Forgotten Realms edition question

[SPECTRE666]

I've pretty much went back to my OGB and FR 1 through FR 6 supplements. To me its a much cleaner and less polluted version of the Realms. I like the unreliable narrator of 1e and 2e vs the reliable narrator of 3e and beyond. It's more mysterious. I've, pretty much have abandoned the newer versions of D&D and went full OSR. The earlier editions will be easier for me to convert to S&W, BFRPG, OSE, LL B/X, BECMI, or I could pull my AD&D books out and game on.

Anything written by Eric Boyd, Steven Schend, Steve Perrin(RIP), and of course Ed Greenwood is G2G.

 

[ThrorII]

I'm actually planning out a 1e style campaign using OSE-Advanced Fantasy. Relying on the FR 1e Campaign Set and FR5 Savage North primarily (the campaign will be on the Sword Coast).

I'll add FR1 Waterdeep and the North, FR2 Moonshae Isles, FR3 Empires of the Sand, and FR5 The Magister as they are needed.

I've NEVER played or run in the Realms (40 year Greyhawk guy here...) so this should be fun.

 

[Voadam]

I am a big fan of the FR pantheons, and a bunch of that is the variety of specialty priests from Forgotten Realms Adventures on and lore from the fantastic 2e FR trilogy of god books. A bunch of that interesting mythic lore is their doings in the Time of Troubles, so I have a fondness for post 1e FR.

1e is pretty fantastic though with the core FR stuff done out (red wizards, zhentarim, drow, pirates, dracoliches, etc.) and does not have the Time of Troubles killing off a bunch of the cooler gods or unleashing wild and dead magic zones.

2e was a bit hobbled by TSR's then product morality code for villains not succeeding so they were much less a competent threat in a number of ways in a lot of adventures. 3e brought it back to a tone of bad guys and bad guy groups being big threats generally outnumbering the forces of good. The 3e Campaign Setting core book is also fairly fantastic for an all in one coverage of the core setting and stuff, with a cool development of Red Wizard enclaves for if you are doing a game with buying magic items (3e, pathfinder, etc.) and some developments I was not that big on (Netheril shade empire returning).

4e was for fresh starting the FR by jumping the timeline and allowing lots of dragonborn and tieflings and cutting down the lore hugely through another apocalypse wiping lots of stuff out and introducing new stuff.

5e is the most recent, mostly resetting a bunch of the flavor of 1e-3e but advancing the timeline again so half the NPCs of that era are long dead but you can use lots of the lore.

 

[Autumnal]

I love the continuing mosaic of opinions on display.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'm actually planning out a 1e style campaign using OSE-Advanced Fantasy. Relying on the FR 1e Campaign Set and FR5 Savage North primarily (the campaign will be on the Sword Coast).

I'll add FR1 Waterdeep and the North, FR2 Moonshae Isles, FR3 Empires of the Sand, and FR5 The Magister as they are needed.

I've NEVER played or run in the Realms (40 year Greyhawk guy here...) so this should be fun.

The Magister is such a wonderful magic items resource, easily one of my favorites. It's gives you history, inspiration for adventures, situating them nicely in the world. The magic items are flavorful and interesting. And of course, it's got a wonderful Easley cover.

 

[Cruentus]

I'm actually planning out a 1e style campaign using OSE-Advanced Fantasy. Relying on the FR 1e Campaign Set and FR5 Savage North primarily (the campaign will be on the Sword Coast).

I'll add FR1 Waterdeep and the North, FR2 Moonshae Isles, FR3 Empires of the Sand, and FR5 The Magister as they are needed.

I've NEVER played or run in the Realms (40 year Greyhawk guy here...) so this should be fun.

I'm running a 1e OSE Advanced in Greyhawk using the Gold Box and Ashes. Its been fun. I think I mentioned, I prefer the barebones layouts of the 1e box sets, which gives just enough to get the creative juices flowing, and then I can kitbash in locations, other sources, etc. for the sandboxes we prefer.

I would use OSE-A for a 1e FR if I ever revisited my Moonshaes campaign (last did it in 5e, but set in 900 DR).

 

[Staffan]

Every so often I think that I’d like to take the Realms and see how they go under other mechanics, like Mörk Borg Ironsworn plus fan supplements or QuestWorlds or “bare” Mythic Game Master Emulator (2e) or something. I have or have access to the first, second, third, and fourth editions. Which would you recommend?

As a basis, I would recommend the 2e box. Mainly because it is almost entirely system-less. There is a (very forgettable) adventure included, but other than that it pretty much doesn't go into game mechanics beyond giving NPCs classes and levels. The 3e FR book, on the other hand, has both a whole lot of player-focused stuff (new races, feats, prestige classes, spells, magic items) and a lot of detailed NPC writeups. To take an extreme example: the 2e FR box mechanically describes Elminster as "CG hm W29" (short for "Chaotic Good human male 29th level Wizard"), while the 3e book gives Elminster just over half a page of stats, presented in a very dense format. The result is that while the 3e FR book is a pretty good source for running FR in 3e, quite a lot of it is wasted space if you intend to play it in another system.

2E has the most lore of all other editions combined. So if your looking for lore, detail and maps, you want 2E. The "history"("metaplot") of the Realms goes on mostly in the back ground, and things don't "effect the whole world". A lot happens each year...but a fire that burns half of city X...does not effect the whole world.

3E has only a little less than half the lore of 2E, and most of that is just copied over from 2E. The history metaplot in 3E is in the foreground with world shaking events..several a year. And the events happen mostly in the novels...with no game book support...so "oh that city just blew up because of things and stuff" is common. And Wizards was doing the "Cool Catastrophe" a Realms year.

I feel you got those turned around. 2e had:

• Zhengyi the Witch King is destroyed and Damara reunited.
• Invasion of Faerûn by the Tuigan horde.
• The "discovery" of Maztica.
• The reclamation wars in Tethyr, turning it from a realm torn between various warlords into a united kingdom wisely ruled by a good Queen who happens to be married to the True King who was hidden away as Elminster's scribe for a couple of decades.
• A bunch of god nonsense, like:
  • Waukeen, the goddess of trade and wealth, who disappeared during the Time of Troubles is rescued from captivity in the Abyss by bold adventurers.
  • Kelemvor, a mortal who was slain by Cyric and whose soul was seemingly consumed by Cyric's magical blade, somehow escapes that blade, ascends to divinity somehow, and in the process seizes the portfolio of The Dead from Cyric.
  • Cyric somehow murders Leira, the goddess of illusion and lies, and takes her portfolio.
  • Cyric also attempts a ritual which would have everyone who reads or hears the "gospel" of Cyric convert to his worship. Mask, the god of thieves, who was masquerading as the aforementioned blade gets partially caught in the effect but escapes by giving up part of his portfolio (IIRC, Intrigue) to Cyric. The actual performance of the ritual in Zhentil Keep gets interrupted and the message mangled to show Cyric as a fraud instead, and as a result the city of Zhentil Keep falls to in-fighting.
  • Iyachtu Xvim, the son of Bane, is released from captivity and attracts the worship of many former Bane worshippers who do not like Cyric.
• Internal strife within the Zhentarim leads to Fzoul Chembryl killing Manshoon, thereby setting off the awakening of dozens of prepared Manshoon clones that cause havoc all over the place.
• The formation of the realm of Luruar or the Silver Marches, as a union of several city-states in the North.
• The Harpers split into numerous factions, partially as a result of Khelben Blackstaff assisting Fzoul Chembryl with the above murder of Manshoon and some Harpers both disagreeing that he should have done that and that he did it without any discussion.

Then you have some stuff I'd consider the bookend between 2e and 3e: the return of the Shadovar and the city of Shade, Bane being resurrected and destroying Xvim in the process*, Cormyr being invaded by a bunch of orcs and goblins lead by a dragon resulting in the death of king Azoun IV. Once actually in 3e, there is:

• Bloodstone lands rematch, now with more dragons.
• Myth Drannor is retaken by forces from Evermeet, Sembia, and the Dalelands.
• The Shadovar and the clergies of Cyric and Shar start making attacks on Cormyr and the Dalelands, as part of an overarcing plot to destroy the regular Weave and only leave the Shadow Weave.
• Shar eats Mask.

Of course, this is mainly because 2e FR had a very active novel line and went on for quite some time both in the real world (1989 to 2000) and in the Realms (1358 to 1372), while 3e didn't see anywhere near as many novels and lasted for a much shorter time (2001 to 2008/1372 to 1376).

 

[ThrorII]

I am a big fan of the FR pantheons

Because I'm planning for OSE-AF, I've gone the route of FR5 Savage Frontier, and grouped the gods by "gods of civilization" (lawful), "gods of nature" (neutral), "gods of the barbarians" (chaotic), "evil gods" (chaotic), and "gods of the demi-humans" instead of the 9-point alignment arrangement.

That way a lawful cleric can choose between Chauntea, Gond, Helm, Lathlander, Milil, Mystra, Oghma, Tymona, Tyr, and Waukeen. Those are the gods that represent 'civilization' ("Law" in old D&D): agriculture, building, protection, healing, music & art, magic, luck, knowledge, law, and trade.

 

[ThrorII]

I'm running a 1e OSE Advanced in Greyhawk using the Gold Box and Ashes. Its been fun. I think I mentioned, I prefer the barebones layouts of the 1e box sets, which gives just enough to get the creative juices flowing, and then I can kitbash in locations, other sources, etc. for the sandboxes we prefer.

I would use OSE-A for a 1e FR if I ever revisited my Moonshaes campaign (last did it in 5e, but set in 900 DR).

I actually prefer the 1980 Folio, as there are no gods mentioned. It allows me to keep the Law-Neutral-Chaos paradigm of 1981 D&D (B/X).