OK.
Monsters. I love them. The first thing that attracted me to D&D was its
bizarre critters but many of them were just a mechanic or a trap wrapped up in
an animal shaped package (rust monsters, disenchanters, cloakers, trappers…I
could go on). Dragon Magazine’s long running Ecology column sought to flesh out
those and other monsters, using in-universe characters to provide studies of
habitats, behavior and impact on their environment. The Ecology articles made
D&D monsters more real.
Elminster’s
Ecologies is a Forgotten Realms box set that takes the idea of the Dragon
Magazine column and applies it to the world of Faerun. I somehow didn’t know
this existed until recently (there are also two appendices, which I will cover
some other time) and it is one of the most pleasant surprises Forgotten Realms
has ever sprung on me.
Inside
the box are 9 booklets – one overview and 8 dedicated to a specific region.
Like the Dragon articles, these are written from the perspective of characters
living in Faerun, traveling its wilds and studying its creatures (as you can
guess from the cover, even Elminster himself weighs in).
Forgotten
Realms was never my jam and, though I appreciate certain slices of it, probably
never will be. Ecologies, though, made me appreciate it more. The authors do a
great job of making a world I’ve always thought was too vast to be interesting.
It doesn’t quite have the verisimilitude of a naturalist’s guide, but it gives
it a good go and is never dull. There’s tamed catoblepases and musings on the
effects of longstanding goblinoid populations on wildlife, food chains and a
surprising amount of information on flora. The only game related material are
some very nice and exhaustive random encounter tables.
Probably
not for everyone, I know, but I think a large number of fans of Forgotten
Realms prefer reading about them rather than playing in them. If that sounds
like you, pick this one up. Lots of people don’t like it, so its pretty cheap
second hand.
