Area of Interest

 

Just as curating a finite subset of the universe of Forgotten Realms books helped me focus on a consistent set of 'facts' from which to build plots and adventures, so to has zooming in on the areas I think of when I think of the Forgotten Realms and most of Ed Greenwood's Realmslore: the birthplace of the setting: the Dales, Cormyr, and Waterdeep.

Move further afield from here and the Realms strays from the setting that so sparks my imagination. The continent of Faerȗn is what I'm after. Particularly the northwest portion of the same. While very interesting in their own right, I can't usually think of Kara-Tur or Zakhara without falling out of the Faerȗn groove, to some degree. I cannot think about Maztica at all without that happening. I like the concept that the Realms is big enough for all sorts of stories--it's just that the sort of story I'd like to work with right now is a Faerȗnian one.

Using the Grand Tour of the Realms book from my 2nd Ed. (Revised) box set, supplemented by other old books and the Volo's Guides, I have really enjoyed diving into the details. Reading about the caravan merchants moving between independent city-states in the Western Heartlands, the monsters and bad guys and the evil organizations, the varied terrain, the tidbits of daily life. 

If I am lucky, some of this setting and detail material will rub off on the campaign. Some of it will be baked into the crust of the constructed adventures. Roleplaying isn't like reading (or writing) a book, of course. And there aren't times as a DM to deliver (without boring people) long diatribes of background or context. I hope to layer it in, a sentence or two of boxed text at a time, or in the feel of the environment.

Besides old physical copies of many of these books, I have been getting electronic versions of others from Dungeon Master's Guild. One thing I greatly appreciate is the the historical research and behind-the-scenes peeks that are included in the descriptions of some of these old products. A wonderful time capsule in their own right. Here is the entry from the Forgotten Realms Adventures book. 

Product History

Forgotten Realms Adventures (1990), by Ed Greenwood & Jeff Grubb, was the first non-core hardcover published for 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1989). It was released in March 1990.

A Series of Setting Books. While AD&D was transitioning from 1st edition to 2nd edition, TSR changed over from publishing hardcover rule supplements to publishing hardcover setting supplements - probably in the hope that they'd sell well despite the transition. Forgotten Realms Adventures was the third, following Dragonlance Adventures (1987) and Greyhawk Adventures (1988) - or perhaps the fourth if you count Manual of the Planes (1987).

Amusingly, Dragonlance Adventures was pure 1st edition, Greyhawk Adventures was advertising as being compatible with both 1st and 2nd edition - which in truth meant it wasn't perfectly aligned with either - while Forgotten Realms Adventures was pure 2nd edition. Together, the three books offered a perfectly symmetrical history of AD&D's edition change.

Expanding the Forgotten Realms. When this book was published, the original Forgotten Realms gray box (1987) was just a few years old; Greenwood & Grubb decided to complement it rather than replacing it. For the most part, that meant giving lots of new details on the Heartlands - covering both cities and secret societies. In doing so, Greenwood & Grubb filled in Sembia, which had previously been "left for DM development in their own campaigns."

Jumping to 2nd Edition. The other major goal of Forgotten Realms Adventures, as outlined by Jeff Grubb, was to bring the campaign setting into line with 2nd edition AD&D. Some of this was pure logistical work, such as listing how specialty priests worked in the Realms and updating spell lists. However, the Avatar events (1989) had also turned the Realms on its head, and this required updating, as Grubb explained in Dragon #153 (January 1990):

"There are new gods, wild magic areas, dead magic areas, character classes that have been dropped or altered, new schools of magic, and gunpowder. All of these will have longstanding effects."

About the Creators. Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Realms, and Jeff Grubb the "engineer" who turned Greenwood's notes into a full AD&D campaign setting. They'd by this time been working together since summer 1986, when Grubb first received Greenwood's notes on the Realms.

About the Product Historian

This history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.