The Forgotton Realms accesories [Archive] - Wizards Community

The Forgotton Realms accesories [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
The Forgotton Slayer
08-10-04, 08:19 AM I have read FR campagin settings and have run few adventures
But what books should i buy now?????

Here are some that i think about:

Magic Of Faerun
Silver Marches
Underdark
Unapproachable East
Player's Guide to Faerūn
Faiths & Pantheons
Lords of Darkness
Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerūn
City of the Spider Queen
Shining South:When it comes out
Serpent kingdoms:ONLY MABY i have heard it beign flammed MANY times

But which ones should i buy and why????
If you have eny of these books then Please tell me if it was good or bad was it worth buying or a waste?

And NO i don't plan to buy them all!
I hope you can help because i don't have the books and don't know whats inside.
Tempus665
08-10-04, 08:51 AM Actually, they are all pretty good books, and I wouldn't be able to choose between them. I'd pick a book that is useful to any kind of campaign though, so no regional source books (except maybe for Underdark).
The_Declaration
08-10-04, 09:03 AM Slayer, i'll try to answer you.

First, i'll try to categorize the sourcebooks:

1- General informations about Faerūn:
- Lord of Darkness
- Magic of Faerūn
- Faiths and Pantheons
- Races of Faerūn
- Player's Guide to Faerūn
2- Geography of Faerūn:
- Silver Marches
- Unapproachable East
- Underdark
- Shining South (forthcoming)
- Waterdeep (forthcoming)
3- Books focusing on a particular matter:
- Ancient empires (forthcoming)
- Serpent Kingdoms

Now i'll try to rank them:
A- Very good - Excellent:
- Lord of Darkness
- Races of Faerūn
- Silver Marches
- Magic of Faerūn
- Serpent Kingdoms
B- Good:
- Unapproachable East.
C- Average:
- Player's guide to faerūn
- Faiths and Pantheons.
- Underdark

So I think it's up to you to decide what to buy first, depending on your needs. But i'd probably go with Races of Faerūn and Silver Marches, then maybe with Lords of Darkness when you'll need vilains.
Cunning Linguist
08-10-04, 09:20 AM I think Underdark was REALLY good, but then I run a evil party, and had a lot of underdark connections going on.. so I might be bias.
The_Declaration
08-10-04, 09:26 AM Originally posted by Cunning Linguist
I think Underdark was REALLY good, but then I run a evil party, and had a lot of underdark connections going on.. so I might be bias.
i think it's a good book about drows, illithids etc. But i was actually looking for a pure regional sourcebook, and i thought it was not comprehensive enough on that. Like one paragraph on a whole area/city.
The Forgotton Slayer
08-10-04, 10:43 AM I already have Races of faerun.

Thx for the help everyone
Lashan
08-10-04, 11:28 AM I think it all depends on where you want to go next? I mean that in the sense of directing the campaign. If you want a regional sourcebook, to help detail the one spot you would like to focus your campaign to be, then I say go get a regional sourcebook (UE, SilverMarches, Underdark).

If you want to detail the gods and religions of FR, then get the Faiths and Pantheons. It gives a lot of depth to things no matter where you play your game (though I would recommend getting the 2E versions before the 3E version).

Do you want more material to use as a DM to through more interesting stuff at your players? Lords of Darkness is great for setting up an overall campaign plot and details the organizations of all the bad guys. It is rather useful for creating an overall plot for the players to fight.

The PLayer's Guide is mostly an update to 3.5E. It has some neat stuff, but don't expect anything more then the rules updates. This can be considered very important or not very. Regional feats were fleshed out better.
AvengedMutablegenus
08-10-04, 11:45 AM Depends on where your campaign is

for me i think it should go
Magic of Faerun
Lords of Darkness
Faiths and Pantheons

Magic of Faerun is such a dreadfully excellant book, i bought it a while ago before i even owned FRCS because i heard it acutally had a lot of cool things in it. So i bought it and i acutally got into the realms just be reading the 5 page summary of the history of magic in faerun. Great great book
The Forgotton Slayer
08-10-04, 12:06 PM By the way what is waterdeep about???? is it like silver marches with info about north????

And why are there no western ones like warm west..:D
Bad titel i know.
The_Declaration
08-10-04, 10:00 PM Originally posted by The Forgotton Slayer
By the way what is waterdeep about???? is it like silver marches with info about north????
it's only been announced, so i'd hardly give you details. But it'll be probably a 192 pages rehash of the past sourcebooks about Waterdeep.
Don't expect too many information about the North.
Gray Richardson
08-10-04, 11:33 PM If you are a DM then I highly recommend Lords of Darkness, the utility of this book for generating adversaries and plots is inestimable. There are sample NPC's pre-generated for you. The lore about all the evil organizations is tremendously useful and enlightening. I cannot tell you how wonderfully this book has helped me flesh out my campaign and weave plots within plots. It is also just plain fun to read!

Although the Lords of Darkness I think is perhaps the most useful to a Realms DM, my favorite supplement is Silver Marches. Just a delight to read! Full of interesting history, culture, richly conceived characters, vibrant cities and dwarf holds, intriguing dungeons, ecology and weather. This is a book crafted with love and fine attention to detail. If you are running a campaign in the North this book is pretty darn essential. But even if you aren't, buy the book anyway, just for the fun of it and see how a gaming supplement should be written. This is about one of the best gaming books that the folks at WOtC have ever written!

Also I think you should consider what part of the Realms your game is in or what region your players are likely to spend a great deal of time in in the near future. If in the East then by UA, if under the earth then by the Underdark, etc.

I have a great fondness for Magic of Faerun. Lots of interesting info about Magic in all its facets. However if you want the 3.5 versions of most of the spells you might want to get the PGtF first.

If you want to run a planes campaign in the Realms, then get the PGtF because (though sparse) it has the most info about the REalms planes so far.
warlockco
08-11-04, 12:35 AM Just get them all :D
Gray Richardson
08-11-04, 12:43 AM Oh, also if you can find it you should pick up Cloak & Dagger, lots of great realms lore about secret organizations, sort of the precursor to Lords of Darkness. Even though it is 2E it is still top notch and doesn't really have a lot of rules crunch in it so the fact that it is 2E will not impede its usefulness to you at all. It is full of plot hooks and info you can use for your campaign.
bobsan
08-11-04, 11:04 AM I too would definitely recommend the three books AvengedMutablegenus mentioned.

However, there are some 2nd Ed books I would also highly recommend (all of which are mainly fluff)

Any of the Volo's guides are great books for regional information and, if you're a lover of fluff and detail in game, try and find Aurora's Wholesale Realms. It's a book I use ALL the time for my games.
Tarus
08-11-04, 05:03 PM Lords of Darkness if my favorite.

Also that old 2nd Edition The Complete Book of Villains...one of my favorites of all time. One of the best accessories ever written.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
The Forgotton Slayer 08-10-04, 08:19 AM	I have read FR campagin settings and have run few adventures But what books should i buy now????? Here are some that i think about: Magic Of Faerun Silver Marches Underdark Unapproachable East Player's Guide to Faerūn Faiths & Pantheons Lords of Darkness Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerūn City of the Spider Queen Shining South:When it comes out Serpent kingdoms:ONLY MABY i have heard it beign flammed MANY times But which ones should i buy and why???? If you have eny of these books then Please tell me if it was good or bad was it worth buying or a waste? And NO i don't plan to buy them all! I hope you can help because i don't have the books and don't know whats inside.
Tempus665 08-10-04, 08:51 AM	Actually, they are all pretty good books, and I wouldn't be able to choose between them. I'd pick a book that is useful to any kind of campaign though, so no regional source books (except maybe for Underdark).
The_Declaration 08-10-04, 09:03 AM	Slayer, i'll try to answer you. First, i'll try to categorize the sourcebooks: 1- General informations about Faerūn: - Lord of Darkness - Magic of Faerūn - Faiths and Pantheons - Races of Faerūn - Player's Guide to Faerūn 2- Geography of Faerūn: - Silver Marches - Unapproachable East - Underdark - Shining South (forthcoming) - Waterdeep (forthcoming) 3- Books focusing on a particular matter: - Ancient empires (forthcoming) - Serpent Kingdoms Now i'll try to rank them: A- Very good - Excellent: - Lord of Darkness - Races of Faerūn - Silver Marches - Magic of Faerūn - Serpent Kingdoms B- Good: - Unapproachable East. C- Average: - Player's guide to faerūn - Faiths and Pantheons. - Underdark So I think it's up to you to decide what to buy first, depending on your needs. But i'd probably go with Races of Faerūn and Silver Marches, then maybe with Lords of Darkness when you'll need vilains.
Cunning Linguist 08-10-04, 09:20 AM	I think Underdark was REALLY good, but then I run a evil party, and had a lot of underdark connections going on.. so I might be bias.
The_Declaration 08-10-04, 09:26 AM	Originally posted by Cunning Linguist I think Underdark was REALLY good, but then I run a evil party, and had a lot of underdark connections going on.. so I might be bias. i think it's a good book about drows, illithids etc. But i was actually looking for a pure regional sourcebook, and i thought it was not comprehensive enough on that. Like one paragraph on a whole area/city.
The Forgotton Slayer 08-10-04, 10:43 AM	I already have Races of faerun. Thx for the help everyone
Lashan 08-10-04, 11:28 AM	I think it all depends on where you want to go next? I mean that in the sense of directing the campaign. If you want a regional sourcebook, to help detail the one spot you would like to focus your campaign to be, then I say go get a regional sourcebook (UE, SilverMarches, Underdark). If you want to detail the gods and religions of FR, then get the Faiths and Pantheons. It gives a lot of depth to things no matter where you play your game (though I would recommend getting the 2E versions before the 3E version). Do you want more material to use as a DM to through more interesting stuff at your players? Lords of Darkness is great for setting up an overall campaign plot and details the organizations of all the bad guys. It is rather useful for creating an overall plot for the players to fight. The PLayer's Guide is mostly an update to 3.5E. It has some neat stuff, but don't expect anything more then the rules updates. This can be considered very important or not very. Regional feats were fleshed out better.
AvengedMutablegenus 08-10-04, 11:45 AM	Depends on where your campaign is for me i think it should go Magic of Faerun Lords of Darkness Faiths and Pantheons Magic of Faerun is such a dreadfully excellant book, i bought it a while ago before i even owned FRCS because i heard it acutally had a lot of cool things in it. So i bought it and i acutally got into the realms just be reading the 5 page summary of the history of magic in faerun. Great great book
The Forgotton Slayer 08-10-04, 12:06 PM	By the way what is waterdeep about???? is it like silver marches with info about north???? And why are there no western ones like warm west..:D Bad titel i know.
The_Declaration 08-10-04, 10:00 PM	Originally posted by The Forgotton Slayer By the way what is waterdeep about???? is it like silver marches with info about north???? it's only been announced, so i'd hardly give you details. But it'll be probably a 192 pages rehash of the past sourcebooks about Waterdeep. Don't expect too many information about the North.
Gray Richardson 08-10-04, 11:33 PM	If you are a DM then I highly recommend Lords of Darkness, the utility of this book for generating adversaries and plots is inestimable. There are sample NPC's pre-generated for you. The lore about all the evil organizations is tremendously useful and enlightening. I cannot tell you how wonderfully this book has helped me flesh out my campaign and weave plots within plots. It is also just plain fun to read! Although the Lords of Darkness I think is perhaps the most useful to a Realms DM, my favorite supplement is Silver Marches. Just a delight to read! Full of interesting history, culture, richly conceived characters, vibrant cities and dwarf holds, intriguing dungeons, ecology and weather. This is a book crafted with love and fine attention to detail. If you are running a campaign in the North this book is pretty darn essential. But even if you aren't, buy the book anyway, just for the fun of it and see how a gaming supplement should be written. This is about one of the best gaming books that the folks at WOtC have ever written! Also I think you should consider what part of the Realms your game is in or what region your players are likely to spend a great deal of time in in the near future. If in the East then by UA, if under the earth then by the Underdark, etc. I have a great fondness for Magic of Faerun. Lots of interesting info about Magic in all its facets. However if you want the 3.5 versions of most of the spells you might want to get the PGtF first. If you want to run a planes campaign in the Realms, then get the PGtF because (though sparse) it has the most info about the REalms planes so far.
warlockco 08-11-04, 12:35 AM	Just get them all :D
Gray Richardson 08-11-04, 12:43 AM	Oh, also if you can find it you should pick up Cloak & Dagger, lots of great realms lore about secret organizations, sort of the precursor to Lords of Darkness. Even though it is 2E it is still top notch and doesn't really have a lot of rules crunch in it so the fact that it is 2E will not impede its usefulness to you at all. It is full of plot hooks and info you can use for your campaign.
bobsan 08-11-04, 11:04 AM	I too would definitely recommend the three books AvengedMutablegenus mentioned. However, there are some 2nd Ed books I would also highly recommend (all of which are mainly fluff) Any of the Volo's guides are great books for regional information and, if you're a lover of fluff and detail in game, try and find Aurora's Wholesale Realms. It's a book I use ALL the time for my games.
Tarus 08-11-04, 05:03 PM	Lords of Darkness if my favorite. Also that old 2nd Edition The Complete Book of Villains...one of my favorites of all time. One of the best accessories ever written.