The Realms I Never Knew

 

"Elminster's Tale"- Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

Howdy, Farmhands- 

    I almost didn't blog this at first, wanting the opinions and input of people more learned than me. After typing out the third paragraph into the group discord, though, I knew this would just save everyone's time. 

    In the same 24 hour period, I encountered two separate author's works of writing that aligned together in a way I can only describe as serendipitous. I want to walk you through my thoughts about them, as something deep and burning within me insists there is something of value to be learned or discussed, if only for my own personal growth as someone with TTRPG opinions.

    Firstly, a rabbit hole of blog links lead me to Dwiz' 2019 4-part series "The Differences in Mystara, Greyhawk, and Forgotten Realms". Though my personal history with Dungeons and Dragons didn't BEGIN until late in the same year this series was posted, I still feel a sense of regret that I missed out on it as it was being released. What's important for my current Thought is this: I've never really needed to engage with Mystara or Greyhawk as settings, outside of passing curiosity with D&D's wacky lore. Dwiz' summarization of them; where they shined and what elements needed to be emphasized to fulfill their fantastical conceits, finally gave me a moment to appreciate how "D&D" evolved as a set of fantasy worlds alongside it's mechanical changes. This post was ALSO where I finally understood what the Forgotten Realms as a setting was before it became the de-facto sandbox for every cool dnd concept ever, as Fifth edition expanded and stuffed more and more ideas into it's confines. Having begun my experience with the game in the latter half of 5E's life cycle meant I had only ever seen it as a generic fantasy-land, where all the greatest hits were played.

    The second work I found, "Knaves of the Realms" by Seba G. M., took the kindling provided by Dwiz and ignited it into a flame. This series of Tri-fold pamplets, a GM and Player facing duo for running Ben Milton's Knave in the Forgotten Realms setting, and "Knaves in the Mist", a similar supplement for GMs running Knave in Ravenloft, does something incredibly similar to Dwiz's blogposts, in a smaller, more gameable way. They begin with something of a mission statement, declaring which Four or Five key concepts the setting should enforce, and follow with tables and procedures to facilitate a game that makes use of those concepts; even if the system being used wasn't written with those settings in mind.

    And this just

    Fascinates me.

    But it also somewhat concerns me, on a personal level. I am on the record as having significantly negative opinions about Fifth edition D&D, D&D as a brand, and Wizards of the Coast as a company- but a good amount of my vitriol is aimed specifically at the "Just Homebrew It" mentality that has seen countless players become laser focused on only ever playing a game system that isn't designed to support the genres they would like it to. Sure, Knave is a considerably smaller and less mechanically complex system compared to 5e, but Knaves of the Realms rebalances the existing magic system wholly. Is there not an obvious contradiction between my loud and public distaste of a practice and my sudden appreciation of it here? If I were cheeky, I'd say No; but I genuinely don't know.

    The distillation of the themes and tone of a fantasy setting down to their basic elements, limiting choices or emulating and promoting the choices of entire other games intrigues me and by highlighting them in their respective works, both Dwiz and Seba manage to endear me to these settings where their official releases have failed to. And my mind races with the possibilities of similar works being made that distill other settings down for use with... Who knows? I've seen conversions of stats and items to allow Vaults of Vaarn to be played with Cairn; but nothing that explains to me why that should excite me. Starfinder is continually marketed to me as THE sci-fi ttrpg, but I don't understand it's lore anymore than I understand actual rocket science. Is there something in this concept that could go beyond specifically adapting these two official D&D settings into this specific OSR game system, something that promotes why these fantasy worlds became remembered so fondly outside the game they were created to sell?

    I have no fucking idea.

    Until next time,

        -Farmer Gadda