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Matt James
Forgotten Realms Game Designer
USA
918 Posts |
 Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 13:38:25
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I am looking to see what your first experience with Forgotten Realms was. What is your first memory of being introduced to FR?
For myself, it was a very small gaming event (Game Towne) in San Diego where my brother begrudgingly agreed to tolerate me playing for the day. I believe it was in 1988 or 1989, so the setting was brand-new. I couldn't tell you anything about that session we played but I remember how much fun my brother had with it. My first memory of actually following storylines and plot was with the original 'Pool of Radiance' computer game for our old IBM. I remember helping my brother decipher the game installation code with the decoder wheel they included.
Fun times... 
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Brian R. James
Forgotten Realms Game Designer
USA
1098 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 14:26:40
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| I'll always remember the decision that led me to the Realms. I was perusing the gaming section of my local Waldenbooks (that chain even exist anymore?) and came across two items that caught my eye. One was the supermodule Temple of Elemental Evil with its spooky, sinister cover. The other was a boxed set with some grim celtic looking guy sitting on a horse in an eerie landscape. This of course was the old 1st-Edition “Grey Box” Forgotten Realms Campaign Set. What sealed the deal for me was the promise of four full-color maps included in the boxed set! To this day, I’ve never owned a copy of Temple of Elemental Evil, but I’ve never once regretted my decision. |
Brian R. James - Freelance Game Designer
Follow me on Twitter @brianrjames |
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Na-Gang
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
348 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 14:29:59
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| I can't remember actually buying it, but I remember seeing an advert for the Old Gray Box in a Marvel comic. I'd been playing D&D for a couple of years and been running individual, unconnected adventures, in a completely uncontemplated world - the PCs would just rock up in the next village and get down to business with no thought for where they'd been or why. The idea of a whole world to play in from that point on seemed very appealing. |
Edited by - Na-Gang on 25 Aug 2008 14:30:24 |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31799 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 14:40:00
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| I was going to seal this scroll, since we've had similar topics like this before here at Candlekeep. But given the fresh-start offered by 4e FR, I think maybe it's time to begin again with regard to this type of discussion. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Christopher_Rowe
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
879 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 14:41:02
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I'd have to look up release dates to know what order this stuff took place in, but my mid- to late-eighties FR experiences included:
<1> Topping out our Greyhawk characters at around 16th level by getting our asses handed to us in the Valley of the Arch-Mage, which turned out to be DM Shane's way of letting us know he was tired of the campaign. Well, that and and laying out a "homebrew" world that turned out to be based in a Scornubel based on his reading of Dragon articles. I played a dwarf from the lost mines of Tethyamar for several years.
<2> Buying and reading and re-reading the covers off Darkwalker on Moonshae, which I viewed as a "grownup" version of Lloyd Alexander's books.
<3> Being the annoying guy in the group who buys products and never runs anything: in this case the Bloodstone modules. I was thinking of the Assassin's Run just the other day when I finished up Sentinelspire.
<4> Gray box, baby! |
My Realms novel, Sandstorm, is now available for ordering. |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31799 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 14:41:31
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My first experience with the "written" Realms was with the Darkwalker on Moonshae novel by Doug Niles. Initially, I was looking for more DRAGONLANCE fiction [Dragons of Autumn Twilight served as my introduction to this style of fantasy-fiction several years before] when I managed to pick up a copy, shortly after its initial release here in Australia [from the local library]. It was, as I recall, just a few weeks past its publication in the US. Intensely curious with this new trilogy, I read the entire novel in less than three days and was immediately entranced with this strange fantasy land called the Moonshae Isles. I wanted more!
From there, I learned of Ed's 1987 FR boxed set which was just beginning to be sold here in Australia, and also of the fact that the Moonshae Islands were detailed inside the boxed set as part of the Realms [which was actually the first section of the Old Gray Box that I read when I first got it home]. Moving out from the Moonshae Islands, I then started to read about the main continent of Faerûn, where I quickly became aware of just how fantastic the world around the Moonshaes was.
The old SSI games for the C64/Amiga were my first experience with the "electronic" Realms.
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Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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monknwildcat
Learned Scribe
USA
285 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 15:17:30
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I'm a recovered setting-purist and recovering canon-nazi, and my first decades of D&D experiences were based in Oerth. 
Then my youngest brother's friend lent him The Icewind Dale trilogy, and, in exchange for my brother promising to finally read the LotR, I agreed to read the trilogy--and enjoyed it.
And went back to Oerth!
Years later a friend lent me a bag of paperbacks including The Finder's Stone trilogy and Masquerades, as well as the prequels and sequels to the Icewind Dale books.
By the end of the bag I had fallen deeply for the Realms.    |
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The Red Walker
Great Reader
USA
3567 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 15:49:18
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Darkwalker on Moonshae!
I had read DL Chronicles and loved it, I was over at my friends house and saw this book (darkwalker) laying on his desk. It had an eyecatching cover with what I later learned was a Sister Knight being chased by a really ghoulish looking baddie!
I asked him what it was about and he kinda blew it off and said I wouldn't like it, so I had my Mom(I was only 12) take me to the store and get it. After a few pages I knew why the silence..he wanted to keep this fantastic new world a secret!! I can understand his feelings, but I am th opposite type who wants to share with everyone.
Funny, but I still hold a gurudge against him for if I had listened to him I may have never found the FR. |
A little nonsense now and then, relished by the wisest men - Willy Wonka
"We need men who can dream of things that never were." -
John F. Kennedy, speech in Dublin, Ireland, June 28, 1963
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Hawkins
Great Reader
USA
2131 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 16:32:24
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| Somewhere around '95 or '96, I read Darkwalker on Moonshae because I mistakenly thought that "first book published in the series" = "first book chronological in the series." After that I utterly fell in love with the world and got deeply sucked into the novel series. This was followed by eventually playing Baldur's Gate (in which I discovered I loved having a party, and was introduced to D&D). |
Errant d20 Designer - My Blog (last updated January 06, 2016)
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The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back. --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
"Mmm, not the darkness," Myrin murmured. "Don't cast it there." --Erik Scott de Bie, Shadowbane
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* Martial Arts Guidebook (forthcoming) (PFRPG, designer; Rite Publishing)
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 16:39:00
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| The Baldur's Gate CRPG series--and specifically, the very first game. The setting of the game piqued my interest, and a love for the FR was created. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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Kuje
Great Reader
USA
7915 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 16:48:02
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quote:
Originally posted by The Sage
The old SSI games for the C64/Amiga were my first experience with the "electronic" Realms.
This was mine, then one day I was out and about with my ma and we saw a store called Crazy Egors, which still exists! And they still go to Gencon! and we stopped in and I fell in love with the box sets. My first was a tapped up, and battered, copy of Menzoberranzan, which I still have after.... almost 20 years.... oy.
As for novels, I don't remember, probably either the Moonshae trilogy, the Pools of novels, or Curse of Azure Bonds novels. It's been so long, and I've gotten so many, that I lost track. |
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium |
Edited by - Kuje on 25 Aug 2008 16:49:27 |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 16:50:30
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| The first FR novels I ever read were the Icewind Dale novels. That said, they weren't what actually brought me into the setting. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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Skeptic
Master of Realmslore
Canada
1273 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 17:31:28
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Pools of Darkness on Amiga.
The Old Gray box.
Avatar Trilogy. |
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Ashe Ravenheart
Great Reader
USA
3249 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 17:43:55
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In my youngest days, I remember buying the old modules in Kay-Bee toy stores until I discovered the local comic book store. People had said that the owner was a satanist, but, fortunately, my mom was smarter than that. I devoured all the Basic/AD&D/Oriental material. Then, one day I saw a novel called Shadowdale. Yes, I was hooked from that day on. I remember playing the FR games on the computer (everything from Pool of Radiance to Pool of Radiance...  ).
The Grey Box I picked up shortly after finishing the Avatar trilogy and my collect had begun. |
I actually DO know everything. I just have a very poor index of my knowledge.
Ashe's Character Sheet
Alphabetized Index of Realms NPCs |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36906 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 18:11:48
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I kinda took a circuitous route to get to the Realms...
It started when I was about 11 or 12. I was a huge fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure type books. I mainly stuck to that specific series, but I did try a couple of the imitators.
When summer came, I went to my grandparents' house in Sanford. Jimmy and Eugene -- sons of a family friend who were unofficially adopted by my grandparents -- had been there and left the week before, and their library books were still waiting to be returned. Jimmy only has 6 months on me, and his reading tastes were similar. Out of boredom, I read his books, which included Under Dragon's Wing, an Endless Quest book. After that, I proceeded to read every Endless Quest book I could get my hands on -- but that was it for me reading fantasy.
Fast forward a few years to when I was living in California. I noted a friend of mine talking to another friend about a book they'd both read. I'd not read the book, and wasn't really interested, at the time.
Then I moved down here, to Florida. I was bored at lunchtime one day, and wandered into the school library. I noted the presence of the book my friend had been talking about, and decided to check it out. It was The Elfstones of Shannara, which remains my fave book from the series (in part, because it wasn't as heavily Tolkien-esque as the other two books from that trilogy). I enjoyed that book, and proceeded to check out most of my school's very small selection of fantasy books -- some more Endless Quest books, a couple of Pern books, and part of the Riftwar Saga.
All of this got me more hungry for reading fantasy. I became friends with this one guy, Gene, who was really into fantasy and such. First I saw his copies of the then-new Dragonlance comics, and they got my attention. From there, I got Stormblade, my first TSR novel. I then read several other Dragginglance books (including reading the Legends trilogy before reading the Chronicles trilogy!).
Even that wasn't enough... I noted Shadowdale in the store one day, and particularly fixated on the fact it was published by the same folks that did the Dragginglance books. So I picked it up. I also got Pool of Radiance around the same time. And from there, I simply picked up every Realms novel I could find -- I really liked the setting.
My first gaming purchase was when I saw FR9 The Bloodstone Lands in a used bookstore and picked it up. I got Forgotten Realms Adventures soon after that, and really liked it. I was soon picking up FR stuff whenever it caught my attention and I could afford it, though I ignored stuff like the Maztica stuff for a long time (in fact, I've still not read that trilogy!). I got the old grey box shortly before the announcement of a new campaign boxed set -- literally, it was only a month or two before they announced it was coming. I'd picked up the old grey box to learn more about the setting, so of course I had to get the new boxed set when it came out, too.
By that time, I really liked the Realms. But then I picked up Volo's Guide to Waterdeep. That book made the City of Splendors come alive for me, and that was when the Realms totally won me over. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
732 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 19:01:19
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My very first contact with the Realms was good old Eddie's "Spellfire." I bought it by accident, when I was looking for a couple of English-language fantasy novels, and I selected that on on the basis of very relevant and objective (Clyde Caldwell's cover art).
I did like it a lot, and came across the Grey Box a couple of weeks later, and that, as they are wont to say, was that. It was the first non-rulebook supplement that I ever bought, and I've never really felt the same thrill of going through the parchment-brown paper and looking at those GIGANTIC poster maps as with the Grey Box. Still one of my all-time overall favorites. |
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Varl
Learned Scribe
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2008 : 23:56:58
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| It's been 28 years, so my memory could be faulty, but I believe my first introduction to the Realms was via the old gray box and the Temple of Elemental Evil. Originally, I tried creating my own world from scratch, but I've never been able to get into that much work, so I started looking for a world in which to run my game under. Once I found the Realms, it had everything I wanted out of a world, and plenty of open space in which to customize with my own creations. It's been a Realms purchasing lovefest ever since, well mostly. It's taken a beating the past 8 years (though my wallet loves me more now). |
I'm on a permanent vacation to the soul. -Tash Sultana |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31799 Posts |
Posted - 26 Aug 2008 : 00:43:55
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quote:
Originally posted by Skeptic
Pools of Darkness on Amiga.
The original Eye of the Beholder was always an interesting experience on the Amiga. All that disk swaping between levels.
Ah, good times.  |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Alisttair
Great Reader
Canada
3054 Posts |
Posted - 26 Aug 2008 : 01:05:11
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| For me it started when I played Eye of the Beholder on the SNES and noticed the city of Waterdeep and then saw the advertisements for the different Campaigns by TSR on the inside of the back cover of the PH and DMG (reprint of 2E) and what it said caught me, especially the part of it being the most detailed world. This led me to read my first realms novel, The Legacy...then on to Elminster: The Making of a Mage and on from there to this day owning 98% of published realms products. Ah I can't wait to bring that to 99% (I doubt I'll be able to get the 100$ pieces of paper that were from the RPGA e.g. realms newsline or somesuch) |
Karsite Arcanar (Most Holy Servant of Karsus)
Anauria - Survivor State of Netheril as penned by me:
http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/172023 |
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scererar
Master of Realmslore
USA
1618 Posts |
Posted - 26 Aug 2008 : 02:18:33
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| For me it was the novel Spellfire, when it was first published for me the flavor and feel of the realms is based from this novel. And as with many others, I was hooked on the realms once I was introduced to the Knights of Myth Drannor. |
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Thalos_Milathriel
Acolyte
USA
33 Posts |
Posted - 26 Aug 2008 : 02:47:24
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I stopped playing D&D just before 2E came out. 1987-ish I think. Mostly because I was busy starting a career and chasing tail. Then after I'd accomplished all that and started a family I got kind of bored and started looking for new hobbies and pastimes.
Sometime in '99 or '00 I decided to join my wife and daughter on one of their Saturday trips to the big library downtown and after a few hours of leafing through men's magazines and books on politics I thought to myself:
"I really used to enjoy Dungeons & Dragons a lot, and I know they started making paperbacks shortly after I stopped playing, I wonder if they have any here?"
They did! A whole bunch in fact... I picked up a couple including one of the Drizzt novels and was hooked on Realms by the end of the week. Dragonlance, not so much...
Then came the catching up on Realms products I'd missed, including all the 3E and 2E game sourcebooks and all the paperbacks. Then thought while I was at it I might as well pick up all the 2E D&D core rulebooks too. The Volo's Guide's rock, need those I suppose. Hey an original white box set would be cool right? Thanks Ebay! Interactive Realms Atlas on CDrom? Of course! Oh! Leatherbound 3E core books? Gotta have those. What? They made a Dungeons & Dragon's pinball machine? It's MINE! All MINE! BWA HA HA HA HA!
So there you have it. And just when my Realms obsession was reaching it's fevered climax they pull this Spellplague thing on me and ruin the moment. Ugh!
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Jorkens
Great Reader
Norway
2950 Posts |
Posted - 26 Aug 2008 : 10:38:44
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I had bought the 2ed. books to have a third system to vary our gaming with (GURPS and Drakar och Demoner were the others). Next time I was at the gamins shop (at the other side of the country)I was looking for a campaign setting. I wanted Dragonlance or Greyhawk. As they were out of both of these the Realms was the only option.
As for first novel, I think it was Azure Bonds or Shadowdale a year or so later. |
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sfdragon
Great Reader
2285 Posts |
Posted - 26 Aug 2008 : 10:57:47
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BAldur's gate series was my first......
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why is being a wizard like being a drow? both are likely to find a dagger in the back from a rival or one looking to further his own goals, fame and power
My FR fan fiction
Magister's GAmbit
http://steelfiredragon.deviantart.com/gallery/33539234 |
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admcewen
Acolyte
United Kingdom
21 Posts |
Posted - 26 Aug 2008 : 12:08:07
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| I started with a group at school using the Grey Boxset and running N5 "Under Illefarn" adventure (which I still have). We used the pre-gen characters at the back and I was Kira the Elven Magic user who I still use to this day as a high level NPC called "The Lady". Ahhh the memories.... |
"I am the hippy of calm and I bring you peace"
"Any thing with more than one head is bad" |
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Halidan
Senior Scribe
USA
470 Posts |
Posted - 26 Aug 2008 : 16:22:25
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My first experience with the Realms would have been from Ed's articles in Dragon magazine prior to the publication of the grey box set. I first one that I can recall right now was called something like "From the City of Brass to Dead Orc Pass." Those articles (especially the Pages from Mages articles) showed me the importance of giving magic items a unique history and background. My players loved it.
When the grey box set came out, I first tried taking places from the Realms and adding them to my home-brewed world. After a short while, I realized that the Realms were so much better connected and full of history and story ideas than my home-brew and I moved my campaigns to FR. I haven't looked back since. |
"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied,
"If you seek for Eldorado!"
Edgar Allen Poe - 1849 |
Edited by - Halidan on 27 Aug 2008 14:37:30 |
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Neil
Learned Scribe
Canada
107 Posts |
Posted - 27 Aug 2008 : 03:08:49
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| My first experience with the Realms was playing a modified version of H1 in a library basement. It was my first time with a new group, but the setting grew on me, and within a couple of months I had a sizable collection of Realms material. |
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Yuen
Acolyte
Austria
22 Posts |
Posted - 27 Aug 2008 : 05:07:50
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the very first time was Baldur's Gate 1 nearly 10 years ago, but I didn't know the game was set in an already existing world. Actually I didn't know D&D existed at all at that time. Though what really brought me into the realms were the free downloads of 2nd edition books on the wizards homepage a few months ago. First of all Volo's Guide to the North, I've never ever seen such a thing before: Restaurant critique in a fictional fantasy world.
Since then I've been sucking as much knowledge as I could into my brain, but I feel I'm still at the beginning of my journey in the realms. |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 27 Aug 2008 : 14:57:45
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quote:
Originally posted by Yuen
the very first time was Baldur's Gate 1 nearly 10 years ago, but I didn't know the game was set in an already existing world. Actually I didn't know D&D existed at all at that time. Though what really brought me into the realms were the free downloads of 2nd edition books on the wizards homepage a few months ago. First of all Volo's Guide to the North, I've never ever seen such a thing before: Restaurant critique in a fictional fantasy world.
Since then I've been sucking as much knowledge as I could into my brain, but I feel I'm still at the beginning of my journey in the realms.
You and me both. Now matter how much one learns, there's always something new. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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Vangelor
Learned Scribe
USA
183 Posts |
Posted - 28 Aug 2008 : 14:02:17
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My first experience was in Boy Scout camp. It was a really cold night, and my tent-mate and I decided to zip our sleeping bags together.... Oh! Wait! Forgotten Realms. Right!
I was aware of the FR from the early '80s, when Ed would have occasional articles in Dragon Magazine, which I raed. I recall one about Waterdeep that got me started thinking about city settings, and eventually influenced my tabletop game in College.
But I was much more of a word-builder of my own landscapes than an explorer of Faerun until I began playing the computer game, Neverwinter Nights. That led me back to the Realms (circa 3.5), and I have been trying to catch up since. |
Edited by - Vangelor on 28 Aug 2008 14:03:58 |
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Very first experience with FR?
