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As of today, nine of Forgotten Realms novels and my urban fantasy novel Blind God’s Bluff are available as audiobooks. For more info, click the link and then Search “Richard Lee Byers.”

 

www.audible.com

In a previous post, I talked about making races modular and easy to fit in generic D&D, while making it easy to replace them with personal favorites and setting specific concepts... without having to go beyond the core books!  In this one, I wanna tackle a raging ball of conflict that will never die, the split fandoms of the Forgotten Realms!

The way I see it, nothing will probably work too well in the end.  The fracture in the Realms base is probably bigger than any part of D&D itself.  Sure, you could say editions and their edition wars have splintered many a person, but metaplot changes have shunned many other potential customers away.  I myself have not bought any of the Forgotten Realms products for 4th edition, despite buying several 4e and essentials books. ...

A convention of D&D campaign worlds and much fantasy fiction is the great metropolitan capital, the focal trade-city and hub of the continent, which is often a nation unto itself. This only somewhat reflects reality: there are many great cities in the world but few tend to be city-states, which predate the medieval periods D&D bases itself on. Large cities tend to be a rarity in the medieval world, having size limitations.

And yet every D&D setting has some large city. Greyhawk takes its name from the central Free City of that setting. Dragonlance has Palanthas, the Forgotten Realms has Waterdeep (and others), Eberron has Sharn, and so on. Planescape has Sigil. The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories have Lankhmar and the Discworld novels

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Audible.com is releasing four of my Forgotten Realms novels as audiobooks on 1/8/13. I'm hoping these will the first of many. The novels are the three books that make up the Year of Rogue Dragons plus Whisper of Venom. More info here:

www.audible.com/search/ref=sr_topbox_1

Most editions of D&D have been very neutral in terms of world lore. Races might receive a small assumption of flavour but this is very easily altered, and most classes make no assumptions regarding the type of fantasy world the DM is running. All save one: the cleric. The cleric makes a pretty huge assumption that is going to drive this entire blog.

Before I say my say, there are a plenty of good resources already on the web for creating fantasy pantheons. In a 30-second Google search I found this site and this site, but there are many others (Edit: such as Lord Archon's here). Feel free to check them or do your own search.

This is the seventh part in a series on fantasy world building.

Chapters

Below are links to the other chapters in this series.

Introduction

Part

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Hi, folks.

I'm currently expanding my website (www.elainecunningham.com) to include a page for each book. These pages include cover art, a brief story description, links to sample chapters, links to review sites and/or specific discussion threads, and links to various online booksellers of print, digital, and audio books. Since this is a time-consuming process, I'm adding one book a day, and I'm currently working my way through the Forgotten Realms books. 

Each page will have basic story and purchasing info, but I'm adding extra bits; for example, on the Elfshadow page is a list of novels and short stories featuring Arilyn, Danilo Thann, and Elaith Craulnober. I'm putting up the Elfsong page later today. It will include sheet music (lyrics and melody only) for "Elminster's...

Perfect worlds don’t need heroes, and they certainly don’t need adventurers. Functioning kingdoms do not need to hire mercenaries to do the jobs of soldiers or a police force, civilized areas do not need a half-dozen heavily armed warriors acting as caravan guards, and very few hamlets or villages are threatened with slavery and death in a happy countryside. By the needs and conventions of the game, D&D worlds have to be seriously flawed, and even kingdoms ruled by a kind and just king must have their problems. Even campaigns built around delving into forgotten ruins seeking treasure and magic suggest a non-utopia based on the fact such a dangerous occupation is appealing, which says that there are few safer ways of earning that wealth. After all, the life of an adventurer is

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I'll be on Dungeon Crawlers Radio tonight at 6 PM EST, 7 PM CST, etc.

www.dungeoncrawlersradio.com/index.html

Non-human races are a big part of what separates Fantasy fiction from Swords & Sorcerery (and extremely poorly researched historical fiction). Folk Tales, Mythology, and Tolkien have all blended together in a smoothy of imagination to given us the standard fantastic races of RPGs, and numerous fantasy stories and D&D splat books have added and expanded the pool of potential races for a fantasy world.
This is the fourth part in a series on Campaign World Building for 5th Edition AD&D, and the first where we really get into the conventions and assumptions of D&D Next.

Chapters

Below are links to the other chapters in this series on World Building.

Introduction

Part 1: The Hook

Part 1.5: Factors

Part 2: Conflict

Part 3: Geography

Part 4: Races

Part 5: Nations

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