Some characters in FR may not be the top. Drizzt is among them, but he brings forward some excellent campaign additions. Not really for himself, but for secondary characters, especially Bruenor, Jarlaxle and Entreri (maybe the coolest character in all FR!).

Elminster may be a bit stereotyped (did anyone say Gandalf or Fizban?), however he is the well-known reference figure to which many high-ups call for assistance, so he may appear at any time in a campaign. However Elminster, too, is connected with very interesting characters, namely the Seven Sisters and the other Chosen of Mystra (especially Sammaster). In addition, the Harper schism and the creation of the Tel'Teukiira (in the Cloak and Dagger accessory, if I remember correctly) cast a new interesting light over the Chosen, and showed that the forces of good in the Realms have internal enmities and clashing goals.

Currently, my campaign makes a good use of the following major characters: Vangerdahast (I made him play dead after Azoun's death and assume a new identity to maintain control over Arabel), Artus Cimber (good Harper connection) and Fzoul Chembryl (my favorite FR bad guy of all times), with brief appearances of other ones, plus a ton of minor characters taken here and there.

Do you understand why I love the Realms?  

carl3369 wrote:FWIW the Forgotten Realms is my absolute favourite setting. I love the depth of it, the sheer volume of information available beggars belief.

Carl

  Now, you see, that is the problem...

    There is so much to collect that I have no intention of trying.  There is too much detail.

    I think there is little discussion of Forgotten Realms on the Acaeum because of the age of the members.  Younger guys might have fonder memories of Waterdeep...or whatever it is called.

    One thing I do not understand about various settings is how the actions of a few individuals is supposed to be known across an entire continent.  Who would really know about characters like Tenser or Mordenkain or the like?  

    For me, the idea of powerful individuals who have it so much more together than the PC's is anathema.  (This is one of the things that wrecked Shadowrun for me when it was run by a GM who really thought he was supposed to make us all feel small by having Harlequin sneer at us.)  In my own campaigns, these people are always off stage and when they do (very rarely) appear it almost always turns out that their reputation is larger than their true selves.

   A Gang of Five or Circle of Eight, or whatever, who dominate the news on an entire continent, is really boring.  It is about as interesting and memorable as The Lord of the Rings would have been if Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, Celeborn and Glorfindel would have formed an uber-party and flown on giant eagles to Mordor to flatten Barad Dur...possibly with Saruman along to play the part of tormented turncoat.

    This is superheroes role-playing, not fantasy.

    Um...and....right....Forgotten Realms....right.  I own a couple of copies but I would never use it.  Get real.

Mark  

deimos3428 wrote:To be fair, 1st Ed. Realms is better than 2nd Ed. Realms.  That whole "god-war" thing messed it all up.  I don't know what they were thinkin'.  

I agree. The Time of Troubles forcibly removed the three "evil" gods in favor of a single one, Cyric, who later turned out to be a fool.

One of the (few) merits of 3rd edition is to have recovered Bane from the grave.