And yes it's a different world now. Anything you could want to know about anything is at your fingertips, but most people aren't going to buy "old" stuff with outdated lore and stats. And reading the Faerun wiki isn't going to really spark much for adventure ideas. Not to mention you are expected to print things out on your own and man I love that Drivethru RPG has old stuff but the dissescted maps you are supposed to tape together to whatever never seem to print out right size-wise.
But anyways, I wanted to point out what was IN these box sets compared to what you get now-a-days.
And yes 3rd ed didn't really have box sets. You sometimes got a separate map at the back of the book you could pull out and unfold. AD&D did this as well with some items. Now-a-days it seems you have to get Beadle and Grimms version of things to get all those tasty extras.
Anywho, lets take a look at the few I own.
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The Dragonlance Box Set "The Tales of the Lance"
My current campaign I'm running is set 6 months after the war and I have used the heck out this box set. Especially the World Map.
First we have a this great iconic art on the box cover.
Inside we have little cardboard character chits. No minis? No problem! And some Cards for some of the iconic characters with stats for easy DM reference incase your heroes happen to stop by Solace or wander into the Qualinesti Woods or something.
There are several Maps. One covering the world which has been fantastic for the players to plan their treks from one location to another.
The book has all the info you need. The gods, the magic. The new races. Magic items. and LORE, so much lore.
Even a DM screen! Yeah the art is kinda... not good but hey there is a Lord Soth bi folded art work on cardboard that works just as good. Plus other pieces of Iconic Art just to get the players int he mood.
Even better, if you have the 1E Dragonlance book, it fits in the box as well saving space on the shelf!
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Next: The Forgotten Realms Campaign Set aka The Grey Box
Would you believe that there is more to Faerun than the Sword Coast? This box is FANTASTIC. I'm currently doing a read of the 2 books inside and every single entry of towns and landmarks sparks an idea for an adventure. One book for everyone and another for DMs. Multiple Maps to give a nice visual aid to adventures planning their trips to any location! And the plastic overs are there to help with planning out how many days it would take to trek from there and back again. Random Encounters! Seriously though. The maps and especially the books make this one of my favorite box sets. I'm not kidding when I say every inch of this spark the imagination. I can't read a small blurb about an iconic location and not have an adventure idea. I highly recommend you get this one if you can.
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My most recent acquisition (ive been reading the latest Drizzt book):
The Menzoberranzan box set.
Again iconic art for the box cover. This is a box box set. They really went all out with the extras and inserts.
3 Books inside. 2 of them are lore. The City and The Houses. Lore! The 3rd is an Adventure! and look at the covers! That old 2E art when they made Drizzt look like some old man for some reason.
So far it seems I can also fit the Drizzt's Guide to the Underdark book and map into the box as well. And once I get it the Drow of the Underdark book as well. (much like sticking the DL1E book into the 2E box set for storage help). This would make the Menzo box set the ultimate source for 2E Underdark and Drow info in one box. Add in Night Below and woo....
Here we have pictures and stats of one of the fleshed out House of Noble Drow. Great for showing the players who they are talking to or attacking!
And did I mention MAPS!? 4 Large maps of the city! Plus Posters! Not shown are some smaller interior maps on large cards.
And here we have some Drizzt-isms. a fun little extra.
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So far what Ive shown are mainly Sources. Campaign areas detailed with info
Well now we have Adventure box sets:
The Ruins of Undermountain box set
2 books. Campaign ideas if you want to add a bit of flavor instead of just "See Dungeon, get treasure". 4 dense maps. Undermountain is a lot... sort of. Most of that space is empty! The DM is expected to populate it as they see fit. And just go crazy! Halaster changes things all the time! Dungeon Ecology doesn't matter in Undermountain!
WE also have some cards with ideas for traps and encounters etc! And even some new monsters to add to the dungeon and to add into your other campaigns! Just add those 3 hole punched pages into your Monster Binder (you still have that right?)
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The Ruins of Zhentil Keep.
I recently read a 2E novel with a large Zhent presents and now I want to run a campaign that involves them! Luckily I have this box set (that I still need to read).
From what ive glanced it not only have campian lore and info it has an adventure as well! Their lands seem well covered and again at a glance I would think each local would spark the imagination for adventures! 2E stuff was very good at that.
And of course aside from nice handy maps we have cards with more interior locations and more of those Monster Binder pages of new monsters!
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Well that all I have for box sets. Some I lucked into cheap. Some cost me about $150 (Menzo). Some like Night Below and Planescape and Dark Sun are even more expensive. And as much as I'd love to own the original boxes I'm not spending $200+, at that point I'll just get the DrivethruRPG print on demand versions even though it crams it all into one book and hacks the maps to pieces (and dont fit right when printed out IMO).
So tell me, would you rather have a hardcover book with 5 pages of lore and the rest adventure or spend the same amount of $ (or possibly a tad more for deluxe box sets like Menzo) and get a box set with soft cover booklets full of lore and adventure ideas and maybe even an actual adventure and 4 large maps and a bunch of extras?
I really wish I could get all the old box sets, they are so FUN and reusable! WotC really needs to consider brining these things back, instead of making thinner and thinner hard cover books. Make that new Adventure FEEL like an adventure with maps and pictures and handouts etc instead of just a book. I can't express how much just having a large map of Krynn open in the middle of the table adds to my weekly Dragonlance game.
Thoughts?
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