D&D 1E Forgotten Realms in AD&D 1st Edition a better setting for adventures?
Greggy C
Hero
I started my players out in Cormyr (and added Temple of Elemental Evil to Faerun though I can't remember where).
That’s the sort of thing I mean. Dismissal is one just person, so best to be “focused” a liveable place with a chance to make it home.
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I decided the PC (a 10th level Monk) of a player who hasn't been with us for a while got hit with Dismissal while guarding away from the group. I decided to use random determination on where he went (from the Fire Node of the Temple of the Elemental Evil, a sort of demiplane off Greyhawk).
Rolled 67 for the 70% chance of going to his home plane, so yeah, Prime Material Plane.
Rolled 5 on the scale of:
1: Flanaess region of Greyhawk setting planet Oerth
2: "Izmerhawk" region of planet Oerth (based on the D&D movies, primarily the 2nd not terrible one, "Wrath of the Dragon God". I did some light developing of this on Facebook's Flanaess Geography group and kind of want to use it.
3: Other weird region of Oerth, like Hepmonaland, Isle of the Ape, or possible New Empyria (from I11) or other areas from Dungeon adventures
4: Another PMP planet with a different "physics" (rule set): Known World with Basic Red Box rules (so only up to 3rd level characters, so Teleport to leave won't work -- maybe from the wizard country?), Nentir Vale with 4e rules, or Golarion with PF1 rules.
5: Forgotten Realms mainstream areas
6: Forgotten Realms weird area (off the original map, so maybe Icewind Dale or Kara-Tur)
So yeah, Forgotten Realms!
I rolled a 54 in the Gray Box, and for the page for Iriaebor. That works. He should be able to learn some things about FR (he's a scholar), probably connect with the ruler Bron, and Iriaebor is in the Lord's Alliance, so he can get to Baldur's Gate or Waterdeep and teleport home from there, I think. His mage NPC (retired PC from a different campaign) associate who runs a teleportation service and has a crystal ball should be able to retrieve him.
Seems like it works for a PC turned NPC to introduce the existence of FR to a Greyhawk campaign.
Rolled 67 for the 70% chance of going to his home plane, so yeah, Prime Material Plane.
Rolled 5 on the scale of:
1: Flanaess region of Greyhawk setting planet Oerth
2: "Izmerhawk" region of planet Oerth (based on the D&D movies, primarily the 2nd not terrible one, "Wrath of the Dragon God". I did some light developing of this on Facebook's Flanaess Geography group and kind of want to use it.
3: Other weird region of Oerth, like Hepmonaland, Isle of the Ape, or possible New Empyria (from I11) or other areas from Dungeon adventures
4: Another PMP planet with a different "physics" (rule set): Known World with Basic Red Box rules (so only up to 3rd level characters, so Teleport to leave won't work -- maybe from the wizard country?), Nentir Vale with 4e rules, or Golarion with PF1 rules.
5: Forgotten Realms mainstream areas
6: Forgotten Realms weird area (off the original map, so maybe Icewind Dale or Kara-Tur)
So yeah, Forgotten Realms!
I rolled a 54 in the Gray Box, and for the page for Iriaebor. That works. He should be able to learn some things about FR (he's a scholar), probably connect with the ruler Bron, and Iriaebor is in the Lord's Alliance, so he can get to Baldur's Gate or Waterdeep and teleport home from there, I think. His mage NPC (retired PC from a different campaign) associate who runs a teleportation service and has a crystal ball should be able to retrieve him.
Seems like it works for a PC turned NPC to introduce the existence of FR to a Greyhawk campaign.
Greggy C
Hero
Voadam
Legend
There is a lot there and it looks like a great reference that a lot of work went into.
I could not say though how complete it is, or whether there are no, a few, or a lot of details that are not included or whether any of it is contradicted by other realmslore in a sourcebook, Dragon article, novel, or other source.
hedgeknight
Explorer
I've used the FR wiki a great deal through the years, as well as the Candlekeep forum, avoiding arguments about how many lights are on a particular street in Waterdeep. 
I bought a very nice Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box (that came with the FR Adventures hardcover as a bonus!) from feeBay and the maps appear to have never been used. Also, I have a nice copy of the Savage Frontier on the way, which I am even more excited about. It is my favorite FR supplement.
Now, if I can only snag a decent copy of Volo's Guide to the North...
I bought a very nice Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box (that came with the FR Adventures hardcover as a bonus!) from feeBay and the maps appear to have never been used. Also, I have a nice copy of the Savage Frontier on the way, which I am even more excited about. It is my favorite FR supplement.
Now, if I can only snag a decent copy of Volo's Guide to the North...
Yora
Legend
I've been thinking about possible new Forgotten Realms campaigns several times this year. And while I often get quite excited about seeing adventures in many of these interesting places and with these interesting organizations, I've typically run very quickly into the same problem that I can't really think of anything interesting for the players to do.
Say you have a group of PCs arrive in Daggerford or step of the boat in Telflamm, what's next? Going into some nearby dungeons to get their footing is of course always an option. The very first Forgotten Realms adventure Under Illefarn does exactly that. Classic Dungeon Crawling to hunt for treasure works as a campaign, but when you look at a world like Forgotten Realms with these huge fancy maps and all the colorful cities on it, I think that would feel underwhelming and like not making proper use of the setting.
Another option that became very popular especially during the 90s is the now also classic approach of "Local mayor/sage/priest calls for heroes to fight a dangerous evil and sends the PCs to an increasingly dangerous series of dungeons until they get to the main villain's lair." Again, this works. And I think 20 years ago, that would have been absolutely perfect for me as either a GM or a player.
But now I find such campaigns insufficient and unsatisfying. A campaign should be about the PCs dealing with the consequences of their successes and failures, giving meaning to their wise decisions and wrong calls. Taking the players by the hand to get them introduced to the starting area is not a bad thing, and often actually much better than dropping them off in a tavern to fend for themselves. But very soon, the players should be able to decide on their own what things they want to pursue, which NPCs to pursue for closer cooperation, and which NPCs' activities they want to interfere with. And it seems to me that of all the available material that exists for the setting, there is very little that is directly useful in this regard.
Thinking about this again today, I was having the thought that perhaps the issue here lies in the fact that pretty much all the organizations and factions that would gladly do harm to the good people of civilization happen to be secret societies with fairly nebulous goals. The vast majority of threats are conspiracies, and the whole point of conspiring is to not only keep the plan secret from outsiders, but to also hide the fact that there is any kind of plan in the works to begin with.
To be aware that something shifty is going on, you already have to be in the game. And the generic aspiring adventurers who just stepped off the proverbial boat happen to be completely oblivious to the local power structures and unspoken rules, and have no connections who trust them with sensitive information. I think that's exactly the issue that has made the Forgotten Realms such a difficult beast to tackle since I started looking for more than Elminster Fetch Quests and Kill The Orcs Because They Are Orcs. There is a mismatch of what the PCs are supposed to be and what is the most interesting feature of the setting. Which isn't unique to Forgotten Realms, of course. The exact same thing has always been plaguing Vampire: The Masquerade, and it is quite similar to why Planescape is way more fun to read than creating adventures for it.
Say you have a group of PCs arrive in Daggerford or step of the boat in Telflamm, what's next? Going into some nearby dungeons to get their footing is of course always an option. The very first Forgotten Realms adventure Under Illefarn does exactly that. Classic Dungeon Crawling to hunt for treasure works as a campaign, but when you look at a world like Forgotten Realms with these huge fancy maps and all the colorful cities on it, I think that would feel underwhelming and like not making proper use of the setting.
Another option that became very popular especially during the 90s is the now also classic approach of "Local mayor/sage/priest calls for heroes to fight a dangerous evil and sends the PCs to an increasingly dangerous series of dungeons until they get to the main villain's lair." Again, this works. And I think 20 years ago, that would have been absolutely perfect for me as either a GM or a player.
But now I find such campaigns insufficient and unsatisfying. A campaign should be about the PCs dealing with the consequences of their successes and failures, giving meaning to their wise decisions and wrong calls. Taking the players by the hand to get them introduced to the starting area is not a bad thing, and often actually much better than dropping them off in a tavern to fend for themselves. But very soon, the players should be able to decide on their own what things they want to pursue, which NPCs to pursue for closer cooperation, and which NPCs' activities they want to interfere with. And it seems to me that of all the available material that exists for the setting, there is very little that is directly useful in this regard.
Thinking about this again today, I was having the thought that perhaps the issue here lies in the fact that pretty much all the organizations and factions that would gladly do harm to the good people of civilization happen to be secret societies with fairly nebulous goals. The vast majority of threats are conspiracies, and the whole point of conspiring is to not only keep the plan secret from outsiders, but to also hide the fact that there is any kind of plan in the works to begin with.
To be aware that something shifty is going on, you already have to be in the game. And the generic aspiring adventurers who just stepped off the proverbial boat happen to be completely oblivious to the local power structures and unspoken rules, and have no connections who trust them with sensitive information. I think that's exactly the issue that has made the Forgotten Realms such a difficult beast to tackle since I started looking for more than Elminster Fetch Quests and Kill The Orcs Because They Are Orcs. There is a mismatch of what the PCs are supposed to be and what is the most interesting feature of the setting. Which isn't unique to Forgotten Realms, of course. The exact same thing has always been plaguing Vampire: The Masquerade, and it is quite similar to why Planescape is way more fun to read than creating adventures for it.
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