Guide to 3rd Edition Realms

A Guide to 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms

Welcome to The Guide to Third Edition Forgotten Realms. This page is to provide an overview of the new Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons rules by Wizards of the Coast.

Although this page is well overdue as 3rd Edition was released quite some time ago, it will remain available on the site as a guide for new Forgotten Realms players and DM's. Products listed below are introductory 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms only, many new visitors to the site who are just starting out in D&D and the Realms have emailed us asking what products are recommended etc. We hope to provide information on this page as a starting point for the Forgotten Realms. More information will be added to aid your path in Forgotten Realms 3rd Edition.

Update (4th Edition) - Wizards of the Coast have now moved Forgotten Realms into 4th edition (FR RPG support has dropped considerably, and the setting absorbed into the generic D&D product format). There are extreme changes to the Realms in this version, which has not been well received by the fanbase. The Realms timeline advanced 100 years, characters died off, the Spellplague took hold and altered magic and the land etc. As a result, the Realms is largely unrecognisable from that which was previously known. This is all beyond the scope of this webpage, however. Please visit the Candlekeep Forums for more information and discussions on 4th Edition FR.

Introduction

Wizards of the Coast updated and released the Third Edition of the Dungeons and Dragons RPG in August 2000 with the Players Handbook and D&D Adventure Game introductory box set. The following month saw the release of the Dungeon Masters Guide. Visit the Wizards of the Coast web site for more product information on core D&D.

Wizards of the Coast also has an active Forgotten Realms area on their web site, articles of realms lore are available on the site, many of which are ongoing and are updated on a weekly basis.

The Forgotten Realms campaign setting was not reborn until June 2001 with the release of the hardcover Campaign Setting book, detailing the core rules and information for the campaign. This book is to be the basis of the Forgotten Realms containing information for both players and DM's.

The graphical logo for the Forgotten Realms, which has been the recognised branding for the campaign setting since 1987, was also changed to mark the event for the new Realms. The first Forgotten Realms adventure module written with the new 3rd Edtion rules was Into the Dragons Lair, released in October 2000, although this still sported the old logo.

1987 - 2001 (1st & 2nd edition)	2001+ (3rd edition)

Events

The most notable event to make the new edition, is the appearance of the Shade Enclave from the ancient empire of Netheril. The Shades and Shadovar, a powerful magical race, have returned from the Plane of Shadow to reclaim their land from ages past, using extremely powerful arcane magic to restore and alter the native lands, currently known as Anauroch.

The events are detailed in the Return of the Archwizards novel trilogy:

Further information giving a brief history on the rise and fall of the Netherese empire and the return of the City of Shade, is available on the following articles by Wizards of the Coast:

Addional information on the Realms can be found on the extensive official Forgotten Realms FAQ hosted here at Candlekeep.

Product Guide

The products listed below are 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms products. There are many other products which were produced before the new release, a list and details can be found in Tethtoril's Bookshelf. A schedule of future releases by WotC can be found in the current 2004 catalog.

Core Rulebooks