So I'm running a sandbox game set in Neverwinter...

LeStew · Mar 25, 2013

What do I need to know?

I have ZERO knowledge of the Realms. I don't know who Elminster or Drizzt or whomever might be. I don't know what the spell plague is or how it affects the world. I am running this in 4e, and understand the Realms have undergone a change (Spell Plague I presume) in this edition. I also know that there is about a million years of back story that could be applied to any game set in the realms. And, while I understand the game is ultimately mine, I want to respect Ed Greewood's vision and intent.

I have the Neverwinter 4e book, the FR Campaign Setting/Player's Guide and a 2 hour each way commute. I can read and research stuff. Just point me int the direction of the stuff to read.

Here is my biggest question.

How important is the past/history of the Realms to the current plight of the citizens of Neverwinter?

Thanks guys! Y'all are awesome and can't wait for some awesome replies!

Scrivener of Doom · Mar 25, 2013

I'm doing the same right now.

Everything you need to know is in the Neverwinter Campaign Setting and the other two books you have.

My advice? Just stick to the 4E material for now and don't worry about the in-depth history of the location... unless/until you're scratching your head for adventure hooks. Personally, I find some of the best ideas by reading the older stuff (easy to find online) and focussing on specific locations.

If you want to see some of my ideas go here http://my-realms.blogspot.com/ and use the "Neverwinter" tag or here http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/neverwinter-year-ageless-one.

As for Elminster, he plays no role in this area. Drizzt did (past tense) according to the (execrable) Salvatore novels but he is easily ignored and, in reality, has no effect on the current timeline in Neverwinter (which means you don't even have to ignore him).

In response to your specific question, I would answer that what affects Neverwinter now is almost completely described in the Neverwinter Campaign Setting and, if you really want to know more, you can read Salvatore's books that form the backstory - Gauntlgrym is the first. Personally, I don't like his writing style - or even his choice of characters or organisations - so I just read the summaries of the books off Wikipedia.

The TL; DR version is this: the Thayans caused a volcano to blow up almost destroying Neverwinter and now it is being rebuilt with several factions competing for the (former) ruins.

Make sure you do read the character themes in the NCS book as they provide a lot of detail in disgestible chunks. And may I also strongly recommend that your PCs also read the themes and choose one for each of their characters.

Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Evilhalfling · Mar 25, 2013

Drizzt can be found in sometimes be found in castle neverwinter. Leave him out.

I ran a city campaign based on Neverwinter. It was in my own world. I changed some of the NPCs, downplayed the spell plague. The spell plague is heavily involved in the setting, it might help to know more about it than is presented. If you have a 4e FR setting guide read up on it.

I second that the FR background was either explained well or unimportant. Read the neverwinter book thoroughly, it has lots of fun details and sub-plots. You can ignore the shadowfell stuff until your PCs get to the higher levels.

So I'm running a sandbox game set in Neverwinter...

LeStew

Explorer

Scrivener of Doom

Adventurer

Evilhalfling

Adventurer

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