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95-587: The atlas also includes timelines of various novels set in the world. The book is 210 pages, and was published in August 1990. The Forgotten Realms Atlas is an indexed book which contains three-color maps of the Forgotten Realms . This includes large, small scale regional maps (one inch to two hundred miles), as well as detailed location maps and diagrams of areas including the Moonshae Isles ,

190-655: A Realms campaign in the city of Waterdeep before creating a group known as the Knights of Myth Drannor in the Shadowdale region. Greenwood felt that his players' thirst for detail made the Realms what it is: "They want it to seem real, and work on 'honest jobs' and personal activities, until the whole thing grows into far more than a casual campaign. Roleplaying always governs over rules, and the adventures seem to develop themselves." Greenwood has stated that his own version of

285-651: A module based on the computer game Pool of Radiance , was also released in 1988. The boxed set Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms was released in 1988. It gives details of the lands of Kara-Tur , and was designed to be used with the 1986 book Oriental Adventures , which officially placed the book in the Forgotten Realms world. In 1989, DC Comics began publishing a series of Forgotten Realms comics written by Grubb. Each issue contains twenty-six pages, illustrated primarily by Rags Morales and Dave Simons . Twenty-five issues were published in total, with

380-636: A much slower publication schedule than with previous editions with a focus on quality and profit and "the D&;D teams knows that they have plenty of great campaign settings in their back pocket and are either actively developing more settings or have ideas for them further down the line". Dragon (magazine) Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, along with Dungeon . TSR, Inc. originally launched

475-614: A new way for TSR to market its Battlesystem rules, which it had supported with the Bloodstone adventure sequence which started with Bloodstone Pass ; the last two adventures in the series, The Bloodstone Wars (1987) and The Throne of Bloodstone (1988), were unambiguously set in the Forgotten Realms. Some characters from Egg of the Phoenix (1987) by Frank Mentzer were incorporated into The Savage Frontier (1988). The compilation module Desert of Desolation reworked

570-434: A once-civilized people gone feral under the debased rule of women". The 4th edition update to the Forgotten Realms brought massive lore changes which were "tied to a number of other design philosophies" and the Forgotten Realms "simultaneously had become a grittier setting, on the edge of collapse, while also becoming a more fantastic one, full of wonder and mystery". Jason Wilson, for VentureBeat , highlighted that unlike

665-435: A patron deity to secure a good afterlife. A huge number of diverse deities exist within several polytheistic pantheons; a large number of supplements have documented many of them, some in more detail than others. Greenwood created a pantheon of gods for his home Dungeons & Dragons game, in his Forgotten Realms world, which were introduced in his article "Down-to-earth divinity" from Dragon #54 (October 1981). When

760-591: A series of six books per year – consisting of three core rulebooks as well as three setting books – beginning with the Forgotten Realms. The company started the cycle with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (2008), the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (2008), and Scepter Tower of Spellgard . These books updated the Forgotten Realms to the newest rules system which altered the setting drastically to make it fit with

855-691: A timeline advance were introduced to the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition in 2001 with the release of the hardcover book the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting , which won the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game Supplement of 2001 in 2002. The timeline was officially advanced from 1358 DR to 1372 DR. The adventure City of the Spider Queen (2002) did not meet its projected sales targets, so Wizards of

950-434: Is a familiar, almost traditional, medieval-styled fantasy setting, it boasted unprecedented scope". "It is, quite simply, Dungeons & Dragons at its very core." Aubrey Sitterson, for PC Magazine , included the Forgotten Realms in a 2015 roundup of the "11 Best Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings" and wrote that "for most people, Forgotten Realms is synonymous with Dungeons & Dragons , and with good reason: it's

1045-452: Is a fantasy world setting, described as a world of strange lands, dangerous creatures, and mighty deities, where magic and supernatural phenomena are quite real. The premise is that, long ago, planet Earth and the world of the Forgotten Realms were more closely connected. As time passed, the inhabitants of Earth had mostly forgotten about the existence of that other world – hence the name Forgotten Realms. The original Forgotten Realms logo, which

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1140-613: Is covered in TSR's own statement in the first issue that "All material published herein becomes the exclusive property of the publisher unless special arrangements to the contrary are made." In 2002, Paizo Publishing acquired the rights to publish both Dragon and Dungeon under license from Wizards of the Coast. Dragon was published by Paizo starting September 2002. It ties Dragon more closely to Dungeon by including articles supporting and promoting its major multi-issue adventures such as

1235-578: Is out of print because of issues raised with the 2001 ruling in Greenberg v. National Geographic regarding the reprint rights of various comic strips that had been printed in Dragon over the years and Paizo Publishing's policy that creators of comics retain their copyright. These comic strips include Wormy , What's New with Phil & Dixie , Snarf Quest , and Knights of the Dinner Table which

1330-444: Is part of the fictional world of Abeir-Toril (usually just called Toril ), an Earth-like planet with many real-world influences and consists of several large continents. It was first detailed in the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Set , published in 1987 by TSR . The other continents of Toril include Kara-Tur , Zakhara , Maztica , and other yet unspecified landmasses. Kara-Tur, roughly corresponding to ancient East Asia ,

1425-401: Is retroactively considered to be a part of the Forgotten Realms, although it was not until the module The Bloodstone Wars was released that it became the official setting for the module series. Douglas Niles had worked on a novel trilogy with a Celtic theme, which were then altered to become the first novels set in the Forgotten Realms, starting with Darkwalker on Moonshae (1987). It

1520-603: Is the first book in The Moonshae Trilogy , which predates the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set by one month. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Set was later released in 1987 as a boxed set of two source books ( Cyclopedia of the Realms and DM's Sourcebook of the Realms ) and four large color maps, designed by Greenwood in collaboration with Grubb. It sold ca. one hundred fifty thousand times in its first two years. The set introduced

1615-479: Is the last of a series of ground-shaking events. It really affects the whole world of the Forgotten Realms in a major way. You may remember when the Spell Plagues began, the two worlds of the Forgotten Realms, Abeir and Toril, crashed together. That created both geographic changes (the map of the Forgotten Realms and Faerûn actually changed due to that collision), and also changed the way magic works. It changed

1710-536: The Age of Worms and Savage Tide . Class Acts , a monthly publication with one- or two-page articles offering ideas for developing specific character classes, were also introduced by Paizo. On April 18, 2007, Wizards of the Coast announced that it would not be renewing Paizo's licenses for Dragon and Dungeon, instead opting for online publishing. Paizo published the last print editions of Dragon and Dungeon magazines for September 2007. In August 2007, Wizards of

1805-421: The Dungeons & Dragons game in 1975, and became a serious role-playing enthusiast with the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D ) game releases in 1978. Greenwood brought his fantasy world into the new medium of role-playing games when a university student named September invited him to play AD&D with her. The setting became the home of Greenwood's personal campaign . Greenwood began

1900-636: The Neverwinter Campaign Setting was released which launched the 4th edition's first major multimedia release. The Forgotten Realms city setting spawned four novels by R. A. Salvatore called the Neverwinter Saga , a comic book, and a board game called The Legend of Drizzt , as well as two video games – the Facebook game Heroes of Neverwinter (2011–2012) and a MMORPG called Neverwinter (2013). Laura Tommervik, from

1995-567: The Neverwinter Nights and the Baldur's Gate series. Ed Greenwood began writing stories about the Forgotten Realms as a child , starting at the age of eight. He came up with the name from the notion of a multiverse of parallel worlds; Earth is one such world, and the Realms another. In Greenwood's original conception, the fantastic legends of Earth derive from a fantasy world that can no longer be accessed. Greenwood discovered

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2090-481: The D&;D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, in addition to novels , role-playing video game adaptations (including the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game to use graphics), comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves . Forgotten Realms

2185-526: The Dragon Magazine Archive in 1999. It was released as a CD-ROM with a Windows application and PDF files. The Dragon Magazine Archive was directed by Rob Voce, and published by TSR / Wizards of the Coast . Pyramid reviewed it, saying that the archive was "worth the price", but that its application's Windows-only format limits other platforms from being able to read the PDFs manually. It

2280-492: The Dungeons & Dragons game. A prime example is the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which first became known through a series of Dragon articles in the 1980s by its creator Ed Greenwood . It subsequently went on to become one of the primary campaign "worlds" for official Dungeons and Dragons products, starting in 1987. The magazine appeared on the cover as simply Dragon from July 1980, later changing its name to Dragon Magazine starting November 1987. Wizards of

2375-457: The TV movie of Mazes and Monsters ). From the magazine's beginning until issue 274, from August 2000, Dragon published articles for various versions of Dungeons & Dragons and, at various times, other gaming systems. With issue 274, Dragon published exclusively 3rd Edition D&D content, or content for other games published by Wizards Of The Coast's d20 System games. With the release of

2470-516: The Wizards of the Coast marketing team, explained the approach: "We use Neverwinter as the connective tissue across multiple product categories. The transmedia campaign is an opportunity for fans to experience the brand however they choose to". In 2013, Wizards of the Coast announced a year-long event called the Sundering which acted as a multimedia project to transition the Forgotten Realms to

2565-541: The drow character Drizzt Do'Urden . Drizzt has since appeared in more than seventeen subsequent novels, many of which have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list . In 1988, the first in a line of Forgotten Realms role-playing video games, Pool of Radiance , was released by Strategic Simulations, Inc . The game was popular and won the Origins Award for "Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1988". Several supplements to

2660-420: The wargaming industry, and the magazine was designed not only to support Dungeons & Dragons and TSR's other games, but also to cover wargaming in general. In short order, however, the popularity and growth of Dungeons & Dragons made it clear that the game had not only separated itself from its wargaming origins, but had launched an entirely new industry unto itself. TSR canceled The Strategic Review

2755-475: The 1980s, after TSR had purchased Simulations Publications Inc. , the magazine had a subsection called Ares Magazine , based on SPI's magazine of that name, specializing in science fiction and superhero role playing games, with pages marked by a gray border. The content included write-ups for various characters of the Marvel Universe for TSR's Marvel Super-Heroes . As noted above The Dragon

2850-472: The 1990s, which led to the setting being hailed as one of the most successful shared fantasy universes of the 1990s. By the first quarter of 1996, TSR had published sixty-four novels set in the Forgotten Realms out of the 242 novels set in AD&;D worlds. These novels in turn sparked interest in role-playing by new gamers. Numerous Forgotten Realms video games were released between 1990 and 2000. Eye of

2945-809: The 3.5 Edition update in July 2003, issue 309 onward published only Edition 3.5 content and carried a "100% Official Dungeons & Dragons " masthead. The magazine switched to exclusively 4th Edition D&D content from issue 364 on the release of 4th Edition in June 2008. Most of the magazine's articles provide supplementary material for D&D including new prestige classes , races, and monsters . A long-running column Sage Advice offers official answers to Dungeons & Dragons questions submitted by players. Other articles provide tips and suggestions for players and Dungeon Masters (DMs). It sometimes discusses meta-gaming issues, such as getting along with fellow players. At

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3040-478: The 4th edition changes to the Forgotten Realms: [B]asically, we authors were handed a document and told how things were going to be. We were asked our opinions, but they mattered very little – the changes were being driven from a different direction. [...] To have characters that have built such a strong history, then have that upset on the orders of someone else was very disconcerting. I will admit that

3135-473: The 4th edition concept of "Points of Light". The main lore change centered around an event called the Spellplague in 1385 DR. This cataclysm was unleashed when the goddess of magic Mystra was killed, "transforming whole nations and altering creatures. In addition, parts of Toril have fused with its long-lost twin world Abeir, whisking away some countries and adding new ones. The Underdark is more open to

3230-463: The Beholder for MS-DOS was released in 1990, which was followed by two sequels: the first in 1991, and the second in 1992. All three games were re-released for MS-DOS compatible operating systems on a single disk in 1995. Another 1991 release was Neverwinter Nights on America Online , the first graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG ). In 1998, Baldur's Gate ,

3325-419: The Coast purchased TSR and its intellectual properties, including Dragon Magazine , in 1997. Production was then transferred from Wisconsin to Washington state. In 1999, Wizards of the Coast was itself purchased by Hasbro, Inc. Dragon Magazine suffered a five-month gap between #236 and #237 but remained published by TSR as a subsidiary of WotC starting September 1997, and until January 2000 when WotC became

3420-454: The Coast took over publication of Dungeons & Dragons after purchasing TSR in 1997, they trimmed production down from six campaign settings to Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance , and completed AD&D 2nd edition production sometime between 1998 and 1999. They later hired Rob Heinsoo as a member of the D&D Worlds team to focus on Forgotten Realms in the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons . An official material update and

3515-438: The Coast announced the fourth edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game and that D&D Insider subscriber content would include the new, online versions of both Dungeon and Dragon magazines along with tools for building campaigns, managing character sheets, and other features. In its online form, Dragon continues to publish articles aimed at Dungeons & Dragons players, with rules data from these articles feeding

3610-467: The Coast cut back on production of new adventures. In 2002, BioWare released Neverwinter Nights , set in the northern reaches of Faerûn and operating on the revised 3.0 rules for D&D. It was followed by two expansion packs : Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark . A sequel using version 3.5 of the rules was produced by Obsidian Entertainment in 2006, and was followed by

3705-406: The Coast's 5th edition publishing strategy, which focuses on the Forgotten Realms and newer intellectual property for campaign settings, has created a rift in the fan base where some "feel that this push for new players has come at the cost of keeping the game's current players sated" by not updating campaign settings that "predate the Forgotten Realms". Hoffer highlighted that Wizards of the Coast has

3800-602: The D&D Character Builder and other online tools. In the September 2013 issue of Dragon (#427) an article by Wizards of the Coast game designer and editor Chris Perkins announced that both Dragon and its sibling publication Dungeon would be going on hiatus starting January 2014 pending the release of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition . The final online version released is Issue #430 in December 2013. A new and fully digital bi-monthly publication called Dragon+ ,

3895-461: The Forgotten Realms as "a classic fantasy backdrop" and highlighted that "at one time in our history, our world and this one were connected, but over time this magical realm was, well, forgotten. It is an ideal place for any D&D adventure, inspiring limitless possibilities for any smirking dungeon master". In 2019, academic Philip J. Clements called the "highly popular" Forgotten Realms "an unusually well-developed D&D setting" and "more-or-less

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3990-439: The Forgotten Realms was published as a setting in 1987, the pantheon added Waukeen, the goddess of trade, money, and wealth, who was created by one of Jeff Grubb 's players, and added to the Forgotten Realms by Grubb. Tyche was replaced with Tymora, and the elemental lords from Melniboné were replaced by Akadi, Grumbar, Istishia, and Kossuth. Much of the history of the Forgotten Realms detailed in novels and source books concerns

4085-528: The Forgotten Realms were briefly supported in the early 1990s. Three more modules were produced for the Kara-Tur setting. The Horde boxed set , released in 1990, detailed the Hordelands, which featured a series of three modules. The Maztica Campaign Set , released in 1991, detailed the continent of Maztica . The original gray boxed set was revised in 1993 to update it to AD&D 2nd edition, with

4180-416: The Forgotten Realms would be a more open-ended setting than its epic fantasy counterpart Dragonlance , and chose the Realms as a ready-made campaign setting upon deciding to publish AD&D 2nd edition . Greenwood agreed to work on the project and began working to get Forgotten Realms officially published. He sent TSR a few dozen cardboard boxes stuffed with pencil notes and maps, and sold all rights to

4275-540: The Forgotten Realms, as run in his personal campaign, is much darker than published versions. Starting in 1979, Greenwood published a series of articles that detailed the setting in The Dragon (now Dragon ) magazine, the first of which was about a monster known as the curst . Greenwood wrote voluminous entries to Dragon , and used the Realms as a setting for his descriptions of magic items , monsters, and spells . When Gary Gygax "lost control of TSR in 1985,

4370-480: The Forgotten Realms. The focus of the Forgotten Realms setting is the continent of Faerûn, the western part of a continent that was roughly modeled after the Eurasian continent on Earth. The lands of the Forgotten Realms are not all ruled by the human race, with populations of many humanoid races and creatures ubiquitous in fantasy fiction works such as dwarves , elves , goblins , and orcs . Technologically,

4465-567: The Forgotten Realms. In July 1990, the RPGA Network's Polyhedron Newszine began publishing a monthly column by Greenwood entitled "The Everwinking Eye" detailing various locations and personalities in the Realms. The Network used the Forgotten Realms city of Ravens Bluff as the setting for their first living campaign . Official RPGA support for this product line included the Living City module series. A number of sub-settings of

4560-648: The Northwest lands near Waterdeep , and the Western Heartlands areas around Cormyr and the Dalelands . These large scale maps cover the areas detailed in Forgotten Realms game modules and novels that had been published before the Atlas . The Forgotten Realms Atlas was designed by Karen Wynn Fonstad and published in 1990 as a 192-page book. Lawrence Schick , in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds , calls

4655-506: The Spell Plague. Markings that marked spell-plagued people and animals will fade and go away. It's really about moving the Forgotten Realms forward, but also about bringing it around to the most beloved and most fondly remembered Forgotten Realms. The result of The Second Sundering, in game terms, was the transition from 4th edition rules to 5th edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons , published in 2014. When D&D 5th edition

4750-715: The Time of Troubles cataclysm, the 4th edition Spellplague cataclysm was "one players never embraced in the same manner as the earlier disaster". Shannon Appelcline, author of Designers & Dragons , wrote: [The 4th edition] Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide may be the most controversial D&D book ever produced by Wizards. That's entirely due to the large-scale destruction of the Realms. Similar updates have been tried by other companies — to reinvigorate settings, to make them more accessible to new players, or to make them more adventuresome. [...] It never seems to go well, because old fans feel left behind. With that said, some folks did love

4845-587: The Time of Troubles, or Godswar, as seen in The Avatar Trilogy . The setting is home to several noteworthy recurring characters that have gained wider reception, including: In his book The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer's Bible , Sean Patrick Fannon describes the Forgotten Realms as being "the most ambitious fantasy game setting published since Tekumel ", and that it "may be the most widely played-in game setting in RPG history". Similarly, in literature,

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4940-416: The abrupt changes forced me into an uncomfortable place, and from that place came some of the better things I've written, but I very much preferred the way it was done this time, with 5th Edition and the changes, where we, the authors, were told what was happening to the game and asked how we could make the world and the lore live and breathe it. Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com , reported that Wizards of

5035-524: The actions of various deities and The Chosen (mortal representatives with a portion of their deities' power) such as Elminster , Fzoul Chembryl, Midnight (who later became the new embodiment of the goddess of magic, Mystra ), and the Seven Sisters. Above all other deities is Ao, the Overlord, who does not sanction worshipers and distances himself from mortals. He is single-handedly responsible for

5130-571: The author. In the early 1980s, almost every issue contains a role playing adventure, a simple board game, or some kind of special game supplement (such as a cardboard cut-out castle). For instance, Tom Wham 's Snit's Revenge , The Awful Green Things from Outer Space and File 13 all started as supplements within The Dragon . These bonus features are infrequent after the 1986 launch of Dungeon magazine, which published several new Dungeons & Dragons adventures in each issue. During

5225-410: The book a "very pretty, exhaustive sourcebook". Forgotten Realms Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ) fantasy role-playing game . Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, it was published for

5320-483: The campaign setting and explained how to use it, and reserved space on the map for SSI 's Gold Box computer role-playing games set in the Forgotten Realms. TSR began incorporating elements by other designers into the Forgotten Realms, including the Moonshae Isles by Douglas Niles , the "Desert of Desolation" by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman , and Kara-Tur by Zeb Cook . The setting also provided

5415-416: The changes, because the setting was now more playable, more accessible, more fantastic, and more PC centered. [...] Meanwhile, a series of adventures and novels called The Sundering (2013–2014) reversed many of the 4e changes to the Realms, but without rebooting the timeline. Instead, the Realms continues to evolve and advance, as it has since its earlier days. R. A. Salvatore was also publicly unhappy with

5510-485: The company saw an opportunity to move beyond Greyhawk and introduce a new default setting". In 1986, TSR began looking for a new campaign setting for AD&D , and assigned Jeff Grubb to find out more about the setting used by Greenwood as portrayed in his articles in Dragon . Greenwood states that Grubb asked him "Do you just make this stuff up as you go, or do you really have a huge campaign world?", and Greenwood answered "yes" to both questions. TSR felt that

5605-477: The creators and developers of your favorite D&D products". Articles included cover content such as: game strategies and insights; details of the current D&D storyline; interviews; ongoing comic series; lore; Forgotten Realms world information; community updates and fan submissions; and videos. Additional content in the magazine is also accessible through links to the magazine's content in Facebook and Twitter feeds. Dragon+ ran for 41 issues in total with

5700-475: The end of its print run, the magazine also features four comics; Nodwick , Dork Tower , Zogonia , and a specialized version of the webcomic The Order of the Stick . Previous gamer-oriented comic strips include Knights of the Dinner Table , Finieous Fingers , What's New with Phil & Dixie , Wormy , Yamara , and SnarfQuest . Dragon' s "Ecology of ..." articles were initially written in

5795-591: The expansion sets Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir . The Forgotten Realms Deluxe Edition compilation was released in 2006, containing the Baldur's Gate series (excluding the Dark Alliance games), Icewind Dale series, and all Neverwinter Nights games before Neverwinter Nights 2 . With the release of Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition in 2008, Wizards opted for a publishing plan featuring

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5890-562: The first in a line of popular role-playing video games developed by BioWare and "considered by most pundits as the hands-down best PC roleplaying game ever", was released. The game was followed by a sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn , in 2000 and Icewind Dale , a separate game that utilized the same game engine as Baldur's Gate . Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor was released in 2001. Several popular Forgotten Realms characters such as Drizzt Do'Urden and Elminster made minor appearances in these games. When Wizards of

5985-483: The flagship setting for D&D". He also noted that it has received the greatest number of supplements. In a retrospective on the legacy of Dungeons & Dragons , academic Daniel Heath Justice commented that the " Forgotten Realms was explicitly based on the civilized-versus-savage binary and leaned in hard on racial essentialism in its sadistic black-skinned drow led by vicious matriarchs and their terrible spider goddess, firmly melding anti-Blackness with misogyny,

6080-404: The folks at TSR did. Naturally when TSR was shopping for new campaign worlds as part of their cross-media strategy, they had to get the Forgotten Realms. R. A. Salvatore took Greenwood's world and created characters and stories for it that made him a bestselling author and sustained TSR as a major fantasy book publisher". In 1985, the AD&D module Bloodstone Pass was released by TSR and

6175-458: The following year after only seven issues, and replaced it with two magazines, Little Wars , which covered miniature wargaming , and The Dragon , which covered role playing games. After twelve issues, Little Wars ceased independent publication and issue 13 was published as part of Dragon issue 22. The magazine debuted as The Dragon in June 1976. TSR co-founder Gary Gygax commented years later: "When I decided that The Strategic Review

6270-428: The gods being cast down was planned by TSR management from the top-down and started with Hall of Heroes (1989) and continued with a three-adventure Avatar series (1989) and a three-novel Avatar series (1989), and some stories in the comic book. TSR adjusted the timeline of the Forgotten Realms by advancing the calendar one year forward to 1358 DR, referring to the gap as the Time of Troubles. In early 1990,

6365-410: The hardcover Forgotten Realms Adventures by Grubb and Greenwood was released, which introduced the setting to AD&D 2nd edition; the book also detailed how the Time of Troubles had changed the setting. The Ruins of Undermountain (1991) was one of the first published mega-dungeons. The Al-Qadim setting by Jeff Grubb was released in 1992, and the setting was added to the southern part of

6460-469: The last being released in 1991. A fifty-six page annual Forgotten Realms Comic Annual #1: Waterdhavian Nights , illustrated by various artists, was released in 1990. Curse of the Azure Bonds , a module based on the role-playing video game of the same name , was released in 1989. To transition the Forgotten Realms from first edition AD&D to the ruleset's second edition, a story involving

6555-507: The last issue published in April 2022; Wizards of the Coast published an update in July 2022 announcing the cancellation of the publication. On November 15, 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced that " Dragon+ will be removed from app stores on or around November 15th, and dragonmag.com will be redirected and its content will no longer be available". Many of the gaming world's most famous writers, game designers and artists have published work in

6650-455: The listed de facto publisher. They removed the word "magazine" from the cover title starting with the June 2000 issue, changing the publication's name back to simply Dragon . In 1999 a CD-ROM compilation of the first 250 issues, called Dragon Magazine Archive , was released in PDF format with a special viewer. It includes the seven issues of The Strategic Review . The Dragon Magazine Archive

6745-465: The magazine. Through most of its run the magazine frequently published fantasy fiction, either short stories or novel excerpts. After the 1990s, the appearance of fiction stories became relatively rare. One late example was issue #305's featured excerpt from George R.R. Martin 's later Hugo-nominated novel A Feast for Crows . It also featured book reviews of fantasy and science fiction novels, and occasionally of films of particular interest (such as

6840-437: The monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review . The final printed issue was #359 in September 2007. Shortly after the last print issue shipped in mid-August 2007, Wizards of the Coast (part of Hasbro, Inc. ), the publication's current copyright holder, relaunched Dragon as an online magazine , continuing on the numbering of the print edition. The last published issue

6935-543: The new edition, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (2015), was released on November 3, 2015, and only covered a fraction of the Forgotten Realms. It describes the 2013 Sundering event, referred to as the Second Sundering in the book, and its consequences in game terms and lore. The video game Sword Coast Legends (2015) published by Digital Extremes was also released in the same month as

7030-590: The next edition of the game. This release included a weekly D&D Encounters in-store play event, a free-to-play mobile game Arena of War (2013), and a collaborative novel series: The Companions (2013) by R. A. Salvatore, The Godborn (2013) by Paul S. Kemp , The Adversary (2013) by Erin Evans , The Reaver (2014) by Richard Lee Byers , The Sentinel (2014) by Troy Denning , and The Herald (2014) by Ed Greenwood. Liz Schuh, Head of Publishing and Licensing for Dungeons & Dragons , said: The Sundering

7125-408: The novels have been among the most requested books by fans of the fantasy genre. D&D chroniclers Michael Witwer et al. , in the book Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana , noted that the "level of Tolkienesque history and detail that Greenwood had infused in his creation - and almost "real world" quality - granted the Realms an irresistible allure [...]. While at its core the Forgotten Realms

7220-536: The novels written in the Forgotten Realms setting have formed one of "the industry's leading fantasy series". Over time these novels have gained "unprecedented popularity", which led, as Marc Oxoby noted in his book, The 1990s , to the novels having an "extraordinary shelf life", remaining in print for many years. This popular reception has also been reflected in public libraries; for example, Joyce Saricks states in The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction that

7315-596: The original boxed set were released under the first edition rules, beginning with Waterdeep and the North , which was followed by Moonshae in 1987, and Empires of the Sands , The Magister , The Savage Frontier , Dreams of the Red Wizards , and Lords of Darkness in 1988. The City System boxed set was released in 1988, and it contained several maps of the city of Waterdeep. Ruins of Adventure ,

7410-404: The pantheon of the gods. The Sundering is all about those two worlds separating—coming apart—and the process of that separation is really the story that we're telling over the next year. At the end of this story arc, Abeir and Toril will be separate again, and many of the things that happened when they crashed together will go back to the way they were before. So magic will be much like it was before

7505-540: The previous adventures to fit as part of the Forgotten Realms. The module Under Illefarn published in 1987 is set in the Forgotten Realms, as is the module released in 1988, Swords of the Iron Legion . R. A. Salvatore wrote his first novel for the Forgotten Realms, The Crystal Shard (1988), which was originally set in the Moonshae Islands before being moved to a new location and introduced

7600-554: The release of a new Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set containing three books ( A Grand Tour of the Realms , Running the Realms , and Shadowdale ) and various "monster supplements". Additional material for the setting was released steadily throughout the 1990s. Forgotten Realms novels, such as the Legacy of the Drow series, the first three books of The Elminster Series , and numerous anthologies were also released throughout

7695-513: The release of the 2001 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting , the setting was given its own distinct and separate cosmological arrangement, with unique planes not explicitly connected to those of the other settings. Religion plays a large part in the Forgotten Realms, with deities and their followers being an integral part of the world. Deities interact directly in mortal affairs, answer prayers, and have their own personal agendas. All deities must have worshipers to survive, and all mortals must worship

7790-480: The setting for a token fee. He noted that TSR altered his original conception of the Realms being a place that could be accessed from Earth, as "[c]oncerns over possible lawsuits (kids getting hurt while trying to 'find a gate') led TSR to de-emphasize this meaning". Jon Peterson, author of Dungeons and Dragons Art and Arcana: A Visual History , said that Greenwood "was that rare obsessive DM who just seemed to have more ideas and energy to pour into his world than even

7885-503: The setting that played home to the massively popular Baldur's Gate video game, as well as R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt books. Currently, it's the only campaign setting actively supported by D&D makers Wizards of the Coast, which would be restrictive if Forgotten Realms wasn't such an incredibly diverse place, housing classic European middle ages tropes, as well as a heroic fantasy take on African, Middle Eastern, and other real-world cultures". Brian Silliman, for SYFY Wire in 2017, described

7980-631: The surface. Thay has become a nightmare land of death and the Elves, sensing the newfound connection to the Feywild, have returned to Faerûn in force". The event moved the fictional world's timeline 94 years into the future to 1479 DR. The Spellplague acted as "a narrative justification for design changes". In 2008, the Forgotten Realms also became the setting for the RPGA's sole living campaign, Living Forgotten Realms , replacing Living Greyhawk . In 2011,

8075-601: The tabletop campaign guide. 5th edition details on "the rest of Faerûn had been untouched until the Tomb of Annihilation (2017), an adventure that leaves the northern Sword Coast for the southern jungles of Chult". The official Dungeons & Dragons actual play web series Rivals of Waterdeep , which premiered in 2018, is set in the Forgotten Realms. It has adapted adventure modules such as Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (2018), Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (2019) and Candlekeep Mysteries (2021) which are also set in

8170-458: The voice of the fictional sage Elminster , who reviewed a D&D monster in-depth. Under Paizo's tenure such ecology articles became heavier in game mechanics than narrative and description. The Dragon submissions guidelines explicitly state that Ecology articles "should have a hunter’s guidebook approach, although it should not be written 'in voice'" and further specify the exact format of Ecology articles, leaving less room for artistic license by

8265-436: The world of the Forgotten Realms resembles the pre-industrial Earth in the 13th or 14th century. However, the presence of magic provides an additional element of power to the societies. There are several nation states and many independent cities, with loose alliances being formed for defense or conquest. Trade is performed by ship or horse-drawn vehicle , and manufacturing is based upon cottage industry . The Forgotten Realms

8360-404: Was No. 430 in December 2013. A digital publication called Dragon+ , which replaced Dragon magazine, was launched in 2015. It was created by the advertising agency Dialect in collaboration with Wizards of the Coast, and its numbering system for issues started at No. 1. In 1975, TSR, Inc. began publishing The Strategic Review . At the time, roleplaying games were still seen as a subgenre of

8455-606: Was later the focus of its own source book Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms , published in 1988. There is also a vast subterranean world called the Underdark beneath the surface. In early editions of the setting, The Realms shared a unified cosmology with various other campaign settings called the Great Wheel. In this way each of the Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings were linked together to form one interwoven world connected by various planes of existence. With

8550-557: Was launched on April 30, 2015, succeeding the existing versions of Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Created by Dialect in collaboration with Wizards of the Coast, the online edition ceased continuity with the printed and digital versions of both magazines, and restarted its numbering system for issues at No. 1. The magazine branded itself as an app with content "showcasing what’s new in Dungeons & Dragons – from backstory and world information to discussions about what's coming next from

8645-484: Was not the right vehicle, hired Tim Kask as a magazine editor for Tactical Studies Rules, and named the new publication he was to produce The Dragon , I thought we would eventually have a great periodical to serve gaming enthusiasts worldwide... At no time did I ever contemplate so great a success or so long a lifespan." Dragon is the launching point for a number of rules, spells, monsters, magic items, and other ideas that were incorporated into later official products of

8740-414: Was preceded by seven issues of The Strategic Review . In the magazine's early years it also published five "Best of" issues, reprinting highly regarded articles from The Strategic Review and The Dragon . From 1996 to 2001, Dragon Magazine published the "Dragon Annual", a thirteenth issue of all new content. Print versions: Digital (online/PDF) versions: A collection of Dragon was released as

8835-404: Was published in 2014, Wizards of the Coast announced that the Forgotten Realms would continue to serve as the official campaign setting for its upcoming published adventure materials. The village of Phandalin in the Forgotten Realms acted as the primary setting for the new 5th edition Starter Set (2014) which was published before the release of three new core rulebooks. "Tyranny of Dragons"

8930-682: Was the first multimedia storyline for the new edition and included two adventure modules, Hoard of the Dragon Queen (2014) and The Rise of Tiamat (2014), and an update to the Neverwinter (2013) video game. The next two storylines, "Elemental Evil" which included Princes of the Apocalypse (2015) and "Rage of Demons" which included Out of the Abyss (2015), were also set in the Forgotten Realms. The first campaign guide for

9025-420: Was used until 2000, had small runic letters that read "Herein lie the lost lands" as an allusion to the connection between the two worlds. Forgotten Realms is one of the most popular D&D settings , largely due to the success of novels by authors such as R. A. Salvatore and numerous role-playing video games, including Pool of Radiance (1988), Eye of the Beholder (1991), Icewind Dale (2000),

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