Enevhar Aldarion
Hero
Douglas Niles wrote both the Maztica novel trilogy and the boxed set for 2nd Ed AD&D.
D&D General Ed Greenwood: How The Realms Began
- Thread starter Ed Greenwood
- Start date
Douglas Niles wrote both the Maztica novel trilogy and the boxed set for 2nd Ed AD&D.
M.T. Black
Adventurer
Thank you - I'm excited about this series!
The Harp Sisters! https://www.youtube.com/user/CamilleandKennerly
Scrivener of Doom
Adventurer
Great stuff!
It's wonderful to see Ed here and it will be quite handy being able to point new Realms fans to this article so they can understand how the Realms began.
Paradoxically, one of the reasons I liked the 4E version of the Realms was that it gave me a chance to get rid of the non-Ed bits of the Realms that never quite captured the feel of the Realms... and that's in, arguably, the least Ed-like version of the Realms.
Like you, I would like to see the real Realms - have Ed focus on the Heartlands of Cormyr, the Dalelands, and the Moonsea and set it before the Knights of Myth Drannor began their home game. No stupid names. No Earth-based cultures. Simply Ed's campaign world as it was meant to be.
It's wonderful to see Ed here and it will be quite handy being able to point new Realms fans to this article so they can understand how the Realms began.
Paradoxically, one of the reasons I liked the 4E version of the Realms was that it gave me a chance to get rid of the non-Ed bits of the Realms that never quite captured the feel of the Realms... and that's in, arguably, the least Ed-like version of the Realms.
Like you, I would like to see the real Realms - have Ed focus on the Heartlands of Cormyr, the Dalelands, and the Moonsea and set it before the Knights of Myth Drannor began their home game. No stupid names. No Earth-based cultures. Simply Ed's campaign world as it was meant to be.
Li Shenron
Legend
Awesome! 
Funny to read "even if I never found anyone to play a game with", and afterward you have had literally millions of people playing with you Mr. Greenwood!
Funny to read "even if I never found anyone to play a game with", and afterward you have had literally millions of people playing with you Mr. Greenwood!
Aaron L
Hero
Thank you, Ed!
I first found some friends to play D&D with in '91 with 2nd Edition (I'd wanted to play for years but just couldn't find anyone before then) and was introduced to the 'Realms with the Purple Box, and was given a big set of 'Realms novels by a college student working at the program I attended during summers at Penn State; maybe 10 books including Pool of Radiance, Pool of Darkness, The Night Parade, Spellfire, and Elfshadow (can't remember the others) but I honestly didn't care much for the setting that I read about in the boxed set (although I totally loved Spellfire and Elfshadow.) I can't really put a finger on exactly why, but the Purple Box seemed to be too... cheery? It just gave me forced Disney vibes. But after maybe 3 years of playing D&D I was introduced to 1st Edition and the Old Grey Box, and I absolutely loved how the 'Realms was presented in that set. It just felt so much more interesting and cool. Maybe the grey color had something to do with it, but I think it had more to do with the way the original set was written with a feeling of mystery and danger, whereas the Purple Box seemed more to me like everyone was a cheery Dalelands farmer and the world was just too twee. Then the 3rd Edition book came out and I totally loved that, too. I could read about the Elves of the 'Realms forever and a day.
I won't speak of the 4th Edition changes.
Greyhawk is my personal bag, but I love the Forgotten Realms, too.
I first found some friends to play D&D with in '91 with 2nd Edition (I'd wanted to play for years but just couldn't find anyone before then) and was introduced to the 'Realms with the Purple Box, and was given a big set of 'Realms novels by a college student working at the program I attended during summers at Penn State; maybe 10 books including Pool of Radiance, Pool of Darkness, The Night Parade, Spellfire, and Elfshadow (can't remember the others) but I honestly didn't care much for the setting that I read about in the boxed set (although I totally loved Spellfire and Elfshadow.) I can't really put a finger on exactly why, but the Purple Box seemed to be too... cheery? It just gave me forced Disney vibes. But after maybe 3 years of playing D&D I was introduced to 1st Edition and the Old Grey Box, and I absolutely loved how the 'Realms was presented in that set. It just felt so much more interesting and cool. Maybe the grey color had something to do with it, but I think it had more to do with the way the original set was written with a feeling of mystery and danger, whereas the Purple Box seemed more to me like everyone was a cheery Dalelands farmer and the world was just too twee. Then the 3rd Edition book came out and I totally loved that, too. I could read about the Elves of the 'Realms forever and a day.
I won't speak of the 4th Edition changes.
Greyhawk is my personal bag, but I love the Forgotten Realms, too.
I'm a pretty big Realms fan, and The Isle of the Mooshaes was my first FR accessory (I also read the first novel, Darkwalker); what was the original vision for the Moonshaes?
That and the Grey Box really set the vibe of Faerun for me.
I'm glad Maztica returned (though it never left in my campaign). I hope they give a little love to it, and of course Al-Qadim (one of my all time favourite settings) and Horde (great boxed set)/Kara Tur.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
The Moonshaes were originally a barely inhabited archipelago, without much to speak of: the Moonshaes novels were not originally set in the Forgotten Realms, and were going to be the base of a new setting coming from TSR UK, a sort of British answer to Dragonlance. But TSR UK got shuttered, and Niles had mostly written the novel, so what there was of that setting got transferred to the Forgotten Realms where there wasn't much going on.
Wow, very cool, the TSR UK campaign setting; I could see Moonshaes being its own deal (like I can with Al-Qadim and Kara-Tur), thanks for that.
BookBarbarian
Expert Long Rester
*wistful sigh*
That was a pleasure to read. I very much look forward to the next one.
That was a pleasure to read. I very much look forward to the next one.
Depends if he wanted to retain control of those bits. Plus 50% is a high royalty; he could probably hold out for a better deal .
Parmandur
Book-Friend
He's already put out a few things:
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/244431/The-Border-Kingdoms-A-Forgotten-Realms-Campaign-Supplement
I'm glad this series is happening.
Thank you to all involved.
Very much looking forward to the next installment.
Thank you to all involved.
Very much looking forward to the next installment.
Thanks to Dungeon Master Ed Greenwood, and to Web Master Morrus! It's good to know that I stand in such fine company. My first exposure to D&D was through the Choose Your Own Adventure books in about 1982. Within two years I was taking my first steps into the multiverse. But, it was that Forgotten Realms boxset that really got my imagination flowing on the possibilities of a campaign in someone else's world. Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again!
Greyson
Explorer
Greenwood certainly deserves an abundance of credit for the allure, diversity and charm of the Forgotten Realms. It has been an amazing setting for Dungeons & Dragons over the decades. I have loved playing and DMing in that playground (the ill-conceived Spellplague is the exception). But gosh, what a terrible novel writer. For a self-ascribed, former "child prodigy," Greenwood has put out some truly bad efforts - and TSR and WotC let him because of the name power. Why not, when they sold like bad romance novels? Shandril's Saga was not good and that trilogy is somehow better than that three book disaster we got in the Shadow of the Avatar series. I had to force myself to keeping reading The Herald to feel a sense of closure with The Sundering series. Ugh. There are other duds in between. When you love the Realms, though, you take the good with the bad.
In 2004's 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons, Greenwood is quoted as saying it was 1967 that the notion of the Realms were created. He may have been closer to eight years old. I guess in the spirit of storytelling, all tales are allowed to get more fantastic over time.
Anyway, after Jeff Grub vetted Greenwood for TSR, the latter sent his FR stuff in. Erik Mona once related in an issue of Dungeon how the folks at TSR received Greenwood's hand-written notes wrapped in tin foil. It is a funny, quirky thing I can totally imagine.
In 2004's 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons, Greenwood is quoted as saying it was 1967 that the notion of the Realms were created. He may have been closer to eight years old. I guess in the spirit of storytelling, all tales are allowed to get more fantastic over time.
Anyway, after Jeff Grub vetted Greenwood for TSR, the latter sent his FR stuff in. Erik Mona once related in an issue of Dungeon how the folks at TSR received Greenwood's hand-written notes wrapped in tin foil. It is a funny, quirky thing I can totally imagine.
