D&D 5E Ellywick Tumblestrum's Ballads of the Forgotten Realms (hypothetical FR Setting Book)

[Parmandur]

Very much agree with this. I don't really want a remake of the FRCS with better art, layout, and "Here's what happened in the past 10 years!"

A gaming book like Eberron (which doesn't advance the timeline at all) that is primarily focused on "Here is how to run different thematic games in these various regions within a 5E context," is far more valuable to me.

Almost as useful as regional info is faction procedural tools: I would love to material for the FR organizations similar to the stuff in the Eberron book.

 

[Parmandur]

I think it should fall somewhere in the middle. Obviously, the FRCS did go into unnecessary detail, but remember that Faerûn is significantly larger than Khorvaire, with a larger number of sub-entities, which will mean more room for the geography section than Eberron's did to amount to equivalent coverage. And since Eberron had to sacrifice space for the entirety of the Arificer class and all the info on Dragonmarks, there's a good amount of the page count which can be shifted without difficulty...

I could see some shift one way or another, for sure, but it seems a good baseline for comparison.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Almost as useful as regional info is faction procedural tools: I would love to material for the FR organizations similar to the stuff in the Eberron book.

The patron rules would also fit a book quite well, such as the Cormyrian Purple Dragons, or Thayan wizards.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

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[doctorbadwolf]

If it focuses on part of Faerun, my vote goes to the area from around Cormyr, Sembia, and The Dales, to Rashemin and Thay.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The patron rules would also fit a book quite well, such as the Cormyrian Purple Dragons, or Thayan wizards.

Tasha's already largely covers that stuff, I'm not sure any more Patron stuff is needed, maybe a side bar with Patron suggestions. Patron aren't even AL legal.

Anyways reread the Adventures in Eberron section, it's mostly organizations, I don't think you need 80 pages to cover that for FR. Maybe 20 pages is fine, there likely isn't room for more, Faerun alone has alot more countries and independent city states then Eberron, they will want some space for player options and monsters as well.

For major nations alone there are Chessenta, Mulhorand, Unther, Tymanther, Calimshan, Tethyr, Amn, Cormyr, Sembia, Impiltur, Dambrath, Damara, Halruaa, Lantan, Nimbral, Thay, Rashemen, Narfell, Aglaron, Thesk, Durpur, Luran, The Great Rift, Najara, Samarache, Chult, Tashelar, Turmish, Nathlan, Deep Imaskar, Evermeet, Everseska, Sossal, Murghom, Moonshaes, Semphar. That 36 nations alone. There is a couple of names I forgot like Paladin Nation and the name of the nation with Tantras and Ravensbluff.

I didn't even touch on small kingdoms like Hartvale or independent city states like Westgate. Or nations under the water. Or space for new stiff like city of Lorendrow and the city of Aevendrow.

 

[Parmandur]

Tasha's already largely covers that stuff, I'm not sure any more Patron stuff is needed, maybe a side bar with Patron suggestions. Patron aren't even AL legal.

Anyways reread the Adventures in Eberron section, it's mostly organizations, I don't think you need 80 pages to cover that for FR. Maybe 20 pages is fine, there likely isn't room for more, Faerun alone has alot more countries and independent city states then Eberron, they will want some space for player options and monsters as well.

For major nations alone there are Chessenta, Mulhorand, Unther, Tymanther, Calimshan, Tethyr, Amn, Cormyr, Sembia, Impiltur, Dambrath, Damara, Halruaa, Lantan, Nimbral, Thay, Rashemen, Narfell, Aglaron, Thesk, Durbin, Luran, The Great Rift, Najara, Sanarache, Tashelar, Turmish, Nathlan, Deep Imaskar, Evermeet, Everseska, Sossal, Murghom, Moonshaes, Semphar. There is a couple of names I forgot like Paladin Nation and the name of the nation with Tantras and Ravensbluff.

I didn't even touch on small kingdoms like Hartvale or independent city states like Westgate. Or nations under the water. Or space for new stiff like city of Lorendrow and the city of Aevendrow.

AL legal is largely irrelevant, most people who buy books aren't in organized play.

The 3E FRCS has 133 pages of Gazateer information. Cutting out the SCAG regions and Chult (as redundant and extraneous) brings us closer to ~100 pages (25 just for the Dalelands, 20% of all Gazateer info). I would expect that they still would focus on a relatively smaller area, say the Inner Sea (which is still a huge area). That would bring us close to the expected page count for a modern Setting.

I don't know why you sat organizations aren't important in the Realms. Literal volumes have been written on Realma organizations, who have featured prominently throughout the 5E line. Material similar to Eberron would be fantastic.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For major nations alone there are Chessenta, Mulhorand, Unther, Tymanther, Calimshan, Tethyr, Amn, Cormyr, Sembia, Impiltur, Dambrath, Damara, Halruaa, Lantan, Nimbral, Thay, Rashemen, Narfell, Aglaron, Thesk, Durpur, Luran, The Great Rift, Najara, Samarache, Chult, Tashelar, Turmish, Nathlan, Deep Imaskar, Evermeet, Everseska, Sossal, Murghom, Moonshaes, Semphar. That 36 nations alone. There is a couple of names I forgot like Paladin Nation and the name of the nation with Tantras and Ravensbluff.

Come on, you made at least a dozen of those up just now, didn't you? Is there really a serious D&D nation called "Durpur?"

 

[Parmandur]

Come on, you made at least a dozen of those up just now, didn't you? Is there really a serious D&D nation called "Durpur?"

Nah, that's all legit. Hiwever, I doubt it will get detailed in a modern book.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Tasha's already largely covers that stuff, I'm not sure any more Patron stuff is needed, maybe a side bar with Patron suggestions. Patron aren't even AL legal.

Anyways reread the Adventures in Eberron section, it's mostly organizations, I don't think you need 80 pages to cover that for FR. Maybe 20 pages is fine, there likely isn't room for more, Faerun alone has alot more countries and independent city states then Eberron, they will want some space for player options and monsters as well.

For major nations alone there are Chessenta, Mulhorand, Unther, Tymanther, Calimshan, Tethyr, Amn, Cormyr, Sembia, Impiltur, Dambrath, Damara, Halruaa, Lantan, Nimbral, Thay, Rashemen, Narfell, Aglaron, Thesk, Durpur, Luran, The Great Rift, Najara, Samarache, Chult, Tashelar, Turmish, Nathlan, Deep Imaskar, Evermeet, Everseska, Sossal, Murghom, Moonshaes, Semphar. That 36 nations alone. There is a couple of names I forgot like Paladin Nation and the name of the nation with Tantras and Ravensbluff.

I didn't even touch on small kingdoms like Hartvale or independent city states like Westgate. Or nations under the water. Or space for new stiff like city of Lorendrow and the city of Aevendrow.

Oof, you're just making me dislike a detailed lore book even more. This is far too many nation for me to care about.

Like I said before, I care little about having a fact-sheet for each nation and lord who lives in Faerun. I personally love the Patron elements of Eberron, not just the rules themselves but the examples and detail of the organizations described. I do think a good segment of this book should be a Faerun Gazzeeteer as you clearly want, but it shouldn't be the whole book either.

I'm holding my copy of Ravenloft 5E now, and only 120 pages are on the "lore" of the Domains. I'm not sure I need much more than 150 pages or so on lore of the geography, the rest should be made up of material like rules for organizations, powerful cults, patrons, stats of new monsters and some important NPCs.