What book best covers Thay and the Red Wizards?

[jdrakeh]

I'm aware that Dreams of the Red Wizards, Spellbound, and The Unapproachable East all cover Thay and the Red Wizards to some degree — but which covers them in the most depth? And are there other, better, supplements that explore Thay that I am not aware of?

 

[Steel_Wind]

I'm aware that Dreams of the Red Wizards, Spellbound, and The Unapproachable East all cover Thay and the Red Wizards to some degree — but which covers them in the most depth? And are there other, better, supplements that explore Thay that I am not aware of?

We used Unapproachable East for canon reference work when working on the Forgotten Realms. It's more up to date than either Dreams or Spellbound and integrates most of the best work which appears in both of those prior works into it.

 

[Allenchan]

The 3e Lords of Darkness also has a fair amount of stuff on the Red Wizards, but not Thay in general.

 

[jdrakeh]

I'm more interested in fluff. I kind of want to run a game in the unapproachable East using Sorcerer by Ron Edwards.

 

[SPECTRE666]

Unapproachable East is the newest. Probably easier to find.

If you read novels check out the Haunted Lands Trilogy. It's set during the recent Thayan Civil War.

 

[jdrakeh]

Unapproachable East is the newest. Probably easier to find.

Actually, I've already found copies of all of them. That's why I want to know which one is the best.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

While I can't compare those resources you listed, if you like going off the beaten path for inspiration, I may have another unlikely resource for you. Turns out the Red Wizards of Thay spawned a Ravenloft domain: Hazlan. Their leader Hazlik is a disgraced Hazlan wizard who holds the dreams of wiping out the rest of the Mulani. The domain is interesting and has a bit of a Byzantine feel, IIRC. I haven't done a deep side by side comparison of how Hazlan and its Mulani compare to the FR and its canon Mulani, but it might give you some additional inspiration on what Thayvian society (or some twisted mirror of it) might be like. The 3e regional Ravenlot Gazetteer Volume 1 for 3e probably has the most information on Hazlan and Hazlik. However, like the rest of the 3e books, it's a licensed product. Therefore, it avoids the explicit connection by name to the Red Wizards and FR that was prevalent in TSR's Ravenloft work in 2e.

If you didn't want to use Ravenloft itself, perhaps Hazlik could be trapped in his own little demiplane (with just Hazlan itself) He could serve as a bogeyman of sorts or a hidden antagonist.

Interestingly, if one is into the 4e FR, Hazlik's goal of wiping out the rest of the Mulani seems to have partially succeeded (though probably not canonically by his hand). Thay (and Mulhorand) got hit hard and most of their inhabitants have been wiped out, sad to say.

 

[Deepfire]

What about the harpers novel "red magic" - as far as I remember it tells about red wizards too ...

 

[Storminator]

I thought Dreams was pretty bad. If you like Thayans to act like the Keystone Cops, it's your go-to resource. I personally despise incompetent bad guys, so it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I love UE, and made a Thayan campaign around it. Of course I upped the Thayan menace to the surrounding lands there too.

PS

 

[jdrakeh]

I thought Dreams was pretty bad. If you like Thayans to act like the Keystone Cops, it's your go-to resource.

Well, switching systems from D&D to Sorcerer immediately solves that problem in actual play (since all sorcerers are heavy hitters who derive their magic from making dangerous pacts with demons).