Neverwinter Themes

[Dice4Hire]

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Neverwinter Themes)

I love themes.

The Bregan D’aerthe Spy looks ok. The ability to hover for the whole fight at 5th is pretty strong.

13 themes total, including a harper and a spellscarred. Sure to annoy or delight both FR camps.

They are also including the option to make the theme a background also, a good idea.

Overall, it looks good. Not a DArk-sun level theme, but not bad at all.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeah, I liked the way the background element is thrown in there as an option. That works pretty well and makes things a bit simpler for anyone using these themes.

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

The level 2 power swap is pretty good too, for characters that want to be hidden easily (1/encounter) without being a cunning sneak rogue, thief, or hybrid rogue.

 

[BobTheNob]

I think of themes and backgrounds fill the same "space" in character definition, and merging them into one would be a good idea as far as Im concerned, Anything to reduce the complexity is a good idea.

 

[Kinneus]

So Neverwinter is the new campaign setting, eh? I knew they made some video games about Neverwinter, but that's about all I know about it. Can somebody enlighten me? What makes Neverwinter unique?

I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed. I never got the sense that Neverwinter was anything other than the standard heroic fantasy soup. I prefer campaign settings with a distinct flavor. Dark Sun you can get in a sentence: "It's a dark fantasy, post-apocolyptic desert world." What's Neverwinter's hook?

Edit: I just checked out the Forgotten Realms and Neverwinter Nights wikipedia pages, and Neverwinter Nights was apparently set in Forgotten Realms? So... am I confused, and the Neverwinter games have nothing to do with this new campaign setting? Or is this a Forgotten Realms redux?

 

[SabreCat]

I think the Neverwinter material is to FR what Gloomwrought is to Nentir Vale. A campaign setting within a campaign world.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

So Neverwinter is the new campaign setting, eh? I knew they made some video games about Neverwinter, but that's about all I know about it. Can somebody enlighten me? What makes Neverwinter unique?

I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed. I never got the sense that Neverwinter was anything other than the standard heroic fantasy soup. I prefer campaign settings with a distinct flavor. Dark Sun you can get in a sentence: "It's a dark fantasy, post-apocolyptic desert world." What's Neverwinter's hook?

Edit: I just checked out the Forgotten Realms and Neverwinter Nights wikipedia pages, and Neverwinter Nights was apparently set in Forgotten Realms? So... am I confused, and the Neverwinter games have nothing to do with this new campaign setting? Or is this a Forgotten Realms redux?

Is it even really a setting in the conventional sense? It is an area of FR. Seems more like a different thing, sort of a 'campaign pack' for FR, or what you'd call a supplement. I think they just decided to call it a 'setting' so they could claim to have a setting to release this year when really they don't seem to be doing full up settings anymore. I mean they could call Gloomwrought a 'setting' too by the same logic, and really with more credibility than Neverwinter. Kinda seems like we won't really see actual complete new settings anymore from WotC.

Eh, on the positive side anything they include in Neverwinter can be used with FR in general, which I guess is good for FR fans. For the rest of us it is as useful as any other setting specific material, we can coopt it for our own settings or ignore it as we see fit. Some of these themes could come in handy with a bit of refluffing.

 

[Pour]

It's also tied into Gauntylgrym (sp?), Salvatore's last Drizzt novel that explains Neverwinter's destruction 80 or so years ago by an awakening Primordial, and how it's been rebuilt as more of a frontier town in the north, with remnants of old and new. There's a lot of juicy sandbox stuff to be mined there for Heroic, a crazy lich lady ruling a catacomb sewer system, agents of Thay , the Shades, and obviously Braegan D'aerthe if the book tells true. I guess it's a two-for-one in that it's a focused urban-frontier look into Forgotten Realms (maybe their second crack at it will be a little better received).

Honestly, though, I'm wondering if we already got this with Fallcrest in Nentir. I'm pretty sure I'll buy it for when I do run Heroic stuff again, but right now my mind is on Epic, where both my groups are heading.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I soooo want to buy stuff for 4E, and I sooo do not like hat is coming out.

I am looking at Neverwinter, hoping it is a good sandbox for any city, not just a FR city.

The themes looked good, and I'm anxiously awaiting further sneak peeks.