Close
Close
Advanced Search

Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (1e)Click to magnify

Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (1e)

ADD TO WISHLIST >

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Set ESD contains two books and four maps. Two of the maps are drawn to provide a general overview of the Realms, running from the Moonshae Isles in the west to the land of Thay in the east, and from the Spine of the World Mountains in the north to the Jungles of Chult in the south.

The other two maps are detailed blow-ups of sections of the former maps, covering that region from the Sword Coast to the Dragon Reach.

The book included called The Cyclopedia of the Realms is intended as a general overview of life in the Forgotten Realms, concentrating on those areas best-known to our source.

Product History

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (1987), by Ed Greenwood with Jeff Grubb and Karen S. Martin, is the boxed set that introduced the world of Toril to D&D. It was published in July 1987.

About the Title. The Forgotten Realms is, of course, the name of Ed Greenwood's campaign setting for D&D. Ed Greenwood says that the name of the Realms is derived from the fact that "a multiverse exists" with many "'parallel' Prime Material Planes" and that travel between them "was once far more common". But, no longer. As a result, the Realms "have been 'forgotten' by beings of Earth" … though they still remember stories "of dragons, vampires, and magic".

Much like the Greyhawk and Dragonlance lines, the Forgotten Realms brand name doesn't actually include the name of the planet. In fact, the planet of the Realms didn't have a name before it came to TSR; Jeff Grubb contributed "Toril" from the name of his own home campaign (1975+) — which was originally called Toricandra, influenced by C.S. Lewis' Perelandra (1943), before the shorter name took over. He then tacked on the "Abeir" prefix so that the world name would be first in the "Cyclopedia of the Realms"!

Origins (I): A Whole New World. TSR's traditional setting was Greyhawk, but with Gary Gygax's departure from TSR in 1985, that world no longer had a strong guiding force. Meanwhile, the Dragonlance Chronicles adventures (1984-1986) had introduced the world of Krynn, but that story had now come to an end, and TSR feared that the line had peaked. As a result, by 1986, TSR was interested in publishing a new world …

Origins (II): A Fictional Youth. The story of the Realms actually began some two decades earlier. A young Ed Greenwood was a voracious reader, influenced by Poul Anderson (1926-2001), Edgar Rice Burroughs (1975-1950), Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), Fritz Leiber (1910-1992), A. Merritt (1884-1943), William Shakespeare (1564-1616), and others. Some time between 1966 and 1969 (sources vary), Greenwood tried his hand at writing too, penning the first story of the Realms. It was called "One Comes, Unheralded, to Zirta" and it began: "Now in all the lands twixt bustling Waterdeep and the sparkling waves of The Sea of Fallen Stars, no men were more loved and feared than the stoic swordsman Durnan, the blustering old rogue Mirt, and the all-wise, ancient wizard Elminster." It was the first of many stories of Mirt the Moneylender, and here Greenwood took particular direction from Fritz Leiber — whose tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser showed Greenwood how to reveal a world through the small adventures of its common folk.

In the years that followed, Mirt traveled up and down the Sword Coast in Greenwood's stories, and so the author discovered Mirabar, Luskan, Neverwinter, Port Llast, Waterdeep, and Baldur's Gate. Within a year he drawn a map showing these places, truly turning the stories into a world. And thus the Realms was born.

Unsurprisingly, a youth so interested in words would grow into a man who worked among books. By the '80s, when Greenwood brought the Forgotten Realms to TSR, he'd already begun lifelong employment with the public libraries of Canada.

But first there would be school and college … and D&D.

Origins (III): A Girl Named September. Ed Greenwood first saw D&D at Bakka, a science-fiction bookstore in Toronto. He was intrigued of course, but had serious doubts about the game's loose rules. Sure he enough, when he tried the game out, he discovered that "holes and flaws in the rules could cause huge arguments during play".

Fast forward a couple of years, and Greenwood was becoming won over by the more extensive descriptions of the Monster Manual (1977) and the clearer limitations and descriptions for classes and spells found in the Players Handbook (1978).

Enter: September. She was a fan of AD&D who easily convinced Greenwood and his nerd friends to play with her. She was also the "greatest Dungeon Master" Greenwood had "ever known, before or since". She made them love D&D, and though she tragically died from cancer within a year, it was her influence that led Greenwood to turn his Realms into an AD&D world, so that he could run games of his own.

Origins (IV): A Home Campaign. The Forgotten Realms saw regular play starting some time in 1978. Greenwood's first players were the Company of Crazed Venturers. They began their story in Waterdeep, exploring Undermountain and its adjunct, the Dungeon of the Crypt. They then turned to guarding caravans, which led them to Silverymoon, Everlund, Sundabar, and Secomber. Later, Greenwood developed Scornubel, Elturel, Iriaebor, and Berdusk, just to keep up with them. He eventually worked his way into what Jeff Grubb would later call the Heartlands, connecting Mirt's Sword Coast with Cormyr, the Dales, and the Moonsea.

When the Don Mills public library in North York, where Greenwood worked, asked him to run a campaign at the library, Greenwood was ready. He began the new story in Cormyr, in the Haunted Halls of Eveningstar. This led to the rise of a new adventuring company, the Swords of Eveningstar. They would eventually become the Knights of Myth Drannor and settle in as the lords of what may the Realms' most famous locale, Shadowdale.

Later, short-term campaigns at public libraries would give rise to the other adventuring bands in Cormyr and the Dales, such as the Company of the Unicorn and the Company of the Manticore, while the Baron's Blades of Amn could be found at many conventions.

When Greenwood ran his Realms adventures, they tended to have three characteristics:

  1. Freedom. The players had agency to do as they wished.
  2. Intrigue. The adventures hid conspiracies, mysteries, and secrets.
  3. Events. The adventures depicted the Realms as a living place that changed.

The open freedom of Greenwood's Realms is obvious in the world's wide maps, and the intrigue would appear through many published groups and organizations, but don't confuse the events of Greenwood's living world with the Realms-shaking events that would occur at TSR: they were very different beasts. Greenwood says that after twenty years of play, the Knights of Myth Drannor were just at 9th level. Their conspiracies, mysteries, and events were smaller things, not the massive upheavals that would begin at TSR just two years down the road with the Avatar event (1989).

Origins (V): It Came From Dragon. Ed Greenwood decided to start writing for Dragon magazine because of mistakes in the Divine Right boardgame (1979). His Divine Right article was saved until The Dragon #34 (February 1980) for a special feature. Meanwhile, Greenwood was also creating monsters for his D&D game, and so he kept writing for Dragon, and the first of those critters appeared in The Dragon #30 (October 1979): The Curst.

Greenwood was soon "flooding" the magazine with articles, so many that he was eventually named a "Contributing Editor" — which didn't provide any salary, just credit. Meanwhile, some of Greenwood's articles began to hint at an otherwise unknown world, full of legendary people and places. It was the Forgotten Realms, quietly making its first appearances in the pages of Dragon magazine.

It was Ed Greenwood's magic item articles that really got the ball rolling, starting with "Pages from the Mages" in Dragon #62 (June 1982). Each magic item included long histories; even that first one included a few references that later Realms fans would recognize, including a "Red Wizard" … and a sage named "Elminster".

Origins (VI): Buying a World. Which finally brings up back to TSR, where Jeff Grubb knew that his bosses were looking for a new world. He was also familiar with what Greenwood had been writing for Dragon magazine. So he called Greenwood (long distance, to Canada) and said, "Do you really have a complete, detailed fantasy world at home, or do you just make it up as you go along?" Ed Greenwood replied, "Yes, and yes."

Grubb suggested to Director of Games Development Michael Dobson that Greenwood's world might be what TSR was looking for. Dobson agreed, so Greenwood began sending Grubb typewritten manuscripts about the Realms. The "t"s were all written in by hand, because Greenwood's "t" key wasn't working. Grubb would later say, it "was like reading a little graveyard on every page". After Grubb read each packet, he'd send it on to Karen S. Martin for "perusal and comments". She says: "the more I read, the more I loved it". Greenwood also produced huge, hand-drawn maps for TSR. Grubb says that it took a day to fit them together. They were rather infamously laid out in the hallway in front of the bathroom, because it was the only space large enough.

With Dobson, Grubb, Martin, and (of course) Greenwood all on board, the only remaining question was the contractual details. TSR bought the Realms for "a relatively modest amount of cash, a Mac Plus computer, and promise to publish novels [Greenwood] wrote". Grubb says that TSR later bought Greenwood a hard drive to go with the computer. TSR (and later Wizards) owns the Realms and has the right to choose its editorial direction as long as they publish at least one novel-length original Realms work by Greenwood (be it novel or gamebook) every year. And decades later, that's how things continue.

Jeff Grubb became the de facto product manager for the Realms because of his work with Greenwood during the line's creation. His "era" of the Realms began with Forgotten Realms Campaign Set, continued through the first several "FR" books, and ended with Forgotten Realms Adventures (1988), by which time the setting had grown big enough that many other people were involved.

Origins (VII): Divers Hands. Over two decades, Ed Greenwood created a rich and evocative fantasy world in his Forgotten Realms. However, from the moment that he started sending type-written sheets to Jeff Grubb, his Forgotten Realms became something much larger: TSR's Forgotten Realms.

Jeff Grubb was the first person to modify and adjust Greenwood's Realms — the first to truly make it the work of divers hands — and that began with his editing of the original material that Greenwood sent him. It's perhaps unsurprising that this included some necessary bowdlerization, to adjust Greenwood's world, which had grown up during the more adult D&D of the '70s, to TSR's more kid-friendly D&D of the'80s: Greenwood's original city maps included brothels, and Grubb had to remove them, but he didn't want to rekey the maps; thus, the Realms' festhalls were born. Though the change is entirely understandable, it was also be a preview of the deeper bowdlerization that TSR would engage in when they published AD&D 2e (1989).

Meanwhile, TSR also decided to incorporate projects then in process into the Realms, marking the first major changes to Greenwood's worlds (and the first major additions by creators other than Greenwood or Grubb). They rolled back Greenwood's Great Glacier to make room for the Bloodstone Pass adventures (1985-1988) and they outright replaced Greenwood's own Moonshae islands with a Celtic-influenced Moonshaes created by Douglas Niles for a trilogy of novels (1987-1989). Meanwhile, Ten Towns got added in the North to accommodate R.A. Salvatore's upcoming novel, The Crystal Shard (1988). I3-5: Desert of Desolation (1987) was perhaps the easiest integration, because it was built on the history of a long-last land. FR10: "Old Empires" (1990) would later improve that integration.

So, if Ed Greenwood was the father of the Forgotten Realms, then it gained many uncles and aunts when it came to TSR, including Jeff Grubb, Karen S. Martin, Douglas Niles, Michael Dobson, R.A. Salvatore, and Tracy Hickman. They would soon be joined by many others, as TSR published its "FR" sourcebooks (1987-1993), ultimately making it one of the largest shared-world settings ever (and we haven't even gotten to the Forgotten Realm's Living City yet!).

Creating a New World. The Forgotten Realms was TSR's fourth-and-a-half major setting, following Greyhawk, Krynn, the Known World, and the semi-setting of Blackmoor. It was perhaps the most similar to Basic D&D's Known World, due to its inclusion of real-world-like cultures in a fantasy setting, but it was much more cohesive, probably due to the singular force behind its creation. It was also perhaps the most heroic of TSR's worlds. Greyhawk, with its primordial origins, was more likely to walk the line between good and evil; while Krynn was a world of epic warfare. The Known World varied widely due to its different levels of play, but it seemed most focused on exploration of vast tracts of land. In contrast, the Realms was simply good, a place of heroism, where goodness was meant to overcome evil, and where comradeship and love won out.

Greenwood may have explained it best when he wrote:

"Love is what the Realms has always been about; not just grand romantic passion, but simple, decent folk doing kind and noble things for others, up to and including laying down their lives for their friends."

The Components: Map Quest. One of the most notable elements of the Forgotten Realms box was its beautiful map of the Realms … which did not have a hex grid. This made it stand out when compared to the more game-focused maps of the world found in Greyhawk and Dragonlance products; it created what Jeff Grubb called an "openness on the map", which allowed players to "add their own stuff". To support gaming, TSR included a plastic overlay in the box, which let players superimpose a hex grid on the map when necessary.

Exploring the Realms. What was the original Realms? It began as a "Known World" containing The Sword Coast, The Savage Frontier, Cormyr, and The Dalelands. By the time that Greenwood sent his first manuscript packet to TSR, a 15-page "Look at the Forgotten Realms", Greenwood listed the following places as being important: The North, Amn, Cormyr, Anauroch, Tethyr, Calimshan and the South, The Dalelands, The Moonsea Area, Impiltur, Thay, and The Shaar. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Set offers a big overview of the Realms alongside a cyclopedia that concentrates on these places that Greenwood had already developed.

Though the Realms is seen as a big evolution in RPG settings, it actually wasn't that different from what TSR had done for the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting (1980, 1983) — though the Realms was somewhat more expansive, even in this first box. The big difference would come next, as TSR extensively supported the Realms with a series of 16 "FR" setting supplements — with many more to follow in later years. It was this constant stream of supplements that truly turned the Realms from a bare-bones overview of a world to the most detailed world in fantasy.

NPCs of Note. The most notable NPC in the Realms is of course Elminster, the sage of Shadowdale. He was in Greenwood's first Realms short story, but Greenwood only introduced him to the public in the "Pages from the Mages" of Dragon #62. There he was simply an "old storyteller", someone who could be Greenwood's "mouthpiece" for Dragon articles.

In his own campaign, Greenwood says that Elminster fulfilled a similar role as "the mind-wandering, irritatingly whimsical old man who could OCCASIONALLY be of help to PCs … but who would become VERY irritating, very fast, if they started to rely on him". However, Elminster would soon take on a much greater role in the published Realms, and Greenwood says this was largely at TSR's insistence. They wanted him to cosplay Elminster at Gen Con and they wanted him to write novels about the old wizard. Soon, he became the "signature character" or the Realms and an important figure in many "Realms-shaking" events.

Future History. Buyers of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set were encouraged to fill in a customer response card to join an "Order of Heroes" and learn the "Secrets of the Sages". They received one issue of a Realms newsletter, Secrets of the Sages (Summer 1988), which included a few new details on the world.

About the Creators. Greenwood soon got to writing his first Realms novel, Spellfire (1988). It would the fourth forgotten Realms novel (following the transplanted novels by Niles and Salvatore) and the first of Greenwood's many novels set in the Realms.

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (6)
Discussions (33)
Customer avatar
Russ G January 09, 2024 9:06 pm UTC
For anyone that has purchased this, is the background the sepia color of the original print, or is it white?
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon W January 09, 2024 10:02 pm UTC
PURCHASER
It was sepia with a sort of “old parchment” look. Some people found the PDF difficult to read, so the PDF was changed to a simple sepia colour instead.
Reply
Customer avatar
Russ G January 09, 2024 10:55 pm UTC
Gotcha, thanks for the info!
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon W January 10, 2024 8:19 am UTC
PURCHASER
You're very welcome.

I downloaded the original "old parchment" PDFs (2 separate books) while they were still available. I also downloaded the plain sepia background PDF (2 books combined into 1 PDF) after they were switched.

I find the old parchment style easy enough to read and I like the look of it more.

If you really prefer the "old parchment" version PDFs, then I recommend you ask DriveThruRPG &/or Wizards of the Coast to make them available again, at least as an option.
Reply
Customer avatar
Russ G January 22, 2024 10:03 pm UTC
Actually, I was hoping there was a version with a white background like the majority of other PDFs available here. Sometimes I'll print a few pages to use at the table and the colored backgrounds just waste toner.
Customer avatar
Ashwinn M November 25, 2023 2:49 pm UTC
Just adding my 2 cents here, same as many before me have. If at all possible, please make this a POD. I would love to buy this, but if I just get a PDF...I may as well just head over to some other place and get it free.
Customer avatar
Jim H September 24, 2023 2:19 pm UTC
POD like the Dark Sun boxed set would be amazing.
Does anyone know how they determine which items are POD? Is there a poll..a suggestion box.. how?
Customer avatar
D C R September 20, 2023 3:08 am UTC
POD please. :)
Customer avatar
Edward B May 27, 2023 5:10 pm UTC
Came here to check out pricing on the PoD version…only to find there isn’t one?

Like many other commenters. I am perplexed by this oversight.
Customer avatar
Matthew U April 20, 2023 5:46 pm UTC
PURCHASER
How is this not available in POD yet?
Customer avatar
Robert D March 16, 2023 7:38 pm UTC
Are the maps in this pdf combined to form complete maps (like FR5 Savage Frontier for example), or are the pages scanned separately/individually?
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon W March 17, 2023 6:13 am UTC
PURCHASER
The maps are all in one PDF file, but you need to scroll down the PDF to see each map.
Reply
Customer avatar
Robert D March 17, 2023 11:09 am UTC
Thanks Simon. So it sounds like the maps are broken into 8.5"x11" pieces, as with many of the scanned books
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon W March 17, 2023 12:33 pm UTC
PURCHASER
You're welcome, Robert.

The file dimensions (for the PDF that includes 4 maps) are shown as "21.88 x 33.46 inches". There are digital margins on the sides of each map taking up about 20% + 20% of the entire width. I don't know whether or not the dimensions include the digital margins.
Reply
Customer avatar
Robert D March 17, 2023 3:38 pm UTC
Excellent information - thank you!
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon W March 18, 2023 6:48 am UTC
PURCHASER
You're very welcome, Robert. May Tymora grant you with good fortune in your adventures!
Customer avatar
Taylor O November 10, 2022 10:36 am UTC
A print on demand option would be neat. I would if one could have a way to merge Greyhawk and the Realms in a way that's logical. :)
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon W March 17, 2023 12:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
There are the traditional ways that Greyhawk & the Realms are connected: magical portals, travel through Sigil (the nexus city in the Planescape campaign setting), or travel by spelljammer ship.
Customer avatar
Robert M September 28, 2022 3:16 am UTC
POD POD POD!
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon W March 17, 2023 12:37 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Jocks watching sports chant "USA USA USA!" We nerds instead hang out online and chant "POD POD POD!" :D
Customer avatar
James P March 24, 2022 11:21 pm UTC
PURCHASER
POD pretty please!!!! :D
Customer avatar
Tapio P February 25, 2022 1:26 pm UTC
POD Please!!
Customer avatar
Daniel R February 11, 2022 8:57 pm UTC
POD please
Customer avatar
Steeve T January 09, 2022 7:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Print on demand for this please (and all other 1st edition FR products)!
Customer avatar
Marc C July 03, 2021 9:28 pm UTC
POD PREMIUM HARDCOVER PLEASE
Customer avatar
Christopher C May 21, 2021 6:21 am UTC
Please make a Print On Demand option for this!!!
Customer avatar
Simon W April 21, 2021 5:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I appreciate the new map files. Thankyou.

I prefer the original PDF version of the books that you had on here until today - the version with the pretend "old paper" look. Looks more beautiful to me and also it's more immersive, as if we are reading an ancient tome. How about you make both versions of books available, so customers can choose which ones they want to download?
Reply
Customer avatar
Marco Filippo V April 23, 2021 12:49 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Seconded!
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon W April 23, 2021 3:36 pm UTC
PURCHASER
:)
Reply
Customer avatar
Matthew U April 26, 2021 7:24 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Oh I'm glad I didn't download the update, I would've lost that parchment look everyone loves so much!
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon W April 26, 2021 8:40 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I downloaded the original and the new version. Like I said, the new version has the maps that are not in separate pieces.
See 16 more
Browse Categories
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!















Product Information
Platinum seller
Rules Edition(s)
Pages
192
Edition
1.0
Publisher Stock #
TSR 1031
File Size:
57.17 MB
Format
Scanned image Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
April 21, 2021
This title was added to our catalog on September 06, 2016.