D&D General Ed Greenwood's Original Forgotten Realms Map

Alex Kammer, the director of Gamehole Con, has shared some photos of the original map of the Forgotten Realms as drawn by Ed Greenwood himself, with Sage Advice D&D. More images at the link!

 

[NineLizards]

Have you read it? I’ll admit I haven’t. But this makes it sound like it’s what Arnwolf wants:
...
'Elminster's Forgotten Realms' completely pulls back the curtain on Greenwood's design.”

You mean this one:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

It's lots of flavour, but little crunch. I liked it, but approached it as a kind of 'coffee table book'. If you're looking for hard gaming material it might not be your best pick.

 

[Mirtek]

Have you read it? I’ll admit I haven’t. But this makes it sound like it’s what Arnwolf wants:

Yes. While it has a lot from Ed's personal FR inside it's only when it doesn'T collide with published realms and contains stuff from the published realms (with Ed's spin) that he has stated in interviews are not part of his home realms (e.g. Cyric)

 

[sim-h]

Any idea when he did this map? I mean, what year? It's amazing seeing hand drawn Baldur's Gate (just about), Womford (from PotA), Chult and other places from the 5e published adventures in their initial inception

 

[Demetrios1453]

Any idea when he did this map? I mean, what year? It's amazing seeing hand drawn Baldur's Gate (just about), Womford (from PotA), Chult and other places from the 5e published adventures in their initial inception

It would have to have been pre-1987, as the map as seen here is reproduced almost exactly in the original Gray Box published that year (and you can see the amendations for those maps like the Moonshaes taped over Greenwood's original work). I'm pretty sure Greenwood would have been working on it for the previous decade or so before that though...

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Have you read it? I’ll admit I haven’t. But this makes it sound like it’s what Arnwolf wants:

“Mearls told the crowd that Wizards of the Coast staff approached Greenwood to ask 'why don't you take all your campaign notes, all the information you've been putting together for your campaign and lets compile it into a book? Show us the realms as you've developed it in your campaign setting and lets get that to everybody.' It's not often that fans get such an inside look at the creation of one of their favorite settings, but 'Elminster's Forgotten Realms' completely pulls back the curtain on Greenwood's design.”

Yes, that's what Mearls said at that time, but it wasn't what was published.

Like Elminster, Mearls is an "unreliable narrator". That said, it's a great book with some really interesting tidbits for Realms fans. It's not, however, Ed's Realms per se.