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In one night, everyone but the priest of Mystra was slain by a high-level drow lich, so this surviving dweomerkeeper was given a party pulled from the farthest reaches of the Realms (by a mysterious benefactor!) to aid him in retrieving the original (we were all subsequently killed :D). I...

I am, since I've played in it. :D As a matter of fact, I'm heading out to Pittsburgh this weekend for his game, Codragon. So for what it's worth, I can attempt to answer some of the questions in Glamdring's absence. Unless something drastic and world-altering occurs in a new novel, there's no...

Here's what I think. I think that the 3E FRCS is very light on the details. Very broad in its content and epic in its scope, but to get such a huge world into one book is impossible unless you pass over a lot of the finer points. Shadowdale gets about a page and a half, and then the DM is...

The Tablets of Fate were the lists of every god that existed in Faerun, and then detailed their duties, their portfolios, and so on. Bane and Myrkul stole them from Ao, and as punishment for this (and for all the gods in general paying more attention to their own squabbles with each other than...

Well, that's why I rely less on the CR system and more on what I think would make a neat battle. And to drive the point home, I begin every campaign by passing out copies of the first few pages from Chapter One of The Temptation of Elminster -- it goes into detail about how three adventuring...

Things seem so cut-and-dry with the CR system, and I don't like it. Avoiding a party-kill was as easy as remembering that you were the DM and what you said and did was all that mattered. Nowadays, I get a much stronger feeling that PCs are reckless, because "The DM knows our party level and so...

I don't think it's possible to go wrong with the Greenwood books. I just reread your initial post, and noticed that you still need to check out The Temptation of Elminster. Definitely good stuff, but my personal favorite has to be Elminster in Hell. My highest recommendation is to read that...

Well, AD&D used FR as its "default setting," and a lot of FR authors use it to define certain aspects of the setting, especially Salvatore and his Menzoberranzan. First and foremost is Narbondel, the huge spire in the middle of the city that all the infravision-using drow use as a clock -- at...

Well, first off, I think the one of the worst things Wizards ever did was use the "Edition Transition" to move the default setting out of the Realms and into Greyhawk. I think that since 3E was designed with Greyhawk in mind, the FRCS feels almost like Greyhawk with an "FR template" added to...

Shadows of the Avatar trilogy. Furthermore, Silverfall.

This sounds like the perfect opportunity for the thief to delve into the seemy underbelly of society (and take the rest of the party with her). As she begins levelling up, she should be gaining more influence and respect anyway. She can go into hiding, living on the lam, making contacts with...

When I learned that Haranshire was a rural farming community, the first thing that popped into my head was "Shadowdale!" So I'd planned to skip over to book 2 once the time came, and when I got there, work on some reasoning behind all the "fight-monsters-level-up" stuff as the group matured and...

The way I interpret the whole "once a day thing" is once in an adventuring day, separated from the next by a period of rest. While the wizard and priest can only cast a fixed amount of spells spells once per day, and then need to rest to replenish them, the barbarian also requires this period...

I'm curious if there's been any information posted somewhere on the net on converting the old Shadowdale-based adventure Beneath the Twisted Tower. I'm not only wondering about what DCs and CRs I'll have to play with, but I'm also curious about the adventure's encounters. It's designed as a...

Holy hell! This, Sol, is awesome. You have *no idea* how awesome this new angle is going to work out. Just wanted to say thanks. :D

When I disappeared from the table one summer, I asked my DN where my character had been during the games that had taken place in my absence. His response was, "He's been in New Jersey for summer vacation." On the other hand, when another pair from our group transferred to another campus, their...

Well, this whole mess was settled once I showed him the FRCS, page 289, under "Allowing Powerful Races in Play" -- 'Even if the character falls within the power range of the rest of the group, you can disallow it if you don't think the character suits your campaign--you have the final say on...

I'm the DN, dude. When I get mad, PCs die. :D Seriously, this is the kind of game I run, and this is the kind of game I like to play. I'm certainly not forcing anybody to play it, but this kind of philosophy makes the world that much more grounded and real, and I think it's a big part of...

When I get a player who writes up a novella detailing his background, I see it as more trouble than it's worth. In my experience, it usually turns out to be a sign that the character is planning on hijacking the party and telling everyone, "See, such-and-such is my destiny, so we need to go...

No, it's not about not knowing enough of the setting. It's all part of that "I know better than you" attitude -- DL is better than FR because that's all he's read, and he exhibits fierce, stubborn devotion to Krynn because he's made up his mind. And it *is* like dealing with a child -- once...