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View Full Version : DM Help First time running Forgotten Realms!!!



Ichneumon
2014-11-19, 01:30 PM
Hello everyone,

I'm planning on running my first game set in the Forgetten Realms soon, when we switch to the rules of 5e. Although I'm not new at being a DM, I am new at running a campaign in a published campaign setting (instead of a custom one). Since I am not entirely familiar with Forgotten Realms yet, I was hoping you guys could give me some tips and advise (as well as maybe useful links) on how to run Forgotten Realms as well as some feedback on the first adventure I'd thought out:

Adventure idea:
I'm thinking about starting the campaign somewhere in the Moonsea area and having the players eventually slowly moving more North, through the bloodstone lands to the great glacier.

I haven't decided yet on the town, but this was what I've currently thought of for the first adventure:

The players have been in one of the cities around the Moonsea for a few weeks now and they are approached by a wealthy merchant, who asks them for help, in exchange for a lot of money of course. She explains that her son has been captured by a group of slavers half a year ago and that together with an experienced bounty hunter she has been tracking the slaver down for the past few months. They suspect he has arranged to meet up with another group very soon and trade a couple of slaves, including her son, and she needs the adventurers to help ambush them and prevent that.

When the group agrees, they meet up with the bounty hunter as well. He is a strong guy, haven't decided yet on the race, dwarf or maybe a Krinth. He is a humorless and somewhat gloomy persoon. An ex-slave, who now spends him time tracking down slavers and mapping the illegal trade-routes of slaves throughout Faerun, hoping that will these maps of the routes, it would be easier to capture them, make the transport more difficult and put an end to the illegal practice.

The bounty hunter explains that the chief slaver has a room in one the taverns. He has been studying the habits and customs of these slavers for years and he suspects that in the room is a letter with the time and date of when and where the illegal trade is going to take place. It is the challenge of the adventurers to infiltrate his room, find the letter, and learn where they have to go.

They need to learn which room the slaver is staying in, possible from the owner of the tavern, and break in and find the letter, without getting seen.

In the room, they find the letter, but it is encrypted or at least, it is written in a language the players can't read. After leaving the tavern, they are approached by some thugs who saw them enter the slavers room. They want to blackmail them. The players can either fight them or try to intimidate them or in some other way deal with them.

When they bring the letter to the bounty hunter and the merchant, they conclude that no one can read it and they need to get someone to translate it. There are multiple options. One way is approach an NPC who can translate it. It depends a bit on the players' backgrounds and connections, but at the temple there will be people who can translate it etc.

Once they have translated it, they know the location and they (the players, the merchant and the bounty hunter) go to the location, an abandoned building, ahead of them, to set a trap. Everything is ready, they hide and a group of 12 slavers enter, with a couple of slaves. Just when the players want to jump out of their hiding place, to ambush the slavers, the bounty hunter turns on them, holding a knife to the merchant's throat, and demands they keep hidden. His reasoning: he doesn't want to disturb this transaction now and instead let them continue with the trade, and then he wants to follow the slavers as they continue their journey. He suspects the traders will go north, those parts of the trade routes have not yet been mapped and if he would be able to map them, he could save a lot more slaves by continuously ambushing those routes. He is also angry at the merchant, because she is a powerful figure in the region and she doesn't care about all of the slave trading at all, only because it is her son.

There are all kinds of ways this situation could escalate, since the slavers are within ears-reach, and it all depends on the players what happens.

LibraryOgre
2014-11-19, 05:23 PM
A good starting place in the Moonsea region is Phlan... not explicitly evil, somewhat recently rebuilt (depending on what year you set it in), and between the Great Grey Waste of Thar and Zhentil Keep (i.e. the places slavers would run). If you're familiar with the original Pool of Radiance game, it's someplace you've seen before.

What you've got looks like a good run for Phlan... the sort of thing that would happen there.

Tarlek Flamehai
2014-11-19, 05:37 PM
I really don't know much about 4th-5th edition realms. I had no desire to change my 3.5 realms as radically as 4th edition did; one of the main reasons I don't own any 4th edition books.

I can, however, tell you the go-to place on the Internet for Forgotten Realms lore of any edition....www.candlekeep.com. If you don't get enough help here; you should definitely ask there.

Good Luck!

LibraryOgre
2014-11-19, 05:46 PM
Ah, I hadn't even thought about it being post 4th edition. I've more or less blocked the 4e setting book from my mind.