D&D 5E What does your Forgotten Realms look like?

[Henry]

I run a pretty straightforward 1372 DR campaign taken largely from the 3.0 Campaign Setting book, because it's the era I have the most complete campaign resources for.

 

[ProgBard]

(I talked about this a bit over on the "Lore isn't rules" thread, as fair warning to anyone who's been there and isn't interested in watching me do my "Let me tell you about my campaign!" spiel twice.)

My home game is set in 1501 DR, on an alt-history timeline where the Spellplague didn't happen.* This lets me establish a lore baseline (as I like to describe it, the 3e FRCS is historical canon unless it's more interesting if it isn't) while still filling in more recent history with my own, less map-bolloxing events. Among other things, I used this conceit to end the dynasty of the Obarskyrs on Cormyr, remove the Night Kings from Westgate, and turn the Pirate Isles into a nascent Republic.

It's also a place that is heavily connected to and influenced by the greater Multiverse; I'm riffing on a lot of Planescape stuff in the cosmos-at-large, so the PCs have already done some plane-hopping (including a memorable jaunt with PF's Cayden Caillean himself through what might, or might not, have been an odd corner of the Feywild) and encountered planar travelers and references to non-Faerunian pantheons. For good or ill, I'm a kitchen-sink kinda guy, and I love being able to have that big palette to draw from.

My exposure to the novels is limited, so I've drawn on almost none of that directly. Though I do like Elminster quite a lot, who has made a couple of cameos, mostly because it's too much fun to do the Nicol-Williamson-as-Merlin voice that Ed recommends for him. But he's pretty detached and enigmatic and he's absolutely not going to save the party's bacon in any direct way. Indeed, now that they're up to their knees in a cosmic-horror Toril-threatening conflict and wondering idly if mabe El's around to lend a hand, I had their own patron respond, "The Sage of Shadowdale has quite enough on his mind at the moment. Or did you think this was the only threat to the Realms? That Orcus and Tiamat and Bane have gone off to lick their wounds while you dealt with this? I assure you they have not."

*Although, since if there's a way to have things both ways I'm sure to find it, the potential Spellplague, or maybe the fact of its happening in another timeline, has had a subtle ripple effect on this one. At one point, my players found a letter** that opened like this:

23 Leaffall 1391

I dreamed a terrible dream last night.

I saw Faerun torn asunder by a plague of corrupted magic, the Weave undone and bleeding. I saw the Sea of Fallen Stars drain half away into the darkest places of the earth, Westgate stranded like a ship dragged too far ashore, Starmantle dead and haunted by spectral horrors. I saw my beloved Var the Golden swallowed by the waves: Var the Drowned, a kingdom of salt and ghosts. I saw disaster pile upon disaster as new lands changed places with old and gods fell like comets in rains of blue fire. I saw the kngdoms and cities of the world become guttering points of light in a dark wilderness, with all given to ruin and chaos, our blazing star of civilization fading and falling and all but lost.

I cannot say if this is a true dream or a false one; does it tell of things yet to come, or only my own secret fears? Perhaps it has already come to pass, in some other history, on some other Toril in the hall of infinite mirrors. I do not know and pray I never will. But I woke afraid and shaken, at utter loss for what to do. True or false, I would not see this come to pass.

**I am also, for better or worse, a Props DM.

 

[CrashFiend82]

I use bits and pieces from through out each addition but my players don't care about canon. That said a few were interested in some parts of Eberron in 3.5. Mainly races, changelings, warforged, and shiftets also the artificer. Instead of fully converting I just pull in a bit more time. I feel some of those items, along with marked houses, magical commerce guilds rising with no direct political ties. Inventions of industry and magic combined make for a fantasy-logic move forward, though progress is glacial compared to reality. The players dictate the change and the next campaign may focus on creation of airships and lightning rails. This may feel like the realms off the rails but we also enjoy the whole kitchen sink approach. If the players find something they like or want to try, I work to adjust the best as I can.

 

[seebs]

I don't remember.