''Heroes' Lorebook'' is an accessory for the

Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setti ...

campaign setting A campaign setting is a setting for a tabletop role-playing game or wargame campaign. Most campaign settings are fictional worlds; however, some are historical or contemporary real-world locations. A '' campaign'' is a series of individual adve ...

for the second edition of the ''Advanced

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

''Heroes' Lorebook'' updates the previously published ''

Hall of Heroes ''Hall of Heroes'' was an American independent comic book company that existed in the mid-to-late 1990s. Based in Elkhart, Indiana, Hall of Heroes operated from 1993 to 1999. The company's longest-running titles were two volumes of the antholog ...

supplement. This book contains full game statistics and detailed backgrounds for 61 of the most prominent characters from the setting featured in novels and other game supplements published through 1995, as well as notes for using the characters in a game campaign. The book details around 60 heroes in 160 pages, including characters such as

Elminster Elminster Aumar is a fictional character appearing in the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. He is also known as the Sage of Shadowdale, and is depicted as a powerful wizard featured i ...

, Laeral Silverhand and King Azoun Obarskyr IV. It provides game statistics for each character, and presents lengthy details on their allies and enemies, appearance, personality, location, history, motivations, uses in a game campaign and sources for further reading. Following these descriptions, the book contains sections which for the special magical items used by these heroes, and gives statistics for the specialized spells that are mentioned earlier in the book. The 160-page book features a two-page introduction, which explains that this book is an update and a revision of ''

''. Donovan, Dale and

Paul Culotta Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo P ...

. ''Heroes' Lorebook''. ( TSR, 1996) The book compiles information from novels and other sources published through the end of 1995. The book describes 60 characters, each including an illustration, game statistics, suggestions for campaign uses, and a list of the sources consulted for each character's entry. The book's center 16-page section (pages 73–88) presents a series of color illustrations, many of which were created especially for this book, depicting nearly half of the characters described in the book in a variety of scenes. Character descriptions appear on pages 6–135, and include such notables as Alias, Arilyn Moonblade,

Bruenor Battlehammer ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a settin ...

, Danilo Thann,

Drizzt Do'Urden Drizzt Do'Urden () is a fictional character appearing in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. Drizzt was created by author R. A. Salvatore as a supporting character in the '' Icewind D ...

Dragonbait ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a settin ...

, Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, Olive Ruskettle,

Shandril Shessair ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a settin ...

, and

Wulfgar Wulfgar, Wolfgar and Wolfger are variants of a Germanic masculine given name meaning "wolf-spear".Beate Varnhorn, ''Das grosse Lexikon der Vornamen'' (Bertelsmann, 2008), p. 309. They may refer to: Historical *Wolfgar (bishop of Würzburg), a 9t ...

. Supplemental material on pages 136-158 includes notes on the Chosen of Mystra, magical items and effects, special wizard spells, heroic groups (including the

Harpers Harpers may refer to: * Harpers, popular misnomer for ''Harper's Magazine'', American monthly magazine * ''Harper's Bazaar'', monthly American fashion magazine * ''Harpers Wine & Spirit'', formerly ''Harpers Magazine'' (since 1878), British trade ...

and the Knights of Myth Drannor), and an index to the book. A list of sources mentioned throughout the book can be found on pages 159 and 160.

Publication history

The book, with product code TSR 9525, was published in 1996, and was written by

Dale Donovan Dale A. Donovan is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Dale Donovan began working in the hobby-gaming industry in 1989. A past editor of Dragon magazine, Donovan worked for TSR, Inc., Wizards of the Coast, and H ...

and

, with cover art by Doug Beckmann and interior art by Jordi Torres,

Ned Dameron Ned Dameron is a science fiction and fantasy artist. Influences His mother had a gallery in New Orleans, where she mainly dealt with contemporary European paintings originating from a fantastic school, which decisively influenced him to turn in th ...

, Tony Crnkovich, and

Valerie Valusek Valerie A. Valusek is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. She is the sister of Jay E. Valusek, author of Museum of Voices: An Autobiographical Miscellany, where she is mentioned briefly. Works Valerie Valusek has produced in ...

Reception

Paul Pettengale reviewed ''Heroes' Lorebook'' for ''Arcane'' magazine, rating it a 5 out of 10 overall. He stated that because the Forgotten Realms campaign is the most popular setting and has been around for so long, "and there have been so many novels written off the back of it, there are a huge number of heroes wandering the Realms. TSR has now gone about the herculean effort of cataloguing the lot and giving them stats, belongings and character summaries." Pettengale concluded the review by saying, "Although this is a highly polished collection of characters, and the background detail is interesting for any fan of Forgotten Realms, one has to wonder at the actual use of it. If you were planning to introduce one of these ultra-powerful characters into your campaign, surely you could make up the stats yourself, and it's unlikely that you're ever going to use more than half a dozen of these characters. So, great in theory, but in practice I think it's a rather pointless exercise."

Rick Swan Rick Swan is a game designer and author who worked for TSR. His work for TSR, mostly for ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'', appeared from 1989 to 1995. Swan also wrote '' The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games'' (1990), published by St. Martin' ...

reviewed ''Heroes' Lorebook'' in brief for ''

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

'' magazine #235 (November 1996). Swan commented on the usefulness of the book's content to players: "With so much history to digest, casual players may feel overwhelmed. But if you take the Realms seriously, and names like Alias and Drizzt Do'Urden make your pulse quicken, welcome to nirvana."

References

{{D&D topics Forgotten Realms sourcebooks Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1996

Contents

Publication history

Reception

References