[kta]

Since the setting is created by writers and designers who have taken our game world to this new place, the statement that you 'might as well be playing another setting' is really exactly what you already are doing: creating a Faerun where these events don't and won't ever take place.

No. We just leave the setting as it is now.

In this version of Thay, we are really restricted (not that it's a bad thing!)to only one possible ruleset by our chosen engine, which is the original Neverwinter Nights. We use the 3E character generation system exclusively. The NPCs we write up all have 3E stats. The visual representation that we choose to use are our own, based on whatever imagery of Red Wizards we choose to represent (Yes, those cartoon depictions above are easilly laughable, KTA. But that argument alone can't fully explain the obvious repulsion from the canon source material that we are experiencing here.)

It is 3.5 we try to get close to actually. The images I posted are not the explaination but a example. The point is not just the style but the obvious totally different concept of the Red Wizards.

I'm not suggesting that we develop some intricate way to bring any 4E rules into the game. What I am concerned about is the disregard for canon future events that will take the project off of the official canon timeline, and lead us too far away from the history (and future) of the setting that we have based all this work on.

The way I see it the setting we have now would be lost for the most part if we took the "future history" into account. Not talking about the tremendous changes of ALL module areas that would be needed to reflect the timeline - and most of it "over night"...

My point is that while 4E D&D may be awful, we don't really have to use any of it. However, post-Spellplague Faerun is a vision of a set future that our gameworld has in store for us. The timeline of Thay PW is such that (from my understanding) we haven't even run through the Time of Troubles yet. We are putting the cart way before the horse by stating that as the time passes, we will be disregarding these future events, and writing our own future. While that is admirable, and helps bring ownership and a deeper level of immersion to the project, taking it too far astray could make it just as unfamiliar to us, and any newcomers that come along expecting to find a Thay based on written canon material.

I do not expect many 4E loving newcomers using a decade old software, soon enough it will be just us old guys running around here. :P

I'm just throwing my ideas out there. I am here as a simple consumer, benefiting from all the time and effort that you guys have put into this thing, and I am definitely not here to ruffle any feathers. I am just a fan commenting on some of the things I have seen and read in my short time in this wonderful new place.

Comments are always welcome here.

KTA