Review: The Forgotten Realms Atlas

 Last month I presented a few characters from Grenda's collection of Forgotten Realms material. It got me thinking I needed to continue my exploration of the Realms.  Among the books in his collection is the amazing The Forgotten Realms Atlas. Under normal circumstances at this point in my exploration of a new world I would go right to a publication like this. The fact that it is the next book in chronological order and it was part of my friend's collection makes it an even better choice. 

The Forgotten Realms Atlas (2e)

1990. By Karen Wynn Fonstad. Forewords by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb. 178 pages.

Before I get into this book, I have a few words about Karen Wynn Fonstad. She is not a name usually associated with the Realms, but she is a "name." Prior to this book, she had given us the equally extensive Atlas of the Dragonlance World. She came to these via her work on The Atlas of Middle-Earth, The Atlas of Pern, and the Atlas of The Land from "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant." All epic works of cartography and staples of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club during the 1980s.  All her books have a similar feel to them, and all are meticulously well-researched. She had been the Director of Cartographic Services at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh and had fallen in love with Tolkien's world back in 1975.  I don't know if she felt the same love for Toril, Krynn or Pern, but her work in all three was top-notch. She passed in 2005 at the young age of 59. She was remembered fondly in the New York Times this past January, nearly 20 years after her death.

The Atlas itself is a massive work. The book itself is 178 pages, with 3-color art. The only illustrations in the book are Fonstad's maps and there is nearly a map per page. These are not just geographical maps of places, there are maps of towns, homes, castles, even standing stones on the Moonshae islands. Everything is footnoted and cross referenced. 

It covers all the Forgotten Realms products, novels and RPG sources, up that point. So it is pretty comprehensive. 

The atlas is divided into four major sections.

Part One: Regions

This covers the large regions of the known world of the Forgotten Realms circa 1990. It includes large area maps of the Western Realms (most familiar) north and south, the Hordelands, and the Eastern Realms where Kara-Tur had been newly re-set. 

Part Two: The Moonshae Isles

This covers the Moonshaes and the places (and events) of the Darkwater Trilogy novels. I should probably read those at some point. The level of detail here is rather amazing, to be honest, and you do get the feel that this is a living, breathing world. 

Part Three: The North and West

Again, the areas most familiar even to the most casual Realms fan. Though, while I admit that now I am likely more than a casual fan, the amount of detail here is staggering to me. There is so much I don't know here. Reading it makes me feel like I have missed a lot since there are many references to the novels. I know I am never going to ever read everything Forgotten Realms, but this does make me appreciate the in-world and real-world history here.

Part Four: The Western Heartlands

This is the bulk of the book and is just packed. Here, I am further outside of the areas I know. Hell, even the areas I know I know I don't know well. But I think I am going to come back to this book very often.

Honestly. This book is a treasure. I had flipped through a copy of Fonstad's Atlas of Middle of Earth years ago and was blown away by it. I have the same feeling here. It is almost too much to take in at once.

Her References alone would be the basis of a great adventure, academically speaking, to read up on the Realms from 35 years ago. It is more than I could ever hope to read and still manage to get all my other reading in! But it also gives me ideas of other products to review, beyond what I already have. 

 

Character Creation Challenge: Corvell "Ice" Multane

Heading into the home stretch and have a stack of Forgotten Realms characters here. I am certainly going to use them in my own games in the Realms. 

"Corvell Multane" is a quintessential Grenda character name.  He comes from the same time period as does the HIVE. And much like the HIVE was influenced by my Spyder Society, this Ice seems (on the surface) to have been influenced by my "Ice" from three years prior. Was he trying to recreate some of my characters for his own game? I don't think so. I have found character sheets of some of my characters in his collection. If he wanted them in his game, he just used them. These characters are inspired by, but not the same as. 

Since I am translating these characters to the Wasted Lands, I think I am going to try to keep them as "Realms accurate" as I can. So that means classes RAW and little to no Heroic Touchstones. 

Corvell "Ice" Multane

Class: Warrior
Level: 1
Species: Human
Alignment: Light Neutral
Background: Warrior 

Abilities
Strength: 15 (+1) A
Agility: 16 (+2)
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 9 (+0)
Persona: 17 (+2) N

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 7
Degeneracy: 0*
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +1 to all Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background)

Warrior Abilities
Combat Expertise, Improved Defence, Melee Combat, Master of Battle, Ranged Combat, Supernatural Attacks (Melee), Spell Resistance, Tracking

Wow. Ok, I like that. I mean, there are no surprises here, but that is a clean-cut character and would do well in the Wasted Lands or Forgotten Realms. 

I will likely drop Degeneracy and Corruption if I continue these for the Forgotten Realms. Though, one could argue that Szass Tam is the model for both of these. 

This is going to be fun.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

Character Creation Challenge: Enter the HIVE!

 I wanted to spend a week doing evil characters, but my week got away from me. I was supposed to do these yesterday. Plus I also have another reason for doing these. My oldest is building a bunch of NPC adventuring parties. In his current game these adventuring guilds are akin to the social media celebrities of his world. They are all ranked, with the ones with the highest ranks getting the best sponsorship deals and merchandising deals. Groups with signature-named weapons do better since the weapons can be sold separately for their action figures.  

The Hive here are not highly ranked. But that is fine since he needs a few of them.

I am not 100% sure about the origin of these guys, but the timing and the names of the characters remind me of my own "Spyder Society" I had made a couple years before them.  I don't think they were made to be NPCs, these look like characters he was going to play at some point. Plus a few have what look like "play notes" on them.

What REALLY stands out about these characters though is they were made for the Forgotten Realms. This is interesting because I didn't even know Grenda, a hard core Greyhawk guy, was doing anything at all with the Realms. But they all worship evil gods from the Realms. He also has his city, Rivendell (not the Tolkien one), placed in the Realms somewhere. If I use them, I'll change that to Waterdeep. Though I would have liked to have known where he put his city on Faerûn.

There is a nice variety here, but all are 1st level (or so) and all are fairly standard AD&D classes. So translating them into Wasted Lands is pretty easy.

Cobra

Class: Renegade
Level: 1
Species: Human
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Warrior

Abilities
Strength: 18 (+3) N
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 18 (+3) N 
Intelligence: 15 (+1) 
Wits: 16 (+1)
Persona: 18 (+3) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 10
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 to melee attacks

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Thug

Gear
Longsword, dagger, crossbow

Widow

Class: Renegade
Level: 1
Species: Dökkálfar
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Warrior

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 17 (+2) N 
Intelligence: 18 (+3) N
Wits: 15 (+1)
Persona: 16 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 3
Vitality: 6
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: 1 Level of Sorcerer

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Trickster

Gear
Longsword, dagger, dart

Pi

Class: Renegade/Necromancer
Level: 1/1
Species: Half-Ljósálfar
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Cult

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 16 (+2)  
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 17 (+2) N
Persona: 15 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 7
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Necromancer Abilities
Channel the Dead, See Dead people, Turn Undead, Protection from the Dead

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Psychic Power: Telekinesis 

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Speaker to the Dead

Gear
Shortsword, mace, dagger

Wasp

Class: Renegade/Sorcerer
Level: 3/3
Species: Deep Gnome
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Cult

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 16 (+2)  
Intelligence: 17 (+2) A
Wits: 16 (+2) N
Persona: 15 (+2) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 4
Vitality: 13
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6), Vital Strike

Sorcerer Abilities
Spell casting, Aracna (Enhanced Senses, Psychic Power Suggestion)

Sorcerer Spells
First Level: Chill Ray, Extinguish Light
Second Level: Invisibility

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Psychic Power: Bio-feedback 
3rd Level: Luck Benefit

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Trickster

Gear
Shortsword, mace, dagger

Cottonmouth

Class: Renegade/Necromancer
Level: 1/1
Species: Half-orc
Alignment: Dark Evil
Background: Cult

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) 
Agility: 18 (+3) A
Toughness: 17 (+2)  
Intelligence: 16 (+2) N
Wits: 17 (+2) N
Persona: 10 (+0) 

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 8
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +1 (base), 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +3 to Death Saves
Number of Attacks: 1

Necromancer Abilities
Channel the Dead, See Dead people, Turn Undead, Protection from the Dead

Renegade Abilities
Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Stealth Skills, Climbing, Danger Sense (1-3 d6)

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: +1 to melee attacks

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Assassin

Gear
Bastardsword, morningstar, dagger

"The Shadow"

No idea who this is. "He" appears to be their boss or handler.  His name appears on all their sheets under Patron. It is likely that one of his own characters relocated to the Realms.

I must admit. I am tempted to reuse these characters for my own Forgotten Realms expropriations. A great set of antagonists for my Sinéad.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

The R. Michael Grenda Collection - Forgotten Realms

 I am still working through this large collection from my old DM and high school/college friend when I discovered something rather unexpected. Mixed in with all his stuff was a busted Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box.

I am quite excited for this.

First, I had no idea he was into the Forgotten Realms at all. His game back in the day was 100% solid Greyhawk. In fact it was so famously Greyhawk that this is where my whole Mystoerth game world comes from.

Secondly, I have needed an empty Forgotten Realms box for a while!

I have all these articles from Dragon Magazine written by Ed Greenwood and others about the Forgotten Realms, and I have had them spread out amongst all my other boxed sets. Now, I can gather them all up and put them into this empty box. These all come from my coverage of "This Old Dragon."

I am still looking for all the articles I have. I know my copy of "Down to Earth Divinity" somewhere. 

This was among some other random and partial items that are not overtly part of the Realms. Things like a partial of A3 and some damaged copies of D1-2 and D3. I might also throw those in and figure out how to make them part of the Realms. Could I place Erelhei-Cinlu in the Realms? Could I edit the adventures to jive with Menzoberranzan?  No idea yet, but I will have a good time figuring it out.

I still have a stack of material here I have gone through. So who knows what other treasures are here to discover.

Review: Forgotten Realms Adventures

While I have been flirting with AD&D 2nd Ed and Realms for the last few months, it is time to dive in head first with the combination that defined Dungeons & Dragons for many in the early 90s. While I was away playing in the gothic-horror land of Ravenloft, most of the AD&D 2nd Edition fanbase was playing on Faerûn and in the Forgotten Realms, and this book was their entry point.

Forgotten Realms Adventures

1990. By Jeff Grubb and E Greenwood, cover art by Clyde Caldwell. Interior art by Stephen Fabian. Interior paintings by Clyde Caldwell, Ned Dameron, Jeff Easley, and Larry Elmore. Cartography by Dave "Diesel" LaForce. 148 pages.

This is a guide book not just to the Forgotten Realms but very specifically to the Forgotten Realms post "Time of Troubles" and to the AD&D 2nd Edition game. I want to delve into the Time of Troubles and discuss it not just in the Universe but how it was a very clever way to bridge the editions and rule changes.  However, I am not really qualified to do it any justice. I have not read the novels involved nor have I played the games, either tabletop or video games. But I can talk about what this book says, post Time of Troubles.

Before I get to the book proper, I want to discuss its position in terms of the "Adventures" hardcovers.

TSR's three main campaign worlds at the end of the 1980s were Dragonlance, Greyhawk, and Forgotten Realms. All got a special hardcover treatment that very much spanned the gap between 1st and 2nd Editions of AD&D.

Dragonlance featured ideas unique Krynn that would become part of the AD&D 2nd edition rules. The Greyhawk book was a hybrid of 1st and 2nd Ed rules, and finally the Forgotten Realms was solidly AD&D 2nd Edition with plenty of conversion notes for the very recently published Forgotten Realms boxed set.  A lot of what is in this book is both updates to the new rules and updates to the world post Time of Troubles. Elegant no? 

Reading this book now and knowing the directions both the Realms and AD&D/D&D were going to take, it seems that many of the rules for AD&D 2nd Ed were made to suit the Realms and vice versa. 

So what is in this book?

Chapter 1: The Forgotten Realms Post Avatar

This section is not large, but it packs a punch. In its dozen+ pages, we get the changes to the Realms Post-Avatar and adapting your game to the new AD&D 2nd Edition rules. Changes in character classes are covered, like what to do about those Cavaliers, Barbarians, and Assassins that no longer exist in the new rules. Psionics no longer exists (for now) and anyone who tells you they did are obviously mistaken. While AD&D 2nd Ed strongly adheres to a 20-level character maximum, there are plenty of NPCs that do not. So there are spell advancements for wizards and priests to 30th level. 

One of the newest additions are Magic-dead and Wild-magic zones. The Forgotten Realms always had more magic than either Dragonlance or Greyhawk, so these are a fun addition. 

Firearms are covered by the AD&D 2nd Ed rules, too, since they exist in the Forgotten Realms. 

Chapter 2: Gods and their Specialty Priests

Reading this, I can't tell you if specialty priests were created for AD&D 2nd and adapted well to the Realms or if they were created with the Realms in mind. In any case, we get all the (then) current Gods in their then-current forms and their specialty priests.  This is about two dozen pages and you can get a good feel on what the Time of Troubles was all about; at least this part of it.

Also as someone played a lot of clerics over the years this is a great set of examples of how to do the AD&D specialty priests. This also features the first instance I know of depicting the garb of the various priests together. 

Chapter 3: Magic and Mages of the Realms

Not to be under-represented, the various changes to magic are covered here along with what the Realms, or at least Ed Greenwood, is well known for; lots and lots of new spells. Honestly even if you never play in the Realms these two chapters are worth the price of the book alone. 

Chapter 4: Cities of the Heartlands

This covers the major cities of the heartland of the Realms, covering the West to East expanse of the continent. The cities are presented in alphabetical order. The material is similar to what we have seen before, updated for the post Time of Troubles and new rules.  Still I never get tires about reading about these cities and looking at the maps. Yes, I spent a lot of time looking over the map of Baldur's Gate after spending so much time there. 

Chapter 5: Secret Societies of the Heartlands

Covers the "Big Three," The Harpers, The Zhentarim, and The Red Wizards of Thay. I found the section on the Zhentarim to be better than what I have read so far. 

Chapter 6: Treasure

This covers special and unique treasures of the Realms. While it does feel like padding, it is still useful information.

We end with some Appendices; Treasure Tables, Wizard Spells by School and by Level, and Random Spell Lists. 

The most useful section, even if woefully out of date, is the published Forgotten Realms bibliography. At least to March 1990. If I was serious about reading about the Time of Troubles, then I would have my reading list right here. I am a little surprised about how much of this list I have read. I may know more than I am giving myself credit for. 

The book has the feel of all the books from this time. With the Clyde Caldwell cover and Stephen Fabian art, one could be excused into thinking this was a Ravenloft book (next month...) but the Elmore and Easley art quickly dismisses this notion. 

There is not enough in this book to really run or play in the Realms. You should have the boxed campaign set, but there is enough to provide adventure seeds. The book, though, holds more promise than crunch, and that is a good thing for me at this point in my exploration of the Realms. With these books, I could imagine taking a trip along the roads, moving east from the west to visit all these great cities and all the adventures in between. Finding strange sigils from other adventurers, Harpers, or even the Black Network. Sounds like a great adventure trek for Sinéad, Arnell, Rhiannon, and Nida. Especially since I last left them while talking about cities. I'll update their characters to AD&D 2nd Edition rules later on. This also reminds me that I want to have Nida end up in Ravenloft. Why? I have my reasons.

This book isn't why so many people associate the Realms so strongly with 2nd Edition AD&D, but it is the place to start.

#RPGaDay2024 Compelling Characters

What makes for a Compelling character? What makes one for me and say not for you?

I'll talk about an NPC on the 22nd, so today I'll feature PCs.  As it turns out, I also just got some new art for a couple of my PCs Sinéad and Larina from artist Mondhut.

Sinéad Moonshadow

Larina Nix

I should think that these two don't really need introductions at this point. But briefly, Larina is my witch character I stat up in every game I play to see if I can make a witch in that game.  Sinéad is a sorcerer/bard that I am currently using in my exploration of the Forgotten Realms. Sinéad was also the character I used when I did my "perfect" run of Baldur's Gate.

What I had not realized until I started this post is that at no point in my histories of these character have they ever met.

Larina has had dealings with all my major characters over the years, being a near immortal witch will do that. Sinéad has interacted with Taryn, Larina's daughter, quite a bit. In fact when Sinéad was trapped in the Feywild she and Taryn met and decided that they must be sisters (both are half-elves). 

But Sinéad and Larina have never actually met.

They are compelling, to me, because I keep finding ways to use them. I also have my Johan character and he is every bit as compelling, but he is 100% a PC, so a lot of what happens to him (all the Johans) is largely due to the game he is in at the time. Larina and Sinéad bonuce a lot now as PCs, NPCs, and GMPCs. 

Check out Mondhut's Instagram if you can.

--

I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 RPG with well-supported campaigns

 This one is pretty easy. Probably the best supported campaign setting anywhere is the Forgotten Realms for Dungeons & Dragons.

There are plenty of well-supported campaigns, but few have spanned multiple editions of their game, even through rule changes.

Sure, there is the "Arkham" setting of Call of Cthulhu and whatever the setting is for World of Darkness. But those are largely "our world, but different." The D&D settings take on a bit more work, and few have done this as well as the Realms have. 

Not to mention the support of novels, board games, movies, and video games. It's all rather impressive, really. 

--

I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDay2024 Most recently played

 Most recent played?

That would have to be my AD&D 2nd Edition one set in the Forgotten Realms with my oldest.  We play a little here and there when he gets off of work (usually around 11:00pm to midnight).

We have not gotten very far. An hour or two here and there, but we have had a blast doing it.

This is the one where I am running my Sinéad as a DMPC. She is a Bard, so she is always just a support character, and she is the DM mouthpiece on Realms lore. It has been great since I remembered how much fun I always had with Bards.

I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

Mail Call: D&D History and Adventures

 It's Tuesday, and that means mail around here. It also means UPS, which delivers late in my neighborhood. It is also the release date of Wizards of the Coast's new 50th anniversary book.

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons, 1970-1977 is a really great book. I can't wait to get into it more.

Original Character sheet.

I also spent some cash on a bunch of AD&D 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms adventures and sourcebooks.

I'll get to each one in turn. Looking forward to using these in my AD&D 2nd Ed game. This will be a lot of fun.

Reviews: The Villains and Heroes of the Forgotten Realms

 Getting back to my Realms reviews I am still in that strange liminal times of 1988-1989 when both AD&D 1st Edition and 2nd Edition were still being supported. I have two books today from the "FR" series that ride that line. 

Both books have very similar trade dress, if not identical. I am reviewing the PoD and PDFs from DriveThruRPG. 

FR6 Dreams of the Red Wizards (1e)

By Steve Perrin (1988)
64 pages. Full-color covers and maps, monochrome interior.

Even with my comparative lack of Realms knowledge I knew about the Red Wizards of Thay. I guess I didn't realize how quickly they had been introduced as the big bads. 

This book reminds me a lot of the old D&D BECMI Gazeteer series in that we we get some history and geography of the lands with some NPCs.

The book teases that it is compatible with the BATTLESYSTEM  rules, but you have to build all of those armies on your own. Too bad, I wanted to do a big battle with the armies of the undead from Thay. Though I still might do that.

The Introduction tells us what this book is about and who and what the Red Wizards of Thay are.

History of Thay. This section gives us a brief overview of Thay's foundation. There is a brief timeline, but it works well here. Some of this information is also found in the later Spellbound boxed set, but that is a way off yet. 

We cover the People and Society of Thay next. Perrin does give us a good explanation of how a whole country can, in fact, be evil, from the Zulkirs to the middle class to the masses of slaves. Honestly, the place sounds like a powder keg waiting to explode, and it is the will and fear of the Zulkirs that keeps everything in check.

Geography of Thay is next and it is good read, though I think it could have been combined with the History of Thay chapter since much of Thay's history has been shaped by its neighbors. This is also a good chapter for me, the newbie, to have a map handy.  I think I am going to need a big wall map of the Forgotten Realms like I do for Victorian London. 

We get get two chapters that cover the Current Economy and Politics of Thay, respectively. This includes a helpful glossary and a player's guide to Thay.

Magic in Thay, as expected, is one of the larger sections. It has what seems to be a Realms staple; lots of new spells. 

Religions in Thay, is actually an interesting chapter. The Red Wizards themselves seem to be areligious, but not atheists. They acknowledge the gods and do their best not to piss them off. I imagine there are big "media circuses" for when a Zulkir visits a local temple to Mystra for example. 

This has given me an idea. So, according to this book, the slaves of Thay mostly worship Ilmater, who we know from Ed Greenwood's "Down to Earth Divinity," that Ilmater is derived from Issek of the Jug. What if there were some events like "Lean Times in Lankhmar" where Ilmater, via a new follower, took on a role like that Fafhrd did for Issek, but instead of a religious conversion/resurgence, it became the basis for a full-scale slave revolt. Now that is a BATTLESYSTEM game I'd enjoy running. 

Personalities of Thay cover the expected cast of neer-do-wells. OF note here The Simbul does not have a personal name here, yet.

Adventures in Thay give the reader some ideas of things to do in and around Thay. But let us be honest. It is an evil filled with Nazi-like evil wizards who keep slaves. The ideas abound already. 

FR7 Hall of Heroes (1e/2e)

Many authors (1989)
128 pages. Full-color covers, monochrome interior.

This book looks like a 2nd Ed book on the cover, but 1st Ed inside. 

This is a "robust" rogues gallery of early Realms characters, and frankly, I am happy to have it since so many of these names are new to me. The stats are an odd mix of AD&D 2nd Ed and 1st Ed, but mostly 1st Edition. So yeah, there are Neutral Good Druids and lots of classes from Unearthed Arcana and Oriental Adventures. 

It also has something that is not entirely a Realms-specific problem, but one I associated most often with the Realms. There are lot of characters here that straight up break the AD&D rules. Yes I get that some (many) are here because of the Forgotten Realms novels. So people like Shandril Shessair is a "Spellfire Wielder," and Dragonbait is a Lizardfolk Paladin. This used to bother me. Not anymore. I am more irritated by the fact that most of the women NPCs all have Charisma 16 or 17 (11 out of 15). Where are my hags? 

There are some personal spells and again The Simbul makes an appearance sans proper name. 

Still, this is a good resource for me to have. I like to have it on hand as I am going through other books to double-check who I am reading about. 

The POD versions are nice. The text has a bit of fuzziness, but far less than other PODs I have seen. They are not perfect for, say, collectors but perfect for what I need them for, and that is used at my game table. 

Monstrous Monday: Forgotten Realms Monstrous Compendiums

It's June! As an academic there is still something not wholly tangible in me when June hits; it is just something I feel. Starting in the 1980s, June also meant days at the library, riding my bike, rolling skating (yes, I used to be really, really good), and nights playing D&D. For seven years straight that meant Basic and Advanced D&D.  So these days I try to focus on Basic D&D in June, but this year is different. 

I am celebrating 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons AND I am also doing my deep dive into the Forgotten Realmsthe Forgotten Realms. Plus in addition to the weekly 5e games, my oldest son and I are starting a new 2nd edition AD&D game set in the Forgotten Realms. This works very well for me since I am already shifting my Realms focus to AD&D 2nd Edition.  

To this end I have been buying a lot of Forgotten Realms PDFs from DriveThruRPG. This has also given me many new monsters from the AD&D 2nd ed era in "ready to print" Monstrous Compendium format. 

Forgotten Realms Monstrous Compendiums

I have talked about the AD&D 2nd Monstrous Compendiums at length before. I have even talked about the Forgotten Realms ones in detail.  So when I began printing out the various Monstrous Compendium sheets from the various PDFs I have bought it became very obvious to me I would need a binder just for them.

This was sealed for me when I remembered that the Forgotten Realms MC Appendix had been labeled "Vol. 3" on the cover. My choice had been made for me. Turns out is was a good choice, because there are TONS of Forgotten Realms Monsters.

I grabbed some alphabetical tabs and began loading this up. I concentrated on monsters from the MCs I already had that were Realm-Specific. Then, I went through the pages of monsters I rescued from my This Old Dragon copies, unless they were too far gone due to water or mold. In these cases, I printed them out from my Dragon Magazine CD-ROM. But my "rule" was I had to have had a physical copy first. There is some 1st Ed monster material here, but that is fine, really.

Then, every time I bought a Forgotten Realms PDF, I printed the monsters.

Campaign Setting boxed set

Dragon Mountain

Oh, look at that. Lawful Good orcs from 1995.

In the cases where I had loose Forgotten Realms pages, like from the AD&D 2nd Ed Campaign Setting boxed set, I made copies to keep the set intact. 

It has been a great experience to discover all the unique creatures I have found in the Realms versus Greyhawk or other worlds.

Currently, I do not have monsters for I, J, and Y. I could mine my other compendium for these, but I am also waiting to see what creatures I might find in other PDFs of Realms material. I still have a few I bought before I started this project, and they might have a few treasures for me. There are also more monsters in my Dragon magazines. Ones written by Ed Greenwood go to the top of the list. 

Right now my Forgotten Realms campaign has no focus. This is on purpose. I have so many campaigns with Big Ideas^TM and Lofty Goals^TM. I don't need another one. Maybe I'll just do an old-fashioned monster hunt to mirror my real-life monster hunt.

This has, though, given me another realization. I had planned to get through all of my Realms books this year, but that was before I started buying more. Now, I think this year will just be about AD&D 2nd Edition. Who knows, really? 

BUT I will say this. I am having a lot of fun with this.

#AtoZChallenge2024: X is for Xanathar

 Something different for me today.  While I have been writing about D&D all month, they are all topics I have quite a bit of knowledge about. This is not one of those days.

In the past I have used X for "Expert" which not really a cheat since X was always used for the Cook/Marsh Expert set, but I already did Expert this year. 

So today I am going to talk about a character, or a series of characters, all named Xanathar.

Xanathur, Beholder Crimelord of Waterdeep

Xanathur is not a typical character for me to like. I lean more toward magic-using types. If I want a big bad, I have plenty of demons, devils, faerie lords, vampires, and witches. I am flush with choice. 

So what is so special about Xanathur? 

Well, for starters, he is a beholder. What's a beholder? Well...it certainly began as a joke or pun in Gary's games. It is a giant floating sphere of eyes and teeth.  

They are evil, psychic xenophobes who hate everyone and everything that doesn't look like them. Even other beholders often fail to meet their standards. 

They are one of the original creations for D&D and were even featured on the cover of the Original D&D Supplement I book Greyhawk.  But even in Gary's Greyhawk world, I don't think he had planned for what Ed Greenwood was going to do in his Forgotten Realms world. 

Though Ed has done a lot of GREAT things to expand D&D's world-building, I consider beholders to be part of the World of Greyhawk, and they found their way to the Forgotten Realms. 

Xanathur

Xanathur, or more to the point, the first Xanathur, was odd by beholder standards. He lived in the city of Waterdeep where he acted as the hidden crime lord of the city. Think Kingpin from Marvel or even The Godfather.  He had only a few close aides who knew who he truly was.  

"He" (and I am not sure if beholders have a gender, to be honest, but this is how he is referred to) was introduced to us in the 1st Edition Forgotten Realms book, Waterdeep and the North. In fact, he was on the cover with his trusted lieutenants.  

Shadowheart and Sinéad seek information from Shindia Darkeyes and Xanathur

As editions came and went, we learned that the first Xanathur was killed by another beholder, who took over his business and name and ruled the crime of Waterdeep as "The Xanathur." This would happen a few more times. In total, there have been five Xanathurs. 

Why am I posting about this guy? I mean, I very, very little about him. I remember that Waterdeep book at Waldenbooks, and I thought it looked cool, but the idea of a Beholder hanging out with humanoids and not eating them felt weird to me. Never mind, he was a criminal and working them all. Ok, he was their overlord, and his opinions about non-beholderkin had not changed. 

But this is why he is also great. Ed Greenwood when he started building the Forgotten Realms began to challenge us early on as to what was true about a D&D world. The Realms are NOT Greyhawk, and nor should they be. This is exactly the crazy sort of thing that doesn't sound it should work, but it does and it works well. I mean I never would have done this myself, and that bothers me that I didn't think of something like this. It is so great.

This is the strength of this game. You can do anything you want with it! There is no such thing as too crazy really.

Floating cities? Of course. Dragons sleeping under a city to rise in a time of great need? Ah...hello Ansur still sleeps under Baldur's Gate! Undead tyrant leaders of a xenophobic nation of mages? Ok, that one is actually really easy to believe. 

This is why we game. This is why, 45 years later, I am still finding something new!

Tomorrow is Sunday, and so I'll talk about Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition for my last Sunday Special.

#AtoZChallenge2024: L is for Larian Studios

 I have been talking a lot about D&D history this month, but today I want to shift focus for a moment and talk about D&D's present. Honestly, the best Dungeons & Dragons content is not coming from the current owner and publisher, Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro), but from other companies. One in particular is Larian Studios, and the content is Baldur's Gate 3.

It is not really hyperbole to say that Baldur's Gate 3 is the biggest video game of the last couple of years and might be the best video game I have ever played.  Larian is a smaller independent video game company located in Belgium. They have had a great track record of producing engaging, high-quality games for a small studio. Their big claim to fame prior to BG3 was their Divinity series. In their game Divinity: Original Sin 2, you can see the elements that would later be enhanced and perfected in BG3.  They are notable for their constant and rapid support, their desire to listen to their fans and give them what they want, and their games do not have microtransactions. These are little features in other games. Want some cool armor? Great, just $0.99 on your credit card. Cool sword? $1.99. For Larian, if you want those things, they are in the game for you to find somewhere.

They are a small independent studio producing games that rival, and in many cases surpass, the ones made by larger and more well funded companies.

Baldur's Gate 3

Larian Studios shocked me with this. Baldur's Gate 1 was released in 1998, and Baldur's Gate 2 was released in 2000, with updates up to 2016. They had been rumors before of a Baldur's Gate 3, but nothing ever came from it.

Then in 2020 Baldur's Gate 3 went into "Open Beta" with little fan fare and almost no mention in the wider Dungeons & Dragons community.

In August 2023 it got its official release on PC and PlayStation with Mac and Xbox versions close behind.  To say it blew up is putting it rather mildly.

Right now, the game has an aggregate score of 96/100 from all reviews. I has also won pretty much every Game of the Year award for 2023 there is, including sweeping all five of the industry's top Game of the Year Awards. It even won more BAFTA awards while I was writing this post!

Like all the other Baldur's Gate games, this one takes place in the Forgotten Realms, but 120 or so years after the first two events (and a few months after the published book adventure Descent to Avernus). This corresponds to the published Forgotten Realms game books and novels, which had 100 or so years between the 3rd and 4th editions. This game uses some of the same mechanics and feel of Divinity: Original Sin II, and it is heavily influenced by the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition rules.  It feels like a 5th Edition game. The classes, spells, magic, and combat are all from the 5th edition rules.

Want to know how D&D plays but don't have people to play with? This is not a bad substitute.

I am currently on my third play-through with an eye toward's completion. I am half way through Act II. In this one I am running as a "companion run" to my 2nd play through. Same basic outline with similar characters, only swapping who is the main character. 

My first full play-through was with Larina. This was followed by Sinéad. Now, I am mirroring my Sinéad run with Taryn. They were "NPCs" in each other's run.

Larina

Sinéad

Taryn

I have incomplete runs with Kelek, Skylla, Rayne (Bloodrayne), and, of course, my Paladin Johan.

Rayne

Kelek and Skylla on an "evil run."

Johan's run with NPC Larina

Johan

I have been using a combination of hirelings, "Withers" (an in-game guide), and the "Magic Mirror" to turn the various NPCs into previous playable characters. So my Johan run for example has Larina in it, She can't interact like Johan can, but game-play wise she is the same. 

Same with my Taryn/Sinéad runs. In my mind they are the same run, just from each character's point of view. 

This has also allowed me to try out different "romance" options. Karlach for Johan, Gale for Taryn, Shadowheart for Sinéad, and Shadowheart, Halsin, Wyll, Mizora, Sorn and Nym Orlith, (!) all for Larina. She is a lover. She is also a fighter, but mostly a lover.

Bloodrayne *might* go for Astarion. She is based on the video game character Rayne from Bloodrayne, after all. But I have never had my approval rating high enough with him in any run. My Kelek and Skylla runs are all about violence, not romance. Which come to think of it, might be what I need to do for Astarion. 

The game is bloody, violent, very often NC-17 and NSFW, and an absolute ton of fun.

I am just over 350 hours into all my runs and I am STILL finding new material. Both of my kids play it, and they tell me about things they found that I haven't! I even found another hidden door last night in Act II. So yeah, I have in no way exhausted all of this game's options. 

This is the most fun I have had with a video game in a very long time.

Sadly Larian will not be doing Baldur's Gate 4 despite their overwhelming success. They have been super gracious about it online, saying they loved doing BG3, but they want to do new things now. Reading between the lines, it was obvious that Hasbro was asking for a LOT more in licensing fees for the Forgotten Realms world, and Larina didn't want to lay people off to pay for it. So, kudos to Larian Studios.

Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro now has full rights again to all these characters. Back when Baldur's Gate 2 came out Wizards published game material to support it. Now? Nothing for Baldur's Gate 3. I hope they do something; otherwise, they are leaving money on the table. 

Tomorrow is Sunday, so there will be no A to Z post, but I will continue my Sunday Specials. So tomorrow is Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition.