Reddit reviews Neverwinter Campaign Setting: A 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons Supplement (4th Edition D&D)

Neverwinter is a lot like Waterdeep, Menzoberranzan, and Undermountain in that it is one of the most thoroughly designed, written about places in all of D&D. 4e has an entire 224 page book devoted to it as a campaign setting and the current D&D MMO is set there. There's so much to do there that your heroes could stop, buy a house, and adventure there for the rest of the campaign without stepping foot outside the gates.

I picked up the Neverwinter Campaign earlier this year, and I love it. I've barely scraped the surface of it and I've used it to inspire my encounters for half a year now. It's got tons of Faction info, as well as details on dozens of locations in the city (taverns, dungeons, temples), as well as an Neverwinter Woods and the "lost" Dwarven ruins of Gauntlgrym.

The book is just fantastic for giving you a foundation out of which you can build your own campaign. It gives you kind of a freeze-frame picture of current events, and allows you and your PCs to determine where the city and the surrounding area go from there. It's awesome, and you should definitely give it a look-through if you live near any hobby shops that might carry it.

http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Realms-Campaign-Guide-Edition/dp/0786949244/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1374177625&sr=8-2&keywords=forgotten+realms

http://www.amazon.com/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958146/ref=pd_sim_b_2

http://www.amazon.com/Underdark-Edition-Supplement-Rob-Heinsoo/dp/078695387X/ref=pd_sim_b_15

http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Forgotten-Roleplaying-Supplement/dp/0786949295/ref=pd_sim_b_1

My recommendation would be to go pick up some 2nd, 3rd or 4th edition sourcebooks for dirt cheap at Half Price Books or online. The Forgotten Realms sourcebook from 3.5 is what I am currently using, it has a removable foldout map of Faerun, and detailed lists of major sights throughout the realms, including descriptions of the major cities, ruins, etc.

I've heard good things about the Greenwood Forgotten Realms book as well.

You can probably also find sourcebooks specific to Waterdeep, Neverwinter, etc. though I don't know the specific titles.

The point is that generally speaking the edition doesn't matter when it comes to background materials, physical descriptions, major characters, history, politics, factions, maps, etc. It just doesn't. So do yourself a favor and buy this stuff cheap from older editions.

Also, keep in mind that while you are building off of an existing world, and there is something cool about that, the minute you start to play in it it's YOUR world. None of these sourcebooks are going to have every single detail fleshed out, and often will just give you the flavor of a particular city, a few major landmarks, etc. From there on you should create your own landmarks, taverns, interesting characters, history, etc.

This is the book that I use a lot:
http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Campaign-Setting-Dungeons-Roleplaying/dp/0786918365/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417478819&sr=1-2&keywords=FOrgotten+Realms

Here are more:

http://www.amazon.com/Greenwood-Presents-Elminsters-Forgotten-Realms/dp/0786960345

Neverwinter book:
http://www.amazon.com/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958146/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417478789&sr=1-4&keywords=Neverwinter+source+book

Waterdeep book:
http://www.amazon.com/City-Splendors-Waterdeep-Roleplaying-Supplement/dp/0786936932/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417478895&sr=1-1&keywords=Waterdeep

http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Realms-Atlas-Karen-Fonstad/dp/0880388579/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417478853&sr=1-3&keywords=FOrgotten+Realms

Hope that helps. Also buy 4th edition stuff now if you ever think you want it. Lots of stores are having fire sales moving their 4th ed stuff.

Hey, glad you're running a Neverwinter campaign.

NPC wise, here are a few links that might help.

Back in the 4e days, there was/in an actual campaign/setting book. Great reference.
http://www.amazon.com/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958146

The MMO by the same name, has a wiki you might find useful and a source of inspiration.
http://neverwinter.wikia.com/wiki/Category:NPCs

And I found this in just a quick search. An Epic Words posting with npc's.
http://www.epicwords.com/neverwinter/npcs

From the Wizards of the Coast webpage:
http://dnd.wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/what-is-dnd/locations/neverwinter

Dungeonmaster.com has a review of the DnD Encounters game Storm over Neverwinter.
http://dungeonsmaster.com/2013/06/dd-encounters-storm-over-neverwinter-report-card/

A quick google search for Neverwinter map, brings up a ton of stuff. Use whichever ones you want for your game.
https://www.google.com/search?q=map+of+neverwinter&espv=2&biw=1346&bih=739&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=N1FFVJn7JsKqyASxmIKABA&ved=0CB0QsAQ&dpr=2

Ok... with those out of the way, remember regardless of "canon" material. Run the game how you want too. Maybe you want to use a Pathfinder adventure. Ok, just reskin it(as little or as much as you want) to fit your game.

It's your adventure setting. Make it relevant to your players, they won't care if it's 100% perfect.

Good luck, and have fun.

RA Salvatore wrote the books the current Neverwinter lore is based on.

Neverwinter

• Gauntlgrym (October 2010) (Between 1409 DR and 1462 DR)
  
  
• Neverwinter (October 4, 2011)
  
  
• Charon's Claw (August 7, 2012)
  
  
• The Last Threshold (March 5, 2013)
  
  
  If you want straight lore...
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958146

I'd recommend the Neverwinter Campaign Setting of 4e. While the mechanics are all for 4e, there's a lot of fluff specific to Neverwinter and the surrounding areas. Might not want to use all of it, but it'd certainly be great for background/descriptions/fluff/NPC and faction ideas.

As I recall, it has details for Castle Never as an adventure site, and has info on Lord Neverember and other important leaders of the city.

Here's the amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958146

http://www.amazon.com/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958146

Again, it's technically 4e and I'm not personally familiar with it but I hear it's setting-free.

Check out the Neverwinter campaign guide. Though written for dnd 4e, I just finished a campaign of 10 levels of D&D Next there and it was a blast.

So much of it is system neutral or portable, and it's just a great setting.

http://www.amazon.com/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-Dungeons-Supplement/dp/0786958146/ref=cm_sw_em_r_awd_2ukwtb15YJ2JD_tt

4e Neverwinter campaign setting