@TheEdVerse I was hoping you could resolve a question that has come up within my group. An older Spelljammer book mentions Elminster's Hideout connecting to his castle. We can not find any other mention of him having a castle. Did the book intend to refer to Elminster's Tower?

— CaseG (@Victus42) February 20, 2020

1)
The Hideout connects to El’s Tower via the castle, which is an old stone keep (still a castle, but not nearly as grand as the word makes most folk think) hidden high in the Thunder Peaks not far southeast of Thunderspire2)
…Mountain; it’s disguised by ward-spells to look like the natural stone pinnacle it began life as, before long-ago dwarf masons set to work. The castle is empty of all but stairs, rooms, and magical gates to various…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 22, 2020

4)
…of this mountain range’ base built by local dwarves as a trap-filled place for said creatures to attack (very few dwarves were stationed there; they were in various caverns in the mountains), and as a project for young…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 22, 2020

5)
…dwarves to become skilled masons and stonecutters. The traps were cleared out by humans in the early days of Archendale, who planned to extend the dale’s official reach into these mountains and found mines and build roads… 6)
…between the dale and the mines to enrich Archendale forever, but these plans never came to anything, and the keep was abandoned. Elminster and others of the Seven several times cleared it of brigands and opportunistic dragons…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 22, 2020

7)
…seeking lairs, and decided to ‘spell-shroud’ it to keep it from such uses, and as something they could use when they needed it.
The keep has at various times been known as Blackhammer Hold (to the dwarves of clan 8)
…Blackhammer), Uruld’s Folly, Halardraco’s Fang, the Archenfang, the Silent Keep, and Elminster’s Grand Castle (this last was a mocking title bestowed by The Simbul, whom El took there for a night of lovemaking; she wasn’t…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 22, 2020

9)
…expecting luxury, but she WAS expecting something more than cold, bare-but-for-dust-and-rubble stone).#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 22, 2020

Sweet!! I look forward to seeing the end result of that. 😀

Speaking of which, I wish to ask if you have any advice for a newbie adventure writer for a d20-based campaign setting that’s currently not published yet. I’ll provide details when I have a chance.

— Samuel K Kauffman (@SamuelKKauffman) August 27, 2020

1)
When I sit down at conventions with game designers wanting to ready a new setting for publication (will that ever happen again? Yeesh!), I always tell them to answer two questions for themselves (not for me or the public): what do you want to DO with this setting? 3)
…have?) and big ones (tech level and magic level across various races, cultures, and lands, magic systems, overall literacy and knowledge of how the world works/how magic works, clashing views of life within races and cultures and between one race or culture and another, … 2)
What are its big tales waiting to unfold, or be resolved? HOW (format) do you want to tell them/have others tell them or play them? Leading to…where, in ten years? Twenty years?
The answers you give yourself should shape tiny design decisions (how many kids does this ruler..

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 27, 2020

4)
…and so on). Easy to get overwhelmed/bogged down in the abstract and trying to “do it all,” but much easier if you have a direction you’re heading for in the future, if not a specific end goal/destination, and build towards it, little piece by little piece. Avoid absolute…

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 27, 2020

5)
…statements (there’s only one buried titan, that’s the last dragon) wherever possible, unless made by unreliable narrators, as it keeps story options open.
And so on, through tons of abstract ‘experience advice’ I can dump on you, until you, as you say, provide details. :}

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 27, 2020

What did you want to do with the Forgotten Realms when you first set out? What do you want to do with it now? I created the Realms when I was a young boy, as a fantasy world to tell stories in (there were no fantasy roleplaying games back then). I want those tales to be about "real" people (not necessarily human) and to explore the Realms in them.
Fifty-five years later, I still do.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 3, 2020