What does Veeky Forums think of the Forgotten Realms as a fantasy world/campaign setting?

What does Veeky Forums think of the Forgotten Realms as a fantasy world/campaign setting?

Is there a more detailed and diverse fantasy world out there?

What's your favourite:

>region
>city
>faction

Learning the full extent of Elminster's lore certainly didn't make me like the setting any better. He's like Mary Sue squared.

It's neat. It's the fantasy setting that doesn't go out of its way to be different, and just wants to be rich in what it is.

>region
Chult. Dinosaurs make everything better.
>city
Waterdeep, mostly because of Undermountain
>faction
None, though I might have a soft spot for the Red Wizards.

>It's neat. It's the fantasy setting that doesn't go out of its way to be different,

I would say thats the beauty off it. There is so much lore about it, so much stuff, that If you do not get into or dont want to get into you miss all the interesting stuff.
I mean, if you think about it the Setting takes place long after the Magical Apocalypse with humanities gratest achievments turning into rubble.

Then you Elves which in FR were a declining race not because of humanity but because they were to busy murdering each other over who becomes the true elven royalty which they were so successful at that the young human race managed to spread everywhere before their bodies grew cold.

Lets not forget how the only native elves to the Setting are actually the Proto-Drow until other elves arrived from space with Spelljammers.

And then of course you have the Ancient Saurianpeople creating various monstrous races because NO SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG, while humans are actually sliders and also not native to Toril.

I haven't read much of the setting but for me it divides like this:

10% good
10% not particularly good by any means but gives off this pleasant D&D atmosphere
20% idea could be made good if twisted around, but is mediocre or bad as is.
30% bad
30% indifference

I don't hate it, but it's not something I'd want to use verbatim. It's more splice in material when you are cooking up that baseline D&D stew.

>region
currently running a game in Amn with some modifications. captalism as religion, the east is high desert/wasteland, and full of the ruins of former civilizations.

>city
No clue. Athkatla as fantasy Constantinople?

>faction
Iron Throne

>region
Vaasa, Rashemen or Thay

>city
Westgate

>faction
The Night Parade

It is terrible. High fantasy of worst sort where "a wizard did it" is explanation for anything, internally inconsistent patchwork of unfitting elements thrown for the sake of "muh diversity", autistic label-box worldbuilding model, absolutely no depth.

But I'm bit stuck with it in my online RP because most NWN2 servers run on it so I have some knowledge, and there is some good stuff in it despite all bad things

so
>MOONSHAES actually, they're quite awesome as for something being part of setting that bad
>The Shadow Enclave
>Shades though I also like Iron Throne much, viewing them as something akin evil corporation in KotOR's Czerka vibe

Daily reminder that in Faerun, even small villages with 6,340 gp of assets are ruled by high-level wizards.

>Maeruhal (Village): Conventional; AL NG; 200 gp limit; Assets 6,340 gp; Population 693
>Authority Figures: Mayor Rinlin Pulgro (NG male human evoker 14/Halruaan elder 2).
>Important Characters: Kelvrim Errowd (LN male human diviner 11/Halruaan elder 1), Dobyo Flurrig (NG male human abjurer 12/Halruaan elder 2), Inyda Lauz (LG female human diviner 12/Halruaan elder 4), and Drindos Bez-Mont (N male human evoker 13/Halruaan elder 2)

Halruaan Elder is a full casting prestige class, and a really good one at that.

>Yaulazna (Hamlet): Conventional; AL LE; 30,000 gp limit; Assets 9,000,000 gp; Population varies (about 180), averages 300
>Authority Figures: Yargo (LE male lightfoot halfling rogue 9/Great Sea corsair 8), the Pirate King of Yaulazna. Important Characters: Zuusted Nimderval (NE male human conjurer 20), Yargo’s right-hand man

>Yargo has a powerful friend—a renegade wizard from Halruaa named Zuusted Nimderval (NE male human conjurer 20), who has developed a variation on the plane shift spell that actually causes the entire shantytown to vanish to another plane temporarily.

Here we have a pirate hamlet whose ruler's right-hand man is a level 20 conjurer wizard who Plane Shifts the whole "shantytown" to another plane.

A little less crazy in the Silver Marches, but you still have mid-level rangers and wizards hanging out in population 226 hamlets.

> "a wizard did it"

Technically, it's less "a wizard did it" and more "it's Larloch's fault."

I'm liking it. 5e's my first proper edition of D&D and I've read through the SCAG, it's a very comfy setting. There's a big world already built for you to mess around in and a whole bunch of adventure hooks in it.

Currently I'm running OOTA and having a lot of fun, being more familiar with the lore of the setting allows for a lot more depth to be given to events.

I liked the books as a kid, but I don't like to run established settings. Inevitably someone at the table knows more, or think they know more, about some esoteric fact that I never imagined would be relevant.

Rangers are unlikely to hang around in larger. They don't much like cities. The FR were built around 1e/2e "class as behavioral straightjacket" sensibilities.

It actually has
>deepest lore

Really though, every single area of that world is fleshed out in 8 different time periods. That's its biggest draw as a DM, because if you know the setting, you don't have to think up shit.

Region: Thay, pre-Spellplague
City: ^
Faction: the Red Wizards
I really like the aesthetic of the society of LE mages.

Humans are the ONLY core race native to Toril. Though there are subgroups like the Mulan who were captured from earth and forced into slavery on Toril like in an episode of Stargate SG-1.

I really liked it in 3e for the depth of history and for the defined ethnic groups and empires and such. I suspect I'd really like Tekumel for that if I got into it, but that stuff's all scattered.

Anyways, this Elminster Everywhere thing, I think it's weird that it's such a concern to everyone. Like, I'm used to running Shadowrun, and you're a small fish in a very big pond, but that doesn't mean Lofwyr is going to Gary Oak you at every turn personally. He's got shit to do.

Anyways, I always found the resurgent Egypt idea in Mulhorand pretty cool, and I liked Dambrath's weird racial hierarchy (kind of reminds me of colonial Brazil).

>region
The Great Glacier, but Vaasa is equally perfect.
>city
Hard not to pick Skullport, even if I want to. You can't beat Skullport.
>faction
Harpers. Definitely the Harpers.

I fucking hate what WotC has done to FR. But since 2e had the good supplements, anyhow, it doesn't really matter. Running FR past 1357 is for dopes.

>3e

user, Halruaa is literally wizard land, surpassed only by Thay. I'd be surprised if wizards weren't ruling either place.

>Region
Lands of Intrigue barely beats Old Empires which barely beats the Shining South.

Whether it be Amn, Tethyr, or Calimshan, I can always figure out an adventure to place there.

>City
AD&D Suzail.

While Cormyr is a region I don't like to use much, I greatly enjoyed it in AD&D.

People love the royalty! In fact they love the royalty so much that if you ask too many questions about the royalty or show dislike for the crown you might be reported.

The knights of the crown protect the people! They fight off monsters and bandits, and even make sure to arrest those who show signs of disloyalty to ask some hard questions to.

The war wizards keep things running smoothly! And if you are found to have any wizard potential you're basically black bagged and forced into enlisting, where your final test is a loyalty test where you are killed on the spot, while if you succeed a Geas is placed on you to make you unable to ever rebel against the crown!

Then there's also the fact they have check points where a couple wizards just sit all day reading surface thoughts of anyone who passes by, and the fact the well loved King also has personally overseen the construction of new weapons of war made for greater devastation. Fun stuff.

It always felt to me like 1984 met a fantasy setting.

>Faction
The Emerald Enclave barely beats the Eldreth Veluuthra in my eyes.

With the former you have a group of druids who just want to protect nature, the latter you have elves who want to protect the ancient elven lands, and also combat racism!
When in practice the Emerald Enclave rule their territories, mostly from a distance, but have a history of destroying towns in massive floods or in horrible 'natural' disasters for failing to pay the proper respects. While the Eldreth Veluuthra is a bunch of extremists who consider killing hundreds of humans and burning their homes to the ground as proper retribution for disturbing elven burial mounds.

I'm interested in reading some Forgotten Realms novels but I don't know what to choose out of the fucking hundreds that exist. What are some good ones?

None. Do not mix the RPG with the novels. If you enjoy playing FR, read the supplements from 2e to learn about it. The novels are not RPG cannon, and they're all just shit writing. Bobby Salvatore put out some great supplements, but his novels are ass. Do not read them and never, ever, consider the events portrayed in them as canonical.

Are the novels not considered canonical?

That's news to me.

What about video games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale?

Actually they are. And games are semi-canon, that means they are canon in those parts that are not contradicrory with written sources.
While FR novels are bad, the "It's bad SO IT'S NOT CANON approach is quite... childish".
You may not include them in your personal canon, and run your games in a setting version that doesn't include them, but you can't deny them belonging to official canon on the grounds of quality, ffs. Especially when the publishers say otherwise.

It's not that they're not canon. It's that you should not consider them canon, and virtually no one does. Very few players ever include the novel events in games, because doing so ruins games.

>region

Everything underdark, so not exactly a region. Based on the 1st/2nd Ed. material this is mostly in northern Faerun. I do like the Savage Frontier and the (1e/2e) Silver Marches. I'm also interested in the Sword Coast and things as far down as Waterdeep.

>city

Menzoberranzan, Icewind Dale, Mantol Derith

>FR
>thinking high level is 10-15
>laughinginterferinggodsonadailybasis.jpeg

I think it's the best Ive seen. I don't like how high-powered it can be (if it topped out at about level 23 instead of 39, I'd consider it almost perfect), but most people apparently love it. Too bad the executives are retarded psychopaths and ruined it 9 years ago.

>region
tough
either the north around the high forest or the heartlands

>city
silverymoon, or new myth drannor

>faction
harpers all day err day

>mid-level rangers and wizards hanging out in population 226 hamlets.
that's true of regular D&D, with rangers and druids at least
go read the DMG demographics

anyway the previous examples are halrua, which is an exception to the realms at large

read each of these:

homeland by R.A.Salvatore
elminster: the making of a mage by Ed Greenwood
forsaken house by rich baker
dissolution by richard lee byers
elfshadow by elaine cunningham

if you dont like those, you dont like forgotten realms

>liking Menzoberranzan unironically

I'd rather play Eberron, Dark Sun, or Planescape, but you could probably do a fun FR game set in the Underdark.

Familiarity breeds contempt. The more you learn about the setting the more awful it gets.

>I'd rather play Eberron
This is why no one likes tripfags. Die in fire, scum-bag.

IIRC in the 2e core it said you should ignore the books you don't like, and one of the Volo's guides had a line about how Volo got his hands on copies of a few novels and that they were full of shit.
Which is also a reference to the fact that according to Realms canon, anything we read about the FR is vetted by Elminster who is incredibly biased towards himself and his friends.

In 3e they just assumed everything into the canon but simplified a few things.

I despise the Harpers.

I like Baldur's Gate, that's about it. Not a very interesting setting. Cancerous DMPC lore.

FR would be much better if people realised that all of the high-powered NPCs are supposed to be fucking over each other, not helping out your players.

FR would be much better if they reverted the setting back to 1e.