D&D General Which era and style/flavor of the Forgotten Realms do you play in?

[Doc_Klueless]

I play in the "5e Era," because, as I explained in the thread ragging on the SCAG, I know just about nothing about the Forgotten Realms. The SCAG gave me what I need without getting bogged down in decades of lore.

In short, 5e's SCAG had what I needed to play D&D in the Realms.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I run in the present era of the Realms, though some elements are changed as a result of events in campaigns I've run going back to the Grey Box. I also find myself referencing lots of older era sourcebooks like the 3e FRCS and 2e Volo's Guides, though I may change the dramatis personae to descendants of the originally-listed folks.

 

[atanakar]

At heart I'm a home brewer. The only time I did a FR campaign was to test 5e with Mine of Phandelver and Rise of Tiamat back to back. I like it enough to stick with it.

I've bought FR books over the years as inspiration for my home brews. I did participate, as a player, in one FR Underdark campaign. That was during 2e (blue interior).

 

[DEFCON 1]

I've run both Tyranny of Dragons and currently Lost Mine. Both of them are run in the years they were set... but there's nothing whatsoever to indicate what that is in either game. So as far as the players would know or care... it could be Year 1491, it could be Year 3, it could be Month 27,478, it could be Lemon Curry. The Year is meaningless.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Our FR campaign started in the 4e Realms, is currently in Abeir, and will return to Toril soon. The year is close to 1490, but the sundering hasn’t happened and will not happen.

Things will change based on the PCs actions and choices, not because wotc used Elminster to kill Netheril and make Myth Drannor a ruin again.

 

[cmad1977]

Since the FR is just... Genaria...
I don’t use any established timeline or canon. None of that adds anything to my game.

 

[jgsugden]

When I run FR, it is always set at the time of the Grey Box.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

The update and time jump made with the release of 5E moved the year forward to 1490 DR and all the official published adventures are set between then and now. The current year in the Realms is 1496 DR, so if I am not running a specific published adventure, but am starting a new campaign in the Realms, that is what I would use. And if I were to use an older version of D&D, I would not use the Realms at all, as it would be a homebrew setting instead.

 

[Li Shenron]

Well technically I haven't run a FR game in many years, and even back then I wasn't really following much canon. But anyway, if I were now, I would set the game in 3ed era for the simple reason that all my FR books are from 3ed.

 

[Badvoc]

My players are all new to the Realms and neither know, nor care, that there are different FR eras.

I more or less ignore the established timeline and use content from different FR sources going back to the grey box - basically mixing together whatever seems most interesting with liberal dollops of homebrew. I've dispensed with The Time of Troubles, Spellplague and Second Sundering completely