D&D General Alright, Forgotten Realms junkies! a Q or two.

[Paul Farquhar]

The latter still has some meat on its bones!

@Gorg: Here's the Darkenbeast stat block from Scourge of the Sword Coast:

View attachment 430308

This is quite fun, especially if the players hit them with Daylight as they fly over, and they turn back into cows.

 

[Gorg]

The latter still has some meat on its bones!

@Gorg: Here's the Darkenbeast stat block from Scourge of the Sword Coast:

View attachment 430308

That'll make it more fun to run encounters with these- I can actually describe them to the players!

I've come across these before over they years, and the concept was just wicked and nasty enough to add tons of flavor- and really make players despise those enemies who created and used them. For the life of me, I couldn't remember any details- just that they were a particularly unpleasant Realms thing. And thus something I HAD to use in a game!

 

[Gorg]

Yes.

Seriously, settings are pretty edition neutral. The rules in the places that they show up at all are likely 5.5e, but the setting information in it is pretty much just lore and NPCs, which are easily translatable into any edition. I still use my 3e FR setting book, because as I said, it's pretty much just lore and that book has more of it than anything 5e as put out. Plus, 5.5e is backwards compatible with 5e, so you can use the stuff in it in a purely 5e game anyway.

My thoughts about the 3E Realms setting book exactly. A very well done book. I ended up collecting a ton of the 3E Realms books.

The reason I'm not too interested in the newer stuff, IS the lore. I've grown rather weary and jaded of the world shaking events that always herald a new edition. My game will be set in the earlier Realms- the one I was excited to explore. There's a lifetime of gaming there, already.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

My thoughts about the 3E Realms setting book exactly. A very well done book. I ended up collecting a ton of the 3E Realms books.

The reason I'm not too interested in the newer stuff, IS the lore. I've grown rather weary and jaded of the world shaking events that always herald a new edition. My game will be set in the earlier Realms- the one I was excited to explore. There's a lifetime of gaming there, already.

There haven’t really been any world shaking events for around 12 years now, and the last one reset most things to how they were if 3e. Where things have been changed, its been evolutional, to make some things that looked dated more relevant and playable.

 

[Maxperson]

My thoughts about the 3E Realms setting book exactly. A very well done book. I ended up collecting a ton of the 3E Realms books.

The reason I'm not too interested in the newer stuff, IS the lore. I've grown rather weary and jaded of the world shaking events that always herald a new edition. My game will be set in the earlier Realms- the one I was excited to explore. There's a lifetime of gaming there, already.

As @Paul Farquhar said, there's no big shake-up in the 5e Realms stuff, and I think the new two book set Realms product is pretty good.

As for my personal game, no sundering or spellplague ever happened. I loved the idea of the Time of Troubles, but the latter two events are lame in my opinion.

 

[Toe Knee Nose]

To be fair, as others have said, WotC has been REALLY soft touching the Realms for the past decade or so. While you have these massive Adventure Paths that potentially could blow up the Realms, all of them presume that some plucky group of adventurers has put a stop to the nefarious plots and returned things to more or less status quo.

The demon lords in Out of the Abyss are sent back to the Abyss. Tiamat never arrives at the end of Tyranny of Dragons. The giants sort out the Ordning at the end of the Giant's adventures. Phandelver closes the rift to the Far Realms and everything goes back. So on and so forth.

Since 4e, there really hasn't been any real changes to the setting and I don't think the calendar has even advanced really. And since they were completely silent on anything outside of the Sword Coast, there is no contradiction going on there either.

 

[pukunui]

Since 4e, there really hasn't been any real changes to the setting and I don't think the calendar has even advanced really.

I’m sorry but this is flat-out wrong.

Firstly, the Second Sundering was a massive world-shaking event that undid most of 4e’s changes, returning the Realms mostly to their pre-4e and in some cases pre-3e state.

Secondly, the timeline has continued to advance throughout 5e’s lifetime. The new 5.5e books set the official date as 1501 DR.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The timeline has bounced around between between 1499 and 1503 over the 5e lifetime, it hasn’t advanced in the way we understand linear time!

 

[pukunui]

The timeline has bounced around between between 1499 and 1503 over the 5e lifetime, it hasn’t advanced in the way we understand linear time!

Kind of. Here’s a breakdown:

• 1479 DR: The starting year for 4e
• 1484–1487: The Second Sundering (detailed in the SCAG, which the OP owns), Out of the Abyss
• 1489 DR: Tyranny of Dragons, Rime of the Frostmaiden
• 1490s: Storm King’s Thunder, Tomb of Annihilation
• 1491 DR: PotA, LMoP (and Shattered Obelisk)
• 1492 DR: Dragon Heist, Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Descent into Avernus, Candlekeep Mysteries, Baldur’s Gate III
• 1496 DR: Orrery of the Wanderer (Acq Inc)
• 1501 DR: starting year for 5.5e Realms

Not a whole lot of bouncing around there. Plus there’s nothing official set in 1503.

 

[DragonLancer]

Hope no one minds me shoehorning a question in but whatever happened to Saurians? After 2nd edition I never saw any reference to them ever again.