Forgotten Realms and Spelljammer TSR sales from Ben Riggs

[Ralif Redhammer]

Which is right about the time sales for the grey box dropped the rest of the way on that graph. I liked the '93 boxed set well enough, but it didn't get nearly as much use as the grey box, as by that time I had entered my "I'm only going to run homebrew settings" phase.

Keep in mind that the Forgotten Realms Adventures book wasn't really intended to replace the grey box - it assumed you had the boxed set written for 1e and had some 2e updates in it (as well as new material). The full campaign setting didn't get replaced until the '93 revision.

Looking at that graph, it's clear that the grey box really had some legs on it compared to other products. And as with the other charts, you can clearly see how this data informed later decisions.

 

[grimslade]

Grey box FR was the best representation of a campaign setting until the 3.0 FRCG, just a phenomenal value. Spelljammer was also a fantastic value for what you got in the box. I still have my ship counters ready for the new release.

 

[Mezuka]

I had no idea what FR was. I bought the FR Adventures book thinking that was it. I really liked the book. Later, I saw the FR grey box on the shelf but never bought it. So, yes FR products competing against each other is a good theory.

 

[vecna00]

I never owned any of the core FR setting products until the 3E book. It almost seemed like you didn't need the main box sets. You could almost just pick up a supplement or other box set and roll from there. I only had the Menzoberranzan and Myth Drannor box sets, but still had enough tangential information to run a game elsewhere in the Realms.

Mind you, I don't know how good those games were, but my players kept coming back!

 

[Mannahnin]

. I'm really surprised at how well FRA did as well - it did much better than most of the other follow-ups so far...

My recollection is that it was the first big glossy hardcover supplement released (April 1990) after the 2E core books (PH March '89, DMG June '89), and that between high production values and how it fleshed out and beefed up the idea of Specialty Priests from the kind of sketchy idea talked about in the 2E PH, a lot of 2E players immediately adopted those rules, even if we were running in a homebrew world.

The Complete Priest's Handbook then came out in June, with its notably weaker specialty priests and made the ones in the FRA book look even more appealing by comparison.

 

[Voadam]

I never owned any of the core FR setting products until the 3E book. It almost seemed like you didn't need the main box sets. You could almost just pick up a supplement or other box set and roll from there. I only had the Menzoberranzan and Myth Drannor box sets, but still had enough tangential information to run a game elsewhere in the Realms.

Mind you, I don't know how good those games were, but my players kept coming back!

You could set a whole campaign in any single of the regional sourcebooks and go. You might be missing comprehensive pantheon information but there would be enough about the big temples in cities in most sourcebooks to go with. Today there are wikis that can help you fill in the blanks too.

Alternatively though you could also take those regional sourcebooks and easily insert them into your homebrew game if you wanted and have trade between Lankhmar and Waterdeep.