"Old school" Forgotten Realms references

[Knightfall]

Empires of the Sands is about Amn, Tethyr, and Calimshan. All are covered very thoroughly. Apart from some character sheets, it's almost completely flavor and background.

Hmm, how does Empire of the Sands compare to the 2e boxed set that details that region?

(That's if you ever had that boxed set. If not, then maybe someone else can answer this question.)

The 2e box was one of my favorite Forgotten Realms references. i was very sad when I had to sell it as well as the rest of my 2e Realms collection.

 

[Obryn]

Hmm, how does Empire of the Sands compare to the 2e boxed set that details that region?

(That's if you ever had that boxed set. If not, then maybe someone else can answer this question.)

The 2e box was one of my favorite Forgotten Realms references. i was very sad when I had to sell it as well as the rest of my 2e Realms collection.

I have absolutely no idea I bought FR stuff in the 1e days, a few miscellaneous FR things in 2e, and the FRCS for 3e. That's about it.

-O

 

[RichGreen]

Hmm, how does Empire of the Sands compare to the 2e boxed set that details that region?

(That's if you ever had that boxed set. If not, then maybe someone else can answer this question.)

The 2e box was one of my favorite Forgotten Realms references. i was very sad when I had to sell it as well as the rest of my 2e Realms collection.

Empires of the Sands is great - I used it to run a series of adventures back in 1989 or so. For 2e, these countries (Amn, Tethyr and Calimshan) are covered in two boxed sets and one module: Lands of Intrigue for Amn & Tethyr (which I'm using at the moment in my 3.x campaign) and Empires of the Shining Sea and Calimport for Calimshan. These are really good but have a level of detail that's a bit too much for me and a massive contrast to what's in the slim FR 3 module! Still, they're written by Stephen Schend and are packed with interesting locations and Realmslore. Both Lands of Intrigue and Calimport were available as free downloads from the Wizards site. The 2e boxed sets are set about ten years later so Tethyr is now a monarchy again etc.

Dreams of the Red Wizards is also very good - I used this extensively as part of the same original Realms campaign. The Magister has got a lot of flavourful magic items but you'd want to be using 1e or 2e rules to make much use of it.

For what it's worth, I think the new 4e Forgotten Realms book is very nice - it reminds me of the Old Grey Box in that each location gets a couple of pages and that's it. There are plenty of adventure hooks and interesting locations without feeling that every little hamlet has been detailed leaving no room for the DM's own adventures and locations.

Hope this helps



Richard

 

[Achan hiArusa]

To me, nothing beats FR10 The Old Empires, though it helps to have Dreams of the Red Wizards with it.

 

[grodog]

My favorite FR products are (in no particular order):

- Dragon Magazine archive (lots of Greenwood to mine in there! If interested, you should dig into the FR index @ www.wizards.com/ForgottenRealms/fr_index1.rtf and http://www.wizards.com/ForgottenRealms/fr_index2.txt )
- FR4 The Magister (lots of good spells and magic items to use)
- N5 Under Illefarn
- FR1 Waterdeep
- Code of the Harpers
- Seven Sisters
- Pages from the Mages (a compilation of the materials from Dragon)
- Cult of the Dragon

 

[Knightfall]

To me, nothing beats FR10 The Old Empires, though it helps to have Dreams of the Red Wizards with it.

I was at my FLUGS today (yesterday, really) and they had both Empires of the Sand and Old Empires for CAN $20 each. Both were in good condition but the cost seemed too high. (Maybe I'm just being picky.)

They also had the 1987 boxed set for the same price, but I ended up not buying it. (I bought something else instead.) I might go back for it, but I haven't decided yet.

Decisions, decisions...