New "Lore On Giants" Preview from Volo's Guide to Monsters

There's a new preview of the upcoming Volo's Guide to Monsters available from WotC. This one-page preview contains traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws for NPC giants. This joins the previous preview, which features the book's preface from Volo. The 224-page hardcover book lists stores on November 15th (and, presumably, preferred stores 11 days earlier on November 4th).

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[MonsterEnvy]

But we don't need that information in a book. It's already ingrained in our culture. Whether they've read Tolkien or played Warcraft, everyone knows how to roleplay an orc.

K then tell me what the Culture of the orc is like in FR. And how to roleplay a Yuan Ti and a Kobold.

 

[bedir than]

But we don't need that information in a book. It's already ingrained in our culture. Whether they've read Tolkien or played Warcraft, everyone knows how to roleplay an orc.

The assumption that new people never play DnD, or that old people don't return after decades away, isn't accurate. Those types aren't going to know the new assumptions about cultures or settings. Those are the people that grow the game.

Those are the people that something like Volo's appeals to.

Someone who has played weekly for the past decade probably does not. Then again, they probably have the books from those 10 years of playing and can convert monsters from them.

 

[Edwin Suijkerbuijk]

What are you even talking about. What is your complaint about this page.

My complaint would be the following:
the traits ideals bonds and flaws presented asume things about giants ( that might be true for giants in forgotten realms)
But might not fit the idea I have about giants for my homebrew campaign, and thus is just a waste of space.
This will clearly be a forgotten realms product so that is on for a forgotten realms product.

but some people might like something more generic product, where they don't have to stip of the layers of forgotten realms thinking before they get to the parts they can use.

 

[Jester David]

But we don't need that information in a book. It's already ingrained in our culture. Whether they've read Tolkien or played Warcraft, everyone knows how to roleplay an orc.

So which best describes D&D orcs: elves corrupted by a fallen angel under the earth, or shamanistic refugees from an extraplanar world destroyed by demons?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

My complaint would be the following:
the traits ideals bonds and flaws presented asume things about giants ( that might be true for giants in forgotten realms)
But might not fit the idea I have about giants for my homebrew campaign, and thus is just a waste of space.
This will clearly be a forgotten realms product so that is on for a forgotten realms product.

but some people might like something more generic product, where they don't have to stip of the layers of forgotten realms thinking before they get to the parts they can use.

Then the entire entry on giants in the monster manual is a waste of space for you. As it makes the same assumptions as this page does about stuff like the Ordening. This matches the generic lore for giants. So unless everything related to giants in D&D is a waste of space for you then your complaint is invalid.

 

[Prakriti]

So which best describes D&D orcs: elves corrupted by a fallen angel under the earth, or shamanistic refugees from an extraplanar world destroyed by demons?

I repeat: everyone knows how to roleplay an orc. You do not need an indepth knowledge of the orc's evolutionary history to grunt and gnash your teeth effectively.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I repeat: everyone knows how to roleplay an orc. You do not need an indepth knowledge of the orc's evolutionary history to grunt and gnash your teeth effectively.

Huh so you don't know how to roleplay a D&D Orc.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I repeat: everyone knows how to roleplay an orc.

My cousin didn't when he started D&D.

Actually, to be honest, when I started D&D I didn't know how to role-play an orc - the only orc exposure I'd had by that point was very limited, and I never thought "I'll just make every orc basically exactly like the handful that are given any kind of personality in that one part of the Lord of the Rings book that I don't really remember all that well", so I had a complete lack of any sense that I knew what I was doing.

Luckily, the monster manual at the time took the couple of pages that it did to mention some relevant things about orcs, and I was able to figure it out from there.

 

[DragonBelow]

I repeat: everyone knows how to roleplay an orc. You do not need an indepth knowledge of the orc's evolutionary history to grunt and gnash your teeth effectively.

Sounds like you would benefit from a book like this.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Given that Orcs are going to be a player race it will likley talk about Many Arrows the Orc Kingdom in the forgotten Realms that is pretty interesting.