When finishing up my read through of Elminster’s Candlekeep Compendium, I just happened to see another product that piqued my interest almost as much. That product has many of the same contributors, this one being Darkhold: Secrets of the Zhentarim. Going way back to some of my earliest Forgotten Realms memories, I’ve loved Manshoon as a villain. I’m not sure
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I’m moved to write about factions and how they have developed and shaped various d20 fantasy settings over the years. Now, here’s the trick . . . this is largely filtered through my own lens. That means the order in which I have encountered these things, and the degree to which I have taken them to heart, is largely shaped
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Anyone that has followed me for a while knows that certain aspects of the Forgotten Realms setting inspire a deep, nostalgic love within me. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Candlekeep is definitely one of those elements of the setting that remains dear to me. I love the concept of this wild mish mash of knowledge from all over
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I’ll admit it. I have a little bit of an axe to grind with Corellon Larethian. Corellon is the primary god of the elves, and is generally regarded as a “good” deity, and yet, in general D&D canon, they banished and cursed a whole group of elves for what one group of them did at one point in time in
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I picked up the original Forgotten Realms boxed set in 1987, when it first came out. I immediately transferred my game to the Forgotten Realms, by having my player’s characters find a portal from their “Kind of the Known World but With Too Many Real World Analogies Patched On” setting. Even when I was away from gaming for a
Read moreNote: The following post is based on a Twitter thread from 11/23/2019, and I wanted to keep a record of it on the blog, as it helped to sort out some thoughts I’ve had for a while more clearly. 1)That’s right. The problem is, it jolts some gamers out of immersive roleplaying and into “what I learned in history class
Read moreI’ve got weird mixed feelings on the Forgotten Realms as presented in 5th edition material. On one hand, I’m thrilled, because there are a lot of deep cuts and overall, the handling of the Forgotten Realms feels more respectful than at least the earliest 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons material. On the other hand, a lot of those deep cuts
Read moreSince my upcoming Midgard game is going to be city focused, and I had some thoughts on why I went that direction, and what I’m hoping it brings to the table. Fantasy Cities–A Love Story The thing that I fell in love with most in the Forgotten Realms early on was Waterdeep. As a youngster, I had never really been
Read moreMy current D&D group isn’t the type of group that dwells a great deal on the lore of a given campaign setting. Despite this, as I’ve been running Storm King’s Thunder, I have been reminded of the things I have loved about the Forgotten Realms, and how long I’ve had those feelings. Over the years, that love has shifted a
Read moreOn the Down with D&D podcast this week, there was a discussion about “canon” in D&D, and what the pros and cons of it are, both for players and for the company publishing the game. Me from 10 years ago would probably really have a hard time with my responses. The Positives of CanonWhen an established setting refers to past
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