im really enjoying Dark Sun's Prism Pentad, and that's all that the local bookstore has for me, besides some of Gary Gygax's really old Greyhawk novels.
There are over 150 forgotten realms novels, though.
So....what are the good novels of TFR? Are there any? I read the first drizzt novel where he escapes his homeland...it fucking sucked...
The Drizzt series by R.A Salvatore is pretty middle of the road when it comes to Forgotten Realms novels. To be honest most of them suck. His newer stuff is a lot better, try reading his Neverwinter series.
I used to love his books as a kid though, you're just not the target reader here.
Pretty much it, the books are more aimed at teenagers.
okay well
are any of the FR books good? PP is okay for Dark Sun.
I'll say one thing though, Salvatore may have written some pretty shitty characters in those books, but the plot was always solid, Icewind Dale is a dope setting and he wrote some pretty good action scenes.
Read "The Sundering" series, aka "let's reset 99% of everything to 2e".
The Maztica trilogy and the Cleric Quintet were pretty good, I thought. Spellfire and Cormyr: A Novel too.
The Forgotten Realms SETTING is pretty good.
It's supplements are delightfully detailed and full of wonderful fluff that manages to be familiar enough to fantasy fans to be easy to slip into but different enough so that it's not bland at all.
FR as a setting has several problems, but "boring" is not one of them (boring is a subjective state) and "bland" (as in lacking flavor or substance) isn't one either.
The Forgotten Realms NOVELS however are generally pretty shit, and are both boring AND bland.
My current campaign actually kind of revolves around the party exploring and cataloging the Realms after the Sundering happened and trying to figure out what's different and why everything suddenly changed so dramatically in ways that the reasons for the Sundering doesn't explain.
It's kind of meta, but very fun.
My favourites, in ascending order:
>the second Moonshaes trilogy by Doug Niles
Twenty years after the first trilogy (which isn't half bad, only you can really see the RPG mechanics at work in it), the new gods are once again fucking with the Moonshaes.
>the Azure Bonds trilogy by Novak & Grubb
You know it from the Gold Box game, now read the books. The adventures of Alias and his unlikely troupe, with a quick look at Giogi Wyvernspur in the second book (featuring the best red dragon ever).
>the Maztica trilogy by Doug Niles (again)
It's the Conquest of the Americas by Amn. Features a place you don't often see in the FR stuff (I mean, aside from these books and the Maztica box, was there anything else?)
>the heavyweight champion, the Horselords trilogy (Horselords, Dragonwall, Crusade) by David Cook et al.
The not-Mongols are coming and everyone's fucked. Seriously, these are my all time favourite FR novels. Again, places you don't often see in the game stuff (the steppe, Shou Lung) and main characters that are actually reasonably written. Dragonwall's my nomination for the best FR novel of all time.
>his
Alias is a woman, shitlord.
Maztica got a few adventures as well, with one of them (FMQ1) being a supplement as well. Nothing since 1992, though.
>Alias is a woman
A construct, you mean.
The Baldur's Gate novelization.
Didn't stop Akabar. RIP unselfish Turmishman.
>The not-Mongols are coming and everyone's fucked. Seriously, these are my all time favourite FR novels. Again, places you don't often see in the game stuff (the steppe, Shou Lung) and main characters that are actually reasonably written. Dragonwall's my nomination for the best FR novel of all time.
My favourite part about that whole series was how they wrote Elminster out. Because you'd think with a giant invading horde coming into Faerun, and the Dales (where he lives) being at least somewhat in their path along with Cormyr, that he'd be interested? They send him a message asking for aid.
His response?
"Fuck off, I'm busy."
Let's see, stuff I have on "to read" and "have read" right now:
>Halruaa trilogy (okay-ish)
Wizard land and the potential for wizard wars, but more often wizard intrigue and wizard politics. Did I mention wizards?
>War of the Spider Queen
Lolth stops answering prayers and Shit Goes Down when Drow society immediately collapses as a result.
I also have, but have not gotten around to reading yet, "Starlight and Shadows" (books about a half-elf Harper, don't know much more than that) along with the Wizards series (four books, each in a different part of FR, each one self-contained in story).
op here
thanks for the suggestions.
except for nobody asked you to come in and defend the setting fucko.
I enjoyed the war of the spider queen series and even one of the lady penitent series it gave a nice look into the drow and their society from the perspective of evil backstabbing drow rather than drizzit's outsider status.
Maztica would have been more interesting if it weren't just "exactly what happened in history, except there's some actual magic this time around".
Would you recommend some setting books? I'm literally falling asleep every time I'm trying to read something about FR.
Please don't.
The new 5E Adventurer's Guide to the Sword Coast is okay. At least it's brief.
OP here.
That shit was confusing.
>This is a biiiig castle
>it was destroyed after 300 years of awesome
>it was rebuilt but then orcs ruined it again
>and then some adventurers(UN NAMED ADVENTURERS) cleared out all of the spooky ghosts during the 4e living forgotten realms shit
>oh and then some orcs can in and killed everyone again. its haunted again. wee
There's at least 4 locations like that in that book alone.
Why? It's the only fun you can get out of that series.
Not that user, but I recommend the 2E FR setting books. My recommendations:
>Waterdeep (The City of Splendours) box
This is simply put the best box TSR ever put out. Everything in the city is detailed, from the trade guilds to the noble families, and it includes giant poster maps of the city.
>The Horde box
Setting of the Horselords trilogy books I mentioned upthread. The not-Mongol tribes are described in wonderful detail, as are the places, the flora and the fauna. Also includes giant poster maps.
>Empires of the Shining Sea
Mainly for Calimshan. It is, like Waterdeep, incredibly detailed. Everything you'd want in running games in Calimshan is here, and if you want more, there's
>Calimport
Does to the city what the Waterdeep box did to Khelben's patch. Incredibly det... Well you get the picture.
>Lands of Intrigue
Amn, Tethyr and the country that the Cadderly books took place and vanished in the great map shrinking during the shift to 3E. Again, incredibly detailed (you can probably see where I'm going here).
>Dreams of the Red Wizards
Thay before it went to complete shit.
>the various Volo's Guides
Fun reads, offering detailed looks at the places (including bar and brothel... I mean festhall price lists). Also feature food recipes.
>Faiths and Avatars plus Powers and Pantheons
Everything you want to know if you want to play a god-bothering sort. And I mean everything. Every human god from Ao himself to the smallest demigod is listed, along with the non-Faerunian gods like those Mulhorand. What you wear if you're a cleric here, when you worship, what's your dogma, it's here. Sadly no Shou gods, but that's not a problem, because there is
>Kara-Tur (The Eastern Realms)
Which is the Horde/Maztica box size (smaller than Waterdeep, but still fairly big) describing the various not-Chinas and not-Japans east of the not-Mongol steppe.
>tfw I have the karatur books but everything else in the box was destroyed in a flood
Thanks folks. Probably the abundance of details and lack of obvious, in your face, flavor is my problem with FR stuff, but I'll try to get some out of these.
Yeah, there's way too much history and repeating backstories in FR in general.
That's why every 5-6 years the editors try to trash the place to start over, but keep getting pulled back into the quicksand of novel canon and die-hard fandom.
It's a mess that can't be fixed.
Now the second tier of recommendations. Note that these are still very good, but they can be rather niche. Cum grano salis and all that.
>The Vilhon Reach
Turmish and the other countries south of the Sea of Fallen Stars, including the druids of the Emerald Enclave and a city where they really, really love snakes. Unfortunately missing is the place where they worship a sphere of annihilation.
>The Moonsea
Zhentil Keep, Phlan, Hillsfar and the rest.
>Gold and Glory
Various famous mercenary units are described here, including the one that conquered Maztica and the best mercs ever, the Mindulgulph Mercenary Company. Some of their members in pic attached.
>Dwarves Deep
All dwarf, all the time. If you want to play Urist McMugshield, read this.
>the older books on various seldom seen places
Specific mentions to The Moonshae, The Bloodstone Lands and The Great Glacier
Seconding Cleric's Quintet, it was a rather good series.
This is Dragonspear Castle, isn't it? Built by an adventurer (of course), taken over by... hobgoblins, I think, then reclaimed by humans, then taken over by devils, then reclaimed again (I think).
This is why I recommend the 2E books. The setting books lost a great deal of flavour during the shift from 2E to 3E. Before the shift, you could find even small adventuring bands detailed, or recipes, or trade routes in the books, and many of the boxes came with those giant poster-sized maps and some even had a transparent hex overlay to calculate travel times. After the shift, it was lists of spells and levels of NPCs and two-inch-long descriptions of places.
For full disclosure, though, I don't think all 3E FR sourcebook stuff was crap. I especially like The Unapproachable East.
It was several. I'd have to read the book again to find out but it was so bland I dont really want to, but DSC was one, yes.
Wow, that pic beats everything I've seen in FR before. Thanks again.
>I especially like The Unapproachable East.
I too though TUE was pretty decent.
Most of the prior info in 3e was almost always copy-passed from 2e it felt like with some slights edits based on edition changes, but TUE was the first to talk in detail about Rashenan, Thesk, Aglarond, and especially the Great Dale.
>quicksand of novel canon
This is the worst part of FR, honestly.
The novels aren't that good, but a lot of folks at TSR and WotC seemed to think making THEM they key parts of the universe was a great idea when even Ed Greenwood didn't like that concept.
Speaking of Dragonspear Castle, the grey box had a shitload of these adventure hooks that mentioned it (covering the years 1356 and 1357). There were many with an asterisk which meant it wouldn't be expanded on anywhere and was thus free game for a DM, and unlike the bit about Sembia, I think they even kept that promise.
This is the hook that I remember best from after all these years. Fighting devils in the mist would be an awesome adventure, and since most of the troops fighting were mercenaries, it would easy to slip a party of PCs in there as well.
>"You meet a big devil that looks sort of like a bug, has a long barbed tail and a big spear. It sends a telepathic transmission: "'Ice' to see you." Does anyone have a Planes lore NWP?"
The town with the orc sheriff was great. One of the things in TUE I liked the most was the fact that the Zhentil Keep orcs actually settled in, told the Zhents to sod off and became bros to the local humans.
>One of the things in TUE I liked the most was the fact that the Zhentil Keep orcs actually settled in, told the Zhents to sod off and became bros to the local human
Actually struck me as being fairly realistic; a lot of historical far-traveling armies ended up settling down in the places they ended up fighting.
Thesk seemed pretty interesting to me. Despite being fairly "normal" as far as he Realms go (being a regionally-organized collection of otherwise independent city-states that focused on trade) they had a lot of small elements that made it interesting; a large number of Shou expats, a large thieves guild with some impressive powers at their disposal, a lot of half-orcs and orcs that are actually treated relatively well and get along with folks, etc.
Speaking of which, how is the Realms of X anthology series?
I have a soft spot for anything written for Zakhara
Minifig knows old school FR?
I've never played/ran anything in the setting, but I remember seeing somebody mention Al-Qadim in a "want to play/run (but probably never will)" thread back in the day, so I figured I'd give it a look.
It's probably what got me interested in Arabian Nights RPG settings, of which there are precious few; I believe Pathfinder has a Fantasy Arabia, but it's mostly just to indulge some grognard's slave market fetish.
But I digress... Yeah, I'm pretty keen on Zakhara, and wish WoTC actually did something with it. I could give you the bare bones of the Al-Qadim campaign I know I'll never get to run, if you really want.
Fuck ALL of that shit
I got what you need right here
Mutha
Fuckin
Xanth Series
By my man, Piers Anthony
This shit is one of the best fantasy novels I've ever read
It's fueled a lot of Inspiration for a Dnd 3.5 campaign I spent 4 years writing, actually
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Huh... I saw this in a second-hand book shop a few days ago. Kind of wish I'd bought it, but it was #7 in the series and I haven't read any Xanth yet.
It's an absolute must read, I honestly had more fun reading these than LOTR
Damnit, missed one
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>His newer stuff is a lot better
I couldn't disagree any harder.
Are you 12?
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