Hi Justin, thx for the great videos and AD&D 2e knowledge and love you spread! I have the same boxes (except the city of splendours) and always had a great time when visiting waterdeep (as DM and player)…Even though The yawning portal map (city system and undermountain) never showed the “portal” itself 😊 How did you manage this?
Well, when I was a kid I didn’t have Undermountain and now, knowing about the well, I will just run the well as the entry point from the Yawning Portal. There are others though, many others… caverns that descend off of forgotten sewer access tunnels… private wells that were dug too deeply… and perhaps some holes were dug up from below, not down from above!
Appreciate it. I have lots of older material, so when I am deciding on a topic, it is always a fallback position to share some thoughts on items in my collection. Thanks for watching!
back in the day 1st-3rd. I ran Waterdeep as a cross between Renaissance London and Paris. Around the 1660s real life. Ignoring the Great fire in 1666 ofc. Samuel Pepys diaries covered this decade. So lots of info. This is pre real Internet. So any resource in a library was helpful at the start.
Depending upon who was writing the material, the cultural and technological era of the setting meandered from Renaissance to medieval and everywhere between. I think Greenwood’s original was more of a Tolkien Middle Earth, but as the additional writers added bits and pieces it started to share more and more with our own earth. Thanks for watching!
@@booksbricksandboards783 Damn new YT layout just ate my reply again. FR swings through the European Medieval and Early Modern like Tarzan. No quick Internet searches. There was nothing to find. So the library was it. We are not all Ed G. So I needed some help running a big city. Im terrible with NPC names. So I stole lots from historical books. I actually have not played for nearly 25 years. How time flies. We mainly stuck around the High Forest and Dessairn river valley from Secomber to Hellgate Keep and Llorhk. Long running campaigns with many characters.
@@Yandarval thanks for sharing! I know that when we first played in Waterdeep, we spent some time in Yartar and outside the city fighting trolls. I just remember that being the first time I was ever excited about what the Inn had to offer (besides some free hit points!)
@@booksbricksandboards783 The first time is always fun. Especially a new system. Were I to restart my campaign. Looking around. i would have to chuck 80% of official lore around Whats been going on in my part of the woods (ha). My new country, Earlannd, is where a lot of stuff happened in the lore since I played. We resurrected the old Earlann. Cleaning out the valley up to Hellgate Keep took a lot of real time. So things like the Black networks "Silk Road over Annaroch was broken a long time ago, in out campaign. Thankfully, The Silver marches did not impinge much. As our declared borders stopped at the mountain range above Hellgate Keep. We had a lot of rangers and Mielikki worshipers over the years. If you have the old Wilderness Survival guide and the underground version. We even went to the extent of rolling up what resources were in the mountains. Population was aways a problem. RPing the diplomatic stuff and encouraging people to come live out here. As one player was a bank manager. We even had a proper economy going. Inflation, tax flow etc, the works. The main high level toons were around long enough, game time to have kids and for them to start adventuring. The OG ruling toons were all max possible level for Elves and half elves at the end. I think I was a Cleric 18/Ranger 16 of Mielikki. Vangadahast was often exasperated with me. kept breaking windows in the Palace when I had to leave in a hurry. Plus needling him about the "Forest Kingdom" thing about Cormyr. We have the High Forest in ours :D This ramble shows how ingrained the game must have been. Vomiting forth all this a quarter century later. I still have my FR Adventures and The North somewhere.
Now the next step is to put that latent game knowledge to practice again! I agree on the changes being a problem. I play the lore up to 2nd edition. Still enough empty sandbox for me at that point. Eventually it just all got too prescribed and didn’t leave much to make your own. Hence why those old box sets are still pretty useful!
I actually have all the Savage Worlds Lankhmar stuff and the DCC stuff, so didn’t get the Ad&D boxes. I did have one of the softcovers when I was a kid.
My first DM would often pull bits and pieces from parts of the Realms and drop in his world. Ravenloft, the original was the first module I played through without heavy modifications, as a player.
Hi Justin, thx for the great videos and AD&D 2e knowledge and love you spread! I have the same boxes (except the city of splendours) and always had a great time when visiting waterdeep (as DM and player)…Even though The yawning portal map (city system and undermountain) never showed the “portal” itself 😊
How did you manage this?
Well, when I was a kid I didn’t have Undermountain and now, knowing about the well, I will just run the well as the entry point from the Yawning Portal. There are others though, many others… caverns that descend off of forgotten sewer access tunnels… private wells that were dug too deeply… and perhaps some holes were dug up from below, not down from above!
Curatorial vids like this are cool. I'd watch you dig into other settings or sets.
Appreciate it. I have lots of older material, so when I am deciding on a topic, it is always a fallback position to share some thoughts on items in my collection. Thanks for watching!
back in the day 1st-3rd. I ran Waterdeep as a cross between Renaissance London and Paris. Around the 1660s real life. Ignoring the Great fire in 1666 ofc. Samuel Pepys diaries covered this decade. So lots of info.
This is pre real Internet. So any resource in a library was helpful at the start.
Depending upon who was writing the material, the cultural and technological era of the setting meandered from Renaissance to medieval and everywhere between. I think Greenwood’s original was more of a Tolkien Middle Earth, but as the additional writers added bits and pieces it started to share more and more with our own earth. Thanks for watching!
@@booksbricksandboards783 Damn new YT layout just ate my reply again.
FR swings through the European Medieval and Early Modern like Tarzan. No quick Internet searches. There was nothing to find. So the library was it. We are not all Ed G. So I needed some help running a big city. Im terrible with NPC names. So I stole lots from historical books. I actually have not played for nearly 25 years. How time flies.
We mainly stuck around the High Forest and Dessairn river valley from Secomber to Hellgate Keep and Llorhk. Long running campaigns with many characters.
@@Yandarval thanks for sharing! I know that when we first played in Waterdeep, we spent some time in Yartar and outside the city fighting trolls. I just remember that being the first time I was ever excited about what the Inn had to offer (besides some free hit points!)
@@booksbricksandboards783 The first time is always fun. Especially a new system.
Were I to restart my campaign. Looking around. i would have to chuck 80% of official lore around Whats been going on in my part of the woods (ha). My new country, Earlannd, is where a lot of stuff happened in the lore since I played. We resurrected the old Earlann. Cleaning out the valley up to Hellgate Keep took a lot of real time. So things like the Black networks "Silk Road over Annaroch was broken a long time ago, in out campaign. Thankfully, The Silver marches did not impinge much. As our declared borders stopped at the mountain range above Hellgate Keep. We had a lot of rangers and Mielikki worshipers over the years.
If you have the old Wilderness Survival guide and the underground version. We even went to the extent of rolling up what resources were in the mountains. Population was aways a problem. RPing the diplomatic stuff and encouraging people to come live out here. As one player was a bank manager. We even had a proper economy going. Inflation, tax flow etc, the works.
The main high level toons were around long enough, game time to have kids and for them to start adventuring.
The OG ruling toons were all max possible level for Elves and half elves at the end. I think I was a Cleric 18/Ranger 16 of Mielikki. Vangadahast was often exasperated with me. kept breaking windows in the Palace when I had to leave in a hurry. Plus needling him about the "Forest Kingdom" thing about Cormyr. We have the High Forest in ours :D
This ramble shows how ingrained the game must have been. Vomiting forth all this a quarter century later. I still have my FR Adventures and The North somewhere.
Now the next step is to put that latent game knowledge to practice again! I agree on the changes being a problem. I play the lore up to 2nd edition. Still enough empty sandbox for me at that point. Eventually it just all got too prescribed and didn’t leave much to make your own. Hence why those old box sets are still pretty useful!
Cool video. I assume you also have the Lankhmar box set too. Even though they are two separate worlds I love combining them.
I actually have all the Savage Worlds Lankhmar stuff and the DCC stuff, so didn’t get the Ad&D boxes. I did have one of the softcovers when I was a kid.
I've never played games in the Forgotten Realms, though I did have the original boxed set for 2e. I preferred Ravenloft or my own settings.
My first DM would often pull bits and pieces from parts of the Realms and drop in his world. Ravenloft, the original was the first module I played through without heavy modifications, as a player.