Forgotten Realms: Q&A - The Basics

 Forgotten Realms: Q&A - The Basics

Question: 

What is the Forgotten Realms?

Answer: 

The Forgotten Realms is fantasy fiction, that takes inspiration from the Lord of the Rings. There are common elements such as Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Dragons.

The Forgotten Realms is a world (Campaign Setting) within the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, currently owned by Wizards of the Coast. The Forgotten Realms was created by Ed. Greenwood, and actually pre-dates Dungeons and Dragons. 

This Campaign Setting focusses on the world of Toril and the Continent of Faerun.

Question: 

What is Dungeons and Dragons?

Answer:

Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy role playing game, that uses pen, paper, and dice to play the game. There are rulebooks that have evolved through time. Currently, Dungeons and Dragons is in its 5th Edition.

The Dungeon Master is in control of the game, who guides the players into the setting that will unfold. But it is important that the DM responds to player choice over time, and responds to lucky or unlucky rolls of the dice. 

Question:

How were you introduced to Dungeons and Dragons, and the Forgotten Realms?

Answer: 

I was first introduced to Dungeons and Dragons in high school, where many of my friends were introduced already to Dungeons and Dragons. At that time, the 3rd Edition was just released, and my friends thought it was a great time to get into Dungeons and Dragons as the rules were more clear and simplified than earlier editions. 

While my friends preferred to create their own Campaign setting, I found the Forgotten Realm Campaign setting published by Wizards of the Coast very interesting both both 3rd and 4th Editions of D&D. 

Question: 

Where can I learn more about the Forgotten Realms besides novels?

Answer:

I would start with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Settings published for 3rd and 4th Editions. For 5th Edition, a Campaign Setting has not yet been published. 

Question: 

Why do I enjoy reading Forgotten Realms Novels?

Answer:

I have always found the Forgotten Realms novels to be good light reads. There is generally consistent quality in the authors of the Realms. Each has a somewhat unique writing style, so you can choose your favorites. It is a fantasy setting, that is interconnected. An author generally focusses on a certain region. I also enjoy how the realms are prone to large scale change. 

Question:

What happened with Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. 

Answer:

In 4th Edition, the spell plague occurred; Where is goddess Mystra was killed and magic became corrupted. Entire continents parts of continents, and peoples were transported. This was a very chaotic time in the realms. 

The 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons was also less popular than 3rd Edition. A spin off rule set was also created by another company, based on 3rd Edition called Pathfinder. Pathfinder remains a popular ruleset to this day.

Question:

What is happening to the realms at the present time (5th Edition).

Dungeons and Dragons has had a great comeback with 5th Edition, and is now more popular than ever. There are many people playing Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, including celebrities, on live stream. It is a great time to get into Dungeons and Dragons.

In the Forgotten Realms 5th Edition, many of the changes that happened in 4th Edition were rolled back in the second sundering event. This was detailed in several novels. 

There is generally less novels published for 5th edition, when compared to previous editions. 

In 2020, there is currently only the most poplar realms author R.A. Salvatore still publishing novels in the Forgotten Realms. 

Its difficult to know why there are less Forgotten Realms novels being published in 5th edition. But I speculate that many realms authors may have had a hard time with all the chaos that occurred between 3rd to 4th to 5th edition. R.A. Salvatore also was able to roll with the changes in the Realms and continue to write the stories that he is so good at. 

My hope is that more 5th edition novels will get published in the near future. But in the meantime, there is a huge back catalog of realms novels that can be read. At one time there was so many novels that it was hard to keep up, now is our chance!

Relentless by R.A. Salvatore Review

 I just finished finished reading Relentless by R.A. Salvatore. I had some trouble moving on from the last novel in the series, as Drizzt appears to have died. 

Instead of dealing with Drizzt's death, the novels first half focused on a past setting starring Zaknafein and Jarlaxle.  Zaknafein and Jarlaxle and were old friends back in the main Drow City of Menzoberzeran hundreds of years before. It is always an interesting setting to return to; such a den of evil! While there are some good characters like our heroes, it is a difficult setting for any good persons.

While the past setting was interesting, I was keen to find out what happened to Drizzt. This finally happened at the very end of the Novel. While I am certainly a fan of Drizzt; R.A. Salvatore's other characters are certainly interesting on their own. It was just hard to digest following such a cliff hanger in the last novel in the series. 

Salvatore builds this novel to a satisfyingly conclusion. Many enemies are defeated, including Demons, and Drow factions; Yet the author is clearly steering us towards a new and fresh setting setting in the next novel series.

The Drow as a race, may never be the same again. 

Forgotten Realms: Get started

I got started reading books set in the Forgotten Reams because on my interest in the Fantasy genre. I had several friends in highschool that were already into Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition game. My closest friends started playing Dungeons and Dragons with 3rd Edition and later transitioned to 3.5 edition. At the time, the Lord of the Rings movies were also huge and popular. I had also read all of the Lord of Rings books at that time.

After college, several friends moved away and we stopped playing except for rare instances.

In the Fantasy Genre, Dungeons and Dragons was very popular at the time, with a great many novels being published, movies made and video games being published.

Forgotten Realms is a unique world of Dungeons and Dragons.

I took to reading a great many Forgotten Realms books. I found them to be light but interesting reads. Unlike Lord of the Rings, where you often had to read between the lines, but Forgotten Realms was always straight forward reads.

If starting to read Forgotten Realms today; I would recommend to start:

Cormyr: A Novel is a great read. It is written by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb. Ed Greenwood is the original creator of Dungeons and Dragons and therefor Forgotten Realms. I do find Ed at times to be unfocussed in his writing at times, but Jeff seemed to help write this novel into perfect.

The novel spans through a great deal of time, from when the region was ruled by dragons, then elves and then through different ages of men. I found it truly interesting.