Back to High School

I really like the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. One of the challenges, however, is that the amount of material available is overwhelming. And that's an understatement.

I have always been partial to Ed Greenwood's writing, particularly on sourcebook Realmslore (somewhat less so his novels, which can be a bit much in terms of plots, sub-plots, uber-powerful NPCs, and school boy titillation, all drenched in copious amounts of spilled blood).

I have run one long term campaign before, way back in 3e Forgotten Realms. At that time I was not a very good student of the setting, perhaps because I got sucked down one too many rabbit holes. This time around, I was looking to hit the correct "look and feel" of a muddy, quasi-medieval-with-flirtations-of-Renaissance type time period. I hope to make the setting like another character. I like to dig deeply enough into the supporting material to have plots and enemies that make sense. But I don't want to disappear in the great library at Candlekeep, never to be seen again.

So I made a bibliography. A finite (and, as it happens, old) set of books from which I will draw inspiriation. Most of them happen to be from around the time I was in high school: 1990 to 1994. The glory days (?) of 2nd edition AD&D at TSR (before the bankruptcy).

Likewise, I settled on a year in Realmslore to place the campaign. I did not wish to see the shake-up type changes that D&D 3e brought about: I had even less interest in anything later. Thus, with a few slight modifications (no death of King Azoun IV, for one), I chose 1370 DR, The Year of the Tankard.

This whole campaign and DM-ing desire started with an Ed Greenwood adventure module (to be named later), which discussed the need to "flesh out" the dungeon and the surroundings, as he could only fit so much into a 32-page adventure. The Realms of this point in the official timeline (1370 DR or so) is detailed chiefly, in my opinion, in some wonderful Ed Greenwood works from the mid- to late-nineties: chief among them the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set, 2nd Edition Revised and the wonderful, lore-rich Volo's Guides and Elminster's Ecologies. Layer in many of the great Drizzt books by R.A. Salvatore and you have most of my bibliography. I find it freeing, in a way, to have a finite  universe of data from which to draw inspiration. I have other books from different periods, but they do not feel as naturally "Realms" to me.

 

 

I also just love reading things from this era in real-world time: you'll run across an ad for Waldenbooks or whatnot.

I have toyed with making this campaign into a 2nd Edition AD&D campaign rather than using the 5e rules. I have only the Player's Handbook from that era (the cover of that book is still one of the most evocative images I've seen for an RPG- this cover just speaks "ADVENTURE" to me!). It has also always reminded me of Indiana Jones riding out a Petra at the end of The LAst Crusade, which is another plus.

To actually play 2nd Ed. AD&D I would need to find the DMG and Monster Manual, and re-learn THAC0, etc. I cringe at the thought of all those strange tables and weird mechanics. It might be fun, however...especially if 5th Edition does not live up to its potential for fast and engaging play.