I was wondering what books include the info needed to run various cities on the sword coast. They give general information in some books but they don't give the info for major city landmarks various important npcs for certain cities including ones that show up in the background a lot. I don't know of a book that includes most of neverwinter, or luskan. Is there like a list of where to read for roleplay in various cities in Faerun in official material? for now I am looking for neverwinter in particular, but having an overall list would be nice.
For things not on this list (I could have missed some), you’re gonna want to check the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, which wonky give you as detailed a breakdown as these individual books, but is the closest thing for a lot of these Faerûn cities in 5e, including the most info you’re going to find on Neverwinter.
If you need more and still want it 1st party, you may have to go to some older editions for it.
For the city of Neverwinter you can look at The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide and Chapter 3 of Storm King's Thunder (there is a surprising amount of information in this adventure book about the cities and locations of the north)
and in both cases you aren't provided with elements of the city beyond general description and who leads the city.
Acquisitions Incorporated has a few encounters in Neverwinter but no map
Storm Kings thunder has pieces of relevant history but very little in concrete guidance on the city
The essential kit reference neverwinter but all focus on leilon. once they have you go to neverwinter to talk to Neverember but they do not expect you to explore the city at all.
Lost mines of phandelver makes you pass right by it to go to ruins of thundertree
Hoard of the dragon queen and rise of Tiamat only mention it in passing
The best sources I can find are a few video games and the d and d wiki.
They’re quite good about citing their sources and page references. Most of the info is pre-5e, cause there hasn’t been much in terms of just setting book for the FR in this edition. More like campaigns, with details about the are they’re set in.
I'll say the wiki has done a pretty decent job brining a lot of locations up to speed if they were specifically discussed in 5e.
Neverwinter strikes me as location that is constantly changing because of the games moreso than TTRPG, so I think that grants DMs a lot of license in shaping it as they see fit. Luskan to a lesser extent but really you got a the Arcane Brotherhood sort of reaching to the sky in the center of town and then a fishing/trading/pirating city built around it. There's lot of info on Luskan open source that should make a DM very comfortable despite it's sorta non traditional form of governance (and then the non traditional form of leadership behind one of the governing ships).
BG: DitA has an excellent city guide. Multiple whole campaigns can be built out of the write up in the gazetteer or appendix or whatever it's called. I think it's probably the best city write up in 5e in my opinion, maybe in D&D in terms of thoroughness and "DM enabling" (Waterdeep receives a lot more ink but I feel PCs, especially beginning PCs are basically taken for a ride through all that cities intricacies, whereas Baldur's Gate has a relatively simple structure and frankly more opportunity for characters to rise in power or prestige.
BG: DitA also gives you a good look at Elturel. I mean it's a wreck as presented in a fold out map, but you can see how it was put together and I think a "before descent" version of that map could be readily made through traceover/photoshopped. The history of Elturgaard and Elturel is also a ready made multi-generational or super longevity campaign if you start with the events that led to the Hellriders getting their name to the fall of Elturel.
But seconding the forgotten realms wiki, it's at minimum a good place to start and if you find something you really gravitate to and want more, the articles' "primary sources" can be found on DMs Guild from editions where more lore/setting works were put out there.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I was wondering what books include the info needed to run various cities on the sword coast. They give general information in some books but they don't give the info for major city landmarks various important npcs for certain cities including ones that show up in the background a lot. I don't know of a book that includes most of neverwinter, or luskan. Is there like a list of where to read for roleplay in various cities in Faerun in official material? for now I am looking for neverwinter in particular, but having an overall list would be nice.
I was wondering what books include the info needed to run various cities on the sword coast. They give general information in some books but they don't give the info for major city landmarks various important npcs for certain cities including ones that show up in the background a lot. I don't know of a book that includes most of neverwinter, or luskan. Is there like a list of where to read for roleplay in various cities in Faerun in official material? for now I am looking for neverwinter in particular, but having an overall list would be nice.
Lost Mine of Phandelver/Dragon of Icespire Peak: Phandalin
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist: Waterdeep
Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus: Baldur’s Gate
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden: Ten Towns
Princes of the Apocalypse: Red Larch
Sleeping Dragon’s Wake/Storm Lord’s Wrath/Divine Contention: Leilon
Tomb of Annihilation: Port Nyanzaru
Out of the Abyss: Menzoberranzan
Candlekeep Mysteries: Candlekeep
For things not on this list (I could have missed some), you’re gonna want to check the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, which wonky give you as detailed a breakdown as these individual books, but is the closest thing for a lot of these Faerûn cities in 5e, including the most info you’re going to find on Neverwinter.
If you need more and still want it 1st party, you may have to go to some older editions for it.
For the city of Neverwinter you can look at The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide and Chapter 3 of Storm King's Thunder (there is a surprising amount of information in this adventure book about the cities and locations of the north)
and in both cases you aren't provided with elements of the city beyond general description and who leads the city.
Acquisitions Incorporated has a few encounters in Neverwinter but no map
Storm Kings thunder has pieces of relevant history but very little in concrete guidance on the city
The essential kit reference neverwinter but all focus on leilon. once they have you go to neverwinter to talk to Neverember but they do not expect you to explore the city at all.
Lost mines of phandelver makes you pass right by it to go to ruins of thundertree
Hoard of the dragon queen and rise of Tiamat only mention it in passing
The best sources I can find are a few video games and the d and d wiki.
Have you looked at the forgotten realms wiki?
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Portal:Geography
They’re quite good about citing their sources and page references. Most of the info is pre-5e, cause there hasn’t been much in terms of just setting book for the FR in this edition. More like campaigns, with details about the are they’re set in.
I'll say the wiki has done a pretty decent job brining a lot of locations up to speed if they were specifically discussed in 5e.
Neverwinter strikes me as location that is constantly changing because of the games moreso than TTRPG, so I think that grants DMs a lot of license in shaping it as they see fit. Luskan to a lesser extent but really you got a the Arcane Brotherhood sort of reaching to the sky in the center of town and then a fishing/trading/pirating city built around it. There's lot of info on Luskan open source that should make a DM very comfortable despite it's sorta non traditional form of governance (and then the non traditional form of leadership behind one of the governing ships).
BG: DitA has an excellent city guide. Multiple whole campaigns can be built out of the write up in the gazetteer or appendix or whatever it's called. I think it's probably the best city write up in 5e in my opinion, maybe in D&D in terms of thoroughness and "DM enabling" (Waterdeep receives a lot more ink but I feel PCs, especially beginning PCs are basically taken for a ride through all that cities intricacies, whereas Baldur's Gate has a relatively simple structure and frankly more opportunity for characters to rise in power or prestige.
BG: DitA also gives you a good look at Elturel. I mean it's a wreck as presented in a fold out map, but you can see how it was put together and I think a "before descent" version of that map could be readily made through traceover/photoshopped. The history of Elturgaard and Elturel is also a ready made multi-generational or super longevity campaign if you start with the events that led to the Hellriders getting their name to the fall of Elturel.
But seconding the forgotten realms wiki, it's at minimum a good place to start and if you find something you really gravitate to and want more, the articles' "primary sources" can be found on DMs Guild from editions where more lore/setting works were put out there.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
If you can't find what you need on the website https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Neverwinter
there are sages who live on http://forum.candlekeep.com that could answer any question you could think of
I also found this https://www.dmsguild.com/product/342395/New-Neverwinter