Heroes of Faerun Review - Would I run It?

So I avoided this book and setting most of the last 34 years. I like the first box set with vast undocumented regions. I like the Forgotten Realms accessories detailing the world bit by bit, late 1st and early 2nd edtition. I think Dragon 54 Ed discussed how he cobbled gods from Deities and Demigods including Elric and Fritz Lieber Mythos and were retconned for IP reasons. A few of these gods are recognisable from mythology still. There was a 2nd ed hardback wich I disliked but had some spells and magic and lots of city maps that were mediocre. I liked the Old Empires bit best. Their was a dragon magazine detailing part of the sword coast I quite liked as a campagn area. Id ignored setting mostly since calling it the Forgetable Realms. I liked the vibe of Eds articles and the world bit over time it became over detailed. I ran Theros as my first D&D5 game because I didnt want FR fan players bringing up decades of lore which I dunna wanna know. Actually a player tried but thankfully I can say nope Theros is not connected to the mainstream D&D universe. I guess it is why we never got any crossovers in official plane-hopping adventures. The idea the multiverse is the default setting and we can hop about milking nostalgia with pop in planes. Im not a fan of this but at high level it seems more reasonable. 

Heroes of Faerun was half price on Amazon, so I nabbed it. And I will say I was surprised and liked it. I guess the player features were part of my interest. It has a few things I did not expect and liked.

So the inside cover has simple maps showing regions. There is a big fold-out map with amazing detail and a calendar on the back. My only comment on these is I'd like to see the deserts and icy wastes coloured appropriately.  

It has lots of nice art complementing the core books. I ama bit over the over rendered stuff possibly from AI over use but this was nice and lots of characters we have seen in other illustrations in other books. 

So it starts with character options and notes on species in the setting which positions how common they are and where they come from. There are 8 subclasses. I liked the knowledge domain and still think they need a whole book of cleric subclasses and deities because it would also be world building in a way other classes are not.

Banneret fighter is interesting and nice but maybe leaning towards paladin. Lots of teamwork benefits.

Noble Genies Paladin even though I'm not a fan of playable genies everywhere. I'd rather they were just elemental kin or something. As an Elemental Paladin, I like this subclass.

The Winter Walker Ranger is nice and I might play one. You could probably do other elemental rangers. 

Scion of the Three is a dream rogue for eliminating weakened foes on the battlefield. It will stack with some of the feats in this book. 

Spellfire sorcery is nice and has some spells sorcerers dont normally have so could be another 2nd tier healer which is nice. 

Bladesinger wizard is nice and likewise will work with some of the new feats. I normally would do a spell using fighter or theif but this is tempting.

Backgrounds are using new feats and old ones and let you make characters based on various factions and regions of the setting. They are built in settings and probably more usable for other settings than the recent Eberon book options.

Feats are interesting and numerous. Some are a bit silly or you need to have an origin feat then a general feat and the benefits not always great. I do find feats that should be thematic for a build are not, because you dont need more than one way of speaking to animals and some other overlaps. Because stacking some species-class-feat combos cant be done or dont work, making them rare even if flavoursome in a setting. Lots of feats built for teamwork or have several benefits and one is for teamwork. I did like the co-op features of Draw Steel.

Lots of these feats serve specific factions but you could steal for other campaigns. There are lots of options here to expand your choices. Mythal Touched seems like it would be taken by players who like chaos and could make a whole party die. I could see a wacky NPC have this and you have to nursemaid them while they are a hazard. Also, a clockwork amulet with this and some kind of flight you might make the reverse gravity effect happen deliberately. There are some good rogue feats. SOme ok epic boons but ive never had these come up in a game. Sometimes I think they could do a single book with levels only up to 10th and it would be fine for most players. In older eds high level choices were more for the DM to make enemies than players. But now NPCs just dont work like players and sometimes their levels are unclear if any.

The guide section has calender, timeline, curerency and other notes. Id set my game in 13 57 like the older books so i would not have to deal with all the mega events of novels and other sources id rather not deal with. Languages list is nice too. The main regions are detailed niceley. The gods section is Ok but I was hoping for the Old Empires gods to be included. It has lots of choices. 

Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue has some equipment, some which is cheap and dangerous. I do want an axebeak pulled wagon now. Well-illustrated section. 

Magic section has circle magic I dont want to use or I feel needs more requirements to use and more for NPCs. Some nice spells. One necromatic spell which they relly ought to create more. 

The factions section I did not expect. There are some 3rd party faction books out currently so its a bit of a fad. This has lots of major factions, with a chart to see who hates whom. Each is well-detailed. I like the renown rewards, giving you benefits depending on your standing in the org, trinkets you get with membership, and some have unique faction extra tables of stuff. They also have bastion features I really like. I'd like a book to have expanded bastions with more of these and normal constructions and business players could operate. A few of these wont defend your bastion, which many cultures consider part of hospitality. My 5 players gained all the DMG bastion options available between them, so more are needed and more to suit classes. It touches on some other orgs also with less detail.

Overall, it was better than I expected. I would be more prepared to play it.

Would I use the setting?
Id be more willing to DM the setting with this book, especially for short games in clubs, but I'm unlikely to run a personal long term campaign there. Pretty much the same for Greyhawk but I think Temple of Elemental evil belongs there better than FR. To be fair the only official settings i have used was the Known World which I quit when flying boats came in and it was rebranded as Mystara. Theros is the only setting since. I guess we kinda used Greyhawk by default early 80s, but nothing about the setting really came up it could have been any generic europe. It was pretty bare bones then.

Id consider using the Old Empires and the blank lands under them. Id set between 1100-1357. I dislike the soft rebook mega events, which the book does not explain. Is it really a player's book? I can see why they market it as such as players buy more stuff and outnumber DMs. Id say the detail of the regions is overly done for players, and maybe the faction rules. Id worry players may know more about the setting than the DM, especially if they read a hundred or so novels. Thus, my preferred era predates a bunch of stuff i dont want to touch and regions of Choice away from areas in novels. In early 90s TSR did lots of History inpired books so did RQ, Rolemaster and as I got more into history it led me away from most fantasy RPGs just reskinning history. FR10 Old Empires was great and had lots of nice spells they tried to restrict from normal campaigns.

Mulhorand an Egyptian-inspired region, but I'd say its population is low for its achievements, and Egypt not really into slaves like biblical movies suggest. Shame Set, Horus and Isis not in core FR setting more. Making them tech leaders and pioneers of steam and steel a bit odd too. Possibly Mystara version of fantasy Egypt is better done but leans into Psuedo History with pyramid power plants. Gilgeam of Unther I guess is Gilgamesh. It seems comicly opressive and burned out but I like the rebels like Tiamat. Names just taken from random Iraq over 3000 years. Possibly Ive read too much history to enjoy this. Chessenta a psuedo Rome but no roman gods. 

Even with promising blank lands underneath I think Id rather do something else for an ancient near-east or Mediterranean world. Most of the Egyptian RPG gear I've seen recently still draws on untrue pop history, wildly untrue biblical history, pseudoscience or New Age Khemetism. The Iron Crown Rolemaster Egypt book is wildly inspirational and fantastic yet more rooted in the sources. And it has lots of maps.