D&D General Great and not so great setting specific sourebooks/modules

[The Glen]

If you change a setting so much that you change the theme of the setting than you lose the reason why people like that setting in the first place. Never nuke your setting.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

In addition to the out-of-game time that's passed, I'll also point out that the 3e Campaign Guide is over a hundred years out of date in-game. Things change in that amount of time. Sure, elves, gnomes, dwarves, and other long-lived folk could still be around, but many of the movers and shakers have changed significantly.

The 3e Realms book has been out of print for almost 20 years. For many people, a hardcopy text is preferable to a .pdf. Most of the used prices for the book on Amazon are pretty high (a couple of low, reasonable offers, but they're well below the typical market value).

This thread reminded me to take a look at Aurora's Whole Realms to figure out what's on the menu at the Stonehill Inn as I start Dragon of Icespire Peak tonight.

 

[Shiroiken]

I remember the shelf-full-of-books-in-alphabetical-order kind. My parents bought a complete Encyclopedia Britannica set, just after I was born.

You had good parents, assuming you're about my age; if you're younger... they're probably kicking themselves thanks to the internet. My parents got me a typewriter when I turned 12, which was an excellent investment. My handwriting is/was atrocious, and this helped me from losing points due to illegibility. Side note, my worst habit was randomly switching between cursive and block letters, usually in the same sentence.

 

[wingsandsword]

In addition to the out-of-game time that's passed, I'll also point out that the 3e Campaign Guide is over a hundred years out of date in-game. Things change in that amount of time. Sure, elves, gnomes, dwarves, and other long-lived folk could still be around, but many of the movers and shakers have changed significantly.

Well, they could always run a game set circa 1372 DR when that book is set. Just because the official metaplot has been advanced 110+ years doesn't mean they have to follow it or use that time period.

WotC has been pretty sparse with stuff after the Second Sundering, just a sort of vague implication that Ao largely reset most things to more-or-less what they were pre-Spellplague (IIRC, they came up with an explanation towards the end of 4th Edition Living Forgotten Realms in one module for why Ao couldn't stop the Spellplague and it would take him so long to undo it), at least with regards to the map and the Gods and such. I'd hate to have to run any long-term game in such a poorly defined setting as that.

Plenty of material for the timeframe of the 1360's and 1370's between 2nd and 3rd edition Realms works, enough to run a lifetime of campaigns without needing WotC's metaplot updates past 1385 (I personally ignore everything after 1383 D.R., as the death of Helm was just more of the grimdark of the Spellplague, happening before that actual event).

 

[Eltab]

Well, they could always run a game set circa 1372 DR when that book is set. Just because the official metaplot has been advanced 110+ years doesn't mean they have to follow it or use that time period.

WotC has been pretty sparse with stuff after the Second Sundering, just a sort of vague implication that Ao largely reset most things to more-or-less what they were pre-Spellplague (IIRC, they came up with an explanation towards the end of 4th Edition Living Forgotten Realms in one module for why Ao couldn't stop the Spellplague and it would take him so long to undo it), at least with regards to the map and the Gods and such. I'd hate to have to run any long-term game in such a poorly defined setting as that.

Plenty of material for the timeframe of the 1360's and 1370's between 2nd and 3rd edition Realms works, enough to run a lifetime of campaigns without needing WotC's metaplot updates past 1385 (I personally ignore everything after 1383 D.R., as the death of Helm was just more of the grimdark of the Spellplague, happening before that actual event).

Re: last paragraph

I saw the "divine love triangle / soap opera" thing at the end of Grand History of the Realms and immediately replaced it with "Tyr receives a certain summons from his original home plane. He makes his plans, ties up loose ends on Faerun, and sets forth leading a glorious host on crusade. "

 

[Eltab]

You had good parents, assuming you're about my age; if you're younger... they're probably kicking themselves thanks to the internet. My parents got me a typewriter when I turned 12, which was an excellent investment. My handwriting is/was atrocious, and this helped me from losing points due to illegibility. Side note, my worst habit was randomly switching between cursive and block letters, usually in the same sentence.

I'm not old enough for them to have acquired a set of scrolls from the Library of Alexandria (although sometimes this Grognard feels like it) ...

Was that typewriter mechanical or electrical? I first tried to type on one that had keys that hit an ink ribbon, went CLACK, got stuck together when I went too fast, and everything.

 

[Azzy]

Also, the Neverwinter Campaign Setting for 4E is made of awesome - bimming with open ended plots and adventure ideas. (and easily converted)

I really need to sit down and give that a thorough read. From my skimming, though, it looks like there's not a lot of game mechanics and much of those that exist are pretty irrelevent to 5e. The only thing that looks like it would be worthwhile to convert are Themese and monsters. I'm not familiar with 4e game mechanics, but the Themes look like they could be converted to Backgrounds. And monsters, well that should be more or less easy to convert. I'd like to hear your (or anyone else that played 4e) opinion on what to convert and how, though.

 

[Azzy]

Was that typewriter mechanical or electrical? I first tried to type on one that had keys that hit an ink ribbon, went CLACK, got stuck together when I went too fast, and everything.

Ha! I remember my father's mechanical typewriter and an electric one (that had a typeball instead of regular typebars). In middle school, I was given an electrical typewriter that I didn't use terribly often, and one of my friends had one with a daisywheel. It was only a couple years later that I got my first compuer (a Tandy 1000) with a dot matrix printer. The typewriter was relegated to the trashbin after that.

 

[Shiroiken]

Was that typewriter mechanical or electrical? I first tried to type on one that had keys that hit an ink ribbon, went CLACK, got stuck together when I went too fast, and everything.

Mechanical. I'm not sure if the electrical had even come out yet, but if it was, it was well beyond our price range. The old mechanical ones had the ribbon (which was a pain to replace) and the famous "ding" when you hit return. I wasn't a fast typer as a kid, so I didn't have the issue of stuck keys too often, although I'd constantly do so now. I was amazed when I found out the QWERTY keyboard was designed that way because it minimized the probability of this happening, as it still happened a lot!

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

I really need to sit down and give that a thorough read. From my skimming, though, it looks like there's not a lot of game mechanics and much of those that exist are pretty irrelevent to 5e. The only thing that looks like it would be worthwhile to convert are Themese and monsters. I'm not familiar with 4e game mechanics, but the Themes look like they could be converted to Backgrounds. And monsters, well that should be more or less easy to convert. I'd like to hear your (or anyone else that played 4e) opinion on what to convert and how, though.

IME the character mechanics are too 4e to really convert. But everything else is a piece of cake. Just insert whatever reskinned monster you need or build your own. I've done it with no sweat, plus it has the added bonus that I can set the level to what I need.
Someone already converted the themes into 5e backgrounds in this thread (more themes on last page)

Edit: someone also did a 5e conversion of the Ashmadai. To low powered for my campaign, but maybe I can dig it up if you're interested