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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rounser" data-source="post: 638376" data-attributes="member: 1106">The atmosphere that Greenwood originally set for the Realms is possibly my favourite aspect of it.According to me, it's about:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Perfect sunsets to the sound of harp strings around a campfire.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Adventuring fools with their fatalistic camaraderie and quips in the face of danger.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Stumbling across eldritch secrets and magic long buried and forgotten, and from lands far away or kingdoms long lost.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The plots of villainous organisations of mages, and desperate attempts to stop them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magical twists on geography, technology or culture, such as the Grinding Gulf, Halruua's flying ships or the Grandfather Tree.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mentors and allies who hint at darker knowledge beyond the ken of most mortals, the threat of which they only just hold back.</li> </ul>The style is pretty obvious when you look at Ed's old modules (e.g. Irongard, Elminster's Back Door, the School of Magic, the Haunted Halls, Myth Drannor, Undermountain) adventuring companies (mostly the Knights of Myth Drannor, but the descriptions of the cheerful-yet-foolhardy other companies in the grey box as well) favourite stomping grounds (Waterdeep, Shadowdale, Eveningstar) and heavy handed use of catspaws (Elminster, the Harpers etc.).  Many Realms authors seem pretty oblivious to this style, though, or seem unable or unwilling to capture it, leading to a bit of a hodge-podge.For an exercise in contrast, look to the "reclaiming" of Moonshae in the product Halls of the High King, written by Greenwood.  It includes sections on fireside customs, the resident top dog mage Flamsterd gets repainted into a Elminsteresque/Gandalfian mentor role, and suddenly the place is crawling with Harpers and Banites, where there wasn't a hint of them before (although arguably Moonshae was a very early product tacked onto Faerun and didn't have them in there for that reason).So yeah....it is somewhat about magic and munchkins, but they're needed to maintain a particular atmosphere, you know?</blockquote>

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