Rate the Neverwinter Campaign Guide

[S'mon]

I got ripped off by amazon.co.uk and my own greedy desire - they had it 8-10 days before the release date, at over £27+ - "Only 5 left in stock!". I ordered it. I expected it to be a big box set full of stuff, not a slim hardback! And £27+ is more than the actual RRP! What's worse I was in my FLGS Leisure Games a few days later and they had it for £23 or so. Damn. Amazon are now selling it for several £ less, too.

On substance - it has no intro adventure. It has almost no maps, including no location for Gauntlgrym, and no map for the stuff over in Thay. It's extremely 'woolly', it reads more like a writers bible or introduction to the city than an actual detailed city. The factions are ok, though their leaders are statted so weak, many are weaker than their own typical underlings out of the MV, MM etc, like the orc chief who's a 6th level standard monster. I like Heroic Tier, but in terms of credibility they statted the BBEGs about 4 levels too low, and they should be Elite.

I don't think I've ever had such high expectations for a 4e product. The fluff is certainly very fluffy. But there is no meat to this product.

 

[GameDoc]

This was the kind of book I needed as a DM, but YMMV (and it seems it does from some of the posts above).

I have a full time job and family and outside of D&D Encounters, I get one Saturday night every other week to play D&D, and not a lot of time in between to plan. For whatever reason the encounter building in 4e is easy for me. I can practically do it on the fly, and I also don't use a lot of combat encounters. In a 5 hour session, I might throw in two combat encounters and the rest is role-playing and skill usage.

This book gave me a good sandbox setting with enough of the locations and NPCs named and described that I can narrate most of the session and then bring out the grid and miniatures when combat or dungeon delving becomes necessary. It seems to lend itself to a roleplay heavy, combat light game. When I read it, it really reminded me of A Game of Thrones (which is a good thing).

The only thing I would have liked would have been maps of the larger potential "dungeons" - Gauntlgrym, the Dread Ring, and Kolthunral - so I don't have to map them myself. I do want to toss a good dungeon delve in every so often. I think that's a fine premise for a series of Dungeon articles.

At any rate, this is the first campaign setting product for 4e that has inspired me to use it as the actual setting, not just pilfer character building options and items to include in a homebrew.

I am retooling a bit of the plot from both Gates of Neverdeath and Lost Crown of Neverwinter for my home group (no worries, won't do this until the current season of Encounters concludes) with the idea of leading them into further conflict with the Dead Rats and Thayans as the next arc following the resolution of Lost Crown.

 

[Pour]

You convinced me. Picking this up along with the Nentir Vale MV next pay check.

 

[Obryn]

My Amazon review

(Capsule summary: I don't much care for the Realms, but I would run a Realms game with this book; I think it's pretty stellar.)

-O

 

[Evilhalfling]

The writers stole my concept!

so im going to steal there ideas back

My current campaign is wrapping up and for the next game I was thinking about a post-apocalyptic city campaign. A Once great city ruined by war, with the PCs struggling to survive and make names for themselves...

I was laying this out to a player and he says "oh that reminds me" and hands me his copy of the setting.

its a once great ruined city, struggling to recover - slime caverns, a floating tower, gangs, inefficient government ruling only a few blocks, even the layout with a city divided by a river on a deep-water harbor.
spelled out to more depth and detail then I tend to create.

Bother. Im gonna need my own copy.
A few tweaks here and there, more devils / less shadows, and a Dragonborn Clan as the weak government class. and it will fit perfectly into my homebrew world.

 

[Kzach]

On substance - it has no intro adventure. It has almost no maps, including no location for Gauntlgrym, and no map for the stuff over in Thay. It's extremely 'woolly', it reads more like a writers bible or introduction to the city than an actual detailed city. The factions are ok, though their leaders are statted so weak, many are weaker than their own typical underlings out of the MV, MM etc, like the orc chief who's a 6th level standard monster. I like Heroic Tier, but in terms of credibility they statted the BBEGs about 4 levels too low, and they should be Elite.

Hmm, none of this I have any problem with. I've never held to the concept that the BBEG has to be the boss encounter. I remember running one game where the BBEG was a 2 HD orc reflavoured to a human and we were playing as 7-9th-level characters. He was a bishop in a church that was engaging in illegal slave trade, mostly with children kidnapped off the streets, and had very little power other than what he had from his position in the church. The players actually loved it 'cause I made him a right bastard so when they finally got through his guards and protections, they had a great time being able to scare him into submission with a few growls, some menacing glares, a few choice words and the promise of imminent death should he try to get away

I tend to make my evil guys really evil

Besides which, I'm sure they'll end up in the Monster Builder which just requires a few tweaks to bump them up to elites or solos if that's what I feel they need.

As for not having an adventure or maps, again that's something I don't have a problem with and in fact, prefer. It hearkens back to the golden days (IMO, YMMV) of Greyhawk and even Forgotten Realms where so many great supplements came out that were chockers with content ripe for the picking.

EDIT: I should point out that even though there's only been 32 votes that the overwhelming majority have said it's an above average book. And when taking all votes into account, then 91% are saying it's worth buying. That's a pretty darn solid recommendation!

 

[Vael]

I do have one major beef with the book ... subraces. That was something I found annoying in 3.5, and thought 4e would stay (mostly) clear of it.

As for the book, I haven't picked it up, and leaning towards not bothering. As much as it'd help me run this season of Encounters, it's not a campaign setting that really speaks to me, we're not really running a lot of heroic tier stuff in our home games.

The player-specific stuff, to me, is lacking. The warpriest domains and themes are a little too campaign specific. The Bladesinger, while an interesting class, isn't enough right now to justify the purchase of the book, when I just got back into DDI.

 

[Kzach]

I do have one major beef with the book ... subraces. That was something I found annoying in 3.5, and thought 4e would stay (mostly) clear of it.

That's actually one of the reasons why I posted this in the first place; because I saw the subraces in the Character Builder and liked the options.

As for the book, I haven't picked it up, and leaning towards not bothering.

Dude... voting is supposed to be for people who've bought the book. Sigh.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I liked it, actually. It's very, very fluff-tastic, and I can deal w/o much player stuff in it, even being a player. I think it's a very good setting to use for a party.

I'd like something higher-level, though; seriously, I'm so tired of starting out at first level, we never get to see serious epic stuff. But that's the usual rant.

Brad

 

[Dice4Hire]

The player-specific stuff, to me, is lacking. The warpriest domains and themes are a little too campaign specific. The Bladesinger, while an interesting class, isn't enough right now to justify the purchase of the book, when I just got back into DDI.

It is really not a player specific book.

The subraces, to me are mostly a waste of time, and easy enough to ignore.

THe bladesinger is ok, though I need to try it out in more detail..... sometime. But I can skip it wasily enough also.

As for the themes, most of them are good, and heavily tied into the book. Looking at them again, all of them can be sued pretty easily elsewhere, in other worlds. At least that is my opinion.