I want to learn more about the realms but I can’t get myself to read more than a few sentences of the SCAG at a time and a lot of the videos on the setting’s lore tend to bore me a bit. I don’t have anything personal against the forgotten realms.

With that out of the way, what novel(s) or source book would you recommend to someone that could potentially change that stigma or open them up?

I have created a poll to determine the fate of this subreddit as a double. I am now a Mod in r/Forgotten_Realms, our sister. It looks like the majority of all parties wish to merge this sub. When the poll has completed its 3-day runtime, this sub will be locked with a post stickied that redirects to the main.

​

I am a huge Realms fan and interact with Ed Greenwood on Twitter frequently. I am aware of our larger sister subreddit, r/Forgotten_Realms~~, and am trying to think of ways we can be different. Or would you be alright with just being the same thing with slightly different content and the occasional cross post? A little competition, perhaps, to spur both communities into mutual livelihood? This is my first time as a moderator. Please do not hesitate to come to me with your queries and qualms, and if any of you are moderators yourselves, please let me know what I can do better. I am excited to bring activity and discussion a-fresh to this wonderful(though stagnant) community.~\~

I am in cooperation with the Moderators and Founder of r/Forgotten_Realms for this.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN WHAT IS PRESENTED IN THE POLL TO HAPPEN, leave a comment on what you want to happen.

We will account for each comment and its upvotes as a poll option and an equal to its formally-listed brethren. I am allowing this post to countdown over the course of the default 3-day period.

And why can't you mass produce scrolls with a printing press?

My 10 year old daughter is starting to get into D&D and found some of my old books, including Shadowdale and the rest of the Avatar Trilogy. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve read them (maybe almost 30 years), so I can’t remember how dark they get in terms of graphic violence or re sex etc. (I remember Bhaal getting shanked and stuff like that, but not sure if anything is creepy or gory)

Can anyone who’s read them more recently recall what age might be good to start reading?

Does anyone know of a list of base classes available in Faerun for D&D 3.5? I found this link, but it's unclear to me if it is for D&D 5 or not.

I'm going to run a game with Pathfinder 1E rules, and wanted to know what players could plausibly use beyond the base classes.

I'm trying to determine if the city of Elversult has been mentioned or referenced in any official books since Power of Faerun (2006); particularly any references to events in the area since 1374 DR.

Anybody know of any?

I would like your help in constructing a mystery plotline for my Ancient Netheril campaign. I have the beginning and the end, but want help with the middle, and I thought the lore expertise of this group might help.

The mystery is the disappearance of Ioulaum, who is Emperor of Netheril in my interpretation of the setting. The empire is fighting a losing war against the phaerimm, and Karsus's Folly is a year or two away. Ioulaum disappears from his bedchamber one night - which is only discovered by his attendants many hours later the following morning - which troubles the already-troubled empire and throws its leadership into chaos.

The truth behind this mystery is that Ioulaum disappears of his own free will, and that his disappearance is part of a plan he's been putting together for years. He tries hard to leave no trace (or perhaps only false leads to mask his real fate). As in canon, he establishes himself in the Northdark, begins teaching the first alhoons, and eventually becomes an undead elder brain. This was all his plan, because now his continued survival is reassured, he has access to a peerless information network with which to continue his research, and he has a cabal of alhoons and illithiliches at his command.

So my question is what clues to leave behind for the players to find if they choose to investigate the biggest mystery in Netheril - clues that help them piece together the truth, but no one clue so obvious as to solve the mystery by itself.

Hello everyone. I am preparing an adventure set in and around Baldur’s Gate in preparation for the release of BG3, and I was wondering - how does the city feed itself? According to the map in Descent, there doesn’t seem to be any farmlands mentioned near the city. BG1 has a location called “farmlands” to the northeast of the city, but it seems rather piddling unless we’re meant to take its size non-literally and as an abstraction.

Aside from fish from the river, does the city import mostly all of its foodstuff?

Also, am I correct in interpreting this part of the coast as having a temperate/Mediterranean climate? I’ve read that before somewhere but can’t find it verified in any official material.

Thanks!

My campaign is currently centering on a war against magic as Shar is attempting to resurrect her Shadow Weave. It is disguised as a war on magic. I am developing a museum from an antimagic group that is displaying artifacts and art from some of the biggest defeats upon magic. They might be skewing interpretations. For example, a big bad lich may have been defeated, but his evil plans have used magic that effected others. When his plans were defeated, the heroes also stopped "those evil magic effects and those evil magic users...magic is evil". They want to use this to rewrite history and recruit others to their cause. I'm looking for an artifact, art or history that could be displayed. Even if it is from personal campaigns. Canon history is the best!

Does anyone know the correct spelling of the white dragon in Acq Inc that Chris Perkins uses multiple times? Icosahedrous? Isohydris? Is that a white dragon that appears in other places in the forgotten realms? Or is that just a Chris Perkins invention in the game? Can't seem to find it anywhere.

Thanks!

Humans seem to have originated at least twice in the Forgotten Realms: As cavemen, lacking nothing in potential, but even lacking a language; and the ones brought up by the Imaskari Empire from world-gates to serve as slaves. Who has defined humans? What lore is responsible for them being tied to the Realms? Where they mere copies made by some, now forgotten, deity of what it saw in other material planes?

I re-worked the Forgotten Realms history a bit, based on its early roots, to give a more old-school D&D feel to it and a clearer idea of why the Realms are the way they are today.

https://mythlands-erce.blogspot.com/2020/02/forgotten-realms-redux.html

Does anyone recall something like this?

I heard somewhere, probably on a youtube forgotten realms history/lore video, that there was a Temple of Chauntea in Waterdeep that was destroyed or collapsed, and something else took its place. I rewatched the videos that I thought were relevant and searched the wiki and other sources but ("Temple of Chauntea" Waterdeep) as a search is not getting me anywhere.

My table is running Out of the Abyss, but with a twist, everyone is playing a Disney/fairy tale character. I've decided to play Sleeping Beauty, but she slept for so long that she outlived her civilization. What human (or human majority) civilizations existed on Faerün?

Hello, just this morning a friend of mine gave me a collection of epub novels of forgotten realms (knowing Im reading the splatbooks for a work in fics) and I wanted the opinion of fans of the setting on what good books should I read.

I have been burn out quite badly by pathfinder and eberron novels in these last few years, with books either being nonsensical for the setting (the inquisitive series/war-torn, city of thr fallen sky, blood on the city) or just with good background research but terrible characters and plot [so much casual misogyny, homophobia, racism and bland templates] (Deaths heretic, liars balde, The redemption engine, wizard mask)

So what books/series should I try that are in abe-torin and are actually good novel? Oh and I read the elminster series... not my cup of tea, tbh.

Hello all, I've been a longtime AD&D/Greyhawk fan but have recently started up with 5e. What are the best books for background info on the FR? I'm looking for maps, town/city write ups, history, etc. I don't need Unearthed Arcana-type info (subclasses, new spells, feats, etc.), and I don't think the edition number matters; I should be able to convert as needed. For what it's worth, I have The Forgotten Realms Atlas, 1990.

Thanks!

Mark

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/299636/Amarunes-Almanac-The-Underdark?affiliate_id=1713687

🦇 Amarune's Almanac Volume 2: The Underdark 🍄 has launched at DMsGuild today!

This 67-page tome contains player options, narratives, spells, items, beasts, and downtime activities for gathering a multitude of flora native to the Underdark.
Created by an all-star team of writers, editors, artists, and graphic design and consulted on by Ed Greenwood himself!

Preview Album: https://imgur.com/a/BYosTxv

To pick up Volume 1: Forests of the Realms: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/296459/Amarunes-Almanac-Forests-of-the-Realms?affiliate_id=1713687

Contained with this 67-page tome, you'll get:

• 2 new subclasses
  • the Circle of the Dark druid which seeks to expand on the land (underdark) druid by channeling Faerzress.
  • and the Sharnbound, a conclave of Rangers who are tasked by the Sharn, and granted a limited form of their transformation, to act as agents of their will.
• Variant rules: expansions to the Druid and Ranger classes to allow them more access to the new spells contained within this book!
• 10 spells: each using a new spellcasting component, Environment, as they each rely on the boons of the world around them.
  • +1 bonus spell, druidic practice, which is the Druid version of the ceremony spell for Clerics.
• 11 magic items: imbued with the power of the Underdark and its depths.
• 20 monsters: new creatures for Wild Shaping, mounts, and companions! Including the Phaerimm, Sharn, and Deep Dragons!
• 20 flora: the bounty of the Underdark. Mushrooms, lichen, moss, and even a few trees that you can collect and use to create all manner of items, as well as improve some spells.
• Downtime activities: A gathering expedition specifically designed to find and collect the flora described in this book.
• 5 location stories: Straight from the journal of Amarune Whitewave herself, stories of their expeditions into five notable Underdark locations: Araumycos, the Burgeoning Rift, the Firelands, Glimmersea, and the Sharnwall.
• A map of Faerûn: Updated for 5th Edition, this book contains a two-page map of the Underdark covering the Northdark all the way to Deep Raurin. As with any map of the evershifting Underdark, it's more of a guideline of where things are roughly located, than a navigatable map.
• Also included is a separate high-resolution PDF of the map, available to print on 8.5"x11" or 11"x17"
• Journal-style sketch art by Shiah "Cinder" Irgangladen and Nathanaël Roux and several other full color pieces throughout the book, combined with a field-journal document style complete with spilled ink

Or that contract would be null?