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Originally posted by Gary Dallison

Spellplague or 1370+ DR, it isnt mayonnaise

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Originally posted by George Krashos

A constant stream of information, internal consistency and coherence. The FR campaign setting is the most detailed in the world. Your gaming experience should reflect that.

-- George Krashos

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Originally posted by Azar
Occasionally, a certain edition of D&D or in-setting era is a must;

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Originally posted by Azar
Conversely...what could possibly crop up during play that would make you think "This isn't The Forgotten Realms."?

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Originally posted by Azar
others declare that peculiar events will be omitted (e.g., refusing to acknowledge/integrate The Time of Troubles).

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Originally posted by Kelcimer

I can't imagine a certain edition of D&D being a "must". I have used 2e, 3e, 3.5, and Pathfinder 1e for my game. If someone were to use 1e, 4e, 5e, Pathfinder 2e, or still yet some other system, what of it?

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Originally posted by Kelcimer

Another poster had talked about bringing mass produced guns to Forgotten Realms. FR is fantasy. It is not industrial or steam punk. So if the DM makes the setting not fantasy then why don't they just make their own world, you know?

Same thing with the Gods. Even though I don't use the gods very much, they are important to the background of Faerun. If a DM were to replace the gods wholesale or something, then I would again wonder why don't they just make their own world.

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Originally posted by Kelcimer

It is impossible to make reference to every big calamity that occurs in the Realms in game. Naturally, A LOT of the Realms is going to be not referenced in any particular game. Most of that can easily fall under the heading of "not going to go out of my way to acknowledge it, but neither am I going to do anything to contradict it". The Realms is a buffet. Not everybody gets the same thing at a buffet. That's the point.

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Originally posted by sleyvas

Let me be clear, I'm stating some of this so that some WotC person doesn't come here and go "we can do whatever we want"

It's not the realms when its based in the heartlands and every other NPC race walking around is extremely non-human (by that, I mean I mean some reptilian talking to a cat person while sipping tea with a tree person). You will notice, I said in the heartlands. I would be perfectly acceptable to find such on another continent, if they want to explore that concept (and its why I want Katashaka to have a lot of this). It would also fit in in say Tymanther where its filled with dragonborn, tieflings, etc... It also wouldn't be unheard of in Thay prior to it becoming an undead nightmare, where goblins, orcs, gnolls, centaurs, minotaurs, etc... were common sights.

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Originally posted by Azar
The major calamities that are frequently points of contention in the fan base are: The Time of Troubles, the Spellplague and the Second Sundering. Not too many people have a bone to pick with, say, the fall of Netheril.

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Originally posted by Kelcimer


The Rage of Dragons was, I thought, a decent way to bring a climatic end to Sammaster. There wasn't a way for me to bring it into my game, because I didn't want my players to deal with it and neither did I want it happening in the background. So I just ignored it.

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Originally posted by Azar

One argument stems from the fact that the Realms is a high-magic setting

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Originally posted by Azar

Heartlands or otherwise, I can't say I'm keen on tieflings, dragonborn, tabaxi, tortles and the like being widespread across the Realms to the point where they become blasé.

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Originally posted by bloodtide_the_red

I generally dislike when people use the "popular" Realms stuff, even more so in the generic way. Does the game have an Evil Wizard...oh,it MUST be a RED WIZARD as they ARE the ONLY evil wizards in the whole setting. The same way if there is a big city it MUST be Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate as they are the ONLY two cities. You don't need to name drop Realms everything all the time. A band of adventurers in Ten Towns in 1350 DR would not really even care much that the whole Realms existed south of the Spine of the World.

I do expect a Realms game to be Lore Heavy, but not just rereading published lore (that I likely know), but creating new lore in the spirit of the Realms.

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Originally posted by Zeromaru X

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Originally posted by Azar

Heartlands or otherwise, I can't say I'm keen on tieflings, dragonborn, tabaxi, tortles and the like being widespread across the Realms to the point where they become blasé.

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Well, fantasy nowadays has evolved from its Tolkienian roots, and D&D has to follow this evolution or risk less sells... so, the Realms has to evolve as well. The furry culture is stronk now, and this means the Realms will be populated by beast folk sooner rater than later.

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Originally posted by Gelcur

I continue to use the 3E population demographic break downs when I need to randomly fill a room or even when I'm at a loss as to what race to make an NPC. I loved that those were published. There are some regions that have Orcs or Lizardfolk or even Yuan-ti populations large enough to have their own percentages. But for the most part every region has a 1% other catch all where all these non-traditional even some of the rare traditional races fit. Even Waterdeep with its metropolitan nature and its high abundance of non-human races still breaks down since there is an even higher density of humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings living there.

To the points made above there are regions where things are very different than the Heartlands. If you look in the Underdark book from 3E, you get some interesting places like Gatchorof 98% githyanki and 2% Red Dragon or Ch'Chitl its free population is 98% illithid and 2% illithilich and its thrall population of 95% quaggoth, 1% drow, 1% duergar, 1% human, 1% shield dwarf, 1% svirfneblin. It goes on, there are plenty of hidden places with populations large enough of goblins, kobolds, azers, trolls, beholders, grimlocks, minotaurs, and ogres all to be enough to get their own percentage. Found one where outsider was 5% rather than being lumped into the other category. Undrek’Thoz has a 1% tiefling population.

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Originally posted by Diffan

Aside from these simply being Options presented in the Player's Handbook (and after the normal Tolkien options), outside of specific regions there seems little evidence to support the notion that races like the Dragonborn, Drow, Tieflings, Gnomes, etc. present any sort of significant population to speak of - even in places such as Waterdeep or Neverwinter. Sure, there are these creatures in Video Games but that's not indicative of the Realms in any Official capacity NOR does it mean that it does/should look like that in most home campaigns.
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So yeah, D&D promotes non-human/anthromorphic options but it's been that way for...well over a decade. Were-creatures, Shifters, Dragonborn, Hengeyokai, Goat-men/Yak-men, etc.

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Originally posted by sleyvas

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Originally posted by Gelcur

I continue to use the 3E population demographic break downs when I need to randomly fill a room or even when I'm at a loss as to what race to make an NPC. I loved that those were published. There are some regions that have Orcs or Lizardfolk or even Yuan-ti populations large enough to have their own percentages. But for the most part every region has a 1% other catch all where all these non-traditional even some of the rare traditional races fit. Even Waterdeep with its metropolitan nature and its high abundance of non-human races still breaks down since there is an even higher density of humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings living there.

To the points made above there are regions where things are very different than the Heartlands. If you look in the Underdark book from 3E, you get some interesting places like Gatchorof 98% githyanki and 2% Red Dragon or Ch'Chitl its free population is 98% illithid and 2% illithilich and its thrall population of 95% quaggoth, 1% drow, 1% duergar, 1% human, 1% shield dwarf, 1% svirfneblin. It goes on, there are plenty of hidden places with populations large enough of goblins, kobolds, azers, trolls, beholders, grimlocks, minotaurs, and ogres all to be enough to get their own percentage. Found one where outsider was 5% rather than being lumped into the other category. Undrek’Thoz has a 1% tiefling population.

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In places like Waterdeep, I picture it to be like some bars and such in our world where they become known as gathering points for a group from elsewhere or with certain lifestyle views. So, like in New York there's bars that cater to Canadians, etc... We know that in Waterdeep there's at least one bar that caters to elves. I'd bet Waterdeep has a few bars where it might be common to find a mix of cultures (even moreso in Skullport though). However, these places would probably be known for this feature, so people going there would likely know what to expect. If a party is going to a place like this, it would be something that the DM should stress "this might be a culture shock" OR if members of the party are from these groups "it feels like coming home".

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Originally posted by Zeromaru X

I have never considered the Realms as a high magic setting. Magic is not something that has an everyday use in the Realms. Heck, people is still superstitious about magic despite a recorded history of 30k+ years of magic use. To me, a high magic setting is something like World of Warcraft, where even those people that doesn't use magic aren't afraid of it either. Even when magic in that setting is tied to demons...

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Originally posted by Zeromaru X

Well, fantasy nowadays has evolved from its Tolkienian roots, and D&D has to follow this evolution or risk less sells... so, the Realms has to evolve as well. The furry culture is stronk now, and this means the Realms will be populated by beast folk sooner rater than later.

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Originally posted by Azar


Huh? "Furry"? Fur? As far as I know, only the tabaxi (a feline humanoid) sports fur.

Let's talk immersion. There's already a problem - to varying degrees, depending on the group - with with the classic demihumans coming off as "humans in funny suits". When something as comparatively exotic as a tortle (think of a being more bestial than a Ninja Turtle) is subjected to this same treatment (through simple everyday exposure), it becomes boring in a far worse way precisely because of their stark difference. Certain game worlds are a much better fit for this demographic shift than The Forgotten Realms.

Let's talk verisimilitude. How on Earth (ah, Toril?) does it make sense for the average person to flee in terror or at least assume a combative posture when orcs, goblins, bugbears, hobgoblins, et cetera, show up...and yet be totally fine with creatures that either resemble bipedal dragons or hell spawn? At least in Planescape it made sense to see a tiefling every so often: there were far worse monsters lurking in Sigil and it was made clear that an individual tiefling could possibly be of Neutral Alignment. If a drow like Drizzt has to be persistent in his efforts to find acceptance, something that looks like the offspring of a demon or devil should have to struggle just as hard if not harder.

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Originally posted by Zeromaru X

As for verisimilitude, there's a lack of verisimilitude when people fear humanoids of other species having had like 30k+ years of recorded history of interactions with said humanoids.

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Originally posted by HighOne

Honestly, it's not even the surface details that make it the Forgotten Realms for me. It's the sense that the DM actually likes the setting and is doing his/her best to bring it to life. Whether they get all the details right isn't as important as whether they're genuinely having fun with the lore (exploring it, that is, not purposely re-writing it).

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Originally posted by Azar

Zeromaru X, the things you mentioned are why I'm not comfortable with The Forgotten Realms being treated as WOTC's testing ground for trendy concepts; there's often little (if any) explanation as to why this dense and storied setting all of a sudden just has these particular elements that supposedly were there all along.

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3Also, we're talking about a setting where near-instantaneous communication doesn't exist and reliable record keeping tends to either be spotty or fiercely guarded.

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