Dungeons and Dragonshas a rich lore and decades of amazing campaigns, novels, and source books full of history. The game’s various fantasy worlds are full of complicated and nuanced characters, factions, and cities and that’s part of what many fans love about the classic TTRPG.The Forgotten Realmslore also lives inNeverwinter, the action MMORPG, and many of those iconic characters and locations exist there as NPCs and playable zones.
Some of the most well-knownDungeons and Dragonscharacters and locations come from R.A. Salvatore novels and the fantasy author’s influence is also very important toNeverwinter. The latest module for the MMO is a collaboration with R.A. and Geno Salvatore and takes playersback to the Underdark to explore Northdark Reachesduring the time period between the first two Way of the Drow novels.
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Along with any R.A. Salvatore project comes not onlysome compelling characters, but some very tricky pronunciations. Many of the author’s most iconic heroes and villains have tongue twister names that have caused lots of debate from fans over the years. Luckily, theNeverwinterteam has a good process for working through pronunciations before going to their voice over team.
Game Rant recently sat down withNeverwinter’sNarrative Director, Winter Mullenix and Principal Lead Game Designer, Randy Mosiondz to talk about Northdark Reaches and spent a bit of time chatting through those difficult pronunciations…
Game Rant:So you mention Drizzt and Menzoberranzan, so I have to ask. The Salvatores have come up with some of the best, most iconic character and location names in DnD history. Did they give you a pronunciation guide though?
Winter:We do get some guides, but I feel like there is a base unification pass thats always happening. When you have a world that’s so expansive it’s impossible to keep track of everything. And when it’s a fantastical world in your head, it’s not your day-to-day life, ya know? It doesn’t really come naturally most of the time and sometimes we do have to get refreshers before going to VO.
Randy:Right, that’s typically our process. Since our license is with Wizards, we can go to them and ask ‘What’s the official Wizards pronunciation of this word?’ And they usually have the final say since they are the people in charge of the property.
Game Rant:Well that’s a nice number to have on speed dial, I’m sure.
Randy:It’s great. We have a great working relationship with Wizards and we meet every week and talk about what’s in development and they give us a heads up about some of the stuff they’re working on so we can start planning future modules.
The average Dungeons and Dragonsplayer obviously can’t just have Wizards of the Coast on speed dial, but it’s good to know that the voiceover work inNeverwinteris a nice, reliable source for players who are curious about various pronunciations.
Neverwinteris free-to-play on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles. Northdark Reaches launches on Jun 18, 2025 on PC.
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