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Introduction
Forgotten Realms is the flagship setting for Dungeons & Dragons, and until the retooling for third edition I never paid it much attention. The group I was playing in was using a few things from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (FRCS) and I decided to pick it up after a brief thumbing through of my DM’s copy. There are a number of things I liked about the book, but also I came away with a few things that I really did not like. The parts I enjoyed were the character building and options to be applied to other settings. The part I did not enjoy as much was the Forgotten Realms setting itself.
For the open minded: I hope to present a fair review
For Forgotten Realms fans: buckle up it might be a bumpy ride
Character
Building
Forgotten Realms applies the D20 RPG engine to a setting the best of any setting I have read thus far. The races are fleshed out well and their existence in the world is well thought out (though perhaps a slight nod of the hat to JRR Tolkien, but isn’t that pretty much every FRPG?). There are some races that are more powerful, which include Drow, Plane Touched, Aasimar and Tiefling. The more powerful the race (e.g. those previously listed) incur a penalty to experience, so they start out as first level but might be considered a level or two higher for determining advancement. I thought it was a great mechanic to balance out these races with the regular races. I am not convinced that the writers did much to balance out the costs for these races in regards to their benefits. After playing with an Aasimar PC in my previous D&D group, this basically seemed to work out alright as the level adjustment was only 1 more than the rest of us (3 humans and 1 elf).
The prestige classes are a good combination of generic and FRCS specific. The magic oriented ones are what I liked, while I thought the more martial or rogue oriented ones were neglected in both quality and quantity. One harper class is thrown into this section, the harper scout. While the harpers are a great plot hook and it is good to see a prestige class for PC’s interested in them to play, it is a broken class. It is very much oriented towards bard or rogues but offers a bunch of low level abilities that likely don’t have as good of a payoff for a PC as compared to them sticking with their original class. Mostly this applies to the bard class, which as a jack-of-all-trades class takes a while to build up to a potent character. Side tracking to a harper scout I think pushes them even further behind the power curve.
The feats selections are great. I think the selections in FRCS combined with the 3.0 rules are a genuinely complete set for virtually any PC. The one wonky bit is regional feats, which is written in such a vague manner I am not sure how exactly that works out. My impression after several rereads is those feats are only available to people from that region who are of the preferred class of said region. If you are from there and not of that class; no dice. I would have rather seen regional feats as a free feat anyone from the region can take. Most of them are not all that potent.
The Setting
Much of the FRCS book is dedicated to the setting. There is a great deal of stuff to chew on,
but like a bad piece of meat it feels like there is more gristle than stuff I
really could swallow. Most of FRCS apes feudal
There is much potential there but even this edition does not seem to tap it. I particularly like the Red Wizards, but there are a number of other groups and hooks that could be interesting. Tied to each section are usually an influential NPC, which is a good effort to make the areas more personalized. This turns out to be mostly a waste of space and I would have rather seen a couple of things added for each region’s section. Firstly I would have liked to have seen a detailed map for each region or country. While there are maps interspersed in the setting section, they cover too much of an area and are too few. Aside from that, more verbiage on the areas would have been good too.
Each region has a fair number of pages dedicated to it, inside each section are the various countries. FRCS is a large setting, but this is only really noticeable when you fold out the spiffy map inside the back cover. The descriptions and such don’t seem to bind the reader to this fact. From the perspective of descriptions, each region has a fair amount of material dedicated to it. The writers did make an effort to describe how regions and countries interact, and I think it would have been better to have lots of small maps for each country or region (rather than a few big ones). It would have tied the text to the setting a bit better. The quality of the text varies, but it does give enough for a DM to get an idea of what the area is like and apply that for a campaign.
There could have been more and editing out the mostly useless NPC’s would have been a great way to add more. This leads to my biggest gripe about FRCS and that is the NPC’s and specifically one, Elminster. For those of you not in the know, he is an uber-powerful epic/godlike NPC that represents the good interests of FRCS. Why bother giving him stats, skills, spells and levels there is apparently nothing he can’t do expertly? He is the worst combination of aping Gandalf from LoTR and presumably Ed Greenwood inserting himself into the setting. While it is great to pay respects to a great work of literature it seems like too much of a fabrication. Self insertion (presumed) into any work is just lame no matter how well intentioned.
The deities of Forgotten Realms are satisfactory. Each has a snippet of verbiage to flesh out their beliefs, followers and goals. I think there is perhaps too many deities though. I would have rather had more detailed interplay and fleshed out pantheons rather than what feels like many duplicated gods. There is an effort to tie the gods into the setting as well from a cultures interaction and that not all cultures in FRCS worship in the divine in the same way. Both of which are good concepts.
Wedged into the meaty pages are chapters covering new equipment, trade, magic, clerical domains, sample adventures, groups, DM rules and a timeline. Most of these are sort of window dressing, but they do add to the setting even if the pages count on some are very tiny. I would have liked to have seen much more information written about the trade aspects of FRCS. That would have done much to tie the regions together. The timeline is problematic in that it is really detailed with thousands of years of history that really is not applicable or readable. FRCS does not have a monopoly on this however as Shadow World has hundreds of thousands of years of similar material that only seems to be an awkward way of saying; look how much history this campaign setting has!
Presentation
Like any flagship product from Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) the layout design and art is top notch. The cover is reminiscent of other WOTC books, it is a faux old tome but much less gaudy then the others. The interior art is a mix of artists and does a good job of visually presenting the FRCS setting. The maps inside are well done, but as I have said a couple of times; there should have been more. Inside the back cover is a very lush fold out map of Forgotten Realms. The layout is well done and because there is a great deal of information presented (regardless of the quality at times) and edited very well.
The Good
- A lot of information for a good sized and established RPG setting
- The art and layout are top notch
- The character building options for a Forgotten Realms or generic campaign are good
- Cool magic prestige classes
The Bad
- Many of the fantasy aspects seem bolted on rather than seamlessly integrated into a European inspired setting
- Useless and annoying NPC’s
- Setting not tied well to the maps
- Not many non magic using prestige classes
Overall
Probably for fans of Forgotten Realms, this setting book offers a lot. In comparison to other similarly sized settings for D20 that I am familiar with (specifically Kingdoms of Kalamar) it is better written and offers much more to the aspiring GM looking for a prefab setting. For those not familiar with the Forgotten Realms setting (as I was before picking this latest edition up), it works well enough as a setting or simply for ideas and tools for your own. The character oriented material is top notch and can be used is almost any D20 setting. Also the presentation of FRCS is exactly what should be expected for a flagship product.
Forgotten Realms Campaign setting is not perfect either. I think WOTC did some injustice to it by not inserting maps for each region’s section. The NPC’s are colossally irritating in the case of Elminster or (sans one or two) useless. Some of the fantasy aspects are a bolted on are “and a kitchen sink” additions that do not feel seamless to the setting. Perhaps in other FRCS books this is fleshed out better, but as displayed in the primary book that is how it feels.
I would not dub the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting as an RPG must have for D20 players or those interested in world building exclusively. But for those whose interests lie in both or a DM wants a prefab world that is ready to go this is a good book to pick up.
