If Astarion’s Ebook of Hungers is the player-facing add-on for Heroes of Faerun, than Netheril’s Fall is the marginally extra beefy add-on for Adventures in Faerun. The brand new digital “DLC” for the Forgotten Realms guide is a gazetteer for the misplaced kingdom of Netheril, with an outline of the fallen kingdom, a have a look at two of its cities (one flying metropolis, Eileanar, and the landbound metropolis Conch), some magically-themed environmental hazards, and a brief assortment of mini-adventures within the fashion of the Dungeon Grasp’s Information. Netheril’s Fall is functionally a mini-gazetteer, albeit not fairly as beefy because the 5 gazetteers present in Adventures in Faerun that element varied areas.
At first look, it is simple to see why Netheril’s Fall wasn’t included in Adventures in Faerun. Netheril is a fallen empire and having an journey in Netheril will doubtless require the usage of time gates (that are conveniently defined within the complement, with two adventures devoted to touring and crossing via a Time Gate. I will be aware that the adventures on this guide really feel rather more particular than what we noticed in Adventures in Faerun or the 2024 Dungeon Grasp’s Information. Whereas the adventures in different books may very well be “plugged” into any level-appropriate marketing campaign, these adventures really feel rather more slim in scope and canopy particular areas or occasions discovered within the DLC. There’s a couple of adventures in Adventures in Faerun that cowl locales seen within the gazetteer, however there aren’t very many who cowl a particular occasion. I do not thoughts the “one web page journey” format, however I am unsure it really works with each journey sort. If an journey sends gamers right into a mad wizard’s tried ascent into godhood, I would like a bit of extra meat than a couple of encounters and a decision of “nicely, the gamers could have time to discover the town earlier than the ritual fails.”
One other criticism I’ve of Netheril’s Fall is that Netheril does not really feel practically as fantastical as an historical high-magic society ought to. On condition that Adventures in Faerun did a really discover job of elevating the Forgotten Realms past its generic excessive fantasy trappings, I really feel like a bit extra care might have actually offered Netheril as extra fantastical in nature than what we bought. If we might have gotten a couple of extra pages about Netheril’s tradition, I really feel like Netheril would have been extra interesting as a spot that DMs would wish to incorporate into their campaigns. As introduced, there are a couple of cool concepts, however even the phaerimm (one among my favourite D&D monsters) really feel a bit flat in comparison with what we’d have gotten.
I used to be important of Astarion’s Ebook of Starvation’s value level, and whereas I really feel that $15 continues to be too excessive for Netheril’s Fall, there’s much more “content material” in comparison with that guide. Typically talking, some journey content material, a gazetteer, and a few monster statblocks might be a bit extra helpful than one new species and a set of feats, though I am most likely a bit biased in the direction of DM content material since I am often the one behind the DM display. I personally would had most well-liked a $10 value level for this DLC, however others might really feel that the worth level of those are extra truthful.
All in all, I really feel a bit underwhelmed by Netheril’s Fall. Netheril looks as if a really cool a part of Forgotten Realms lore, but it surely’s not given full justice right here. I do know there’s another Netheril content material on the market from previous editions, and I encourage folks to examine these out on DMs Guild if they need an actual deep dive into this misplaced empire.
