I've got my hands on the new Neverwinter sourcebook and I'm liking it.
The book + novel and MMORPG tie-in constitute something I'm going to call the Neverwinter treatment.
My question to you is this: if you were in charge of planning at Wizards of the Coast, what location in the Realms should be next to receive the Neverwinter treatment?
Waterdeep?
Baldur's Gate?
Suzail?
The City of Shade?
Someplace else?
And what would you change about the treatment? For example, would you prefer there be a two book release? I.e. a Campaign Guide to Baldur's Gate and a separate Player's Guide to Baldur's Gate?
For the MMO, would you want it linked to Neverwinter or kept as a stand alone?
Who would you want as author(s) for the novel tie-ins?
Enquiring minds want to know.
EDIT: clarified question
Baldur's Gate also has ties to a certain selection of computer and video games that many people remember fondly, so should WOTC ever feel like reviving that line, they might be able to cross-promote.
My Vore would be for Waterdeep and Baldur's GAte
I've never experienced Baldur's Gate in regular D&D play as a player or DM and I've not played any of the computer games, so I'd like to have the full suite of novel and sourcebook options to really learn about the place.
The new Neverwinter Campaign Guide is something I find myself very tempted to use in my current Third Edition Realms game and my secret hope is that a future Baldur's Gate Campaign Guide would be just as useful for my game.
For the novels: I've lost track of where Artemis Entreri is at in the Realms as of 1479. That said, I'd sure like to see him end up in Baldur's Gate. I also miss Elaith Craulnobur (pretty sure I spelled that name wrong; apologies) and would love to see a Salvatore/Cunningham crossover.
Alternatively, I think it would be cool to see an "Ed Greenwood Presents: Baldur's Gate" with four novels by current Realms authors. Maybe the first novel sets the scene in Baldur's Gate and is released prior to the Campaign Guide. It hints at some of the cool/unique changes we'll see in the Campaign Guide, which the three subsequent novels will explore but by no means overwrite; need room for the players to be the ones to tip the scales after all.
I don't play MMOs anymore so I've no opinion on them.
I also like the idea of having sourcebooks that feature other areas altogether, like Kara-Tur or Al-Quadim. I belive we're getting some dragon articles on the former, which is cool, but I'd like some fully detailed stuff too.
One of the reasons they gave for changing the Realms so much in 4e was to give writers more room to work with, but thats pure bull
, the Realms is freakin huge and after 30+ years theyve only describbed in detail a very small fraction of it.So yeah, my votes for Theymarsh.
I agree about Baldur's Gate...
They should do DDI articles on Waterdeep. One on each Ward...
Dales articles. One on each Dale...
I'm going to vote "none" as far as the Realms go. I'd rather see this group of designers go off and work on Eberron, and stop borg-ifying the Realms.
After all, Eberron is already a post-apocalyptic world in recovery. Let the Realms lay fallow for a couple years and have the next design team come back and fix the damage that was done. It was well-intentioned, but it needs to stop.
the Realms have already wallowed in the mire for a few years.
Ebersux can get its own design team to go deal with its boredom.... besides, eberron only got a few years time jump so most of its splats are still good to go..
I was going to post about the EBCG was worth the moeny as TP but descided not too
Dales articles. One on each Dale...
They did a great one recently on Daggerdale.
You know what, I’m going to change my recommendation: I want Eveningstar and the Haunted Halls detailed, for the Paragon Level of play.
Give me character backgrounds besides these likely three: Cormyrean Noble, War Wizard and Purple Dragon.
Instead, I want: Shade Expatriate; Merchant of Sembia; Myth Drannan Noble; Dragonborn Wanderer; Disciple of Tymora; Dwarven Reclaimer; Sword Herald Scion; Warmaster of Bane; Traitor of the Eldreth Veluuthra; Thief of Westgate; Zhentarim Mercenary and so on.
Give me plots that include other powers in the Realms other than Netheril, Thay the Aboleths and the Cult of the Dragon.
I want Bane on the rise and I want his servants working feverishly (and effectively) to try and influence Cormyr to both militarize itself against threats real and imagined as well as expand its borders and its area of control, so that Cormyr grows to see itself as an empire, which can only increase Bane’s power. Make the agents of Bane active along Cormyr’s northern border (in the Stonelands especially) as well as its western flank.
I want the Sword Heralds to return to Cormyr, to find, rebuild and make safe their extra dimensional spaces. I want them to try and combat anyone (insert evil bad guys here, though I think a branch of the Order of Blue Flame would work nicely, as well as the Eldreth Veluuthra) that understands the reason Cormyr wasn’t hit hardest by the Spellplague was because the many extra dimensional spaces the Sword Heralds created absorbed Spellplague energies, and that finding and opening the lost portals is the best way to flood Cormyr in Spellplague energy and defeat it once and for all.
The Eldreth Veluuthra shouldn’t be a knot in Cormyr’s side. Instead, the Hullack forest where they reside should be the stepping stone for them to invade the King’s Forrest. Have them set up shop along the forerst's northern boundary and give me plenty of hooks to send my players from Eveningstar into the King's Forest, then onward into the Feywild to drive the human-hating Eladrin off.
Then give me some levels of the Haunted Halls and tell me why dwarves from the Stormhorns, the Thunder Peaks as well as from all over the Realms are appearing in Cormyr to make a claim on the Halls.
Then give me giants. Lots of dwarf-hating giants. Have them in the area to reclaim their many floating castles that have lurked in the skies over the Stormhorns for centuries. Then have them make their claim to the Stonelands and back it up with a willingness to fight for that claim and unleash terrible storms from the mountain peaks if Cormyr refuses. Who knows, maybe the leader of the giants worships Bane?
Give me plots that encourage players to use what's in the Player's Guide to the Realms too.
The Eminence of Araunt should be active in the Haunted Halls and in every grave and mausoleum in Cormyr, trying to recruit shades of past nobles to turn Cormyr into a grand court of the dead; as well in the skies over the Stonelands, seeking to turn the ghosts and old bones of dead giant kings to their side.
Thus Cormyr should be awash in Kelemvor-worshipping Doomguides.
That's a start, at any rate. Hope you'll consider it.
I want Chult for epic! \o/
(or better yet: I want Chult for all tiers)
"In the Jungles of Chult, Dendar is known as the Eater of the World. Legends tell of how Ubtao, Creator of Chult, will battle the Night Serpent when she emerges through a gigantic iron door located beneath one of the Peaks of Flame and attempts to eat the sun. If Ubtao fails in his duty, the stories say Dendar will readily devour the sun and the doom of the world will finally arrive."
It should have:
* stats for Dendar and Ubtao (awesome battle ensues!!)
* wild dwarf and human racial variants
* pterafolk player character race
* Sseth, sarruhks and yuan-ti lore
* a lot of diseases, alternative treasure (spices, exotic plants, et. al.)
* a lot of new abeiran monsters
* political intrigue or open warfare between Port Nyranzaru and Fort Beluarian
* a lot of new abeiran monsters
This!
The idea of Abeiran monsters showing up in Chult got me to wondering about Zakhara.
So far, we have read about whole continents and nations swapped between Faerûn and Abeir, but we haven't seen examples where small patches of land or individual beings/creatures got swapped out.
So I was hoping any book on Chult that included Abeiran monsters would hint that Zakhara still exists, but with vastly different populations and creatures, because every other person swapped with a person in Abeir or something to that effect.
Also, perhaps there are single mountains in the middle of nowhere that did not used to be there. Or patches of desert in the middle of forests, etc...
There was a non-committal, off-handed tweet by one of the designers/devs that mentioned an interest in doing a Campaign Setting Sourcebook for Icewind Dale.
Guilty.
Probably, I would disintegrate a bunny or three to get a berth on that project.
(Ahem!)
Other regions I'd love to see:
Cormyr (heroic): including Sembia, etc. We could call it "Cormyr: A Sourcebook" (hee!)
Dalelands (heroic): All the dales, including Cormanthor
Westgate and the Dragon Coast (heroic/paragon)
Waterdeep (heroic/paragon)
Moonsea (heroic/paragon)
Baldur's Gate (heroic/paragon)
Menzoberranzan (paragon)
Abeir (including Moonshaes and Evermeet)
I think of "all of Faerun" as the right place for an Epic Tier region.
Cheers
I'd also like to see a (maybe smaller publication scale) set for the lands of a given race. Gnomes, for instance. A series of products dedicated to gnomes and other lesser fey peoples and thier homes in the natural world would be delightful.
Although it's an entire continent, I'm still holding out for them releasing a Kara-Tur campaign setting...
I would be happier with Nathlan:
- has the same flavour,
- is new in 4th Ed (AFAIK) so we have next to no info
- its part of the Dragon Coast, so we would get aditional info on several other surrounding areas
- its a lot smaller, so more detail can be given.
Although it's an entire continent, I'm still holding out for them releasing a Kara-Tur campaign setting...
I would be happier with Nathlan:
- has the same flavour,
- is new in 4th Ed (AFAIK) so we have next to no info
- its part of the Dragon Coast, so we would get aditional info on several other surrounding areas
- its a lot smaller, so more detail can be given.
The 'indian-persian' range equivalent who is the pivot of both FR, al-Quadim and Kara-tur. And the mysterious east of Faerun a guy detailed some long ago could work as well.
Those are really not detailed well, forgoten ranges. Could work.