D&D 4E 4E Forgotten Realms

Renion · Nov 16, 2012

Hello,

I'm in something of a bind right now. I have a regular group and we're starting a new game in two weeks set in the Forgotten Realms. I've run games in Eberron and Dark Sun and the 4e campaign settings books for both of them were great!

The problem is, the FR campaign setting book for 4e is.. not so great. In fact I'm not sure what to do with it. Unlike Eberron and Dark Sun there's nothing really special about the Realms in 4e. My players want to go there, and I want to run the realms for them.

What's special about the Realms? What's the selling point? Because all I see is 150 pages of generic fantasy and I need to make it work. Please save my game!

Dice4Hire · Nov 17, 2012

Try the Neverwinter Campaign Setting book. It is really excellent.

MoutonRustique · Nov 17, 2012

I second the call for Neverwinter.

I generally dislike the Realms as a setting, but that book is dripping awesome. It is possibly the best setting book (all PlaneScape aside, of course).

It is that good. IMO.

Obryn · Nov 17, 2012

Thirded for Neverwinter. It's an excellent supplement, and is the first Forgotten Realms product in decades which made me want to run a Realms game. It made the whole Spellplague deal actually click for me.

-O

Renion · Nov 17, 2012

Buying the campaign guide wiped out my fun budget for the month. I need to run this game with what I've got.

Manbearcat · Nov 17, 2012

What tier are you playing and what sort of playstyle preferences does your group possess (genre, specific tropes, grim or high fantasy, etc)? I'll formulate a suggestion based off of that response.

Renion · Nov 17, 2012

Level 1, heroic tier, they wanted to start in waterdeep and they gave me no other information to work with. I'm just trying to find something in the campaign setting that inspires or grabs my attention that I can build off of.

I guess I should clarify that my style of DMing is to try and play to the strengths of a given setting. For example the Eberron campaign dealt with a world on the brink of a second war, political intrigue, dungeon delve, urban fantasy, and mystery. The plot hooks practically wrote themselves in Eberron.

For Dark Sun we had a bleak, desert survival and world exploration game where Athas was more dangerous to the party than the NPC's were. Navigating from place to place was a tremendous struggle, and they focused on trying to eek out an existence on a world that gave them no quarter surrounded by people that were using every opportunity to take what they had.

Forgotten Realms? I just have no idea what to do.

Manbearcat · Nov 17, 2012

Well, in the vein of Neverwinter, if intrigue is their thing, you could go with uncovering, and extinguishing, of a devil worshipping cult that has permeated all levels of society from the highest of nobles, to the slums, to the Watch (including one or more of the Masked Lords). Grizzly murders of "of-age" girls. An orphanage that serves as nothing more than a meat-market for sacrifice (the children disappear and are alleged to have been adopted...to families that don't exist in the historical record...fabricated PW and all that).

Perhaps there is an active pocket of Spellplague in one of the wards (or perhaps on a floating earthmote) that is barely contained. The Masked Lords have kept this area off limits and hush-hush so as not to stir a panic amidst the populace. Perhaps of recent, more and more abominations have been spilling forth...and, naturally, the PCs are hired to investigate. You can have them get infected and an elaborate Skill Challenge to contain and control the infection - with success giving them a permanent Spellscar and a cool encounter utility power (budgetted against a magic item).

If you need a good Dungeon Crawl then the PCs get arrested for their investigation into the cult (framed for some crime) and thrown into Undermountain for their transgressions.

S'mon · Nov 17, 2012

I like the FRCG, I use the Loudwater mini-setting at the front of the book and that has worked very well. For Waterdeep, I would focus on intrigue, using some of the Threats at the back of the FRCG as power players. PCs can battle spies, cultists etc, perhaps working for one of the Masked Lords. Netheril/Shadovar is good for Shadow-based threats; the Zhentarim are always fun; maybe the Eminence of Araunt for undead.