D&D 5E Which Region in the Forgotten Realms and which Book?

[plancktum]

Hi,

one of my gaming groups is now switching to 5e and we decided to play in the Forgotten Realms (Faerun of Course) but not around the sword coast.

Now I've asked myself which region should I choose? I'm relatively new to the Forgotten Realms, so maybe you can recommend some regions?

And more importantly: Which Setting Book should I buy? The 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide? Or better the 4e Version (which is still available as a printed version, which I like)?
Maybe a single Book about, e.g. the Moonsee?

I'm thankful for every suggestion!

best regards

 

[phantomK9]

I've gotten a great deal of use out of the Silver Marches Campaign Book. It came out many years ago for 3e, but it has sustained 4 whole campaigns using 3 different systems (with little converting). It is by far one of the best books to come out of 3e.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

The Moonshaes, 1st Ed Moonshaes accessory.

 

[Nellisir]

The 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is far and away more useful than the 4e book. The current Princes of the Apocalypse adventure, and the starter adventure, are both set in the North, near the Silver Marches -- and I'll echo phantomK9 and say that the Silver Marches campaign book is one of the best I've ever seen.

So, the 3e FR guide and the Silver Marches campaign book.

 

[graves3141]

The 2nd and 3rd edition versions of the Realms are probably the best. Both give a bit more information on the Dalelands than the other regions of Faerun with the idea of having you start there, but you can, of course, choose to start your game somewhere besides Shadowdale.

I've always liked Cormyr and recommend that area as a good starting point. It's a bit like medieval France but with good rulers and no Versailles Any small village in Cormyr would be a good place to start a campaign or you could begin your game in a big city in Cormyr like Suzail if you prefer a city-based beginning.

Some people liked the 4E Realms... I was not one of them. The radical changes they made to the world went too far, continents coming back out of nowhere and new races appearing, etc... I thought the Time of Troubles was a lot of change but it was nothing compared to what happened to the setting in 4E.

The 3E Realms book is beautiful with fantastic graphic design and packed full of useful information that is fun to read... the book is one of my favorites from the entire 3E era. The 2E Realms boxed set is good too but maybe a little harder to find in decent shape if you're looking for a physical copy... you could always buy the pdf version (it has clean, white pages that are easy on the eyes). I like the 2E Realms boxed set almost as much as the 3E Realms book. Both are excellent resources.

Anyway, good luck with your game

 

[Dargrimm]

The Moonshaes are awesome if you like celtic-themed areas. One of my absolute favourite areas of the Realms.

Another good place is the Western Heartlands.

 

[Staffan]

I would actually suggest the 2e setting box (particularly if you can find it used at a decent price). The 3e book will have lots and lots of stuff that's useless to you - about a fourth to a third of the book consists of mechanics (feats, spells, prestige classes, stats for NPCs), whereas the 2e box is almost statless. This leaves a lot more room for actual setting fluff. Also, you get more maps with the 2e box (2x 30 miles-per-inch for the Heartlands and 2x 90 miles-per-inch for a larger overview, compared to a single 120 miles-per-inch map for 3e). Also, 3e treated most regions equally when it came to detail, whereas 2e focused a lot on the Heartlands. That can be a good or a bad thing, depending on whether you want to play in the Heartlands or not - 2e has more info on Cormyr and the Dalelands, whereas 3e has more info on, say, Aglarond or Calimshan.

The 3e book was great for its era, and tried really hard to bring out the setting "fluff" through the "crunch" - for example, Amn is known for its mercantile culture, so people from Amn can take the Silver Palm feat giving bonuses to Appraise and Bluff. But 5e doesn't have that kind of "high-resolution" mechanics, so a lot of those rules are wasted unless you're actually running 3e (and many of them were revised for 3.5e in Player's Guide to Faerûn as well).

I would not suggest buying the 4e book, as they warped the setting a lot for 4th edition (including things like moving the timeline up a hundred years), to the extent where it's pretty much a different setting with many of the place names being the same. 4th ed Forgotten Realms is in many ways Forgotten Realms: The Next Generation - fairly good on its own, but not really the same as the old-school stuff.

As to where to play... perhaps the Dalelands/Moonsea area? The Dales make a great base for expeditions to both the Moonsea and to the mysteries of Cormanthor. Cormyr is a rather classical feudal-ish kingdom, constrasted to the primarily city-state dominated rest of northwest Faerûn. The cities of the Dragon Coast and the Vast make great bases for intrigue and/or mercantile-focused campaigns. The North is great if you want more wilderness stuff, using either the 2e North boxed set or the 3e Silver Marches book (Silver Marches covers a slightly smaller area as it avoids the coastal bits). I personally feel that FR works best when the campaign is based somewhere in the Heartlands or the North, with more exotic places being, well, exotic. Having a Rashemi witch and her berserker companion traveling to the Sword Coast for one reason or another is much cooler and more interesting than placing a campaign in Rashemen (unless Rashemen is your thing, of course).

 

[graves3141]

I would actually suggest the 2e setting box (particularly if you can find it used at a decent price). The 3e book will have lots and lots of stuff that's useless to you - about a fourth to a third of the book consists of mechanics (feats, spells, prestige classes, stats for NPCs), whereas the 2e box is almost statless. This leaves a lot more room for actual setting fluff. Also, you get more maps with the 2e box (2x 30 miles-per-inch for the Heartlands and 2x 90 miles-per-inch for a larger overview, compared to a single 120 miles-per-inch map for 3e). Also, 3e treated most regions equally when it came to detail, whereas 2e focused a lot on the Heartlands. That can be a good or a bad thing, depending on whether you want to play in the Heartlands or not - 2e has more info on Cormyr and the Dalelands, whereas 3e has more info on, say, Aglarond or Calimshan.

The 3e book was great for its era, and tried really hard to bring out the setting "fluff" through the "crunch" - for example, Amn is known for its mercantile culture, so people from Amn can take the Silver Palm feat giving bonuses to Appraise and Bluff. But 5e doesn't have that kind of "high-resolution" mechanics, so a lot of those rules are wasted unless you're actually running 3e (and many of them were revised for 3.5e in Player's Guide to Faerûn as well).

There are indeed a lot of stats in the 3E book that are no longer relevant outside of 3E. However, I like how the book tries to cover a broader section of territory in Faerun more equally. And, the maps are prettier

Really, you should get both the 2E and 3E Realms settings if you can. They complement each other in a lot of ways.

 

[SirAntoine]

The maps in the 2e boxed set are much prettier in my opinion. This fact and the content make it the best. The only thing is it brings some stories from the novels into it. For a pre-novel FR experience, you need to use the old gray box from 1e.

As for a region other than the Sword Coast, it depends what you want.

 

[Queer Venger]

Hi,

one of my gaming groups is now switching to 5e and we decided to play in the Forgotten Realms (Faerun of Course) but not around the sword coast.

Now I've asked myself which region should I choose? I'm relatively new to the Forgotten Realms, so maybe you can recommend some regions?

And more importantly: Which Setting Book should I buy? The 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide? Or better the 4e Version (which is still available as a printed version, which I like)?
Maybe a single Book about, e.g. the Moonsee?

I'm thankful for every suggestion!

best regards

FRCG 3e.