D&D General Forgotten Realms Book preview from NYCC

Nerd Initiative on YouTube previewed the new Forgotten Realms books with Mackenzie De Armas in this short video, including a quick flip-through of the Adventures in Faerun book.



During the quick flip-through, he shows off blurry but mostly readable pages from the Dalelands section of the book, including a few of the DMG-style adventures, including a level 13 adventure called Heart of Fire, where the party is asked to recover a magic item in an Adult Red Dragon's hoard.

Notably, none of the adventures you can see in the video seem to have any new monsters from the book included. Also, not all of the adventures are confined to a single page. Some seem to be at least a page and a half, while others are even smaller to just a half page.

 

[Zardnaar]

Absolutely. It was probably my favorite time in the Dales. Though there’s been a Zhent invasion of shadowdale pretty much every edition so take your pick!

I’m toying with the idea of having a different adventure in each Dale but I think that might be too artificial.

I missed a lot of the supplements set in the Dales.

2E and 3E was a major spot. I've never done Myth Drannor. Except Eye of the Beholder 3 I barely remember.

 

[Demetrios1453]

As part of a suggested outline for a Dalelands campaign featuring Moander:

"Levels 17–20. Moander manifests as a Blob of Annihilation to enter Myth Drannor and feed on the ancient magic of the broken city, becoming even more powerful."

I mean, that was basically his plan in the novel, but I don't think he was anywhere near as powerful as Blob of Annihilation at that point.

YIKES! What an awesome, epic idea to end a campaign on.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But the people populating the cities, the characters? Slightly less Medieval, less European.

I'm not sure how the writing would indicate that. It doesn't say that the people talk loudly, don't queue or apologise when they bump into someone! If I'm running an NPC from Waterdeep, they are going to behave like a British person. Although for some reason I gave Luskans faux-Russian accents and fur hats.

And of course, thanks to BG3, with it's European writers and voice actors, that particular city is now even more European in the popular psyche.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not sure how the writing would indicate that. It doesn't say that the people talk loudly, don't queue or apologise when they bump into someone! If I'm running an NPC from Waterdeep, they are going to behave like a British person. Although for some reason I gave Luskans faux-Russian accents and fur hats.

And of course, thanks to BG3, with it's European writers and voice actors, that particular city is now even more European in the popular psyche.

See, that's just it...when I read Forgotten realma fiction, I can’t hear them speaking in European accents, they soujd like Midwesterners and Canadians. For Greyhawk, Gygax was pretty specific about using American accents, like the Free City of Greyhawk has people who talk like they are from Chicago.

Look at the movie: most characters don't have British accents, though itnis very uneven.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

See, that's just it...when I read Forgotten realma fiction, I can’t hear them speaking in European accents, they soujd like Midwesterners and Canadians. For Greyhawk, Gygax was pretty specific about using American accents, like the Free City of Greyhawk has people who talk like they are from Chicago.

Never really paid much attention to Greyhawk, I had the folio WoG, which was very wargamerist, and I didn't think much of it. But I don't think Ed ever mentions accents, and the most Canadian thing in FR is the inclusion of maple syrup on the import/export tables.

Look at the movie: most characters don't have British accents, though itnis very uneven.

HAT was about 60/40 American/British. BG3 the other way round. But one of the weirdest internet controversies was over Pillars of Eternity, where Americans were complaining that fantasy characters had American accents! Most of the Dragon Age games give you a choice of four voices for your protagonist: male/female and American/British (English really).

 

[Parmandur]

Never really paid much attention to Greyhawk, I had the folio WoG, which was very wargamerist, and I didn't think much of it. But I don't think Ed ever mentions accents, and the most Canadian thing in FR is the inclusion of maple syrup on the import/export tables.

HAT was about 60/40 American/British. BG3 the other way round. But one of the weirdest internet controversies was over Pillars of Eternity, where Americans were complaining that fantasy characters had American accents! Most of the Dragon Age games give you a choice of four voices for your protagonist: male/female and American/British (English really).

The dialogue in the novels is notably absent of British-isms...which is partly down to the level of writing at TSR/WotC, but itnis not possible for me to imagine the characters in the novels talking with British accents...it just doesn't track.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The dialogue in the novels is notably absent of British-isms...which is partly down to the level of writing at TSR/WotC, but itnis not possible for me to imagine the characters in the novels talking with British accents...it just doesn't track.

I never read any Greyhawk novels, but I read plenty of American authors and don’t notice much difference with British ones, unless it’s set in Stephen King-ville or set in Britain and gets something wrong.

I’m currently reading The Masques of Spring, British author, 1920s New York setting. And he slips in US dialect words in almost every sentence. Far more than a US author would include.