D&D 1E Forgotten Realms in AD&D 1st Edition a better setting for adventures?

[Voadam]

I'm running a Pathfinder Campaign using the 'Old Empires' Sourcebook from 1E, just started 5 weeks ago, so there a lot of us still using this old stuff.

Old Empires is 2e.

I also use it as a sourcebook resource for part of a fantasy Ancient Egypt in my mashup homebrew setting along with Osirion and Hamunaptra and a few others.

 

[jhallum]

Old Empires is 2e.

It's one of those books where the development occurred during the 1E days as it has zero references to the transitional events from the Time of Troubles, so I consider it a 1E book.

 

[Divine2021]

I’ve spent the last few weeks reading the gray box, the yellow box, and now am on 3rd edition campaign setting book. Loving tracing the progression of the Realms and how they were written about. Really neat. I forgot that the 3rd edition book really emphasizes the Heartlands.

 

[Yora]

As do the others.

 

[haakon1]

Not sure anyone was asking, but basically the “default settings” for most materials published by edition - and some folks will disagree - were:
Basic: Known World, later called Mystara
AD&D 1e: Greyhawk
AD&D 2e: Forgoften Realms. Yes, it was first published a year before 2e, but it became dominant in 2e. They made materials for MANY other settings, but FR was tops.
3e: Greyhawk again.
4e: Nentir Vale
5e: FR again.

 

[GungHo]

So I decided to check. Here's a map with all the settlements that get an entry in the Grey Box campaign set circled in red, all the adventure locations that get an entry circled in orange, the settlements that get only a tiny 2-3 sentence entry in yellow (which is all of Sembia, interestingly), and all the places that get a map circled in green or with green boxes:

Realize that your post was a couple of years ago, but Sembia, Dragon Reach, and southern Lake of Dragons were off limits at the time for development. They were intended to be zones for the public. Raven's Bluff/Living City/the Vast was for the RPGA campaigns. It was kind of a big deal for some when the Erevis Cale books started coming out because suddenly they were touching the untouched.

t's nuts how much more attention the heartlands and western heartlands(?) get compared to everywhere else. Also, it feels like most adventure to be had is in the western heartlands, where the greatest density of wilderness adventure sites is. Skimming their entries, Cormyr and the Dalelands already seem kinda ren-faire, though there's usually an adventure hook somewhere in each entry.

Other people got to this, but Dalelands was Ed's area and then Cormyr, Moonsea, Sword Coast were parceled out for modules, video games, and novels. Again, in light of the stuff that was barely developed with a couple of sentences, you were supposed to be filling out the other things so that the novels/games could do their thing without putting you into a continuity crisis... except for the obvious stuff when changing editions.

 

[squibbles]

Realize that your post was a couple of years ago, but Sembia, Dragon Reach, and southern Lake of Dragons were off limits at the time for development. They were intended to be zones for the public. Raven's Bluff/Living City/the Vast was for the RPGA campaigns. It was kind of a big deal for some when the Erevis Cale books started coming out because suddenly they were touching the untouched.



Other people got to this, but Dalelands was Ed's area and then Cormyr, Moonsea, Sword Coast were parceled out for modules, video games, and novels. Again, in light of the stuff that was barely developed with a couple of sentences, you were supposed to be filling out the other things so that the novels/games could do their thing without putting you into a continuity crisis... except for the obvious stuff when changing editions.

Thanks for providing the background. Some of this I knew, though not the RPGA bit about Sembia, Dragon Reach, and Southern Lake of Dragons. Though in Sembia's case I did basically get that sense from reading the entries.

One of the things I'm curious about (I asked some time back in another thread, but didn't get terribly insightful answers) is how many of the regions in FR are not original to Ed. Do you know those 'off limits' regions were undeveloped parts of the original setting that TSR decided to set aside as blank canvas, or if Ed had them as something else and TSR changed them, or if they were added in the way that the Moonshae Isles or Bloodstone Lands were?

And I stand by my comments that it feels like the Dalelands, i.e. Ed's area, is a peaceable place that has already been mostly solved, presumably by Ed's players--whereas the adventure sites are a lot denser in the western heartlands.

 

[Jolly Ruby]

[...]
And I stand by my comments that it feels like the Dalelands, i.e. Ed's area, is a peaceable place that has already been mostly solved, presumably by Ed's players--whereas the adventure sites are a lot denser in the western heartlands.

I tend to agree, except for Baldur's Gate/Candlekeep region. This region feels very empty when you compare with Cormyr and the Dalelands. I guess that's why they used it for the BioWare games: a huge city and a lot of creative freedom.

 

[Tonguez]

Yeah Forgotten Realms is now too lived in, too contemporary and frankly more American pastiche than it is faux Europe.

 

[Parmandur]

And I stand by my comments that it feels like the Dalelands, i.e. Ed's area, is a peaceable place that has already been mostly solved, presumably by Ed's players--whereas the adventure sites are a lot denser in the western heartlands.

Not in the 1E prese Tatiana, it was not. It was a very chaotic region, Points of Light surrounded by darkness.