I must confess I feel a little bit strucked by all the facts I have to consider designing a campaign in the forgotten realms...
When I started a fresh new campaign in the Realms, I used the Western Heartlands. This is that area near Candlekeep but above Amn and below Waterdeep for the most part. This place is great because it's vast and generally sparse compared to other regions. Also, this place is known pretty well from the video games of Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II: Shadow of Amn, and the Baldur's Gate games that were on x-box/ps2 etc...
If that doesn't intrigue you, then another great location is the North East areas known as the Demonlands. This generally is made up of Damara, Narfell, Impiltur, etc... This is also a pretty open area with a lot of history and flavor.
Also, what sort of campaign do you want to run? If there is a specific style or theme you like (jungle, desert, european kingdom, asian kingdom...) then we can help you there as well.
The more info about your campaign you give us, the better we can try to find a great spot to start it off in.
I would love to run a new campaign in the Forgotten Realm als DM. So I bought the Campaign Guide as well as the Players Guide. But now I see there is so much coherency between the different kingdoms, locations, gods, people, ... I'm afraid I can't find a point to start my campaign without contradicting some of the given facts, backgrounds and history. Is there anywhere a empty region where I coud place a small village to get a starting point for the characters? And how can I be sure to adhere all the gods and their motivations and involvement in the world?
I must confess I feel a little bit strucked by all the facts I have to consider designing a campaign in the forgotten realms...
Ok first thing....what are you worried about contradicting exactly?
You could put a small village anywhere(though I would suggest looking for a logical reason that village would be there due geographic and political reasons), without too much of a issue.
But gives us details in what you want and what you worry about contradicting.
My replies are based on FR4E. My answers would change if you decide to go with an earlier version of the rules.
IF I want to get started with the books, which one? Ok, this one is the Waterdeep Series, so far.
Rich Baker is a really good author. (IMO, he is the only WotC employee who should be allowed to write FR novels!) Swordmage, Corsair and Avenger is a really good trilogy. As far as the earlier history of the Realms, I really like game products more than novels: 2E's Faiths & Avatars is a great place to start; 3E's outstanding Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and 3.5E's Lost Empires of Faerun and The Grand History of the Realms round things out nicely.
IF I want to get started with an area, which one?
Frankly, I would start with the Grey Vale/Fallen Lands as presented in the FRCG. Because...
IF I want to get started with an Adventure, which one?
... the Sceptre Tower of Spellgard makes a nice segue into the rest of your campaign. Also the small regional map included with the adventure gives you a few other locations for your own adventures. Also, LFR has released the first two of a trilogy of adventures titled the Bane of Shadows that follow on from Sceptre Tower of Spellgard. I can't remember their names for the moment but they are in the CORE series of adventures.
You can develop your campaign around several evil groups: the lizardfolk of the Smear and their yuan-ti masters from Najara, the ubiquitous Shadovar of Netheril, the Zhents and/or various orc and giant tribes from the mountains and hills (and the High Forest in the case of the orcs). There are also fairly obvious links to the Feywild and the Shadowfell should you decide to run extraplanar adventures.
Anyway, it's a good place to start and get a feel for "your" Forgotten Realms. I've got some rough notes for an heroic tier campaign in that area which I plan to run one day for newbies because I think it contains all the key ingredients for hooking someone into D&D.
I mean, what isn't to like? Orcs. Zhents. Lizardfolk and their serpentine masters. A couple of warring hobgoblin tribes. Giants. Ancient Netherese ruins (and thus a logical reason for the existence of dungeons).
After that, personally, I am a fan of the Moonsea area particularly now as we (finally!) have two excellent maps of the region thanks to articles by the Brothers James: The Monument of the Ancients adventure has an excellent map of the Moonsea North basically west and north of Phlan by Sean McDonald while the more recent Realmslore: Vaasa has a map of the Moonsea North east and north of Phlan into Vaasa and Damara. Together you have a really comprehensive map with lots and lots of adventure locations making it so much easier to build a campaign.
You're not too late to catch up on FR. In many ways, 4E has made that even easier because it hit the reset button in such a large way. That said, the older products are great because they can give you ideas for current dungeons/adventure sites and, perhaps more importantly, their maps were good. (The FRCG maps really are an embarrassment. I think most amateur publications would be ashamed to have included maps of such poor quality.)
Once you have a basic idea where the setting will take place, then you can check histories, if you want, to set your adventure site. Forgotten Realms Wikia is a quick reference area that has a great search engine for checking historical regional facts before the Spellplague. It can also give you a summary of some of the novels. With the rich history of Faerun that goes back some 27,000 years there should be room for most any kind dungeon site or mysterious ruins or forgotten treasures.
I'd say keep it simple. There is room for isolated communities that rarely are effected by the world at large, other than the Time of Troubles and Spellplague. There might be reasons for the area having less communication with the outside world. This is where you should determine the religious centers or organizations for the area that may connect to the outside world and effect what comes into play. I say keep it simple and on the PC's adventure paths. Coherency can be determined after the adventure in some cases or perhaps the adventure takes place because things were out of cohesion. I have found when I didn't know alot about some tidbit of history it allowed the PC's some room to make the Realms their own because that tidbit was rumor or a legend the PC's discovered the truth about. They may not even know the background information and if you catch it later you can drop the information to give them some background on what they have actually done. I've had adventures that where some sub-plots touched on things that were in novels the Players read afterward and their adventure took place before the novels were written or published. It gave them a since of accomplishment.
I would love to run a new campaign in the Forgotten Realm als DM. So I bought the Campaign Guide as well as the Players Guide. But now I see there is so much coherency between the different kingdoms, locations, gods, people, ... I'm afraid I can't find a point to start my campaign without contradicting some of the given facts, backgrounds and history. Is there anywhere a empty region where I coud place a small village to get a starting point for the characters? And how can I be sure to adhere all the gods and their motivations and involvement in the world?
I must confess I feel a little bit strucked by all the facts I have to consider designing a campaign in the forgotten realms...
The good thing about the Spellplague and the 100 year time jump is that older lore isn't that important anymore and everything a player or DM new to the Realms has to know is in the FRCG and FRPG (and DDI articles).
I used the Loudwater adventures from the FRCG to introduce the players to the new Realms. It fits in nicely with Dungeon #159 - Menace of the Icy Spire and (like Imruphel said before) Scepter Tower of Spellgard and the LFR Bane of Shadows series.
Cormyr/Dalelands and Waterdeep are also great places to start a campaign and they're some of the most detailed areas in the FRCG and there is alot of lore about them to be found in older supplements and on the internet.
Don't worry about contradicting canon, like Ed always said it's your campaign and you should change things the way you want to.
Good luck with your campaign, and let us know how it's going
blog.obsidianportal.com/?p=471
I would love to run a new campaign in the Forgotten Realm als DM. So I bought the Campaign Guide as well as the Players Guide. But now I see there is so much coherency between the different kingdoms, locations, gods, people, ... I'm afraid I can't find a point to start my campaign without contradicting some of the given facts, backgrounds and history. Is there anywhere a empty region where I coud place a small village to get a starting point for the characters? And how can I be sure to adhere all the gods and their motivations and involvement in the world?
I must confess I feel a little bit strucked by all the facts I have to consider designing a campaign in the forgotten realms...
The border kingdoms & Erlkazar are relatively undetailed. BTW, if you find the 4E books overly laden with details, be very glad you don't have the 3E books...
If you'd like, you could email me with your various ideas once you have them organized, and I can read it and give you some feedback on FR stuff -- I've been DMing forgotten realms campaigns for like 16 years. My email address is pstrait [at] gmail [dot] com.
Paul
I used the Loudwater adventures from the FRCG to introduce the players to the new Realms. It fits in nicely with Dungeon #159 - Menace of the Icy Spire and (like Imruphel said before) Scepter Tower of Spellgard and the LFR Bane of Shadows series.
So are the LFR adventures available somewhere? Do you need a DDI account?
I searched using my DDI account but could not find the Bane of Shadows Series, dancing blades etc...
I did find the Icy Spire however...
If they are not available for download can they be purchased?
(snip) So are the LFR adventures available somewhere? Do you need a DDI account? (snip)
LFR = Living Forgotten Realms. I just mention that in case you haven't seen the acronym before.
LFR adventures are free to download. Basically you need to get a DCI membership number (I'm in Oz but was able to get one without any trouble from my FLGS) and then sign up in the organised play area of the website and then you can download the LFR adventures for free on the proviso that you're running them at home or where for a group on a particular day (this is not policed).
If you want more details I would suggest heading to the LFR forums but feel free to PM me if you need further directions to the site etc....