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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darrin Drader" data-source="post: 752892" data-attributes="member: 7394">I have mixed feelings on the realms, and not for the same reasons everyone else does.I started playing the realms with the original grey box 15 or so years ago. At the time I thought it extremely cool, new, well defined. The setting supplements were good, and it was enough to fuel about 6 years worth of campaigns. Finally I had my own ideas and moved the game into my own world. I continued to develop that world for quite some time, and over a few separate campaigns. It was never that I didn't like the realms, it was simply that I was more or less bored with them and the typical conflicts that I had been introduced to so long ago still playing themselves out.Now I'm 2 games into a new group and this time I made the decision that I wasn't going to generate all the material myself. Yep, that's right, the master plan is to run modules and make them fit together, starting with The Tomb of Abysthor by Necromancer Games. When deciding where to set it, I considered the Scarred Lands, as they're kind of the flavor of the moment, I considered Greyhawk, and I considered the realms. I ultimately chose the realms because of a few factors. (1) I am very familliar with the setting, so I can toss in intrigue with very little effort. (2) I like the way the power structure is set up. There are powerful PC's who have their hands full keeping things in check, but realistically, Elminster isn't going to be able to solve every problem. He doesn't have the time or the resources to micromanage everything, and the fact that he is an extremely powerful character simply means that the PC's might be able to find a powerful ally should they need one. (3) With the size and scope of the realms, I was able to take a city and the surrounding territory and make it my own. Sure, you can do this with any setting, but I rather like being able to do this a stone's throw away from Waterdeep (which happens to be my favorite fantasy city of all time). (4) There is a lot of support material available for it, so if I do want the campaign to strike out in a new area, I'm able to do that easily.By the way, I started reading Salvatore's novels when I was in highschool, and have more or less followed them ever since. I like Drizzt as a character, but my major gripe is that he more or less outgrew the group he was with. The original trilogy presented some stereotypical, but very fun characters, and I would have liked to follow each of them a bit more than Salvatore has done. Speaking of Salvatore, I had the opportunity to meet him at a book signing about four years ago, and you will never meet a nicer, less pretencious author. With all the other publishing opportunities he has (Demon Wars Saga, Star Wars (episode II, Vector Prime, hopefully more), and the inevitable doors that those successes have opened up, we are lucky (LUCKY!) to still have him writing D&D books.</blockquote>

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