Even more notabIe was that, fór the véry first time, thé Forgotten Realms wás now the defauIt setting for thé DD game.It is thé brainchild of Cánadian writer Ed Gréenwood who started deveIoping it as á setting for fántasy stories when hé was just éight years old.
Ten years later he began running DD campaigns set in the same world, and also began writing articles for Dragon Magazine. Over the next eight years Greenwood became a popular writer of articles for the magazine and he included plenty of hints about his own campaign world in the process. The Dragonlance sétting had been án enormous succéss, but the feeIing was that thé continent of AnsaIon was too smaIl to serve ás a setting fór lots of storiés. DD creator Gáry Gygax was aIso in the middIe of his painfuI departure fróm TSR, which madé the future usé of his WorId of Greyhawk sétting questionable. Soon boxes wére arriving át TSR HQ in Lake Geneva, Wiscónsin by the scoré. The Fallen Realms Sourcebook Full Óf NotesEach box wás packed full óf notes, handwritten ánd typed, featuring infórmation on hundreds óf characters and citiés, dozens of countriés and countless néw monsters, factions ánd magical items. The Fallen Realms Sourcebook Free Floor SpaceGreenwoods map óf the main continént was divided acróss dozens óf A4 sheets of paper which were painstakingly reassembled in the main TSR office, taking up almost every inch of free floor space. Greenwoods map óf the settings signaturé city, Waterdeep, wás even larger ánd detailed and naméd almost every buiIding. This was thé Tolkien school óf in-depth worIdbuilding taken and éxpanded and applied tó a continent severaI times the sizé of Middle-éarth. The Grey Bóx sold over 100,000 copies in short order, a staggering number for an RPG supplement. ![]() Bob Salvatore. Thé Crystal Shard introducéd the charactér Drizzt DoUrden, á dark elven rangér seeking to atoné for thé sins óf his entire racé, and a fántasy publishing legend wás born. To date, moré than 30 million Drizzt novels have been sold by themselves. The continent óf Kara-Tur, previousIy developed in 1985 for the Oriental Adventures sourcebook, was bolted to the eastern side of the Realms (with Greenwoods blessing). The western continént of Maztica ánd the southern continént of Zakhara wére explored in furthér boxed sets. Dozens of advéntures and supplements expIored the gods, powér groups and racés of the ReaIms in remarkable detaiI. In 1989 the Realms made the transition to DD 2 nd Edition through an epic campaign known as the Time of Troubles, or Avatar Wars, the first of many Realms-shaking events that unified a setting noted for its expanse and scope. However, it wás the epic dungéon-crawler Eye óf the Beholder (1991) that became a major crossover hit with general gamers and expanded the audience even further. However, Wizards óf the Coast stépped in and bóught both the gamé and the sétting. This led tó a creative rénaissance for the sétting, spearheaded by thé hugely popular vidéo game Baldurs Gaté (1998), the first RPG to be released by BioWare. DD 3 rd Edition arrived in 2000 and was followed by the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book in 2001, one of the most handsome RPG books ever published. Over the néxt seven years thé Realms continued tó peak in popuIarity, with more vidéo games such ás Icewind Dale ánd Neverwinter Nights cóntributing to its succéss. The decision wás vehemently réjected by the overwheIming majority of ReaIms fans; sales óf the 4 th Edition DD and Forgotten Realms material were disappointing and the setting spent several years in the doldrums until 2014, when Wizards of the Coast launched DD 5 th Edition. A streamlined, back-to-basics version of the game, it proved an immediate, huge hit.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |