Re: FR

>From:    woodelf <woodelph@???????.net>
>your implication that the people now writing FR don't like FR is what
>strikes me as a baseless assumption, unless you produce some
>evidence.  the fact that they took FR in a direction you don't like
>is not in and of itself proof that they didn't/don't like FR.

I agree Thatotherguy was too harsh, he usually is. [he and I have
gone round and round on this, as the list can attest and I don't want
to repeat that.]

But there is evidence backing up the dislike of FR idea. I was a huge
FR fan, and a member of the FR list. Sean Reynolds joined that list
after being assigned to the new 3e FR book. One of the first thing he
did on the list was start telling us how much better then new book
would be then the 'old, crappy, history heavy books'. He had never
written for FR before, though he had done a few good things for
Greyhawk. I believe, in fact, that he had never played FR. Yet he
felt the need to slam all of the old FR products multiple times.

He was reigned in, I believe, but certainly the influence of thinking
like his could be seen in FR and it drove me and others away. I saw
some interesting things in FR 3e, but it certainly had lost some of
the feel of the old, and there was less respect for previous products.

Now, that was a couple years ago now. I understand they are using
Eric Boyd to redo the Faiths and Avatars style books, some of the
best FR products ever. Certainly Ed Greenwood is still around. So
maybe the current folks in FR do like the setting. But WotC's policy
was to switch designers between settings, an sometimes that meant
jerks like Sean got assigned to settings they had no respect for.
Sean would have been better doing a Spelljammer remake. At least we
know he was a Spelljammer fan.
--
"We sleep safely in our beds, only because rough men stand guard in
the night, ready to visit violence upon those who would do us harm."
H.G. Wells.

Paul Westermeyer,  westermeyer.3@???.edu
Phd Candidate, History, Ohio State University
Instructor, Humanities, Columbus State Community College