LANDS OF INTRIGUE (Campaign Expansion: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms)

Worth it for the map of Shoonach alone!

this is a great box set, which brings a lot of badly needed detail to the southern Sword Coast region, while still leaving plenty of room for DM's to play around in (a whole country of minimum details to be developed by DM's, THANK YOU! ).

My favourite part of this set has to be the brillaiant poster map of the runed city of Shoonach (the Undermountain of the south), which is HUGE (several miles across, and thats just above ground, with whole farms, and several towns/cities within its ruined walls). You could easily base a whole campaign in this setting, and I would love to see it developed further in a sourcebook (Ruins of Shoonach anyone?).

It is nice to see thet Tethyr has been sorted out, and the setting deals with the aftermath of the novel War in Tethyr, and just as it is getting itself together, its northern neighbor amn is in real trouble, cities deserting to Tethyr, and a massive invasion that decimates half the country, and leaves the other halfs fate uncertain.

Well worth the cost of admission for any DM.

Great expansion

Lands of Intrigue is packed with info, and lore. The source on Amn and the struggles therein was wonderful, as was the whole country left for DM development (Erlkazar). Tethyr, a land which was (up until this product I believe)at civil war has recovered and now tries to rebuild. It would seem this limits it to another Cormyr, but the people are of a different mindset, and the lands are ripe for raids by other nations and powergroups trying to stiffle the fledgling government. Well done, and worth every penny.

4.5 stars, but I'll round up.

This is an amazing campaign expansion. Anyone who wants to learn the History, the people, the current events, the Shadow Thieves, the TR (You'll understand when you buy it), and the hooks and plots waiting for adventures of Amn and Tethyr should buy this source book. I've run 3 campaigns from this and all have been very successful. I just wish more was covered on the psyche of some of the villains, and The huge map of Ruins was at least slightly fleshed out for you (It's pretty hard to design that much on one's own).

Great product, made better with a little bit of DM magic

It's true: Tethyr is pretty much a "good-guy" kind of place. Just read the book on Tethyr, and you'll see what some of us reviewers mean.

But add a little DM magic, some fire in the politicians, a few young upstarts who slowly grow powerful and hunger for more power, and voila -- instant corruption, civil war, and powermongers.

The book on Amn contains great source material and can lead to many adventures. Amn just seems a bit "average."

The book on Erlkazar is skimpy, but leaves the DM an entire REGION to play with, create, shape, and call his or her own. There can't be anything wrong with that.

Nice maps but

There's quite a bit of information about Amn, Tethyr and the previously unknown Erlkazar. Unfortunately, Tethyr is now under the rule of allies of Elminster so there's no empire building there unless you want to diverge from the official timeline.

Erlkazar's rulers are almost Good aligned to a man.

Amn has a lot of evil people on its council but from the given future timeline, it seems very likely it will break up and much of it incorporated into Tethyr. All in all, expect the locations to be peaceful in a few years time (estimate 1375 DR), totally ruled by Good aligned people with Elminster/Khelbun as backer and not conducive to plots that diverge from the standard dungeon-kill monster-get treasure routine

It does describe quite a bit about the countries and some power groups that are baed there or have an influence there. All in all, it seems the Toril is nearly completely good aligned and thus less and less exciting. Get the world builders guide and build your own world for better options.