D&D: A Look Inside Laeral Silverhand’s Explorer’s Kit
With the mystery of Laeral Silverhand still up in the air, we can at least shed some light on what’s in the box–dice and insight into the Forgotten Realms.
Yesterday we saw two new products in the form of an untitled book and a possibly-connected box full of “dice and miscellany” titled Laeral Silverhand’s Explorer’s Kit. That was then. Today we know a little more about what you’ll find inside the Explorer’s Kit, so let’s dig into the box and see what awaits us.
via Wizards of the Coast
We mentioned the Descent into Avernus dice kit before as a possible close parallel, and as it turns out, that seems to be the new format for a “dice/accessory supplement” that WotC is working on. The Avernus set came with a detailed map of Avernus, a durable dice tray, a useful amount of dice, and some double-sided cards with encounter info and art detailing the creatures one might find in the 1st layer of hell. Taking a look at the new kit, here’s what’s inside.
Let Laeral Silverhand – Open Lord of Waterdeep, centuries-old archmage, and daughter of the goddess of magic – guide you on your path to adventure. The new kit includes eleven dice placed in a durable, felt-lined box that functions as two dice trays. Fans can also enjoy the twenty illustrated, double-sided cards detailing Laeral’s expert insights on key characters, locations, and lore from across the Forgotten Realms and a foldout double-sided map of the Sword Coast and city of Waterdeep.
The core features are the same, you still get your eleven dice consisting of two d20s, one d12, two d10s, a d8, four d6, and a d4, as well as twenty illustrated, double-sided cards. Though instead of demons and devils of Avernus, you’ll be getting Laeral’s take on “key characters, locations, and lore from across the Forgotten Realms.”
Finally there’s a double-sided map of the Sword Coast and Waterdeep, and it’s in these last two items that we start to get a picture of what Laeral Silverhand’s book is all about. This is some Forgotten Realms-centric lore to be certain. A map of the Sword Coast and Waterdeep is nothing new, though hopefully it’ll be a better/more updated map, or maybe one that features different kinds of locales to adventure in. Hopefully one that features the twenty key locations mentioned in the cards.
All of this makes it sound like we might be seeing some kind of explorer’s guide centered around the Forgotten Realms–which on first blush sounds kind of like a Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. WotC doesn’t seem like the sort to try and do a second take of a book, or at least if they were going to they’d probably just release it as a collected, updated SCAG–otherwise known as the one book everyone grabs for a single subclass and two cantrips: the bladesinger wizard school and green flame-/booming-blade. It’s also got the least exciting subclass, in the Purple Dragon Knight, so take from that what you will.
For my part, I think this is probably a player-centered book, maybe with a focus on exploration/adventure and some pre-done encounters like a looser Ghosts of Saltmarsh, but we’ll know more come the 9th, so check back for more!
Learn more about Laeral Silverhand’s Explorer’s Kit
Happy Adventuring!
