We here at GiN were given review copies of Dungeons and Dragons’ two most recent books about the fictional continent of Faerun, which lies in the Forgotten Realms. We reviewed the player centered Heroes of Faerun book first and now are turning our attention to the more dungeon master-focused Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun.
First made an official setting in 1987, the Forgotten Realms has since become the setting for many novels, short stories, modules and supplemental adventure books, and there is too much information for anyone to know it all, let alone a dungeon master who is new to the setting. This new supplement is designed to provide a deep understanding of this most storied of Dungeons and Dragons settings.
The book is divided into nine chapters, with the first one giving the DM advice on how to run an epic fantasy game. That means, in the words of the guide, characters will need to possess “illustrious histories or campaign-changing secrets.” It further proclaims that “a character is never a simple adventurer; they might be the heir to a kingdom, have an artifact for a heart, or secretly be a vampire.”
If this sounds like the excellent Baldur’s Gate 3 video game to you, then you are correct. The book draws on that RPG for several examples. This offering does not get specifically into the video game, but if you liked Baldur’s Gate 3 there is an online book called “Astarion’s Book of Hunger” which makes it easy to play a vampire-based campaign using the fan-favorite character of Astarion as a template.
The first chapter gets some inspiration from the school of “one-page adventures” by having over thirty such adventures, designed from level one all the way up to level thirteen. All of the adventures come with a very readable situation, a specific hook for the characters and a few flavorful encounters. Most also come with a small map that usually takes up to a third of the page.
The new book also compares and contrasts itself with other Dungeons and Dragons settings. For example, the writers point out that in gothic Ravenloft a character is basically “just another prisoner” while in Eberron “deities don’t interfere in mortal affairs.” As a Greyhawk fan, I’d love to have them write up something about that setting, since the Forgotten Realms was the replacement for Greyhawk when founder and creator Gary Gygax left TSR. In the introduction to the book of adventures “Tales of the Yawning Portal,” Greyhawk was described as, “where profit and power take precedence over heroics.”
The first part of the book wraps up with some useful advice noting that a player may often know more about the Forgotten Realms than the DM and may ask why some of the past heroes, in Dungeons and Dragons or in other fictional stories set in the Realms, are not there to handle any problems. The book gives advice how to handle this issue, plus how to make this setting your own.
Chapters two through six run through some of Faerun’s most famous areas. These include the frigid Norse themed Icewind Dale, the land filled with high-magic genies Calimshan, the fey heavy Moonshae Isles and that city of intrigue Balder’s Gate (the subject of the award-winning video game Baldur’s Gate 3). Each chapter gives tips on using that area plus provides an adventure.
Chapter seven is an original short dungeon based on a lost library that you can place in any of the previous chapters. It adds to the already crowded lore of the Forgotten Realms but can be used in almost any setting, even your own homebrewed one.
Chapter eight, the shortest of the lot, has magic items that tie into the setting, like a Harper-based pin that characters can find, earn or steal. Then chapter nine is a bestiary with NPCs and monsters. I was a bit disappointed that there was no index, since there is a lot of content in Adventures in Faerun.
Ed Greenwood, the originator of this world, had an interesting use for organizations and governments that work perfectly for adventurers. That concept is all through the book too. For example, the Harpers — bard like individuals who don’t endorse any particular power but work to make sure that all are balanced so that no particular group can dictate over everyone else — are a Greenwood creation. They even showed up in the movie Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. We really need a sequel to that movie. Anyway, Harpers and other Greenwood creations are given a lot of detail and focus, which is really useful for Forgotten Realms campaigns.
If you are a new dungeon master who wants an introduction to the Forgotten Realms, then this is the book for you. If you are a more experienced dungeon master who is familiar with the Forgotten Realms, then the Heroes of Faerun book we reviewed earlier may be the better buy because it offers a grand map and some new rules that match the 2024 changes. But even so, for campaigns set in the Forgotten Realms, you won’t find better source material beyond the new Adventures in Faerun supplement.