Forgotten Realms
Q. Which of TSR's modules are set in the Forgotten Realms setting?
A. Only products with the Forgotten Realms banner on the front cover
are actually intended for use in this setting. A complete product
bibliography (good up to March 1990) appears on page 154 of the AD&D
2nd Edition hardbound volume Forgotten Realms Adventures. Of course, a
clever DM could place almost any adventure in one of the many
unexplored corners of the Realms.
Q. Where is the game information on the magical book, The Tome of the
Unicorn, described? The table at the back of FR4 The Magister says
information is given on page 41 of the DM's Source Book of the Realms,
but the information given there is pretty spotty.
A. Full details on The Tome of the Unicorn are given in the DM's
Source Book of the Realms, pages 92-93.
Q. Where can I find a full description of the green-stone amulets worn
by the Flaming Fist mercenary company? I understand these items can
recharge themselves; how often can they do this?
A. A description of the green-stone amulet is included in FR4 The
Magister (TSR product #9229). A green-stone amulet automatically
begins recharging itself whenever its charges drop to zero. The amulet
spends 1d4 × 11 turns recharging itself, gaining one charge each
turn. It remains non-functional during recharging.
Q. There are several wands and staves described in FR4 that can
explode if broken accidentally. Will they also explode if broken
deliberately, even by non-wizards?
A. These items are extremely unstable and will indeed explode if
broken deliberately, even by non-wizards. Note that this is not the
case with normal items. Most wands and staves do not explode when
broken in any fashion. The more powerful items, such as the staff of
the magi, explode only when held and broken by a wizard who
deliberately calls for a retributive strike.
Q. Volume 1 of the Kara-Tur boxed set mentions a new scholar character
class (on page 18). Where can I find
information on this class?
A. The "class" mentioned on page 18 is that of the mandarins, which is
a social class in Shou Lung, not a character class. Check out the
section on the mandarinate on page 7 for details.
Q. There is at least one character in the Forgotten Realms novels who
fights with a scimitar in each hand. How is this possible, since a
scimitar is a medium-sized weapon?
A. The character you are thinking of is Drizzt, from the Icewind Dale
trilogy. In this particular case, there is a game rule that covers the
use of a medium-size weapon in each hand. See the notes on the
two-weapon style in the fighting styles section of the Complete
Q. Will there be a Forgotten Realms atlas?
A. Yes. The Forgotten Realms Atlas (TSR product #8442) is due for
release this August and will cost $15.95/£10.95.
Q. We all know that Elminster does a lot of travelling. Has he ever
been to Oerth or Krynn?
A. Perhaps, but he's not saying. When reading the source book in FR1
Waterdeep and the North, I had trouble finding some of the features
mentioned in chapter one on the maps provided with the boxed set.
Check out TM4 City of Waterdeep Trail Map (TSR Product #9401) or the
map showing Waterdeep in FR5 The Savage Frontier (TSR Product #9233).
Also see "Welcome to Waterdeep", in Dragon #128, which has a map and
other materials that were dropped from FR1.
Q. Exactly what kind of landscape is indicated by "clear" terrain
areas on the various Realms maps?
A. Clear terrain is rolling and open, and generally free from major
obstacles such as impenetrable forests, mountains, et cetera. Most
clear terrain is plains or farmland, but there also can be low hills,
solitary trees, clumps of woodland, and gullies.
Q. To what scale are the various city maps found in the Cyclopedia of
the Realms (from the Forgotten Realms boxed set) drawn?
A. The scales vary from map to map because cities of different sizes
were presented in the same-size spaces. You can get a rough idea of
the scale for each map by looking at the narrow sides of the buildings
shown; most are about 20' long.
Q. What are the scales of the various Forgotten Realms maps supposed
to be? I have them all, and some of the scales seem to be at odds with
the others.
A. The two continental maps in the boxed campaign set are drawn at 1"
= 90 miles. The area detail maps in the boxed set and in the modules
are 1" = 30 miles. The keys on the trail maps show the scale as 1" =
90 miles, but this is a misprint. The scale-of-miles bar at the upper
right-hand corner indicates that 1" = about 142 miles, a scale that
works quite well when you compare distances between major landmarks
shown on both the trail maps and the continental maps.
Q. When will the replacement maps for the boxed campaign set be
available?
A. New maps are already available. However, the only difference
between them and the maps in the early print runs of the boxed set are
the colours. The current maps have colours that match the map colours
in the modules and in the Kara-Tur boxed set. If you have older maps
(ones with pale blue oceans and light beige clear areas), you can get
colour-corrected maps by sending $5.00 to the Mail Order Hobby Shop
and requesting replacement maps for product number TSR1031. The
address is:
The Mail Order Hobby Shop
P.O. Box 756
Lake Geneva WI 53147
U.S.A.
Q. I'm having a lot of trouble fitting the City of Waterdeep Trail Map
with the Kara-Tur Trail Map. The closest match I can get leaves a big
gap near the Great Sea and a rather abrupt end to the Dust Desert.
A. Here's how things were explained to me: The Waterdeep map is drawn
from a western perspective. The farther east you go, the less accurate
it gets because westerners don't know a lot about the East. Likewise,
the Kara-Tur map is drawn from an eastern perspective and gets less
accurate the farther west you go. In any event, remember that the
boxed sets are meant to be campaign settings. Each DM's campaign is
going to be a little different. An area where even the published
information is uncertain provides the DM with at least one mysterious
place where only he knows what's going on (at least until PCs actually
explore it). It sounds to me like you're going about fitting the maps
together in the right way. The maps match pretty well if you just line
up the borders, but you have to adjust a little to match the city of
Solon (which is shown on both maps) and the southern and northern
coastlines. When overlapping the maps, I suggest putting the Kara-Tur
map on top, as the mountains east of Solon really are there.
Individual DMs will have to decide where the Dust Desert really ends,
the edges would vary with the annual weather anyhow. The empty gap in
the south is unexplored territory, but there has been some discussion
of filling it in with an Arabian land.
Q. What is the polar circumference of Abeir-Toril?
A. Abeir-Toril's exact dimensions are unrevealed, but the planet is
roughly Earth's size. This would make its equatorial circumference
about 25,000 miles. The polar circumference would be slightly less,
about 24,900 miles.
Q. How can a PC become a Red Wizard of Thay?
A. The Red Wizards are nasty, reprehensible, and generally subject to
the whims of their superiors. This makes them unsuitable for use as
PCs in most campaigns. However, Forgotten Realms Adventures (TSR
product #2106) contains basic information on the Red Wizards,
including how to get in (see page 127).
Q. Would it be accurate to assume Chult is an African setting?
A. No. Chult is more akin to Conan Doyle's Lost World, complete with
dinosaurs, lost tribes, etc.
Q. Can PCs who travel from Faerun to Kara-Tur learn martial arts or
other oriental proficiencies? Can western races adopt oriental
classes? For example, can there be elven samurai?
A. Western (gajin) characters can learn oriental proficiencies if they
can find oriental masters to teach them. Finding such masters should
require lots of good fortune, skilful role-playing or both. Since
there are spirit folk samurai, I see no reason why elves couldn't also
become samurai (maximum level 12) with proper sponsorship. However,
the samurai are a social class as well as a character class, and
first-generation gajin samurai of any race would be rare indeed.
Q. The maps to module N5 Under Illefarn have many numbered rooms that
aren't described anywhere in the text. Is there dropped text, or are
these rooms simply empty? Where do the stairways on maps 14 and 15
(areas G and H) lead?
A. The undocumented areas have no fixed contents. There can be random
encounters, such as patrols, in these rooms, or individual DMs can
populate them as they see fit. The westernmost stairway in map 14
(room 113) leads up to map 16, room 121. The north stairway (off the
central corridor) leads up to map 15, room 114. The south stairway
leads up to map 17, room 124. The central stairway on map 15 leads
down to map 14, as already described. The eastern stairway leads up to
map 16, room 118.
Q. What lies on the other side of The Spine of the World mountains? A
friend told me it is the World of Greyhawk setting.
A. All of what lies to the north of The Spine of the World is
unrevealed, though the City of Waterdeep Trail Map indicates that the
southern edge of the Endless Ice Sea begins there. However, the World
of Greyhawk setting lies on another planet, Oerth. The Spelljammer
supplement contains rules for travelling between Oerth, Abeir-Toril,
and other fantasy worlds. Of course, DMs are free to construct their
campaigns as they see fit, and there's nothing wrong with lumping the
two settings together on one world.
Q. I remember seeing something about flying ships in the Realms. Are
these spelljammers?
A. No, they are not, though many of the rules governing spelljammers
also would apply to them. The only details ever revealed about these
ships were published in the article "Sailors on the Sea of Air", in
Dragon #124.
Q. It seems to me that there are no libraries in the Realms.
Candlekeep charges an outrageous fee just to browse, but shouldn't
there be some place where a character can go to improve his knowledge?
A. Modern-style libraries where visitors have free access to the books
are unknown in the Realms. There are, however, plenty of libraries.
Sages, guilds, and governments keep extensive collections of books and
scrolls, but access to them is on a need-to-know basis (or
pay-as-you-go, in the case of sages). For example, any large and
prosperous shipwrights' guild would have a library with volumes on
ship design and construction, carpentry, forestry, logging,
blacksmithing, rope making, weaving, sewing, and a host of other
subjects, both practical and esoteric, related to shipbuilding.
Members would use the library as a resource for training new members
and for answering difficult or unforeseen questions that might come up
during day-to-day business. The guild also would jealously guard its
library to prevent competitors in other cities from learning its
professional secrets and to prevent those people who are not guild
members, like adventurers, from learning how to build their own ships
and putting dues-paying guild members out of work. Though literacy is
more common in the Realms than it was in the historical medieval
world, the people of the Realms understand that knowledge is power and
they do not share it readily.
Q. I would like to use the rental villas in Waterdeep (as described in
the City System boxed set) in my campaign. How big are they and how
much do they cost to rent?
A. According to Jeff Grubb, each villa has 9 to 12 rooms on two or
three floors, plus a basement. The cost to rent one depends on the
building's size and condition; 400-600 gold pieces per month is a good
range.
Q. Some of the Street Scenes tables in the City System set are missing
the numbers 81-88. Other tables have two entries numbered 105. How do
you get around those flaws when using the tables in play? Also, each
table goes up to number 120. This is fine, but the instructions on
page 15 say to roll percentile dice and add or subtract one or more
modifiers also given on page 15. The highest total modifier is +6, so
how can you get a total of 120? What do you do if a negative modifier
gives you a result of less than one?
A. The missing and duplicated numbers are probably typos. Treat a
result of 81-88 as either an 80 or an 89, as you wish. Likewise, just
pick one of the two listed entries on a result of 105. The text on
page 15 says to add +20 to the roll for all encounters that take place
after dark, though this is not shown on the table. (The correct
modifier for Night scenes is +20. The modifier for Witching Hour
scenes is + 19). Treat any negative result as a 1, and treat any
result of 121 or more as 120.
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