Neverwinter Campaign Setting

Neverwinter Campaign Setting is a supplement to the 4th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Neverwinter Campaign Setting
Rules requiredDungeons & Dragons
Character levelsN/A
Campaign settingForgotten Realms
AuthorsMatt Sernett, Erik Scott de Bie, Ari Marmell
First publishedAugust 16, 2011
ISBN978-0-7869-5814-6

Contents

The book contains an introduction and four chapters:[1]

  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1: Jewel of the North
    • "The first chapter, Jewel of the North is only about ten pages and it tries to cover the entire history of the Neverwinter region in that span".[2]
  • Chapter 2: Character Options
    • "Chapter Two, Character Options is far meatier and it runs nearly seventy pages. The chapter can be divided into four sections: Character Themes, Racial Backgrounds, Warpriest Domains, and finally, a brand new character class known as the Bladesinger".[2]
  • Chapter 3: Factions and Foes
    • "Chapter 3, Factions and Foes is about fifty pages long and the title kind of says it all here. This is where you’ll find a lot of plot hooks around countries or organizations that will make up the majority of your antagonists in a Neverwinter setting".[2]
  • Chapter 4: Gazetteer
    • "The final chapter of the book, Gazetteer takes up half the pages contained therein [...]. However the section doesn’t spend much, if any, time talking about the past – everything is in the present".[2]

Publication history

The Neverwinter Mass Adventure was released to attendees of GenCon 2011 as a preview of the book and a push towards Neverwinter themed products.[3] On August 6, 2011, shortly after GenCon, local game stores could participate in Neverwinter Game Day with the adventure Gates of Neverdeath before the 223-page hardcover book was released on August 16, 2011.[3][4]

Shannon Appelcline commented that with the sixth season of Encounters, Lost Crown of Neverwinter (2011, 14 weeks), "Wizards used Season 6 to highlight their newest (and last) campaign book for 4E: the Neverwinter Campaign Setting (2011). They made a big deal of it, kicking it off with the Gates of Neverdeath adventure at D&D Games Day (August 2011), and then continuing into the 14-week series of Forgotten Realms Encounters."[5]:194 Appelcline noted that even while Dungeons & Dragons 4E was showing increasing signs of weakness at the time, "they changed up their campaign-a-year format with the release of the Neverwinter Campaign Setting (2011), which returned to the Forgotten Realms rather than breaking new ground."[5]:197

Appelcline wrote about the Neverwinter Campaign Setting being launched as 4th edition's first major multimedia release, noting that the city setting spawned four novels by R.A. Salvatore called the Neverwinter Saga, a comic book, and a board game called The Legend of Drizzt (2011), as well as two video games - the Facebook game Heroes of Neverwinter and a MMORPG called simply "Neverwinter."[6]

Laura Tommervik (Wizards of the Coast marketing team) explained the approach: "We use Neverwinter as the connective tissue across multiple product categories. The transmedia campaign is an opportunity for fans to experience the brand however they choose to".[6]

List of products
Title Creator(s) Type Date ISBN
Gauntlgrym R.A. Salvatore Novel October 5, 2010 9780786955008
Gates of Neverdeath Erik Scott de Bie Adventure module August 6, 2011
Lost Crown of Neverwinter Erik Scott de Bie Adventure module Summer 2011
Heroes of Neverwinter Liquid Entertainment Facebook game 2011 n/a
The Legend of Drizzt Peter Lee, Jason Engle, Steve Prescott Board game 2011 n/a
Neverwinter R.A. Salvatore Novel October 4, 2011 9780786958429
Brimstone Angels Erin M. Evans Novel November 11, 2011 978-0786958467
The Legend of Drizzt: Neverwinter Tales (Dungeons & Dragons: Drizzt #1-5) R.A. Salvatore, Gene Salvatore, Agustin Padilla Trade paperback March 2012 9781613771563
Charon's Claw R.A. Salvatore Novel August 7, 2012 9780786962235
The Last Threshold R.A. Salvatore Novel March 5, 2013 9780786963645
Neverwinter Cryptic Studios Video game June 20, 2013 n/a

Reception

The book was nominated for "Best Roleplaying Supplement" in the 2011 Origins Awards.[7] It was also nominated for the 2011 Golden Geek "Best RPG Supplement" and the 2012 ENnies "Best Art, Cover".[8]

Alex Lucard, for Diehard GameFAN, wrote "Neverwinter consists of four chapters and an introduction. [...] There’s not a lot of detail there and longtime D&D players might be a bit miffed at the lack of history in this opening. It’s very truncated, but if you’ve been playing in the Forgotten Realms setting prior to this, you probably know most of the history by heart. [...] Still, it would have been nice to have a more in-depth piece on what happened from the start of the Spellplague on other than a few novel series. [...] The book gives you thirteen [character themes]. [...] I have mixed feeling on the themes ranging from 'Holy hell, that’s awesome' for the lycanthropes and 'Wow, that is pretty underwhelming” for the Red Wizard'. [...] Choosing one of these themes (which the book all but insists that you do) gives you a new starting feature to lay on top of everything else your character would have, along with some additional features and optional powers you can pick up as you level up. [...] My only complaint is that several themes are unbalanced and it would have been nice to have more than thirteen. Perhaps twenty or so, Because of the imbalance, you'll quickly see certain ones become prevalent over others. [...] The final chapter of the book, Gazetteer takes up half the pages contained therein and it pretty much answers all the complaints people had about earlier 4th Edition Forgotten Realms publications. [...] The last thing to talk about is the art. It's pretty hit or miss. [...] Overall, while the Neverwinter Campaign Setting has a few minor issues, the overall book is a wonderful one from beginning to end. It's honestly the best product I’ve seen Wizards of the Coast put out for 4th Edition so far and I honestly think if this version of Dungeons & Dragons had started out with products this strong, the backlash against leaving the d20 system wouldn't have been so severe".[2]

References
  1. Sernett, Matthew (2011). Neverwinter Campaign Setting. De Bie, Erik Scott., Marmell, Ari. Renton, Wash.: Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 9780786958146. OCLC 687653213.
  2. Lucard, Alex (August 15, 2011). "Tabletop Review: Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter Campaign Setting". Diehard GameFAN. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  3. Morgan, Matt (August 2, 2011). "GenCon: Dungeons And Dragons Announces Return to Neverwinter Campaign Setting". MTV News. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  4. Lucard, Alex (August 12, 2011). "Tabletop Preview: Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter Campaign Setting". Diehard GameFAN. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  5. Shannon Appelcline (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '90s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN 978-1-61317-084-7.
  6. Appelcline, Shannon. "Neverwinter Campaign Setting (4e) | Product History". DMs Guild. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  7. "The 38th Annual Origins Awards – Presented at Origins 2012". GAMA. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  8. "Neverwinter Campaign Setting". RPGGeek. Retrieved 2019-08-02.

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