Rating: 
Summary: Some Good, Some Bad
Review: The content in this book is absolutely astounding, first rate,however, I as a Dungeon Master have more than a few caveats with the way that this book was designed:1) It is poorly organized and tabbed. There is no section, for instance, on NPCs (and to find one you have to tramp through an enormous Geography section), there is no map section where all of the maps are centrally referanced, and the tabs don't lead me to the nice little areas (like "races") but rather things like "Characters." There is no "Feats" tab, but it is included in with the "Characters" section. 2) There is no level-based index of magical spells. 3) There is no glossery for terms like "mythal," which someone who has read the fiction might understand but certainly not someone entering this cold. 4)How exactly some of the character class combinations occured in the NPCs is unclear. For instance, Artemis Entreri is described as being Rog4/Rgr1/Ftr12/Asn1. Even assuming that such a character took the Rgr1 level last, they would be unable to advance further under the standard D&D3 rules. No character would cripple their own advancement like that, so why should the (vast majority) of NPCs. Another minor point on Artemis is that they describe his dagger as a +4 defending dagger: the problem with this should be immediately obvious. 5) The price tag is more than a little high for a book like this, even one that is this beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: The Not-so-Forgotten Realms
Review: Let me preface this by saying that, by and large, I am not a fan of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. I find the campaign derivative, unimaginative and self-agrandizing... but WOW... This is a beautiful package (though the price is a tad high) and contains everything necessary for a beginning group that needs a canned campaign setting. The illustrations are gorgeous and the book is jam packed with excellent examples of how to construct and layout a campaign. There are numerous (easily transportable) prestige classes and dozens of excellent feats that help to convert the concept of 'Feat' into one better described as a 'merit' (to use White Wolf vernacular) or 'Edge' (to do likewise with Deadlands). The only flaws are the surprising number of grammatical and spelling typos and what feels like a rushed examination of religion (which is presented as key to the campaign). I expect the latter to be addressed in the upcoming Magic of Faerun book. Finally, the price is STEEP, but, surprisingly, the product is worth it for the versatility it will add to your home brewed campaign or the indespensible value it will prove to your FR campaign.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: I play a weekly game of the Forgotten Realms setting fro DnD and let me tell you this is a great supplement for the game. The pictures are great, the new races are amazing, the geography is astounding, and the NPC's are great. If you play DnD in Forgotten Realms you should definetly get this book, its great.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, but it has it's problems.
Review: First of all, if you love the Realms and D&D in general, you owe it to yourself to get this book. Now, I'll skip right to the few problems I had: 1. Numerous rather glaring grammar and spelling errors hurt the otherwise entirely competent and professional layout. 2. Religious-minded gamers get the shaft: The vast majority of Realms deities have not detailed in any way at all. Names on a small table is the rule for most. 3. WotC's price gouging is rough. A necessary evil? Maybe. But they sure know how to hit you wear it hurts: The old pocketbook. Other than these relatively minor complaints, it's great stuff. Get it today.
Rating:
Summary: Elminster would be proud.
Review: the new dungeons and draogns title A guid to faerun has everything you could want. The price (...)is a steal for the rougly 300 pages of geography, gods, npc's, and cults. With the ability to have an adventure with a history outside of a dungeon, your charecters will see themselves more like real people. For you DM's who focus all your attention on fights and dungeons you can get out a bit. The guidbook has shown people what monsters and people wil;l be at a certain area. Also the history and deity info has cleared up many problems for readers of the forgotton realms series by telling us the history of faerun in depth. The forgotten realms guidebook is a great buy for dms or players or just readers. P.S: i didnt proofread so the typos are known to me P.S.S: although this book was well priced i belive that wizards of the coast should take a good look at the faerun monster compendium and the psionics handbook and tell me they areq worth (the money).
Rating:
Summary: I think that 5 stars are not enough...
Review: OK, let me make a simple statement: this setting book is wonderful!! Is the most complete description that I ever read about Forgotten Realms... All the information in just one book!! And the maps, the details, the geographics and history description are amazing!! With this product, Forgotten Realms is more alive that never before...
Rating:
Summary: The Best Realms Yet
Review: I've been using the FR setting in my games for years now, and I gotta tell ya, this time around the WotC folks have really outdone themselves. The book is a wonderful example of what a fantasy setting can become - a map, a ton of ideas, and a framework to hold them together. The FRCS gives you the nuts and bolts of running a realms campaign, (geography, weather, races, cultures, calendars, alphabets and languages) and then proceeds to give you a meltdown-inducing amount of adventure ideas. Add to that the Realms sourcebook gives you a host of new rules (what gaming product can resist?) for new magic, new feats (based on a characters origin-nice), new races, new organizations, and my personal favorite: new prestige classes. I'm sorry, but if you can read the description of the Archmage prestige class without salivating, you simply aren't RPG material. The new Archmage is devastatingly stylish, well conceived and (of course) frighteningly powerful. Archmages gain access to extremely powerful abilities called High Arcana in exchange for sacrificing spell slots (nice idea, that). So an Archmage can permanently give up a ninth level spell slot in exchange for the ability to cast any spell they have memorized as an energy bolt doing d6 per spell level + d6 per level of Archmage. (e.g. 4th level Archmage converts a level 4 spell into energy that does 8d6 damage as a ranged touch attack-no save). Rules to govern the Realms peculiar framework for magic, "the weave," are included. At first, they seem a little over-stylized, but they give the Realms another opportunity for role-playing flair, and provide an "in-game" way to describe magic and its effects. I particularly like the rules for the "shadow weave" as they offer numerous possibilities for villains and adventures. The new map for the realms has been altered slightly (to maximize the use of the map surface) and the artwork has really been stepped up. It's a marvelous and inspiring map, and I'm hoping that WotC will feel compelled to sell it as a rolled up (fold-free) poster. The amount of information on locales and personalities comes across like an all out assault on your faculties. There are hundreds upon hundreds of ideas, introductions, and other "mental fertilizer" for DMs of all persuasions. The individual entries are not very long, but you will find working knowledge and pointers on where to take a given setting for practically everything in Faerûn with a name. It is intended to serve as a jumping off point, and in this it succeeds brilliantly. Non-player characters are placed throughout the sourcebook as examples of members of organizations, new races, or prestige classes. Examples are by far the best way to get this kind of multi-faceted information across quickly. The stats for Drizzt-Do'Urden are presented to illustrate the rules for the Drow as a player race, the new regional feat rules, and to give you an opportunity to use him as an NPC. The Realms setting often takes some heat for having powerful NPCs, and while this incarnation has its share of dangerous characters- the product doesn't suffer because of it. The NPCs exist in the sourcebook as ideas for the DM, and campaigns that would be disrupted by the presence of NPCs like Elminster should simply keep them far away from their gaming table. Anyone who enjoyed the Realms before will want to have this book as part of their gaming library. Players new to the setting will find a world that is ready for whatever they want to throw at it. For DMs, the amount of information in this book and the amazing level of detail is inspiring (You want to know what the trade patterns are between Thay and its neighbors? Check.) Anything in this book can be used to start an adventure, which of course is the point. If you're serious about your campaign-settings, buy one from folks who clearly take theirs seriously. The Forgotten Realms was always popular, but this product all but establishes itself as the gold standard of fantasy RPG worlds.
Rating:
Summary: The Realms Re-Done!!
Review: Well thought out, and beautifully presented are the things that first come to mind upon reading this book. The Forgotten Realms Campaign set is a wealth of gaming information for those who wish to base their gaming world within the land of Faerun. The authors dive right into new races which may seem a little unbalanced at first, but it all works out trust me. The new feats, and spells can be worked into any enviroment with little re-tooling. The map is to put it simply, GORGEOUS!!! Run out and get it laminated you'll thank me. All the lands, and territories are explained in reasonable detail, and some other exotic lands are touched upon, Kara-Tur anyone? Yes the book is a little pricey, but the information provided is in my opinion invaluable!! The only thing missing is sadly the Saurials didn't make it to the final draft. Well, maybe for 4e!! WoC just keeps putting out more, and more excellent products, and hope they keep up the great work.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for Realms buffs, bad if you aren't
Review: If you are planning on running a campaign in the Forgotten Realms setting, then get this book. Don't worry about the price... I know it seems a bit much, but when you compare this to dinner and a movie for you and your date (about 4 hours) to this (countless hours of fun) the price is certainly manageable. The book does as good a job as possible in both summarizing the massive amount of Realms material already out of print at this point and also in updating the current 3E rules and setting. It is by and far the best roleplaying product on the market.... IF and only IF you are running a Realms campaign, which is why I give it only three stars. If you are not, this book is virtually worthless... most of the information is SETTING material, not RULES material and is very difficult to use elsewhere. Furthermore, the Realms is a pretty high magic setting and since most standard campaigns are not, trying to use this stuff may prove to be unbalancing. I have known folks to use say the Red Wizards in another setting, and it doesn't work... everyone knows where they belong. SO bottom line... if you like FR and are planning on running there, this is an AMAZING book that you can't afford to be without. If you are running Greyhawk, Scarred Lands, or another setting of your own devising, leave this mammoth book alone... for Realms afficianados only. :)
Rating:
Summary: Fairly good...
Review: My feelings were kind of mixed on this book. I've been a die-hard Realms fan ever since the gray-boxed FR set. My expectations for the book were quite high -no doubt fanned by the Realmswatch previews that Wizards has put forth in the past few months. The breakdown is kind of similar to all of the main FR sourcebooks. You have the geographical locations with current events within those regions as well as some notable characters with stats, a section of spells unique to the realms, a section of magical items, a section of factions, and a section on deities/powers of the Realms. True to 3rd edition, there's also a list of new classes (both normal and prestige I believe). The focus seems to be on describing all major locations in Toril in cursory detail (without maps of cities or towns -at least in the book proper itself. There's also an included map which I have not looked at yet.) The current events are quite up to date with the other realms material -most important event probably being the return of Shade. The spells/magic item section could've been more extensive considering the sheer number of Realms spells and items over the years. The powers section is also kind of deflated. There is a listing of most (if not all) of the deities of the Realms but only a couple dozen are described in detail (though no mention of special granted abilities outside of the domain stuff). All in all, it's a fairly good intro supplement to the Realms but there's not anything really new minus some new feats, and spell domains. If you're an experienced Realms player/DM then expect a rehash of the last FR boxed-set with some 3rd Edition stuff thrown in plus some current developments.
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