| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| KnightErrantJR |
Posted - 20 Oct 2012 : 06:17:57
Bear with me folks. This thread may look very similar to the "Favorite Realms Product" thread, but I've got a little different agenda. I'm just just looking at being wistful about what products I liked or remembered well.
I'm aiming for something more along the lines of this: What are the top ten products that made an impact on you regarding how you define the Realms, the biggest impact on your image of what you want in the Realms.
I will freely admit, part of why I'm asking this is, if people are looking at what should work and what should be revived, what feeling and tone should be emulated for the next iteration of the Realms, it might be useful to see what really defined the Realms over the years to some of the setting's fans.
So please feel free to chime in with your top ten Realms products that made an impact on you as a Realms fan. Not so much your favorite (though they may be), or even the most useful (though again, that may play into why it made an impact).
I'll fire mine off first, if all of you don't mind . . .
1. The Old Grey Boxed Set--Probably an obvious pick, but the Old Grey Boxed Set blew me away. It galvanized what I loved about fantasy in general and D&D style adventures specifically. It is amazingly fun to read, and so flexible and useful as a setting.
2. Forgotten Realms Adventures--For a long time, this book was almost as well used in my campaigns as my Old Grey Boxed set, and I often read it just for fun. Two things jump out at me in this book . . . the city descriptions and the detailed treasure tables. Even as late as my last 3.5 campaign I used the city descriptions as my go to source to know who, what, where, and why in the Heartlands cities my players visited.
3. FR1 Waterdeep and the North--So many tantalizing bits of information on Waterdeep and, well, the North. The plot hooks were amazing, the glimpses at the "other side" of the Heartlands was fun and fascinating, and on top of that, it showed this really cool concept that the whole setting could have a certain feel, but the separate regions could still have individual character.
4. FR5 The Savage Frontier--What I really enjoyed about this sourcebook was that it had a clearly different voice than the Ed written Elminster perspective books, but it still felt very much in the same vein. It showed that you could "get" the setting and still be unique. I also loved that various remote, dangerous locations were both very "gonzo" in their over the top happenings, and also tied into the concept of portals opening between the Realms and other worlds. It was also a nice book for showing that you could take a theme like "norther barbarians," and not have to make them historical analogs while capturing that flavor.
5. Waterdeep, City of Splendors Boxed Set--I love Waterdeep. I've run more campaigns there than anywhere. What this boxed set did was show you that you can uncover a million new things about the city, without changing the character of the city, and while still making the city interesting and functional. I already loved Waterdeep, but this boxed set made me run several more campaigns in that aspect of the setting just to try out the new hooks and locations highlighted.
6. Volo's Guide to Waterdeep--Surely you can't have three sourcebooks on Waterdeep and still find interesting and inspiring things in those books, right? I had no idea that so many "ground level" details could be so fun to read and incorporate into a campaign. Rumors, legends, and just points of interest served to make the setting seem much more real, much more like the setting existed even when I wasn't using it. It was alive, and these details proved it to me.
7. The 2nd Edition "Gods" Trilogy--Yes, I'm cheating by lumping these all together, but it's hard to separate these excellent books from one another. While TSR still thought we needed avatar stats, at least it was obvious that they were avatars, and once you get past that, the books features beautiful images of what religious garb was like, it had titles, rituals, and more subtle manifestations of the gods, and it even had a few interesting, Realms flavored classes and such backing them up. Reading this you would never think that the gods show up next door to fight over a date, nor would you think Helm was a two dimensional poster boy for what's wrong with religious intolerance. And that's barely scratching the surface of the good stuff in these books.
8. Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Boxed Set, 2nd Edition--Okay, it's not as evocative as the Old Grey Boxed Set. However, it gave you tons of reason to want it. Shadowdale was detailed as a starting point, you had new, lesser known deities, and plenty of more locations shown on the map and hinted at in the text.
9. FR 13 Anauroch--The reason this is on my "impact" list is that Ed did a brilliant "fix" in this product. While I enjoyed the novel The Parched Sea, I wasn't thrilled that the magical wasteland hinted at in the Old Grey Boxed Set and other places was turned into another alternate middle eastern proxy. But Ed, without ignoring or retconning the information in that novel, still made Anauroch back into the magical wasteland hinted at before, with its weird, powerful monsters in the Underdark below, it's lost ruins, and unique magic. It's "fixes" like Anauroch that give me hope for the 5e Realms.
10. FR16 Shining South--This may seem odd, but like Anauroch above, what I liked about this sourcebook was that, after getting a little jaded with the "real world analog" trend in 2nd Edition, I didn't know what to expect, and what I got was something that was kind of like the book end to the Savage Frontier, i.e. a place that was new and different than the Heartlands, but still felt Realmsian even in its uniqueness. It reminded me that you could to so much more with the setting than shoehorn in things that were "generic."
That's my list. I'd love to see everyone else's, and I'd love to see this be useful for those that might be shaping the future of the Realms. |
| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| The Red Walker |
Posted - 22 Oct 2012 : 16:03:08
quote:
Originally posted by Dalor Darden
quote:
Originally posted by The Red Walker
quote:
Originally posted by KnightErrantJR
quote:
Originally posted by BEAST
I'll add Fonstad's FR Atlas (1E). Maps & day-by-day timelines for the first Realms novels, oh my!
(Although, a digital form, which could be updated yearly like GPS map software, might be even better.)
That was a great product. I'm sorry mine disappeared years ago.
Wow I'd never heard of this! I just grabbed one in good condition for ten bucks on amazon...thanks guys!
TEN? 
If I didn't like you so much I would tell you how much I hate you right now! 
ok ok, i paid $9.85
Heck now i see a couple for $8 - http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0880388579/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1350918132&sr=8-1&keywords=fonstad+forgotten+realms&condition=used |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 21 Oct 2012 : 00:47:42
quote:
Originally posted by The Red Walker
quote:
Originally posted by KnightErrantJR
quote:
Originally posted by BEAST
I'll add Fonstad's FR Atlas (1E). Maps & day-by-day timelines for the first Realms novels, oh my!
(Although, a digital form, which could be updated yearly like GPS map software, might be even better.)
That was a great product. I'm sorry mine disappeared years ago.
Wow I'd never heard of this! I just grabbed one in good condition for ten bucks on amazon...thanks guys!
TEN?
If I didn't like you so much I would tell you how much I hate you right now! |
| The Red Walker |
Posted - 21 Oct 2012 : 00:29:36
quote:
Originally posted by KnightErrantJR
quote:
Originally posted by BEAST
I'll add Fonstad's FR Atlas (1E). Maps & day-by-day timelines for the first Realms novels, oh my!
(Although, a digital form, which could be updated yearly like GPS map software, might be even better.)
That was a great product. I'm sorry mine disappeared years ago.
Wow I'd never heard of this! I just grabbed one in good condition for ten bucks on amazon...thanks guys! |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 20 Oct 2012 : 23:02:04
For me, the list is this (in no order really...except for #1):
1- Old Grey Box. I can't even explain in words how my heart actually felt about this box of material. It had maps...not grids; maps...it had FEELING...and so I loved it. It is with me at all my games, even if I don't touch it.
2- Forgotten Realms Adventures. Some of the populations of the cities were hard for me to swallow...but it is an amazing book that has also been at all my games and will continue to be so.
3- Volo's Anything!
4- The three "Gods" books from second edition...just wow. Ignoring some of the class material, it really made the gods come alive to me in ways I hadn't considered before...it made them feel like Greek Gods of my own world: real, concrete, FLAWED, alive...
5- A Grand History of the Realms. I tend to ignore many of the last years in the book for my games...but I can't find any source of lore out there that really brings together the world of Faerun. So many ideas for dungeons, lost magical artifacts...you name it!
6- Elminster's Forgotten Realms. The finest compiled source of "the small things that make the world tick..." I've yet to read.
7- Fonstad's Forgotten Realms Atlas...this, along with A Grand History of the Realms are my two go-to books for ideas and history. Unfortunately, my Forgotten Realms Atlas is currently in near shreds because of foul play from children...I will have another!
8- Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas. I know, it isn't a book...but for a bum like me with no map making skills...pure gold!
9- The Moonsea...I love this book just because it is on the Moonsea area...which I'm self-assured is the greatest area of the Forgotten Realms.  A book, which I will not name, that came out later about the area I was not nearly as happy with; though it did have great value to me anyway.
10- Monument of the Ancients...again, not a book...but it is a Forgotten Realms Release and had information that once again drew my eyes to the Moonsea North which, if I lived in the Forgotten Realms would be exactly where I would live. The adventure also gave me information I needed...and gave me more questions to explore.
So there...that is it for me (although I must say it is far more than 10...they are linked).
|
| KnightErrantJR |
Posted - 20 Oct 2012 : 22:58:36
quote:
Originally posted by Matt James
How didn't the Grand History of the Realms make this list :)
;)
Because it's not my favorites, it what eventually informed my view of how the Realms should be . . . by the time I saw the Grand History, my view of the Realms and what I liked and didn't like about it was pretty well formed.
Now, someone that came along to the Realms after me and was still getting a grasp on it when they first saw the Grand History? I can totally see it having a big impact on their view of the Realms . . .  |
| Matt James |
Posted - 20 Oct 2012 : 22:34:20
How didn't the Grand History of the Realms make this list :)
;) |
| KnightErrantJR |
Posted - 20 Oct 2012 : 22:22:59
quote:
Originally posted by BEAST
I'll add Fonstad's FR Atlas (1E). Maps & day-by-day timelines for the first Realms novels, oh my!
(Although, a digital form, which could be updated yearly like GPS map software, might be even better.)
That was a great product. I'm sorry mine disappeared years ago. |
| BEAST |
Posted - 20 Oct 2012 : 22:13:52
I'll add Fonstad's FR Atlas (1E). Maps & day-by-day timelines for the first Realms novels, oh my!
(Although, a digital form, which could be updated yearly like GPS map software, might be even better.) |
| Thieran |
Posted - 20 Oct 2012 : 15:09:20
Great post, thanks! |
|
|
