I have many new players who are being introduced to the D&D brand for the first time with this new rules edition.
As the GM, I already have the D&D Starter Set, the Players Handbook, Hoard of the Dragon Queen AP, and I understand the "Default" setting is the Forgotten Realms.
As someone who owns no FR material, or sees anything FR related in the D&D 5th Edition Release Schedules page, where should I go to learn about and acquire FR material for my new campaign?
Thanks in advance. :)
The PHB has what the players need and the DMG is supposed to have more FR stuff. Other than that, start with the Starter Set --- the older book that's most relevant to that stuff is the Neverwinter Campaign Guide for 4e, which mentions stuff around Conyberry, Thundertree etc. It just has ideas...
My suggestion is to relax and just go with what's in the starter set, for now. Look things up on the web, places like the FR wiki, if you're wondering about something specific.
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I would start with a PDF of Waterdeep and the North and if you want more big world info get FR for 3E.
I would start with a PDF of Waterdeep and the North and if you want more big world info get FR for 3E.
Airtight recommendations. Seconded.
Another very good resource would be the 2nd edition book Forgotten Realms Adventures. After that it depends mostly on what you want to delve into.
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Really, the details presented in the existing 5e books about the Sword Coast region is all you need to have tons of games. In my opinion, the Sword Coast is the most interesting part of the Realms, though I fully admit to not being much of a fan of the setting.
If you want more setting detail and don't care about game mechanics the 4E Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide wouldn't be bad place to start. A lot changed in the setting between 3.5 and 4E so, unless 5E rolls the timeline back 100 years, the 4E material is probably the most bang for your buck.
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I have many new players who are being introduced to the D&D brand for the first time with this new rules edition.
As the GM, I already have the D&D Starter Set, the Players Handbook, Hoard of the Dragon Queen AP, and I understand the "Default" setting is the Forgotten Realms.
As someone who owns no FR material, or sees anything FR related in the D&D 5th Edition Release Schedules page, where should I go to learn about and acquire FR material for my new campaign?
Thanks in advance. :)
I suggest you create your own little adventure local...
The driftport of shadow: a floating town made from a hundred ships lashed together. Other vessels come and go but for now the pcs can adventure locally. Fight for coin over at argo's, gather information in selm's tavern, investigate a murder in the employ of governor janek.
@All,
Thanks for the recommendations! A friend gave me his copy of Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3rd ed) as a gift, and I find it very informative. Is there much difference between this book and its 4ed counterpart?
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Get a hold of as much of the Second Edition stuff as you can afford. From what I can tell, 5e would work well in the older iteration of the Realms, if you wanted to play "classic". 3e wasn't that much of a change, maybe a little darker, but there wasn't a huge RSE heralding the change, simply the return of Bane and Shade, and pretending the Shadow Weave was always there. Either one is a good bet for a fun Realms experience.
I am looking forward to seeing how they fix the damage they did with 4e. Maybe 5e Realms stuff will fit with the lore I already have on the shelf.
Among the better 2nd edition stuff you might want is:
Faiths and Avatars, Powers and Pantheons, Demihuman Deities - the godbooks, stupendously informative books about all the Realms gods.
Fighters and Priests of the Realms, Wizards and Rogues of the Realms, Demihumans of the Realms - details the various classes in various areas.
The Volo's Guides - details what it's like to travel in various places in the central areas of the Realms with a focus on adventurer stuff.
Cloak and Dagger - details various secret societies and their doings during a period of a few years.
Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog - An equipment shopping book done in the style of early mail order catalogs.
Volo's Guide to All Things Magical - Details various non-standard ways to use magic, and details item creation and various artifacts.
Which supplements for what areas you want will depend largely on your campaign. For a cursory look, the different boxed campaign setting sets are a good deal.
Question for anyone who's been keeping up with this: while "The Sundering" is resetting the Realms to 3rd edition standards in several ways (e.g. the geography, the gods, etc.)... it's not jumping the timeline back to the 1370's, is it?
That's a big question for me, because if we're still in the 1400's then all of the expansions I have from 1st - 3rd editions will still basically be kitty litter as far as game useability is concerned.
Nah. See, when they made 4th edition, they did add a few holes in the map and blew up a place or two such as Halruaa, but really, nothing else changed in that century. The towns, roads, inns and so on are still in the very same places.
But all the specific info about places, people (now mostly dead) etc. are a century out of date. It would be like trying to see the sights in NYC with a guidebook from the World War I era.
No. The sights are all there, just with different people. :-)
The Realms is a very high-magic world, though, and magic emulates many of the aspects of technology... including, I would think, a more rapid social evolution.
Anyway, my interest in the Realms was very "street level." It wasn't just about the cities and the dungeons, but the people and the rulers and the businesses. This was all stuff that was covered in depth in the FR, to an extent not seen in any other gaming world that I'm aware of. I attribute it to Ed Greenwood being more comfortable as a storyteller than as a designer of crunch.
Because of that, the 100-year jump was far more destructive to my enjoyment of the Realms than even the Spellplague and the geographical changes.
I was kind of hoping WotC would license out the development of their various settings (apart from the still-profitable novels, of course). The 5E Player's Handbook makes a lot of specific mentions of elements from the Realms, Dragonlance, Greyhawk... even Planescape and Ravenloft. Obviously, WotC isn't going to start developing all those again in-house.
If they did license it out, then whoever got the Realms would probably be free to put out products for whatever era they wanted. Apart from the Neverwinter campaign and the novels (especially Salvatore's), not a whole lot of development was done on the 4E Realms, so it wouldn't be that much of a retcon.
Probably all a pipe dream, though.
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I'm really wondering about the Realms too. What about the gods that were killed, like Mystra and Eilistraee?
There's something else too. My favorite god of 2E/3X was Meridar, god of the mongrelfolk and reformed evil humanoids. He was mentioned as being worshipped in the realms in a few books in 2E, but come third edition he wasn't mentioned anywhere in FR materials, not even in the official listing of FR deities.
I'm hoping he could make a comeback, but that's a longshot :(
Mystra is in the 5e PHB!
I have many new players who are being introduced to the D&D brand for the first time with this new rules edition.
As the GM, I already have the D&D Starter Set, the Players Handbook, Hoard of the Dragon Queen AP, and I understand the "Default" setting is the Forgotten Realms.
As someone who owns no FR material, or sees anything FR related in the D&D 5th Edition Release Schedules page, where should I go to learn about and acquire FR material for my new campaign?
Thanks in advance. :)
Your in luck because right now things haven't really been nailed down yet. Which means you can use any supplements you want. So far, from the novels, no changes have been made to the continents but it's possible that will change. As for the deities, using the ones from the PHB/Free download is probably best.
The nice thing about using the 4e material is that it doesn't big you down with a TON of lore and details, especially when the focus should be more on your PC's and their immediate surroundings (for new players and all). Personally I'd start somewhere that isn't too bustling or busy, like Loudwater (Western Heartlands).
You can also grab the adventures made for the playtest like Murder in Baldur's Gate, which I hear is pretty good.
I like the Volo's guidebooks quite a bit. My favourite 3e sourcebook was Unapproachable East and the core 3e realms book, bur a bunch of the others are also pretty good. I enjoy the flavour of the original 1e FR boxed set. They are available in pdf on websites like Drivethru rpg.
I'm not clear on what the timeline is supposed to be for the 5e realms material. Is it the same as the 4e timeline, which was moved 100 years forward from the 3e timeline?
I'm playing in Horde of the Dragon Queen right now, but our DM hasn't mentioned anything about what year the adventure is set in.
Don't forget the Underdark, Magic of Faerun and Silver Marches from the 3E books. they are also quite enjoyable.
I have decided to take 4e Neverwinter Campaign guide and some of the good stuff from 3e and work it into my setting.
I think I will keep it simple as far as factions, and NPCs and (from what I read) put Lord Neverember in the LE alignment instead of Unaligned from 4e.
Hopefully all goes smooth from here.
I created an Obsidian Portal page for my new D&D 5E FR campaign, after using the information above to get started on my research. I now know that the material in the starter set is in the (approximately) 1485 DR era, and that I enjoy the FR lore of the (approximately) 1374 DR era (so I combined the two). Not much FR 5E material avalable, so I am starting simple while I wait for the official campaign setting book to be released.
Luckily for me all 4 players in my group are all newbies and don't know jack about the FR setting, so I have a lot of leeway in creating the campaign and adventures. :)
Check out this link for more info:
I hope they do a version of Azure Bonds. The novel is a great introduction to the Forgotten Realms, and is a very personal quest, as opposed to a Save the World/Kingdom/Princess type of adventure.
Starting to catch up on my forum reading (as RL got in the way), I am setting the campaign in the Sword Coast, and now have lots of links, resources and PDFs to read. :)
Now, just need to figure out how to add masterwork weapons to D&D 5E...
Starting to catch up on my forum reading (as RL got in the way), I am setting the campaign in the Sword Coast, and now have lots of links, resources and PDFs to read. :)
Now, just need to figure out how to add masterwork weapons to D&D 5E...
Well a simple port from 3e is easy enough, just adjust the prices to reflect the quality of the weapon. Another idea is to make all +1 items non-magical and anything +2 (or greater) or that has a special effect magical so there is a distinction.
Not good with game math, undecided if I should just use PF Masterwork prices, or a flat cost multiplier (like x5 of standard item cost). Don't really understand the game/economic math yet.
Just remember that 5th Edition does not need the crazy bonuses that 3.5 and Pathfinder use. Magic bonuses per item cap at +3 for a reason and the system is meant to be low magic when it comes to items. You could make masterwork weapons cost half the price of a +1 magic weapon, since masterwork only gives you the bonus on the hit and not damage. Masterwork armor is more of a problem, since it would be identical to +1 magic armor, just not being magic.
Just remember that 5th Edition does not need the crazy bonuses that 3.5 and Pathfinder use. Magic bonuses per item cap at +3 for a reason and the system is meant to be low magic when it comes to items. You could make masterwork weapons cost half the price of a +1 magic weapon, since masterwork only gives you the bonus on the hit and not damage. Masterwork armor is more of a problem, since it would be identical to +1 magic armor, just not being magic.
Masterwork armor in 3e/v3.5/Pathfinder just gives reduces the armor check penalty by 1. So 5e's Masterwork armor could remove Disadvantage on Stealth checks or maybe lower the Strength requirement to wear it properly?
Or increase the Max Dex bonus for Medium Armor, and allow up to +1 for Heavy Armor.
I gave masterwork weapons a +1 damage in my campaign. +1 attack is something precious, I would be reluctant to grant anything that effectively increase your proficiency bonus for a relatively low price.
For armors, reduction on weight or on the minimum STR score to avoid movement reduction sounds fine to me. That or remove the Stealth disadvantage. It would leave a few armors (the popular studded leather among others) without any net advantage, but I wouldn't grant anything that equals a +1 bonus to AC.
It would also feel weird that regular (read RaW) magical suits of armor wouldn't grant the benefits of a masterwork armor.
[edit] or decide that +1 weapons and armors are the masterwork weapons and armors of 5th ed. Give mk weapons a small discount for a lack of "magic" quality, leaving some beasties resistant to your damage.
'findel
