[Note that this is a very rough draft at this point. I'll be completely reorganizing this page, cleaning it up, and making it into a "real" page; at this point, it's just a transcription of a news article.]
You're quite welcome.
One place I'd suggest you start looking is:
http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~tojan/fore/forefaq.htm
This is a bit old, but answers the kinds of questions you're
likely to have. I.e., you know a bit about DnD, but not FR
specifically; this
tells you a bit of info to get you started, without spilling all
the beans for your 'naive' char.
If you have more specific questions, please feel free to post
'em, and the fine folks here at ALFA, most of whom know more
about FR than I, will be happy to help.
As far as searching for info, the 1993 Forgotten Realms
Revised Campaign Setting boxed set is available in .pdf format
from WotC for a
mere $3.49. It's 2E, and some of the info is dated, but it's a
great place to start if you're a complete newcomer to the FR.
http://store.wizards.com/product.asp?ProductID=4256
I have to admit to rapidly becoming addicted to these $3.49 downloads. :-)
Also, there are a bunch of free PDFs available from WotC. Stuff like _The North_ and _Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves_, which are both (in my opinion) great sourcebooks.
http://wizards.com/dnd/DnDDownloads_classics.asp
And
http://wizards.com/dnd/main.asp?x=dnd/welcome,3
is a good place to poke around, too.
There's also the REALMS-L mailing list. To subscribe, send a
message to [email protected],
with no subject, and the single line
of text
subscribe REALMS-L
I'd recommend receiving it in digest mode (all posts collected
and mailed to you once per day, rather than individually), as it
can hit
90+ posts on busy days. To do that, add the line
set digest REALMS-L
to your email to the listserv. There are a variety of people
on the list, from novices to experts, to the game designers
themselves (Sean
K. Reynolds and Rich Baker, of WotC, are both on the list).
> In all the games I’ve played, none were ever set in
the Forgotten
> Realms, and I get the impression that there is a lot to
learn about
> this world before you can start playing. On the other hand
I suppose
> it works for my character, who I play as young and innocent
on
> purpose. As for legal stuff, that’s really the kind of
information a
> character should know about before entering any new city or
area –
> even if it’s just from asking passersby.
Even the young and innocent typically know a bit about the
culture and history of whereever it is they grew up; you don't
have to be a FR
expert to play ALFA, but I found myself a bit dissatisfied
knowing next to nothing about FR. For one thing, how do you pick
a starting
place for your char? How do you create a convincing background?
And also note that the FR don't always follow the standard core
DnD
rules. How do you take into account the differences if you don't
know them?
The Living City guidelines tell a bit about this; i.e., where
the standard PC races/classes are typically from, and how they
differ (if
they do) from the standard PHB rules. You can find them at:
http://wizards.com/rpga/downloads/FR_Guidelines.zip
If it's maps of Faerun you want, a few are located at:
http://home.talkcity.com/SpiritCir/rpg-adandd/realms-map.html
and
http://www.chez.com/bossk/map/feerun.htm
Liam can probably give you better ones. I use the first most often.
Deity info can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Chamber/2596/powers/00Deities.html
with the caveat that not all of that info's current. It's 2E,
and set up for the Player's Option books, but it provides a bit
more detail
than the mere lists of domains and favored weapons in the FR
Guidelines, which it's best used in conjunction with.
And for a shameless plug:
Hamilton Meyer's newsserver is available via NNTP (server name is rpg.hmimages.com); there's a Forgotten Realms message board there. You can also reach it via the Web, at http://rpg.hmimages.com.