Forgotten Realms

The second major campaign setting for AD&D, Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms.

A promotional map of Anauroch was released to dealers with purchases of early Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed sets, and was also an insert in Dragon Magazine #124.  As such, while it's a curiosity, it is easily obtainable and has no intrinsic worth to collectors.  The scan below shows the upper quarter of the map; the full map is roughly 16" x 20". Thanks to T.S. McDuffie, Alec Stuart, and Chris Yoder for help with this info.

The City System is a boxed set composed of a 32-page City System booklet, 10 full-color (adjoining) maps for the city of Waterdeep, a full-color poster map of Waterdeep, and a three-dimensional map of Castle Waterdeep.  Yet another map of Waterdeep can be found in TM4 City of Waterdeep, which also maps the cities of Shadowdale and Tantras.

The Forgotten Realms Atlas is a softcover manual detailing maps, locations, cutaway diagrams, backgrounds and more.  A very well-done, and popular, product.

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is a boxed set composed of background material, characters, topography, etc on the world of Faerun.  It is supported by several series of modules (FR, FRA, FRC, FRE,  FRM, FROA, FRQ, FRS) as well as the hardcover Forgotten Realms Adventures manual, which updated the 1st Edition boxed set to 2nd Edition AD&D conventions (as well as adding additional supplemental material).  Estimates are that the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting sold a total of 175,000 copies. Some copies of the First printing of this boxed set came with a form that could be filled out to receive the Forgotten Realms newsletter, Secrets of the Sages.  Follow the link to a separate Newsletters page.

Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms Campaign Setting is a boxed set in the Oriental Adventures style.  Contains two 96-page books ("Volume I" and "Volume II"), covering different geographic regions, four large color maps, and two plastic hex-graph overlays.  Another large map of the region is depicted in the TM5 Kara-Tur Trail Map.

Other campaign settings for 1st Edition AD&D include the World of Greyhawk and DragonLance campaigns.

Only the City System, Forgotten Realms Atlas, and Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting have any discernable printings.

City System

Forgotten Realms Atlas

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting

Thanks to Michael Deaton for the scan of the Forgotten Realms Atlas, to T.S. McDuffie for the scan of the Anauroch Promo Map, and to Adrian Newman for the scans of Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting.

On the value of the Kara-Tur boxed set, contributor Ken Wellens writes:

Long before eBay, before The Hit Pointe, Dragon's Trove, Titan Games, and their ilk, there was Zocchi's.

Zocchi's was the only significant national dealer in used and out-of-print RPG's (mostly TSR) in the late 1980's.  Old-time readers of Dragon Magazine might remember their whole-page ads, which contained lists of prices for old D&D and 1st Edition AD&D titles.  In a pre-internet age, the existence of such a list in Dragon, the definitive source of news for all things TSR, made Zocchi's list the definitive price guide for TSR collecting.

Zocchi's also maintained a significant presence at GenCon each year, and the list was widely distributed there as well.  It was not uncommon for patrons of the GenCon used games auction to visit Zocchi's booth each year and review the list prior to going to the auction.  Thusly, selling prices at the auction often reflected those on the list.

One year in the early 1990's (I forget which specifically, but I would place it around '91 or '92) Zocchi's list suddenly priced shrinkwrapped Kara-Tur boxed sets at $100.  ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS?!?  Such a price was unheard of -- only Deities & Demigods (with Cthulhu) or Dragon Magazine #1 was in that league in those days.  But... it was such on Zocchi's list.  And so it was that year in the GenCon auction.

As the various collectors and other bidders returned to their homes all over the world, the mania of the "valuable" Kara-Tur boxed set returned with them.  Game stores everywhere were stripped of their remaining copies, and the myth of this "rare" collectible was born.  This legend carried through to the later online dealers and eventually eBay, and these days it is now etched into the collective stone that this boxed set is among the rarest of the rare.

Only the Zocchi employee who set the prices will ever know how this got started.  Perhaps he found the item difficult to obtain in his area.  Perhaps he intentionally wanted to experiment with market manipulation.  Perhaps he was privy to some 'inside information' from TSR that was misinterpreted.  Whatever the reason, the increase in aftermarket dealers in this hobby guarantees that such an event is unlikely to ever happen again.

Notably, the (relative, if not actual) value of the Kara-Tur Campaign has fallen over the decades since, perhaps due to increasing awareness by the public.

The values of the other Forgotten Realms items are fairly average.

The following represents The Acaeum's current valuation of these items, dependent upon condition (multiply by 3x-10x if shrinkwrap is present).  Values are updated at the beginning of the month, provided there were new public sales.  Click the titles to view active eBay auctions!

Anauroch Promo Map

City System

Forgotten Realms

Atlas

Forgotten Realms

Campaign Setting

1st printing

Forgotten Realms

Campaign Setting

5th printing

Forgotten Realms

Campaign Setting

7th printing

Forgotten Realms

Campaign Setting

8th printing

Kara-Tur