The Sword Coast and The North
GenderNihilismGirdle
Member Posts: 1,353
If you were transported to Faerûn some time between 1479 DR and 1491 DR, where would you want to find yourself in and around the Sword Coast and the North?
- The Sword Coast and The North43 votes
- The Lords' Alliance (Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Silverymoon, Baldur's Gate, Daggerford, Longsaddle, Amphail, Yartar, etc)32.56%
- Dwarfholds of the North (Mithral Hall, Citadel Adbar, Citadel Felbarr, Gauntlgrym, Stoneshaft Hold, Ironmaster, Sundabar, Mirabar, etc)18.60%
- Island Kingdoms (The Moonshaes, Whalebones, Ruathym, Mintarn, Orlumbor, Nelanther Isles, Lantan, Nimbral, etc)9.30%
- Independent Realms (Candlekeep, Darkhold, Helm's Hold, Elturgard, Hartsvale, Trielta Hills, Najara, Luskan, Icewind Dale, Uthgardt territory, etc)13.95%
- Wilderness (The High Moor, The Trollclaws, The High Forest, etc)4.65%
- Underdark (Blingdenstone, Gracklstugh, Menzoberranzan, Mantol-Derith, etc)2.33%
- Riding my aboleth friends and raiding aquatic elven cities before retreating into the crushing depths with new slimy servitors to swell our armies in preparation for The Day of Reckoning Upon The Dry Places.4.65%
- Some hidden avariel aerie, where the terrible sea-land war won't reach me.0.00%
- Hovering above it all in the phlogiston, getting ready for some spelljamming in a ship crewed by werehamsters.9.30%
- I am abstaining from this poll because I am an elf and I don't see Evermeet anywhere on this list even though the hated drow city of Menzoberranzan is listed, I petulantly turn my back on this poll to sip morning dew off of leaves every day for five hundred years.4.65%
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Comments
Plus, if I ever wanted to get killed real fast I could always move to Luskan and skip around so my coinpurse jingles with every step.
What can I say... I have a weakness for happy ends like this.
PS. That "Spellplague" thing was horrible, imho. Frankly, I dont know why WoTC must ravage the FR with one disaster or another when it releases a new D&D edition. The only time it didnt happen was in the transtion from 2nd to 3rd edition, and the transtion to the last, 5th, edition. The other disaster was the Time of Troubles (when the game changed from 1st to 2nd edition), but even that was nothing compared to the Spellplague. 4th edition was the worst that ever happened to the FRs (and to D&D, imho). That is one of the reasons I dont like 5th edition FRs. It is already spoiled by that damn 4th edition "Spellplague".
But mechanics aside, it's basically an advanced timeline that restores things largely to how it was in 3.5 (and actually rolls back a few of the 3.5 changes like Netheril, although remnants of it remain it's no longer the Empire it was in 3.5), so you might want to check out the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide and see if you like what you see, fluff-wise! I know I did, and I've had some time to check it out more thoroughly over the last couple days (which is part of what inspired this poll!) and I'm an FR fan from 2e days who hated the Spellplague and all that came with it, so while our tastes may still diverge despite those points of similarity, I recommend at least giving the 5e fluff a spin since I think the era immediately post-Sundering is maybe my favourite FR era aside from immediately post-Time of Troubles. Ed Greenwood and Co. did a bang up job on giving the Realms back a Realms feel after the Spellplague disaster without pulling a DC Comics Infinite Retcon handwave.
That said, I haven't given a complete comb-over of the deities yet, and tbh I didn't pay attention to who died during the Spellplague because I stopped following FR lore as soon as I started reading things about the massive changes to certain nations/regions, like Halruua being destroyed and so on (although Halruua turned out to just have left when the Spellplague was about to hit because of their divinations and its back now, which makes me happy as someone who has always loved that wacky nation of wizards and airships).
Yep, it's all back as it was, except that in addition to the Plane of Shadow there's a Plane of Fey similarly coterminous with (and a mirror of) the Material Plane, but nothing else is added and everything is restored (and there has been some talk that if the Ravenloft adventures sell well enough to justify it there may be a campaign setting book, which would mean that the hints and rumblings of a WotC Planescape adventure potentially coming down the pipe after they do Dragonlance and probably Greyhawk could mean a 5e setting book, which I'm crossing my fingers so hard for I have bruises between all my knuckles).
I don't like that they staggered releases of PHB/MM/DMG like they did, but now that they're all out I'm pretty impressed with them. The DMG in particular I find really concise and easy to navigate compared to previous editions.
Human Cities
* Have you seen how much poverty there are in these cities? Beggars everywhere.
- What are the chances that you, who come there with no money and probably without a marketable skill, won't end up as one of those beggars?
Little Towns/Rural Areas
* How good are you at fighting off an orc or even a few kobolds? I don't know about you, but swords tend to make me bleed when they touch my skin. I hope you like living your life with the other commoners in fear of the things which *do* lurk in the forest.
Underdark
* Everything there, except for a rare few hidden deep gnomes, will eat and/or torture you. Even if you could transform yourself into one of the races there, the first sentence still applies.
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This leaves the elven lands, dwarven holds, and others. So, thoughts on that.
(1) Almost nobody is cool enough to join a ship of werehamsters. The sheer awesomeness of that would drive any mortal man mad with jealousy. Don't do that to yourself.
(2) Aboleth friends...see the entry on the underdark. You just might get to eat a few aquatic elves yourself first.
(3) Elven Lands...if you aren't an elf then you are stuck with the most pretentious and stuck up people you could ever imagine. Only when they say they are better than you, you know it to be true. And by the time you turn old and gray that unpleasant tree hugger just needs a haircut. Yeah...no thanks.
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This leaves the dwarven holds.
(1) They are safe.
(2) They have good alcohol and food that you'll enjoy eating.
(3) If you can make yourself useful, you'll earn your way.
(4) Unlike elves, dwarves are reasonable. They won't give you too much shyt, so long as you can grow a proper beard.
(5) You never see any beggars in dwarven holds. So as long as you are willing to work hard, you should be alright.
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In summary...
(1) Elves are jerks.
(2) Humans will rob you, stab you, or if you are lucky, throw a few coins your way as you beg on filthy streets.
(3) Small towns and villages will be surrounded by creatures which will stab you, eat you, and if you are lucky, rob you.
(4) Underdark inhabitants and aboleths will eat/torture you.
(5) You probably aren't cool enough to hang with the werehamsters.
This just leaves the dwarves. From whom you can learn a trade skill, drink alcohol, and not get stabbed/robbed/eaten/tortured/treated like a complete inferior.
So dwarf holds it is!