Waterdeep and the North

Contents

This entry focuses on the northwestern part of Faerûn, a region called the North, and its most important city and port, Waterdeep. Located on the Sword Coast, Waterdeep was a key part of Ed Greenwood's personal campaign setting and is home to over 100,000 people, making it the North's most significant city in the Forgotten Realms. It also includes seven adventure hooks. The physical product is a 64-page book paired with a large color city map, all inside a removable six-panel gatefold cover.

The outer gatefold shows a map of Waterdeep, the inside front cover displays a map of the known sewers, and the inside back cover provides basic floorplan diagrams common in the city. The text begins with a short geographical overview before diving into history. Waterdeep started as a settlement founded by local tribes who traded timber and furs with merchants from the south, and its deep harbor gave the city its name. A savage human tribe later captured the settlement and built defenses.

When humanoid monster tribes threatened, more human groups gathered there, increasing the population and defenders. After fierce battles, Waterdeep became a free city ruled by warlords. The mage Ahghairon then overthrew the last warlord, replacing rule by force with a government based on wisdom. He led the city with a group of masked lords, chosen in secret.

Two hundred years after Ahghairon's death, a period of anarchy followed as powerful guildmasters tried to seize sole control, but the surviving masked lords eventually restored their rule.

Publication history

Released in 1987 by TSR, Waterdeep and the North (FR1) is a 64-page booklet by Ed Greenwood, packaged with a large color map and an outer folder. Keith Parkinson created the cover art, while Chris Miller handled the interior illustrations. Karen S. Martin edited the work, with heraldic escutcheons by David E. Martin and cartography by Frey Graphics and David Sutherland. The City System product was designed to accompany this volume. According to Shannon Appelcline, this supplement launched a lengthy series of sourcebooks about the setting, which made the Forgotten Realms the first TSR setting to receive truly exhaustive detail through a line of sourcebooks rather than solely through adventures.

Reception

In his December 1988 review for Dragon magazine, Jim Bambra praised the physical quality of Waterdeep and the North, noting that its use of color effectively highlighted terrain contours and ocean depths. He found the descriptions of Waterdeep particularly evocative, capturing daily life within the city and making it an ideal setting for urban adventures. However, Bambra considered the coverage of the North less successful. While he acknowledged its colorful history, he criticized the settlement descriptions as sketchy and pointed out the lack of a wilderness map to show how those settlements related to Waterdeep and to each other.

Despite this weakness, he emphasized that the sections on Waterdeep itself were very strong, crediting the city with a rich background that gave it great character. He appreciated how the city’s laws, customs, guilds, and factions were presented in a colorful manner. Bambra noted that the book detailed very few individual buildings, leaving that work to the Dungeon Master with the help of tables and sample floor plans. Instead, it offered a useful overview of how the city functioned, outline descriptions of its wards, and details on available services.

The adventure outlines, he wrote, required some effort to bring to life but provided a good cross-section of the types of adventures possible within the city. In his conclusion, Bambra stated that Waterdeep was a very strong city pack, thanks to its emphasis on atmosphere and personalities. He regretted the absence of street encounter tables, which would have added to the city’s feel and given player characters a better sense of life there. As it stood, he considered Waterdeep a good urban location for adventures in the Forgotten Realms setting.

Dungeon Masters would need to add their own details to personalize the city and breathe life into its daily routines, but the background was provided and contained plenty of ideas waiting to be developed.