D&D 5E Forgotten Realms Gazetter?

[Baumi]

Since 5E uses Forgotten Realms as standard Backdrop for their Adventures, but there is no official 5E Forgotten Realms Guide ... what book should I use?

I would have thought the 4th Edition Book would be right one (the most recent as far as I know), but Princes of the Apocalypse always lists the origin of the NPC's which I cannot find half the time. Also it's quite a thick book and I really don't have the time to read hundreds of pages just for the backdrop.

I also know that there are Wiki-Pages and stuff, but I don't know Forgotten Realms well enough, to know which one I should use (timeline in sync with 5E,..).

So I summon you, great Forgotten Realms Masters, help a fellow GM to play in this Grand World of yours..

P.S.: The PHB has at least the Gods listed in the back of the book, is there something more that I might have overlooked?

 

[DEFCON 1]

If you are planning on playing Princes of the Apocalypse, just use the setting info provided by that. Or maybe pick up the Starter Set as well to get the additional Lost Mines of Phandelver info for the areas around there too (since Lost Mines and PooA are adjacent to each other.) If you use both of those things, I think your third resource to pick up would then be the 4E Neverwinter setting book. Yes, that book's information would be 10 years behind the "current" Realms timeline for 5E... but it apparently has so much good info that it would probably really help flesh out the areas that LMoP and PooA are all playing in, and you can just "push up" a lot of the Neverwinter setting book info to "current" status without too much difficulty.

 

[I'm A Banana]

If you're just doing it for the adventure, and you aren't interested in spending the time, I'd say don't sweat the details. Make it up and stick to it and it's YOUR FR, it doesn't need to adhere to the official story.

If the official stuff is fun, I'd say the most comprehensive look is probably the 3e setting book. But it takes a while to weed through, too.

 

[Baumi]

That's exactly what I would have done, but all NPC's mention where there are coming from and nearly nothing else ... so it's a very important part of their descriptions, which I don't know anything about

 

[DMZ2112]

You can pick up the PDF of the D&D3 FRCS here:

http://www.dndclassics.com/product/28729/Forgotten-Realms-Campaign-Setting-3e

 

[delericho]

Since 5E uses Forgotten Realms as standard Backdrop for their Adventures, but there is no official 5E Forgotten Realms Guide ... what book should I use?

If you have a favourite version of the Realms, use that. If not, I recommend using the 3e FRCS, because that's my preferred version.

 

[Agamon]

I'm also using the 3e FRCS, as well as Silver Marches. And I'm running in that timeline, and I'm still running PotA, and it works fine.

 

[Staffan]

I've said this in a couple of other threads on the topic, but I'll say it again:

I prefer the 2e boxed set, at least if you're planning on a campaign in northwest Faerûn. The 2e box has a lot more fluff on those areas (Cormyr, Sembia, the Dalelands, Moonsea, the Vast, the Dragon Coast, and the Western Heartlands/Sword Coast) than the 3e book does, though the 3e book compensates somewhat with more info on areas beyond that. The 3e book has a lot more crunch (and is a lot prettier), but that crunch is fairly useless in 5e.

Hmm. Re-reading the opening post, it seems you're more interested in a quick guide to FR than a comprehensive manual. Off-hand, I think those are in rather short supply.

 

[Baumi]

*Facepalm*

The Descriptions are included in the Human-Section of the PHB, including their typical look and Names! How could I have overlooked that!

So with the Gods and Descriptions in the PHB and the Regiondetails in the Adventure, I have already all the Info I need. Thanks for all your suggestions! 8D

 

[Queer Venger]

I'm also using the 3e FRCS, as well as Silver Marches. And I'm running in that timeline, and I'm still running PotA, and it works fine.

Are you setting it in 1373 DR?