Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Paulpedersen 02-03-05, 11:43 AM	im relativistically new to DND from most aspects. can someone enlighten me as to fogotten realms in general, and what makes it great going! (im looking for some source material for a campaign if that helps)
Faraer 02-03-05, 01:20 PM	The Forgotten Realms is a fantasy world created by Ed Greenwood in 1967 to tell short stories in; he began DMing D&D in it in the late 1970s, and publishing articles in The Dragon magazine about the same time. TSR (the company that originally produced D&D) bought and published the setting in 1987, seeing in it a world with tremendous interconnected depth and detail and also one they could bend to their own purposes. Many people have contributed to the Realms since then, and it's been the setting of hundreds of sourcebooks, novels, magazine articles, and computer games. The Realms is heavily influenced by many classics of 20th-century fantasy; it contains elements of Tolkien-derived high fantasy but is closer to the picaresque sword and sorcery of Fritz Leiber and others. Everything Ed (and some of its other authors) writes for it is done with great enthusiasm and love, and it was always designed (though this has not been Wizards of the Coast's tack of late) as if it were real, rather than a mere ulilitarian construct for purposes other than itself. While the Realms contains evil and terror in frightening amounts, the world as a whole tends toward the hopeful. To get a quick sense of what kind of world this is, read this piece (http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/2566/wellmet.htm). To investigate the Realms more deeply, buy the currently published Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, read the free articles (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archfr/rl) and older sourcebooks (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads) on wizards.com, and read a Realms novel or two (which we can't discuss on these boards in any literary sense, but it stands to reason you will get the best idea of the Realms from its creator). Everyone will give you a slightly different point of view of 'What is the Realms?', but the above is accurate.
CuttinCurt 02-03-05, 04:26 PM	I agree. The older 2nd edition Pdf's for download on the wizards website is a must. Ebay offers a great selection of the early box sets. Waterdeep and the north, the Magister, and the Savage Frontier are three supliments well worth reading. The forgotten realms is a place of high magic and great peril as already stated. I just remember reading these books and falling in love with the world it told me about. As a last note, not that it really matters, but I remember one particular magic item from the magister that caught my fancy and made me dream of the possibilities with it. It was called the Girdle of lions. The magister was the first publication of it and I remember that book pulling me in for good. i have dm'd and played FR since that time, which was the late summer of 1987. CC
Taimerlai 02-08-05, 07:59 PM	I figure that this may be the best place for my rather dumb question as well, but what year is it in the Realms? I haven't been following the books, and I'm not sure when the FR campaign setting was published.
Faraer 02-08-05, 08:17 PM	The leading edge of the official WotC timeline is 1374 DR; the current sourcebooks and novels are either set then or are catching up to that year. This fact of publishing doesn't mean that it is now 1374 DR in the Realms. The Realms is an imaginary world, not Fox News. It is no particular year in the Realms, and every year at once.
WizO_BigSister 02-09-05, 11:47 AM	Well I've just had to use my Adamantine Scissors Of Cutting Naughty Posts ™ Please people remember to stay on topic, and not to make personal attacks against other posters. If you see a post you think breaks our Code of Conduct (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=community/coc) then don't respond by breaking the CoC yourself. "He started it" isn't a valid excuse :P The "Report Post" button (in top right corner) is your friend!