Rating: 
Summary: Exactly what it's supposed to be (and good at it!)
Review: This is a big book with a lot in it. If you are a fan of the Forgotten Realms or want to use this setting for your campaign world, I don't imagine why you would be disappointed. Unlike the cramped feeling I get from some of the Core Rule Books, which seem to have been designed for maximum density, the Forgotten Realms campaign book takes some time and fleshes things out to good effect. Descriptions use good prose and incorporate a lot of detail to give you the impression and feel of a living, breathing campaign world. This has been one of the hallmark strengths of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, and they've still got it for 3rd edition. There are plenty of sidebars to give you little historical or mythological anecdotes, adding a little color, something else I've always liked in previous Forgotten Realms supplements.The lion's share of the book seems to go mostly to the political-geographic make-up of the world. There are detailed descriptions for every nation of the Forgotten Realms core setting, down to individual cities, political details, economics, history, rulers, famous citizens (many old favorites), prominent landmarks, adventure hooks, etc. Much like a condensed and less lyrical version of the Volo's guide-books. Deities and religions also get a big chunk, and the layout will again seem familiar to readers of the 2nd edition Faiths and Avatars series. Of course they have to shake things up a bit to bring something new and exciting to 3rd edition, so look for a "surprise" or two. Other features in the book include new feats for the Forgotten Realms, new prestige classes, new (or old) spells, secret societies, and more. The book is exactly what it is supposed to be - the Forgotten Realms campaign setting - and excellent and complete in that respect. If you are going to use the Forgotten Realms for your game world or intend to co-opt a goodly portion of it, I doubt you'll be in any way disappointed. If, however, you are just looking for new rules (such as feats and prestige classes) to incorporate into an existing game, be aware that MOST of the book is given over to the campaign setting, not rules for the campaign setting, and even a good number of the prestige classes are fairly specific to the Forgotten Realms. The book is a tad pricey for a game supplement, and I'd only recommend it to buyers who want a Forgotten Realms book, rather than just a few new rules. Adventure awaits!
Rating:
Summary: Forgotten Realms Best out there
Review: I have been playing 3E only for about 1 year now, but what I have learned is that the campian setting is one of the, if not the most imporant part of playing, the Forgotten Realms setting is one of the largest settings avaiable. it is also the coolest out there. It includes everything that is needed to play.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy Realm
Review: Though not as challenging as Dark Sun, or as exotic as Al Qadim, Forgotten Realms is a well developed and interesting campaign setting, with this guide as 3rd Edition's centerpiece. The amount of work that went into this is obvious from the first page. Even if you don't intend to DM, this guide is well worth the price for the artwork and story alone.
Rating:
Summary: The Faerun - 3e style
Review: In my honest opinion Forgotten Realms has got to be the best campaign settings out there. FR boasts the perfect balance in all that is D&D: Magic, intrigue, mystery and of course elves in all shapes and forms. If you've read any FR novels beforehand you will enjoy getting further information and closer analysis of all the wonderful nations and cities in the Forgotten Realms. The book also covers the secret socities of the Forgotten Realms: the Harpers, Zhentarim, Red Mages...all those are extremely fun to incorporate into your scenario. If you decide on using only one setting in your 3e D&D sessions, this is the one !
Rating:
Summary: So complete, it made me love the Realms
Review: Since I started playing *D&D and becoming familiar with the various campaign worlds put out by TSR/WotC, I've always found Forgotten Realms to be my least favorite. To me, Greyhawk is rich in originality, and has a good, dark tone that makes a good backdrop for tough adventures. Krynn is by far my favorite, filled with high fantasy and romance, brought to life by some of the best fantasy novels to grace the market. The Realms is something I've always considered a melting pot of stock fantasy backdrops and super-munchkin character concepts (Drizz't, Elminister, etc). This treatment of the Realms, however, has changed my entire opinion of what I now consider to be an exciting and diverse world, full of possibilities. It's still a melting pot, but this book really plays up the diversity and how all of these different elements connect with each other. The geography and culture contained within the book's pages makes the Realm *real*, the regional feats are a great touch, and all the material in the book works great if nothing more as inspiration and ideas to steal for your own campaign world. Though it's expensive, I've found it to be worth every penny. The prestige classes are, in a word, LAME. However, that's to be forgiven since that's become the norm. Everything else is top-shelf. The book is also deceptively big because of the small typeset and the decision to cram as much information as possible into the book.
Rating:
Summary: Truly Amazing
Review: This book, without a doubt, is, in terms of usefulness, the most valuable D&D book I own(I own over 20 3rd Ed. D&D books made Wizards too so that's saying something). I've been playing D&D for about four years now, mainly in 3rd Edition too. Before I got this book, My mind was kind of all over the place with campaigns for none of the settings my friends and I played in had any history you could read at night when you had nothing to do or any geographic and social elements that stuck. After playing for a few months, I saw this book at an ON Cue store and after skimming it over(that was all I needed) I got it. Ever since, this book has been used by me and many of my friends more than any other book any of us have. I also am unfortunate enough to be the only one with this book. The binder is going, and the cover has wear and tear but that's not because of poor quality: this is one of the best printed D&D books ever for toughness. I'm suprised it's still in such good condition after all of this time. I usually use it for Forgotten Realms campaigns but part of the beauty of this book is how adaptable the geographical information is. The information in this book is so thorough that any and all of it can be incorporated into other campaigns and still be made to not resemble Forgotten Realms one bit. I do have one small hype with it however and that is what they did with Elminster. He's no longer that Mage with the pointed hat. He's half wizard basically and the rest is a smattering of cleric, fighter and rogue. Yes, that is an exaggeration, but I think most peopl;e would agree that Elminster should be that Mage with the pointed hat. Back to the book, however, I'd say that if you are a D&D player and/or dungeon master and you want the best resource book out there, get this book.
Rating:
Summary: Readers digest of the Forgotten Realms
Review: This is a great OVERVIEW of the most popular part of Faerun. It gives you a lot of general information on races, skills, spells and geography. It also gives a basic overview of contries and major towns.
If you like to create most of your setting yourself this is great. But if you want details of towns and rivers, this is (at best) a shopping guide: which detailed guide is right for you (Silvermarches, shining south, ancient empires, ...)
The writing is good, the illustrations nice and mostly relevant. 3rd edition rules, and the timeline is updated/expanded from the old 2ed material (15 years covered).
Overall I really enjoy it as an inspiration and general reference, but don't buy it expecting "everything about everwhere" - it is the exceutive summary, not the whole report.
Rating:
Summary: My Heart and Soul belong in the Forgotten Realms!
Review: The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting follows in the tradition of the two previous FR Campaign Settings in providing vital information concerning the magical world of Toril. Ranging from background history, to city and social descriptions, to important people and characters, to the respective gods and pantheons, to adventure hooks and encounter tables, to magical items and artifacts, to new spells and monsters, to maps and specialty classes, this accessory has it all and more!
As someone who has been playing Second Edition AD&D since 1989 and has had a difficult time making the transition to Third Edition D&D, I have to say that the FR Campaign Setting, even though is quite expensive, it is still very useful, to the point that it provided me with most of what I needed so as not to feel totally lost.
For the FR enthusiast, like myself, I also strongly recommend both previous editions, which by the way are in boxed set form (they are out of print Second Edition AD&D, and it will take a bit of searching, but it's well worth it). Trust me...
Rating: 
Summary: A good but not great RPG setting
Review: Introduction
Forgotten Realms is the flagship setting for Dungeons & Dragons, and until the retooling for third edition I never paid it much attention. The group I was playing in was using a few things from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (FRCS) and I decided to pick it up after a brief thumbing through of my DM's copy. There are a number of things I liked about the book, but also I came away with a few things that I really did not like. The parts I enjoyed were the character building and options to be applied to other settings. The part I did not enjoy as much was the Forgotten Realms setting itself.
For the open minded: I hope to present a fair review
For Forgotten Realms fans: buckle up it might be a bumpy ride
Character Building
Forgotten Realms applies the D20 RPG engine to a setting the best of any setting I have read thus far. The races are fleshed out well and their existence in the world is well thought out (though perhaps a slight nod of the hat to JRR Tolkien, but isn't that pretty much every FRPG?). There are some races that are more powerful, which include Drow, Plane Touched, Aasimar and Tiefling. The more powerful the race (e.g. those previously listed) incur a penalty to experience, so they start out as first level but might be considered a level or two higher for determining advancement. I thought it was a great mechanic to balance out these races with the regular races. I am not convinced that the writers did much to balance out the costs for these races in regards to their benefits. After playing with an Aasimar PC in my previous D&D group, this basically seemed to work out alright as the level adjustment was only 1 more than the rest of us (3 humans and 1 elf).
The prestige classes are a good combination of generic and FRCS specific. The magic oriented ones are what I liked, while I thought the more martial or rogue oriented ones were neglected in both quality and quantity. One harper class is thrown into this section, the harper scout. While the harpers are a great plot hook and it is good to see a prestige class for PC's interested in them to play, it is a broken class. It is very much oriented towards bard or rogues but offers a bunch of low level abilities that likely don't have as good of a payoff for a PC as compared to them sticking with their original class. Mostly this applies to the bard class, which as a jack-of-all-trades class takes a while to build up to a potent character. Side tracking to a harper scout I think pushes them even further behind the power curve.
The feats selections are great. I think the selections in FRCS combined with the 3.0 rules are a genuinely complete set for virtually any PC. The one wonky bit is regional feats, which is written in such a vague manner I am not sure how exactly that works out. My impression after several rereads is those feats are only available to people from that region who are of the preferred class of said region. If you are from there and not of that class; no dice. I would have rather seen regional feats as a free feat anyone from the region can take. Most of them are not all that potent.
The Setting
Much of the FRCS book is dedicated to the setting. There is a great deal of stuff to chew on, but like a bad piece of meat it feels like there is more gristle than stuff I really could swallow. Most of FRCS apes feudal Western Europe, though I admit it does encompass a great many different government types: large kingdoms, states, principalities, city states, etc. Unfortunately while it tries to emulate Western Europe it sort of sloppily welds on the standard fantasy fare FRCS has built up over the years. I felt there was a large disconnect between the various elements of the setting.
There is much potential there but even this edition does not seem to tap it. I particularly like the Red Wizards, but there are a number of other groups and hooks that could be interesting. Tied to each section are usually an influential NPC, which is a good effort to make the areas more personalized. This turns out to be mostly a waste of space and I would have rather seen a couple of things added for each region's section. Firstly I would have liked to have seen a detailed map for each region or country. While there are maps interspersed in the setting section, they cover too much of an area and are too few. Aside from that, more verbiage on the areas would have been good too.
Each region has a fair number of pages dedicated to it, inside each section are the various countries. FRCS is a large setting, but this is only really noticeable when you fold out the spiffy map inside the back cover. The descriptions and such don't seem to bind the reader to this fact. From the perspective of descriptions, each region has a fair amount of material dedicated to it. The writers did make an effort to describe how regions and countries interact, and I think it would have been better to have lots of small maps for each country or region (rather than a few big ones). It would have tied the text to the setting a bit better. The quality of the text varies, but it does give enough for a DM to get an idea of what the area is like and apply that for a campaign.
There could have been more and editing out the mostly useless NPC's would have been a great way to add more. This leads to my biggest gripe about FRCS and that is the NPC's and specifically one, Elminster. For those of you not in the know, he is an uber-powerful epic/godlike NPC that represents the good interests of FRCS. Why bother giving him stats, skills, spells and levels there is apparently nothing he can't do expertly? He is the worst combination of aping Gandalf from LoTR and presumably Ed Greenwood inserting himself into the setting. While it is great to pay respects to a great work of literature it seems like too much of a fabrication. Self insertion (presumed) into any work is just lame no matter how well intentioned.
The deities of Forgotten Realms are satisfactory. Each has a snippet of verbiage to flesh out their beliefs, followers and goals. I think there is perhaps too many deities though. I would have rather had more detailed interplay and fleshed out pantheons rather than what feels like many duplicated gods. There is an effort to tie the gods into the setting as well from a cultures interaction and that not all cultures in FRCS worship in the divine in the same way. Both of which are good concepts.
Wedged into the meaty pages are chapters covering new equipment, trade, magic, clerical domains, sample adventures, groups, DM rules and a timeline. Most of these are sort of window dressing, but they do add to the setting even if the pages count on some are very tiny. I would have liked to have seen much more information written about the trade aspects of FRCS. That would have done much to tie the regions together. The timeline is problematic in that it is really detailed with thousands of years of history that really is not applicable or readable. FRCS does not have a monopoly on this however as Shadow World has hundreds of thousands of years of similar material that only seems to be an awkward way of saying; look how much history this campaign setting has!
Presentation
Like any flagship product from Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) the layout design and art is top notch. The cover is reminiscent of other WOTC books, it is a faux old tome but much less gaudy then the others. The interior art is a mix of artists and does a good job of visually presenting the FRCS setting. The maps inside are well done, but as I have said a couple of times; there should have been more. Inside the back cover is a very lush fold out map of Forgotten Realms. The layout is well done and because there is a great deal of information presented (regardless of the quality at times) and edited very well.
Overall
Probably for fans of Forgotten Realms, this setting book offers a lot. In comparison to other similarly sized settings for D20 that I am familiar with (specifically Kingdoms of Kalamar) it is better written and offers much more to the aspiring GM looking for a prefab setting. For those not familiar with the Forgotten Realms setting (as I was before picking this latest edition up), it works well enough as a setting or simply for ideas and tools for your own. The character oriented material is top notch and can be used is almost any D20 setting. Also the presentation of FRCS is exactly what should be expected for a flagship product.
Forgotten Realms Campaign setting is not perfect either. I think WOTC did some injustice to it by not inserting maps for each region's section. The NPC's are colossally irritating in the case of Elminster or (sans one or two) useless. Some of the fantasy aspects are a bolted on are "and a kitchen sink" additions that do not feel seamless to the setting. Perhaps in other FRCS books this is fleshed out better, but as displayed in the primary book that is how it feels.
I would not dub the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting as an RPG must have for D20 players or those interested in world building exclusively. But for those whose interests lie in both or a DM wants a prefab world that is ready to go this is a good book to pick up.
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