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1st Edition AD&D	-	Dragon #119	-	Dragon magazine

It was a late evening in early January
when I first met him, here at the office.
The first winter storm to hit Wisconsin (it
being a mild winter up to that point) was
making up for lost time with its severity. A
heavy, wet snow blanketed the region,
with more coming down. It was a lightning
storm as well, not a rare occurrence
in this area, but stunning nonetheless.

A sudden flash of lightning appeared
through the glass-block windows of the
building, its intensity causing me to shield
my eyes. When normal vision returned, I
realized I was not alone. In the doorway
stood a tall, lean figure cloaked in brown.

Elminster.

I have been working with Ed Greenwood
since last summer. Readers of
DRAGON® Magazine know Ed best for his
extensive contributions, among them
many "Ecology" articles and his "Pages
from the Mages" series. These and host of
other articles dating back to DRAGON
issue #30 are set in the Forgotten Realms,
a world of fantasy and high magic that Ed
has been using for his own AD&D® game
campaigns. Ed ascribes much of his Forgotten
Realms knowledge to his all-night,
drink-and-bull sessions with a world-wandering
sage named Elminster.

Half a year ago, TSR was casting about
for a new campaign setting for the AD&D
game, using what we?ve learned from
building Krynn for the DRAGONLANCE
saga. Immediately, Ed?s name came up, and
the noble Canadian leaped at the opportunity.
Ed would provide the information on
the world of the Forgotten Realms, I
would add the game design and stats, and
Karen Martin would turn my writing into
English as she edited the work.

We quickly set about creating a new
campaign which would not only be the
home for the AD&D game modules of
1987, but would act as the basis for adventures
in the Second Edition AD&D game
system. It had never occurred to me to ask
Ed how the primary source of his information
would react to this. Apparently, Ed
had told the sage about our endeavour,
and so it was that Elminster popped into
my life, heralded by thunder and
lightning.

Elminster. I should have expected it, but
when the time came to confront our pri-
mary source, I was badly rattled. He was
tall (6? with change), and he glowered at
me with electric blue eyes that Ed, in one
of his more charitable moments, described
as ?dancing.? He wore a brown cape over a
stained brown vest and faded blue jeans
(Ed had mentioned that the sage had
acquired a taste for Earthly fashions).

?Ye be the one cataloging all the tales
about my land,? he said, in a voice that
echoed the thunder outside. A statement,
made a question only by the flick of his
grey eyebrows.

I nodded, wondering if the 911 operators
handled 26th-level magic-users.

Elminster dropped some papers beside
my other office chair and sat down. He
unexpectedly produced a pipe, lit a match
off my thank-you-for-not-smoking sign,
and made himself comfortable while I
waited for the axe to fall. Finally, he noticed
me again, leaned over, and (in a
gravelly voice that would make pit fiends
head back to Avernus) said, ?Tell me about
this project.?

I admit that my voice was a little unsteady
and high-pitched at first, but it
gained strength as I talked on. Here is
what I told him:

The FORGOTTEN REALMS? boxed set is
the launching point for TSR?s new campaign
world of the same name, in the
tradition of the worlds of Oerth and
Krynn. It will be the ?home base? of the
AD&D game universe, and ? with the
arrival of Second Edition ? the home for
that as well. It is based on the Forgotten
Realms campaign that has been in existence
for over a decade. (The Realms, by
the way, take their name from the fact
that these magical lands have ?always?
been there, but we just haven?t been paying
sufficient attention to them. That
situation will change in the next few
months, but the appellation will stick.)

The boxed set forms the foundations of
a world, and lays out the ground rules on
running an AD&D game campaign. A lot
of things that were discussed in the various
hard-cover books have depended upon
the interpretations of various individual
DMs and campaigns. It is hard to set down
precise rules on matters like local justice,
government, trade, or customs, especially
when every campaign has its own rules on
them. By creating a coherent campaign
world, we can give examples on how to
handle particular situations encountered
in play and provide the detail to bring an
AD&D game campaign to life.

The boxed set also gives a common
ground for discussing situations that occur
in every campaign. How do characters
advance in level? Where can characters
get training? How do characters determine
what faiths exist in a town? Who rules,
and how? What happens to all that treasure
the characters rake in? (At this,
Elminster broke in with a warning that the
Realms, while rich, are in no way as flagrant
in their hidden wealth as indicated
in the Monster Manualtables).

The boxed set is a starting point, beyond
which we can explore and expand upon
the world around it. This ranges from
getting a campaign started with low-level
characters in some small community in
the Dales, to high-level adventures ranging
between the planes or covering the building
of empires in this world. The Forgotten
Realms is designed to take in a broad
range of play and playing styles. The initial
set will contain almost 200 pages of information,
not only on the Realms themselves
but on the down-and-dirty details on running
adventures, making it invaluable not
only as a campaign world but as a guide to
creating AD&D game campaigns.

The Realms occupy a region about the
size of North America, spanning from the
equator to a thousand miles south of the
North Pole. Most of this region will be
shown on two large maps, as well as on
two more expanded maps of the main
adventuring areas for game play (1? =
100 miles). The first pair of maps gives you
the idea of the scope of the project, while
the latter two are usable for everyday
play. The area of the Realms is huge and
will continue to grow as we develop more
products for it.

?More product? Do ye mean, more tales
of wonder?? asked Elminster at this point.
?I?m glad that ye realize that one cannot
contain a whole world in single box.?

Well, we?re certainly trying to do that in
the Forgotten Realms, but there are a
number of other projects that people are
involved with that relate to the Forgotten
Realms. The BLOODSTONE Pass module series
that started with H1 is set in the
Realms, as is the Desert of Desolation
module series (I3-I5). For starting players,
N-5, Beneath Illefarn, is set in the Realms
as a starting point for a campaign. Then
too, Ed Greenwood is doing the first
sourcebook on the Realms, discussing the
greatest city of the North, Waterdeep, and
Doug Niles is writing about the Moonshae
Isles. Doug, I should add, is basing his
sourcebook on his first novel, Darkwalker
on Moonshae, which is the first product
from the books department for this line.
Like the adventures, the books of the
Forgotten Realms series will be by a variety
of authors and will span the reach of
fantasy fiction, and the length and breadth
of the Realms themselves.

“All the way to Kara-Tur?” Elminster
asked, eyebrows raised.

“Kara-tur?” I said, recognizing the name
of the world of Oriental Adventures. “You
mean Kara-Tur is in the Realms as well?”

“As well as where?” said he, puffing on
his pipe. “I grant ye, it’s a long, long walk
from Cormyr to Kozakura, but it can be
done, if ye be willing to walk half the way
around the world.” Ignoring my dumbstruck
look, Elminster examined his pipe,
which had gone out. “Excuse me a moment,”
he said. Before I could protest, he
walked out of the office.

I arose and followed him, but found no
sign of him by the time I had reached the
doorway. He had vanished completely.

It took three tries to get the right phone
number to Ontario. After many rings, Ed
answered with his standard “Y’hallo."

“He was here!” I shouted into the
receiver.

"He?"

“Elminster! He was just here, finding out
about the Forgotten Realms boxed set!”

There was a short silence.  "Uh, Jeff,"
said Ed.  "I hate to tell you this, but Elminster
has been here with me all evening.
We've been talking about the Skyships of
Halruaa.  I'm looking at him right Now and
. . hold it, he's grinning like the cat that
ate the canary.  How 'bout I get back to you
later?"

I sighed and quietly agreed. It’s going to
be a very interesting project. How many
campaign worlds have their own wizard
checking up on things?
 

MARCH 1987
 

LETTERS
Oerth and Krynn
Dear Dragon:
I have been playing the ADVANCED
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS® game for five
years. I have played on the world of Krynn and
that of Oerth. Krynn, in my opinion, was the
better of the two.

The article entitled "The Game Wizards," by
Jeff Grubb [in issue #119], started to make me
worry. If the Forgotten Realms? are going to be
the ?home base? of both the first and second
editions of the AD&D® game universe, what will
become of other game worlds? I for one, would
not want to abandon the world of Krynn for
any other game world. Will modules still be
created for worlds other than the Forgotten
Realms? If modules were not created for other
worlds, that wouldn?t be fair to many AD&D®
game players who would rather stay with their
favorite world. If I had to transfer my interest
and campaign to the Forgotten Realms, would it
be possible to place my favorite characters from
my current campaign to that of the Forgotten
Realms without bending the rules severely?

Christopher DeGraffenreid
Wilkes-Barre PA
(Dragon #123)

The answer to your question is no. TSR will not
close up shop on Oerth and Krynn just because
the Forgotten Realms is being set up. Both the
WORLD OF GREYHAWK? Fantasy Setting and
that of the DRAGONLANCE® saga have a wide
and loyal following, and it is our intention to
keep producing material for these worlds over
the years. For example, later this year, we will
be coming up with the DRAGONLANCE® Adventures
hardback. As ?home base? for the AD&D®
game, the FORGOTTEN REALMS? setting is to
be the home for all adventures not specifically
designed for Oerth and Krynn; furthermore, it
is laid out so as to serve as either a full campaign
setting or an interesting "world next
door" for your own existing campaigns (which
may or may not be on Krynn or Oerth).

Now, if you or your players choose to take
characters from their initial campaign and
relocate them in the Realms, that has been
provided for as well in the Realms boxed set.
The Realms, as you may have gathered, has a
wide variety of gates and portals to other
planes, Prime Material and otherwise, and it is
possible for your characters to either visit the
scenic (deadly?) Forgotten Realms?, or make the
new world their home for AD&D® games.

I?ve also been talking with Tracy Hickman,
who pointed out that there is a reason that no
super-high-level characters currently operate in
Krynn. The Realms might take a number of
individuals who are too powerful for Krynn or
other worlds. -- Jeff Grubb