Current Forgotten Realms Campaigns?

[JoeGKushner]

So whose currently running in the FR setting and what are you doing?

I'm running 4e in pre 4e history.

I used the Kobold Ruins from the DMG because I forgot the adventure I planned to run. Follow up was King Dretch from the In Search of Adventure. I'm letting the PC's play it by ear for the most part to see what they'll be doing.

Setting in the Forgotten Realms and both adventurers 'proper' have taken place in the Ardeep Forest.

Players just cracked 2nd level.

I've got two dragonborn (one warlord, one cleric), elf ranger, dwarf fighter, human wizard and halfling rogue. Guess I've got the whole "Mos Eisley" thing down and that's just core races.

Still learning the rules. If there's one thing I've hated about D&D for over a decade now it's the rules mastery necessary to keep things flowing smoothly. I'm much more likely these days to rule in the player's favor and just move on and search up what the problem was so that it doesn't bother us next game.

So far one player has brought his own mini. I gave him a +1 Orb. Another player bought a mini but we'll see if he paints it. If so I'll 'bribe' him as well.

Been allowing more stuff into the game as I get familiar with the rules again but so many of the rules are just little variants of the others that I'm more worried about how they'll all interact as opposed to the little bits and pieces. The exact same problem that 3e had.

One nice thing about the DDI thing is that Dungeon has a nice wide amount of material to it. I'll be using a hobgoblin encounter there to add an encounter prior to them getting back to Waterdeep for example.

So how's everyone else's campaign? What levels are you at? What resources are you using? I'm trying to use a Wiki, JK_Campaign_Wiki: Welcome To The Realms, but not doing too much with it thus far.

Some useful resrouces for my game thus far as a GM that I'm glad exist: Candlekeep
Obsidian Portal » Campaigns » Threshold » Wiki » Waterdeep
Waterdeep - The City of Splendors
Waterdeep Campaign

I'll probably be sending the party north to explore more of the Savage Frontier soon. Just trying to figure out what 'adventure' I'll be using as the bare bones of their movement. I've always found the 'dungeon crawling' to be the least interesting part as opposed to watching the characters interact with the world about them.

 

[Vayden]

I'm running a FR game right now. Started at 11th, players went up to 13 last week. The Returned Abeir section caught my fancy, so I set up a campaign where the players were explorers hired by Amn to go discover and explore the new continent. They wanted to be pirates, so I rolled with that. Spent the first level and a half making the long and perilous voyage, pursued by a strange body-hopping creature that was chasing one of the PCs (great backstory provided by the player). The voyage included losing the pursuing ship in the islands, discovering they had a spy on board then rooting the spy out and making a deal with her, and 3 days trapped in a spell-scarred sea of kelp with a nasty Far Realms type creature at the center.

They made it to Abeir, and just as they were approaching the coast, a pair of fighting dragons landed on their ship and wrecked it. They swam to shore, discovered they'd landed on the coast of Skelkor (the evil dragon empire), made friends with a small tribe of Goliaths, and spent a couple weeks hiding from dragons and getting in touch with the resistance. They killed a small dragon who attacked them in the mountains and decided to hire in with the resistance as dragon-slayers. This week, they went after another dragon, and the PC with the backstory got killed by the Yuan-ti guardians, so a massive portal has opened up to the Far Realms and an army of aberrations is pouring in. Therefore they've made an alliance with the dragons, and are going to go scout the army of aberrations next week.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Any players using material from the PHB2? The tribe of goliaths is a neat little way to offer them the ability to do so while fitting into the campaign.

Kudos on using the Far Realm. I've got some minor threads where the wizard in the party knows that the members of the Wands family who leave the warded homes come under attack by entities from the Far Realms but haven't decided if I'm going to "push" that aspect or throw some more options out there that are more traditional in terms of the old crawl.

 

[El Mahdi]

I'm running an FR campaign in houseruled 3.5. In my game, the timeline has advanced, same as in the 4E FR books, and the Spellplague occured, but I've made some changes.

I've kept the geography the same, so it's a 3E Era map.

I like the idea of random plague lands (with floating Earthmotes, etc.) so I've randomly scattered some of them around the world.

Abier has not returned. I still have Anchorhome and Maztica.

The main uber-NPC's are dead or crazy because of the Spellplague. Magic has changed however, because of the Spellplague. My houserule modifications included adapting 3.5E spells to more of an At Will/Encounter model (and eliminating save or die effects).

My favorite bad-guy, the returned Netherese Empire (Empire of Shade) is the Big Baddy of the campaign. I'm using Dragonborn as the Netherese' magically engineered shock troops.

Waterdeep isn't nearly as messed up as it is in 4E, although I like what happened to Undermountain.

I don't use Plaguetouched, or marked, or whatever it's called.

I've never really used Genasi, Tieflings and such, so I still don't.

I've introduced Warforged (actually before the Dragon article came out, but that was a very good article).

Basically just a modified 3.5E Realms using everything from GHotR and only the parts of the updated 4E Realms that I liked (very easy to leave out the parts I didn't like). Works great for my group.




The thing I've always loved about the Realms is how rich in history it is, yet so easily adaptable to what I want for my game. Kind of like a campaign setting buffet line. A little of this, a little of that, no thank you on the other, and I have exactly the campaign world I want.

The only "cannon" that matters is the cannon of the story and setting played out on our table. (and the cannons that go Boom, of course)

 

[JoeGKushner]

The Empire of Shade is pretty cool.

Are you using the Bedine as already integrated back into the old Netherise empire or are they still independent?

 

[Vayden]

Any players using material from the PHB2? The tribe of goliaths is a neat little way to offer them the ability to do so while fitting into the campaign.

Kudos on using the Far Realm. I've got some minor threads where the wizard in the party knows that the members of the Wands family who leave the warded homes come under attack by entities from the Far Realms but haven't decided if I'm going to "push" that aspect or throw some more options out there that are more traditional in terms of the old crawl.

Let's see - materials being used. Everyone's using FR backgrounds, one is playing a Drow (FR Player's Guide), one was playing a Genasi before he died in the kelp sea (FRPG race as well), and the replacement for the wizard is playing a longtooth shifter fighter from PHB 2.

I'm looking forward to using Far Realms aberrations as the villains for the next arc of the campaign - it's so easy to convert any monster you want to "aberration" - extra up some more eyes, slap some tentacles where they don't belong, give it all a faint purple glow . . . voila, creepy horror!

It's not very "Forgotten Realms" in feel, but I never really liked the old realms. I'm running this one in the Realms because I like the new 4e Realms - I have no plans to ever go back and learn any of the mystical history of 1/2/3e Realms.

 

[JoeGKushner]

How do you like the FR backgrounds? I haven't let the background elements into the game yet but I'm not sure they'd cause any problems. They just look like little extras and if everyone has 'em, then it shoudl balance out. However, they do look a little more... powerful than the standard backgrounds.

 

[Korror]

I'm running a 4th edition game in 3rd edition Realms. I don't mind what they did with the forgotten realms in the latest update but the players and I know the setting much better from 3rd edition. I've kept the things I liked from the newest version of the realms such as earthmotes and the spellplague which I've used to explain the absence of all the major power figures. Some parts I just ignored like the changing geography and returned Abier. I liked my old map better than the new one so I didn't feel a need to change the geography and there's space enough in the realms for the players to explore without adding a whole new continent.

My campaign is based around the Moonsea area and so far the PCs have investigated an abandoned dwarven city in the Dragonspine mountains, run into the zhents in the Citadel of the Raven and now they've headed up to Whitehorn to save the place from a horde of orcs. I have plans for them later in Myth Drannor and Cormyr but we'll see if they head that way next.

I've not stuck too closely to the established setting as I tend to insert my own towns and originations rather than sticking to the published ones. In my realms, Cormyr is an oppressive and militarily aggressive empire with a healthy distrust of professional adventurers. Zhentil Keep is still an abode of Banites but their faith is less overtly evil. The Raven Queen has replaced Kevlor and Pelor has replaced whatever sun god is supposed to be in Forgotten Realms. I’m enjoying using the FR for ideas and geography and I think my players are also enjoying their time in the realms.

 

[JoeGKushner]

One of my players likes the Raven Queen. Personally, I'm 'm'eh' about the Raven Queen as a death godness but she does have more 'flavor' in terms of being than I've gotten out of Keelvemor. Now Jergal on the other hand...

Will the Zhents be used as bad guys in the campaign? Do you have any of the old Polyhedron magazines? They did some great write ups on some of those areas in the Moonseas. One of 'em dealt with the wizard group... the Cloaks I want to say? They were pretty impressive from what I can recall.

 

[El Mahdi]

The Empire of Shade is pretty cool.

Are you using the Bedine as already integrated back into the old Netherise empire or are they still independent?

I kept the Bedine independent (although oppressed). My first ever character was a half-elf with a Human Bedine Father and a Wood Elf Mother. So, I can't just have them giving in to the enemy! (Not part of the Campaign, but backstory wise, my old character is now an NPC running a resistance against the Shades.)

Besides, I've always really liked the Bedine. They kind of remind me of the Fremen from Dune. I've still got my old AD&D Anauroch supplement also. It does a really good job of detailing the Bedine.

P.S.: I've been toying with the idea of adapting the Star Wars: Dawn of Defiance AP to FR, essentially casting the Netherise in the roll of the Empire. I think it might be fun.