D&D 5E Xanathar's Guide to Everything -- new mechanical expansion/UA book! -- November 10 with a limited-edition cover by Hydro74

[OrganicDnD]

Tales From the Yawning Portal - where is that portal located, again?

What setting is Volo from again?

I'll give you one product not explicitly linked to the Realms in one way or another. One.

When even products that have no overriding reason to be linked to the Realms are (Monsters, Everything) then it's a reasonable conclusion that D&D supplements have basically become the FR rpg.

Who cares. Forgotten realms is awesome. Although, I'm pretty sure we're in Planescape with FR being the prime plane and future supplements being other planes. It's all connected now, get off that old way of thinking.

 

[Zaukrie]

Almost three pages on wotc business and realms hate. So. Damn. Tedious.

 

[Jester David]

Tales From the Yawning Portal - where is that portal located, again?

What setting is Volo from again?

I'll give you one product not explicitly linked to the Realms in one way or another. One.

When even products that have no overriding reason to be linked to the Realms are (Monsters, Everything) then it's a reasonable conclusion that D&D supplements have basically become the FR rpg.

One's all it takes.
30% of the adventures haven't been entirely set on the Realms. Even odds the one next spring won't as well.

Volo's Guide is linked to the Realms via the title and the introduction. That's pretty much it. The rest, including the monster entries (and especially their gods) is generic D&D/ Greyhawk. You're complaining about A PAGE. In a 225-page book. That's 0.5%!

Ditto Tales from the Yawning Portal. Most of the adventure retain their original setting. And the Yawning Portal was just a name. Chosen at the last minute because they couldn't think of a better one.


The Realms is fine because it's generic. You can just dump it in your world easily enough. It's not like anyone is complaining about Pathfinder doing books and adventures not set in Golarion.

They don't need to go to Greyhawk of Mystara just to do a story there. If they're doing a story in greyhawk, it should be a story that can only be told in Greyhawk. That's needless. The point of using the Realms is to avoid just having to make up a setting or having blank names.
It's not like WotC not using Dragonlance is causing your books to explode on your shelf. And as a Ravenloft fan (and having seen how much they care about adhering to Realmslore), I can tell you that you probably don't want them setting a storyline in your favouite setting.

 

[Shasarak]

Xanathar's Guide to Everything confirmed -- November release! The picture we saw yesterday is the limited-edition cover by Hydro74. Apparently Xanathar is enamored with his pet goldfish, which is represented on the cover.

That is a relief!

 

[buzzardoftheages]

And as a Ravenloft fan (and having seen how much they care about adhering to Realmslore), I can tell you that you probably don't want them setting a storyline in your favouite setting.

I played 1e/2e in my formative years and did not return to the fold until 5e reignited my spark. I ran the original I6 in my youth and am currently DM'ing CoS, thoroughly enjoying the nostalgia and expanded Barovian sandbox. What about Curse bothers you? To me, it's just a more fully fleshed out version of the original. If that's your gripe, that it's not something new, I can understand your disappointment. If it's something else, I am genuinely curious about your issues with it.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Ditto Tales from the Yawning Portal. Most of the adventure retain their original setting. And the Yawning Portal was just a name. Chosen at the last minute because they couldn't think of a better one.

I'm hugely baffled by those who try to claim that TftYP is a FR product. Lost Shrine, White Plume Mountain, Against the Giants, and Tomb of Horrors are stated to be from Greyhawk in the text. Sunless Citadel, while being 3e and not explicitly Greyhawk, still has references to Pelor. Only Forge of Fury is really setting neutral, and only Dead in Thay is explicitly set in the Realms. So with one dungeon and the introduction (and even there they give a reasonable Greyhawk alternative) set in the Realms, and with four, arguably five, dungeons set in Greyhawk, it's still somehow a completely FR product. Interesting math going on there...

 

[Demetrios1453]

That is a relief!

Hmm, what is a relief? That the Xanathar is enamored with his pet goldfish? Or that there are alternative covers?

 

[Mistwell]

By waffling...?

I mean, it's not as if WotC is shy about releasing as little crunch for your dollar as they think they get away with... Neither SCAG not Volo was exactly a good deal for the DM that doesn't need another truckload of just words (as opposed to cold hard game crunch)


Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

Did you...just complain about words in a book?

 

[Jester David]

I played 1e/2e in my formative years and did not return to the fold until 5e reignited my spark. I ran the original I6 in my youth and am currently DM'ing CoS, thoroughly enjoying the nostalgia and expanded Barovian sandbox. What about Curse bothers you? To me, it's just a more fully fleshed out version of the original. If that's your gripe, that it's not something new, I can understand your disappointment. If it's something else, I am genuinely curious about your issues with it.

Lots of nitpicks.
Ravenloft was my campaign setting of choice, and CoS really pillages the setting to expand out that adventure.

Little things like how VanRichten was involved with events, even though the names and dates would have occurred a century before his birth. And how he was involved in the outright murder of several Vistani. And how he burned his notes, despite being most famous for writing books.
There was the defining of the Dark Powers as vestiges in the Amber Temple (defining them was always the BIG no-no of the setting).
And Strahd being significantly more evil prior to making the pact: killing paladins and a silver dragon and waging a war of conquest.
Madame Eva not being a true Vistani and her background being radically different.
And the Morninglord being a much more pronounced religion in the land or-dating Barovia being swallowed by the Mists rather than a cult founded significantly after.

I'm sure there are others, but those are what I recall off the top of my head.

Given how they handled the setting, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they did an Eberron adventure about the bearers of the 13th dragon mark being revealed as being responsible for the Day of Mourning...

 

[Mistwell]

It's not generate more sales it's because they don't have the staff to do more, so they have to merge the DM and the Player book.

They could easily outsource more books if they wanted to. They don't want to.