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

 

[Ibrandul]

That would be superb. I was just reading Illefarn Anew earlier this week and a 5e version would save me doing the conversion work.

Illefarn Anew is an excellent piece of work, and it's wonderful that Eric has circulated it for free. I'd love to DM it, but I don't run 3.5e and don't have enough extra time on my hands right now to convert it myself.

 

[Fenris-77]

That's similar to my thinking. I'm planning to run a series of classic modules mixed with some homebrew adventures and have been looking for a relatively unused corner of the Realms to use as a backdrop.

I dropped KotB into the border kingdoms and then used that as a homebase to run Isle of Dread and Dwellers as seafaring exploration in 'Chult'. It's a great setting for that.

 

[gyor]

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?

Yes, that is the idea behind the Border Kingdoms, explore it, build a Kingdom. For Pathfinder fans, it's was the inspiration for the Stolen Lands of Golarion, which btw Ed Greenwood also worked on.

Although I bought and read the previous version of this book before it was acknowledged canon, and it has a lot of details on the sex trade of the Border Kingdoms, I kid you not, which is weirdly awesome and funny. I have been a big fan of the Border Kingdoms, this fun patchwork of Kingdoms and influences abd history, but with this cool build yourself a kingdom premise, although you can tell other types of stories their, from Pilgramages to Godswalk Keep, which used to get mysterious visits from the Gods Sharess, Jergal, and Gargos at the same time to abaddon Dwarven Coppermines, to the weirdness that is the lake of steam itself, to soo much more.

 

[gyor]

You can sort by "D&D Adventurer's League" but I don't think that is the same thing as "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 "

The only other product I know for sure that is also "canon" is the Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron.

There is also the Tortle Package which is canon FR, and oh of course PDFs of classic FR books from previous editions, and the Moonshae Islands book via a deal with Baldman Games. Maybe Tales of Myth Drannor.

 

[R_J_K75]

Yes, that is the idea behind the Border Kingdoms, explore it, build a Kingdom. For Pathfinder fans, it's was the inspiration for the Stolen Lands of Golarion, which btw Ed Greenwood also worked on.

Although I bought and read the previous version of this book before it was acknowledged canon, and it has a lot of details on the sex trade of the Border Kingdoms, I kid you not, which is weirdly awesome and funny. I have been a big fan of the Border Kingdoms, this fun patchwork of Kingdoms and influences abd history, but with this cool build yourself a kingdom premise, although you can tell other types of stories their, from Pilgramages to Godswalk Keep, which used to get mysterious visits from the Gods Sharess, Jergal, and Gargos at the same time to abaddon Dwarven Coppermines, to the weirdness that is the lake of steam itself, to soo much more.

At ~$25 for the softcover I may pick this up. Im looking to run something a little different but seeing as I've been DMing for the better part of 20 years Im kind of burned out. Id like to think this might get my imagination and enthusiasm going again but I think the only thing that will do that is break and see things from a players perspective again for awhile.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

That one probably won’t be coming to DMs Guild at all, as they’re writing it for 3.5e mechanics. (Only 5e content or completely edition-neutral content is permitted on DMs Guild.) Personally, I wish both the Crown project and Illefarn Anew would be converted to 5e as big prestige DMs Guild releases. Such releases would surely get a lot of attention, but I’m not sure whether the revenue would be attractive enough to make it worth their while.

Why the F would you write for 3.5? I mean I guess as a love letter; but commercially, my expectation is 5e content will sell waaay better than 3.5 content.

 

[Badvoc]

Why the F would you write for 3.5? I mean I guess as a love letter; but commercially, my expectation is 5e content will sell waaay better than 3.5 content.

There's mention of Under Illefarn Anew on the Candlekeep forums at least as far back as 2013 - possibly longer. I don't think it was initially written with the intent of publishing, let along sharing to the wider community.

It's a massive undertaking if it was only meant for a home campaign. Certainly puts my DM prep to shame!

 

[Ibrandul]

Why the F would you write for 3.5? I mean I guess as a love letter; but commercially, my expectation is 5e content will sell waaay better than 3.5 content.

The author of Under Illefarn, Eric Boyd, was one of the major contributors to TSR's and WotC's Forgotten Realms output in the 2e and 3e eras. He wrote or cowrote more than a dozen FR books in that time, including (in my humble opinion) some of the best RPG sourcebooks of that period, such as Faiths and Avatars and Power of Faerûn. He contributed to only one early book in the 4e era, then jumped to Pathfinder.

Neither Under Illefarn nor the Crown of Earlann project is a profit-driven venture. They are making these for themselves and other die-hard FR junkies. It's only my own suggestion that they do them up as 5e conversions and post them for sale (though I'm sure they've heard similar requests from others too).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Why the F would you write for 3.5? I mean I guess as a love letter; but commercially, my expectation is 5e content will sell waaay better than 3.5 content.

Designing in 3E, especially at low levels, is very satisfying. It's easy to see how all the Lego bricks fit together, whether you're making spells, magic items, monsters, etc.

If I was ever going to create a fantasy heartbreaker -- it'd be a series of products, each supporting single-race games -- I would build it off 3E.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Why the F would you write for 3.5? I mean I guess as a love letter; but commercially, my expectation is 5e content will sell waaay better than 3.5 content.

According to the author (on Candlekeep), he's comfortable and familiar with 3.5, and not really familiar with 5e. So I'm concluding it is very much a love letter, as the commercial difference is like "you can't make a penny" to "this will be an instant Platinum seller!" This goes for both Illefarn Anew and Crown of Earlann.
For us gamers this means the product will be free (yay!), but 3.5 (hmmm.....) and without there ever being a PoD option (sob).