Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting

The remaining 75 pages of the book is an encyclopedic and alphabetic listing of important places, races, nations, cultures, character classes, and organizations of the Realms.

Due to difficulties with distribution and production costs of box sets, Wizards moved away from that style, and instead published a normal hardcover book for the 3rd edition update to the Realms.

The book was written by Ed Greenwood, Sean K. Reynolds, Skip Williams and Rob Heinsoo, with additional contributions from members of the Wizard company's staff.

Interior art was by Todd Lockwood, Sam Wood, Matt Wilson, Carlo Arellano and Stephanie Pui-Mun Law.

The setting history was updated to reflect various major events such as the changes to the pantheon of Faerûn since the Time of Troubles, and the defeat of the Tuigan Horde.

Game statistics were provided for popular Forgotten Realms characters such as Drizzt Do'Urden, Artemis Entreri, Elminster, Khelben Blackstaff, Fzoul Chembryl and Manshoon.

"[1] The reviewer from Pyramid noted that the third edition book covers "a vast land with knights, barbarians, horse archers, and just about any other type of fantasy archetype you can name".

[9] Scott Taylor for Black Gate in 2014 listed Forgotten Realms Boxed Set by Keith Parkinson as #6 in The Top 10 TSR Cover Paintings of All Time.

[10] In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "After the box is opened, the first thing that is apparent about Forgotten Realms is how massive the world is ... Large portions of the world are left for the GM to fill in with their own material, while the rest is detailed by Greenwood and company with an eye towards giving players and GMs a little bit of everything.