Salvatore with a new run of Drizzt books, although there seem to be no plans for more material at the moment. After a short hiatus, the novel line has been relaunched by R.A. A Forgotten Realms movie is in development for release in 2021 or 2022, and Larian Studios are working to relaunch the video game line with the eagerly-awaited Baldur’s Gate III. There are still some worlds left unconquered. The new setting rolled back most of the disastrous changes from 4 th Edition and restored some faith and popularity in the setting. Even more notable was that, for the very first time, the Forgotten Realms was now the default setting for the D&D game. A streamlined, back-to-basics version of the game, it proved an immediate, huge hit. The decision was vehemently rejected by the overwhelming majority of Realms fans sales of the 4 th Edition D&D and Forgotten Realms material were disappointing and the setting spent several years in the doldrums until 2014, when Wizards of the Coast launched D&D 5 th Edition. In 2008 D&D launched its 4 th edition, but the surprising decision was made to effectively destroy the Realms, turning it into a kind of post-apocalyptic, high-concept setting. Over the next seven years the Realms continued to peak in popularity, with more video games such as Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights contributing to its success. D&D 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. This led to a creative renaissance for the setting, spearheaded by the hugely popular video game Baldur’s Gate (1998), the first RPG to be released by BioWare. However, Wizards of the Coast stepped in and bought both the game and the setting. However, it was the epic dungeon-crawler Eye of the Beholder (1991) that became a major crossover hit with general gamers and expanded the audience even further.ĭ&D and the Realms ran into a major problem with the collapse of TSR in 1997, during which time it was briefly possible that both would disappear altogether. The setting expanded to a successful comics run and also a line of well-received video games, such as Curse of the Azure Bonds. In 1989 the Realms made the transition to D&D 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. Dozens of adventures and supplements explored the gods, power groups and races of the Realms in remarkable detail. The western continent of Maztica and the southern continent of Zakhara were explored in further boxed sets. The continent of Kara-Tur, previously developed in 1985 for the Oriental Adventures sourcebook, was bolted to the eastern side of the Realms (with Greenwood’s blessing). To date, more than 30 million Drizzt novels have been sold by themselves. The Crystal Shard introduced the character Drizzt Do’Urden, a dark elven ranger seeking to atone for the sins of his entire race, and a fantasy publishing legend was born. Ed Greenwood provided his own novel, Spellfire, and a few months later another book was published by a first-time novelist named R.A. The Grey Box sold over 100,000 copies in short order, a staggering number for an RPG supplement. The first release was a novel, Darkwalker on Moonshae by Douglas Niles, followed by the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, or the “Big Grey Box” as it became infamously known. The slightly awed TSR bought the rights to the setting and began released it to the public in 1987. This was the Tolkien school of in-depth worldbuilding taken and expanded and applied to a continent several times the size of Middle-earth. Greenwood’s map of the setting’s signature city, Waterdeep, was even larger and detailed and named almost every building. Greenwood’s map of the main continent was divided across dozens of A4 sheets of paper which were painstakingly reassembled in the main TSR office, taking up almost every inch of free floor space. Each box was packed full of notes, handwritten and typed, featuring information on hundreds of characters and cities, dozens of countries and countless new monsters, factions and magical items. TSR editor Jeff Grubb contacted Greenwood and asked exactly how much of the Realms had he actually created? Greenwood’s reply was, “lots.” Soon boxes were arriving at TSR HQ in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin by the score. D&D creator Gary Gygax was also in the middle of his painful departure from TSR, which made the future use of his World of Greyhawk setting questionable. The Dragonlance setting had been an enormous success, but the feeling was that the continent of Ansalon was too small to serve as a setting for lots of stories. In 1986 TSR, Inc., the publishers of D&D, were looking for a new setting.
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