When the Sword Coast book was first announced it was presented as--or at least interpreted by the community as--more of a setting book. [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION]'s announcement said "the first official 5E setting." Now it seems that it isn't quite that, that it is more of a combination of theme, splat, and setting book, with the setting part being tertiary to the player-focused splat and theme stuff. Is that correct?
We really don't know. They haven't said. We don't know the size of the book (likely 160-pages since it's... ahem... only $39.95 compared to the $49.95 the 256-page adventures are) or the ration of crunch to lore.
It also seems like this replaces the earlier elemental adventurer's book that was cancelled. Perhaps they wanted it less focused on PotA and more for general use in the entire Sword Coast region?
Green Ronin staff have stated that this book is entirely new. So if it did replace the Adventurer's Handbook, it did so before much work was done on the concept.
Anyhow, if this really is more of a player's guide, would it be jumping the gun to assume that a DM's book will be forthcoming in 2016, perhaps a full treatment of the Realms as a whole? It would just seem odd to put out a book for players that is not a true setting treatment, without a follow-up setting book.
Yes, it would be jumping the gun.
So far, WotC has proved they are doing things nothing if not differently.
Plus, WotC no longer really have the staff to write any books, and are licencing out every product. So they'd have to find a company capable of writing said giant campaign guide. Green Ronin is exhausting themselves with the current storyline and all their Fantasy Age stuff, while Sasquatch Games and Kobold Press are busy with their own campaign settings and Kickstarters. I'm not sure who'd have the time to add on another giant book.
I like this formula for settings:
*Core book for DMs - a $50 mega-book, ala the 3E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book.
*Players' "adventurer guides" for specific regions, e.g. Sword Coast, but perhaps eventually Dalelands and adjoining areas, and other regions; these would be based upon the story arcs as they come out.
Each adventurers guide could cover a large area. If Sword Coast includes Waterdeep, the North, and the Silver Marches, that's quite a lot of ground right there. The Dalelands book could include Anauroch, Cormyr, Sembia, and the Moonsea.
Maybe one such setting-oriented book a year, like so:
2015: Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
2016: Forgotten Realms setting "DM's book"
2017: Dalelands Adventurer's Guide
First, if the FR book is a mega-book it'd likely be over 300-pages and thus $60. Be warned. For $50 you get 250-odd pages.
Second, they seem to be setting their storylines in the Sword Coast. So expanding to the Dales or Cormyr is unneeded as none of their stories are set there. They could expand into the Moonsea region, where the Adventurer's League content is set and provide options for that, but that would get in the way of the adventurer writers making their own content and "owning" the region.
Third, if the books are mostly aimed at players, other than setting lore, what else could they put in a book for the Dales that they couldn't put in a Sword Coast book? There'd be a crazy overlap of backgrounds, races, classes, feats, etc. That'd be a terrible way of differentiating content. If looking for a, say, a Thayan Refugee background neither book is different enough to help tell you where to look. If you cannot find content you want when you need it, the books are more of a hindered than blessing.
