D&D General How is Lore & Legends?

[Dire Bare]

I'm shocked that folks are shocked that Lore & Legends, a book published by WotC about the current edition of the game takes a positive view of the game and its development.

Like, what were you expecting? The inside scoop and rants against the suits in charge at Hasbro?

Art & Arcana, and the upcoming "The Making of" can afford to be more critical because there is more distance between the D&D of today and the early days under TSR's stewardship. Even WotC is almost an entirely different company today than it was when it first acquired TSR and developed 3rd Edition.

I'm enjoying the book and I'm glad I picked it up. I'm not finished with it yet, but so far, it's an interesting and fun read. Yes, I enjoyed Art & Arcana better, but Lore & Legends is a nice follow-up.

 

[Burnside]

I'm shocked that folks are shocked that Lore & Legends, a book published by WotC about the current edition of the game takes a positive view of the game and its development.

Like, what were you expecting? The inside scoop and rants against the suits in charge at Hasbro?

Art & Arcana, and the upcoming "The Making of" can afford to be more critical because there is more distance between the D&D of today and the early days under TSR's stewardship. Even WotC is almost an entirely different company today than it was when it first acquired TSR and developed 3rd Edition.

I'm enjoying the book and I'm glad I picked it up. I'm not finished with it yet, but so far, it's an interesting and fun read. Yes, I enjoyed Art & Arcana better, but Lore & Legends is a nice follow-up.

It's not that we were expecting negativity. It's that we were expecting more insight/insider info on creating the adventures and products than one would get from the already-released public-facing marketing copy fluff. Which you DO get in the one chapter about the DNDNext playtest, but the rest of it is just repurposed marketing copy. It doesn't read as if they even went back and spoke to the product creators specifically for this book; they just used the hype material from the time of each book's release.

Even by the standards of a company-produced "making-of" book, it's thin and lazy on the writing side. It does serve well as a compilation art book.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

It does serve well as a compilation art book.

Pretty sure this was the main intention.

 

[Burnside]

Pretty sure this was the main intention.

That's fine. I was responding to the off-base "Oh my God, how could you guys expect a muck-raking expose" post above, when of course nobody was expecting that, and nobody in this thread had expressed "shock" that we didn't get it.

We just wanted, you know, something more interesting than this book.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm shocked that folks are shocked that Lore & Legends, a book published by WotC about the current edition of the game takes a positive view of the game and its development.

Like, what were you expecting? The inside scoop and rants against the suits in charge at Hasbro?

You should expect more, even from a hagiography.

The authors of L&L are absolutely slobbering over the shoes of WotC execs in this, and not even in a way that illuminates, the way a Walter Isaacson biography would. He's not nearly critical enough of Elon Musk or Steve Jobs, for instance, but at least he uses that access to learn something.

All that might one learn from L&L is that any criticisms you might have of 5E were clearly you misunderstanding what you read, because it's all wonderful. I could have unmuted some folks on this board if I'd wanted that.

 

[Stormonu]

30 Years of Adventure was more even-handed than L&L is. A&A was pretty frank at times, while still being overall positive. I just don't see why L&L couldn't have taken a more humble and informative approach to the state of 5E and behind the curtain side of 5E (and it would have been nice to see more of the latter) - in 10-15 years its going (if not already) to be cringey reading because of the sickly-sweet self-love of itself it shows at times. Don't get me wrong, it's worth a read but you definitely can tell they are not only putting their best suit on, best foot forward, but they're hiding all the ugly warts under the rug. The book could be more honest about the game and the hobby, warts and all - and still show that 5E was a pretty damn good success.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

30 Years of Adventure was more even-handed than L&L is. A&A was pretty frank at times, while still being overall positive. I just don't see why L&L couldn't have taken a more humble and informative approach to the state of 5E and behind the curtain side of 5E (and it would have been nice to see more of the latter) - in 10-15 years its going (if not already) to be cringey reading because of the sickly-sweet self-love of itself it shows at times. Don't get me wrong, it's worth a read but you definitely can tell they are not only putting their best suit on, best foot forward, but they're hiding all the ugly warts under the rug. The book could be more honest about the game and the hobby, warts and all - and still show that 5E was a pretty damn good success.

Exactly. 5E has been an astounding success. Acknowledging that they didn't hit a home run every time they were at bat doesn't diminish that -- it makes the rest of the book more credible by being clearly honest and transparent.

 

[mamba]

Exactly. 5E has been an astounding success. Acknowledging that they didn't hit a home run every time they were at bat doesn't diminish that -- it makes the rest of the book more credible by being clearly honest and transparent.

I guess we will have to wait for Jon Peterson or some other independent book for that. They have dug into OD&D to 1e, time to do the same for 3e to 5e

 

[Parmandur]

I guess we will have to wait for Jon Peterson or some other independent book for that. They have dug into OD&D to 1e, time to do the same for 3e to 5e

This was Jon Peterson.

 

[mamba]

This was Jon Peterson.

He may have written it, but I see that as WotC contract work, not as his book. I would expect him to go much more in depth in his own book, without heaping praise on everything.

Well, he is about to release a new Playing at the World, this time titled part 1, so there is hope he gets around to 3e and on in a year or two

https://www.amazon.com/Playing-World-2E-Invention-Histories/dp/0262548771/