Forgotten Realms 3ed accessories checklist

[Mercurius]

I'm wanting to collect all the FR 3ed accessories--at least those specific to regions, and perhaps those about races or orders, but not "super-adventures" clothed as accessories (e.g. Cormyr), and not those detailing a type of game play or rules (Champions, Power of Faerun, Magic of Faerun) or types of characters or monsters (Dragons of Faerun). I found http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dndlist&brand=fr&year=All&tablesort=2 on the Wizards site, although want to make sure it is complete--and want to weed the above categories out a bit.

Anyways, tell me if this list is comprehensive. I've noticed that some of the older books--those printed more than two years ago--can be found very cheaply, often for a third or less of the cover price so I'll probably wait on some (e.g. I just bought The Shining South, Lost Empires, and Waterdeep for $25 total with shipping).

*FR Campaign Setting
*Silver Marches
*Unapproachable East
*Shining South
*Waterdeep
*Lost Empires
*Underdark
*Mysteries of the Moonsea
*Anauroch
*Grand History of the Realms

These seem borderline to what I'm looking for:
*Races of Faerun
*Lords of Darkness
*Serpent Kingdoms
*Faiths and Pantheons

Am I missing anything? For example, it doesn't look like the "old empires" of Calimshan and Amn, as well as Mulhorand, are detailed. And what about the Heartlands and the North other than the Silver Marches? Lantan? Etc. And are Cormyr and Shadowdale just "super-adventures" or are they also setting accessories?

Thanks!

 

[freyar]

Mysteries of the Moonsea is a campaign/adventure with some regional stuff thrown in, and it's not usually gotten good reviews. Anauroch is the last part of an adventure trilogy (following Cormyr and Shadowdale). Those three have been at least well-received in some circles and have some setting material thrown in.

 

[Mercurius]

Mysteries of the Moonsea is a campaign/adventure with some regional stuff thrown in, and it's not usually gotten good reviews. Anauroch is the last part of an adventure trilogy (following Cormyr and Shadowdale). Those three have been at least well-received in some circles and have some setting material thrown in.

Good to know--it seems the marketing (as an "accessory") is somewhat devious, maybe trying to grab the "accessory folks" along with those using it as an adventure or adventure ideas.

But I'm curious, and I reiterate: Does anyone know why they didn't do books for the large swaths of the Realms that weren't covered in the above listings--pariticularly the Western Heartlands, the North, the Old Empires, and the Unther-Mullhorand-Raurin region? Or am I missing something?

 

[humble minion]

Good to know--it seems the marketing (as an "accessory") is somewhat devious, maybe trying to grab the "accessory folks" along with those using it as an adventure or adventure ideas.

Agreed. I think at the time, WotC adventures were flopping while the FR region guides were selling comparatively well, and this was an attempt to piggyback the former on the success of the latter. But it was terrible, to be honest.

But I'm curious, and I reiterate: Does anyone know why they didn't do books for the large swaths of the Realms that weren't covered in the above listings--pariticularly the Western Heartlands, the North, the Old Empires, and the Unther-Mullhorand-Raurin region? Or am I missing something?

I can only speculate.
- Mulhorand, Unther, the Old Empires were never liked much by WotC because of the slightly anachronistic Egyptian (among others) regional pantheon they used (and which I believe has been butchered with extreme prejudice in 4e). Plus, more games seemed to have been set in the West and North rather than the far east. Chicken and egg argument of course (does nobody play there because there's no material on the region, or is there no material because nobody plays there), but that's the way it was.
- Western Heartlands and the North (the North other than the Silver Marches, at least!) Well, to be honest I'd speculate that this was left somewhat undetailed because that's where all the big FR novel series tend to be set. At any given time over the past few years, there's probably been two or three apocalyptic-scope novel trilogies on the go at any given time, and these have the tendency to render regional sourcebooks obsolete as soon as they're released. And it's very hard to work around - the FRCS and the Player's Guide both got marooned by unfinished trilogies in places (Tilverton for the former, the silence of Lloth for the latter) and this was distinctly unsatisfying (not to mention silly, when you try to fit all these calamities in one area and still have it a viable setting afterwards.) And as has been documented many times, the FR novels run the line while the game material is a complete afterthought, so my guess is that these areas were left alone because the novels had priority.
- 4e. Once it was obvious to WotC internally that 4e was going to differ wildly from 3e and that the realms were going to have to be changed to fit (catastrophically, of course - this IS FR after all!), I doubt there was much enthusiasm for all the compiling and reimagining of 1e/2e/novel lore and so on that would be necessary to put together a regional sourcebook when everyone knew that R&D was going to blow up the world come August 08 anyway. $e has been in development for years, remember, and the creative team would have known all this long ago.