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More noob D&D nonsense ahoy!

I am a big Baldur's Gate fan and part of the reason for stepping into D&D is the opportunity to play adventures in the BG/Sword Coast/Forgotten Realms setting(s).

What are the best or required source books that I will need? I am guessing the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is one but are there any others? Any pre-made adventure books that allow one to jump straight into an adventure?

Off the top of my head, that's as close as you'll get to a setting guide for 5e specifically, though obviously any BG books from previous editions will still be useful in terms of lore, characters to use as NPCs, maps, non-combat encounters, even if the actual mechanical bits are outdated. Past that, give it a search on DM's Guild and you might find assorted bits and bobs.

I can't speak to the quality of it, but this was one of the first to come up on a DMs Guild search, and I think it might tick a lot of your boxes. A level 1-6 starting adventure, stats for classic BG characters, and what looks like a decent amount of story hooks/background text/maps ect.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/269398/Heroes-of-Baldurs-Gate-5e


The upcoming Descent into Avernus campaign book also begins in Baldur's Gate, but I don't know how much of the book will actually cover the city as its main focus is on a plane of the Hells. DnDBeyond have a 'road to Baldur's Gate' series of encounters as well, which might help you get started. Here's the latest one, with links to all the others.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/545-encounter-of-the-week-deathly-demons

They have a "Sword Coast Adventurers Guide" for 5e that covers the broad strokes of the region. Otherwise, your best bet is going to be scouring the wikis or 3rd party material right now.

You're in luck!

https://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/baldursgate_descent

Releases on September 18th!

Update on this - I got the Descent into Avernus book and another book that purports to be a sort of AI GM that apparently allows one to solo play adventures so I am going to give it a go before involving others.

One more question, I want to get some Baldur's Gate D&D miniatures. I have seen the (Wizkids?) one that come in blind boxes that you collect but are there any other ranges? I will need heroes and monsters both.

Big point of note, the new Avernus book is set in Baldurs Gate, but is far removed from the Bhaalspawn saga setting of the BG games (unsure from your OP whether that was what drew you in). If you're looking for that sort of thing, 3rd party and older (2, 2.5 and 3e) material are what you'll be looking for.

Not meant as a knock on DiA, just a clarification.

 filbert wrote:
Update on this - I got the Descent into Avernus book and another book that purports to be a sort of AI GM that apparently allows one to solo play adventures so I am going to give it a go before involving others.

One more question, I want to get some Baldur's Gate D&D miniatures. I have seen the (Wizkids?) one that come in blind boxes that you collect but are there any other ranges? I will need heroes and monsters both.

As a tribute to my age and the turning of the year, I wanted to say Ral Partha, but they're largely defunct (owned by Iron Wind)

But the current company for D&D style minis is Reaper, for adventurers and monsters both. Technically they aren't official, but a lot of their catalog is basically out of the Monster manuals.

Reasonably priced, too.

I actually really like Nolzur's Marvelous Mini's line. You can get a lot of great looking minis from them for almost everything. I personally dislike the plastic they're made from, too flimsy, and the mold lines can be really extreme sometimes. But the designs are often great if you can get one with a decent mold.

The line often release "booster packs" for expansions, containing random assortments of minis and there is one for Baldur's Gate, but that's like a Booster pack. You won't know what's in the box till you buy it and getting some of the coolest minis is hard. Maybe hunt down a second hand market on eBay?

 filbert wrote:
Update on this - I got the Descent into Avernus book and another book that purports to be a sort of AI GM that apparently allows one to solo play adventures so I am going to give it a go before involving others.

One more question, I want to get some Baldur's Gate D&D miniatures. I have seen the (Wizkids?) one that come in blind boxes that you collect but are there any other ranges? I will need heroes and monsters both.

Nolzur's Unpainted are great because the price point is extremely good 4.99 USD for 2 high quality unpainted miniatures. They have thousands of heroes, monsters, classes and even scenery. The Painted minis from WK are good too, I use them a lot and am very happy with my purchases. You can get a good collection fast by picking up a brick of a set or two for less than 100 USD on Amazong.

Sterling191 wrote:
Big point of note, the new Avernus book is set in Baldurs Gate, but is far removed from the Bhaalspawn saga setting of the BG games (unsure from your OP whether that was what drew you in). If you're looking for that sort of thing, 3rd party and older (2, 2.5 and 3e) material are what you'll be looking for.

Not meant as a knock on DiA, just a clarification.

It's not necessarily the Baldur's Gate Bhaalspawn saga that I am interested in, more the whole Sword Coast setting and yes, I do appreciate that Avernus is not necessarily that. With all that said, if you can point me in the direction of some older edition BG D&D books, I would be most grateful.

Also, cheers all for the tips on the Nolzur's Marvellous Minis - they have a bunch of hero characters and general baddies that look great.

I'd re-read the really old short Bladur's gate book as well as just make a mildly homebrew setting copying the lore you enjoy from the sword coast

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_3.X_edition_Forgotten_Realms_products

These are all the forgotten realms books produced for 3.x

Thanks for the links, most appreciated. Are the 3.x books worth getting over any released for 4.x? Were there actually any Forgotten Realms books for 4.x?

The only issue seems to be the high price that these books are going for. Even I baulk at £50 for old source material...

 filbert wrote:
Thanks for the links, most appreciated. Are the 3.x books worth getting over any released for 4.x? Were there actually any Forgotten Realms books for 4.x?

My understanding is that starting in 4th Edition Forgotten Realms kind of became the "default" setting of Dungeons and Dragons and that sticks true with 5th edition. So really, all the rule books are predominantly Forgotten Realms material, exceptions for the Guide to Eberron and Ghosts of Saltmarsh (which is set in Greyhawk). That said, a lot of the rule books and adventures our right now are written that they can easily become setting agnostic, which might be why some older books could be better. They'd have more details about lore than some of the 5e books.

The good thing about the 3.x source books is they are actual world books. Since Greyhawk was the default setting of 3.x the core books didn't go into super detail about world building. So the Faerun ones go very heavy into it. The main book and the players guide are probably the 2 most worth looking into.

 filbert wrote:
Thanks for the links, most appreciated. Are the 3.x books worth getting over any released for 4.x? Were there actually any Forgotten Realms books for 4.x?...

Technically. Yes. But not many and they weren't worth buying. You certainly won't recognize the BG era in 4e books

4e FR is a pretty unrecognizable ball of stupidity and world changes to pointlessly rationalize a change in game mechanics (which admittedly they did for the 1e to 2e transition, mostly so they could kill off the assassin class and put damage caps on fireballs) And to put more tieflings, dragonborn and Genasi in the world and add countries they came from. And I mean that literally. The FR fused with a different, separated version of itself and entire nations were replaced. A bunch of gods died... again, and the good gods starting feuding over marital strife.

And something something Spellplague, which was presumably bad.

But it was terrible, people hated it and they retconned it all away for 5th edition. So whatever.

More stupid questions ahoy! I have updated the thread title to make it a little more reflective.

Question: I have been reading online resources and bought a few bits and pieces. One of those web-pages listed the various books/adventures you can get for 5e and recommended a few, specifically the adventures in the Starter Set and Essentials Kit. To go with that, I plan on getting a couple of others, possibly Storm King's Thunder and Curse of Strahd. However, I noticed that the Wiki page detailing the various adventure books has a 'level range' for each book, presumably the level you start at and what you finish at. A lot of them start at 1. Does this mean that each time you start a new adventure, you roll a fresh character and start from scratch? I thought people put a lot of care and attention into their characters and basically play them 'for life', as it were?

Anyway, another aspect I need to factor in is that I plan on running campaigns with my wife and two kids (10 & 7) so with them never having played it and me never having played it nor been a DM, it could be quite a challenge. If anyone has played D&D with young kids, I would appreciate some tips for success! I am trying to make it as visual as possible, hence why I am sourcing miniatures, maps (I have the A3 Loke Battlemaps book from a recent Kickstarter) to go with it.

 filbert wrote:
More stupid questions ahoy! I have updated the thread title to make it a little more reflective.

Question: I have been reading online resources and bought a few bits and pieces. One of those web-pages listed the various books/adventures you can get for 5e and recommended a few, specifically the adventures in the Starter Set and Essentials Kit. To go with that, I plan on getting a couple of others, possibly Storm King's Thunder and Curse of Strahd. However, I noticed that the Wiki page detailing the various adventure books has a 'level range' for each book, presumably the level you start at and what you finish at. A lot of them start at 1. Does this mean that each time you start a new adventure, you roll a fresh character and start from scratch? I thought people put a lot of care and attention into their characters and basically play them 'for life', as it were?

Anyway, another aspect I need to factor in is that I plan on running campaigns with my wife and two kids (10 & 7) so with them never having played it and me never having played it nor been a DM, it could be quite a challenge. If anyone has played D&D with young kids, I would appreciate some tips for success! I am trying to make it as visual as possible, hence why I am sourcing miniatures, maps (I have the A3 Loke Battlemaps book from a recent Kickstarter) to go with it.

Honestly? if you are just starting out to DM the Starter Set adventure is a good place to start. It takes place on the Sword coast near Neverwinter (it's a bit north of Baldur's Gate but travelling south to the city shouldn't be a problem) and it has all you need to get the adventure going.

I'm pretty sure all the adventure books start at level 1. High level adventures are notoriously hard to balance as you never know what the PC's will have magic wise. That fact can make challenges and fights that should be hard trivial.

As for DMing for kids just remember that they are the heroes. They may want to try something crazy, or look for a secret in a cave for a treasure. It's doesn't hurt to just throw them a bone and say "hey! you find a strange gold locket behind that statue. Might be a good idea to find out what it is!" Avoid saying "No" when it comes to things they might want to do or try. Boredom can kick in which can make the whole thing not fun if you don't keep the story moving and everyone getting a chance to be involved.