D&D 5E [FR] Mount Hotenow, Thundertree, and Neverwinter

[Thaumaturge]

I wonder what his perspective is? Anyway, it's not just crappy names for dwarves: he generally sucks at names for places and characters as I was reminded of afresh last week when I started looking at what material had been published for Icewind Dale....

My sense is that he thought Dagnabbit was a funny and appropriate name for a dwarf. When TSR gave him a hard time, he made it a goal to sneak ridiculous names past his editor. He told his editor at the time that Pikel was pronounced "pike-el". The editor bought it. And here we are with a green-haired dwarf named pickle.

Naming things is my least favorite part of my own writing. It's surprisingly hard to name things in ways that don't sound ridiculous and sound like they are all from the same (or different) place.

But, yeah, he's a bestselling author, so there's that.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

My sense is that he thought Dagnabbit was a funny and appropriate name for a dwarf. When TSR gave him a hard time, he made it a goal to sneak ridiculous names past his editor. He told his editor at the time that Pikel was pronounced "pike-el". The editor bought it. And here we are with a green-haired dwarf named pickle.

Naming things is my least favorite part of my own writing. It's surprisingly hard to name things in ways that don't sound ridiculous and sound like they are all from the same (or different) place.

But, yeah, he's a bestselling author, so there's that.

Thaumaturge.

Unbelievable. That is a perfect example of how not to show respect for the underlying IP.

While I don't enjoy Ed's fiction, his names are infinitely superior to RAS's. So, yeah, coming up with names is hard... but that's why I have a list of 4,000+ names by Ed I can steal for any of my FR games.

 

[dagger]

Honestly I am going to keep using the original AD&D grey box with some stuff from 2e. I use a lot of the time line up through 3.5 but after that its wide open since in my FR 4e never happened.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Thanks. I'm just catching up with the session reports which seem to take on a life of their own!

There are a few more. Actually, Starmetal Hills is already covered in my campaign notes - a devil-haunted ruined dwarven temple of Marthammor - and I think I also have to do Sword Mountains (roughly half done), Kryptgarden, Mount Hotenow (also covered by my existing notes), The Crags (ditto), and a few other places. I'm actually thinking of a series of posts based on Neverwinter-as-sandbox because I do have tonnes of notes which didn't actually get used in the campaign. And a couple of posts a week is a great stress reliever...

Hey, we can't having you getting stressed out, so get typing

I already found posts on your blog about Hotenow, Sword Mountains and others (from your Neverwinter regional suroundings post), but I guess this is all new?

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Hey, we can't having you getting stressed out, so get typing

I already found posts on your blog about Hotenow, Sword Mountains and others (from your Neverwinter regional suroundings post), but I guess this is all new?

Hehe. I've been offline for a couple of days enjoying real life things like my beloved bride's birthday and a couple of very long bike rides.

And, yes, Starmetal Hills is essentially new but based on ideas from, inter alia, 2E's Demihuman Deities and 3.5E's Champions of Ruin.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Wow, major update to your blog, Scrivener! Hadn't seen any updates since Sep. 2nd (looks like my browser wouldn't refresh or something).

Really looking forward to reading seven sandbox entries

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Wow, major update to your blog, Scrivener! Hadn't seen any updates since Sep. 2nd (looks like my browser wouldn't refresh or something).

Really looking forward to reading seven sandbox entries

Someone noticed?

I had a couple of days without internet - hooray for the third world and all the corruption and incompetence that goes with it! - and decided that it was the perfect time to put a dent in the remaining entries. Now I have only three more to go.

BTW, I need to edit the posts quite a bit - Blogger has done its usual trick of applying random formatting - but my connection was so bad last night all I could do was post. I'll put the hot links and some art into the posts over the course of today. After all, the rain is so heavy I am not going anywhere....

And thanks for the encouragement.

BTW, if anyone is just joining this thread and wondering what we are talking about, I post some ideas on my blog for expanding the encounters and whatnot in the various locations on the regional map that comes with Lost Mine of Phandelver. Click <here> for the table of contents which links to the individual entries.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I just want to concur that Scrivener's additional encounter details are superb. I didn't yet buy the Starter Set (since my players are all experienced enough that we're going straight to the PH)... but the stuff Scrivener is adding keeps making me think I should pick it up anyway just for the adventure and Scriv's extra detailing.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Almost 3 months without an update, Scrivener? Hope everything's ok.

 

[Nebulous]

What caused it? Yet another horrible R A Salvatore novel.

Basically, some RAS characters stirred up a primordial bound and lumbering beneath the lost city of Gauntlgrym and this caused Mt Hotenow to erupt. Neverwinter was struck by an earthquake, flaming debris, and tonnes of ash and volcanic detritus. (The Blacklake of Blacklake District is filled with this sort of muck and rubbish.) If you have a look at a map of the city of the Neverwinter, you will see a massive chasm that opened up as a result of the earthquake.

The YouTube videos for the Neverwinter MMORPG summarise this information to save you from having to read anything by RAS. I actually showed a couple of them at the beginning of my Neverwinter campaign to give my players a sense of what had happened.

As your questions indicate, not a lot of thought was put into this which is one of the hallmarks of RAS's work. Thundertree was struck by something magical as well and that created the ash zombies which are mentioned both in Lost Mine of Phandelver and the Neverwinter Campaign Setting.

Huh. Didn't know all of that. I quit reading RAS years ago, it got far too repetitive, although i'm glad the man can have a career doing what he loves doing! (we all want that). Anyway, I'm running Lost Mine and i knew a volcano had erupted and destroyed Thundertree (or at least poison gas and ash drove everyone away) but i didn't know it messed up Neverwinter too.

I'm one of those DMs who like the Forgotten Realms, the names and the maps and bits of lore, but i don't give a damn what the official canon is and i've never followed it.