War of the Avatars (WA) is set in the Savage Frontier region of the TSR's Forgotten Realms setting. This is a land of fearsome monsters, rampaging humanoid hordes, and battle-hardened humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings.

If you are familiar with the AD&D(R) game, it will be easier to understand how to play War of the Avatars. The creatures you'll meet here will be familiar if you've ever played a fantasy role-playing game. Instead of playing a single character, however, in War of the Avatars you control an entire realm in the Savage Frontier. Thousands of characters and creatures will jump to obey your every whim. It's the sort of thing you could really get used to.

Each player controls communities of various size, armies, magical items, and perhaps even an avatar, the awesome manifestation of an extra-dimensional being on the Prime Material plane.

The game is played on a huge, 50 hexagon by 100 hexagon map--5,000 locations in all! Over 150 different types of units may join your armies as you march across this vast territory, spreading fear and flame among your rivals. Dozens of magical items can be found to further enhance your power.

War of the Avatars is played in turns. One turn takes one month of game time. Each turn, you give orders to your subjects, writing them down on the Order Sheet. After you mail your orders in to RSI, we process your orders (and those of the other players in the game), then we mail the results back to you. The Turn Results Sheets you receive show the effects of all these orders. With the results comes an Order Sheet for you to fill in your orders for the next turn.

Up to 50 players compete in each game, called a campaign. There are many campaigns going on simultaneously, each completely separate from the others.

If you have access to TSR-published material on the AD&D game or on the Forgotten Realms setting, you may find these to be useful references. The communities, inhabitants, magical items, and monsters of the Forgotten Realms setting are found everywhere in War of the Avatars. To get more background information than we can offer here, you may want to look through any Forgotten Realms material you have. Such products as the Forgotten Realms Adventures hardback book, Forgotten Realms boxed sets, Volo's Guide to the North, and FR5--The Savage Frontier can give you a feel for the lands and creatures of the Savage Frontier. The avatar trilogy of books (Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep) also provides information about the Time of Troubles. We want to emphasize that possessing or reading these materials is by no means required to play War of the Avatars. They merely provide more information on the setting in which the campaign occurs.

Now that you've picked up the basics of what War of the Avatars is all about, read on for more details. And once you've mastered the details, who knows? Through skillful diplomacy, magical powers, and military might, you may become Lord of the Savage Frontier!