The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set (1993) is sort of a reprint of the 1987 box, plus 6 additional years of events and publications. In the introduction, Jeff Grubb describes it as the start of FR’s third age, following the close of the second age in James Lowder’s (excellent) novel Prince of Lies.

I consider this the classic iteration of the Realms in tabletop. The design is more assured and fleshed out, but not yet too detailed and massive (though, I should note, my ideal version of the Realms is still a couple years off at this point, in the form of the Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights videogames).

The first book looks at running a Realms campaign and a selection of important NPCs (a number of which are interesting, a marked improvement over the grey box). A large portion of the book is given over to the setting-specific gods, understandable given how important the Avatar story is to FR. With the exception of Prince of Lies, though, the gods of Toril have always seemed flat to me, like a board room full of stiffs rather than a rich embodiment of human impulses. This book makes an attempt to closely tie life in the Realms to the machinations of the gods and, I don’t know. I can’t help but compare this to Glorantha and find it watered down.

The main book, A Grand Tour of the Realms, offers an overview primarily of the Heartlands, a narrow slice of territory smack in the middle of the map. It briefly details the regions beyond in what amounts to a conspectus of future products. The final book, sporting the iconic Caldwell painting of Elminster on the cover, takes a close look at Shadowdale and includes a decent introductory adventure. There’s also the usual accompaniment of maps and flashcards customary of the period. It’s OK, overall, I guess.