What's your favorite Forgotten Realms area?Any areas you like to revisit to see what you missed before?I was recently reminding myself of the Dragon Coast for an upcoming campaign, and in the process noticed several items I had forgotten about.Like how much of the region is run by women or that Lady Bloodsword is very obviously a half-drow, yet somehow I missed that entirely back in the day despite the fact that I loved the mindgulph company as a kid.
>>90283811I think the Norf is cozy. Silverymoon is this big city with a mage academy and shit, but it's also in these neat woods and mountains and shit.
>>90283922Norf is pretty good Just wish there were less dorfs there, not racist, just don't think they should be round me kids is all, what with their drinking and hollering and all
>>90283811What's with all the tsr spam recently? >>90269950>>90248822>>90263516>>90280491>>90225539>>90282471>>90262937
>>90283811Where's the best place to find good maps of regions in Forgotten Realms
>>90283811I like Unther
>>90284006It’s almost like people want to play an actual good version of the game instead of a tranny larp simulator
>>90283811Okay someone's gotta explain to me why a nation that shares a latitude with Chult is named "Konigheim".
>>90283811I really like Hlondeth the City of Serpents. Fantasy Venice
>>90285871They're doing that with it too though.
>>90285838https://atlasoficeandfireblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/a-new-map-of-faerun/This guy has a few FR maps.If you want more specific places, Markustay did some, but they include 3e/4e/Homebrew locations (depending on when he made it)Handsome Rob also made a super map that's like 800mb or some shit but includes EVERYTHING pre-4e.>>90286088The Utter East was an area of Faerun purposely left somewhat vague.When the Unapproachable East got fluff, the Utter East got moved to South East faerun.There was presumably work being done to cover the area, but whatever was done never saw publishing, there was however Interplay.Interplay had this fantasy strategy game in the works, and they wanted to put it out with this new Forgotten Realms license they got a hold of while their teams worked on a more proper FR game in the background.Given the strategy game had no place to fit in the realms because there was no place with the kind of set up they had, instead of changing the names they just said "actually our game takes place in the undocumented Utter East" region.So despite the fact the neighboring nations of the Shining South are very different, and the latitude for the region and the kinds of terrain previously established to be there wouldn't allow for a very european setting, Interplay shoved a very european setting there anyway, and due to FR trying to avoid retcons wherever possible, it stuck.
I seem to remember reading something about a tower of a super powerful wizard in the Hordelands, but I cannot find it again. Am I a deluded schizo?
>>90286273Thanks anon, those are great.
>>90286464You're thinking of the Violet Spire northeast of Winterkeep across the Bay of Raum.It's a tall spire that has no windows and no doors, because it can only be entered through portals that can access extradimensional space, because the inside is a giant fucking mage's lab + mansion.It's the home to an ancient imaskari mage who, at the time of the fall of Imaskar, was an apprentice who was locked in the tower for safe keeping, and then over time learned his master's secrets, eventually found out how to leave, only to discover Imaskar no longer exists.So now he's just a reclusive old mage who collects imaskari artifacts for his own personal collection/museum, and occasionally trades with people he meets when outside, but very few people know (or could understand) just how ungodly powerful he is, because while he hasn't master ancient imaskari magic, he's still trained in it to the point of being leagues beyond contemporary mages.
>>90286650Thank you. That was it.
How would you fix Eilistraee /tg/?
>>90286716I wouldn't, she's fine, we've been over this.
Anyone else dislike how the Harpers-Moonstars split never went anywhere?
>>90286716I would revert back to before 3e had her killed off in preparation for 4e, and then also consider going all the way back to 2e, when she had more cults and was outright said to be growing in number due to continued contact with less hostile surface groups allowing more drow to escape their cultural background.
>>90286747It felt like the Harpers were too entrenched in their "we're the designated protagonists of the setting" role, to let TSR/WotC do anything with the two good factions clashing, and being able to more accurately point out the failings each one had.
>>90286716Delete changedance and everything about her that was added simply so Greenwood could masturbate to it.
>>902858383e had a lot of sourcebooks about specific areas with pretty good maps. Shining South, Unapproachable East, Silver Marches, etc.2e had them too, but I don't like the maps at least.
Cyric is Ao now
>>90286716I think she was fine.It's like everything else that got wrong with 4e and 5e, making them lose their teeth and making good drow less interesting.
>>90286716I would get rid of that BS (at the very end of 3e I think?) where some of the Dark Elves are "cleansed" of their taint and go back to being dark brown or whatever.Maybe get rid of her OP Chosen.But in general she's fine. I like the idea of the token good DE god. I think that she could have/should have been neutral instead of good, so that then maybe she and Vhaeraun could have a sort of alliance against L(lol)th.
>>90288385Honestly I like the idea of her and Vhaeraun being allied even as opposing alignments Neither particularly would enjoy the other's style, but they both would have reasons to ally.Just a shame they both got fucked by Crawford
Is Vhaerun stil the god of angry Drow males? Isn’t that problematic?
>>90288580As of 5eEilistraee is/was the god of all non lolth Drow, but now she's an afterthought, Vhaeraun is a mute puppet of lolth because she ripped his tongue out and he has no backbone because he's a male Drow.
>>90288649Sounds terrible. What about the other Drow gods? Selvetarm etc?
>>90287560My hottake is that 3e had the best material for the Realms, and it came from the edition that it wasn't even the base in.Not that there isn't some shit I didn't like. The whole world tree nonsense- gone half way through 3.5 thank god, some changes to regional areas. Over all I'm even... neutral to the shrunk world map. It because stupider and yet easier to read and understand at the same time. Fuck, I hated the Shadow-Weave when they introduced it, but now in the new world order I find I miss it. And like Anon mentioned, dedicated love to specified areas with nice looking specific region books.>>90283811Best version overall was the edition that didn't even focus on it. Maybe that's because they weren't forced to pump something out each month and instead put stuff on the backburner to finish the books to something they were happy with. Not that I appreciated the books at that time, it's only looking back do I realize how good they were.
>>90288538I keep seeing this soecific reference to Crawford, or was it Mearls?, about how the overly-woke "modern audiences" stuff twisted the realms, and even Perkins got put on the outs for a bit for not complying. Can anybody give or point me to a rundown?
>>90288746I liked the online stuff they did for FR during 3e, like the rundown on Grandfather Tree.
>Illuskan: Also called Northlanders or Northmen, Illuskans were typically tall, fair-skinned folk with blue or gray eyes. Those living in the Savage Frontier were prone to raven-black hair; indicating significant Netherese heritage.Illuskans were considered barbarians in spite of founding the cities that would become Luskan, Neverwinter, and Waterdeep.How does this work?!?
>>90288746>Fuck, I hated the Shadow-Weave when they introduced it, but now in the new world order I find I miss it.The Shadow Weave was a great idea that wasn't handled great.Like, you've got Shar, the goddess of darkness, who empowers her followers with this alternate darkness magic. Great. But the Shadow Weave is set up as like a full competitor with the normal Weave, but the Weave isn't powered by light or day or the sun or anything like that, so shadow as its dark mirror doesn't make super a lot of thematic sense. And then, despite a little talk about it, Shar never really comes into direct opposition with Mystra over it. Why does Shar get a whole alternate Weave, but Lathander doesn't get a Sun Weave and Helm doesn't get a Vigilance Weave and Talos doesn't get a Storm Weave etc etc.Honestly, I'm a little disappointed with Shar in general. Why is her rival Selune and not Lathander (or before that Aumanator?). Like, goddess of good night and goddess of evil night is kinda neat, but it was always kinda bleh, especially since she was only a medium power for so long.
>>90288807What part?
I strongly prefer the Dalelands to the Sword Coast. The Forgotten Realms didn't click until I read the 1e box set, which focused on the Dales and their neighbors.
>>90288785>Grandfather Tree.Yeah? What was this exactly?
>>90288718>other Drow godsHahahahahahahaha hahahahaha>>90288763Crawford is the one who said there are gay pride parades in Waterdeep and got angry at Perkins for trying to revert to the manual of the planes cosmology instead of the 4e cosmology (which has come back despite no one liking it), he also is the one who has on multiple occasions said lore and named NPCs make D&D worse because DMs should just make everything up as they see fit and not worry about anything making sense.He's basically all of the most obnoxious traits of a points of light DM without the good qualities + super into 4e lore (the main edition when he first got involved in D&D) + an obnoxious fag in general.
>>90288538>Honestly I like the idea of her and Vhaeraun being allied even as opposing alignmentsI do like that.Like they accepting eachother as members of the same pantheon, furthering drow, and protecting themselves against Lloth, while still not really agreeing with eachother on the how.
>>90288746>dedicated love to specified areas with nice looking specific region books.I remember the Unapproachable East book and the Shining South book were the only two to really piss me off due to the amount of Retcons, but Thesk finally getting some coverage was nice even if it wasn't as in depth as I would have wanted.They were still leagues better than the Vilhon Reach box, but not as good as the Shining Seas if you understand my comparison.
Why does the drow pantheon include a god of slime anyway? I mean out of all the things they could worship, they choose to worship slime. They don't even like slime. Weirdos.
>Drow talkIsn't Lloth the side chick of another god's high priest?I used to think she was just some mid tier demon who picked up the Drow after they got expelled from greater Elf society for hate crimes. She taught them how to eat cave mushrooms so they started worshipping her, and Drow society slowly started to take shape.
>>90288838The Shar v Selune thing feels like it was always intended to be more.They're the cosmic sisters who loved each other until they hated each other.Their coming together birthed Mystryl, magic, and all life in the universe (well world but whatever).Their constant fucking with each other should have been a backdrop to a lot of stuff in the setting, yet for some reason despite references to them doing shit to one another no books ever reflect this.Then suddenly the shadow weave happens for no real good reason.
>>90288940>and the Shining South book were the only two to really piss me off due to the amount of RetconsWhat were the Shining South retcons? I don't remember anything too egregious between 2e and 3e.
>>90288958What came first, the Drow that worships slime or the slime that turns into a Drow?
>>90288973Exactly!It feels like Ed had this whole cool cosmology thing going...and then sort of forgot about it.
>>90288973>the shadow weave happens for no real good reason.the shadow weave happened to replace Ao with Cyric and the now doomed Realms have gay pride parades in Waterdeep, which technically isn't even an evil city.
>>90288985Halruaa lost a LOT of their spellslinging population, as well as general reduction in magic level there.Dambrath went from mentioning that everyone there is diluted with Drow blood to the Drow half bloods being such a minority that they might as well not exist outside of noble circles, which as it turns out was to set up for the complete removal of all drow and loviatarans from the area in 4e.
>>90288973>and all life in the universe (well world but whatever).Well prior to spelljammer you would have been correct as each PM Plane did contain a whole universe, not just a solar orbit+
>>90289011>loviatarLiterallywhoatarRIP in Peace
>>90288967Lolth was Corellon's wife and Steward of elven magic.Depending on which edition and setting the exact nature of her betrayal is different, but it all ends with her using demon power to fuck with Corellon.In the FR version it has the added twist that Eilistraee was tricked into bringing Corellon within an inch of his life with her bow (which she swore off, hence no ranged weapons in her priesthood).Then Lolth and all of her children got banished from elf heaven, and the elves who worshipped them got cursed with black skin and sensitivity to sunlight.Over time this has been neutered and shifted to reflect current values.For example the 5e version. The big betrayal was saying elves should have only two genders and you should stick with the one you're born with. Leading to Corellon being very furious with Lolth.
>>90288997>which technically isn't even an evil city.Yep. WotC is stupid. I hear they did this over on MtG too.Cool cities to adventure in were Dystopias because YOU or your PCs can be the heroes to right all the wrongs and fix the damn place.Now everywhere is happy happy peaceful. What's there to adventure or fight against that isn't any extraplanar threat?
>>90289011>Halruaa lost a LOT of their spellslinging population, as well as general reduction in magic level there.They still had 10% wizards and a generally high level of magic, just not like a magictech society, which was a little incongruous anyway.>Dambrath went from mentioning that everyone there is diluted with Drow blood to the Drow half bloods being such a minority that they might as well not exist outside of noble circles,Oof, good point.
>>90288958I think it's an underdark thing.
>>90289059>The big betrayal was saying elves should have only two genders and you should stick with the one you're born with. Leading to Corellon being very furious with Lolth.Please tell me that's a joke.
>>90289086Not just the Spider Queen, but the TERF Queen as well.
>>90289060>Now everywhere is happy happy peaceful. What's there to adventure or fight against that isn't any extraplanar threat?You go to Thay-mart for all your fighting evil needs because necromancers are LE EVIL
>>90289086A core part of 5e elf lore is that they reincarnate over and over again to live all walks of life and swap genders whenever they feel like it (1/day), to help them understand.Lolth said that's stupid.
>>90289173based spider queen
>>90289059>Then Lolth and all of her children got banished from elf heaven >and the elves who worshipped them got cursed with black skin and sensitivity to sunlight.Big steps between those two parts, at least in forgotten realms.>Crown Wars 1Sun Elf Kingdom of Aryvandaar find they have a royal claim to the Kingdom of Miyeritar(consists of Dark Elves and Wood Elves that worship Ellistrae)>Crown Wars 2Kingdom of Illythir, dark elf realm worshipping several drow gods, mainly Vhaeraun at first, but later Lloth mainly.They attack Orishaar, a moon elf realm, as retaliation(Orishaar had trade links with Aryvandaar).Escalates and also destroys two smaller green elf realms, and another realm of moon+sun elves.>Crown Wars 3Aryvandaar is now known as Vyshantaar Empire and invades a Sun+Moon elf realm.>Crown Wars 4Miyeritar is destroyed by Vyshantaar magic.Illythiri gets more brutal, worships more evil gods openly and attacks Vyshantaar.All non Illyrthiri elves group up, masses of mages and clerics channel a spell through Corellon to curse the Illythiri, but it ends up cursing all dark elves not just the illythiri and they get their onyx-black skin.Drow descends.>Crown Wars 5Vyshantaar gets blamed for the thousand years crown wars.Vyshantaar denies guilt, declears war on everyone, and is destroyed in 200 years.
>>90289173That's actually not that bad desu
>>90288997I'll never be able to stop laffin at the levels of butthurt you trad LARPers get up to. It's so fucking funny. My favorite part is imagining your miserable life.
>>90289312>My favorite part is imagining your miserable life.This doesn't sound like a wise use of time, especially from your moral high ground.
>>90284006I wish it was because there was a marketing campaign going on. I'm not even being sarcastic, I miss old FR and dnd and it'd be a signal to a return to form but there'd never be shills here to sell old 2e and 3e material decades after those products were made.
>>90288906https://orbitalflower.github.io/rpg/wizards-3e-archive.htmlHere's an archive, everything has been taken down I guess. Ctrl+f "grandfather"The basics is that it's the last of a special breed of super treants, with a dungeon underneath it.
>>90284006bg3
>>90289829Brilliant archive, thanks anon. Now I can search all that wonderful old content in one place.
>>90289863Yeah but the marketers would be spamming 5e products not the classics. bg3 mostly appeals to zoomers and hobby tourists who love critical role, though I suppose its possible it inspired some grognards to look at the legacy products again.
Thoughts?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f659pTMb24
>city is called Neverwinter>winter comes there every yearI bet they just named it that to sucker tourists or something.
>>90290149Something about fire elementals in the volcano next to it keeps the climate warm I think. Sword Coast areas are the most boring so I don't keep track.
>>90290149>The city was originally named Eigersstor, which was an Illuskan word. The name "Neverwinter" was the Chondathan translation.[6][22][note 1]>A number of legends explained where the city's name came from, but they contradicted each other. Some believed the city was founded by a sun elf named Halueth Never, who led the elves of Iliyanbruen against an Illuskan invasion in −10 DR. Surrounded by enemies, he chose the site where the river met the sea to make his last stand, naming the place "Never's Winter", believing he would die in the ensuing battle. However, human allies arrived just in time and together they defeated the Illuskans. Never founded the city, keeping the name, and over the years it was shortened to "Neverwinter".[23]>Others, such as Volo and Elminster, reported the name came from its gardens, for Neverwinter's gardeners were acclaimed throughout the Realms for keeping their gardens growing and flowers blooming even through winter snow. This was also the source of the city's moniker, "the City of Skilled Hands".[1][2][3][4] (In fact, they used hothouses.[3])>Others, however, believed the city was named for its unusually warm climate and how its harbor remained ice-free in the winters.[2][3]From the FR wiki.tl;dr who the fuck knows
>>90289829Fucking ace.
>>90290201I always love shit like that.Like how no one knows how the Great Rift happenedOr how the fuck the ancient barbarian king of Dambrath was able to be completely immune to magic.Or why Drow love cinnamon toast crunch
>>90288918>4e cosmology (which has come back despite no one liking it)I liked it
>>90289011What was the reason behind the gradual removal of Drow presence in Dambrath? Was it because their existence made the Salvatore-style Menzoberranzan Drow less special? I always liked the Crinti because they reminded me of how real world cultures in history hybridized after conquests and mass migrations.
>>90290927I suspect as much.Menzo went from a lesser city that most other cities didn't give a fuck about to a major city that has a vassal to the capital of LolthSo it seems like WotC really wants Drizzt and everything associated with him to be the central thesis of the drow, and anything else cannot be drow related at all unless they somehow refer back to that central thesis.
>>90290981What an ass-backward approach to worldbuilding.
>>90291068That's how it works with corporate thinking. Anything that requires new things is inherently dangerous and as such bad, anything that involves revolving around an old successful thing is inherently good.This is why the majority of shitty sequels are just Original Thing, but More. Instead of trying to explore new themes or ideas with the established characters/setting.
>>90283922Very comfy. I was played a half-drow Bard who came to Mooshie’s Grove, seeking out a place he’d heard Drizzt found healing.
>>90291241This is counter to the decisions that had to have gone in to make the 4e changes though, so its not really the whole picture.Its better to conclude corporate thinking chases what they think will bring the most profit, even if it myopically means sacrificing established brand identity (the old "canon" of a thing) and customers (the old "fans" of a thing).
>>90291294That's pretty reasonable.They operated under the assumption that anyone who has ever bought a "Forgotten Realms" branded item will forever buy all FR branded items.
>>90291653I wonder if this is something unique to media and entertainment. In other fields if a brand starts to replace the things that made it trustworthy it can take a long time for people to notice a difference, long enough that new standards are in place. Like it may not be immediately apparent that a keyboard or a hard drive manufacturer has replaced their components with cheaper materials but then ten years later people are swearing by a brand that they are surprised is no longer durable.For a game or a show/movie it becomes more immediately apparent when the contents are swapped out and this is easily missed by corporate suits who just treat everything like its raw components with a pretty logo.
>>90291925When it comes to entertainment, marketing is the biggest driver, since it almost always comes down to "Make it the thing people talk about, because then the person is forced to keep up with it if they want to socialize." We being social creatures, we're driven to want to socialize. Which is why every entertainment thing ends up heavily cutting its creation staff in favor of marketing staff.
>>90291972I think this approach is biting them in the ass for certain IPs (like Star Wars) where it stops being able to be talked about without it becoming heated, at least online.Does it apply as much to ttrpgs or Forgotten Realms? I mean the "orcs might be a metaphor for black people" discussion couldn't possibly have done WotC any favors on the long term.
>>90283811I don't remember.
Are the Kraken Society and the Twisted Rune still around in 5E?
>>90283811I've run a lot of games set in Calimshan. I never really thought of it as a favorite but I suppose it is. Its the right mix of exotic with still being near civilized lands without moving the entire story to Zakhara. Its a major port to springboard to pirate themed high-seas adventures or go down into Chult or just explore the desert for ruins.Would hate for its lore to be updated to modern sensibilities, though.
>>90292437Given they already updated Thay to say there is no more slavery, and the slave trade in Chult is already a thing of the past, I imagine next time we hear of Calimshan it'll be the Lady Syl'Pasha of the land of 1,001 arcane wonders
>>90283811>Lady Bloodsword is very obviously a half-drowNo she's human with an ancestor getting drowed somewhere down the line.
>>90284006It's almost like some people want to discuss actual rpg products rather than the mindless 'in ur setan' shit spam.
>>90288918>Crawford is the one who saidHow has this little worm and bad faith actor managed to obtain so much power and influence at the company?
>>90292567>they already updated Thay to say there is no more slaveryThay is probably the most overtly evil society on Faerun aside from the Drow. What's wrong with letting them have slaves?
>>90292890>How has this little worm and bad faith actor managed to obtain so much power and influence at the company?Being gay gets you promoted faster in bigger corporations nowadays, for "equity & diversity". And he's super-gay.
>>90288385>where some of the Dark Elves are "cleansed" of their taint and go back to being dark brown or whatever.That was the Rhymanthiin city business, where a bunch of drow were turned into sharn so that they could dodge Corellon's curse, but when they came back out of being sharn they stopped being cursed. Or something.It was dumb.
>>90288718Selvetarm is and has always been Lolth's loyal bitch boy.
>>90293078His title is literally "Champion of Lolth".
>>90289266Vyshaantar and Aryvandaar did nothing wrong. Remove drow. The glory of Corellon will reign supreme, and the sun elves shall rightfully rule. Moonblades are shit and a farce by a moon elf high mage to steal the reins of power.
>>90292890Last man standing. Also had no connection to the shitfight that got Mearls evicted, because he preferred not to work with Zak Smith.
>>90289060You can always work in the campus coffee-shop - what an adventure!
Dambrath? More like Dumbrath lol
>>90292902Because to the wokies depictions of racism are the same as agreeing with racism. All fantasy worlds must be exactly the same as our world in terms of accepting homosexuals, not discriminating against other races, and I’ve even seen people say an orc being stronger than a gnome is racist. Having any slaves would to the woke mindset mean you agree with slavery as a practice and are an istaphobe.
>>90291294And 4e was a flop.They learned their lesson, no more new stuff.
>>90289312You seem bitter, hateful, and mad. I suggest having sex and finding things that make you happy other then owning da chudz
>>90288385Vhaeraun is the truly shafted god here that needs fixing.
>>90292040No I rember people talking about that as a metaphor back in the 90s. What made it toxic was it leaking outside the nerd sphere as WotC succeeded in bringing in new customers who either got in contact with those older opinions through osmosis or had the same opinions from being the same people as those old nerds and spreading them around.
>>90296488It was strange seeing people on /tg/ try to say that orcs = blacks is new.I remember being annoyed with those discussions on here years ago because it always came down to two different flavors of racists arguing with each other.The majority of people thought it was dumb and didn't participate, but loud annoying people have always been loud and annoying.
>>90296488WotC set out with a mission to turf "orcs=black people" as casus belli for all the DEI shit
Shevarash is the only based member of the Seldarine.
>>90292242there's a appearance of the kraken society in storm kings thunder
>>90292567yeah no current fifth edition content released would indicate slavery has stopped in either thay or chult. Szazz Tam still rules in thay and his famous quote still reigns. "As long as I exist, slavery will always be a way of life here in Thay. And I can promise you, I will be here for a very long time."
>>90292567the last thing I heard about Thay was from Greenwood, saying that slaves still exist and they were for social status rather than work because the majority of work had been moved to undeadwhether or not this is still the official stance I don't know
>>90283811>What's your favorite Forgotten Realms area?Depends. Where do all the hot amazon women hang out?
Whats the current status of Skullport in 5E?
>>90297498Business as usual. It's the same wretched hive of scum and villainy as it's ever been, and its denizens are making bank as they always have.
>>90297295Ixinos. It's an island at the edge of the Vilhon Reach, near the island base of the Emerald Enclave
>>90292567Literally what the fuck are you talking about. WoTC get’s itself into enough culture war bullshit for brownie points, you don’t need to make shit up.
>>90296959>yeah no current fifth edition content released would indicate slavery has stopped in either thay>>90298926Wrong. This book about Thay Ed "Fuckhall" Greenwood is the latest (and probably last) word on 5E Thay and it says slavery is mostly gone from Thay. Keep up with the [current year] zeitgeist, zoomers.
>>90299688How much is msotly because as I understand it, its "its still around but is mostly obsolete outside of personal manservent types as the majority of manual labor is done by undead now"
>>90299688>DM’s Guild content written by the creator of the settingI highly doubt WoTC held a gun to Ed’s head and told him to get rid of the slavery, especially since their “unproblematic” re-release of Volo’s Guide still has stuff about slavery.
>>90296623Made me chuckle recently when I was looking over the Seldarine and saw that they literally have a god of hatred, specifically of the drow
Psionics, yes or no?I know that they've technically always been a part of the setting because Ed likes nonmagic people spontaneously developing supernatural abilities and psionics was the closest D&D allowed for a long time, but due to D&D reinventing psionics every edition it feels like it never got to actually be a part of the setting.
>>90300503I say yes.It's too important for some races like illithid, gith, duergar, even tho the implementation of psionics isn't very consistent.Also I'm secretly darksungang so I want they to be there in the greater universe.
>>90283811Rashemen due to Neverwinter Nights 2. It's a Bizzareland where animal gods and primal spirits freely walk about and merchants sell epic-level magic items like commodities.I'm very well aware the actual region as described in 3.5e corebooks has no such "features", but I always go this route when I DM in Faerun. I like to take creative liberties as to why it's called "The Unapproachable East".
>>90299688Tbh it never really made sense, but it was good for showing how ebul Thay was.>>90300044Lol
>>90300817>I'm very well aware the actual region as described in 3.5e corebooks has no such "features"The whole animal gods and primal spirits thing is in the books, I think.
>>90283811I always liked Vaasa.
>>90300844Sure, but not the whole "Your average Rashemi Berserker is a quasi-stand user Level 20 Barbarian".
>>90300817The spirits were a part of the books.Also loads of magic items. Though how many were epic is never really said.The UE always felt like a high level area, for lack of a better term.Thesk was probably the most easy going and it was flooded with intrigue.Rashemen had super primal spirits, That had the red wizards, Mulhorand had literal God Kings walking around, Aglarond had the living reusable nuke known as the Simbul. It was just not a nice area to be in without some serious firepower
>>90299688Technically it says its still around but that Thay is bustling with grassroots feelings of change and reliance on slaves is lessened.
>>90300895>The UE always felt like a high level area, for lack of a better term.That's actually a really good point. And Szass Tam is basically designed to be the final boss for a group of high-level adventurers.
Could use some advice for my group's modified Faerun setting.We had a long time game going set in FR/Faerun and ended up playing through our own sort of version of the time of troubles.The campaign had reached such a length that we started running things more on the rule of cool, and not really caring about the long term consequences on the setting things would have so it's diverged a bit from the PHB and established lore by this point.Very long story short..>one of our party members (a monk/druid/bard) establishes a new philosophy that spreads like wildfire>basically some amalgamation of buddhism/hinduism with modern values of community, betterment of your fellow man, training the body/mind to endure hardship etc>a more palatable for the masses monk enlightenment shtick>this helps a lot of the regular populace survive the hardships surrounding them while the gods are using their world as a battlefieldskipping over a lot of shit>after all is said and done said party member ascends to become a new deity because his philosophy and it's results impressed Lathander, who stepped down from his post after realizing he had gone a little too lawful stupid >ends up with the portfolios of light/life/community/tempestI know community is normally in pathfinder instead of 5e but we ported it because it made senseTempest was because Talos died as an adversary and it's not so much about being a destructive asshole but understanding the cycle of destruction > creation for new life to flourish or somethingLike how Kelemvor took over the death domain but wasn't an evil fuck about itFast forward to us finally getting ready to start a new game in our same world after numerous one-shots in other settingsMine and another player are planning to have our characters be brothers that both worship that old character-turned-deity as a cleric and paladin respectively because we thought it'd be neat
>>90302051Skaldic nature priesthood with monk-like discipline feels like it could be a new class/subclass for that deity.If cleric as base, then lacking the armor stuff, and building in more monk and bard stuff.
>>90302051fucking character limitWe're setting it about 200 years later to give time for developments and such and are running into a problem which is the crux of my postingThis deity doesn't have a realm of heaven people get picked up by a psychopomp uber to go chill in foreverInstead, in exchange for higher requirements other deities have of just saying your hail maries and yearly sacrifice or whatever the reward you get for being a good worshipper isn't heaven, but reincarnation with memories intact (if you choose)We're having trouble trying to nail down all of the far reaching consequences this would have on the world at largeIt's only 200~ years later so it hasn't been that long considering most races, but still seems like it could become a problem
>>90302094Imagine if to no longer be an apprentice at something, you had to spend your entire life doing it and then be reincarnated.Imagine the amount of confusion created by people claiming to be the reincarnation of someone when they just did enough research to pretend to be that person (and access their funds/trusted-people).You're looking at creating a lot of mass inequality with the reincarnated having loads of advantages over everyone else, and succession crises out the ass.
>>90302130Probably gonna have to up the requirements for who gets to then I guessLike it's not meant to be a thing every who converts gets to just do
>>90302161adding to thisIt's supposed to be something like trying to emulate the achievements of the dude that became the deityfollowing in his foosteps and helping to better the world one community/village/family/person at a time
>>90302161>>90302186Then naturally the best way to continue it is to show how this is bad when taken to extremes.Think mormon villages or cultist communes where if you're not living the exact way the group thinks you should you're other'd so hard you want to kill yourself.After all, if you don't live their way it's because you're a bad person who isn't improving the community, right?After having the players build something good, you have to pervert it after all.
>>90288807>How does this work?!?The people doing the considering were dumb bigots? The Illuskans became more civilized over hundreds of years, rather like happened in reality? It's not very mysterious.More inexplicable is how this could possibly confuse an obvious galaxy brain like yours.
>>90297295For a world full of coomerism, FR is surprisingly short on sexy Amazonian Xena or Wonder Woman types.
The Eldrath Veluuthra are heroes. Short-lived races have no place in the ancient Courts!
>>90302797You can thank TSR for that.Greenwood even said that Shandril being a competent woman with a bumbling wizard apprentice as a sidekick was to set the tone that not every novel needs to be Heroman but some can be Warrior Princess as well.TSR said that doesn't sell.Meanwhile you can see in some places this leaks through anyway, like the Dragon Coast having loads of women in charge of places, a number of powerful warrior women, and so on, as well as the Vilhon Reach set mentioning the amazonian leader of the Emerald Enclave.Volo's Guides also tend to have a number of strong women, one of them even mentioning he groped a maid at an inn and she one-handed threw him out of the room and through a table, leading him to wonder if she's secretly a super advanced golem or just that strong.
I’ve been looking through the 3/3.5 FR books lately and I gotta say it’s bizarre how there used to be so much content available for playing ‘villainous’ campaigns, back when the moral panic about D&D leading to satanism was in full swing, but now there’s practically none, and villainous organizations either get a full image rehab or players are told there’s a moral failure for wanting to be ‘one of the bad ones’. I think a Champions of Ruin/Lords of Darkness style supplement for 5E would be well received, so why is Wizards so opposed to that?
What happened to the Krinth and the Extaminaar? Did they all die out? I miss all the obscure 3E races.
>>90302876The moral panic was 1e into 2e era.3e was in the post punk era with more and more white kids listening to rap so soccer moms were more upset about music than RPGs.That said, I do think as casuals leave the hobby for greener pastures, we'll see a return to printing things people actually interested in RPGs want.The only question is how long will that take and how many marketing cycles will WotC go through to try to prolong the inevitable.
>>90302887What happened to the Eladrin, Wild Elves, and Avariel?Simplifying the game means reducing what's there. In some cases this is complete removal, in other cases it's stripping away details.
>>90302848I thought Shandril was an incompetent whiner and the wizard much the same, personally. Don't understand why anybody sees those books as particularly good at all, they're shoddily written. Greenwood might be a competent world builder, but he's a shit novelist.
>>90305153She's inexperienced but she more or less figures out anything after it's explained to her.Though yes, Greenwood can spin a short story, he has fun ideas, and as a world builder I greatly enjoy his work, but his novels, especially the early ones, show he has the Dan Aykroyd problem of getting so obsessed with the nitty gritty of the world that he doesn't keep the story about the story so the structure suffers.
>>90306094His best writing is in an occasional short story. Anything longer and he falls apart faster than an elf falls into bed at the prospect of fucking something.
>>90306201I have a hard time deciding between his sourcebooks or his short stories as my favorites of his, but his in universe excerpts within his sourcebooks are just wonderful.>It should be noted that most humans lack the strength of will and depth of experience to keep from going insane in the experience of so transferring their consciousness to a storage item. The archmage Nathaglas of Tashluta once described the experience and its dangers as: "A dark, detached confinement, where there is no sound but your own screaming, and nothing to be seen but your own memories in an ongoing display. This replay of memory can all too easily descend into obsession and mad repetition of favorite moments to the exclusion of all else--including sanity." Mages contemplating a stay in such a vessel should seek training and experience in dream magic or obtain means to gaining farsensing to guard against the deleterious effects of self-induced oblivion.Also how many books have talked about liches but never even consider what it's like to actually have your soul trapped in a jar during the periods of times where your body is out of commission?
>>90306201Elves aren't that bad.
>>90306337Elves of Evermeet does present them as partying super hard though.
>>90283811Which area has the national lezdom program?
>>90283811>What's your favorite Forgotten Realms area?Waterdeep takes it. As an adventurer playground it's fun and all, but the culture is what sells it.>Any areas you like to revisit to see what you missed before?It's not so much that I'd like to see what I missed as I'd like to see new stuff added on top of the old. I'd love to see a new Zakhara sourcebook.
>>90306375>>90306337There is literally a statement in one of the FR novels that elves inevitably "bed everything in sight despite their objections". Elves are sluts.>>90306421Dambrath.
Man, I would love a new Zakhara book
>>90306494>Dambrath.I thought that was pegging central?
>>90307402It's both! Or was, until that was too interesting.>>90307373These recent threads have git me thinking about a new take on The Way, with seeing all the gods as functions of an egregore instead of a collective, to loop in the monotheistic stylings of Islamicization.
>tfw you finally realize Dambrath becoming less drow wasn't because of drizzt but because it was problematic>country of very fair skinned people who are lazy and decadent>invaded by darkies>now the people who claim that they're the purebloods are brownish in skintone#arkaiunreplacementtheory
>>90306375>>90306494brb going to SilverymoonI really liked in Arcanum where they take a moment to explain that elves are all vaguely ashamed of half-elves and it turns out that all the elves who have sex with humans are basically teenagers.In a later quest, an elf that is very clearly barely legal asks you to take her to fantasy London.
It's a good thing WotC has forgotten everything outside of the Sword Coast, or rise they'd fuck it up too
>>90311299When your don't enter middle age until you're 600+ years old, odds are you're going to treat your first century or so the same way people treat their teens and twenties.
>>90311349On the one hand that might be right, on the other hand they've published like half a dozen different guidebooks for settings ported from MTG and Critical Role, and frankly I care even less for that.
>>90311354There's also big "Once your first dog dies, you starting getting hesitant about loving a creature so short-lived" energy.
>>90286506>The High Ice>The High Forest>The High Moor>Cold Wood>Ice MountainsIf I wasn't this lazy I would find an image representing my eyes rolling.
>>90313308that's how placenames work irl too anon
>>90313308What would you name these areas?
>>90283811>crtl+f: Moonsea>0/0Do you assholes want to liberate Phlan or not?
>>90313753I'm busy in Dead Orc Pass.
While I'm a big fan of the Sword Coast in general and Waterdeep in particular, my heart will always be at Raven's Bluff.
>>90313753No one ever runs a campaign where the party is on the side of Moander.
>>90313753Fuck no. I'd rather spend my time living large in Tashalar, the land described as, I quote:>"Tashluta is the busy port-city capital of Tashalar, set between sea, mountains, and jungle. It is a welcoming stopover point for travelers, merchants, and traders in the south.">"Tashalar is a land known for warm, breezy weather, bright, flowing garments, and spicy, delicious foods.">Imports: Beef, fruit, silver, slaves>Exports: coffee, fabric, glass, olive oil, olives, perfume, seafood, ships, spices, wineThe DM took us there for a one-shot and I'm already planning this character's retirement for there.
>>90310196You joke, but I always kind of suspected it was because of something similar. Some 3rd edition writer skimmed some notes/outline of Dambrath, saw it was basically "country entirely populated by the rape babies of S&M dominatrixes" and went "eww, gross. This is obviously someone's old fetish shit. Let's start phasing it out and then replace it with something a bit safer." The Lolthite Drow only get to be as edgy and fetishy as they are because they rose to prominence with a hugely popular book series and became a fixture of mainstream nerd culture before any squeamish suit could get cold feet about them, but most other cultures in the Realms aren't so lucky.
So is Auppenser still around? I mean, what with the cosmic reshuffle, did someone else get the psionics portfolio?
>>90317544Given the amount of homogenizing that came with 3.5e, I honestly think you're right.>>90317671>PsionicsAnything psychic both exists and doesn't exist until the publisher makes up their mind on what psionics are and how they work.
>>90317671He's in a coma after the elves committed one of their many, many acts of genocide against the non-elven population of the planet. This particular one was summoning a massive tidal wave to completely submerge the entirety of Jhaamdath (the centre of Auppenser's worship), drowning everybody who lived there. They did so because Jhaamdath had been cutting down some trees to build ships, so obviously the only logical response was to slaughter tens of millions of humans. Subsequently the elves then hunted down all the surviving psionicists they could find and made sure Auppenser's worship could never rise again.Mystra is holding the portfolio (but explicitly not subsuming it, she has been forbidden to do so) until and in case he wakes up, to make sure another god (e.g. Ilsensine) doesn't try and steal it in the meantime. But it is unlikely. Auppenser will never awaken, and as of the 1300s barely a handful of historians and sages even remembered his name. In the 1400s even fewer did, all psionics is basically associated with illithids and the occasional scattered other individuals. Or aberrant mind sorcerers, subsuming it under the banner of magic.tl;dr fuck elves, like usual.
>>90313753Oh, the Moonsea's my favorite place. Almost wish another Rage of Dragons fucked up Cormyr and the Dales so that Zhentil Keep could expand into Cormanthyr, plunder the ancient elven artifacts, set up a Dark Mythal, raise some ancient dracolishes with the help of the Cult of the Dragon and start rampaging across the whole area... so that our high-level party could take them on!I mean, just look at this cute little cult logo. Look at the little guy!
>>90318950god damn elves are so based
>>90320734>Aghazstamn Alasklerbanbastos Alglaudyx Aurgloroasa Calathanorgoth Cypress Daurgothoth Dretchroyaster Ebondeath Hephaestus Kistarianth Kryonar Malygris Melauthaur Pelendralaar Rauglothgor Sapphiraktar the Blue Saurglyce Shargrailar Shhuusshuru Urshula Vix'thra XavarathimiusDracoliches used to be big, bad threats in 1e/2e FR. What happened to make them so ignored since then?
>>90320785>dracolichesI ran across this while doing some dragon research for a region
>>90320810Nice, thanks! Got a link to the spreadsheet somewhere? It'd be nice to sort stuff by column.
>>90320838No, sadly.https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_dragonsThis has a sortable list but I'm unsure how they match up.
>>90320785They're very hard to use outside of epic level campaigns, which WotC stopped pretending anyone plays those a while back.One of my first introductions to dracoliches was an AD&D2e FR book that had the cult of the dragon making one... being guarded by another one, so if the players enter through the front, even if they have invisibility and other shit a dracolich can see through, they immediately get blasted with a super breath weapon that even an 18 con fighter wouldn't survive, and expecting the PCs to have someone/something incorporeally scout ahead so they know where to stoneshape or earthmove or whatever to get into the place is a bit much for most groups.
>>90320951That sounds like high-level play and something that high-level players would be expected to do. You don't just cast mass invisibility and walk into a villain's lair and hope for a full-frontal battle that you can win. Magic-users are like strategic theater commanders in epic campaigns and spells are their special operations forces; you have to deploy them cleverly and sparingly to win with sneakery or they get massacred. Okay, mangled analogy there but you know what I mean.
>>90320951>They're very hard to use outside of epic level campaigns, which WotC stopped pretending anyone plays those a while back.>loud autists for years brag about killing Elminster or Khelben or some other random high-level character>Greenwood floods FR with high-level NPCs and makes Elminster and friends even MORE powerful and unkillable and "no u">turns out nobody really plays high level campaigns anyway and he just gave FR its most hated reputation that will stick with it for decades for no good reasonThere's a moral, or message, somewhere.
>>903207853e dracoliches will fuck you up, and most games don't get to the level where they're an appropriate threat
>>90321203>Greenwood floods FR with high-level NPCs and makes Elminster and friends even MORE powerful and unkillable and "no u"Elminster and friends are the only parts of the setting I ignoreAnything to do with Mystra, which seems to be where he concentrated all his autism.
>>90321203Elminster has pretty consistently gotten weaker with every edition.Simbul is the only one who kept getting stronger, but that's because she's the embodiment of "women are fucking crazy" and the fact she hasn't wiped out all life on the planet is just because no one has gotten her order wrong at Ye Olde Ben & Jerry's.At least until 4e did away with herAside from them, the villains kept getting level boosts, like Szass and Larloch both got massive boosts during 3e/3.5e.Most of the seven sisters got significantly weaker with 3e, and even moreso with 5e.Did Shoon ever get an update in 3e?Is he still larping as a little elf girl?Is he/she finally grown up in 5e?
>>90321464Ed said (outside of a sourcebook) that the 'real' Manshoon dipped out a long time ago and is just laying low and doing subtle background manipulation of events - prior to engineering Fzoul's takeover and all the rest of his clone stuff.So the Manshoon(s) running around now are all clones. I still think it was a weird way to handle the logic problem of 'everyone is slaying Manshoon in their adventures against Zhentil Keep'.
>>90321479Shoon, not Manshoon.The super necromancer who became a demilich, then got trapped in a book, then stole the body of a little wood elf girl.According to the FR wiki he fucked off to Maztica during the 3.5e era and started conquering those lands, then the spellplague happened so he was off-world for the duration of 4e, and it's unclear whether he came back with 5e.Though since that's all non-canon stuff said by Steven Schend (his writer) it's doubtful that WotC would use it.
>>90321479>the 'real' Manshoon dipped out a long time ago and is just laying lowIsn't he dead for real?
>>90307373I'd welcome it.
>>90321512Apparently he's just running around living his best life according to Ed's Manshoon podcast episode
>>90321532Well. Good for him, I suppose.
>>90321532I though this idea of the best life was subjugating the Moonsea and Sword Coast to his amazing magical power? >>90321464The criticism of FR having too many powerful NPCs was already common in 2e so the RPG designers tried to tone them down but each new (best-selling) novel would ramp up their power yet again.
>>90283811Where's this map from? Its weird it includes Hartsvale (Also the Twilight Giants trilogy was one of the comfiest fantasy reads, way back).
>>90324744>I though this idea of the best life was subjugating the Moonsea and Sword Coast to his amazing magical power?That was apparently just a learning process for him. He's still a complete narcissistic sociopath but he considers ruling to be tedious and the whole Zhentarim enterprise to be too dangerous so he prefers to manipulate from the shadows.
>>90324744I don't think those are necessarily connected.Novel readers and D&D players have never been fully overlapping, and much of the powers in the novels don't really show up in sourcebooks at all.There were a couple of early books that had options for DMs to give their players super powers based on the Magister or some shit, but that also existed for spellfire.I think the meme about powerful NPCs kind of became self perpetuating despite there not being nearly as many as people say there are.I think the bigger problem was the one that 5e "solved". A lot of people wished the realms was about big goddamn heroes saving the entire world, when the setting was more about localized heroes making a difference in their corner of the world. Every novel is basically an example of this, yet the majority of gamers seem to want to feel like the protagonists of the entire setting.So lashing out about NPCs makes sense when you consider people get upset about other local heroes existing, admittedly some of them do have more reach than they should, but they're very few in number, but I think that's just a symptom.5e making the setting into "the world is ending every week and you heroes get to save it!" Is lame as fuck from a setting perspective, but it's the exact kind of modules the majority want.
>>90325891Here >>90286273
>>90321464>Elminster has pretty consistently gotten weakerNah, 4e was the only edition where he got weaker. 1e he was a sage, then a 26th level wizard. Then by 2e he was a 29th level wizard, and all through 2e kept picking up new powers, anything from spellfire to all the Master Harper boons to being allowed to cast 10th level spells. Then in 3e he was a CR 39 caster with epic spellcasting, and the only reason it was a "weak" CR 39 is because the people writing the rules didn't understand how they worked. 4e dropped him down, but in 5e he now completely ignores the wizard aspect and "can continuously pull as many spells as he wants from the weave because Weavemaster and doesn't need to memorise spells or anything he just HAS EVERY SPELL EVER ALL THE TIME and can't die because he claims new bodies and and and" and anybody who says he's gotten weaker clearly is not paying attention.The only reason some of the seven sisters got weaker in 3e was because they were badly translated over from 2e. 5e killed most of them, but even then they now just "live within the Weave lol they're fine and waiting for new bodies".
>>90326908>but in 5e he now completely ignores the wizard aspectHe got statted in 5E? I didn't know that. Which book? Can you post the whole statblock?
>>90327203You just have Greenwood's statements on twitter about how Elminster works in 5e with all his extra powers. There is a full statblock for him to handle in-house design using him, but it isn't public.
>>90286273>map includes Sorcerer's Isle and dozens of other minor locationsNice, very impressive. Ugly, but impressively detailed.
>>90286273>Handsome Rob mapThis one's much nicer looking and quite comprehensive too. Doesn't have Sorcerer's Isle on it though. :(
>>90327424http://www.pvpchamps.com/TorilMap.zip is the link to Handsome Rob's map, it's only about 165MB.
>>90327303>>90327203>https://www.sageadvice.eu/can-elminster-break-the-rule-of-not-using-10th-level-spells-since-hes-a-favourite-of-mystra/>https://www.sageadvice.eu/a-weavemaster/>https://www.sageadvice.eu/i-noticed-that-elminster-is-the-current-leader-of-the-city-watch-of-waterdeep/>can now produce all spells he wants at any time>can do it bound, gagged, and without any components at all>can heal, teleport, do basically anything he wants as a non-spell-but-magical (can't be counterspelled)>can't even be trapped in antimagic field because lolsilverfireGreenwood can claim "weaker" all he likes, he's just self-fellating himself. 5e Elminster is, easily, the most powerful incarnation of him that has ever existed mechanically.And people claim Elminster isn't a Mary Sue self-insert.
>>90327492This just proves we need someone to steal the weave from Mystra
>>90327492Jebus Chrysler.
>>90327492I would not agree, Elminister isn't really that powerful since you consider the sacrifices he has to do for these amazing gifts!I have to engage in intercourse with Mystra on a regular basis because the quite beautiful goddess of magic has fallen in love with Elminister, meanwhile he would rather just stay true to his drow apprentice, Susprina Arkhenneld, who despite being drow, has walked a path of goodness, though in the bedroom she is still "culturally" like her sisters of the drow of the underdark and treat me like one of her drow males! And lest we forget! All this time he is forced to bed the Goddess of Magic he is stolen away from encounters with Ammaratha Cyndusk, who in her humanoid form went under the name Maerjanthra Shalace, who was very voloptuous in that form, but she keeps the wildness of a dragon within her!
>>90327492>And people claim Elminster isn't a Mary Sue self-insert.Who claims that?
>>90327599That poor, poor man! He needs to snuggle in the busom of The Simbul to, ah, work out his problems. Sweatily.
>>90283811>What's your favorite Forgotten Realms area?Silverymoon sounds like the best place for a human to me, but only if I ignore real life experience and pattern-recognition. Honestly, make me a hot moon elf, slap me down on a lodge on a cliff on the west coast of evermeet, and leave me the fuck alone.
>>90327665Ed, he goes so far as to say the only reason Elminster is as stong and prominent as he is currently, is due to TSR telling him "The Elminster books sell so make more Elminster books!" to paraphrase and that he would of been more happy making more knight of Myth Dranor books.
>>90288884Shocked and disgusted that only one person posted this, the objectively correct answer.The Dalelands ARE the Realms, the rest is just the faraway exotic backdrop.
>>90328486Lands of Intrigue are best Realms. Dalelands is boring as fuck, it's all Shadowdale, Elminster, Cormyr, and Zhentarim clowns.
>>90328536
>>90328467It seems that Ed Greenwood hates Elminster the way I hate having my nipples polished with industrial sand paper.
>>90328596A devotee of Loviatar, are you?
>>90328595>Tethyr for feudal knights and castles>Calimshan for exotic Arabian Niiiiiiiiights just like Arabian daaaaaaays>Amn for the evil empire/republic invadingIt's everything you need. You even have a vast underground kingdom of dwarves that was abandoned to drow and duergar and Underdark monsters that the players can scout down into lest horrors emerge from the depths.
>>90328536>and Zhentarim clownsZhents would be cool if they were ever competent or allowed to win a single time rather than being the fantasy version of COBRA who runs away with their tails between their legs after every 22-minute episode.
>>90330750I think they're fine as the designated heels they're meant to be. It's an important job.
>>90328486Nice try Dalescum, Moonsea is objectively the best.
>>90330750>zhentarimI just re-skinned every Zhent with a new group name if they aren't in the Dalelands/Moonsea/Anauroch region and no one ever noticed.
>>90283811
>>90327322The regional versions are quite detailed too
>>90327492How badly does he mog Mordenkainen?
>>90329768I like them, but I think they work best contrasted with the Dales. It's why I waffle on the 3e map compression. An emptier Faerun makes more the wildly different cultures feel more natural.
>>90332647>https://www.sageadvice.eu/who-do-you-think-would-win-in-combat-elminster-or-mordenkainen/
>>90330750>>90330884Competent evil makes for a much more interesting story, both in itself as an antagonist force for the PCs. Pic related. >>90331478What did you name them?
>>90334203>baldur's gate and scornubel regionThe RivermenThey were a loose conglomeration of bandits (I noticed that most of the wealth of the region was caravans or food) that at some point had 'made' it enough to have families and local nobility but still using their bandit ties for power and influence. The third of fourth generation included clerics/magic-users, and they made it into a formal bloc of power when four of them seized Darkhold. Their aims are regional, looking to make a kingdom of their own.>sword coastThe BrotherhoodOriginally termed the Brotherhood of the North, they were all Illuskans involved in turning a profit by any means. Eventually as they kept recruiting anyone with a warm body and ambition, they just became known as the Brotherhood. I based them out of Orlbar, run by a Priestess of Bane, Agatha Blackhand. The organization is very decentralized as she's just seized power.It just put regional aims and faces to it instead of making it seem like a huge sprawling evil.
>>90334203>disney shill loses its way from /tv/ and decides to plug blue alien originally written amateurishly for 15 year olds during a better era of a different franchise.
>>90283811>What's your favorite Forgotten Realms area?None.
bump
so... what's drizzt doing these days?
>>90339128fighting
>>90339128keeping his head low and hoping he doesn't get canceled
>>90339128he became a monk because Salvatore ran out of ideas for what to do with him as a ranger
>>90339128>>90339432yepexploring northern icewind dale cuz theres a hidden city of good drow therelots of flashbacks to zacknafeins youth, also he got rezzed and runs with drizzle now, I think
>>90339464>hidden city of good drow thereThis is apparently always what he wanted to do with drow, when Drizzt was just something he came up with at the spot when he was told he couldn't use another character for a certain fght
>>90306494Thanks for killing whatever interest in Forgotten Realms elves was still in me.Humans are still the bigger sluts
>>90341598If you want to get technical in FR lore, the elves are sluts during their exploration period before they settle down
>>90341756Don't care for that one bit.
>>90341756Elminster in Myth Drannor features several married and settled elves slutting it up with each other in hot tubs.
This is your periodic reminder that all TSR print products are still toned way the fuck down compared to Greenwood's ultracoomer home game.
>>90321464I really dont see how Simbul is chaotic GOOD.
>>90342085isnt she CN?
>>90342085>chaotic goodFunny enough, all but one female player that I've played with have made female characters that are CG - the exception made a LG paladin.They seem to gravitate to that alignment because they believe what they do is good and they don't want to follow someone else's laws, morals, or orders, I guess.
>>90342669ive played D&D with four different women in my life, albeit briefly1: NG half-elf cleric of ehlonna2: NG half-elf druid/CG half-orc barbarian3: NG half-elf druid4: CN elf rogue
>>90342065That might concern me if there were more overlaps between Ed's kinks and my own.
>>90342085https://www.realmshelps.net/npc/simbul.shtmlChaotic Neutral
>>90342085Always bin Neutral, innit? Simbul as
>>90342065>why do I need to roll twice for feet Ed>one roll for size, one roll for.. taste
>>90341756Don't they also have ritual bonds for life? That was in the Last Mythal series, wasn't it?
>>90345526There was some old Dragon article about it, I didn't read those novels so couldn't tell you there.The Dragon article mentioned elves living wildly for a good deal of their life, then when they find a life mate they bond for life and death, which is why the Queen of Evermeet is still a solo queen who is never moving on.
>>90283811>my DM only runs campaigns in the Sword CoastFuck me, Waterdeep gets boring.
>Greenwood wanted the afterlife and the planes to be more mysterious>He wanted gods to act more through manifestations and hints as opposed to just showing up>TSR and later WotC said otherwise so instead he defined everything and then told us every god's social security number and dating profileOn one hand I would have never heard of his setting without D&D, but on the other hand it sounds like publisher mandates really fucked his ideas
>>90346981thats what you get when you chase fame and money
>>90346981Buddy, you ain't heard nothin' yet. Wait until you read about the original Moonshaes that he *taped over* because TSR were faggoty about wanting some specific forgettable shit there instead. It's so dumb I don't even remember the circumstances.
>>90346981Not only that but then they eventually decided that it would be better if they didn't show up and were more mysterious
>>90347451I remember that TSR wanted to sell a King Arthur war game but the UK branch of the company that was working on it crashed and burned before it ever came out, so the tie in novels were now a tie in for a product that was never finished.Instead of putting them out like that anyway, TSR decided to make them advertise for the Forgotten Realms, despite having nothing to do with the setting, so Greenwood had to plug the book into the setting to make an unrelated product tie in, and the books had to have a bit of a find/replace to change a few names, but not many.I don't remember ever hearing what was originally there though.
>>90348976Oh, that's right, Holy shit, that's dumb. IIRC the original islands were already named the Moonshaes, but they were an archipelago of Earthsea-like, small islands.
>>90347104Fame yes, he wanted his setting to be known everywhere.Money? From what we know Greenwood was offered several times to make a living off of TSR directly, instead of just being a consultant type, but he didn't want to give up his library job since he preferred the more peaceful life in rural Canada.>>90347601I'm torn. I do like the gods being petty dicks, playing up their imperfections is kind of a neat idea. But then trying to make them mysterious after establishing that they're petty and capable of interacting with the world seems inconsistent at best.
>>90349064I wonder if that's why Anchorome was also (allegedly) originally Earthsea style until it got retconned into North America.Greenwood seems to really want to have an Earthsea like part of Faerun but every time he writes one TSR gave it to some other author to write a real world earth culture there.
I hear the Knights of the Shield are good guys now. From literal mafia to heroic brotherhood? Seems like a a stretch.
>>90346981>>Greenwood wanted the afterlife and the planes to be more mysteriousHe literally wrote the original Nine Hells and shit in Dragon and Dungeon way way back in the day, "mysterious" is a crock of shit.
>>90284006>Ugh, whats with people actually talking about settings they like instead of "HOW ARE PINK LGBT-TIEFLINGS IN YOUR SETTING"You sound like a total sperg.
>>90327492>>90327509>>90327665>>90328467>>90328596Whats with this Influx of Reddit-Tourists again?Have you ever tried not talking out of your ass?It is always amazing to me how newfags get into something, don't bother learning toe history of it and then go on rant about something they know nothing about.Elminster was quite literally created to fuck with players who took themselves to seriously. He used to be less of character and more of an in-joke that you used whenever you had a player at the Table who thought he could arm-wrestle god because he had reached Level 26."Why would I want to take a quest from the king when my level is high above him, I am stronger than anyone in this Kingdom, the King should bow to me" and then Elminster would pop up out of nowhere and fart loudly. Elminster literally started out as a meme and people reading the Dragon Magazine wanted more of him because everyone at the table had experience with THAT GUY.That merely 40 years later we have come full circle where Tourists bitch about Elminster being a Mary-Sue when was literally created to fuck with them is just fucking amazing to me.Now watch as instead of apologizing for being tourists and lurking more they will double-down and tout their ignorance as a virtue.
>>90327599>>90327695Oh and by the way you clueless tardfaggot:If you knew anything ANYTHING about what the fuck you are actually talking about you would know that the closest character to being Greenwood's self-insert is "Mirth the Moneylender" you midwitted mongoloid.
>>90289266>Sun elves are portrayed constantly as the biggest dicks>they are right every single timeReally makes me think.
>>90289312Mental issues: the post
>>90290384Same.Which is one of the typical Greenwood things where everyone is an unreliable narrator and you can choose the version you want to be true if its relevant to your adventure.
>>90290927>>90290981I really dont know where this wierd rumor comes from that "Salvatore hates drow characters because they distract from Drizzt" when he wrote like 3 other semi-known Drow-Characters that never caught on including two that were implied to be daughters of Drizzt.
>>90351132I certainly don't think Salvatore hates drow.I think someone in publishing thinks other drow detract though.
>>90351087oh damn, they really were elf nazi germany; I never even thought about it
>>90351308but wait! There is more! >maybe we shouldn't hand out moonblades to silver-elves>most functioning moonblades are now in moon-elf hands; multiple goldelf dynasties were literally ended by trying to find worth successors for moonblades>maybe we shouldn't let non-elves into myth drannor>myth drannor is now a ruin>maybe we shouldn't let those weird human refugees of the fallen magic empire into our lands just because they helped us against the dragons>nearly all former elven empires now have human kingdoms on top of them>maybe we shouldn't mingle with silver-elves>moon-elf is now the monarch of all elves and it starts the great retreat
>>90351555trips of truth
>>90351555>notices all these things>does nothing to stop it, just takes itare sun elves cucks
>>90351813most sun elves don't know there is an (((author))) behind the scenes
>>90349318kek, why the fuck did I imagine this as a Kelly comic out of nowhere?>Evil Editors: "Hyeh hyeh hyeh...">Innocent Edcucks: "B-b-but my respectful LeGuin homage...!">Sickos: "Yes... I'm buying the box set... yes!"
>>90351813Worse.As soon as someone notices they are afraid of getting cancelled, so they build an elaborate ruse that blows up in their faces and ends with hundreds of dead gold elves and another 5 ancient gold-elf lineages erased (who could probably track back their ancestry to the first Crown War) because they couldn't stomach being called racist by some silver-haired Moon-Elf prick.
>>90350589hahahaha
>>90350552Hey man I'm >>90328467 and I was quoting Ed from his recent stuff on why Elminster got so many books.
>>90353551That doesn't really hold water considering that Elminster gets basically no books now and he is still getting stronger and stronger.
>>90284006New stuff is discussed literally everywhere normal people are, so people are probably getting their fix of that there.
>>90283811Damara and VasaaOnly ever used it H1 to H4 and in the intro level of Demon Stone
why is all vidya FR???
>>90359698its the most popular setting with the most to draw upon so it got the Baldurs Gate games, and the res was history.There was also a Dark Sun game, a Plansecape Game, and the Capcom Arcade beat em up is in Mystara
>>90359872There were also many Dragonlance games back in the day, and even a Spelljammer one
