D&D General Most Accessible Sword Coast Novel?

[Blue Orange]

I really enjoyed the first Drizzt trilogy set in Menzoberranzan in my mid-teens. Now, who knows...?

 

[Parmandur]

I really enjoyed the first Drizzt trilogy set in Menzoberranzan in my mid-teens. Now, who knows...?

That might be a little less 11 year old friendly.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Depends on how you.catagorize the Moonshae novels: those came out first, but they were originally not in the FR at all...

Not in the FR? I bought the sourcebook and the novels when they came out in 1987. Seemed pretty locked into the FR to me! What do you mean?

 

[Parmandur]

Not in the FR? I bought the sourcebook and the novels when they came out in 1987. Seemed pretty locked into the FR to me! What do you mean?

That was after they were imported into the FR, which I'd made complicated by the first MoonshE book being the first published FR product. The novels were actually written to tie into a TSR UK original Setting, meant to be a sort of British answer to Dragonlance. The novels were just about done, but TSR UK was liquidated and the product line canned. At the same time, TSR was preparing FR for publication, so they asked Ed Greenwood if the Moonshaes could be horned in somewhere, so he obliged. They didn't exist in his home campaign.

 

[Parmandur]

Not in the FR? I bought the sourcebook and the novels when they came out in 1987. Seemed pretty locked into the FR to me! What do you mean?

Here's a more thorough account:

The Origin of the Moonshae Isles

 

[pukunui]

A key subplot of Princes of the Apocalypse uses characters, locations, and lore from this novel.

Which PotA subplot is that, out of interest?

 

[Ibrandul]

Which PotA subplot is that, out of interest?

Spoilers for Thornhold and Princes of the Apocalypse: The lich Renwick Caradoon, who can be found in the Sacred Stone Monastery in PotA, was created for the novel Thornhold. His relationship with his brother Samular and the order of Tyrran knights that his brother founded forms the basis of the background lore in the novel (the novel’s protagonist and principal antagonist are both descendants of Samular), and Renwick appears in the flesh in a key scene midway through the book. That scene as well as as several others in the novel take place at the knights’ training compound Summit Hall, which also receives a rather thorough description in the novel (much more thorough than in the adventure!).

Although it has the potential to be either major or minor as presented in the module itself, the subplot involving Renwick, the corpse of the knight Narl Elrok, and the corpse of Samular Caradoon can easily become one of the module’s highlights, and I think most DMs and players love this part of PotA.

 

[GreyLord]

I'd choose more of one of the Tales books.

Realms of Valor, Realms of Infamy, Realms of Magic...etc.

One of those that could be good would be Once around the Realms.

They are a bunch of short stories, but cover a LOT of different areas.

 

[pukunui]

Spoilers for Thornhold and Princes of the Apocalypse:

Cool. Thanks! I didn't know that.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Here's a more thorough account:

The Origin of the Moonshae Isles

Cool! I didn't know that.

So it looks like they were originally in the FR but that the appearance of the islands were changed to suit the novel (the original archipelago became an island group similar to the British Isles as per the novel). Doug Niles changed the name to Moonshae in his novel to suit what Ed Greenwood already had in place.

So the correct way to put this is that the Moonshaes were always part of FR. It's just that the Doug Niles Darkwalker on Moonshae novel, originally slated for the Dragonlance universe, was ported over to FR for marketing purposes (along with a few tweaks on the FR side to accommodate the parts of the novel already written).