It was May 30th, 2025 in Los Angeles. The Gregorian Calendar said so. But in The Realms, according to the Calendar of Harptos, it was Kythorn 30th, 1489. A meeting had been called by representatives of Faerun’s Factions (Harpers, Emerald Enclave, Order of the Gauntlet), and the cooperative governmental body, The Lords Alliance. The fate of The Realms was, as ever, in the balance. You may be asking, “What are you talking about?” Allow me to explain.

For the last year, I had been running my custom version of the Dungeons & Dragons Adventurers League: A diverse band of adventurers/players, engaging in a variety of missions and adventures, structured in the style of the brand’s official organized play system. Once a month, I would post a quest on a shared virtual Quest Board, and a pool of 14 players would vie for 1 of 6 available seats and the opportunity to take part. What those players did not grasp yet was that with each mission, they were gaining small pieces of a larger story.

I was, unknown to them, adapting the official adventure “Tyranny of Dragons.” (Credit to designers Wolfgang Baur, Steve Winter, Alexander Winter) The Cult of the Dragon, a long standing extremist organization, had become bolder. Openly attacking and raiding villages, and transporting those spoils to an unknown location. They also engaged in archeological excavation, searching for long forgotten artifacts. All of this came to a head when two dozen dragons devastated the city of Neverwinter as 6 of our adventurers fled, with one of these artifacts in hand, to a Harper safe house.

So, the time had come for the powers that be to address the growing threat of the Cult of the Dragon and their true goal: the release of the evil, five-headed goddess of Chromatic Dragons, Tiamat, from her prison in the first layer of hell.

In the original adventure, written for only 6 players, this meeting takes the form of a series of somewhat dry NPC (Non-Player Character) interactions. As a DM of some experience, I immediately saw an issue with the idea of playing 9 disagreeing NPCs, while my players look on at me arguing with myself for a couple hours. So, instead, I drew on my experience and connections in the LARP (Live Action Roleplay) community.

I cast each of the NPCs with LARPers I knew personally, providing each of them with multiple pages of character back story, guidance on costuming, and, on the day, binders of pertinent details. Knowing I had chosen people who would be excited to dive in, I was still floored by the level of detail that they went to.

The players, too, were encouraged to dress as their characters, and received binders explaining who all of the Council Representatives were. Badges were also handed out to Players and NPCs alike, bearing their names and Character portraits. Blue Lanyards for players, and Red for NPCs.

What actually transpired in the meeting consisted of the Council representatives questioning the Adventurers about their past adventures and what they mean about the Cult’s plans. In the end a number of next steps were decided, setting up the next three months of adventures I would run before the next Council.

The only reason I was able to put on an event like this, or the three that will follow, is because of the staggering depth of the Forgotten Realms setting. I made liberal use of the fan run Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wide variety of past officially published adventures, and sourcebooks. All of which, along with the buy in of my players and casted NPCs meant that when the actual event began, I only to needed to speak up 5 times in the course of an hour-long meeting. Even then, it was only for minor clarifications.

I built a deeply immersive event for roughly 30 people, based on an adventure written for 6 players. Each of them brought a dish made from official Forgotten Realms recipes. They gambled over pit fights and in-world card game Three-Dragon Antee, using real metal coins in the proper shapes and denominations of the Forgotten Realms Setting.

As a deep lore, dyed in the wool nerd, I have only seen the level of depth the world of the Realms offers in a handful of other Franchises. Comparisons to Marvel, and Star Wars are apt. Though I have only taken in about a third of the over 600 published Novels, adventures, and sourcebooks of The Realms, I have begun to see the shape of the thing. I have learned how to search it. Learned that pretty much every question I may have does, in fact, have an answer. And if it doesn’t, that that is an invitation to tell my own story.

The key difference between the Realms and the franchises I mentioned previously is that it is designed for the viewer to dive in and tell stories. It is not a passive experience. Every novel, videogame, movie, or prewritten adventure set in Faerun doesn’t just invite you to go further. It expects you to dig deeper. It is a world of such extreme detail that when you and your party set out into it, with adventure on the mind and heroism in your hearts, there will always be something to find, history to uncover, and schemes to thwart.

The Realms has been a living, breathing, growing place ever since creator Ed Greenwood first put pen to paper on the short story, “One Comes Unheralded to Zirta” more than 50 years ago. Through five different editions of Dungeons & Dragons, Award Winning and critically lauded Video Games (the Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale series chief among them), a complex, interconnected series of novels, and now the critically hailed feature film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, The Forgotten Realms continues to prove itself as a fertile ground for truly meaningful storytelling. For one year, I have managed to breathe life into it for my own League of Adventurers, and for one night, was able to make it and its struggles a tangible reality for 30 people. I can’t wait to continue.