D&D 5E Starting the realms

[fjw70]

My Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide came in the mail today (never got mail on Sunday before) so I will see what I can use in there. Looks like my plan will be to include stuff I want from the various editions and rewrite the timeline when needed.

 

[fjw70]

Finished the Crystal Shard and am starting The Streams of Silver now. I liked the Crystal Shard ok. It was pretty good but not great.

Between the novels and reading the FR Wiki I am starting to get a feel for the basics of the realms.

 

[PeelSeel2]

I never played the realms until about a year ago. I came across a huge collection of FR stuff from 1e and 2e and it piqued my interest. I ran a small campaign around Daggerford set in 1357. I hated the sundering, spell plague, etc. of later editions. I really enjoy fifth edition, and think that the sword coast adventurers guide is a good starting point for the new era. It glosses over a lot of the poor crap from 2e 3e and 4e. The next one I am planning is Daggerford 1489

 

[fjw70]

Are there any areas of the realms similar to Africa (I.e with elephants, lions, etc.)?

 

[JohnLynch]

Are there any areas of the realms similar to Africa (I.e with elephants, lions, etc.)?

No there's no directly equivalent region like Pathfinder's Mwangi Expanse. Chult would be closest.

 

[Demetrios1453]

No there's no directly equivalent region like Pathfinder's Mwangi Expanse. Chult would be closest.

Chult would work for stereotypical "jungle" Africa (but with dinosaurs!), but for a more Serengeti "elephants and lions" Africa, I'd put that more as the Shaar - it has both wemics (lion centaurs) and loxo (bipedal humanoid elephants) there, so it wouldn't seem unreasonable they have the original lions and elephants as well! Neither are flat-out rip-offs of sub-Saharan Africa though...

 

[fjw70]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

The Shaar for sure. It's a huge expanse of land to work with too.

With all the reading you are doing, it looks like your players are in for a treat. Good luck.

 

[fjw70]

As I continue my exploration of the realms I was reading the FR Wiki entry for Artemis Entreri and saw this

Artemis revealed little about his past to others, but some things are known about his early life. He was born into the streets of Memnon in Calimshan to a prostitute named Shanali. He was constantly abused by his 'father,' Belrigger, and was molested by his uncle Tosso. Eventually, his mother sold him to a pedophile merchant who was, if anything, worse than his uncle;

Dang, I didn't know the realms got so dark. I definitely will not be using this stuff in my game (even if I wasn't playing with my kids).