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hey D&D gamers,

I was interested in buying a source book for the Forgotten Realms world. I recently read a book based on this campaign setting and have since got more curious about the setting. What I was looking for is something that would go into more details about the different areas (cities, towns, lairs, named forests, etc...), the characters that inhabit that Realm, history of the happenings... so on and so forth. Basically, anything that would be helpful in find out more about the setting.

I'm not planning on picking up D&D and playing the game mind you, so books that are more about history/background and less about the gaming aspect would be better, though I'd be open to any really.

I did some searches online and found some various opinions about whats best, but would like some more insight from you guys if anyone can help.

thanks in advance fellas

Randy

Randy, the realms have gone through at least 3 major stages.
AD&D was pre-time of troubles, 2nd ed was Time of troubles and after.
I didn't really play it after 2e, but there were a number of major changes as time went on.

There were also a bunch of things put out from "Netheril," which is like Realms ancient history.

Are you looking for gaming supplements with a lot of background or novels or...?

What did you read that made you interested? That will help those of us with knowledge to make suggestions.
Eric

Thanks for your reply Eric.

Over the course of the last few years, I've been reading the books by R.A. Salvatore based around the Forgotten Realms, which is my primary interest.

Ideally, I'd like to find more background types of books/supplements, especially some with maps of the various areas.

I read online about a sourcebook produced for the 3rd Ed. of D&D that was pretty consistant with the original stuff printed back in the 1st and 2nd Eds.

In the long run, I was considering perhaps doing up some miniature battles (not sure what system yet) using armies from the various regions. So material on this sorta thing would be greatly helpful.

With all that said, you got any recommendations?

TSR/WoTC has always tended to do a lot of area-specific books for the Realms. So in that respect you're set whether you go with 2nd edition or 3.x. As far as maps go, I would recommend trying to track down the 2nd edition stuff. While many of the 3rd edition books, at least the ones I've seen, had lovely maps in the books, 2nd edition was the heyday of the boxed set, and many of them included large, fold-out maps.

So really it boils down to, as already mentioned, which era you want, and whether you want to try hunting down the old fold-out maps, or okay with maps in books and/or printed off yourself.

I can second jb's statement. I have a whole bunch of boxed sets from 2nd ed that deal with just Forgotten Realms. There was a large "Forgotten Realms" set that deals with the entire setting as a whole, but also boxed sets that dealt with specific realms or cities.

The 4th ed book is, as Eric mentioned, hundreds of years forward in the plot from the setting of Salvatore's books. IMO, it's not very good. I don't know about the 3 or 3.5 book, though.

"Drow of the Underdark" from 2nd ed gives you a pretty good look at Drow society and abilities, but I would imagine it's a bit tougher to find nowadays. I somehow ended up with two copies. Anyway, if you like the Salvatore stuff, you're going to want to look at 2nd ed sources.

I am not sure about the value for a battletop system, but the Volo's Guides could give some nice insight and depth to the setting. The 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms boxed set was a thing of beauty (at least in my opinion) and a great resource. The 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms Adventures book has some really nice information about all the cities of the heartlands and Gods of the realms. There is also some information about the heraldry and secret societies in the book.

When we used to play 2nd edition, I ALMOST ran it in the Realms but in the end decided on making my own setting. I thought it had the most life out of all the D&D settings. I would certainly like to hear any follow up you might have on moving the setting to a table top gaming experience.

I hope this helps.

Karl

Though I did create and run my own world, FR is actually where I've done most of my DMing over the last 30 years. First & 2nd edition AD&D eras were the PINNACLE for the Forgotten Realms, IMO.

If you're wanting great background and don't mind the existence of gaming elements, look for the many FR supplements that were created over the years. Elpecially anything Ed Greenwod had a hand in making.

The 1e and 2e "Waterdeep" boxed sets are extremely good (the 1e one was called "City System"). They can be pricey, thogh.

Edumacationalistic reading for you:

Great history & details - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Realms
Excellent list of products with links to them - http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/TSR_product_list

www.candlekeep.com might be helpful, but it's blocked fro work, so I can't prescreen it.

Eric

Candlekeep has some good info on it, though I've never found its layout to be the most aesthetically pleasing.