D&D 5E Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide Neverwinter description mostly useless

[robus]

And I notice that we also get floating rocks in Neverwinter?! No thanks, I'll save that for Zendikar. FR really is setting with everything *and* the kitchen sink!

 

[pukunui]

And I notice that we also get floating rocks in Neverwinter?! No thanks, I'll save that for Zendikar. FR really is setting with everything *and* the kitchen sink!

Those are left over from the 4e era, when various "earthmotes" showed up from Abeir. Looks like not all of them went back during the Sundering. I believe there are still some in the Tymanther/Unther region as well.

 

[flametitan]

And I notice that we also get floating rocks in Neverwinter?! No thanks, I'll save that for Zendikar. FR really is setting with everything *and* the kitchen sink!

Where do you see that in Neverwinter? The closest I can find is references to floating cities when talking about Netheril, who have collapsed as a political entity (and predate Zendikar, if I recall).

As for hooks, I can see something forming in the back of my head from what I read in the SCAG, but it's lower fantasy than most D&D games. Something about recruiting adventurers to both train a rookie batch of guards, while also dealing with the criminal underworld that's cropped up since the fall and rise of Neverwinter.

 

[robus]

Where do you see that in Neverwinter? The closest I can find is references to floating cities when talking about Netheril, who have collapsed as a political entity (and predate Zendikar, if I recall).

As for hooks, I can see something forming in the back of my head from what I read in the SCAG, but it's lower fantasy than most D&D games. Something about recruiting adventurers to both train a rookie batch of guards, while also dealing with the criminal underworld that's cropped up since the fall and rise of Neverwinter.

It's in the 4e guide, but the same brothel on a floating rock is shown on the map in the SCAG. Though maybe it's called Mark instead of Mask? But this confusion is going to happen when you assume people already know stuff because of earlier editions. What is canon and what is not?

 

[flametitan]

It's in the 4e guide, but the same brothel on a floating rock is shown on the map in the SCAG. Though maybe it's called Mark instead of Mask? But this confusion is going to happen when you assume people already know stuff because of earlier editions. What is canon and what is not?

Well, it was a location that existed before the spellplague (As seen in Volo's Guide to the North) so it's entirely possible that it just returned to its original position. Most (though not all) of the changes from the spellplague/Mt. Hotenow have been reversed, such as the giant chasm in the middle of the city. I wouldn't be surprised if a floating rock no longer floating was one of them.

I'm not having much luck finding maps of Neverwinter from before 4e, so that may be complicating matters for comparisons.

 

[Leatherhead]

The Moonstone Mask was levitated up on a rock for 4e. Prior to that it was rooted on the ground. You aren't going to find maps of the city outside of the ones from video games, and those will probably conflict due to many reasons. Before it floated on the rock, it was next to the big tree in the protectors enclave, just on the ground. In 4e they moved it slightly outside of the city over the bay. In 5e it's still in the bay, but it may or may not be floating. If you are interested in looking at the old maps, search for "Neverwinter Nights" the maps I am familiar with were made by BioWare.

 

[pukunui]

The fact that it reads "Moonstone Mark" on the SCAG map is probably just an error. Blando doesn't always spell place names correctly on his FR maps.

 

[robus]

The Moonstone Mask was levitated up on a rock for 4e. Prior to that it was rooted on the ground. You aren't going to find maps of the city outside of the ones from video games, and those will probably conflict due to many reasons. Before it floated on the rock, it was next to the big tree in the protectors enclave, just on the ground. In 4e they moved it slightly outside of the city over the bay. In 5e it's still in the bay, but it may or may not be floating. If you are interested in looking at the old maps, search for "Neverwinter Nights" the maps I am familiar with were made by BioWare.

Yep - I made it a Tintagel-esque shard of rock out in the harbor connected by a suspended bridge. No one brought up the floating possibility fortunately.

Currently the PCs are enjoying a dish of this

in the Beached Leviathan (a location also not described in the SCAG!).

 

[flametitan]

The Moonstone Mask was levitated up on a rock for 4e. Prior to that it was rooted on the ground. You aren't going to find maps of the city outside of the ones from video games, and those will probably conflict due to many reasons. Before it floated on the rock, it was next to the big tree in the protectors enclave, just on the ground. In 4e they moved it slightly outside of the city over the bay. In 5e it's still in the bay, but it may or may not be floating. If you are interested in looking at the old maps, search for "Neverwinter Nights" the maps I am familiar with were made by BioWare.

Actually, that might explain why it's where it is regardless of if it's still floating. If the artists didn't have a proper reference to what Neverwinter looked like before the Spellplague it's reasonable for them to just assume that's what should be there, even if there's nothing in the text to support its continued existence.

EDIT: Thanks, Pukuni, for putting a stop to rampant speculation before it got too silly.

Bringing it slightly back to the topic of the SCAG: I imagine it's not especially important what happened, as much of this speculation is coming from knowing the setting in more depth than the SCAG wants to cover (And considering it has a side-bar on making the Realms your own, it really wants you to make up stuff that fits what you want to have happen in your games.)

 

[Shasarak]

Luckily there is a big difference between being mostly useless and all useless. Mostly useless is slightly useful. With all useless, well, with all useless there's usually only one thing you can do.