Ruin Explorer
Legend
- I personally dislike most Ed Greenwood-style names (Jalantyr Mistgem, Sildar Hallwinter, Kelemvor Lyonsbane, etc.). If, like me, you feel these names are like nails on a chalkboard, then Wildemount is mercifully (mostly) free of them.
Interesting. Having basically been raised on the FR, this is practically a selling point for me, though I no longer run it. When we'd been playing there for like 3-4 years, we got to the point where we could just make up really "Realms-y" sounding names without even thinking about it.
And if I had to pick one thing it does better than FR, it's how so many of the various nations and city-states are at the edge of war with each other. If you're looking for large-scale conflicts, it'd be a better fit.
I do think the nigh-perpetual peace beyond "raids" and "spying" is a big part of what weakened the FR, and I notice no setting I've run since has been like that. Nations were often quite far from nations they were messing with, and always seemed to be using subterfuge and naughtiness rather than, y'know, sending an army or anything.