The New Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (Everything We Know So Far)
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The Forgotten Realms has been one of the most popular Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings for decades. So it’s no surprise that the world of Toril is also a major part of the updated DnD 2024 rules set. In fact, at this year’s annual D&D Direct event, Wizards of the Coast announced that a new Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide would be coming in late 2025.
The sourcebook will be fully compatible with the new 2024 Player’s Handbook and the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide and will offer DMs an overview of some of the Realms most iconic locations along with adventure hooks and new campaign ideas. It’s also going to be a companion title to the new Forgotten Realms Player Guide, which will be launching around the same time.
So what else can we expect in this return to Faerûn? Below, we break out everything we know so far.
What is the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide?
The upcoming Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide is a sourcebook designed solely for Dungeon Masters. Inside, it contains write ups on five specific locations in Faerûn as follows:
The information on each location is also designed around a specific genre and style of gameplay. For example, Baldur’s Gate is presented as a possible setting for urban fantasy, while Icewind Dale is showcased as a potential survival horror location. It’s a novel concept that we haven’t really seen in other Forgotten Realms campaign guides before, but it remains to be seen just how it plays out at the table.
It’s also likely that we’ll see several tearaway poster maps included with the book (although Wizards of the Coast has not confirmed this).
What previous Forgotten Realms Campaign Guides are available?
Since the 1980s, a new Forgotten realms Campaign Guide has been released for virtually every edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Below are all of the past sourcebooks:
- Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (1e): Published in 1987, this box set is written by Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood and contains two guidebooks and four maps, presenting an incredible amount of detail that helped establish the modern world of Toril.
- Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (2e): Published in 1993 as an update for AD&D 2nd edition, the box set contains expanded information on key parts of the Realms along with maps, card sheets, monster sheets and a campaign sourcebook based around the town of Shadowdale
- Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3e): Published in 2001 for DnD 3.0, this campaign guide offered information for both players and DMs, including new races, monsters, magic items, NPCs, location overviews and two short adventures.
- Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (4e): Published in 2008 as a showcase for DnD 4e, this book was part of a larger plan from Wizards of the Coast to focus on a single campaign setting each year, rather than an ongoing series of sourcebooks.
- Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide (5e): Published in 2015, this book was designed for both players and DMs, offering new subclasses, spells and a guide to locations around the infamous Sword Coast region.
When is the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide coming out?
Currently, the new Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide is scheduled for release in Late 2025. As with other Wizards of the Coast products, however, you will be able to pre-order the digital and physical bundle via D&D Beyond, which means you’ll be able to access the digital version several weeks earlier. This is also the case if you pre-order a physical copy of the book from any local game store that is enrolled in Wizards of the Coast’s DnD early access program.
How much is the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide?
Wizards of the Coast has not yet confirmed a price for the new campaign guide, but it will likely retail for around $50 USD (which is comparable in price to similar Forgotten Realms products such as Vecna: Eve of Ruin and Phandelver & Below).
What other tie-in products will be available?
WizKids usually releases a variety of monster and NPC miniatures that tie-in to DnD sourcebooks, so it’s possible we may products in the near future. Similarly, third-party publisher Beadle & Grimm’s often releases special edition products (such as their recent DMG Premium Map Pack) with added content and specialty items, so it’s possible we may see something similar.
It’s also likely that the new box set will integrate with the new 2D Maps VTT via D&D Beyond, although it’s not yet clear if it will also be compatible with Project Sigil, the codename for upcoming 3D DnD virtual tabletop. The book will also likely be available on all major VTT platforms, including Roll20 and Foundry.
Final Thoughts
For the past few years Wizards of the Coast has been focused more on creating adventures and the few campaign setting books we have seen have been met with fairly mixed reviews (particularly with Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse). That’s certainly been the case with the Forgotten Realms, with the last setting sourcebook coming out back in 2015.
In other words, it’s high time that we had a decent Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. It remains to be seen, however, if this upcoming return will meet fans’ expectations.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with more information as it’s made available. In the meantime, below is the D&D Direct 2024 video, timestamped to the discussion on the new Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide.
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Ollie Delano is a Staff Writer who lives in Chicago, Illinois where he majored in Journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He’s been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 10 years and currently plays in a weekly game group where he rolls way too many natural 1s and chugs way too much Mountain Dew. His favorite D&D campaign setting is Eberron and his favorite character to play was a Tiefling rogue named Draxiss who enjoys both literal and figurative backstabbing.
