DMs Guild [Design Notes] Forgotten Realms Travel Guide: Faerûn, Kara-Tur, and Zakhara

[Epic Meepo]

This would be an amazing resource. From what little we've been told by WOTC, the upcoming FR books will talk about a few regions in detail, and largely ignore the rest. I've bought most of the old editions, and trying to synthesize my notes and highlights has been an incredible pain.

Thanks for the comment!

If all goes well, the Forgotten Realms Travel Guide will drop in a matter of months. I very much hope it helps you organize your notes! One of my two big design goals: provide a framework people with other Forgotten Realms products can use to organize and build upon setting information. (My other big design goal: provide a book anyone can use as a stand-alone setting guide, even if they don't have access to other Forgotten Realms products. Once you've organized your notes, you can point potential players towards relevant parts of the Travel Guide for a quick intro to the Realms.)

 

[Epic Meepo]

Rage Against the Machine

I enjoy creative work too much to let AI do it for me. I imagine that’s true of most writers and other artists. While I’m not one of the lucky ones who makes a living doing creative work, I would find it rather depressing if there was no paying creative work left in society on account of AI.

That’s one of the main reasons I’m using human-generated stock art in my project instead of utilizing AI-generated content. I use the word “content” deliberately here, because everything I’ve seen from AI so far suggests AI is more effective at generating content than it is at generating art.

I’m glad I licensed most of my stock art long ago, before generative AI really took off. In the years since then, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to locate quality stock art. Most of the good human-generated stuff is buried under a pile of uninspired, samey-looking, AI-generated content.

I have encountered one process I wish I could automate, but ironically, I doubt anyone would ever write or train software to do it. Over the past month, I’ve spent many long hours arranging and rearranging 1,500-or-so labels on maps, trying my best to make sure everything is in the right place.

Could someone develop software to generate labels on a map? Certainly. Could someone develop software to generate labels that accurately name specific locations on a custom map of the Forgotten Realms? In theory, yes. In practice, software developers and trainers have better things to do with their time.

That brings up another reason I’m not using generative AI: when I’m doing creative work, I’m usually performing tasks that are extremely niche, and I want them completed in a very particular way. I’m not looking to produce mainstream content that conforms to statistically-significant historical trends. What would be the fun in that?

 

[Epic Meepo]

Heroes of Faerun

As I’ve mentioned before, I was working on the Forgotten Realms Travel Guide before Wizards of the Coast announced it would be releasing its 2025 Forgotten Realms campaign setting sourcebooks. In the wake of that announcement, I’ve been following the latest previews of the 2025 titles, and I'm doing what I can to make sure my own book contains material not covered in the official releases.

The latest preview reveals that the previously announced Forgotten Realms player’s guide will be called Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun. Funny enough, I dropped the original working title of my own book (The Forgotten Realms Players’ Guide) when the official Forgotten Realms player’s guide was announced. Now it turns out the official player’s guide won’t actually include the phrase “Player's Guide” in its name.

In theory, I could now revert my travel guide to its original working title, since the phrase “Players’ Guide” is once again fair game. I don’t think I'll do that, though. Forgotten Realms Travel Guide is an accurate title for my project. My book is about more than just people and places; it also details trade routes travelers can follow to reach destinations throughout Faerun, Kara-Tur, and Zakhara. So "travel guide" it is.

 

[Epic Meepo]

Fun with Trigonometry

In recent decades, most official maps of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting include graphics indicating the scale involved. Often, the graphic on a given map is a ruler-like bar representing a certain distance in miles. Older maps sometimes omit this graphic, instead declaring “1 inch = such-and-such miles,” a statement which serves the same purpose.

All of which is great, except it neglects to take the curvature of the planet Toril into account. Any graphic or text equating X distance on the east-west axis of the map to Y distance in miles can only be accurate at one or two specific latitudes. Move a few degrees north or south on the map, and X distance on the east-west axis no longer equals Y distance in miles.

The one-hundred-and-twenty-something interior maps in the Forgotten Realms Travel Guide take the curvature of Toril into account in several ways. First, each map displays arcs of latitude and longitude, labeled in degrees. If you’re a stickler for precise measurements, a chart included in the book summarizes how you can convert degrees at various latitudes into Faerûnian miles.

Since referencing a chart can be inconvenient, most maps also include a graphical indication of scale. This indicator resembles the ruler-like bar used on most official maps of the Forgotten Realms, except the ruler curves to follow one specific circle of latitude. Curves above and below that latitude will differ slightly in scale, but the graphic gives a rough indication of distance for the entire map.

Needless to say, I’ve spent far too many hours doing trigonometry lately. If ages pass before I see another formula with a cosine in it, I won’t be terribly upset. That being said, I don’t regret taking the time to do the necessary calculations. There are plenty of flat projection maps of the Forgotten Realms. As far as I'm concerned, having some new maps which showcase the curvature of Toril is a nice change of pace.