D&D 5E Thay Land of the Red Wizards Available From Realms Creator Ed Greenwood

Thay Land of the Red Wizards is a Forgotten Realms supplement by Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood, plus Alex Kammer and Alan Patrick. The 108-page books is available in PDF ($17.99) and hardcover ($39.99) over on the DMs Guild.

Known to the wider Forgotten Realms® as a sinister land of Red Wizards, slavers, and marching undead armies, Thay is the distant—or uncomfortably close—menace that “may become our doom if Szass Tam turns his attention in our direction.”

And Thay is that, but it is also so much more. A truly magical land (thanks to a secret that even the goddess Mystra helps to keep) of rich culture, a rising middle class, ambitious nobles and Red Wizards who fear Szass Tam more than they hate him, but may soon be forced to defy him, and wealth beyond the imaginings of even wealthy and proud realms elsewhere.

This tome is your guide to the Thay of right now, a valuable resource for Dungeon Masters and players alike. It sets forth the people and places of the Land of Red Wizards, what life is like, and seeds, hints, and secrets sufficient to spur adventures for years of enjoyment at your gaming table.

Thay Land Of The Red Wizards - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Thay Land Of The Red Wizards - Known to the wider Forgotten Realms® as a sinister land of Red Wizards, slavers, and marching undead armies, Thay is th

www.dmsguild.com

 

[Weiley31]

I don't have the book, but would class retraining qualify?

Don't think so.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I didn't read it cover to cover only bits and pieces. I found that it made mention of areas that aren't detailed in the book and had to look up those areas elsewhere online. The map in the book is small although a .pdf did come with my purchase of the softcover. A political map or at least kingdom boundaries would have helped. I found it hard to figure out where one area/kingdom started and ended, but the premise of the Border Kingdoms is that they are constantly in flux so I just made stuff up. There's a lot of detail in typical Ed Greenwood fashion but it seemed like reading a wall of text at times and hard to parse out the important stuff, but it's probably just how the book is formatted. Not positive but I think this was their first FR product for DMs Guild, so I'd think that by 3 books later they're probably only getting better. I liked what I did read, is it great, no, but definitely more than enough to run an extended campaign in. I thought it was worth the money.

Thanks R_J_K75.

I'm not a fan of wall of text for gazetteers. It's what put me off the Glorantha gazetteer. I want bullet points, and one or two quick sentences so I can make sh*t up; a long bit of well-written (or worse) prose doesn't do me as much good at the table...

 

[Ibrandul]

View attachment 152274

Wait—what??? The Spellplague happened in 1385 DR. Add 150 years to that and you get 1535 DR—fully 40 years in the future from any of the 5e WotC modules. Is this new Thay book actually set 150 years after the Spellplague, or are they majorly rounding up with that figure?

 

[R_J_K75]

Thanks R_J_K75.

I'm not a fan of wall of text for gazetteers. It's what put me off the Glorantha gazetteer. I want bullet points, and one or two quick sentences so I can make sh*t up; a long bit of well-written (or worse) prose doesn't do me as much good at the table...

I prefer a well balance of everything as long as its organized well. A paragraph or two of detail followed by a few quick bullet points, a table, etc seems to work well. The main problem I had when using the Border Kingdoms was I had to read and digest it in small portions. I knew right when buying it I wasnt going to read it entirely let alone use that information in game but seemed like I always had to read more than I planned or wanted to get the full picture of an area. So most of the times I read small parts and made the rest up.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Wonder how much of this got neutered down because people can't handle actual villainy? Like the entire fact that it's a nation based on slave labor and other exploitation?

They don't shy away from slavery as an issue. It's mentioned repeatedly, and there's a sidebar that basically says "Slavery is common in Thay, and Slavery Is Bad". Although they do say that there's been a shift in recent years towards more undead slaves, since living slaves have a higher upkeep. Not that that gains them any points in the morality department...

 

[Storyteller Hero]

Wait—what??? The Spellplague happened in 1385 DR. Add 150 years to that and you get 1535 DR—fully 40 years in the future from any of the 5e WotC modules. Is this new Thay book actually set 150 years after the Spellplague, or are they majorly rounding up with that figure?

Might be a typo for 105 years, which would be 1490 DR.

 

[R_J_K75]

Might be a typo for 105 years, which would be 1490 DR.

As of today 2/22/2022, what is the current FR date as of the last published WotC adventure set there?

 

[Ibrandul]

As of today 2/22/2022, what is the current FR date as of the last published WotC adventure set there?

They're less precise about such things than they used to be in previous editions, but roughly 1495-ish DR.

 

[doctorhook]

They don't shy away from slavery as an issue. It's mentioned repeatedly, and there's a sidebar that basically says "Slavery is common in Thay, and Slavery Is Bad". Although they do say that there's been a shift in recent years towards more undead slaves, since living slaves have a higher upkeep. Not that that gains them any points in the morality department...

Seems like a valid way to approach the topic. I understand why some folks may not want to see slavery in their entertainment, but sometimes I worry that diminishing mention of it could be a form of erasure. Obviously Thay isn’t real, but some of us like our fantasy to broach difficult real-world topics as a means to explore them. Unfortunately slavery remains a very real plight on Earth even today.

 

[cavetroll]

Wait—what??? The Spellplague happened in 1385 DR. Add 150 years to that and you get 1535 DR—fully 40 years in the future from any of the 5e WotC modules. Is this new Thay book actually set 150 years after the Spellplague, or are they majorly rounding up with that figure?

I asked on twitter, didn't get a reply. I am guessing that they just mean modern time, whatever modern DR is in your campaign or WOTC campaign etc. Probably just a mistake.