D&D 5E Ed Greenwood's Border Kingdoms Now Available (& Official!)

From Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood and writer Alex Kammer, The Border Kingdoms, a sourcebook for the Forgotten Realms, is now available in PDF, softcover, and hardcover format.

Additionally, the book is "an officially-approved Wizards of the Coast release, meaning that its content is Adventurers League legal and all the lore contained in the book is official Forgotten Realms canon!"

According to the sage Meriadas of Westgate: “The Border Kingdoms are the most favored destination for adventurers who want to proudly and boldly conquer a realm or establish their own new kingdom. Lords, counts, dukes, kings and emperors rise, proclaim themselves, and are swept away with the speed and regularity of waves crashing upon a shore.”

A legendary “frontier” corner of the Forgotten Realms, the Border Kingdoms are where adventurers come to carve out their own kingdom, flee retribution, hide treasure — or find someone else's treasure.

It is a hodgepodge of tiny realms ruled by kings, grand viziers, imperial overdukes, and all manner of cabals, councils, and self-titled nobles. It's full of ruins, folk who want to stay hidden, long-slumbering secrets, and adventures waiting to happen.

The Border Kingdoms is a valuable resource for Dungeon Masters and players alike. In addition to describing the people and places of the Border Kingdoms, this book contains enough adventure hooks and lore to keep adventuring parties busy for years.

The Border Kingdoms includes:

• Over 100 pages of lore about the Border Kingdoms
• A beautiful new map of the Border Kingdoms by Mike Schley
• 11 new and fully Adventures League legal character backgrounds
• Dozens of brand new illustrations
• Brand new campaign hooks

 

[Badvoc]

Sounds like an interesting addition to the Realms, I might have to pick this up.

 

[Weiley31]

Now we just need the "Exploring Eberron" book now.

 

[R_J_K75]

I read the forward on this in the preview. Aside from this being a lawless land with a lot of wizards, rife with even-more-monstrous monsters, is it safe to say that the key selling point of this book is that PC's can carve out and rule their own kingdom? I don't know much on the region besides what I read in a Polyhedron Magazine, there hasn't been much detailed on the area correct?

 

[dave2008]

I think that this is official will make @gyor happy?

 

[dave2008]

I wonder if this the best time to be launching this. I hope the have some PR plans for after things settle down economically. I wish them the best of luck and hope it leads to more products in a similar vein.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I read the forward on this in the preview. Aside from this being a lawless land with a lot of wizards, rife with even-more-monstrous monsters, is it safe to say that the key selling point of this book is that PC's can carve out and rule their own kingdom? I don't know much on the region besides what I read in a Polyhedron Magazine, there hasn't been much detailed on the area correct?

Yeah, there were the articles in Polyhedron, some later parts were covered in Power of Faerun (IIRC; it may have been one of the other late 3.xE era books), and then some were covered on the WotC website. This, however, is a complete update of all the Border Kingdoms and includes an even better map than had previously been published.

 

[EthanSental]

Glad to have the POD available for it now too...it’s currently a silver seller, let’s hopefully see it go up in rankings to show similar products need to be made.

 

[R_J_K75]

Yeah, there were the articles in Polyhedron, some later parts were covered in Power of Faerun (IIRC; it may have been one of the other late 3.xE era books), and then some were covered on the WotC website. This, however, is a complete update of all the Border Kingdoms and includes an even better map than had previously been published.

Thinking of picking up the softcover of this. Has anyone bought any POD books off DM Guild that can attest to the quality? The map really looks nice, hoping I'll be able to read the print version with my poor eyesight.

 

[jgsugden]

If official, I wonder if D&D Beyond will be tackling it?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Thinking of picking up the softcover of this. Has anyone bought any POD books off DM Guild that can attest to the quality? The map really looks nice, hoping I'll be able to read the print version with my poor eyesight.

The quality is good. The only problem with drivethru and its adjacent sites is the shipping cost if you arent in the US. Shipping to Canada (I live in a somewhat major area, not the frozen edges of the country!) cost between 15$ and 133$, so its a little prohibitive.

 

[R_J_K75]

The quality is good. The only problem with drivethru and its adjacent sites is the shipping cost if you arent in the US. Shipping to Canada (I live in a somewhat major area, not the frozen edges of the country!) cost between 15$ and 133$, so its a little prohibitive.

Thanks. I was a little worried about the quality because I know that I've printed .pdfs that I bought online and they came out a little blurry. Then again I'm only using a $50 HP Deskjet, so I'd hope that if I'm buying a POD it'd be printed from something more commercial.

$15-$133 sucks and on top of it I bet it takes quite awhile.

 

[EthanSental]

Mine came in about 2 weeks from when I purchased it so pretty quick turnaround and quality is great as well.

 

[R_J_K75]

Mine came in about 2 weeks from when I purchased it so pretty quick turnaround and quality If great as well.

Not too bad. I remember being a kid waiting 6-8 weeks if mot more. Coming home like Ralphie checking the mailbox everyday. Now you can have stuff delivered in 1-2 days.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Thanks. I was a little worried about the quality because I know that I've printed .pdfs that I bought online and they came out a little blurry. Then again I'm only using a $50 HP Deskjet, so I'd hope that if I'm buying a POD it'd be printed from something more commercial.

$15-$133 sucks and on top of it I bet it takes quite awhile.

I usually buy the PDF from books I love from Dmguild then edit the part I appreciate less with a pdf editer then have it print at Stapples (in Canada, at least). I get to choose the paper and cover I like, and sometime I go for the black n white version to save money on pdf with low image content.

 

[R_J_K75]

I usually buy the PDF from books I love from Dmguild then edit the part I appreciate less with a pdf editer then have it print at Stapples (in Canada, at least). I get to choose the paper and cover I like, and sometime I go for the black n white version to save money on pdf with low image content.

In the 90s there was a Kinkos by my house, where I could photo copy parts of maps enlarged on 11" x 17" paper, and get entire maps laminated for really cheap. They've since closed. Now there's an Office Depot in the area but their prices are ridiculous, and they act like they cant be bothered to print anything for you.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The quality is good. The only problem with drivethru and its adjacent sites is the shipping cost if you arent in the US. Shipping to Canada (I live in a somewhat major area, not the frozen edges of the country!) cost between 15$ and 133$, so its a little prohibitive.

That's good to hear, since the two Monster Manual Expanded books from the DMs Guild will be available for POD in the next couple of weeks, and I'm definitely looking at purchasing them.

 

[SAVeira]

The quality is good. The only problem with drivethru and its adjacent sites is the shipping cost if you arent in the US. Shipping to Canada (I live in a somewhat major area, not the frozen edges of the country!) cost between 15$ and 133$, so its a little prohibitive.

I am in Canada awhile and I cannot believe their shipping costs. I wish they would get a Canadian printer for Canadian customers. In the meantime, I just build up a wishlist and do a mass order when I have several items.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've bought a bunch of hard copies from DriveThruRPG. I really like the results, in all three qualities (softcover, hardcover black and white and hardcover color). Assuming the creator has created a well designed PDF to begin with, the results are good, in my experience.

 

[Von Ether]

This reminds me of a much nicer version of what happened with the writer of the Vampire Diaries.

See, the Diaries is a packed product from the publisher. So they run it more like a media-tie in franchise and the writer, L. J. Smith, signed a work to hire contract.

When the writer wanted to continue with her planned story arcs instead of fall in line with the TV show when it went big, the publisher fired her. But Amazon's Kindle Worlds, their version of the DM's Guild for fan fic, had come along.

So for a while, the original writer was able to continue her story arc and get paid under Kindle Worlds. Just as Greenwood is now adding back to FR.

The Kindle World experiment only lasted 5 years, though, and the DMs Guild is still going strong.