 |
||||||
 |
||||||
 |
 |
|
|
 |
| |
|
Realmswatch
It's
a Big World -- a Really
So, a few weeks ago, I emailed Michele Carter to ask her to send me the latest version of the Geography section of the new Forgotten Realms book so I could read through it to know what I'm talking about this month. She shot it over to me, I dragged the attachment to my desktop, hit "Print," and wandered off to get some coffee. When I got back, the Print Monitor told me it was "Spooling Page 98 of 172." Obviously something was wrong. I canceled the print job and opened the file to see if it was corrupt. But what I saw was a 172-page file full of amazing details about the Forgotten Realms setting. That's right. One Hundred and Seventy-Two Pages. OK, that's single-sided pages, so you halve that, and you've got what? 86 pages? 86 pages of text. No illustrations. No border treatment. Nothing but page after page of two-column Forgotten Realms geographical goodness. That's huge. And it's just one section of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book, which I'm told is going to be 320 pages – bigger than the new Player's Handbook by over 40 pages. And it's all new.
January: Forgotten Realms Nations and States The Geography section starts out with this: "Seeing every kingdom, every city-state, every mountain range and forest and ruined castle of Faerûn would be the journey of a dozen human lifetimes." And, once you skim through the pages, you'll understand just how true that is. Just reading about the places takes even the most avid reader a healthy chunk of time. Oddly enough, as I try to describe what this aspect of the new Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is like, I find myself facing the same problem someone touring through the Realms would have: There's so much here, I hardly know where to start. I suppose a good place is what I did when I first flipped through. I looked at the places most familiar to me and my campaigns just to see what's new, what's changed, and what's still familiar. And the answer to all of the above is: a lot. I've had characters that've tromped through quite a bit of Faerûn (though not even close to half of it). And the places I have explored presented in the book are just as chock full of things to do and see as the places I've not. It's amazing. There are changes and shifts, both large and small throughout the landscape of the Forgotten Realms setting. Some of the things that have happened to places my characters used to call home are quite surprising -- like what happened to the town we usually bought supplies in. Others are developments that have been percolating for some time and have just now bubbled up into fruition -- like what's going on with one of those evil organizations we dealt with. (I know details would be more helpful than that, but alas, this is but a peek at what is to come.) The game designers have just done a truly remarkable job once again at continuing the process of evolving the Forgotten Realms setting as a living game world. But back to those 86 pages' worth of detail. When you get a look at the sample excerpts, you'll know what I mean when I say that there's a horde of information to pore over. Every region is described in detail, ranging from capital city(ies) and import/exports to history and current lifestyles to plots, rumors, and other adventure hook stuff. From Chult to the Anauroch, there's a lot going on in Faerûn. And regardless of where you adventures lead you, you're going to be pleasantly surprised.
About the Author Mat Smith is a copywriter who just got here, but has been playing and waiting to get a job with the company that makes Dungeons & Dragons for well over 18 years. Now, he gets to spend most of his days thinking about new ways to tell everyone in the world to play D&D. His 22nd-level, 1st-edition bard started kicking around the Forgotten Realms back in 1989 and is currently vacationing in the Murloch Vale of the Moonshae Islands. His newest favorite hobby is emailing his friend Josh to make him jealous about this whole job at Wizards of the Coast thing.
| |
I have to
tell you, June will not get here quick enough for me -- I'm so ready to
play in the new Forgotten Realms setting, it's going to seriously
impact my health.
