Can't get your Forgotten Realms players to the Feywild? The new Dungeon Master Expansion brings the Feywild to Forgotten Realms instead

The new Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun Dungeon Master Expansion finally sends D&D 5th Edition's (5e) map beyond the Sword Coast. For too long, too many adventures clung too tightly to the thousand-mile coastline between Baldur's Gate in the south, and Icewind Dale in the north. 

But no more. As only one example, the surprisingly large archipelago called the Moonshae Isles is finally part of the Forgotten Realms' growth. At least as far as D&D 5e is concerned. According to a recent blog on D&D Beyond:

The Moonshae Isles are where wild magic, ancient tradition, and the Feywild all collide into a mix of unpredictable adventure.

I'd even throw swashbuckling high fantasy into the mix, giving the fairytale land a distinctly Peter Pan and the Lost Boys flair. Not to mention the writers at Wizards of the Coast have decided the place needs a catalyst for adventure in the Moonshae—just so it's not all rainbows and pixies when you arrive. What they've added is a curse called the Rusting.

Heck yeah.

At less than a week's distance by boat, you're one easy travel montage away from the tired old Sword Coast to a land of fresh, new adventure. 

According to the full-page spread of artwork kicking off the Moonshae Isles in the Adventures in Faerun book, the place looks like Moana windsurfing on the edge of a waterfall, with Jack and the Beanstalk tree growths carrying Disney castles up into the sky. It's lovely.

Until you see the Rusting take over a Basking Shark and you're all like, Siiiick, and then you spot Rusting Pirate ships sitting low in the water like crocodiles flaking away. So, now your Dungeon Master has got a reason to take you there—a purpose for adventure. The Moonshae is no longer just, Oh look, a faerie dragon with butterfly wings, that's cute. 

You now have a bona fide eco-adventure on your hands, leading the peoples of Fern Gully against Captain Hook on his rust bucket. Or something like that. The Moonshae Isles section in the Adventures in Faerun book comes with several of those adventure outlines that give you a page or half-a-page of adventure ideas.

By the way, those short adventure ideas aren't bad. I can flip through D&D books' usual random tables all day and not really narrow things down to something useful. But these little half-pagers cobble together a hook, some encounters, some monsters, and an attainable goal. 

The Moonshae Isles section alone has half-page adventures for DMs that go something like:

• The Rushdown Well (a location-based level 3 adventure) where you save a Moonwell from the Rusting.
• Message in a Bottle (level 4 adventure) where you win a castle from a fey queen.
• Wreck of the Silverhand (level 6 adventure) where you recover a famous treasure from a sunken ship.
• The Treaty of Ostoria (level 8 adventure) where you win the friendship of a fire giant king.

These half-page adventures are a full-court-press away from 5e's previous campaign-length adventure books. Those things can take a year or two. Or three. It all depends on how long, hard, and consistent your group is when meting out D&D "sessions." 

But what are those one-, two-, and three-year campaigns but a series of (basically) half-page adventure prompts with a hook, some encounters, some monsters, and a series of attainable goals? D&D 2024 has simply deconstructed the singular, on-rails, campaign-length adventure and given Dungeon Masters the ability to drag and drop whatever they need into their campaign. 

I like it. Though I haven't been able to try this modular approach yet because I've been running Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen for two years now. When the light finally appears at the end of the tunnel, it might be a time to visit Myth Drannor, a megadungeon in the opposite direction of Moonshae.

The Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun (and Heroes in Faerun player expansion) launched November 11.