The Forgotten Realms has long been one of the two “standard” campaign settings for use with Dungeons & Dragons. Almost a year after the release of the new D&D, the Realms get a revision that brings the setting in line with the new edition, and with this update comes a metric ton of new rules to add to an existing campaign.
It seems necessary to preface my review of the 3rd Edition Campaign Setting with this: I have never, ever, played in any previous incarnation of the Forgotten Realms. I have never read any of the novels, never bought any of the sourcebooks, adventures or boxed sets, and never worried about what I’m missing. I had a nodding familiarity with Elminster through fifteen-year-old Dragon articles. I bought this book after reading the previews available, mainly in order to use the new rules in my existing campaign world.
Appearance:
The new Forgotten Realms book is an expensive ($39.95) off-white hardcover, which like other D&D3e books is made to look like an ancient tome. It clocks in at 320 pages and includes a beautiful, large, full color map. The map is glued into the back cover with what appears to be the same kind of tacky glue used to cement address labels onto TV Guides. The map came out easily, but I was worried about tearing it.
The book is beautiful, without a doubt. The art ranges from the rare “average” piece to mostly beautiful pictures. Scattered throughout the book are a variety of maps, delineating everything from regional close-ups, trade routes, and political boundaries. The text is easy to see, placed on an off-white background, and the only possible problem is that to fit the massive amounts of information, an 8-point font seems to have been used for the main body of information, and is presented in two-column format. The font, while relatively small compared to other products on the market, is legible.
Content:
Despite the fact that I bought this book merely to use the rules inside to supplement my own campaign, I must admit that this setting impressed me. Within the pages of the book is the most complete campaign setting I’ve ever seen. The new Forgotten Realms book covers everything, from seasons and dating, to alphabets and secret and public organizations, and a lot more. After reading this book, I was positive that I could run a campaign set in the Forgotten Realms—not only that, I honestly wanted to take a break from the campaign world that I’ve put blood, sweat, and (player’s) tears into, and run in the Realms, which is the highest praise I can pay.
I’ve heard various complaints about the Realms being a “munchkin” setting, and all I can say is that there’s no evidence of that here. It’s certainly a high-powered setting—the first stats we’re shown belong to Elminster, who has some 35 character levels, in addition to a powerful template. But the setting is internally balanced, and PC creation and existing NPCs are set up in such a way that PCs will neither be walking over the enemy or being tromped on by them.
In all honesty, Forgotten Realms reminded me of “Aberrant”—a setting that’s certainly open to abuse by a less-skilled DM, but in reality a setting designed with the experienced DM in mind. This is a setting with the training-wheels off. There’s room in the Realms for low-powered dungeon crawls and high-powered, world-shattering deeds, and plenty of reasons for why the “bug guns” of the setting don’t bail the PCs out every adventure.
The book begins with a detailed table of contents and rolls right into an introduction that describes what to expect in the book. This is where we see the stats for Elminster, and they’re…impressive. The introduction plays up the good vs. evil and epic nature of the setting, as well as the high-magic atmosphere. The game is set on Toril, a world whose major continent from the game’s perspective is Faerun.
The first chapter describes character generation in the Forgotten Realms. One new wrinkle in this setting is the use of “regions,” which sometimes give a PC added choices when it comes to feats. If a PC’s class is one of the ones his region emphasizes, then he gains the ability to buy regional feats. The chapter describes several new races and race variants for PCs, with each illustrated in relation to a human. Several of the races are powerful in relation to the stock PC races, so rules for high-level starting PCs are included, which seem to mostly consist of further fleshing out of the Dungeon Master’s Guide rules for Monster PCs. Drow, for instance, are powerful in relation to normal elves, but balanced by the fact that a Drow PC is 1st level when other PCs are 3rd. The next section describes the Forgotten Realms’ take on various classes, with some important new wrinkles—non-deity aligned clerics aren’t allowed, monks and paladins can freely multiclass depending on deity, and Druids change from nature-worshippers to agents of nature Gods. Scattered throughout are informative sidebars on bardic instruments, druid circles, monastic organizations and the like.
A large complain for me with this section is that a PC's region gives him additional free equipment--unfortunately, the book doesn't tell you whether a PC gets each "package" of equipment for his region, or has to select one.
Further into the Character chapter, new feats are described. The regional feats seem a touch powerful in relation to the standard feats presented in the Player’s Handbook, but this is balanced by the fact that many of them have to be purchased at first level, and are only available to people from a certain region. The regional feats can be purchased by non-natives during play by gaining regional knowledge skills of a certain rank. Many of the feats could be ported over to a non-Realms based campaign fairly easily, and the new feats are very evocative of the setting.
Finally, the Character chapter concludes with 13 new Prestige Classes, ranging from the generic (Archmage and Arcane Devotee, among others) to the setting-specific (Red Wizard, Purple Dragon Knight.) The new Prestige Classes strike me as very powerful, but not unbalancing—while Archmage is powerful, it’s also not available until the PC can cast 7th level spells, and involves exchanging spell slots for powers.
The next chapter covers Magic. Descriptions and flavor is added to standard magic, as are rules for “shadow-weave” magic, “dead” magic zones and “wild” magic. Two new styles of magic are included, Rune and Circle magic, with Circle magic being a form of ritual casting native to the Red Wizards of Thay, and Rune magic involving item creation bearing a runic stamp. Both forms could be easily transported into another campaign. The chapter closes out with descriptions of "portal" magic and how to construct them, 4 pages worth of new Domains for clerics, some of them race specific; and new spells—many of which are linked to the “Shadow Weave.”
Chapter 3 describes life in Faerun, from time-keeping, seasons, climate, descriptions of common flora and fauna, to language, commerce, magic in society and engineering and technology level. This is where the world started to come alive for me, and while the new rules were exciting, it’s with this chapter that I began to realize how well-developed Faerun is. The last part of this section deals with new equipment, showing the reader a smattering of new weapons, alchemist’s equipment, and practical items such as birth control.
Chapter 4 is the longest in the book and describes Geography. It is exhaustive. Every nation is described at least in brief, and while some are described in detail (the Dales) others are left for the DM to flesh out. Every kind of earthly culture seems to have an analog, and the setting could obviously support a dozen styles of play, from wintry barbarians in the North to primitive jungle romps with stone spears in Chult. At no point did I feel that any region had been over-explained, and half or so of the regions included have a sample NPC whose power level ranges from minor league to Elminster level. Even NPCs described in passing usually have their classes broken down into an abbreviated format.
After reading this section, which can be at times overwhelming (I found myself skipping ahead to the later chapters to break up the geography,) I was sure I could run a Realms campaign and had a dozen ideas in mind, all potentially set in different areas. There’s nothing like the cool feeling that comes with stumbling onto a setting that really gets the creative juices flowing, and I found that feeling here. The chapter concludes with notes on objects in the night sky and the lands outside Faerun, including Kara-Tur and Maztica.
Chapter 5 includes brief information on a massive number of Realms deities, and expanded info on roughly thirty or so. This was the part of the book that I found both interesting—the gods of Faerun seem to be like the gods of Greek myth in their level of meddling and conflict with one another—and frustrating. Frustrating because there’s a distinction between “portfolios” and “domains,” and yet the clerics of various gods seem to be able to sense when their god’s portfolio changes. Additionally, gods die and their portfolios are absorbed by other gods—I have no clue if, when this happens, the dead god’s clerics lose their powers or not. Still, these are small wrinkles to iron out--I’d rather have what I have here then have to buy another book on “Deities of Faerun.”
Chapter 6 includes a detailed history of the formation of Faerun and its deities, a summary of the first few empires, and then an abbreviated timeline. It’s a good chapter, and filled in the blanks that had opened up in the geography section—my only comment here is that I wish this section had been in the beginning of the book.
Chapter 7 details secret and public organizations in Faerun, and once again notable characters in the text have their abbreviated levels statted out, while at the end of most descriptions an important NPC is described in detail.
An Adventure follows, designed for low level PCs and describing an incident involving the Red Wizards of Thay. It’s a solid, short adventure, and the best part is that it can be resolved through combat or diplomacy. To say anything more would be to spoil the adventure.
Chapter 8 is a section on “Running the Realms.” This section begins by describing additional PC races and works with the DM to set up a game he wants—the psionics rules are touched on briefly, as are other ways to make the Realms yours. Sections on World-building and Known Dungeons of Faerun were the most interesting here, although there is a slightly tweaked experience system that works when running vastly different levels of PCs. There was a lot of good advice in this chapter, and it spares the reader the standard “roleplaying is…” sections—it assumes the DM is fairly competent and already familiar with D&D.
Another adventure follows, this time for high level PCs and introducing the Cult of the Dragon and a dracoliche.
Finally, an appendix on monsters concludes the book, including two new templates (the shade and the dracoliche,) a write-up of typical Realms animals, and a few new critters.
Conclusion:
If you’ve played in the Realms before, you either like it or you don’t, and that should shape whether or not you buy it. As someone who’s never played in the setting and had few preconceived notions going into this purchase, I’ve got to admit that I’ve been knocked out by everything from the production of the book to the massive amount of information included—I could never buy another Realms product in my life and still have enough information to run a long campaign of any power level. The Realms is high-powered, high magic, but not “unbalanced” in this incarnation, and the abbreviated stats for various NPCs from local thugs to the rulers of empires give a DM a good idea of what level he should play at based on where his PCs are.
If you’ve never played in the Realms before, give this a try if it’s in your price range. I feel it was fully worth the $40.00, but you should always base these purchases on your own comfort zone—if unsure, download the Forgotten Realms RPGA guidelines for a taste at the Wizards of the Coast RPGA website.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)