Hi,

I am fairly new to D&D. I played a couple of Adventure League games and think I have a decent understanding of most of the rules by now. I am currently DM'ing The Lost Mine of Phandelver with a group of friends that also are all new to the game. We all love the area and the world this takes place in.

I started browsing through a couple of available campaigns to see what might be a good fit for the next campaign. This made me realize that, while I do understand the rules now, there is still so much to learn about the worlds of D&D. So I have a couple of questions:

Since the players know the area around Phandelver now, which campaigns are there that take place roughly in that area, at least partially? We will probably start new characters but it would be fun if, at some point during the plot, Phandelver or Neverwinter would be mentioned. Is there a map that visualized the area each campaign takes place in? I think that would be super handy.

Also I would like to read more about how all the campaign settings belong together. I am still confused by the different planes and what is considered to be part of the forgotten realm and what isn't. Also there seem to be different timeframes in which adventures take place. Is there a book that explains the history of the forgotten realms and what happened over time?

One question I have, for example: Decent into Avernus seems to start in Baldur's Gate but then continues in different planes. Do all these planes belong to The Forgotten Realm? If so, what's the 'default' plane called where Neverwinter and the other cities are?

Sorry for all the noob questions. I am not necessarily looking for answers to all these questions here but rather for some good reading material that lets me dive deep into all of this.

—Michael

The Essentials Kit, Dragon of Icepeak and other stuff from it is in the same area and take place around at the same time. The Aquisitions Incorporated 2nd Chapter takes place in Phandalin. I don't know of any preset campaigns that take place in Neverwinter, but I used the original campaign from Neverwinter Nights 2 to create one, since several game guides work almost as good as a preset campaigns. You can find a complete map of The Sword Coast on the Dungeons & Dragons website.

The preset Adventures are mostly set in the Forgotten Realms setting, in the Material Plane (this is the answer to your Plane question), on the Planet of Toril, on the Continent of Faerun, in the area known as The Sword Coast. The past of Toril is long and complicated (at least a hundred books, no I'm not kidding) and there is no easy way to know everything. Looking up on a Forgotten Realms wiki is your quickest way of learning. The major events you'll want to look up are the Times of Trouble and the Spell Plague, also look up summaries for the games of Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate, and their sequels. Note all of these are locations in the Sword Coast, the larger world exists, but most campaigns stay in the Sword Coast. You might also want to check out the books by R. A. Salvatore.

Other settings don't usually intersect with eachother, and almost never officially. Eberron, which is coming out soon, is vastly different from Forgotten Realms in tone and world design.

Great, thank you so much for the detailed answer! Sounds like I have some reading to do! :)

If you want to get into the lore of DnD, I'd highly recommend the videos by AJ Picket on YouTube. He does videos mostly on the lore behind monsters and villains of the DnD multiverse, but there's a few on the heroes too. Of course, one has to keep in mind that he is piecing together lore from multiple sources, so it might not be completely accurate to what Wizards of the Coast has in mind for DnD lore.

Thanks. I subscribed to their channel and will check it out!