... what im doing is:
- Im using the 4th edition rules with some house rules:
a) First i kept a lot of skills that were useful to my games. See, my party doesnt like dungeon crawls, and many our game sessions are RP-heavy (lots of social interaction, city encounters, etc). I found the system lacking in skills, so i kept the old skill system. It also stroke me as odd that with the new skill system high lvl characters are good at everything (lvl 20 mages with +10 to thievery ftw). I dislike that.
b) Second i kept the vancian system for magic, since the power of magic was one of the appealing things for me and my players in the setting, and we dont like how its been tuned down.
- We are playing 3.5 FR though, and plan to keep it that way... no Spellplague, no weird new lands, etc. Just the good old realms. There is a lot of land stil in it for us to explore.
Cheers
Vharyg_Sorrow; the primordials of RA isn't gods. Do you make them into gods in your campaigns?
No, they aren't gods... yet. But, with enough worshippers, over enough time, they can be. It depends mostly on whether or not my players are looking for something different.
I do like the 4th edition rules, but really dislike the 4th edition FR. With their changes, they killed exactly the things i loved about the setting (mainly the extend of details and characters... now its barely a geography treatsie).
Cheers
I agree about the 4th ed FRCG being shallow, content wise. I will use the barebones "ideas" they had within the FRCG - earthmotes, primordials, changed landscape, etc., and apply previous history with known current conditions (not a lot on that front, so I'll add as needed).
Another thing I have decided to do is add an active "timegate" so if the players are unhappy with Toril circa 1479 DR, they can always go back to 1374 DR.
-I'm still waiting for you to run that game...
Well, I wouldn't hold your breath--for one thing, my 4E stuff is now packed up (temporarily, of course). Second, I'd still be a bit nervous about being a DM.
However, after multiple readings, it grew on me. I have run FR since the original setting but the new is a breath of fresh air. I like that there are more Kingdoms or Countries now, no longer huge expanses of independant cities.
I am going to attempt to run it as it is to really try out and explore all the new societies, villians and landscapes. (May have to bring Sehenine back for my girlfriend though
)No offense to the novels, but they tend to make it more difficult to run a game IMO. Dragonlance was the worst with this.
I don't necessarily know that I will bring him back unaffected however, or even leave him alive.. I do note that Cyric seems to have picked up Destruction (of a mindless sort) in his portfolio which was something I always attributed to Talos. Perhaps the two deities are struggling with some sort of divine Osmosis, and Cyric-Talos is now even more insane dealing with a growing schizophrenia... hmmm.. I could see Cyric caught in the backlash of Mystra's plane and not get away unaffected...
I will also have the displaced Red Wizards and diminished Zhents working hard to re-establish themselves as true threats to peace and order while slowly undermining the strength of the Netheril Empire. I find myself starting to dislike the Shades and Shadovar immensely and can't put my finger on exactly why. I won't undo the effects of the book in that regard, but I might have Netheril's influence start to fade.
Edit: Dislike as in bored-and-not-really-impressed with "same as Zhents and Red Wizards, but uber, and in new clothes", not as in "love to hate".
-Netheril: Will make a -limited- return. They will be a quiet, slow moving meance. Their sphere of control will also be small (see below)
-Zhentil Keep: I can't take credit for this idea, but it's on another thread made by someone else (sorry cant remember your name). The Zhents will be the ones who have taken control of Sembia, as this makes more sense with their expansionistic, mercantile leanings. The Zhents will be a powerful force still as they are much more interesting foes for the PCs. The Zhents have infighting that the PCs might be able to take advantage of (much better plot potential to me here)
Gods:
Mystra (hurt but not dead) Eilistraee still alive (sorry, drow still need a beacon of light to go to in the growing darkness, she's the best symbol for what Wizards had in mind for their "pools of light in growing darkness"). The Spellplague will have been brought about by what I will call the Godswar. The gods and their allies will have finally went to battle, not as individuals, but as their coalitions. This brought about the catastrophy known as the Spellplague.
Other then that, those are the strongest changes I can think of at the moment.