Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tevish Szat 01-23-05, 03:01 PM	Hello all! I've been kinda interested in Faerun for a while. however, of all the numerous RPG books of Forgotten Realms, i have only FRCS, Magic of Faerun, Monsters of Faerun, and Shining South (A recent gift). I am interested in getting more. IMHO, Fluff > Crunch. I run 3.0, but i can adapt 3.5 crunch back to my game as easily as all the 3.5 folks out there update 3.0. What books would you reccomend?
Dardin_DelSundin 01-23-05, 03:12 PM	All the Forgotten Realms books are excellent and worth getting I think. But, get the Players Guide to Faerun, The Underdark and Silvermarches. Myself I plan to get all the books for Forgotten Realms :)
Alac Luin 01-23-05, 06:20 PM	Depends on the type of game you want to play. I loved Underdark, but some may label me a drow fan boy. Lords of Darkness was much better then originally thought, great for an overview of orginizations (it increased my willingness to include Red Wizards into my campain). Many will disagree, I liked Player's guide to Faerun for what it was, and that really isn't a player's guide. :shrug: Races of Faerun if you want to focus on the ratial histories and conections. Silver marches is ok, Unapprocable East was better (as a reagon, I like the silver marches better)
Board_Rider 01-23-05, 06:33 PM	I will also concur with Races of Faerun. But, like Alac, I love the Underdark book but it does depend on your game. You could wait for the Lost Empires of Faerun....that looks cool.
Ludliffes 01-23-05, 06:36 PM	If there's something I like about FR, it's the quality of its manuals. They are all good, especially the 3.0 material. Taking into account that you like fluff, I wholeheartly recommend Lords of Darkness and Silver Marches. Also Serpent Kingdoms: it's 3.5 but with very little crunch. I do not recommend Unapprochable East (still not bad, just average), it has much less value than Silver Marches: a lot more crunch, new races I can live without and a single book for 5 different regions against one book for a single region in Silver Marches (ie, a lot more detail in the latter book). Races of Faerun is another good buy. Faith and Pantheons is not that great, but still a lot useful, especially if you do not have the older 2nd ed books on deities. Player's Guide to Faerun has some 20-30 useful pages, the rest it's just trash if you play 3.0, at least IMO.
Krash 01-23-05, 06:42 PM	If you want Fluff>Crunch, then obviously gaming stats aren't the arbiter of your decision to purchase or obtain products. If this is the case, I'd suggest trying to find some 2E products like "Cloak & Dagger", "Secrets of the Magister" and the "Volo's Guides". They'll give you a heck of lot more FR grounding and material to play with than most of the 3.0 and 3.X products. If you are only after 3.X products, then I'd suggest "Serpent Kingdoms" and "Races of Faerun". -- George Krashos
Alac Luin 01-23-05, 07:14 PM	Oh, have you seen the 2ed material you can download for FREE? Not all of it is here, but you can see several of the old 2ed stuff, including a few Volo's guids here.... http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads
Angrymartian 01-23-05, 07:29 PM	I am with Alac, Lords of darkness is a very underrated book and i recommend it to any DM running a realms campaign. My top 5 books, in order of importance and from a DM's perspective - those marked with asterisk are invaluable. 1* FRCS - you can run a Realms game with no other books if you have this publication and a bit of imagination. 2* Players Guide to Faerun - great revision of PrC's, feats and many spells. 3* Magic of Faerun - heaps of info on magic in the realms, needs to be used in partnership with the 3.5 revised Players Guide, above. 4* Lords of Darkness - huge source of info on many ghastly groups including the Drow, Shades and lesser known but intriguing Chuch of Entropy (the 5-level PrC of which absolutley rocks!). 5* Underdark - great resource for underground adventuring, includes expanded info on most well known and a few lesser know underdark humanoids, adventuring considerations and new feats. cheers
ArchmagusXar 01-23-05, 08:55 PM	Well, you definitely need the Player's Guide to Faerun, as it contains updates for 3.5 if you decided to run that, and has a lot of useful information. Silver Marches is great, just because of the detail, and I actually find that Faiths and Pantheons is a really good buy because it gives a cleric so much to work with. Serpent Kingdoms and Unapproachable East gives some good fluff as well, though maybe not as much as others. Heck, just get them all. :D
Thiago123 01-23-05, 10:49 PM	I think its funny that everyone in this thread feels that Player's Guide is so invaluable. I've read so many bad reviews for it, and got hammered when asking about it in an earlier thread... -T P.S. - I'm most looking forward to Waterdeep: City of Splendors sourcebook...
Angrymartian 01-23-05, 11:02 PM	-T P.S. - I'm most looking forward to Waterdeep: City of Splendors sourcebook... I have been running with the Volo's Guide to Waterdeep (2nd ed.) it is just fine although no doubt the information in it will be made redundant by WotC when the new book is released. Nonetheless it will continue o serve me well.
warlockco 01-24-05, 02:18 AM	I think its funny that everyone in this thread feels that Player's Guide is so invaluable. I've read so many bad reviews for it, and got hammered when asking about it in an earlier thread... -T P.S. - I'm most looking forward to Waterdeep: City of Splendors sourcebook... People just get all tied up in knots because it is called Player's Guide, when "technically" a good portion of the book is a "DM's" book. Plus, it is a Crunch Book and people get all upset over that, preferring a Fluff Book.
BrianCritchley 01-24-05, 02:34 AM	the players guide to forgotten realms is more of a "FRCS updates" then a distinct book.
Mystery Man 01-24-05, 10:37 AM	I have them all. So, my recommendation is to get them all. :D
tylerthehobo 01-24-05, 05:03 PM	Yes, the volo's guides (a number of which were available in the above wotc free 2e link) are EXCELLENT. I pair them with the 3.5/3.0 updated books for my current campaign. Having the ability to have a set of NPCs, tavern names, and suggested encounters for pretty much every region in the old school FR areas (dalelands, waterdeep, north, Sword coast) is brilliant... I really wish WotC would do more of those fluff books. Silver Marches does that sort of thing well, but the format is more campaign oriented than single-session adventure oriented. In short, all the new stuff is great that I've used, but it's fun to use some of the more archaic FR sources. Game on.
atheolos 01-24-05, 07:25 PM	Well, you definitely need the Player's Guide to Faerun, as it contains updates for 3.5 if you decided to run that, and has a lot of useful information. The player's guide basically updates a lot of material to 3.5E. I think it's a good book, but if you are running 3E, I don't see why you would want it. I do not recommend Unapprochable East (still not bad, just average), it has much less value than Silver Marches: a lot more crunch, new races I can live without and a single book for 5 different regions against one book for a single region in Silver Marches (ie, a lot more detail in the latter book). The problem a lot of people have with some FR sourcebooks is that they're too specific, IE they won't be able to use the content. If you aren't running a campaign in the silver marches, unapproachable east or shining south, I wouldn't buy the book of the same name. If you are, then they are almost always great books. As for the others: Serpent Kingdoms - Was a little disappointed, because it is more regional than I expected (Chult and the Mhair jungles). There are numerous other locations throughout Faerun discussed, but they aren't on any maps or listed by region, so it's a bit hard to find the places discussed if you haven't memorized the map of Faerun. Also, some of the CR's given for the creatures seem a little. . . off. But if you are running a campaign with Yuan-Ti, this is a great buy, and it details a lot of the minor lizard races like Asabis and Firenewts and adds history and culture to them. A good mix of fluff and crunch. You should consider this book because you already have the shining south, and thus have lots of serpent races in your neck of the woods. Lords of Darkness - A great fluff book. Even if you don't use most of the organizations, you will get some plot ideas. Underdark - if you are running a campaign in the underdark, you need this book. Interesting and useful crunch, and lots of ecological/historical/cultural fluff. My second or third favorite sourcebook. And although it isn't FR, I really like the Ghostwalk book, because PC death is one of the most irritating and disruptive things a campaign can face. There's a short section in it on how you can absorb it into the FR's.
Tevish Szat 01-24-05, 08:50 PM	Thank you all for the input. I'm currently running Planescape, but when that campagin comes to an end, i'm seriously looking at the realms. From your comments, my shopping list will include Silver Marches (Intrigued me in FRCS), Lords of Darkness, and Underdark. I'll also take a look at the 2e info behind the link when i get a chance. Fluff never goes bad.
Imruphel 01-24-05, 09:57 PM	(snip) I do not recommend Unapprochable East (still not bad, just average), it has much less value than Silver Marches: a lot more crunch, new races I can live without and a single book for 5 different regions against one book for a single region in Silver Marches (ie, a lot more detail in the latter book). (snip) Just to provide a contrary opinion, I found Unapproachable East to be one of WotC's best products. To this day I am surprised at how much there is in the book to spark various adventures and campaigns. Anyway, IMO only, of course.
Alac Luin 01-24-05, 10:04 PM	I'll just pipe in again, I think what bothered me about Silver Marches, is that it does not hold a candle to the 2ed material (The North, Savage Frontier, Volo's Guide to the north). As I have seen no books (not that they don't exist, just I haven't seen them) for the region of Unaprochable East. Besides, Silver Marches lists Wulfgar as a Uthgardt :ack:
Imruphel 01-24-05, 10:25 PM	I'll just pipe in again, I think what bothered me about Silver Marches, is that it does not hold a candle to the 2ed material (The North, Savage Frontier, Volo's Guide to the north). (snip) My big problem with Silver Marches was that the principal hook, the orc horde, was then "resolved" in a series of novels. My second biggest problem with SM is that I wished it had been a hardcover book on the Dalelands....
Kuje31 01-24-05, 10:34 PM	As I have seen no books (not that they don't exist, just I haven't seen them) for the region of Unaprochable East. Dreams of the Red Wizards and Spellbound box set. :)
Alac Luin 01-24-05, 10:54 PM	Dreams of the Red Wizards and Spellbound box set. :) And I have yet to get my grubby little hands on them, or them on my grubby little hard drive for the .PDF vesion. :D If only I had a high speed conection, I'd fork over the $5. per .pdf in a heart beat!
atheolos 01-24-05, 11:14 PM	And I have yet to get my grubby little hands on them, or them on my grubby little hard drive for the .PDF vesion. :D If only I had a high speed conection, I'd fork over the $5. per .pdf in a heart beat! The latter is well worth the 5$.
warlockco 01-25-05, 03:05 AM	And I have yet to get my grubby little hands on them, or them on my grubby little hard drive for the .PDF vesion. :D If only I had a high speed conection, I'd fork over the $5. per .pdf in a heart beat! Just have to have alot of patience, and most of the PDFs aren't too outrageously sized either. Or could go to a friend with a Flashdrive that does have highspeed.