Hey, Ed. Question about the dating of your home Realms campaign (both in-game & reality). I gather the Crazed Venturers campaign began c. 1978, and FR0 and FR1 seems to suggest that was c. 1340 DR. I had guessed the Swords of Eveningstar (KoMD) campaign …2) … started c. 1981. Your Dragon #65 (Sep. '82) article implies that Doust had recently become Lord of Shadowdale and that Lashan's forces had yet to attack (placing it around the start of 1356 DR). But you mentioned on twitter that Pennae's death occurred during a …
— AdamDravian (@AdamDravian) October 9, 2019
3) … vivid 1979 Realmsplay session. I was under the impression that her death is what spurred the Shadowdale census that occurred in Marpenoth 1355 DR, placing her death just a few months before Lashan’s threatening letter arrived.
So either it took a few “real-life” years … 4) … to play out the events of just a few months in-game, or I got some of these dates majorly messed up.
I'm also curious what the year was in your home Realms when you sold it to TSR in the summer of '86. Was it 1357 DR?
I'd appreciate your illumination on this. Thanks!— AdamDravian (@AdamDravian) October 9, 2019
Hi! You're correct on all of those dates, including it being 1357 DR in the "home" Realms campaign when TSR bought the Realms.
It did indeed take years of real time to roleplay just a few months in-game. To quote Bill Watterson: "The Days Are Just Packed."#Realmslore https://t.co/abFKb6WG7t— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 10, 2019
Wow, you must not have played as frequently as I thought. Also, I can’t have been correct in guessing the Swords of Eveningstar campaign began in ’81, if Doust was lord by ’79. So when did you switch from Crazed Venturers to the Swords? And why the 10-year time jump? Oh, no, we played weekly. We just ROLEPLAY intensively, acting everything out and indulging in lots of intrigue and side-plots; most 4-hour play sessions were more PC/NPC talk than anything else, with weapons drawn seldom.#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 10, 2019
The Crazed Venturers came first, but overlapped the Swords (briefly, both being played at the same time), with some of the players tiring of endless Undermountain dungeon-crawling and escalating foes, and wanting to start as teenaged PCs, low level. Hence the Swords As for the 10-year jump, there was a helpful little kid NPC that the players loved and wanted to meet again, running different PCs, when he'd become a twenty-year-old with more control of the family business and could be REALLY useful. As a patron, hiring them.#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 10, 2019
The style of play in the “home” Realms campaign is full-on acting. Time in-game can move very slowly when PCs are getting to know NPCs, getting entangled in their ongoing intrigues, trying to hold down ‘day jobs,’ and learning more about the Realms.
In over 40 years …of real time playing, the Knights have progressed to an average of 9th level, as characters.
That's how my stellar cast of players like to play the game, and as the DM, I am their servant (and like the same style, too).#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 10, 2019