Review of Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue by Wizards of the Coast

Umbran · Aug 24, 2012

Herschel said:
What I'm saying is if you're a drow fanboy ...

And what I'm saying is that calling people "fanboys" makes you look like a dismissive jerk. Repetition, and the pot/kettle thing make you look like a knowing and willful jerk.

Whatever you actually are, you're not presenting yourself in a good light. Do you wish to continue to look like a jerk to the moderating staff? Then please keep on using that word. If you don't, perhaps you should change your approach to referring to folks who like stuff you're not into.

Questions or comments? Please take them to e-mail or PM to the moderator of your choice. Thanks.

renau1g · Aug 24, 2012

RangerWickett said:
A friend of mine opened to a random page. I'll try to recall the exact phrasing.

Entertainment
Drow love to party. Their revelries typically involve gathering for dancing, food, and the consumption of strange alchemical substances.

Now replace 'drow' in that sentence with any other group of people of any race from any planet ever, and you'll get a sense why I didn't find the writing that compelling. Drow should drip sinister evil. Instead they sound like frat-boys.

Well, Modrons don't love to party, so there's one

But yes, that is pretty useless, I don't picture drow as partiers, they are supposed to be the ultimate evil race in the FR, ones that the parents tell their kids about if they don't listen. Their parties may be like sacrifices to Lloth or some other stuff like that.

brewdus · Aug 26, 2012

flyingcircus said:
I would like to have had the crunch for 4E included, think I will pass. They're only doing no crunch because of 5E.

The point of system neutral is so you can tailor it to your system of choice.

Evenglare · Aug 26, 2012

brewdus said:
The point of system neutral is so you can tailor it to your system of choice.

While true, this is a blatant disregard of 4th edition, in prep for 5th edition. If they would like edition less books then they need to make a LINE of them, not just when it's convenient because their efforts are focused on the next edition. I guaranteeing you we won't see any edition less books when 5th edition comes out. May I point out to you the edition less eberron book (adventurer's handbook or whatever it was called) Yeah...

Don't give me that "you can use it for whatever you want". I'd be all for this if it wasnt basically a big slap in the face to 4th edition consumers. I understand why they did it business wise, but what a way to treat your 4th edition customers. There's NO reason that all of this material couldn't have been supplemented with 4th edition crunch, they just do not want to support the system any more ... clearly.

Kralin Thornberry · Aug 27, 2012

Yeah, and with 5E/DnD Next not due out until at least 2014, they could at least keep producing products for the current game instead of giving 4E fans the "edition neutral cold shoulder".

I have all the other Menzoberranzan books, and none of them are edition neutral, why should 4E not get one?

This book, to me at least, is not very useful, especially without the crunch for the traditional drow items and stats for the bigger members of the houses.

Mournblade94 · Aug 28, 2012

Kralin Thornberry said:
Yeah, and with 5E/DnD Next not due out until at least 2014, they could at least keep producing products for the current game instead of giving 4E fans the "edition neutral cold shoulder".

I have all the other Menzoberranzan books, and none of them are edition neutral, why should 4E not get one?

This book, to me at least, is not very useful, especially without the crunch for the traditional drow items and stats for the bigger members of the houses.

There is no way I would have bought this book if it was full of 4e crunch. The Forgotten Realms needs to take a systems neutral stance at this point. I think it a wise decision.

Though it is systems neutral it still had information for the plague realms time period. It had relevant sections to each time period, and described what was happening in Menzo, and with the drow houses for each of them where relevant.

The lack of 4e crunch is a strength of this book, and shows a lot of promise for the sundering and 5e Forgotten Realms.

Mournblade94 · Aug 28, 2012

Evenglare said:
While true, this is a blatant disregard of 4th edition, in prep for 5th edition. If they would like edition less books then they need to make a LINE of them, not just when it's convenient because their efforts are focused on the next edition. I guaranteeing you we won't see any edition less books when 5th edition comes out. May I point out to you the edition less eberron book (adventurer's handbook or whatever it was called) Yeah...

Don't give me that "you can use it for whatever you want". I'd be all for this if it wasnt basically a big slap in the face to 4th edition consumers. I understand why they did it business wise, but what a way to treat your 4th edition customers. There's NO reason that all of this material couldn't have been supplemented with 4th edition crunch, they just do not want to support the system any more ... clearly.

There are still so many things that can be used for 4e. In fact the ranking and worthiness rules are being used in the Council of Spiders Encounters season.

This book is very high quality, with good Forgotten Realms information. IT also preserves space by not including the crunch of 4e. There will be crunch released for it via DDI which is the way it should be.

You get your 4e crunch through DDI, and I get a useful book out of it that Ican use with AD&D or Pathfinder.

Its a WIN for Wizards, and they got me at least to start buying products from them again.

Zireael · Aug 29, 2012

Are the house creation and worth system rules any good?

-----------------
About 'editionlessness': I guess there *will* be a line of editionless books and Menzo is just the beginning.

lindevi · Aug 29, 2012

Can anyone elaborate on how much new info it contributes compared to 2nd ed's and 3.5's Drow of the Underdark's? Or is it simply a rehash with some new House and player mechanics?

Rune · Aug 29, 2012

Evenglare said:
While true, this is a blatant disregard of 4th edition, in prep for 5th edition. If they would like edition less books then they need to make a LINE of them, not just when it's convenient because their efforts are focused on the next edition. I guaranteeing you we won't see any edition less books when 5th edition comes out. May I point out to you the edition less eberron book (adventurer's handbook or whatever it was called) Yeah...

Don't give me that "you can use it for whatever you want". I'd be all for this if it wasnt basically a big slap in the face to 4th edition consumers. I understand why they did it business wise, but what a way to treat your 4th edition customers. There's NO reason that all of this material couldn't have been supplemented with 4th edition crunch, they just do not want to support the system any more ... clearly.

Kenzer & Co.'s Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign book (for the version of the setting that was "officially" 3rd edition D&D--in other words, officially licensed through the terms of a legal settlement) was also system-neutral. It, like the Eberron campaign book you referenced, was excellent--far more useful to me (as a DM) than the matching crunch-filled player's handbooks.

Frankly, as a player of multiple systems, I like the system-neutral approach (although I wouldn't mind seeing some crunch presented somewhere). I hope to see more of them.

I don't happen to have any interest in the subject matter of this particular product (and I didn't in the 2e days, either). But the format? Assuming the content is quality, the format is useful to me.