Heyo so I want to start DM'ing someday, and as love with Eberron as I am, I know that not every group is going to want to always be in magic-punk land, (myself included, gotta have some classic fantasy,) I really don't know much about the Forgotten Realms setting. I only know Baldur's Gate from studying every single bit of it I could get in the Avernus book. What books have other DMs used to learn about the setting? As far as I know 5e only has the DM Guide, SCAG, and Volo's to give information on the realms.
Bonus Question: Does anyone have any good sources for information on the planes beyond the Material Plane? I believe it's touched on in the DM guide, but from my understanding 3.5 had at least one whole book dedicated to that kind of lore?
Thank you anyone who responds with some suggestions
At least initially, I'd save your money from investing in Forgotten Realms lore and just consult the Forgotten Realms wiki. If something therein really excites you, most everything cited in the wiki can be found reprinted via DMsGuild.
Definitely read about the cosmology planar structure in the DMG before further investments. At least presently, you'd have to go back to prior edition to get more lore beyond that.
Keep in mind though, few players are going to call you out for presenting the Forgotten Realms or the Outer Planes in contrast with how they've been "officially" presented. I mean those folks do exist, but most players just don't invest that level of time even in Adventurer's League (as far as I know). I think 5e in particular is designed cognizant of the fact and so presents the "world built" more inspirationally than necessarily definitively. That said, I also understand there are people and DMs who would prefer diving deep into the lore and sure dive away if that's what you want.
Oh, YouTube. Aside from reprints anything that excites you in the FR wiki, run it through YouTube, you'll probably find some videos that consolidate the reading across editions for you. Jorphdan seems to be pretty popular, I generally like him too, though I think he sometimes fixes on ideas he asserts as "facts" that are actually more ambiguous in the sources he's pillaging. But he's entertaining and thought provoking (which is what you should be looking for, especially the latter if you're doing lore dives).
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Solid answers from MidnightPlat regarding the Forgotten Realms setting, I'd start with these suggestions, as they are free. Bear in mind that most, but not all, of the adventuring in 5e is done on the Sword Coast, there is still a huge pile of the FR continent to get to. The best setting I've found for FR information is the 2ed AD&D Forgotten Realms Boxed Set. There are some differences between editions, but for the most part discrepancies can easily be shoehorned back into place dependent upon how you prefer your world to run.
As far as the planes go, these descriptions and layouts vary widely between editions. Early editions don't necessarily have a Feywild or Shadowfel per se. I'm partial to 1ed AD&D Manual of the Planes and Gods and Demigods for research and inspiration.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
If you're wanting to learn about Forgotten Realms, I'd recommend skipping SCAG and getting the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting from 3rd Edition. I wouldn't bother with the 1e and 2e Forgotten Realms guides since the quality of the PDFs on DMs Guild are very, very poor. I haven't really read the 4e guide because I'm not into the Spellplague, but the 4e Neverwinter and Menzoberranzan books have solid information that can apply to different time periods in the Realms. Unfortunately, I haven't really found a good, brief primer to give my players for FR like Eberron has An Adventurer's Guide to Eberron or Pathfinder has their Inner Sea Primer.
The wiki, as others have pointed out, is also helpful and free.
For Planar stuff, I've not spent enough time with 3e's Manual of the Planes, but I think people generally like that one. I love my Planescape box from 2e, but that's probably not for everyone...
I'd say SCAG is a good place to start, but once you've read it, definitely use the FR wiki and/or buy the 4e setting book from the DMs' Guild. SCAG is great to introduce people to the realms, but it is light on concrete stuff about each place, so if there is a 5e book set in the area you're running (W:DH for Waterdeep, BG:DiA for Baldur's Gate, etc.), get it.
One more rec, the Stories and Lore section of this forum are frequented by some living breathing encyclopedias of the Realms, as well as other D&D settings. If you find something specific on the wiki or YouTube, they'd probably be able to steer your right in terms of other resources or reprints.
Good point was made about reprints, sometimes the PDF quality is a poor scan. It sounds like they make efforts to improve the scan library, but it's not done at any specific tempo I'm aware of (being Drivethru run, I _think_ you might be entitled to a higher quality scan if they update it and you own the inferior, but you'd have to ask their customer service to be sure).
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Good point was made about reprints, sometimes the PDF quality is a poor scan. It sounds like they make efforts to improve the scan library, but it's not done at any specific tempo I'm aware of (being Drivethru run, I _think_ you might be entitled to a higher quality scan if they update it and you own the inferior, but you'd have to ask their customer service to be sure).
Yes, they'll typically send you an email when a file has been updated. No further purchase necessary. In general, everything from 3e onward should be pretty good, but the older TSR stuff is all over the map for scan quality and their file previews aren't all up-to-date.
Aside from the books you mentioned, the best book to learn about the Sword Coast is probably Storm King's Thunder, it has a description for the majority of settlements in the Sword Coast (Although admittedly there are a few descriptions like "Hey, wanna find out about the village of Red Larch, go and buy Princes of the Apocalypse"), gives a brief overview of the main factions and gives you example encounters as well. Forgotten Realms wiki also exists, but it's not the most up to date source and I often find it's missing that one specific piece of information you're looking for.
In addition to the above try reading R.A Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden books. There are something like 30 of them and they encompass a good portion of the lore as well as giving you info about parts of Faerun that aren't on the Sword Coast.
Another way to get a bit of a handle on all of it is to just run packaged adventures such as Storm Kings Thunder and Rime of the Frost Maiden. Most players don't know much about the Realms (mine don't) so you can fudge quite a bit.
Check out DMsGuild. Sometimes you can find good stuff there.
For the planes you have to go back to older editions.
It really depends on what you want to do with it. There are volumes of material... and a LOT of books with both Ed Greenwood (Elminster) and R A Salvatore (Drizzt) both writing in the same realm. Most of what was written in novels would have happend a LONG time before any of your characters would have appeared and be ready for an adventure, barring some elves (and most likely they wouldn't know anything about either of those characters unless they travelled a lot or did a lot of history study). You can get a good sense of the world though, especially the Dalelands around Elminster with a lot of interactions with the Weave (what causes magic to work in the Forgotten Realms) and the northern sword coast following Drizzt and his band. Considering it would likely take you a couple of years to read through all of those books, I wouldn't recommend it unless you plan to spend a lot of time above and below ground and dealing with relics in long forgotten places. If you are going to run anything in the Underdark, definitely look up the sourcebooks of old. The 2e version of Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark is in most ways superior to later sourcebooks devoted to that. If you want the long long history of the world, the 3.5 Grand HIstory of the Realms has way more than you could ever use (going back more than 50,000 years). Don't even deal with the Spellplague unless you have Elves and just want a bit of flavor for earlier in their life when they remember magic not working at all. Mostly I would ask your players if anyone has any knowledge of the Sword Coast and go from there. If someone has read a few books, maybe find out which ones so you can know some of what they know. If no one has, just use the sourcebooks as reference and bend it the way you want to. In all things, make it your own. Your version of this world should be different than everyone else's and it should be as magical and wonderful as it is unique. Sure, some towns share the same names that others of us have visited in our games, but the taverns and townsfolk and monuments will be different. Basically everything your characters interact with will be special to your table regardless of how many thousands of words have been put to paper in dealing with other locations and times in this same world. Have fun with it!
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Heyo so I want to start DM'ing someday, and as love with Eberron as I am, I know that not every group is going to want to always be in magic-punk land, (myself included, gotta have some classic fantasy,) I really don't know much about the Forgotten Realms setting. I only know Baldur's Gate from studying every single bit of it I could get in the Avernus book. What books have other DMs used to learn about the setting? As far as I know 5e only has the DM Guide, SCAG, and Volo's to give information on the realms.
Bonus Question: Does anyone have any good sources for information on the planes beyond the Material Plane? I believe it's touched on in the DM guide, but from my understanding 3.5 had at least one whole book dedicated to that kind of lore?
Thank you anyone who responds with some suggestions
At least initially, I'd save your money from investing in Forgotten Realms lore and just consult the Forgotten Realms wiki. If something therein really excites you, most everything cited in the wiki can be found reprinted via DMsGuild.
Definitely read about the cosmology planar structure in the DMG before further investments. At least presently, you'd have to go back to prior edition to get more lore beyond that.
Keep in mind though, few players are going to call you out for presenting the Forgotten Realms or the Outer Planes in contrast with how they've been "officially" presented. I mean those folks do exist, but most players just don't invest that level of time even in Adventurer's League (as far as I know). I think 5e in particular is designed cognizant of the fact and so presents the "world built" more inspirationally than necessarily definitively. That said, I also understand there are people and DMs who would prefer diving deep into the lore and sure dive away if that's what you want.
Oh, YouTube. Aside from reprints anything that excites you in the FR wiki, run it through YouTube, you'll probably find some videos that consolidate the reading across editions for you. Jorphdan seems to be pretty popular, I generally like him too, though I think he sometimes fixes on ideas he asserts as "facts" that are actually more ambiguous in the sources he's pillaging. But he's entertaining and thought provoking (which is what you should be looking for, especially the latter if you're doing lore dives).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Solid answers from MidnightPlat regarding the Forgotten Realms setting, I'd start with these suggestions, as they are free. Bear in mind that most, but not all, of the adventuring in 5e is done on the Sword Coast, there is still a huge pile of the FR continent to get to. The best setting I've found for FR information is the 2ed AD&D Forgotten Realms Boxed Set. There are some differences between editions, but for the most part discrepancies can easily be shoehorned back into place dependent upon how you prefer your world to run.
As far as the planes go, these descriptions and layouts vary widely between editions. Early editions don't necessarily have a Feywild or Shadowfel per se. I'm partial to 1ed AD&D Manual of the Planes and Gods and Demigods for research and inspiration.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
If you're wanting to learn about Forgotten Realms, I'd recommend skipping SCAG and getting the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting from 3rd Edition. I wouldn't bother with the 1e and 2e Forgotten Realms guides since the quality of the PDFs on DMs Guild are very, very poor. I haven't really read the 4e guide because I'm not into the Spellplague, but the 4e Neverwinter and Menzoberranzan books have solid information that can apply to different time periods in the Realms. Unfortunately, I haven't really found a good, brief primer to give my players for FR like Eberron has An Adventurer's Guide to Eberron or Pathfinder has their Inner Sea Primer.
The wiki, as others have pointed out, is also helpful and free.
For Planar stuff, I've not spent enough time with 3e's Manual of the Planes, but I think people generally like that one. I love my Planescape box from 2e, but that's probably not for everyone...
I'd say SCAG is a good place to start, but once you've read it, definitely use the FR wiki and/or buy the 4e setting book from the DMs' Guild. SCAG is great to introduce people to the realms, but it is light on concrete stuff about each place, so if there is a 5e book set in the area you're running (W:DH for Waterdeep, BG:DiA for Baldur's Gate, etc.), get it.
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One more rec, the Stories and Lore section of this forum are frequented by some living breathing encyclopedias of the Realms, as well as other D&D settings. If you find something specific on the wiki or YouTube, they'd probably be able to steer your right in terms of other resources or reprints.
Good point was made about reprints, sometimes the PDF quality is a poor scan. It sounds like they make efforts to improve the scan library, but it's not done at any specific tempo I'm aware of (being Drivethru run, I _think_ you might be entitled to a higher quality scan if they update it and you own the inferior, but you'd have to ask their customer service to be sure).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Yes, they'll typically send you an email when a file has been updated. No further purchase necessary. In general, everything from 3e onward should be pretty good, but the older TSR stuff is all over the map for scan quality and their file previews aren't all up-to-date.
Aside from the books you mentioned, the best book to learn about the Sword Coast is probably Storm King's Thunder, it has a description for the majority of settlements in the Sword Coast (Although admittedly there are a few descriptions like "Hey, wanna find out about the village of Red Larch, go and buy Princes of the Apocalypse"), gives a brief overview of the main factions and gives you example encounters as well. Forgotten Realms wiki also exists, but it's not the most up to date source and I often find it's missing that one specific piece of information you're looking for.
In addition to the above try reading R.A Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden books. There are something like 30 of them and they encompass a good portion of the lore as well as giving you info about parts of Faerun that aren't on the Sword Coast.
Another way to get a bit of a handle on all of it is to just run packaged adventures such as Storm Kings Thunder and Rime of the Frost Maiden. Most players don't know much about the Realms (mine don't) so you can fudge quite a bit.
Check out DMsGuild. Sometimes you can find good stuff there.
For the planes you have to go back to older editions.
It really depends on what you want to do with it. There are volumes of material... and a LOT of books with both Ed Greenwood (Elminster) and R A Salvatore (Drizzt) both writing in the same realm. Most of what was written in novels would have happend a LONG time before any of your characters would have appeared and be ready for an adventure, barring some elves (and most likely they wouldn't know anything about either of those characters unless they travelled a lot or did a lot of history study). You can get a good sense of the world though, especially the Dalelands around Elminster with a lot of interactions with the Weave (what causes magic to work in the Forgotten Realms) and the northern sword coast following Drizzt and his band. Considering it would likely take you a couple of years to read through all of those books, I wouldn't recommend it unless you plan to spend a lot of time above and below ground and dealing with relics in long forgotten places.
If you are going to run anything in the Underdark, definitely look up the sourcebooks of old. The 2e version of Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark is in most ways superior to later sourcebooks devoted to that. If you want the long long history of the world, the 3.5 Grand HIstory of the Realms has way more than you could ever use (going back more than 50,000 years). Don't even deal with the Spellplague unless you have Elves and just want a bit of flavor for earlier in their life when they remember magic not working at all.
Mostly I would ask your players if anyone has any knowledge of the Sword Coast and go from there. If someone has read a few books, maybe find out which ones so you can know some of what they know. If no one has, just use the sourcebooks as reference and bend it the way you want to. In all things, make it your own. Your version of this world should be different than everyone else's and it should be as magical and wonderful as it is unique. Sure, some towns share the same names that others of us have visited in our games, but the taverns and townsfolk and monuments will be different. Basically everything your characters interact with will be special to your table regardless of how many thousands of words have been put to paper in dealing with other locations and times in this same world. Have fun with it!