D&D 5E Waterdeep Campaign - How to use the Setting in 5e?

[plancktum]

Hi,

I'm about to start a Campaign in and around Waterdeep.
Now I've heard that the 3rd Edition Guide Waterdeep: City of Splendors is a good choice as a source of information about Waterdeep.
This would be no problem if im planning to play at the time which is described in the setting book, but I want to play at the time of the actual campaigns.
In a few months the new Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide will be released and I'm sure there will be some changes compared to the 3rd Edition Setting Guide.

My problem is how to handle this.
I've got the following ideas to solve this problem:

1) One idea was to just start at the time of the 3rd edition setting book and as soon as the Adventurer's Guide is out, let the PCs experience some kind of "time travel" (a cave where the time runs slower, they all die and are resurrected 100years later, ...).
For me this sounds like a fun idea, but I'm not sure wether my players will like it. NPCs have died over this time, the city changed, ...
Maybe one could improve this by letting the first setting play in the actual year (1491DR?) and in the first session let them encounter some time travel, dream, ... where they are trying to get to their real time.

2) Just ignoring this problem and letting much things undefined until the Adventurer's Guide is out. Well, I'm not sure how much will change, but If the changes are minimal this could work. Otherwise this will lead to some very absurd situations. Also problematic: One of Player's is the kind of Player who loves to read material about the world and the setting. If I give him now the 3rd Edition books and later on change too much stuff... Yeah, he will not like it I guess.

3) Maybe there are enough information about the change (remember: I have no Idea about Waterdeep at the moment! I do not know the FR Timeline. the only thing I know is that 4e was quite different, but 5e should be a little more back to the roots.) to 5th edition
[sblock]
Lord Neverember is replaced by Lady Laeral Silverhand as open Lord of Waterdeep
[/sblock]
that the transition is quite easy?

So... Do any of you have good ideas what I should do? Waiting for the Adventurer's Guide is no option as we want to start playing next month.

best regards

 

[Prism]

I would definitely go with option 2 as like you said for option 1 all of the contacts like shopkeepers, bar staff, guild people that they meet will be dead if you advance the timeline 100 years only a few sessions in. We wound down all of our campaigns between 3e and 4e except for one where the characters were powerful enough to survive the 100 years.

I doubt you will find much change in general terms between the two eras. There will probably be minimal information about Waterdeep in the Adventurers Guide due to the amount of other material in the book. Usually an overview would describe the important characters in the city in the new era so I would try and avoid mention of those before the book is out. Keep the NPCs low key so there will be no conflicts in information you hand out. I wouldn't use the NPCs you find in City of Splendors but use some of your own for the time being. We adventured in Waterdeep for years but never worried about the high level players, until we ourselves were higher level.

For comparison, I am running a campaign in Amn using the 2e source, changing NPC names but using the same maps and building names for the most part. Works well

 

[epithet]

I think I would probably run this campaign in the 3e timeline, then the next one in the timeline of the Sword Coast Adventures hardcover. I would make sure that the next adventure had several callbacks to the first one, with a painting of the first party hanging on the wall of the tavern they frequented, a street named after one of the original party (known for being a place to get something illegal or unsavory... the neighborhood's really gone downhill.) A statue covered in bird droppings could, after a heavy rain, be revealed as another member of the original party.

A minstrel could sing a stirring ballad about the forbidden love between a LG member of the last party and the CE archvillain of the last adventure. The player of that character will react with indignation, at which point you reply "[Current Character Name] doesn't know that it's untrue..."

 

[plancktum]

I think I would probably run this campaign in the 3e timeline, then the next one in the timeline of the Sword Coast Adventures hardcover. I would make sure that the next adventure had several callbacks to the first one, with a painting of the first party hanging on the wall of the tavern they frequented, a street named after one of the original party (known for being a place to get something illegal or unsavory... the neighborhood's really gone downhill.) A statue covered in bird droppings could, after a heavy rain, be revealed as another member of the original party.

A minstrel could sing a stirring ballad about the forbidden love between a LG member of the last party and the CE archvillain of the last adventure. The player of that character will react with indignation, at which point you reply "[Current Character Name] doesn't know that it's untrue..."

I like the idea, and under different circumstances I would do it this way, but
1. As we are starting mid/end September this will be just a month until the Sword Coast Guide
2. It is very unlikely that we will play a second campaign in this setting
3. My Player's really want to use the content of the Adventurer's Guide when it's out. Mainly if they need to build new characters, but a few players really want to read to world information, as this is an important part of the game for them.

So, generally a good idea, but at the moment not suitable for my group.

 

[JeffB]

Run some one-shots until the book is out?

If you just need some maps/places and general vibe, pick up the pdf of FR1 over at dndclassics (frankly, I think it's the best Waterdeep product there is having owned the 3E book and the 2E box, but I am minimalist when it comes to setting material)

If the new book is going to be a centerpiece of your new campaign, it makes no sense to start early using another book, then shoehorn the new one in..

 

[GlassJaw]

See if you can find the 2E City of Splendors boxed set on ebay. I'm a sucker for maps and huge boxed sets, and CoS is one of the best.

 

[plancktum]

Run some one-shots until the book is out?
If the new book is going to be a centerpiece of your new campaign, it makes no sense to start early using another book, then shoehorn the new one in..

No, the new Book will not be a centerpiece, but I do not want to introduce something from the 3e Book which gets then changed completely with the Sword Coast Guide.

So, I think I will keep things are little vague until I know what changed.

And would you agree with me, that I can simply ignore 4th Edition in regards of information about Waterdeep?

 

[JeffB]

And would you agree with me, that I can simply ignore 4th Edition in regards of information about Waterdeep?

I have the 4E DM book, but I don't follow Realms canon (meaning I do not let it dictate my game, nor do I care about what is "official" to begin with when it comes to novels, videogames, metaplots, and adventures- i.e. I don't buy or use any of it).

I have not kept up enough to know from memory how Waterdeep was affected during the Spellplague, and subsequent changes during the Sundering. So I'm not the person to ask. Maybe someone who reads the novels can chime in, if that's a concern for you.

 

[Fishing_Minigame]

I'm probably in a pretty good position to help, because I did exactly this with my campaign I started last year I haven't run any of the 5e storylines, but I have read through them previously and tried to reconcile them anyway in case I decide to run parts of them later on.

I've been using both the 2e box set and City of Splendors. What I decided to do was was set my timeline in the 1380s pre-spellplague, so that way I could stick any major conflicting events in between 1373 and my time-skip.

Its hard to say what will be in the Sword Coast book at this point, but in the 4e FR campaign guide, Waterdeep was mostly unchanged, if down on its luck. Most of the noble families have apparently gone broke and some have sold their titles, but the basic structure of the city is the same (they detail this in a sidebar) and a lot of the same buildings are still mentioned. The giant underground dungeon of Undermountain is still there, but Skullport is abandoned. The thing you really need to worry about is the city of Neverwinter. It was destroyed in a volcanic eruption in 1451. This lead to the creation of the Field Ward just outside the walls of Waterdeep, which is full of refugees, and Dagult Neverember is serving as both the open lord of Waterdeep and the ruler of Neverwinter prior to the events of Tyranny of Dragons. Neverwinter gets mentioned in the Lost Mines of Phandelver and probably eisewhere.

Piergeiron Paladinson is the open lord in the 3e era, but because the other rulers of the city are all masked you pretty much have free reign to replace them as needed. Laeral Silverhand is seemingly immortal, so she is present in both eras. Her husband, Khelben Arunsun is a pretty important NPC pre-spellplague, but is dead in 1491. They ran a wizards academy together named Blackstaff Tower, which someone else is in charge of at this point.

My quick list of recommended changes is as follows:
*Establish Neverwinter as destroyed (or maybe wreck it during the course of your campaign!) the 4e Neverwinter campaign book is a good resource for this.
*Replace Piergeiron with Neverember, or else establish him as as an important NPC
*Read through Rise of Tiamat and grab any other NPCs you need. In particular, if you plan to use the 5e factions I would use the faction leader NPCs and establish them in your game.

If I need to elaborate on anything, let me know.

 

[Jester David]

Waterdeep was barely touched by the Spellplague and thus unaffected by the Sundering. Any 1e or 2e resources should all be fine. The names of a few NPCs have likely change and the elves and dwarves are older. And a few of the masked lords have changed.