''The Savage Frontier'' (product code FR5) is an accessory for the ''
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...
''
campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A '' campaign'' is a series of individual adventures, and a ''campaign setting'' is the world in which such adventures and c ...
''
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 alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as ...
''. It describes the
Savage Frontier of
Faerûn
Faerûn is a fictional continent and the primary setting of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' world of ''Forgotten Realms''. It is described in detail in several editions of the ''Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting'' (first published in 1987 by TSR, Inc. ...
. The book was written by
Jennell Jaquays
Jennell Jaquays (born Paul Jaquays, October 14, 1956) is an American game designer, video game artist, and illustrator of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs). Her notable works include the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' modules '' Dark Tower'' and '' Ca ...
and published by
TSR in 1988. Cover art is by
Larry Elmore
Larry Elmore (born August 5, 1948) is an American fantasy artist whose work includes creating illustrations for video games, comics, magazines, and fantasy books. His list of work includes illustrations for ''Dungeons & Dragons'', ''Dragonlance'', ...
, with interior illustrations by
Esteban Maroto
Esteban Maroto (born 1942) is a Spanish Comics, comic book artist.
Career
Born in Madrid, he began his career in the 1960s with series like ''Cinco por infinito'', published in English by Continuity Comics as ''Zero Patrol'' (heavily retouche ...
, and cartography by
Dave Sutherland, Dennis Kauth, and Jaquays.
Contents
''The Savage Frontier'' is a campaign setting supplement which describes the area north of the
High Moor
''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a ...
s—the location in which the novel ''
The Crystal Shard
''The Crystal Shard'' is a 1988 fantasy novel by American writer R. A. Salvatore. The first book in The Icewind Dale Trilogy, it was his first published novel.
Plot summary
Even in the remote far northern region of Icewind Dale, the renegade d ...
'' takes place—and the northern barbarians.
The book focuses on the lands to the north of the city of
Waterdeep.
The color maps and text add further detail to the Northlands and Trackless Sea.
This campaign supplement contains information on the Northmen, the Uthgardt Barbarians, and the northern
dwarves and orcs.
It provides information on major settlements, strongholds, ruins, and includes adventure ideas.
''The Savage Frontier'' is a 64-page booklet wrapped in a removable
gatefold
A gatefold cover or gatefold LP is a form of packaging for LP records that became popular in the mid-1960s. A gatefold cover, when folded, is the same size as a standard LP cover (i.e., a 12½ inch, or 32.7 centimetre square). The larger gatefo ...
cover. The outside gatefold contains a map of Waterdeep, while the inside front cover contains maps of the Ruins of Ascore, Grandfather Tree, Hellgate Keep,
Luskan, and typical Uthgardt ancestor mounds. Two fold-out color poster maps are included: one of the
Savage Frontier region, and one of the Trackless Sea. The book focuses on the Savage Frontier; it includes an overview of the region and of the peoples of the North, their cities, towns, and villages, and geographic features such as the Sea, the Ice, the Islands, the Lost Lands, strongholds, ruins, rivers, mountains, rough lands, the High Forest, and Uthgardt ancestor mounds, as well as personalities of the North. The book contains four appendices which describe
magical items of the Savage Frontier, northern proficiencies (skills useful in the region), news of the land, and adventures in the Savage Frontier.
Publication history
''The Savage Frontier'' (FR5) was written by Jennell Jaquays and published by TSR in 1988 as a 64-page booklet with a large color map and an outer folder.
Shannon Appelcline explained that
Frank Mentzer
Jacob Franklin Mentzer III is an American fantasy author and game designer who worked on early materials for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. He was an employee of TSR, Inc. from 1980 to 1986, spending part of that tim ...
's Aquaria setting was initially published as four adventure modules for the
RPGA
The RPGA (also called the Role Playing Game Association and the RPGA Network at various times), was initially part of the organized play arm of TSR, Inc and later of Wizards of the Coast. From 1980 to 2014, it organized and sanctioned role-playing ...
, and presumably to be included as part of the
Greyhawk
Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for ''Dungeons & Dragons''— Dave Arneso ...
setting; after these modules were collected and reprinted as the single adventure ''I12: Egg of the Phoenix'' (1987), some of the characters appearing in the adventure were incorporated into the Forgotten Realms supplement ''FR5: The Savage Frontier'' (1988) which Appelcline found unsurprising "given the speed with which TSR was incorporating everything into the Realms at the time, from Moonshae Isles to Bloodstone Pass."
Reception
reviewed ''The Savage Frontier'' for ''
Dragon'' magazine #144 (April 1989).
Bambra wrote that the color maps and text "place firmly in context the descriptions given in FR1 ''
Waterdeep and the North''.
He concluded: "This supplement is for anyone who can't resist the call of the wild."
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Savage Frontier, The
Forgotten Realms sourcebooks
Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1988