While the Dungeon Master’s Guide provides plenty for personal worldbuilding, there comes a time in every Dungeon Master’s life when they’d wish there was something they can pick up and run. Maybe they’ve hit a roadblock in their own world building or maybe they’re just tired. Either way, they want to run a game without the burden of creating their own entire world into being. Fortunately, they can easily opt into a premade setting. Enter the Forgotten Realms, a highly popular and very standard fantasy setting as well as the main setting for Dungeons and Dragons. The world of the Forgotten Realms has several decades worth of lore and history, but very little of that needs to be known. So how does one get a bite size taste of the Forgotten Realms? Enter the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, a small piece of the larger setting. But does this stretch of coastal cities have the flavor, crunch, and filling portions to be worth it?

The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide is first and foremost a setting book. Its pages holds details on a string of cities along the length of the Sword Coast, a brief rundown of the history of these places, many major players and factions within each city, and a smattering of information on how the races from the Player’s Handbook (along with some newcomers) fit into the Forgotten Realms. As the cities are all different, the sorts of themes they produce are also different. Waterdeep, for example, is run by a council of lords who may or may not be plotting against each other, thus it lends itself to political intrigue quite easily. Baldur’s Gate is a city of trade and commerce, but is unfortunate enough to be the favorite victim of an evil deity. Man vs god stories are literally the stuff of myths and legends and can make for excellent classical fantasy games. Simply pick pick a locale and add to villainous taste.

Yet again, a broad range of tastes is presented for the benefit of Dungeon Masters and their players. But what about mechanics? What solid bits can one sink their teeth into? With no new monsters to be had, this falls onto the player’s side of the screen. New subraces and variant races become available, such as duergar (evil subterranean dwarves), feral tieflings (half-demon folk with wings and wits over their usual spells), to name a few. In addition, there are new subclasses for a character to choose from for nearly all the classes. Notable subclasses are the Way of the Sun Soul for monks (they punch out lasers) and the Bladesinger for wizards (they mix a little swordplay into their spellcasting). For the Bladesinger in particular, a small handful of spells were added, though not exclusively for the Bladesinger (which is good). In any event, the spells allow the caster in question to strike a creature with a fiery or concussive effect on their weapon and have become fan favorites. Finally, a host of new backgrounds were introduced, even if they are specific to this setting and out of place in most other worlds, which are always welcome additions. All in all, there is some very satisfying crunch within this book.

The book is both tasty and crunchable, but is it filling? Absolutely. In total, it has two whole chapters on just the world itself (taking up half the book), five new racial options (variant or subrace), eleven subclasses, four spells, and twelve backgrounds. There’s even a small section on the end on adjust content for worlds outside of the Sword Coast. This is more than enough to keep players occupied beyond just the Player’s Handbook’s contents.

As a whole, the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide is jam packed with sweet, sweet lore and character options. It’s an excellent starting point for new Dungeon Masters in particular to whet their appetite with and broadens player options enough to spark interests in several classes that might not have been there previously. I give this book an A-. It is worthy of buying and may it satisfy your gaming cravings.

-The Clark Side