Welcome to the Forgotten Realms. Back in 1990 TSR released Forgotten Realms Adventures, a hardcover book to help players and DMs update from (A)D&D to AD&D 2nd edition.
Content wise it's a little thin, but it was the very first TSR / D&D / RPG product I ever bought. For me, it's the book that started it all.
Let's add another D&D product review.
This isn't the Marvel based TV show, but the TSR Dungeons & Dragons book from 2000, and it details some (hidden) factions in the Forgotten Realms setting.
TSR, WOTC, and now HASBRO all seem to struggle a bit when it comes to marketing, and sometimes they release books that simply make no sense.
Take, for example, How Not to get Eaten by Owlbears.
It's pretty hard to find a map that shows all the maps ever made of Faerun. So, I made my own, based on the products I own and other stuff I could find on the Internet.
This is part of my 'recovery effort' of the materials on the old NightLive website.
Years ago I did review a number of TSR / WOTC products, so I've dusted off the old review scheme. You'll run into some TSR / WOTC / Hasbro reviews from now on...
Vaak is een PDF precies wat je nodig hebt. Een digitaal boek wat je gemakkelijk mee kunt nemen waar en wanneer je maar wilt. Maar soms wil je gewoon door een papieren kopie bladeren. Een echt boek in je handen houden. En da's wat lastig als er niets anders dan een digitale versie beschikbaar is.
Remember this thing? 20-odd years ago, when CD-roms were still a thing, TSR released all the 2nd edition Forgotten Realms maps as a disc plus viewer. The viewer sucked (even then) but having those maps is a dream for RPG players.
Of course, getting it to install these days is a bit of a hassle, but (fortunately) you DON'T have to install it... maybe.
So, I completed my own 'download edit print' sequence using a POD Provider (Pumbo).
But... how do the different kind of POD products actually look?
A friend donated a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU from his dead PC. Should I upgrade my own machine? Perhaps not.
But I'm still going to do it 😁
My old Secomber maps were scanned 20 years ago, using a handscanner. It was about time I rescanned them, especially after finding other Secomber maps.
Click on any of these images for a larger version.
20+ years ago I created some maps for Secomber, a small town in the Forgotten Realms. I didn't pick the place at random. I selected it because it is known but not well documented thus allowing the DM lots of freedom. It's also close to a lot of interesting places.
I'm planning to revisit the old document and expand on it, so in preparation I googled a bit...
TSR, the (in)famous creators of the AD&D role playing game (then boutght by WOTC, Hasbro, and becoming perhaps even more (in)famous for their poor handling of the OGL) also publish books based on their games. One of those is Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham. It's set in the Forgotten Realms, but no prior knowledge is required.
The Verdict: It's not bad. Expect regular 'sword and sorcery'.
Dapper / TellTales! #6
