Adventures is one of the BEST Forgotten Realms accessories ever made, along with Old Empires, Dreams of Red Wizards, and Moonsea! It sheds light on the Heartlands, but also on other areas such as Baldur's Gate, and the independent cities along the coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars to name a few. Each nation's/city state's distinct culture, history, and civilization will win you over for sure!

Ranging from background history, to city and social descriptions, to important people and characters, to the respective gods and pantheons, to adventure hooks and encounter tables, to magical items and maps, to new spells and treasures, this accessory has it all and more.
For other FR references/adventures, I STRONGLY recommend: the Old Empires accessory on Chessenta, Mulhorand, and Unther, Dreams of Red Wizards on Thay, Dwarves Deep, Draconomicon, the Jungles of Chult and Moonsea accessories, the Ruins of Myth Drannor Box Set, and the Ruins of Zhentil Keep Box Set (they are Second Edition AD&D, out of print and it will take a bit of searching, but it's well worth it). For updated editions of events in the Realms, see the Third Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, which even though is quite expensive, is still very useful to all FR fans. Moreover, for a fuller picture both the first and second editions of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting are a "must."

The FRCS gives you the nuts and bolts of running a realms campaign, (geography, weather, races, cultures, calendars, alphabets and languages) and then proceeds to give you a meltdown-inducing amount of adventure ideas. Add to that the Realms sourcebook gives you a host of new rules (what gaming product can resist?) for new magic, new feats (based on a characters origin-nice), new races, new organizations, and my personal favorite: new prestige classes. I'm sorry, but if you can read the description of the Archmage prestige class without salivating, you simply aren't RPG material. The new Archmage is devastatingly stylish, well conceived and (of course) frighteningly powerful. Archmages gain access to extremely powerful abilities called High Arcana in exchange for sacrificing spell slots (nice idea, that). So an Archmage can permanently give up a ninth level spell slot in exchange for the ability to cast any spell they have memorized as an energy bolt doing d6 per spell level + d6 per level of Archmage. (e.g. 4th level Archmage converts a level 4 spell into energy that does 8d6 damage as a ranged touch attack-no save).

Rules to govern the Realms peculiar framework for magic, "the weave," are included. At first, they seem a little over-stylized, but they give the Realms another opportunity for role-playing flair, and provide an "in-game" way to describe magic and its effects. I particularly like the rules for the "shadow weave" as they offer numerous possibilities for villains and adventures.

The new map for the realms has been altered slightly (to maximize the use of the map surface) and the artwork has really been stepped up. It's a marvelous and inspiring map, and I'm hoping that WotC will feel compelled to sell it as a rolled up (fold-free) poster.

The amount of information on locales and personalities comes across like an all out assault on your faculties. There are hundreds upon hundreds of ideas, introductions, and other "mental fertilizer" for DMs of all persuasions. The individual entries are not very long, but you will find working knowledge and pointers on where to take a given setting for practically everything in Faerûn with a name. It is intended to serve as a jumping off point, and in this it succeeds brilliantly.

Non-player characters are placed throughout the sourcebook as examples of members of organizations, new races, or prestige classes. Examples are by far the best way to get this kind of multi-faceted information across quickly. The stats for Drizzt-Do'Urden are presented to illustrate the rules for the Drow as a player race, the new regional feat rules, and to give you an opportunity to use him as an NPC. The Realms setting often takes some heat for having powerful NPCs, and while this incarnation has its share of dangerous characters- the product doesn't suffer because of it. The NPCs exist in the sourcebook as ideas for the DM, and campaigns that would be disrupted by the presence of NPCs like Elminster should simply keep them far away from their gaming table.

Anyone who enjoyed the Realms before will want to have this book as part of their gaming library. Players new to the setting will find a world that is ready for whatever they want to throw at it. For DMs, the amount of information in this book and the amazing level of detail is inspiring (You want to know what the trade patterns are between Thay and its neighbors? Check.) Anything in this book can be used to start an adventure, which of course is the point.

If you're serious about your campaign-settings, buy one from folks who clearly take theirs seriously. The Forgotten Realms was always popular, but this product all but establishes itself as the gold standard of fantasy RPG worlds.