D&D 5E I just don't see why they even bothered with the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

sleypy said:

The transition to 2e, 4e and 5e, I believe, are the only editions that provide a story justification for mechanics and Class changes.

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There is stuff in 3e too. SKR wrote up some nonsense about dwarves making a comeback in birth rate and now even becoming wizards, in the 3E FRCS to explain the transition from 2E. Subtle things, but rule changes justified with "story" is sprinkled throughout the book.

Yes, 3e has the dwarves having a baby boom, while the elves' exodus to Evermeet is reversed. I think they were trying to get rid of the overt Tolkien references.

Corpsetaker said:

Well the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is here and it's getting pretty mixed reviews from "absolutely love it" to "what is this supposed to be?"

After looking at the book I'm going to have to agree with some people when they say they don't really see where this book belongs. I could see someone who is brand new to the Realms picking it up but I wouldn't say there are many of those since the last Forgotten Realms guide came out during 4th edition.

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There are an awful lot of people playing who skipped 4E, or never played D&D before.

This is what, thread number 3 where you rant about it? Get over it. It's out, it's done, and it's useful to the large portion of D&D AL players, especially those of us GMing who never bothered with the realms before.

The Myopic Sniper said:

My only complaint about the SCAG is that it didn't include a subclass option for each class because of complaints that certain classes were shortchanged by the book, creating some ill will by class partisans even if they are perfectly served by the current subclasses in the PHB. Otherwise, this is the first time I have ever bought a FR themed product. I think the people who are complaining the loudest are simply not the target market for this product. As a players guide, especially to someone new to the Realms, it seems to do the trick for me.

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"Class partisans"? Do we really have those folks? Yes, I suppose we do. Personally, I find it a bit ridiculous to be upset that some classes were treated "unfairly" and didn't get extra splat. I certainly don't miss the days of 3E books filled with splat padding, tons of options that really didn't advance the game and rarely found use.

delericho said:

IMO there are two good ways to use reviews: either find someone whose tastes broadly match your own and see what they have to say (in which case you'd rightly ignore me, and instead read people who don't mind paying for good-enough bacon), or look at lots of reviews and take the aggregate (the "wisdom of crowds" approach). Either approach can work.

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Agreed, both of those are valid ways to approach a set of reviews. I personally tend toward the first, because I'm well aware of ways in which the 'wisdom of crowds' proves not to be all that wise (anything with Monte Cook's name on it, for instance, is going to be over-rated thanks to reviews that are basically, 'it's awesome because Monte!'). Even so, I'm sometimes surprised that someone with whom I have general agreement with end up differing on some specific topic that makes my experience with a product very different from theirs, so even the system I use isn't foolproof.

--
Pauper

I honestly think that the major issue is how many people feel some weird mix of obligation to buy and entitlement to enjoy.

I just got my copy yesterday, and although I've not read all that much of it, I'm not really surprised by what it is. I was aware when I purchased it. It's more a purchase for my group, who I think will get some good use out of it. I certainly didn't need this book, though. Not in the same sense that I need the PHB or MM and so forth.

There seem to be many folks who simply bought this without giving any thought to what it was actually intended to be, and without even considering that they may not get any use from it. And I can almost understand that...you support the hobby, so you have to think about buying anything that comes out.

And that would be fine. I even admit that it was a part of my decision when I bought it. I figured ah why not I'm sure I'll get some use out of it.

What strikes me as odd is the number of people who bought it out of obligation and are upset about the content. The folks who bought without giving it any thought and are now disappointed. That's just odd to me.

Reading the product description or the back cover and a lot of the info you could find online prior to release makes it very clear that this is a book aimed at new players or players new to the Realms. So I just can't feel all that bad for folks who ignored every hint of what the book was going to be, bought it automatically, and is disappointed with the contents.

Specific criticisms like those I've read about they maps, sure, valid. Disappointed that not all the effects of the Sundering are detailed in the book, sure, the book didn't say that stuff wouldn't be included. Let down by the number of player options that are actually presented, fair enough.

But there really wasn't anyone who got tricked into buying this book.

Dire Bare said:

"Class partisans"? Do we really have those folks? Yes, I suppose we do. Personally, I find it a bit ridiculous to be upset that some classes were treated "unfairly" and didn't get extra splat. I certainly don't miss the days of 3E books filled with splat padding, tons of options that really didn't advance the game and rarely found use.

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Considering there is an entire sub-forum ghetto for class partisans, are you really surprised?

delericho said:

Mearls is on record as saying that too many books, of any sort, hurts D&D. Do you think he's lying?

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Impossible to say without a lot more context and definitions then you provided.

Jeff Carlsen said:

It is a book for players who are relatively new to the Realms. They might be new D&D players, or they simply may not have played in the Realms before, or at least never payed much attention to it. For them, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide provides a solid setting primer and some fluff and crunch to help build characters rooted in the setting. It's particularly useful for players taking part in the big storyline adventures.

It's not a DM resource for running your own campaigns. I hope that is still forthcoming.

So the product makes sense, as the audience for it is rather large. Being the kind of people so into D&D that we post on a fan forum, we just aren't it.

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The point about it being useful for characters playing the hardcover adventures is a very major point a lot of people have overlooked. Since all of the adventures have been set in the region, people playing D&D for the first time or combing back for the new edition will, in many cases, be playing them but also will be unfamiliar with the background setting. SCAG gives them and their DMs a lot of useful background information to run the campaigns in a more well-rounded manner, without diluting it by making the book a full FRCS (where the information would be buried among a lot of other info that is relatively useless to them). Now, for them, when one of the adventures mentions a random deity or that an NPC is from a certain place, SCAG will fill them in (for the most part). And it will allow players to develop fuller backgrounds for their characters for the adventures.

Shasarak said:

Impossible to say without a lot more context and definitions then you provided.

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Google is your friend. From this site: http://dlair.net/2015/03/22/lean-mean-rpging-machines/

The original plan appeared to be a supplement to the Player’s Handbook that would include new powers, spells, backgrounds and similar that tied directly into the Elemental Evil adventures. That content, or, at least, parts of it, will now be available for free on the ‘net.

Why the change? According to Mike Mearls, head of Research & Design for D&D, “it’s a huge, open question on what support for the RPG should look like… we do a lot of stuff that may or may not end up as a released product. For instance, we now know that the high volume release schedule for 3e and 4e turned out to be bad for D&D. It wasn’t too many settings that hurt TSR, but too many D&D books of any kind.”

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