Forgotten Realms edition question

[Autumnal]

Every so often I think that I’d like to take the Realms and see how they go under other mechanics, like Mörk Borg Ironsworn plus fan supplements or QuestWorlds or “bare” Mythic Game Master Emulator (2e) or something. I have or have access to the first, second, third, and fourth editions. Which would you recommend?

This is crucial: please explain why, in useful detail. “It’s good” or “they suck because WotC is the devil” don’t help me. “This doesn’t have metaplot catastrophes”, “this has the exploding mushroom catastrophe metaplot, which I like for the effects on forests and how it screws over halflings that are too Tolkien-like”, and “this one sketches everything in a fairly detail-light way that I find better for okay than too-detailed later editions” are all very useful for me. Thank you.

 

[aco175]

I would think that 1e and 2e realms have the most information to be found. There are supplements on other areas than Sword Coast or Waterdeep. I do not know of the other supplements, so I'm not sure if they need the detail found in one of the editions.

 

[gban007]

Similar to aco175 above, though I think 3rd edition also has a fair amount, and has some of my favourite FR supplements, but any of those 3 I think has a good amount of information for any of the locales you may want to visit, with a good sense of what populates the world, what states / countries / entities there are, with a rich history behind it, and with quite a bit of variety across the different places, if some of it perhaps is coloured a bit poorly in some areas when drawing badly on real life history (e.g. Maztica if look too far into it, some of the Far East stuff), but I think if sticking from Moonshae in the west to Thay in the east, Icewind Dale in the north to Chult / Halruua in south (and everything in between) then it has some pretty rich material for all sorts of different lands.
I don't recommend 4th edition, and may be some bias, but felt like a lot less content available, and it looked to wipe a lot of the history the prior 3 editions built up, but depending on what you are after it arguably allows for more of a clean slate with a bit of minimal fleshing out to give you prompts, so 4th is that 'sketches everything in a fairly detail-light way', whereas the 3 prior give a lot more detail, which I personally like but YMMV.

 

[bloodtide]

2E has the most lore of all other editions combined. So if your looking for lore, detail and maps, you want 2E. The "history"("metaplot") of the Realms goes on mostly in the back ground, and things don't "effect the whole world". A lot happens each year...but a fire that burns half of city X...does not effect the whole world.

3E has only a little less than half the lore of 2E, and most of that is just copied over from 2E. The history metaplot in 3E is in the foreground with world shaking events..several a year. And the events happen mostly in the novels...with no game book support...so "oh that city just blew up because of things and stuff" is common. And Wizards was doing the "Cool Catastrophe" a Realms year.

 

[Autumnal]

Interesting! Thank you, @bloodtide - I’d thought 3e got the most.

 

[Dioltach]

I've only ever had a casual interest in FR, but my impression was that 3.X had loads and loads of books, but 2E had boxed sets and poster maps (that said, I seem to remember 3E-era Dragon including four massive maps of the FR at some point).

 

[Autumnal]

That makes sense now that I look at it, yes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am not a big Forgotten Realms fan, and have never run a game there, but I bought the main 3E sourcebook and it, IMO, is a high water mark for one-and-done campaign books. There's more detail available, of course, but I could easily pick up that book and never need another campaign setting again.

 

[delericho]

I'd recommend either the original Grey Box or the 3e FRCS, depending on how extensive you would prefer your campaign material (the former is lighter, the latter much more dense; neither is close to exhaustive). Personally, I'd actively avoid anything beyond those two; the relative lack of material is a feature, not a bug for me. YMMV, of course.

 

[Autumnal]

I hadn’t thought about single-booking it. I blame YOU LOT for making me think about it now. Keep it up.