Ed Greenwood first published the Forgotten Realms in 1967 CE on Earth. In the Forgotten Realms, the year at that time was 1357 DR, the year in which that first setting book took place.
The current year hasn't been officially confirmed, but it appears to be around 1495. Perkins confirmed that WDH and DotMM take place in 1492 DR, and those were published around four years ago, putting the current year at 1496.
139 years have passed in the Realms since its release. Only 55 years have passed since its release on Earth.
Conclusion: Unless the Phlogiston/Astral Sea warps time somehow, 5e takes place around 84 years in the future. Do with this information what you will.
Wow! That’s really cool. But D&D wasn’t even invented in 1967, was it?
Fun Fact, Ed Greenwood was born in 7/21/1959 so according to CheesyLeviathan he must have been published at age 8, which would be quite impressive. However......
In 1967 Gygax co-founded the International Federations of Wargamers or IFW. In the same year Gen Con was hosted for the first time in Gygax's basement. Then in 68' they expanded Gen Con at Lake Geneva's Horticultural Hall. He didn't meet Dave Arneson till 1969 and the next Convention. From there they started LGTSA in 1970, and then the Castle & Crusade Society of the IFW in the same year. After Gygax lost his job in 1970 he went full throttle trying to make money off of designing board games. It wasn't till 1971 when he developed "Chainmail" that he saw any commercial success. During this time Gygax is doing advising and editing for Guidon Games where he meets a lot of people. It wasn't till 1972 that they started collaborating on "The Fantasy Game", which would evolve into Dungeons and Dragons.
In the same year Gygax produced a 50-page rule set which he play tested with his kids and he called the setting, "Greyhawk". Gygax left Guidon Games in 1973 because they were not capable of keeping up with the games he was developing. So in October of 1973 Gygax co-founded Tactical Studies Rules (TSR Inc.). Money was tight then so in order to print all the box sets they needed, Gygax brought on the Blume Brothers to invest in the D&D line. This brings us to THE FIRST COMMERCIAL VERSION of D&D was released as a box set in 1974.
Then in 1975 after Kaye's death (Kaye at the beginning owned 1/3 of the company) Gygax and Blume reorganized he company from a partnership to a corporation (TSR Hobbies). And for fun, Dragon Magazine debuted in June 1976.
Sorry, “published” is the wrong word. On further research, it looks like Greenwood really did create it as 8, just not as a D&D setting. It was just his own fictional world that he would create stories in. It was later published in ‘87 CE, which the FR Fandom site cites as 1357. So 5e is really more like 104 years in the future. Apologies for the confusion.
Lorewise, Elminster helped Ed Greenwood write the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for D&D, and Elminster is known to have time-travelling magic, so equating Dalereckoning years to Earth years is kind of impossible.
Keep in mind that the FR timeline was advanced 100 years with 4e - basically to do a restart so they could cut Greenwood out after buying the rights. 5e ends the the “Spell plague years and 4e but Carrie’s the timeline on without a jump forward. So pretty much everything from 1385 DR to @1485 DR is either a placeholder or blank. They put just enough into those years to grant something like a continuous timeline. Fo folks like me that were using FR and didn’t want to jump forward it was a freaking pain in the *$$.
In 1967 Gygax co-founded the International Federations of Wargamers or IFW. In the same year Gen Con was hosted for the first time in Gygax's basement. Then in 68' they expanded Gen Con at Lake Geneva's Horticultural Hall.
I'm glad I'm not the only greybeard who posts like this.
Gygax's first "Gen Con" in 1967 was inspired by the IFW's first and only convention, also in 1967, held at General Wayne Junior High School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, probably the first tabletop gaming convention in the US. Gygax couldn't attend, so he held his own convention in his basement. It's a minor footnote in a grand history, but I like to repeat it because 23 years later I was sitting in the same cafeteria learning to play AD&D2 with my friends.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
J Great Wyrm Moonstone Dungeon Master
The time of the ORC has come. No OGL without irrevocability; no OGL with 'authorized version' language. #openDND
Practice, practice, practice • Respect the rules; don't memorize them • Be merciless, not cruel • Don't let the dice run the game for you
I find the best way to keep up with what year it is in Faerun and what is happening there is the forgotten realms wiki the last year they have any data for (and so the current year) is 1496 DR:
Ed Greenwood first published the Forgotten Realms in 1967 CE on Earth. In the Forgotten Realms, the year at that time was 1357 DR, the year in which that first setting book took place.
The current year hasn't been officially confirmed, but it appears to be around 1495. Perkins confirmed that WDH and DotMM take place in 1492 DR, and those were published around four years ago, putting the current year at 1496.
139 years have passed in the Realms since its release. Only 55 years have passed since its release on Earth.
Conclusion: Unless the Phlogiston/Astral Sea warps time somehow, 5e takes place around 84 years in the future. Do with this information what you will.
Wow! That’s really cool. But D&D wasn’t even invented in 1967, was it?
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
Fun Fact, Ed Greenwood was born in 7/21/1959 so according to CheesyLeviathan he must have been published at age 8, which would be quite impressive. However......
In 1967 Gygax co-founded the International Federations of Wargamers or IFW. In the same year Gen Con was hosted for the first time in Gygax's basement. Then in 68' they expanded Gen Con at Lake Geneva's Horticultural Hall. He didn't meet Dave Arneson till 1969 and the next Convention. From there they started LGTSA in 1970, and then the Castle & Crusade Society of the IFW in the same year. After Gygax lost his job in 1970 he went full throttle trying to make money off of designing board games. It wasn't till 1971 when he developed "Chainmail" that he saw any commercial success. During this time Gygax is doing advising and editing for Guidon Games where he meets a lot of people. It wasn't till 1972 that they started collaborating on "The Fantasy Game", which would evolve into Dungeons and Dragons.
In the same year Gygax produced a 50-page rule set which he play tested with his kids and he called the setting, "Greyhawk". Gygax left Guidon Games in 1973 because they were not capable of keeping up with the games he was developing. So in October of 1973 Gygax co-founded Tactical Studies Rules (TSR Inc.). Money was tight then so in order to print all the box sets they needed, Gygax brought on the Blume Brothers to invest in the D&D line. This brings us to THE FIRST COMMERCIAL VERSION of D&D was released as a box set in 1974.
Then in 1975 after Kaye's death (Kaye at the beginning owned 1/3 of the company) Gygax and Blume reorganized he company from a partnership to a corporation (TSR Hobbies). And for fun, Dragon Magazine debuted in June 1976.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
Sorry, “published” is the wrong word. On further research, it looks like Greenwood really did create it as 8, just not as a D&D setting. It was just his own fictional world that he would create stories in. It was later published in ‘87 CE, which the FR Fandom site cites as 1357. So 5e is really more like 104 years in the future. Apologies for the confusion.
Lorewise, Elminster helped Ed Greenwood write the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for D&D, and Elminster is known to have time-travelling magic, so equating Dalereckoning years to Earth years is kind of impossible.
[REDACTED]
Keep in mind that the FR timeline was advanced 100 years with 4e - basically to do a restart so they could cut Greenwood out after buying the rights. 5e ends the the “Spell plague years and 4e but Carrie’s the timeline on without a jump forward. So pretty much everything from 1385 DR to @1485 DR is either a placeholder or blank. They put just enough into those years to grant something like a continuous timeline. Fo folks like me that were using FR and didn’t want to jump forward it was a freaking pain in the *$$.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
There's an (unofficial) website for this: http://www.omnimulti.com/other/chrono.html
I'm glad I'm not the only greybeard who posts like this.
Gygax's first "Gen Con" in 1967 was inspired by the IFW's first and only convention, also in 1967, held at General Wayne Junior High School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, probably the first tabletop gaming convention in the US. Gygax couldn't attend, so he held his own convention in his basement. It's a minor footnote in a grand history, but I like to repeat it because 23 years later I was sitting in the same cafeteria learning to play AD&D2 with my friends.
J
Great Wyrm Moonstone Dungeon Master
The time of the ORC has come. No OGL without irrevocability; no OGL with 'authorized version' language. #openDND
Practice, practice, practice • Respect the rules; don't memorize them • Be merciless, not cruel • Don't let the dice run the game for you
DMZ,
Does the link to the D&D World's Timeline calculator work for you? I used to use this source, but now it says "403 Forbidden" when I try to access it.
I find the best way to keep up with what year it is in Faerun and what is happening there is the forgotten realms wiki the last year they have any data for (and so the current year) is 1496 DR:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/1496_DR
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.