It feels like I’ve been waiting for this product for a while.
Laeral’s Silverhand’s Explorer’s Kit is a new release from Wizards of the Coast that presents a selection of eleven dice, one double-sided map, and twenty cards with pictures and information about places, people and organisations in the Forgotten Realms. The set also provides two, felt-lined dice trays.
The map – I guess you might call it a poster? – measures about 26 cm (10.5 inches) by 39 cm (16 inches). One side displays the Sword Coast, from the Moonshaes in the west to Elturel and the High Forest in the east. On the longer axis, it goes from Icewind Dale in the North to the Cloud Peaks in the south – thus stopping just north of Amn. The cartography is by Mike Schley and is a portion of the map shown in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide and other places.
The other side of the map displays the City of Waterdeep, with cartography by Jason A. Engle, which you likely have in larger fashion if you have Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.
The relatively small size of this document is something I find an advantage at the table; it folds nicely into a square and is easily transportable.
The dice include two oversized d20s, four d6s, and one of each other type of die: d4, d8, d10, d% and d12.
The silver on blue is attractive. My impression is that the angle of light will make a big difference to how readable these are at a distance. I love that there are two oversized d20s – there was only one oversized die in the Avernus set, but because advantage and disadvantage are things in Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition, having two is important! The dice themselves seem fine to me. I don’t think they measure up to the highest-quality dice, but the d20s, in particular, are what I want.
There are twenty cards in the product. One side of the cards shows a picture of a character, settlement or organisation, the other side gives a brief description of that thing from Laeral’s point of view. There are six settlements (Icewind Dale, Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate, Candlekeep, and Port Nyanzaru), three organisations (Harpers, Cults of the Dead Three, and the Zhentarim), and ten characters (Laeral, Durnan, Mirt, Drizzt Do’urden, Jarlaxle Baenre, Vajra Safahr, Halastar Blackcloak, the Xanathar, Lord Dagult Neverember and Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard). The final card is an introduction to the product from Laeral.
The artwork is mostly reproduced from various existing products – though there are a couple of pieces I’m not familiar with. Are Neverwinter and Icewind Dale featured in an upcoming product? The art isn’t entirely consistent in style but is of a very high quality throughout.
While the main value of this product lies in the dice and dice trays, the cards and poster map are tools I find very useful for games in the Realms. I would dearly love a set that covered the other side of the core Realms – the Moonsea, the Sea of Fallen Stars and the Dalelands. There are great characters and cities there I’d love to see featured.
This is a set that I’m very happy to have. I’m sure it’ll get much use at my table – once we get back to having games at my table, that is! Highly recommended!
I’m glad they made improvements over the Avernus set but I’m disappointed that it doesn’t tie into a new Forgotten Realms campaign like the Avernus set.
The Neverwinter art is from the same batch of concept art produced around the time of the launching of the MMO and the Campaign Guide. I don’t know if it made it into the book directly but it’s definitely of the same style. The Icewind Dale art is completely unfamiliar to me.
City image cards seem like a great idea to me. I wish there were less characters and more locations (Phandelver for the starter set would have been a great idea), which would have made it more versatile. Even if “iconic”, the less tied to a published campaign the product is, the less useful the characters are.