Quintessentially Forgotten Realms

[dutorn]

In case you're interested, I'm looking at starting the campaign on the edges of a desert/waste region (as in Sandstorm), and focussing on the rough-and-tumble politics of a fairly dangerous frontier town.

Calimport is a desert city, possibly what you are looking for. Here is a link to information about this city, althought 2e it will give you ideas about the region.

http://wizards.com/dnd/files/2/fr_downloads/tsr9589.zip

 

[StupidSmurf]

Calimport is a desert city, possibly what you are looking for. Here is a link to information about this city, althought 2e it will give you ideas about the region.

http://wizards.com/dnd/files/2/fr_downloads/tsr9589.zip

Another idea is to do what I do in MY Realms campaign...I add my own small town to the existing landscape, bring in references and stuff from the Realms setting in order to fully integrate it, and there you go.

The latest example is Fellwood, a small farming community on the Evermoor Way in the Silver Marches. It doesn't exist in official books, but surely not EVERY little town, village or hamlet is outlined, even in the overly built up areas. So the (only) church in town is dedicated to Lathander, and the curio shop's owner has a cousin who's a Harper scout. There you go. Integtration of the established material with my own little take.

 

[Storminator]

If you haven't done a lot of FR games before, you can use the staples of the setting since they haven't been done to death by your group.

So make the Zhents and the Red Wizards your main bad guys. Those two groups are really the heart of the evil organizations in the Realms. If you put your campaign on the west side of Anauroch (sp?) you can easily include both of them. In this case get Silver Marches. It's a pretty good book in any case, and if your campaign is set there it's quite valuable.

Another common aspect of FR games is the travelogue. There are so many distinctive subregions in the Realms that lots of games tend to wander about and see the sights.

PS

 

[Mystery Man]

Red Wizards are everywhere. Their enclaves are peppered throughout the Realms, if they can't take over an area through force they'll take it over financially undercutting the competition and selling addictive drugs.

 

[Kristivas]

I've been a HUGE fan of FR for many many years. Over those years, I've learned a few things about successful realm-running. The tips above are great ones, so I won't restate what's already been said. These few are just my small take...


1. Don't make the heroes of FR (Blackstaff, Elminster, Drizzt, ect) the center of attention. These powerful figures live far away (usually) and won't be bothered by things the PCs see as world-shattering. Furthermore, if it's that bad, they probably already know about it. Lastly, the things they're embroiled in personally leave them little time to come steal the PC's spotlight. IF... (huge IF here).. IF I were to use these charadters in ANY way other than.. say hearing a child in street talking about wanting to grow up to be a great mage like Elminster.. or tales from a bard in an inn... the only way I would use them would be as quest-givers for the PCs. I had a friend who was a Drizzt fanatic and twice in the same campaign he came whirling and dancing with his twin scimitars and saved the party. I hated it. My friends and I have all learned that when we play in FR, Elminster's too busy having sex with the Simbul or off in Hell or doing Mystra to come help the party. If they're going to depend on him, they might as well roll new characters.

2. Change things as needed. You tired of every PC's goal being that they need to end up in waterdeep? Destroy Waterdeep. Change the timeline. For as many Heroes of the Realms, there are powerful villains. Every heard of Undermountain? Just 'pretend' all of the monsters and horridities within just burst into the city and pretty much obliterated all that couldn't escape. Want some place to hunt for adventure now? Send them into a post-apocalyptic Waterdeep for some real fun!

3. Religion is king in FR, but don't go overboard. During the Time of Troubles, gods walked Toril. Well, you don't have to put gods directly into your game if you don't want. That way every party doesn't have to meet Ilmater's wounded avatar and somesuch.

 

[Nightfall]

Fr game: Orcus kicking the crap out of the Drow Panethon and turning the Bloodstone Lands into his personal stomping ground. *evil*

Hey FR Orcus fan boys want our revenge, you know!

 

[SkidAce]

Fr game: Orcus kicking the crap out of the Drow Panethon and turning the Bloodstone Lands into his personal stomping ground. *evil*

Hey FR Orcus fan boys want our revenge, you know!

Now there is an idea that an 18 year old homebrew DM could almost abandon his world for. WOW.

 

[Nightfall]

Glad you approved.

In my ideal FR campaign, the Archfiends, gathered together by a power known only as the Dark One, convinces them to start killing ALL the gods. This results in the Weave destablizing and planar conjunctivity abounds to keep FR from spinning into complete chaos. The Celestials do the same as well as the forces of Chaos and Law. Now FR is divided planarly as the Zhentriam try to find a new way to work out, the Red Wizards hire themselves out to be powers via using the Blood War, and the Harpers are trying really hard to figure out life without the Chosen of Mystra or any other divine sources.

Unknown beknownst to all, Tyr, in his wisdom, forsaw this doom. He collect his triad brothers, fused themselves with high power of Celestia and are about the only true "god" around. Thus paladins do exist, just on within the borders of Celestia's new layer.

 

[genshou]

3. NPC's. Yes, a lot of people hate the Realms for its big stable of established and powerful NPC's, but they are a lot of the flavor of the setting. Even a very occasional appearance of a big name can go a long way towards really establishing the Realms feel. The NPC's aren't the stars (a big misconception people have about the Realms), but they make great cameo parts.

An Enworlder who actually GETS IT with respect to FR NPCs?!

I've died and gone to geeky gamer heaven.

Edit: Kristivas gets it too. Good show!

 

[vulcan_idic]

In case you're interested, I'm looking at starting the campaign on the edges of a desert/waste region (as in Sandstorm), and focussing on the rough-and-tumble politics of a fairly dangerous frontier town. I'm also intending to keep the overarcing plot fairly light, as the players have requested a more character-driven game than the standard D&D game tends to be (otherwise, I would just run Age of Worms ).

Anyway, I look forward to reading your thoughts and recommendations. Thanks.

It sounds to me like a town on the Mulhorand/Unther border might work for you. The deities of the area are basically a pharonic set and the area has an egyptian desert type feel. Mulhorand used to be a great, powerful empire, but it has fallen somewhat. It's still strong, just not the superpower it was in it's glory days. Unther was part of Mulhorand, basically a slave state, that revolted and won it's freedom long ago. Needless to say the gorvernments are still not the friendliest towards each other and the border between them could have just the right level of tension for you.

Anyway, that was my first thought on reading about your town anyway.

One of my favorite things about the realms is that it makes a great backdrop. There's a place for just about anything you want to do there, you can make anything you want in it or out of it. Of course that can lead to a bit of "blank page syndrom" but I find it's ability to adapt to almost any kind of story nice.