D&D 5E Escapist article on SCAG is Brutal.

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

They're all probably saving their pennies for Fallout 4.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Well, I am fond of ONE realms-branded product... but there's no mention of Far Vandmeer, Wu, Chu, Chi, nor Al-Ubaid.

That'sa fine product, too. So fun it doesn't even need drinking rules.

I plan on getting a second copy, one of these days.

 

[JohnLynch]

Yeah, but that's been the established lore for FR duergar for ages now so it shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone familiar with FR lore.

But do we really need a write up on them in a book with so little page count? I'd have preferred earth genasi (which have an established history of being in the sword coast region AND they aren't just Dwarven drow).

How is it that people have been clamoring for a player's option book for over a year, with no real additional products to spend their money on... and yet now that it's available, they're claiming they can't afford it? Why didn't any of you actually save 5 bucks a month over the last year so you could buy the book when it came out?

I have no sympathy for anyone who is upset that the book is "too expensive". You had more than enough time to gather the funds to buy it.

Buying this book solely for the crunch IS a waste of money. This is not PHB 2 or Complete Warrior. This is a handful of pages of actual crunch in a book filled with no crunch. People wanting a book of crunch are not serviced by this book.

 

[Jester David]

The thing I don't get is why you introduce a player's guide first instead of an overall campaign guide that will allow a future to read and then develop a campaign to run?

Don't forget, not everyone is familiar with the Realms or D&D for that fact. What they continue to do doesn't make sense when you take player's and DM's together as a whole.

DMs have the adventures. They can build the game sessions with the lore in those, as it describes the relevant locations. Players don't have that same information and have nothing to work with when building their character. Such as what God to worship, what type of elf, names of places, etc.

If a DM needs more to expand an adventure location, then there's FR wiki or PDFs.

 

[Jester David]

Didn't the 4e FR player's guide come out before the DM campaign guide? I could be misremembering but I think that's how they did it.

To be honest, I don't think we will see a DM-oriented campaign guide. We might get another book or two covering other parts of the Realms, but I have a feeling we won't get one that comprehensively details the whole of Faerûn like we have in the past.

IIRC the player's guide came out a month after.
The FR was the GenCon release while the Player's Guide was Sept.

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

"Brutal" is probably a little strong for a 2.5 star review. Basically, it's saying what it does is fine (with some niggling concerns), but doesn't give enough bang for the 40 bucks. I agree, and I don't play FR, so this is off my buy list.

If it had been an Eberron book, I would have paid for that ratio. For an FR book, I need a solid 70-80 pages of crunch to justify $40.

I'm in the same boat...did the rating of Brutal get diminished? This review isn't brutal in the least.
Brutal might have looked something like this:

Ok, why didnt this include a fold-out poster map, or at th bare minimum have the map laid out over 2 pages? for Christ's sake, I am going to have to go see my opthamologist so I can make out where things are with likely a stronger pair odf glasses

The Background section, with the exception of the Far Traveler, is sorely lacking. It's great we have a few more backgrounds,but when it gets to the Suggested Characteristics, in all cases except the Far Traveler, you are just going back to use something different in the Players Handbook.
To WotC I ask: Was it too god-damned hard to come up with more than 6 more personality traits, 6 Ideals, 6 bonds and 6 flaws for 11 new backgrounds? It must of been, because that's all you added!
Oh, yeah lets look at what you did: You just suggest using the tables in the Players Handbook.
Lets look at the Courtier from SCAG: It recommends the Guild Artisan Backgrouind...yeah, because pounding out a set of platemail gauntlets clearly is about th same as the high court politics and intrigue (DERP ALERT).
Lets look a the Bonds:
1. "The workshop where I learned my trade...." Ok, MAYBE the Court could be your "workshop", but that is a stretch
2. "I created a great work for someone.." NOPE, maybe I paid or blackmailed someone to do that....
3. "I owe my guild a great debt...." Great, EXCEPT COURTIERS ARENT IN A GUILD UNLESS THEY HAVE SOMEHOW UNIONIZED
4. "I pursue wealth..." this one is actually ok
5. "One day I will return to my guild and prove I am the greatest artisan of all" SEE #3 ABOVE. ALSO: Why not take the time to just re-write these so they actually fit. "one day i will return to my homeland and prove I am the greatest King/Queen/Leader of all"....absolutely lazy.
6. " I will get revenge on the evil..." maybe a bit workable with again tweaks.

I get that the idea is for me to do the work, BUT SERIOUSLY, if I am paying $40, or even $25 on Amazon for a 160 page book, I want YOU TO DO THE WORK BEFORE HAND WotC.

Also,new Cantrips: YOU ONLY GAVE US 4! WTF!?!?!?!??!
Let me compare: when you were doing 3rd Edition, players could use all the spells in the Player's Handbook (which is a lot) and yet you still managed to add ANOTHER ENTIRE BOOK OF MAGIC SPELLS.
Yet somehow now, despite owning all the IP, you can only manage to come up with 4 cantrips? You might as well have just physically taken a dump in each book before shipping because that at least would of showed more effort on a larger scale.

This is almost the same piece-of-feces quality as Complete Psionics

That is more of what I would consider a "Brutal" review

~Desh

 

[psychophipps]

Don't hold back now, Desh, tell us how you *really* feel...

 

[Sunseeker]

Lets look at the Courtier from SCAG: It recommends the Guild Artisan Backgrouind...yeah, because pounding out a set of platemail gauntlets clearly is about th same as the high court politics and intrigue (DERP ALERT).
Lets look a the Bonds:
1. "The workshop where I learned my trade...." Ok, MAYBE the Court could be your "workshop", but that is a stretch
2. "I created a great work for someone.." NOPE, maybe I paid or blackmailed someone to do that....
3. "I owe my guild a great debt...." Great, EXCEPT COURTIERS ARENT IN A GUILD UNLESS THEY HAVE SOMEHOW UNIONIZED
4. "I pursue wealth..." this one is actually ok
5. "One day I will return to my guild and prove I am the greatest artisan of all" SEE #3 ABOVE. ALSO: Why not take the time to just re-write these so they actually fit. "one day i will return to my homeland and prove I am the greatest King/Queen/Leader of all"....absolutely lazy.
6. " I will get revenge on the evil..." maybe a bit workable with again tweaks.
~Desh

I would like to point out that #2 is not unreasonable, as courtiers, being essentially "administrative assistants" to nobility have more time than your average dirt-farmer to pursue a variety of scholarly studies. They may have produced poetry, a painting, perhaps some treatsie on something, perhaps even ghost-written such things for their nobles. The noble of course gets credit and I think that fits the bond, "I created a great work for my lord who subsequently stole all the credit and didn't give me a pittance!"

Courtiers don't necessarily engage in high-court politics. They're often the whisperers, the gossipers who deal in "Well I heard the other day from the baker that the Queen was buying rye bread and you know what that means. *wink wink nudge nudge*" They ranged everywhere from high court members such as actual nobility to simple scribes and squires.

I think it would be much easier to attack the "courtier" background on the simple fact that it is essentially covered by the "noble" background.

 

[Corpsetaker]

DMs have the adventures. They can build the game sessions with the lore in those, as it describes the relevant locations. Players don't have that same information and have nothing to work with when building their character. Such as what God to worship, what type of elf, names of places, etc.

If a DM needs more to expand an adventure location, then there's FR wiki or PDFs.

I'm afraid those adventures are not substitutes. Sure you can use them to run things in those areas but if you really want to do a campaign around the likes of the Moonsea, or Narfell then you are SOL.

 

[Jester David]

I'm afraid those adventures are not substitutes. Sure you can use them to run things in those areas but if you really want to do a campaign around the likes of the Moonsea, or Narfell then you are SOL.

If you want to do an adventure around another area, you're likely familiar with the Realms.
If you're familiar with the Realms, you likely own a Campaign Guide already.
If you own a Campaign Guide already then you don't *need* a new one as 95% of the content is the same.

I'm sure they're working on one. But that's a long term project, and I imagine they want it done right.