Post/Author/DateTime	Post
priest of blipdoolpoolp 04-10-04, 01:13 AM	My players are shopping around for a campaign world. I have my own ideas, but was curious as to what you guys thought the major selling points of Forgotten Realms are. Why should someone choose to explore this world over others? Thanx
Metis 04-10-04, 01:26 AM	For one it has more support than any campaign setting out there. The authors and even the original creator of the setting are available to answer questions and provide juicy tidbits on the setting. It is also the most well detailed and hugely vast setting I've ever heard of. It has supporting novel lines, and artwork galore. Most of the 2nd edition and earlier Realms material is even still highly useable. Most of the old material provided a minimum of stats and tons and tons of setting detail. It is more realistic than most of the other currently supported settings I've seen (especially Dragonlance, which I'd have not so much a problem with if Kender did not exist, or tinker gnomes, or...). There is A LOT of evil to do battle with, and intelligent evil at that. There are the Red Wizards and their mercantile enclaves of evilness, and tons of intrigue. Intrigue involving the hundreds of power centers and organizations would be one of the major sellers for me. It's high magic, and things like firearms and bombs are rare and prone to mishap. The massive polytheistic human pantheon and smaller demi-human racial pantheons give players lots of options as to patron deity.
Ssussunriyh 04-10-04, 01:40 AM	The Forgotten Realms is the most highly developed campaign setting available, with a huge variety of choices for an adventuring party, all of which are mapped out in detail. You can have seafaring adventures in both the Trackless Sea and the Sea of Fallen Stars; urban adventures in any of a dozen major cities; wilderness adventures ranging from frozen tundra to burning desert to steaming jungle, and even the dreaded Underdark; and if you like politics and intrigue you can take your pick. Most other campaign settings seem to be static, where nothing much ever changes. FR is dynamic, with documented histories to use as reference and new opportunities cropping up all the time. You can even take your pick of enemies. Unlike Dragonlance, for example, evil in the Realms is not monolithic. There are lots of different factions to fight for or against, or even set against each other. Of course, you don't have to include all of this in your campaign. Just pick a region and select those elements that appeal to you, and ignore the rest if you so choose.
Israfel666 04-10-04, 07:03 AM	Faerūn is a world that feels alive. It is never static, never fixed in a cookie-cutter eternal good vs. eternal evil war. Even the flagship organizations (Harpers, Zhent) change, old heroes and villains die and new ones rise everyday. Every single country has its own history, filled with more plot hooks than the Encyclopaedia Britannica could count. Perhaps because many of them are ascended mortals, the gods are not distant beings, but they can (and often do) intervene in the affairs of Toril, though very rarely in a deus ex machina way. The Forgotten Realms are the most varied world you will probably ever find. In the old days, TSR chose that FR players should be able to find on Toril any feeling they desire: Arabian Nights, frozen glaciers, huge deserts, cosmopolitan cities, mercantile houses infightings, wild jungles, open savannahs, underwater civilization, subterraneous dangers, thieves' guild conspiracies, isolated towers of lorekeeping, peaceful villages of hardy workers, forgotten ruins of legendary cities, pirate isles... all of them and many more can be found somewhere in Faerūn. The support from the authors, editors, and longtime fans (including walking encyclopaedias like Kuje31 or one-man NPC-statting factories like Green Giant) is one of the best you'll ever find. On this very boards, or on Candlekeep's, or on the Realms-L mailing list you can ask questions to the very writers who've worked on Faerūn for decades. And the FR section of the WotC website (http://wizards.com/forgottenrealms) is filled with free downloadable material, from weather forecast to 2nd ed. products which are often still the bread and butter of most DM's reference sources.
TheGreenGriffon 04-10-04, 07:29 AM	There are also lots of Novels written and still being written for the FR campaign supplement. Usually these novels provide great insight to the world and its history and in my opinion is the fastest growing D&D novel line there is. Ive been playing Forgotten Realms since I got into D&D almost 15 years ago, Ive always enjoyed the characters I have run there and the adventures always seem to turn out good because most people who sit down at the table know something about the realms and it always makes for a pleasurable roleplaying expereince. What I like however is that it is a highly detailed world with so much room for DM and player input. LIke what was said above its not cut in stone, the world is so large that theres always an adventure happening to someone and it wont neccessarily interfere with anything else going on. However it has lots of source books and supplements and detail to make it a realistic campaign world with lots of adventure ideas. And we already know FR supports Epic characters. There is a load of them in the FR campaign setting alone.
Derren S. 04-10-04, 07:49 AM	dp
Derren S. 04-10-04, 07:50 AM	Good: Has many different flavors (Egyptian, classic knights, sindbad style india) availiable Many organisations, npcs which can serve as plot hooks Huge support by WotC Many different play stiles possible Neutral: Favors caster over fighter (in terms of PRCs, etc.) Many high level NPCs which are spread out all over faerun Power creep noticable Bad: When you want to stay close to the canon you might have problems explaining why the high level NPCs don't do the work for the PCs/outshine the PCs. Has some iconic NPCs which can get annoying , but they will never die in canon (Drizzt, Elminster,...). Beware the "I want to meet Elminster" or the "I play a good two weapon wielding drowranger" syndrom. The different contries were thrown together/hard to explain the political relations between them History got changed often in the past time
Kuje31 04-10-04, 01:26 PM	Originally posted by Israfel666 The support from the authors, editors, and longtime fans (including walking encyclopaedias like Kuje31 or one-man NPC-statting factories like Green Giant) is one of the best you'll ever find. :) THANKS! HAHA.
Lashan 04-12-04, 11:59 AM	There are a lot of older material books that detail the game world immensly. Most of these are free.