D&D General Forgotten Realms - why do you still like running games here? +

[Necropolitan]

1. Why
2. How do you approach the setting (everything is in, stick to one edition, gray box only etc.)?
3. How long has it been your campaign setting of choice?
4. What are your favorite game supplements?
5. Do you like any of the novels? Which ones? And do you use the novels for game material?

1. Why I love it: I love the lore, it's really cool and makes it easy to think of campaign and character ideas.

2. How I approach the setting: I mainly draw from the current edition (except for during 4E) and use my favorite parts of past ones.

3. How long it's been my setting of choice: For over a decade.

4. My favorite fame supplements:
There are so many good ones it's hard to list all of them.
Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms
I think the 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms sourcebooks were great. I haven't read as many of the 2nd Edition ones, but liked the Cult of the Dragon sourcebook


5. Which novels do I like and do I use any for game material: The novel Venom in Her Veins is the first book I go to for characterizing Derro and Yuan-Ti. I'd go further and say it gives a DM all they need for including Derro in a campaign in terms of characterization.

Other novels/series I've enjoyed and why:

Queen of the Depths: A Shalarin (fish person) Cleric of Umberlee (Chaotic Evil goddess of the ocean) and a spy she saved the life of go on an adventure during the Rage of Dragons to try to stop a swarm of dragons from destroying the Cleric's underwater home city. My favorite line is when the Cleric says "You are blinded by your lack of faith" in response to the spy pointing out how absurd her plan was. And it feels like an actual D&D adventure in terms of how it goes. You can practically hear the dice rolling and the players bickering.

The Erevis Cale series (it's made up of multiple series): It showcases the diversity of the Forgotten Realms in terms of culture and religion and the long multi-book plot's great at keeping readers invested. It's got tons of lore on Mask and Shar.

The Brimstone Angels series: If you like D&D Devil lore you'll love this. Plus the later books go into Dragonborn culture and I'd highly recommend it as a source for them.

The Haunted Lands series: This trilogy's set in Thay and shows how Szass Tam took it over. If you like Undead I'd highly recommend it since it uses a lot of obscure ones really well.

The Brotherhood of the Griffon series: The first three books are a mercenary company having to reckon with the fact that their current employer's nation has been taken over by a fascist. It really captures the horror of dealing with a delusional sadistic megalomaniac in charge who will ruin lives for any or no reason and is deadset on creating absurd harmful policies because he's surrounded by sycophants and people too terrified to tell him he's wrong. It's also got a lot of cool Dragon lore. The last books in the series are meh, but it's a good resource on Rashemen.

The House of Serpents series: It's got intrigue plots, lots of Yuan Ti and other snake lore, and lore on the deity Hoar (god of poetic justice).

The Threat from the Sea series: TONS of Sahuagin lore. Their culture, deity, it's probably the best resource for them I've ever read. And it's a pirate story, so that's always fun. It's got ocean battles, the world's largest shark, world-altering consquences, and it all started with a guy trying to make his girlfriend jealous.

 

[Jolly Ruby]

Hopefully not opening a can of worms- but does everyone still running the realms run their drow and orcs in the traditional sense (monoculture and always bad enough to kill) or have you altered this in your world? Not a judgement statement, but it seems a lot of people have warmed up to not running races this way (either due to ethical implications or simply because it can become dull over time), while some have strong arguments for the traditional approach. It seems to me that altering these approaches has an impact on a setting like the Realms (and Greyhawk) more than it does on some others.

If you've changed your approach, how has it affected your version of the realms?

How I currently run it:

Neither the drows nor the orcs are inherently evil, but there are relevant evil drow and orc groups.

The main contact the surface people have with the drow is by Mezoberranzan, an imperialist theocracy that raids the surface for slaves. While the average drow in Mezoberranzan isn't evil or cruel, some things we consider abhorrent are commonplace there. (You can think of some post-medieval historical counterparts for reference). There are other groups too, the Bregan D'aerthe aren't outright evil, but they're frequently trouble (and sometimes uneasy allies) to the player characters. Some followers of Elistraee can be found, usually in big cities like Waterdeep where a bugbear dockworker or a kobold bricklayer wouldn't surprise anyone, or in isolated communities where they can be safe both from the Lolth aligned drows and the suspicious surfacers.

The orcs in the North aren't evil, but they got a bad rep from centuries of wars between them and the humans, dwarves and elves. There are groups who strive for peace and coexistence, and there are groups who seek vengeance and believe that the wars will only end when one side falls. The player characters deal with both groups, and often with the conflicts between the orc factions. The best ally against an orc horde is another orc horde. Or an orc leader who can convince the horde to retreat.

 

[earthsea_wizard]

How I currently run it:

Neither the drows nor the orcs are inherently evil, but there are relevant evil drow and orc groups.

The main contact the surface people have with the drow is by Mezoberranzan, an imperialist theocracy that raids the surface for slaves. While the average drow in Mezoberranzan isn't evil or cruel, some things we consider abhorrent are commonplace there. (You can think of some post-medieval historical counterparts for reference). There are other groups too, the Bregan D'aerthe aren't outright evil, but they're frequently trouble (and sometimes uneasy allies) to the player characters. Some followers of Elistraee can be found, usually in big cities like Waterdeep where a bugbear dockworker or a kobold bricklayer wouldn't surprise anyone, or in isolated communities where they can be safe both from the Lolth aligned drows and the suspicious surfacers.

The orcs in the North aren't evil, but they got a bad rep from centuries of wars between them and the humans, dwarves and elves. There are groups who strive for peace and coexistence, and there are groups who seek vengeance and believe that the wars will only end when one side falls. The player characters deal with both groups, and often with the conflicts between the orc factions. The best ally against an orc horde is another orc horde. Or an orc leader who can convince the horde to retreat.

I like it.