D&D 5E Crash-Course On The Forgotten Realms

[gyor]

The place names are pretty badass.



The O.G. module it's based on had all of this stuff too, back in like 1981 or whatever. (It wasn't an FR module, and I can't remember if it was Blackmoore, Greyhawk (in which case you'd launch from Saltmarsh like I think you do in the 5E adventure??), or just no particular setting, but there was a trilogy of modules and the first one gave you like, the super in-depth lowdown on Chult.



I hope the original modules had this, too, but sadly I doubt it.



Has anyone attempted straight up enlightenment ideals, representative democracy, rule of the masses, a general uprising of the proletariat, any of these things, in any of these countries? In ANY of these countries. Is there perhaps even a rough equivalent of 'Merica? Or is it just oligarchs circling with knives out to control the crown of one of seemingly hundreds of kingdoms. Ugh. A whole world that never graduates past monarchy given thousands of years is so depressing it's like dystopian. What's worse is that I don't think it was even deliberate on the part of the creators.



I'm one of the rare mutants that couldn't get into Planescape, or for that matter, any other Bioware D&D game, unless you count KOTOR, but I'm familiar with Sigil through both my attempt to get into PS:T and sourcebook based knowledge: it was described in some detail in the third edition Manual of the Planes (GOD I miss my MotP), but I think towards the tail end of 3.5, there might have been a sourcebook dedicated entirely to Sigil?

It's a great setting (Sigil) and whatsee should throw their money in that direction.

Anyway, while I'm sure that the people who funded it wish it hadn't happened, there WAS a Temple of Elemental Evil game. I forget if it was based on an ultrastrict interpretation of 3.0 or an ultrastrict interpretation of 3.5. Anyway, fascinating but borderline unplayable because of its difficulty. You all start at Level 1, so no matter how long you spend rerolling your part's stats...yeah, it's kind of an accidental indictment of how the eff you were supposed to survive early level 3.X short of the DM fudging everything. I couldn't get past the first level of the temple, but I felt accomplished getting there.

Is the weird dragon thing under Candlekeep in the computer game?

naughty word, actually, which city is biggest: Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, or Waterdeep?

LAST EDIT, SWEARZ: How does this article make any sense if the dragonward ... is?

The biggest Democracy in FR is Turmish, although some of the Chessentan city states might also be Democratic.

Turmish

There has been a democratic movement in Westgate, although it has yet to be successful, Westgate is just to corrupt.

As for which City is biggest ot depends on time period and edition. Originally Waterdeep and Calimport were biggest, but chaos of the Spellplague and Sundering in addition to wars and other chaos lead to refugees immigrating massively to Baldur's Gate making it the biggest city in Faerun (I don't know how big BG is compared to cities in Kara Tur or Zakhara).

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The biggest Democracy in FR is Turmish, although some of the Chessentan city states might also be Democratic.

Turmish

There has been a democratic movement in Westgate, although it has yet to be successful, Westgate is just to corrupt.

As for which City is biggest ot depends on time period and edition. Originally Waterdeep and Calimport were biggest, but chaos of the Spellplague and Sundering in addition to wars and other chaos lead to refugees immigrating massively to Baldur's Gate making it the biggest city in Faerun (I don't know how big BG is compared to cities in Kara Tur or Zakhara).

Waterdeep is still bigger than Baldur's Gate.

 

[Seramus]

FR is defined by a bunch of ultra powerful spellcasters locked in a cold war against each other. So they need you, mister adventurer, to meddle in the plans of bad guys / counter meddle.

It's like a high fantasy version of cyberpunk with mega corporations named Larloch, Seven Sisters, Thay, Shadovar, etc.

Low level play is mostly about local or kingdom level squabbles.

 

[gyor]

Waterdeep is still bigger than Baldur's Gate.

In 4e it straight up says that BG is now bigger then Waterdeep, I check my 5e books later to see if it is still true for 5e. I think the wall part of Waterdeep is bigger then the Walled part of the BG, but when you start counting the outer districts of BG, BG ends up bigger. Waterdeep is a nicer place to live for regular law abiding folks.

 

[gyor]

FR is defined by a bunch of ultra powerful spellcasters locked in a cold war against each other. So they need you, mister adventurer, to meddle in the plans of bad guys / counter meddle.

It's like a high fantasy version of cyberpunk with mega corporations named Larloch, Seven Sisters, Thay, Shadovar, etc.

Low level play is mostly about local or kingdom level squabbles.

That is the perfect way to put that. I mean when groups of powerful spell casters go to war with each other everything just gets wrecked, both good, evil, and neutral would prefer most often to work through minions.

 

[jasper]

Waterdeep is still bigger than Baldur's Gate.

is not is no is not. Waterdeep has it own book. The Gate only has one chapter and the rest of the book is hell.........

 

[Coroc]

is not is no is not. Waterdeep has it own book. The Gate only has one chapter and the rest of the book is hell.........

Waterddeep has skullport and undermountain so if 3rd dimension counts it is bigger

No seriously i think waterdeep is bigger as well in area and population, maybe that changed in 4e or 5e for the population due to some official lore but if so i do not know about it.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Checking it appears that the Sword Coast Area were Baldur's Gate is, is considered a different area then the Sword Coast North were Waterdeep is. Waterdeep is weirdly not credited as a city on the Sword Coast.

Also it's way bigger it has a population of 2 million to Baldur's Gate of 125,000

 

[BookBarbarian]

There's an omnipotent wizard named Elminster who is so powerful he could solve all of the problems in Faerun with a snap of his fingers, but doesn't, because reasons.

The trouble with Superman, yes. Or Goku.

There's a very powerful secret society dedicated to Good called the Harpers, who could probably acting on their own defeat most or all of the forces of evil in Faerun, but don't, so the PCs still have something to do.

Yeah like the CIA could totally end all the forces of evil in New York, much less the whole US.

Drizz't (dro Urden? did I make that up?) is a dual-wielding Drow hero that launched a zillion copycat PCs.

Edgelords gonna edge

There's a place called Thay, they have Red Wizards there, they look really cool, but are bad guys.

Yup you know they're bad because they dress in the color of blood.

There's a place called Cormyr, they have Purple Dragon Knights, and they are good guys (more or less).

Yup, you know they are pompous because they dress in the Color of Oprah Royalty

There's a nasty secret society called the Cult of the Dragon that worship dracoliches or worship a specific dracolich or something. They're bad news.

Yup Dracoliches are indeed bad news. Cults about them are bad too. Cults about evil dragon gods are also bad

Magic is all wrapped up in something complicated called "The Weave".

Like a big old mystical spiderweb of spells

Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Icewind Dale, and everywhere else in D&D famous enough to have a videogame named after it comes from FR.

except for Mystara I think but that's less popular videogames.

IIRC, Waterdeep is roughly equivalent to the Free City of Greyhawk in the Greyhawk setting.

I think so.

And that's all I know, like I said, basically nothing. Please tell me what you think are the most important things to know about the FR setting. If you want a little more structure, what year it currently is, the really major points on the timeline, and a breakdown of the most pivotal factions & nations

Thanks!

Well the important stuff is contained in the 5e Published adventures and the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide and I can't really type all those out. The year it currently is will depend on if you want to run an adventure after the published adventures, or between the published adventures. If you are running one of the published adventures, the book will tell you the year.

Basically the important thing to know is it's easy to run an adventure in FR because of published books and it's a kitchen sink setting.

 

[gyor]

is not is no is not. Waterdeep has it own book. The Gate only has one chapter and the rest of the book is hell.........

I'm not talking about the size of the books, I'm talking about the actual size of the city physically within the setting. Think Kilometers instead of page count.