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Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, 4th Edition |  | Authors: Bruce R. Cordell, Ed Greenwood, Chris Sims, Philip Athans
Brand: Wizards of the Coast
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $15.00
as of 7/30/2010 09:07 MDT details
You Save: $24.95 (62%)
New (36) Used (17) from $11.92
Seller: derekzac
Rating:  78 reviews
Sales Rank: 57950
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 4th
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.8
MPN: 2182872
ISBN: 0786949244
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9780786949243
ASIN: 0786949244
Publication Date: August 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Role Playing Game RPG by Wizards of the Coast
Dark perils and great deeds await!
Welcome to Faerun, a land of amazing magic, terrifying monsters, ancient ruins, and hidden wonders. The world has changed since the Spellplague, and from this arcane crucible have emerged shining kingdoms, tyrannical empires, mighty heroes, and monster-infested dungeons. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide presents a world of untold adventure, a land of a thousand stories shaped by the deeds of adventurers the likes of which Faerun has never seen before.
This product includes everything a Dungeon Master needs to run a D&D campaign in the Forgotten Realms setting, as well as elements that DMs can incorporate into their own D&D campaigns. The book provides background information on the lands of Faerun, a fully detailed town in which to start a campaign, adventure seeds, new monsters, ready-to-play nonplayer characters, and a full-color poster map of Faerun.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 78
 A new DM's take on the FR setting. April 26, 2010
Jeremiah Dvorak (Ithaca, NY)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Just to be clear, this review is by someone who has never played D&D before, let alone across different campaign settings or game versions (AD&D, 3.5, 4e, etc...)
After getting my feet wet within the rules and such, i picked up a copy of this book, looking for some help in setting up a world of adventure for my group. In short, this book does splendidly.
First thing I noticed was the amount of material. A lot of information on regions withing the world in which to start a campaign. It was like looking down an aisle of your favorite store and wanting to buy something from each section - I was so overwhelmed at first I had no idea where to start. It would be a nice surprise when I noticed they included several beginning "quests" and areas to start your campaign in. Awesome.
In regards to the specific areas, i could write a short essay on the pure awesomeness that is the area descriptions. Each region gives several "adventure hooks" and "areas of interest" to feed your imagination. Overwhelming at first, but if you can focus on one area or idea given within the region, you can have an entire campaign skeleton in a matter of a few hours. Just string together a few region's hooks and areas and presto!
Again, for someone who is basically new to this, I was able to dive right in and get information within a few page turns. The book is organized well and both the "Contents" and "Index" section fuel both needs....use the Contents to find what you want. And use the Index for adventure-based ideas and kick-starting. (Index is organized by adventure sites and ideas for quick adventure plots and the like (just what I need, as a starting DM!)
I can easily see me using this setting continually with the same group over several campaigns and never really crossing ideas - this book has SO much in it!
...And that is my 2 cents.
Exactly what this DM needs January 7, 2009
Jacob G Corbin (Prairie Village, Kansas United States)
32 out of 50 found this review helpful
My first exposure to the Forgotten Realms was through the classic PC game Baldur's Gate way back at the turn of the century. The game was fascinating and well-written so I thought I'd investigate the world it took place in. That...was a mistake. I ran up against an opaque wall of impenetrable backstory and a setting where demigods battled through a world I found almost painfully generic; the sort of world I could read about in dozens of better-written fantasy novels if I'd a yen to.
Of course, it's not quite fair to accuse a roleplaying setting of being unoriginal. The point of DN&D, after all, isn't to tell a new story but to let players experience the thrill of roleplaying some of their favorite archetypes. But I found no hook, nothing to draw me in as a storyteller, certainly not compared to the rich and evocative Planescape or the atmospheric Dark Sun.
This brings us to fourth edition. The new edition of D&D captured my group's attention and we've found it meshes with our style perfectly. And since I approved of so much of what the designers did, I figured I'd take a chance on this guide.
I'm so glad I did. While the history of this imaginary place may have been "rich" to some reviewers, I found it a tedious recitation of names. (And of course, it hasn't gone away - they can still adventure to their hearts' content in whatever region or period of time they want.) The new edition focuses on giving DMs - the storytellers - the *tools to tell a story*. Each region has been given a flavor, with enough plot hooks to support a campaign, but enough backstory left unsaid to allow the DM room to customize to his heart's content. This is a good thing, because ultimately WotC or Ed Greenwood doesn't run my table - I do.
Instead of a wall of made-up history, it gives the prospective DM an embarrassment of riches in terms of setting and plot. There are easily a dozen places in the new Realms I want to set a campaign in. I think there's more than enough material here for a single DM literally to game the Realms for the entire likely lifespan of fourth edition, and it's all good stuff. At the book's absolute worst it retains a bit of the old generic-fantasy feeling in certain areas, like Cormyr and the Dalelands, but still provides cool plot hooks for those places, and they stand out and feel fresh anyway by dint of being so traditional in the midst of a world now brimming with exotic locales and monsters.
One of the featured reviewers complains that characters no longer feel like small wheels in a big world. This complaint baffles me. Since my job is to entertain my players, the gameworld is going to center around them. They don't give me their valuable time and attention for me to recount the adventures of a bunch of NPCs; if they wanted that, they'd read a book or watch a movie. I understand that a lot of the diehard Forgotten Realms fans are upset that their imaginary friends are no longer with us, but I find it hard to sympathize.
Venture 100 years into the Forgotten Realms April 26, 2010
Manuel Mangual (Florida, USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I just got this book over the mail and I have to say that, after reading it, I love it! I've been a DM for 11 years now and I have been a fan of the Forgotten Realms ever since. This new turn is so magical and so exciting. The drow race is awesome as ever and the sword mage class is so exciting. I can't wait to start running this campaing in 4.0. If you are heistant about 4.0, don't be. Its fun, thrilling and it is a complete worth of your time and money. Take it from a guy who's been at this for 11 years now with over 5 generations of newcomers.
Paradigm Shift August 23, 2008
Mercon (Redlands, CA)
40 out of 71 found this review helpful
One of the reasons others are giving this book a bad review, in my opinion, is that it doesn't match what many are expecting from this book. They were expecting the Campaign Setting all over again. Here is an excerpt from the book:
"Dungeon Masters who are interested in the definitive
history of the FORGOTTEN REALMS world are
encouraged to review the Grand History of the Realms
supplement. In addition, updates to the Grand History's
extensive and comprehensive timeline will
periodically be made available online at D&D Insider
(http://www.dndinsider.com)."
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3.0) was a fantastic book that contained much in the way of history, notable NPC's, races, etc. It is a fascinating read, even if you are not familiar with Forgotten Realms in the D&D context, but instead know of it through novels.
Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (4E)is a paradigm shift. It isn't meant to be the same as the book above. It is specifically empty of races, NPC's (except a few), and so on. Races should be reserved for the upcoming Players Handbook.
The problem with a familiar and favorite setting (such as the Star Wars or Star Trek universe, and Forgotten Realms) is that when people play games within the universe or write fan fiction, there are always critics who quickly point out the inaccuracies. While these critics, as personified by the comic book guy in the Simpsons, are usually correct... it's extremely irritating and takes players out of the game and into a debate.
This book is set 100 years in the future. Many of the cities, towns, customs, and governments are the same and yet this book adds a mega-hook called the spell plague that changes the magic, terrain, and living organisms to varying degrees, just enough that adventurers don't quite know what to expect in the world any more. This allows DM's to be creative and make adventures without being rigidly held in a world that has already been defined. So the focus on this book is the new Pantheon, and an alphabetical encyclopedic account of nearly every region in Toril. Additionally, it has a large section describing fanatical cults and religions.
So here is one way to use the book. Open the map, pick an area, read about it. You will find the government, customs, and laws. You will know the major religions and threats of that area. You are given several hooks into plot possibilities. Filling out the details is up to the DM's creativity. I believe adding more to this book would be a serious mistake. It is just enough to get things going, but not enough to secure a straight jacket on your home-grown adventure.
They put the power back into the hands of the DM, and returned the suspense of the game to the players. Furthermore, I believe that the old book is still valid as historical reference and so using these two books together adds great fun to the game. Finally, it allows authors to continue writing without worrying about what is canon, apocrypha, etc.
The best realms for your D&D game. September 1, 2008
Brandon Tomlinson (Houston, TX USA)
14 out of 36 found this review helpful
I'm not going to comment on how this is different from the previous settings, or how I feel about deities being moved around, that DOESN'T matter.
What matters is this:
The format of this books makes it easy to find information you need to run the adventures you want. There is no digging required to run the adventure you want, it all right there in a page format.
The content is -interesting- remember old entries that were just 'meh', they are pretty much gone, every location has something to offer.
Just the DM content. I hate having my book open to the page I want, then a player needing the book to look up his PrC ... We finally have a seperate source that allows us literary solitude.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 78
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