Which Faerun setting guide?

gyor

Legend
3e FRCS + SCAG to see what's changed, and Elminster's Forgotten Realms for additional, edition-neutral lore. The 3e guide is closer to 5e than the 4e one is anyway.

Not really, 3e is a well over a hundred years out of date and most of the NPCs are dead.

A brief look at 5e FR makes it seem at first glance like it's more like 3e or even 2e, the basic geography has reverted, a bunch of destroyed empires are back, as are many Gods, but when you get into the details 2e, 3e, and even 4e books are useful only as historical documents.

Look at how different Chult in 5e from any other edition, Ra (not counting Horus-Ra)
hasn't been alive since BEFORE 1e for one example.

5e's growing Pantheon is a mix of deities from multiple editions, including many who died, and a bunch of new Gods, thanks to unified none human pantheons.

The nations are a mix of 3e and 4e, Mulhorand,
Unther, Halruaa, Lantan, ect..., from 3e, with Tymanther, Dambrath, Knights of Vaasa, Estond (may have misspelled that Paladin nation), ect... are still around and there are stuff unique to 5e.

Also 5e it seems uses the default Great Wheel Plus cosmology instead of the World Tree.

So really we need a 5e FRCG, because it's very different from any other edition.
 

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Dax Doomslayer

Adventurer
The Elminster Ecologies box set for I think 2nd Edition D&D had a lot of information on a bunch of areas in FR. It gives overview of area; geography; climate; points of Interest; flora & fauna and monsters for Cormanthor; Anauroch; Storm Horn & Thunderpeaks; Cormyr; Stoneland & Goblin Marches; Sea of Fallen Stars; Thar; and the Settled Lands (Cormyr, Sembia, Dalelands).
 



oni no won

First Post
+1 on FR 3rd ed. For me, it has become the gold standard when I look at other settings. Everything is so well organized and the writing eases you into the setting. In fact, the writing did not feel overwhelmingly dry to me It was a pleasure reading the book and I love that it peppered rumors throughout the book giving DMs a spark of ideas to write their own adventures around FR.
 

Zardnaar

Legend
The 3E one has a lot if detail no to much 3.0 mechanics and no massive RSE relative to 2E, 4E and 5E. The other way I would go would be the 1E set with no RSEs. Just set your game in that timeframe. In order 3E, 1E, 5E, 2E, 4E would be the ones to look at.
 

I've been writing a series of deity lore pamphlets for DMsGuild that consolidate lore from all the editions while filling in gaps and eliminating/explaining contradictions. They bring the lore for the gods up to the current published era in far more detail than the SCAG currently does. I'm in the process of updating the pamphlets (I recently updated Amaunator/Lathander). The next new pamphlet will be for Tymora.

Here's a link to my channel, if you don't mind non-canon gap fillers being included with the researched canon.

https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?x=0&y=0&author=Johnny Tek
 

S'mon

Legend
I'm actually using the 4e one for my new 5e campaign (Princes of the Apocalypse, 1491 DR) since it's a direct sequel to my level 1-30 nearly-6-year 4e FR campaign, which started in 1479 DR & ended in 1485 DR with the destruction of the Shades of Netheril, the death of Orcus and Szass Tam, Shar badly weakened and a PC becoming Legendary Sovereign of the Shining Vale - my own RSEs. :)
 

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