Best pre-3.0/3.5 FR Products

[msd]

I essentially missed out on all of 2E FR stuff. I play 3.5, but am looking to compile all the good 2E stuff that I missed and that is still available (either as a free download from WoTC or as a PDF from RPGNow or some other vendor).

I am especially interested in things that are flavor heavy and other things that are easily brought into 3.5.

Thanks in advance.

-Matt

 

[shaylon]

Hit EBAY! Volo's guides are really flavor heavy and great. The North boxed set is really good, the Raven's Bluff Living City book (free download at TSR) has some good info in it. Basically if you are looking for fluff for FR you can't go wrong with old stuff.

Hope you find what you seek.

-Shay

 

[Guero Caballero]

Download all the free stuff from the WotC site. I don't play in FR, but there are a lot of flavor-heavy free pdfs to check out over there.

 

[Psion]

Undermountain, naturally.

Though I gotta say, I probably get more use to this day out of Aurora's Whole Realm Catalog.

 

[Staffan]

Faiths & Avatars (and the companion volumes, Demihuman Deities and Powers & Pantheons) are way superior to the 3e version Faiths & Pantheons regarding flavor.

The City of Splendors boxed set (about Waterdeep) is also quite excellent, but I haven't seen the 3e version of Waterdeep to compare it.

 

[wingsandsword]

Auroras Whole Realms Catalog. The best general equipment book ever made for D&D, end of story. Also pretty rules-light, it's mostly flavor.

Faiths & Avatars/Powers & Pantheons/Demihuman Deities. The best books of deities made for Forgotten Realms, much better than the 3e Faiths & Pantheons.

 

[Shadowslayer]

The Forgotten Realms Atlas! Thick book of hardly anything but maps.

Aside from the actual setting boxes, everything else is pretty concentrated. I mean, if you want to set a campaign in the Dales, get the Dalelands supplement and the Volo's guide. Same with Cormyr. Really depends what area you want to focus on.

Other goodies:
Villains Lorebook (a catalog of Villains)
Pages from the Mages (Lots of special Tomes described and spells too)
Players Guide to the Forgotten Realms (a tour of the FR, through the jounal entries of the members of a well travelled adventuring company)

Personally I prefer the 2e stuff for that. Most of the 1e sourcebooks were printed on this goofy mottled yellow parchment with brown type. (probably to discourage photocopying) I always found it really annoying and hard to read. Anyway, most of the 2e stuff was simple black type on white paper.