Actually, Forgotten Realms Adventures is one of the few sources of info regarding the Sword Coast, or at least regarding its towns and cities (not so much the land in between). One of my FR pet peeves has traditionally been that one of most D&D-ish areas is one of the least described ones.
D&D 5E Campaign setting strategy: Would a big campaign setting guide followed by regional books be better?
- Thread starter Corpsetaker
- Start date
In the past, releasing a setting one bit of material (an adventure, a regional sourcebook) at a time has worked perfectly well as a way to release settings. See the Known World for a D&D example. I don't think it matters how the setting is presented, but how well it's done is much more important.
The comparison to the Known World occured to me, but there you at least had some stuff in the Expert (I think) rules giving an overview.
I do remember back in 2e when I bought the Karameikos boxed set and became disappointed that it only covered a single country. My fault for not researching the product ahead of time, but still.
redrick
First Post
The Expert rules, or at least the 1981 version by David Cook, contains only a one-page write-up on Karameikos and a one-page b&w map. Now, maybe there was something else included in the set. I'm just looking at the PDF of the rulebook.
The Known World is a little bit of a different case from FR, because the world was being developed and expanded as the gazetteers were released. So, from what I understand, it grew much in the same way that a DM's own homebrew setting might go. "Oh, you wanna go over there? Sure! Look! It's a country loosely modeled off the Mongolian Empire and the Golden Horde!"
EDITED TO ADD:
The X1: Isle of Dread appears to be the actual first appearance of a multi-country map of the Known World, along with a one page writeup, containing one paragraph on each country on the main continent. That appeared before G1, but it's not much. The 5e PHB includes more information about Faerun than that, not to mention what you can find in sourcebooks for earlier editions, or just on the internet.
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Hmm. My experience may be colored by having had the Swedish translation of the Expert boxed set (Mentzer version) which also included some stuff from the Companion rules and, apparently, the brief gazetteer of the Known World that was included in Isle of Dread (the adventure itself wasn't, though).
Still, Mentzer Expert was 1983, and included X1 so it came with a (very) brief setting description. The Known World gazetteers didn't start coming out until 1987 - so they were based on brief early descriptions, but of course greatly expanded from the paragraph or two the various countries had in X1 (plus whatever development they got via adventures later).
Still, Mentzer Expert was 1983, and included X1 so it came with a (very) brief setting description. The Known World gazetteers didn't start coming out until 1987 - so they were based on brief early descriptions, but of course greatly expanded from the paragraph or two the various countries had in X1 (plus whatever development they got via adventures later).
Jeff Carlsen
Adventurer
Which is better will depend on the DM and the game. Personally, I might have preferred a larger scale setting book. But, I don't mind the regional approach. I think there's probably still a need for a book that is more generic to cover things like history, religion, and life in the Realms. But a good set of regional books negates the need for the shallow atlas approach.
I just wish they'd tell us the overall plan for setting materials.
I just wish they'd tell us the overall plan for setting materials.
miniaturehoarder
First Post
Unless they manage to crack down and shutter every wiki out there, a general setting book has too much free competition.
Remathilis
Legend
Really, this depends on if you like "top down" or "bottom up" styles of world-building.
Top-down is pretty much what old TSR box-sets did; give you a giant overview of the world in the box and then leave it to the supplements to fill in. What you got was something a mile-wide and an inch deep; the FRCS 3e for example was chock full of areas but to fit it all in they didn't give any area detail; making most of the areas fairly dry and un-exciting. Bottom-up is most famously done with Mystara; the known world is detailed in a dozen gazetteers, each with unique info and basically a mini-campaign setting in its own right. Of course, you needed the Karameikios book (or later, the Rules Cyclopedia) to get a grand picture of the whole Known World, but then again if my campaign focused on Karameikos/Glantri/Darokin, why bother learning about Irendi anyway?
Personally, I like bottom up; which is ironic since I designed my own homeworld top-down. I'm much happier focusing on a small section of the world (Sword Coast, the Core domains of Ravenloft, Xen'drik) then trying to fit the world world into one product. the touch of intimacy focusing on one section can give more than makes up for the "what's over there" element of the undetailed map.
Top-down is pretty much what old TSR box-sets did; give you a giant overview of the world in the box and then leave it to the supplements to fill in. What you got was something a mile-wide and an inch deep; the FRCS 3e for example was chock full of areas but to fit it all in they didn't give any area detail; making most of the areas fairly dry and un-exciting. Bottom-up is most famously done with Mystara; the known world is detailed in a dozen gazetteers, each with unique info and basically a mini-campaign setting in its own right. Of course, you needed the Karameikios book (or later, the Rules Cyclopedia) to get a grand picture of the whole Known World, but then again if my campaign focused on Karameikos/Glantri/Darokin, why bother learning about Irendi anyway?
Personally, I like bottom up; which is ironic since I designed my own homeworld top-down. I'm much happier focusing on a small section of the world (Sword Coast, the Core domains of Ravenloft, Xen'drik) then trying to fit the world world into one product. the touch of intimacy focusing on one section can give more than makes up for the "what's over there" element of the undetailed map.
Remathilis
Legend
Well, there was a bit on the rest of the world in the "beyond the borders" section, and the Glantri boxset (and the then-cancelled Darokin one) would have grown the area out further. Still, they were trying to capture the lighting of $12 gazetteers into $30 box sets, which was never going to fly.
That said, the Karameikos box is perhaps one of the most complete yet usable settings in D&D. You have all the trappings of the archetypal kingdom, down to knights, churches, guilds and the like, a detailed idea of the religion, politics, and economics of the kingdom, plenty of places to explore and villains to foil, and still room to explore, settle, and rise to power. And a touch of the exotic was just a border away. Its really brilliant.
steeldragons
Steeliest of the dragons
That is exactly the structure of the product(s) I want to create for my homebrew setting.
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