FR5- The
Savage Frontier (published in 1988, written by Paul Jaquays) takes a relatively blank canvas (some
material in the 1987 Boxed Set and FR1- Waterdeep and the North) and expands on
this material in a way that adds depth and makes it easier to run adventures
there. Many now-famous locations such as
Neverwinter and the Ten Towns are detailed in FR5.
Although good,
the material is not perfectly original. One example is the Kraken Society
found on the Purple Rocks. (The Purple Rocks are a remote collection of
islands in the northern part of the Trackless Sea) The Krakens look to be
inspired by the HP Lovecraft story "Dagon". The Savage Frontier takes
an idea from Lovecraft- elder evil on remote island and puts it into
D&D. So not original but it works well. It is also not the
first time a Lovecraft-ian touch has been added to D&D. See X1, Isle of Dread. Also if the DM doesn't like the idea, it is
easier enough to ignore without hurting information about other locations in
the Savage Frontier.
The Savage
Frontier is like Gaz 1., (described in an earlier post) in that it does not
really have any super original ideas but that it takes the conventional ideas
that it has and does a good job of building a platform for the DM to learn more
about the area and provide lots of adventure ideas. Reading the FR5 feels like some of the work
of world building and adventure planning has been done for you and that it
creates a great launching point for many adventures. I would consider FR5 to be a must-have for
any Forgotten Realms collector and/or DM.
* * * * (4/5 stars)
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