I want to DM Faerun but I'm scared . . .

[Felon]

My first bit of advice is to wait a few weeks for the Player's Guide and then we'll know for sure if renders the 3e FRCS book obsolete. We're talking 40 bucks here.

My second bit of advice is to give the Silver Marches a try. This is a frontier land with a spanking-new government, and it was specifically designed to give DM's a place to start their campaigns without all of the over-the-top baggage that is generally associated with FR.

 

[dreaded_beast]

I'm a newbie DM (an intermediate to fairly experienced FR player though) and have just started a solo-campaign with a newbie player (never played DND in her life). Here is what I have done with my FR campaign so far.

What I have done is pick a very small area for her to game in, roughly 2 miles long and wide. I chose the area of Dancing Falls within the High Forest. It is a very small area consisting of only 3 inhabited buildings: a small shrine to Selune (2 residents), a monestary of the Monks of the Old Order (2 residents, 1 of which is the PC), and a wizard's tower (1 apprentice house-sitting). There are nearby dwarven ruins for dungeoneering, with a few other "dungeons" in the area my player hasn't discovered yet. The shrine is for healing and the home the NPC cleric that sometimes adventures with her. The wizard's tower is where she can go to get any magic items she finds identified. The monestary is her home base where she can rest for the night.

I am finding that alot can be done in such a small area.

I've taken alot of advice from previous posters. Here are a few things I have done to try and give her the "flavor" of the realms.

1. I read up on the area of the High Forest and told her a brief overview of what she would probably know about the surrounding area.

2. She has been exposed to the religion of Selune as a result of the shrine as well as the Monks of the Old Order, both from the FRCS.

3. The NPC cleric of Selune has told her a brief "religious" story detailing the battle between Shar and Selune, resulting in the birth of Mystra.

4. She has encountered a patrol from the local tribe of centaurs that live within the High Forest and has heard about the nearby settlement of Ghosttree and the human settlement's of Noanar's Hold and Olisten's Hold.

5. She is on friendly terms with the local Dryad, who has told her a bit of history regarding the fall of Hellgate Keep.

I've only run a few sessions so far, but I am learning a lot about introducing the "flavor" of the realms to my player. One thing I am discovering though, is that it may not be a good idea to "force" your player to read FR literature unless she wants too.

Hope this helps!

 

[John Crichton]

All good advice so far.

I think the most important thing to remember, and I think bears repeating is that this is your Realms. Make that well known to the players before hand and they should cut you some slack. Work with them on things that affect them during character gen and just go with it. The Realms are friggin huge and have plenty of room for everything.

Get the 3e FRCS for certain. I will echo that it is a great book and one of the best WotC RPG products out there. It is full of ideas.

If you want to read a few novels I'm sure many of us can suggest a few. If you are looking to be informed about a huge event you can read the Avatar Trilogy but the books are very dry. There are considerably better FR novels out there.

 

[evildm]

Just going to reiterate that getting the FRCS is probably the best bet if you're going to run an FR campaign. You don't really need any other FR books unless you plan on concentrating on a specific area (Silver Marches, Unapproachable East) and want all the fluff you can get (and don't feel inclined to make it all up, which is also perfectly valid). The FRCS is the single most valuable book I have in my repertoire for D&D next to the core books, I must say. It gets the most usage.

Secondly, ignore all the novels. Just run it however you like. It's YOUR setting.

 

[John Crichton]

Secondly, ignore all the novels. Just run it however you like. It's YOUR setting.

to the original poster: I would suggest reading a few novels, only if you want to, though. They can show you the flavor of the world pretty well and some are a good read. You don't have to do it but if you have some time it would only help.

But yeah, all you really need is the FRCS.

I'll also throw in a vote for the Silver Marches as it is my second favorite 3e Realms sourcebook.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

There's no reason at all for you to buy any other book than the FRCS. It really is a complete setting book, and you won't ever need another book from the line.

You might want to buy some of the others, because they are pretty cool, but you won't have to.

Just pick a Wilderness area and start out the campaign there, and you won't even have to read most of the book...

 

[thullgrim]

I am not traditionally a FR DM, but in the last game I ran everyone was very familiar with it so thats what I ran for them. Since a couple of them were into the novels as well, we had to have some guidelines similiar to those mentioned above. I then decided to get nostalgic and set the thing in Phlan (before it was retaken...hey it was nostalga and I don't care what anyone says Pool of Radiance was the single best D&D CRPG ever). The players had a blast. We branched out slowly from there and everyone had a grand time.

I think the keys are really simple. (1) tell everyone up front its Your Realms. (2) Pick an area you like and then run it like you would any other game using the FR material as your guidlines. I would not alter the way I run the campaign from has obviously worked for you in the past. (3) as mentioned above stay away from the major NPC's, or better yet kill'em off or make them disappear. Make it your player's realms too. (4) Have fun. If it feels right to you it will probably to your players as well.

Thullgrim

 

[Calico_Jack73]

No doubt you are getting a bunch of suggestions. Just remember, the scope of the adventure is up to you as the DM. If you want your campaign to only take place in the Dalelands or the Sword Coast then have all the adventure opportunities happen there. That way you can focus on learning about one area and learn about the rest as you have time.
My suggestion would be to go to the WOTC download site and download one of the Volo's Guides. They are free and have a bunch of in depth information on localized areas of Faerun. I saw that they have Volo's Guide to Cormyr and to the Dalelands so you might start with any of those. They'll give you information about what the best taverns are in a town or city, where the most dangerous allys are, and what other things there are to see and do. I use them all the time! They also have adventure hooks with most of the locations that you can easily steal. The best thing is that stats aren't important. Even though it was for 2EAD&D it still works fine for 3.5E because stats aren't a factor... it is all for flavor.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/downloads