Dungeons & Dragons Worlds & Realms: Adventures from Greyhawk to Faerûn and Beyond

This book was supposedly written by the Wizard Mordenkainen, and the “authors” made him sound generic, repetitive, uninspiring, and completely soulless.The details of the various places and settings were often inaccurate and lacked any of the atmosphere those places and settings originally inspired.There were moments when reading where the narrative just didn’t make sense, almost as if the “authors” had just Googled the settings without actually playing in or even reading any of the fiction associated with the places or settings, so that they created a disconnect that made it difficult to understand why they had even bothered.Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone as it wouldn’t help someone better understand any of the places mentioned when the source material of those places and the setting material is much better and still available to buy as PDF or POD.

For anyone playing or just interested in D&D this is a wonderful book. It's like an overview of many of the different settings featured in the many adventure books. It's written in an entertaining style and there are numerous illustrations throughout. It's nice to see a mix of vintage artwork along with the current style of art. The book covers quite a lot and since I'll never get to play all of the different adventure books this is a fun way to get a sense of the different areas in The Forgotten Realms. Does it cover everything you could possible want to know about D&D lore? No, but that's okay. This is a solid overview. If you want to get into something very specific I personally enjoy seeking out vintage novels, setting books and modules. Production-wise this is a large oversize hardcover, study binding, and good quality paper and reproductions. Feels like a top quality art book. The design layout of the pages could be more elegant but it's functional. Overall this is a fun book and highly recommended for both new and old players alike. I hope this review helps!

First pass review: When this book shares the presentation style and indeed, the title even suggests it is part of a series or collection like the excellent book Art & Arcana it becomes nearly impossible to not compare the two. After several days with this book, I felt disappointed. Initially, I couldn't put my finger on it. The art was solid as D&D art always is but I was left feeling like the book had a lack of cohesiveness. It didn't flow or give me much of a feeling of each realm we were visiting. It felt like someone said, "I visited a bunch of places, here are a few random snapshots of each." And truthfully, the flavor text did very little to help. I thought, amid all the recent D&D turmoil am I just over D&D as a whole? (WOTC yes, but D&D is not really theirs, no matter how much their lawyers tell me otherwise). So I grabbed my copy of Art & Arcana, and BAM just as good as I remembered! Visually and narratively it tells a story and shows a logical progression. Not just the art but the layout and presentation. Worlds & Realms does NOT have that and does not feel that way. And dare I say it's basic presentation (or lack thereof) is distracting from the otherwise fantastic art. I really hope Adam Lee's vision was not realized, whether due to time restraints, budget, access or other factors because if it was, I'm not seeing it and I'm getting it. 3 stars for the art alone. Now it sits on my shelf. I am going to give it a month or two and pick it up again and reevaluate. We'll see....

without doubt, this is a book made with a lot of love for D&D's many campaign worlds. It really dives in depth into the various campaign settings: Greyhawk, Mystara, Eberron, Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer, Dragonlance, including the inner, outer planes, the transitive planes (astral) which is essentially Planescape. It's a literal wikipedia with stunning art of lore. One unfortunate omission is Athas, the world of Dark Sun, though I imagine it's due to the controversial nature of the setting. The art gathers pieces old and new from about 50 years of published campaign material, though Ive never really seen it printed in such vivid quality and color, the pages are thick glossy stock, binding is very solid, this book is meant to last many decades. Overall if you have a Dungeon Master in your life, this is the perfect book to get them.

Loving this book. Simultaneously delving deep into the settings that have made D&D popular throughout the years while telling the story of the game and how it got to where it is today. Great buy. Zero regrets.

A book full of nice illustrations, classic D&D locations, and sporadic lore. Good for any D&D collectors shelf.