Volo's Guide to Baldur's Gate

by Ed Greenwood

Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II are two of the bestselling computer roleplaying games of all time. Now fans of the setting can find exactly where in the Forgotten Realms Baldur's Gate is located. Contains complete geographic details as well as hints and tips for Baldur's Gate II. This book connects the computer games with the Forgotten Realms "RM" roleplaying game, on which they were based. Because of its rich setting and highly detailed characters, the Forgotten Realms brand stretches beyond its paper-and-pencil roleplaying roots, appealing to computer and novel fans alike.

Genres: Forgotten Realms, Fantasy, Role Playing Games, Dungeons and Dragons

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2000

About the author

Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms fantasy world, which became the setting for his home D&D game in 1975. Play still continues in this long-running campaign, and Ed also keeps busy producing Realmslore for various TSR publications.

Ed has published over two hundred articles in Dragon magazine and Polyhedron newszine, is a lifetime charter member of the Role Playing Game Associaton (RPGA) network, has written over thirty books and modules for TSR, and been Gen Con Game Fair guest of honor several times.

In addition to all these activities, Ed works as a library clerk and has edited over a dozen small press magazines.

Invented the character Elminster from the popular Forgotten Realms RPG series. Currently resides in an old farmhouse in the countryside of Ontario, Canada.

Reviews

[Meredith Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, don't be fooled by the title -- this has literally nothing to do with Baldur's Gate, the city in the Forgotten Realms setting, and everything to do with the area you get to explore in the old PC game "Baldur's Gate II" (where Baldur's Gate is only a limited part of the experience and wandering the landscape is a much bigger one).

That said, this is a delightful travelogue to the areas around Athkatla in the Forgotten Realms and, frankly, whether you're running a campaign set in that area or just running a homebrew one with coastal and forested areas, it's a great resource for building out local culture, rich inns (which can in many cases be plucked wholesale out of this) and shops. A real fun read and great worldbuilding resource.