The Forgotten Realms Projects Mailing List at MPGN and the Forgotten Realms Projects Database in the Internet (http://www.geocities.com/~frzone/projects.htm) are two special online corners of Faerûn for DMs and players who want to develop unofficial gaming material and make it available for others to use, or who simply want use what others are making available.

Realms Projects was born in 1997, the creation of Alistair Lowe-Norris, computer network chief at Leicester University in the United Kingdom. It's been a popular stop for Realms gamers ever since, but one that's still misunderstood more than understood. One of the more frequent themes in the moderator's eMailbox revolves around the contention that a lot of good work is unqualified for the projects list because it's a solo effort. This perception is absolutely false. Individual projects are just as eligible and qualified for the projects list as group efforts.

If you're interested in taking a look at the projects mailing list, simly send an e-mail to:

majordomo@lists.mpgn.com

with this message:

subscribe realms-projects
end

or for the compact digest version, use this message:

subscribe realms-projects-digest
end

To see what's up with the Realms Projects at any particular time, simply use the following Internet URL:

http://www.geocities.com/~frzone/projects.htm

Updates on active projects - click the option you want:

Adventures Database
Arylon City Project
Arylon Oracle Project
Candlekeep
Daggerdale Netbook Project
Database Link Directory Project
Errata Project
Forgotten Trails Netbook
High Frontier Project
More Gods Project
Mundane Treasures
Northern Journey Project
Procampur Project

The biggest of the active Realms Projects is the city project which uses the tag name ARYLON. This new unofficial Realms city has been built and continues to be built by a multitude of gamers on the Realms and Realms Projects mailing lists. Arylon lies on the Chiontar River of the Sword Coast, between Baldur's Gate and Elturel. The project involves a large number of people. The top two are Judge Timothy Haney (galwylin@AIRNET.NET) and Submissions Officer Jenn Millington (kethry@idirect.ca). Although it's the biggest project on the list, it's also the one we're going to tell you the least about, because everything you might want to know about Arylon is the feature in a lead article in this issue of the Forgotten Times. To read that article, simply Click Here or go directly to Arylon's Internet site. http://sefton.tradepage.co.za/Arylon/index.htm.

The Arylon Oracle is an irregularly appearing online periodical that allows free-form creativity with regards to the Arylon City Project. It appears only when there are enough new submissions to warrant a new issue, which then is posted to the Forgotten Realms Projects Mailing List at MPGN. The Oracle is open to stories, rumors, poetry, drama, magical items, spells, city sites and any other type of creative endeavor that does not not fit the templates for NPCs and buildings and businesses of the parent Arylon project. There is no formalized template for Oracle submissions, and all submissions are welcomed. If you simply want to read the Oracle, you need only to subscribe to the Forgotten Realms Projects Mailing List, in the full or digest version, and wait for the next issue to appear. If you wish to submit something to the Oracle yourself, you should read the submission guidelines first. After that, you can send your work to Submisssions Officer Kimberly Moser at: chittlin@aol.com.

The Realms Projects Database began as an internal service to members of registered list projects, but quickly expanded following the suggestions of many users on both mailing lists. Today, the database not only offers information and direct links to all registered list projects, but it also gives you advice on how to build your own project, how to make homepages easily and how to obtain sizeable blocks of free space in Internet where you can display your project and offer it's files for free downloading.

Currently, the Webmaster of the database is trying to expand the existing library of Realms-relevant hyperlinks in Internet to include all addresses important to DMs as well as all private Internet Realms pages that the hosts wish to list. The database already offers a central directory of links to sites where you can download information, fonts (including Common Tongue, Dethek, Espruar and Thorass) and generators for everything from NPCs to complete villages, inns and lists of names for males and females of the various races.The database can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/~frzone/projects.htm.

Along with Arylon, Northern Journey is one of the two original projects of the Forgotten Realms Projects Mailing List. Northern Journey is an epic Forgotten Realms adventure in six extensive modules plus a 170-page campaign guide. The interim version of the Northern Journey Campaign Guide and the first four modules are completed and can be downloaded free in the Internet, along with maps and graphics in JPG- and GIF-formats and in the FCW-Format of Campaign Cartographer 2 and TSR's Campaign Mapper. The project is intentionally designed so that DMs can ignore the adventure itself und use the modules as campaign description accessories for areas not yet fully detailed and/or mapped by TSR.

• Northern Journey begins with the module Silverymoon in the city of Neverwinter north of Waterdeep on the Trackless Sea and leads the PCs through Triboar and Longsaddle to Nesmé. They then follow the northern border of the Troll Moor and the southern eave of the Moonwood to Silverymoon. Unofficial maps are available for the cities of Neverwinter and Nesmé, both uncharted to date by TSR.

• In the second module, Moonwood, the PCs wander through the Moonwood itself, north of Silverymoon, encountering many of the wood's strange mysteries and riddles, before the pass the Lonely Tower deep in the Savage Frontier of the North and end up in the barbarian settlement of Beorunna's Well near the Cold Wood. Unofficial maps are available for the Moonwood and Beorunna's Well, both uncharted to date by TSR.

• The third module, Daggerdale, is the real epic journey of this series, taking the PCs from the Cold Wood to Citadel Felbarr (formerly the Citradel of Many Arrows), Sundabar and Jalanthar before entering the High Forest. There they travel to the forbidden Citadel of the Mists and visit the druids of the High Trees before emerging at Elven Port in the upper Delimbyir Valley. The journey continues downstream past the Land of the Lich Lords to Loudwater and through the Greyvale to Llorkh, southward past the Ruins of Dekanter and on into Pelleor's Prairie and northern Sunset Vale, with stops at Yarthrain, Drawn Swords, the Battle of Bones, Rolling Hills and the Well of Dragons. The PCs continue on through Yellow Snake Pass and above the Tun Plain into Cormyr, with stops in High Horn, Eveningstar, Arabel and Tilverton. The last leg of this module ends with encounters in Dagger Falls and at the Flaming Tower and in the Temple in the Sky. Unofficial maps and dungeon plans are available for the Llorkh, Yarthrain, Drawn Swords, Rolling Hills, the ruins of Ladydove, Anathar's Dell in Daggerdale, rural Daggerdale, the Flaming Tower and the Temple in the Sky, all uncharted to date by TSR.

• The fourth module, Tale of 2 Liches, travels from Dagger Falls through Teshendale to the ruins of Zhentil Keep and Myth Drannor, ending with encounters in the Cold Field, Feather Falls and Scardale. New dungeons and dungeon adventures are introduced and mapped beneath Zhentil Keep and in Myth Drannor. Unofficial maps are available for Teshwave, Teshendale and Feather Falls, all uncharted to date by TSR.

• The fifth and sixth modules, The Great Dale and Castle Dragonblood, are still in preparation. The Great Dale is the area the project group currently is concentrating upon. This module covers the Vast, Impiltur and the Great Dale. Castle Dragonblood will conclude the series in Damara and Vaasa. The Great Dale is expected to be released in May and Castle Dragonblood in Autumn 1999.

Information on Northern Journey is available at: http://www.geocities.com/~frzone.

Remember that really great bit of adventure you put together in Waterdeep or Tsurlagol or Volothamp or wherever that you and your PCs all enjoyed so much? Afterwards, you all agreed that others would have a ball running that material too, but somehow, it never got beyond that box you keep your campaign notes in.

The Forgotten Realms Adventure Archive is your key to getting your great episodes and modules out of the dusty boxes and into the hands of other DMs around the world, some of whom no doubt are looking for precisely what you've already done. The adventure archive is ready and willing to place your adventures together with the accompanying maps and graphics into a permanent niche of the Internet where they always are available. This project - offered by six mailing list members in the U.S.A, the United Kingdom and Germany - is one of the newest Realms projects to go online. For more info, see: www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tanarri/fraa_index.html.

Another relatively new site, Candlekeep is striving to become the unofficial central archive for Realms material. The Candlekeep project is one dedicated to the gathering and distribution of Realms knowledge on the net. Like the library for which the project is named, Candlekeep is a digital library, where Realms books can be found and written. Each year Candlekeep hopes to produce a number of netbooks on varying subjects, and of varying sizes, concerning the Realms. Currently there are two books in progress: the Daggerdale Netbook and Forgotten Trails. If you have ever been interested in assembling a netbook and would like to try, Candlekeep is there, both to help and to host the netbook once it is completed. Also, there are a number of ongoing projects on the site that interested parties can contribute to. The leading figures in the Candlekeep project are list members John T. Cox, Erskine Fincher and Adrian Harris. For more info see: http://members.xoom.com/Candlekeep/.

The Daggerdale Netbook, under the aegis of Erskine Fincher, is one of the new netbooks being prepared for the Candlekeep site. Erskine first came up with the idea of starting this netbook while running TSR's Sword of the Dales adventure trilogy by Jim Butler. Since then, Erskine says, "It's been a long-held dream of mine to put together a DM's guide to the Daggerdale area. Such a guide would include homegrown expansions of the area, tips for running the official adventures, new adventures and adventure hooks to expand or follow up on the official adventures, a listing of official resources for the area, and links to unofficial resources on the net.

"Not technically a netbook, the project will be a web page placed on the Candlekeep site. Each individual submission will be downloadable from that page. This format was chosen because it makes the contents of the book transparent, and it allows parts of it to be downloaded. The user can access the information he wants without downloading the whole book."

Erskine says he's seeking the following types of materials:

• Adventures & Adventure Hooks - specifically written for Daggerdale.
• Expansions - New villages, ruins, dungeons, etc, that fit the area, and also maps and descriptions of places that are official, but haven't been detailed yet. The Northern Journey project is allowing use of its maps of the area. Northern Journey has added new locations and detailed old ones as well. While the Netbook will be using this material, it will not try to create a single coherent version of Daggerdale. The idea is to give the DM options for how to detail the area himself. For example, the Northern Journey project group created a map for the official location of Anathar's Dell, but if a DM has his own version of that location it also can be submitted to the Netbook. Or if a DM has created a new village already occupied by a Northern Journey village, it can be submitted, too.
• DM's tips - For running the official adventures. This doesn't have to be a complete guide to the adventure, it could be just one or more pieces of advice on how to make the adventure more successful, how to spruce up an encounter, or how to avoid making a mistake.
• Product Reviews - Eric Boyd has several reviews of the essential Daggerdale products, but if you know one he hasn't covered or if you have a different opinion, write it up.
• Official Sources - The netbook will include a list of the official material on Daggerdale, but if you know of a product that has important, but obscure knowledge about the area, Erskine wants to hear about it.
• Unofficial Sources on the Net - Links to unofficial material on Daggerdale.

"Daggerdale," Erskine writes, "is the setting for a lot of adventures. Given its location near Shadowdale, it is an excellent place to start an adventuring group. I'm hoping that this netbook could prove to be an invaluable source of information for DMs both new and old who want to run a campaign in the area."

Because the Daggerdale Netbook still is being put together, it is not currently available at the Candlekeep site in Internet, but further information is available from Erskine at: fincher2@nettally.com.

Forgotten Trails is another Candlekeep netbook that still is in the early stages of organization. Project Officer Adrian Harris says details will be released soon and will be available on the Candlekeep site. For more info contact Adrian at: duke_rathsflow@YAHOO.COM.

Into the High Frontier is the newest entry among the registered mailing list projects. Headed by Project Officer J.A. Tyler III, Into the High Frontier is a Forgotten Realms project centering on a southern region of The North. It aims to detail an area starting with Secomber and on east to the Greypeak Mountains, including all of the known cities, some unpublished hamlets and towns and much of the geographic areas of interest.

J.A. says the goal is to provide basic outlines of areas that contain information pertinent to gaming within the High Frontier. The project is beginning at Secomber and moving eastward. Both official and homemade material are welcome for this project. The High Frontier still is in its early stages, but the web site already is up and running at: http://members.xoom.com/jajtiii/index.html.

Almost nothing is printed anywhere that is 100% free of errors. When several writers and several editors work on the same material, these errors tend to compound. Not even TSR has found a magic spell yet to prevent such low blows from the so-called printer's devil. Andrew Hackard, moderator of the Forgotten Realms Mailing List, is at the reins of this service project, intended to help Realms gamers find those errors and learn how to correct them.