Faerûn - Forgotten Realms, Dungeons and Dragons mod - Open Beta [0.7.0 03/06/2023] on GitHub and Steam Workshop!

[neutrondecay]

Hail and well met, gentles all!

Welcome once again to the world of the Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms setting.

As of version 0.6.0, the entire map is playable in every start date, and with the final start date moved to include a minor bookmark for the film Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, we have over 140 years of playable starts! Now available at a new location on Steam - if you are still using the old one, please change to this one. Version 0.7.0 completes the main religious overhaul: every religion in the mod should now be robustly playable.

Our team has changed a lot since our alpha release, so we thought it prudent to create a new thread for version 0.3.0 and subsequent releases.

We have made many improvements since our alpha release. For a start, the whole map, except for wild monster territory and one theocratic title, is now playable on any start date from 1360 to 1385. As of 0.4.5, much of the western and central part of the map is playable starting any time from 1357 to 1496! Beyond that, our changes tend towards quality of life improvements, making the mod more immersive, playable, and stable. To that end, the magic system is currently a work in progress, and not all spellcasting classes can use it yet; check out the tutorial to see how to use it in its latest form. Where you'll see the biggest improvements are in game play for humanoid characters, with a full range of classes available, and several custom governments. We have newly-adapted graphics for existing playable species such as yuan-ti and giants, and fresh graphics never before used in CK2 for newly added playable species. There's also a tutorial which introduces the new mechanics, and several other new decisions:

Version 0.4.0 added the southern continent of Zakhara, home to a powerful religious orthodoxy and a diverse range of cultures. Zakhara is still under development - subsequent versions will have more playable characters and story events for it. We've also added numerous societies, including several knightly orders, and two societies that are specific to Zakhara. Along with the new Zakharan religious group, we've overhauled the rest of the mod's religions - now you can pledge yourself to Tyr as a member of the Triadic faith, worship the sun in Elturel, make dark sacrifices to Thasmudyan in the Ruined Kingdoms, or join the Mercantile faith to make profits in the name of Waukeen.

Version 0.5.0 saw a complete set of fully-featured character classes - twelve classes each with seven tiers. We will always keep polishing those classes, and we are considering possible candidates for additional classes too, but from this version onwards, the class system is complete as we had originally envisioned it. (To answer a perennial FAQ, the Shadow class is not a canon D&D class, but links together concepts from AD&D first edition's assassins, AD&D second edition's ninjas and holy slayers, and 5e's Mastermind rogue, to create a class that is particularly adapted to CK2's intrigue environment.)

I'd say we have succeeded in our basic goal of transporting the Forgotten Realms, and especially their central continent of Faerûn, into Crusader Kings 2. Please take and enjoy this beta release - it's intended as a fully playable game in its own right. But there's also a way to go before we can say we have fully reproduced the Forgotten Realms and D&D experience, so we welcome all bug reports, and all reasonable suggestions for enhancements.

Moving forward, we intend to create more of our own events and systems, to really make players feel like they're a ruler in the Forgotten Realms. This includes events to represent both specific and general happenings and challenges within the world of the game, a magic system that makes spellcasting characters rewarding and distinctive to play without overwhelming the core game elements, and more appropriate events and decisions for non-humanoid rulers. We're also creating magic items, and continuing to deepen and diversify our portrayal of the setting's religions.

But for now, we are excited to share this release with you, a collective project of many passionate people.

Thanks again for your support, we hope you enjoy the mod.

NeutronDecay
BoneLorde/Shadeos
Dwarfnator/Teneb
Nendur
Olrox
tsf4
FireWraith

Many of the non-vanilla dynamic character graphics are by Silfae from the Warhammer: Geheimnisnacht team, and are used with permission. I've based most of my edits on his originals, for which I'm very grateful. We also have some assets provided with the permission of the Project Middle Earth team and Mythos 2, and some statics by CrackdToothGrin. Latterly, we have had the support of the excellent Nendur, and his own Better Looking Garbs mod has a version that is compatible with this mod.

Spoiler: Full credits

The Faerûn mod would not be possible without its talented team of modders and testers.
We rely on the wonderful Crusader Kings 2 community and have be graciously allowed to use various creations from various mods.
All are presented here and thanked in alphabetical order.

Project Manager
neutrondecay

Many thanks to:

Modders:
Dwarfnator/Teneb
EvilCatInTheHat
Nendur
Olrox
PyroDork
Shadeos
tsf4

Past Modders:
Anrominder
Blood Royal
Zarathustra
Kekvit Irae
Taurenhe
Kellen
EvilCatInTheHat
PeculiarJard
PyroDork
Pandemix

Testers:
FruityDrongo
manis12
Mattheus21
nearfuture
ramblymanguthrie
Srip
Tanrihan
Taurenhe
Thanatos
Tinitus
Xandervm

Other CK2 Mods:
Enoofu for creating the very first Forgotten Realms mod
The Middle Earth Project
Warhammer: Geheimnisnacht
Mythos 2

Other thanks
Thank you to Ed Greenwood, Dave Arneson, TSR, Wizards of the Coast, and every author who has worked on the Forgotten Realms - especially Eric L Boyd, Steven Schend, and George Krashos

and Paradox Interactive for their lovely game.

PS: And you can also come and chat with us on Discord!

PPS: The Ruler Designer is available, but is not fully supported yet. Some options, such as lizardfolk, may cause crashes in the designer. Similarly, the Random World option is not yet fully supported.

 

[neutrondecay]

Necessary Concessions to Canon and Acceptable Breaks from it

In adapting a large and detailed setting like the Forgotten Realms, there's often more canon material out there than a dev team can reasonably include. And there are going to be things in the canon that we wouldn't include if we were designing the setting ourselves from scratch, but it feels unfair to the actual authors to leave out.

So on the one hand, we're sticking with canon:

• Even though some modern systems like Pathfinder Second Edition have made their drow lavender-skinned, we're keeping ours ebony-skinned for now. We are, however, ignoring some of the worst bits of the drow backstory.
• Shou Lung uses Wade-Giles transcriptions of Chinese rather than Pinyin, and I can't easily change that.
• There are some characters with objectively silly names. Where these have been given canon or semi-canon retcons to be less silly, we've used them, but otherwise we've left them as-is.
• Several of the peripheral cultures are based relatively closely on real-world archetypes, not always with the care or respect that we would wish for. Except as noted below, we've stuck with the canon versions of these cultures.

But on the other hand, we're breaking with canon:

• A lot of Zakharan title ranks have been changed, because there's no need for every petty king or duke to be styled as Caliph.
• The head of the Padhran religion will not be called the Dalai Lama, especially as there's already a character in the history of Tabot called the Lord of the Oceans, which is roughly what that title means. A lot of the Kara-Tur and Horde material hews a lot closer to real-world history than the rest of the Realms, but there's no point being ridiculous about it.
• All saurials are interfertile and use the same traits, because an OPM in which (as canon suggests) there are four mutually infertile subspecies found nowhere else in the world is doomed in a very unfun way.
• The Shadow character class is not an established D&D class, but instead combines elements from 1e's assassins, 2e and 3e's ninjas, and 5e's masterminds, to create a class that strongly serves CK2's intrigue aspect.
• The continent-wide polytheism described in Faiths and Avatars and Powers and Pantheons has been broken up into three faiths named after languages several smaller faiths, so that things like alternate names for deities, and whether or not there's polygamy, can be handled sensibly.
• Similarly, the general faith of the Zakharans has been split into orthodox (Qisma'ite) and heterodox (Myriadic) sects, in addition to the canonical Pantheists, and the Muhjari (on whom canon details are scant) have been made part of the same religious group.
• We are ignoring the 5e version of gnolls, in which they are essentially soulless demons, in favour of the somewhat more nuanced 4e version.
• A number of characters known only by their titles have been given names.
• We are ignoring most of the 4e consolidations of deities.
• We could not reproduce the way in which the merchant republics of Amn and Waterdeep are canonically governed by secret societies, so for now they are regular MRs.
• Some canon title histories and dynasty family trees have been very slightly tweaked if we couldn't make all the available facts fit.

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[neutrondecay]

Reserved

 

[neutrondecay]

Screenshots post

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[sXe_Superstar]

You guys will enjoy this mod. I had a blast while bugtesting it. It's quite awesome, even in this open beta state!

 

[Knight of Nii]

Finally! I've been following this mod since the beginning and can't wait to finally play a proper release. Good job, everyone!

 

[Orlunu]

• Even though some modern systems like Pathfinder Second Edition have made their drow lavender-skinned, we're keeping ours ebony-skinned for now. We are, however, ignoring some of the worst bits of the drow backstory.

To clarify, this simply means that some of the less tasteful bits which needn't be mentioned are not referenced, or is there actual removal/replacement going on with some of their background?

 

[neutrondecay]

To clarify, this simply means that some of the less tasteful bits which needn't be mentioned are not referenced, or is there actual removal/replacement going on with some of their background?

Almost all the drow backstory just isn't mentioned. This is partly because some of it is much too close to real-world racist myths, but also because it's contradictory, confusing, and takes place an order of magnitude or more earlier than anything we're covering. We haven't replaced it with anything; the drow just exist alongside the other species.

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[Knight of Nii]

It crashes when I click the reform religion button. Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

[LordofLight]

I've noticed it's impossible to take islands held by monsters? I've conquered and formed the Empire of the Trackless Sea. Yet the many islands in my dejure territory held by monsters can't be taken. Is it intended to be impossible to take monster held islands or am I missing something?

I guess you can fabricate claims but I've not had any luck. Might just be the RNG to do with it, though it is also silly in roleplay terms to fabricate a claim to take monster territory.

 

[Dwarfnator]

I've noticed it's impossible to take islands held by monsters? I've conquered and formed the Empire of the Trackless Sea. Yet the many islands in my dejure territory held by monsters can't be taken. Is it intended to be impossible to take monster held islands or am I missing something?

I guess you can fabricate claims but I've not had any luck. Might just be the RNG to do with it, though it is also silly in roleplay terms to fabricate a claim to take monster territory.

It might be that we need to increase the number of maximum sea zones between you and a monster territory. Currently you need to be adjacent or up to 2 sea zones away. I'll double check to see if there are any islands more than 2 sea zones away from any other province and tweak the cb as needed.

 

[LordofLight]

Currently you need to be adjacent or up to 2 sea zones away.

I can't take Sunset (c_sunset), which is on the same sea zone that borders the "mainland". I even have a notification telling me I have a de jure ducal claim but pressing it does nothing.

Are you sure its up to 2 sea zones away? It seems to be closer than that.

Edit: Looking further, Cimarine Isles is within 2 sea zones but I can't touch it either.

 

[Dwarfnator]

I can't take Sunset (c_sunset), which is on the same sea zone that borders the "mainland". I even have a notification telling me I have a de jure ducal claim but pressing it does nothing.

Are you sure its up to 2 sea zones away? It seems to be closer than that.

Edit: Looking further, Cimarine Isles is within 2 sea zones but I can't touch it either.

I'll look into it.

 

[Basileus Basil]

Is it normal that it takes so long to increase your level in a class?

 

[EvilCatInTheHat]

Is it normal that it takes so long to increase your level in a class?

How long has it taken?

 

[Basileus Basil]

My human rulers hardly ever reach lvl 3, most of the times staying at lvl 2 until death. Can't understand how the leveling up works

 

[RawChaos]

I haven't been able to join any societies, seems they never pop up to induct me.

 

[EvilCatInTheHat]

I haven't been able to join any societies, seems they never pop up to induct me.

Societies are currently unsupported unfortunately

My human rulers hardly ever reach lvl 3, most of the times staying at lvl 2 until death. Can't understand how the leveling up works

We should probably change that, thanks!

 

[Dwarfnator]

My human rulers hardly ever reach lvl 3, most of the times staying at lvl 2 until death. Can't understand how the leveling up works

Currently you get yearly xp (more if you have the proper ambition), plus extra xp whenever you take part in a duel or battle (more if you win). We'll increase the values if it seems like most players are having trouble with levels.

 

[rus-chel]

So, as NVN 2 fan main question -
what about sword coast stuff in the mod?