Forgotten Realms Material

[prufock]

Hey everyone,

I'm just curious how other people use Forgotten Realms material in non-FR settings, particularly when it pertains to regional restrictions. Personally, I've never been to strict on fluff, so I ignore certain things. I keep the race restrictions, but completely drop the regional requirements, so for example the requirement human (Nimbral) becomes simply human, elf (Evermeet) requires only elf, etc. I still normally disallow stuff that isn't in my setting, so if I'm playing a setting with no elves, there are no elf feats.

Is this standard? Do other people do the same, or ban FR feats completely if not playing in FR, or some other method? Is there an "official" right way to do this?

[RedMage125]

I disallow regional feats and FR Spells (including the Spell Compendium, which was mostly FR spells with names altered).

I allow some prestige classes. Especially for deities for which I have close parallels. Dreadlord, for example, because my deity Bridenal is so very similar to FR's Bane.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Everything goes as long as it fits into the campaign in question (with refluffing as appropiate). I also handwave most non-mechanical requirements in general.

I may veto some things in the name of balance, based on the campaigns intended power level, but almost never for fluff reasons.

[AnonymousPepper]

In my game, I just made all settings explicitly exist at the same time - plane-hopping shenanigans, natch. Heck, it's 3.PF, so I've got, thanks to the wonders of Sigil, Golarion thrown in there alongside Abeir-Toril, Eberron, Oerth, the Demiplane of Dread, and Krynn. And Athas too, but shhhhh, don't tell my players that.

In non-setting-specific/homebrew-set games, I'd allow any campaign specific material, and just have something akin to... well, for example, if somebody wanted to take Red Wizard levels, I'd make a Thay analogue exist in my setting. I'd still allow anything that I wasn't banning for other reasons (for example, bad guys are Red Wizards? no Red Wizard PCs. I want a lower-power game? Red Wizard is banned alongside Wizard itself.)

In setting-specific games, material from other settings that specifically referenced places, people, organizations, etc., would be disallowed ninety-nine times out of one hundred (unless the player can convince me to allow things individually) and material from other settings in general would be on an approval-only basis and unlikely to be approved either (in this case, depending on just how setting specific we're talking). Certainly no blanket approval.

[Tarlek Flamehai]

I do not allow outside campaign setting material in my Forgotten Realms campaign. If I were running a homebrew setting I would cherry pick what material I would allow.

[Solaris]

If the setting I'm using doesn't have a good parallel for the fluffy side of the FR material, I make the player write up the addition to the setting/justification for inclusion and submit it to first myself and then the rest of the group for approval. Usually stuff gets approved unless it's just stupid or plain borked.

[Red Fel]

My general policy on material is that it's a rule of inclusion with exceptions, not a rule of exclusion. By default, unless there is a specific reason to leave something out, I'll generally allow it.

As such, I generally allow FR material, unless there is an explicit reason to exclude. If a particular region doesn't exist, I can include it, or analogize it to one that does. If a particular deity doesn't exist, I can include them, or analogize them to a parallel deity. And so forth. If a particular race doesn't exist, I can usually shoehorn them in, unless that particular game is very race-limited.

It's rare that I'll look at something FR-specific and say, "Nope, that has absolutely no place in this game."

[Solaris]

It's rare that I'll look at something FR-specific and say, "Nope, that has absolutely no place in this game."

I think the only thing I've done that with is spellfire.

[Psyren]

A lot of it is pretty setting-agnostic. For example, Incantatrix, Shou Disciple and Runescarred Berserker can exist anywhere, you hardly need Faerun to invent a concept like that. (Likewise for Eberron - you can divorce Planar Shepherd, Escalation Mage and even something like Silver Pyromancer from their fluff origins pretty easily.)

And yeah, the regional requirements are pretty bunk. People either ignored them or skipped the content, rendering it a waste of text either way.

[Honest Tiefling]

Depends on if I think the player wants to play a concept best served by those options, or is trying to inject Forgotten Realms into a non-Forgotten Realms game.

[Werephilosopher]

I'll allow just about any FR material in my games. I'm very inclusive, so stuff from FR, Eberron, Dragonlance, and the magazines is fine with me. I'll only disallow it if it doesn't fit with my world's already-existing canon, and even then it's easy to refluff stuff to make it fit.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Prufrock
Is this standard? Do other people do the same, or ban FR feats completely if not playing in FR, or some other method?

I've never seen the point of banning FR feats unless they're intimately tied to the setting. Usually I'll allow regional feats much the same as you do.

I did have one DM recently who wouldn't hear of any FR material in his game, period, since he was running in Greyhawk. Fortunately Education shows up in non-FR sourcebooks, but I had to word my request very carefully, because if he'd known there was an FR version he wouldn't have stopped to listen about the other variants. Very mellow guy in person, but open-and-shut about banning material from other settings.

[Afgncaap5]

I'll allow it if I can figure out a good analogy for it in the setting. Someone wanted to take a feat that required using The Weave and worshiping Shar in Eberron once, and that took some finagling, but... still doable. (I never did decide if Shar was better as a Quori or a Lord of Dust.)

[razorback]

Absolutely. If it is very tied to a setting, I allow it to be refluffed if possible. The only thing I don't allow is Eberron, mostly because I don't own the books.
I figure, with a long enough timeline and enough plane-hopping, all of the feats, etc would eventually appear in most fantasy type settings.

[Afgncaap5]

Absolutely. If it is very tied to a setting, I allow it to be refluffed if possible. The only thing I don't allow is Eberron, mostly because I don't own the books.
I figure, with a long enough timeline and enough plane-hopping, all of the feats, etc would eventually appear in most fantasy type settings.

I wouldn't even worry about plane-hopping. Basically, I just assume that something similar can be developed as an alternative. Like, I generally wouldn't want Red Wizards in Greyhawk or Eberron, but there's no reason that I can't develop some sort of super cult of "Crimson Casters" or something for a player's convenience.

[razorback]

I wouldn't even worry about plane-hopping. Basically, I just assume that something similar can be developed as an alternative. Like, I generally wouldn't want Red Wizards in Greyhawk or Eberron, but there's no reason that I can't develop some sort of super cult of "Crimson Casters" or something for a player's convenience.

AFB but aren't red wizards in the DMG?
Either way, you were going for the same point as me.

[Vhaidara]

AFB but aren't red wizards in the DMG?
Either way, you were going for the same point as me.

yes. Because WotC is terribad at consistency. Everything else about Core is Greyhawk/neutral, then they throw in a FR group (Red Wizards of Thay is the organization).

I for one allow everything within Rule of Cool. In fact, as much as I love Eberron and Warforged, I really dislike Warforged in Eberron, mostly because I love using my Warforged as ancient relics of a lost time, as opposed to a new and upcoming race.

[RedMage125]

yes. Because WotC is terribad at consistency. Everything else about Core is Greyhawk/neutral, then they throw in a FR group (Red Wizards of Thay is the organization).

I for one allow everything within Rule of Cool. In fact, as much as I love Eberron and Warforged, I really dislike Warforged in Eberron, mostly because I love using my Warforged as ancient relics of a lost time, as opposed to a new and upcoming race.

Lol, I am the opposite. As much as I LOVE Eberron (I have every 3.5e Eberron product except one book, as well as both 4e ones), I do not allow Eberron material in my home game. No Warforged, no changelings, no dragonmarks. I think those things are part of Eberron's uniqueness, and also I don;t have a place for them in my home setting.

[Forrestfire]

I pretty much allow everything into my games, with a gentleman's agreement to not bring in stuff to intentionally break it. Stuff like regional feats can be easily refluffed, and mechanically, the only thing that matters with the regional restrictions is the fact that the feats are mutually-exclusive without Knowledge (Local) ranks, iirc. Organizational options are generally either tied to an organization that fits, ignored, or refluffed (for example, in the past I've allowed dragonmarks on the appropriate races without being a member of the house or even having a dragonmark... But they would have been manifested as basically superpowers, without the benefits or drawbacks of having a dragonmark in-setting). Hell, in the official settings, there are always ways to hop from one campaign world to another, so there's even the option of just using someone from the relevant setting, albeit displaced. Could lead to some fun roleplaying applications, like an Eberroni in Toril being disgusted and horrified that they still have nonmagical plagues in the Realms.

Really, I enjoy 3.5 because as a whole, the character-building minigame is quite fun, and removing entire settings worth of options cuts down on that fun.

[Tarvus]

My general policy on material is that it's a rule of inclusion with exceptions, not a rule of exclusion. By default, unless there is a specific reason to leave something out, I'll generally allow it.

As such, I generally allow FR material, unless there is an explicit reason to exclude. If a particular region doesn't exist, I can include it, or analogize it to one that does. If a particular deity doesn't exist, I can include them, or analogize them to a parallel deity. And so forth. If a particular race doesn't exist, I can usually shoehorn them in, unless that particular game is very race-limited.

It's rare that I'll look at something FR-specific and say, "Nope, that has absolutely no place in this game."

This pretty much sums up how we play, regardless who is the DM for that campaign. The only time we assume exclusion first are from books the current DM doesn't own/have free access to. Even then its mostly just a case of ask and maybe give us a chance to get lore sorted first.

Almost all of the other settings are the same but to be honest if anything comes close, its Eberron material. The 2 or 3 of us that DM regularly don't have many of the books, and what it does introduce has pretty heavy ramifications for a default D&D world. Even still, we're mostly permissive if you let us read the page, and possibly refluff first. More fun that way.

[Solaris]

In fact, as much as I love Eberron and Warforged, I really dislike Warforged in Eberron, mostly because I love using my Warforged as ancient relics of a lost time, as opposed to a new and upcoming race.

I think I might have to steal this idea for my Dragon Realms setting. I kinda like the thought of having ancient living construct warforged as a foil to modern technomagical clankmen.

[Vertharrad]

When I DMed I disallowed setting specific material(yes even Red Wizards PrC), if it wasn't that setting. Each setting has it's uniqueness and you destroy(whitewash) settings when you just arbitrarily allow their stuff outside of their setting. But to each their own. If I think a certain feat or PrC could be found in another setting from the one it was printed in I would allow it. There just isn't many of them.