Looking for ONE FR book

[klofft]

I am not running my game in the FR, nor do I have any desire to. However, I AM one of those DMs who loves crunch, and has no problem offering my players thousands of options.

Is there a SINGLE FR book that provides heavy crunch that would be usable in a non-FR game? If so, what would it be? The main setting book? The Players Guide to Faerun?

Looking for opinions from FR devotees and detractors!

Thanks!
C

 

[Razz]

Player's Guide to Faerun has a lot of crunch, that's the only one I can think of. There're smatterings of crunch in other FR books, though, that're worth buying.

Do not get Mysteries of the Moonsea however. It's got no crunch, no lore, and it's basically a book of 40 mini-quests. Of course, if you enjoy spending $30 for 40 mini-quests, feel free to purchase it.

 

[jester47]

Races of Faerun, or The Unapproachable East. Possibly the Shining South or Waterdeep.

 

[Brakkart]

The Players Guide is good, but if all you want is crunch then I'd suggest Magic of Faerun instead. It has a lot less fluff in it than the Players Guide does, being essentially a big book of magic items and spells, which are easily useable in any campaign (though some will need renaming of course!).

 

[Razz]

The problem with Magic of Faerun is that nearly 85% of the spells have been errata'd and re-released in Player's Guide to Faerun, Spell Compendium, and a few other FR books. The magic items are nifty, though some need re-pricing. It's a 3.0 book, so most of Magic Faerun isn't essentially 3.5 balanced, but it still works out.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'll second the recommendation of Magic of Faerun.

The Players Guide is good, but if all you want is crunch then I'd suggest Magic of Faerun instead.

 

[ruleslawyer]

What Razz said.

IIRC, all of the spells from Magic of Faerun are reprinted in the Spell Compendium anyway, so that seems a better crunch investment. Players Guide to Faerun, OTOH, is loaded with crunchy stuff that would be quite useful to most DMs.

 

[smootrk]

Races of Faerun has the most crunch, basically all of it - albeit all races. Another book with a lot of crunch is the Underdark Book, although there is a lot of locale info as well, but even that can be useful to other settings with simple name changes.

 

[Jdvn1]

I'm actually not a fan of Magic of Faerun or Races of Faerun. They're a little too campaign specific.

Though, I did get Monsters of Faerun just for the variant Beholders.

 

[Nyaricus]

klofft, I can tell you from both experience and from others on these boards that FRs Underdark book is great in regards to crunch - and fluff too! (although I understand that you aren't looking for that so much )

Basically, it gets into a great amount of detail about spelunking (cave-diving) and whatnot, as well as giving a bunch of great PC races, monsters to fight (the mineral warrior template is a favourite of many DMs), locals to visit, etc. It is oftentimes said to be a book whihc shouldn't be so campign-specific; and I'd have to agree.

Personally, I can't wait to see the Enviromental book about the underdark in the vein of Sandstorm, Frostburn, or Stromwrack. I hear we might be getting a swamp one next, however.

Anyways, Underdark has a great amount of stuff to get out of it, and more than enough fluff to make it tasty in its own right.

Allow me to also back up Monsters of Faerun and Players Guide to Faerun as two other well-written books with awesome fluff and even better crunch - in particular PGtF for its feats (esp. Regional ones) and MoF for its monsters.