DMs. In the Forgotten Realms where is your favorite area to start a campaign?

[Vos]

I'm an old 3.5 man myself. My favorite area was in the Dale Lands, Battledale to be specific.
Battledale was once far more populated, and is surrounded by overgrown ruins. many of which are occupied by bandits or goblin bands. Many Adventurers of yore had retired to this dale, built homes, died and were forgotten...so the possibilities of finding hidden magic are still out there.

My second Favorite was the Haunted Halls of Eveningstar. Not so much for the module, but for the lore of the Stonelands.
The Stonelands are a frontier north of Cormyr. Too rocky to farm, it was a vast plateau rising above the surrounding lands.
In ancient times it attracted mages for its solitude. They built strongholds there and made elaborate tombs for themselves.
Today, the Stonelands are a wasteland of goblinoids. They are stocked there and supported by Zhentaim agents who provide healing and arcane support. Cormyr tries to patrol there but any goblinoid losses are replaced by Zhents.
~~ this is the perfect mix of low level monsters, evil zhent agents, and ancient treasures.

[mattekure]

Personally, I love Waterdeep. There is always so much going on, its perfect for any level, and can be a great source of quests taking you to anywhere in FR.

[lostsanityreturned]

Ten towns or Amn personally.

I am also a fan of silverymoon and the high moore region if I want something a bit more fantastic.

[TMO]

This is a great question but I suppose it is answered differently based on the type of DM that answers. For instance, while I love the idea of world building, I simply don't have the time to do much more than buy and use published content. This means I tend to start my campaigns in the area that the module is set in. In general, I have enjoyed starting 1st level characters in The Lost Mine of Phandelver (which technically starts in Neverwinter but primarily takes place near Phandalin) and then bridge from this setting into other Sword Coast adventures.

[GavinRuneblade]

I typically take forgotten realms adventures and use them in unrelated campaign worlds. Like right now I'm doing the 5e Tiamat campaign but set in Mystara. That said of every campaign I ever played actually in the forgotten realms, my favorite was using the 2e rules for playing at the height of Netheril. Having PCs try to stop emperor Karsus from casting the spell that doomed his civilization was fun. Plus having good paladins devoted to Shar is a unique opportunity. None of those orders survived and she went further insane as time progressed, but it was actually canon per the 2e material.

[AlchemicalAgent]

Most of mine have started in the Dalelands. My longest-running campaign though (1st - 21st level) started in Sespech along the Golden Road.

I never really got around to the more populated areas unless you count Amn, but even then I stayed away from the Sword Coast Area.

[Notsag]

Neverwinter mostly, thats where i was introduced to tabletop D&D as a youngling ( the first pc game i played was baldur's gate) and i have great memories of it, thats why i try to give my players the same.

[esmdev]

I generally use my own setting but when I do run the Realms I seem to always gravitate to Waterdeep. I like the option to run in the city, the wilderness, the sea and underground and Waterdeep works for all of it. It also helps that I have numerous maps of the city as well.

I also tend to use the pre-Time of Troubles era Realms. I am not a big fan of some of the crazy they did to make 4th edition work in the Realms and then trying to fix it again for 5th. So I figure if I'm going back I might as well go way back.

[Draegan]

I used to be a Waterdeep fan back in early 3.0 but since I am very big fan of Dark Sun I tend to prefer areas with more of a certain theme or flavor going for them.

My favorites are Calimshan, Thay and Aglarond.

[viviolay]

Misread the title so deleted my
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