Category:Forgotten Realms

Forgotten Realms
Developer(s)	SSI, Stormfront Studios, DreamForge Entertainment, Black Isle Studios
Publisher(s)
Year introduced	1988
Genre(s)	Role-playing, Strategy
Parent series	Dungeons & Dragons

The Forgotten Realms are one of the main settings of "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" tabletop role-playing game. Currently, 34 Forgotten Realms games were released, plus several expansion packs, that is about 50% of all the D&D video games released so far.

It is often stated that "in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the Forgotten Realms are the 'dungeons', and Dragonlance are the 'dragons'".

Games, sub-series and groups

The Gold Box engine

Pool of radiance is the very first Dungeons & Dragons role-playing video game ever released. In fact, earlier video games labeled as "Dungeons & Dragons" were actually action games.

The Gold Box engine was developed by Strategic Simulations (SSI) in 1988 specifically to create Dungeons & Dragons video games as close as possible to the pen & paper game. It was used for thirteen video games in just five years.

The original Gold Box series by Strategic Simulations includes:

1. Pool of Radiance, the very first one.
2. Hillsfar, an "intermission game" developed by Westwood Studios; exporting a character to the next title unlocks extra content.
3. Curse of the Azure Bonds
4. Secret of the Silver Blades
5. Pools of Darkness

Strategic Simulations produced further Gold Box games, most of them developed by Stormfront Studios.

1. Gateway to the Savage Frontier
2. Neverwinter Nights (AOL) was the very first massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in history. It reused the city of Neverwinter and surrounding lands from Gateway to the Savage Frontier for a completely different experience.
3. Treasures of the Savage Frontier, the direct sequel of Gateway.
4. Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures, a software that allows any user to create and share their own Gold Box games.

Eventually, a few more games were released, using a combat engine inspired by the Gold Box:

1. Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace, a game set in the space (the Realmspace) around the planet of the Forgotten Realms.
2. Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor was released several years later and it used a more modern engine. It was supposed to be a tribute to Pool of Radiance, but by then the turn-based combat was getting obsolete.
3. Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder for the Game Boy Advance was developed by Pronto Games. It was another tribute to the Gold Box games that came too late, and the very last turn-based Forgotten Realms game. It is completely unrelated to the Eye of the Beholder series.

Crossovers

• The Eye of the Beholder trilogy was a crossover that put together the gameplay of the Dungeon Master series (tile-based movement and real-time combat) with the setting of Forgotten Realms.
• Dungeon Hack, a successful crossover between three series: Dungeon Master (tile based movement and real-time combat), Hack/NetHack (randomly generated dungeons), and obviously Forgotten Realms.
• Slayer, a game that technically takes place in its own setting, but in practice it is a spiritual sequel to Dungeon Hack with continuously scrolling movement in three dimensions.
• DeathKeep, a crossover that uses the engine of Slayer and the gameplay of Doom; in fact, it is a first-person shooter with minimal role-playing elements.
• Descent to Undermountain, a crossover that uses the engine of the Descent series and the Forgotten Realms setting; another first-person shooter with some role-playing elements.

Standalone computer games

Games that feature a full character creation and focus on plot development.

• Menzoberranzan was developed by DreamForge Entertainment and uses their Ravenloft engine.
• Neverwinter, a massive multiplayer online game.
• Sword Coast Legends
• Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation, an adaptation of the boardgame.

Major series

For more details on this topic, see Baldur's Gate.

For more details on this topic, see Neverwinter Nights.

Strategy games

• Blood & Magic, a real-time strategy game.
• Lords of Waterdeep, an adaptation of the boardgame.

Hack & slash action

All these games feature pre-made characters and focus on real-time combat, with minimal dialogue and minimal plot development.

• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II
• Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone was written by Robert Salvatore, the creator of Drizzt Do'Urden.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale, inspired by Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes (Greyhawk setting), that in turn was inspired by the two Dark Alliance games.

The two Dark Alliance games and the computer Baldur's Gate series are not seen as part of the same series, as they differ heavily in gameplay (and plot). The Dark Alliance and Daggerdale games are cooperative multiplayer games.

Simplified gameplay

• Dungeons & Dragons: Arena of War, a "slingshot game" for mobile phones.
• Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms, an idle clicker game.

Game list

Default sorting is by release year. Sort by genre or by developer to see sub-series and similar.

"Open world" and "dungeon crawl" are sub-genres of role-play games. Open worlds are characterized by extensive plot development, detailed overworld, and several dungeons; dungeon crawlers are characterized by minimal plot development, minimal overworld, and exploration of a single dungeon.

Engine is specified only where relevant, e.g. if it identifies a series.