New Forgotten Realms designed by FR haters?

[Uzzy]

To be fair on the FR designers, they did respond to the fans in one issue. Someone mentioned that Tyr was silly, and gave some reasons as to why that was. Rich Baker agreed.. and they killed off Tyr. Go team.

Anyway, you are being sarcastic there, jdrakeh? Right? >.>

 

[Shemeska]

But. . . but. . . the GHotR was received very positively, wasn't it? I mean, with very few exceptions. Why would WotC want to change that?

The GHotR was received very positively, or perhaps more specifically the text that Brian James and Ed Greenwood wrote got nearly monolithic praise.

Two exceptions to the praise however, but none of them reflect on the great job that James and Greenwood did:

1) The fact that outside of a map or two, virtually every piece of artwork was recycled, and one picture had nothing to do with the scene it was supposed to have been illustrating (the death of a dragon was instead illustrated by a picture of an Eberron warforged being repaired).

2) The several lines of 4e FR events that were tacked on at the very end of the book, which as I understand it, were added on to the text by the WotC design team and were not produced by James or Greenwood. Those few lines of text talking about the 4e death of Mystra and several other gods were met with a rather large torrent of protest.

 

[jdrakeh]

Two exceptions to the praise however, but none of them reflect on the great job that James and Greenwood did:

1) The fact that outside of a map or two, virtually every piece of artwork was recycled, and one picture had nothing to do with the scene it was supposed to have been illustrating (the death of a dragon was instead illustrated by a picture of an Eberron warforged being repaired).

2) The several lines of 4e FR events that were tacked on at the very end of the book, which as I understand it, were added on to the text by the WotC design team and were not produced by James or Greenwood. Those few lines of text talking about the 4e death of Mystra and several other gods were met with a rather large torrent of protest.

Those must have been pretty minor complaints outside all but the most diehard fan communities. I don't recall too many people complaining about either of those things here, for example (in fact, based on ENWorld feedback alone, I was pretty convinced that the book was nothing short of perfect).

 

[JoeGKushner]

Those must have been pretty minor complaints outside all but the most diehard fan communities. I don't recall too many people complaining about either of those things here, for example (in fact, based on ENWorld feedback alone, I was pretty convinced that the book was nothing short of perfect).

I disagree.

I'll agree to the two bones of contention against it and add a third.

Price.

This was material free off the net (for the most part) with reused art and unlike the Rules Compendium, where the rules being reprinted was actually noticible in the lowered cover price, the Grand History was a cash grab in it's full price.

As a reference work, it's a great piece though. Hard to bash the whole utility of it based off the destruction of three previous settings worth of material in a few pages.

 

[D'karr]

I disagree.

I'll agree to the two bones of contention against it and add a third.

Price.

This was material free off the net (for the most part) with reused art and unlike the Rules Compendium, where the rules being reprinted was actually noticible in the lowered cover price, the Grand History was a cash grab in it's full price.

As a reference work, it's a great piece though. Hard to bash the whole utility of it based off the destruction of three previous settings worth of material in a few pages.

According to some WotC could have charge $2.00 for the book and it would have been a cash grab. That complaint is leveled at them at least once a month.

 

[JoeGKushner]

According to some WotC could have charge $2.00 for the book and it would have been a cash grab. That complaint is leveled at them at least once a month.

Perhaps if there hadn't been something of a direct correlation between two books coming out at exactly the same time I'd be more "yeah, internet rage" as opposed to thinking it a cash grab myself.

1. Rules Compendium: 160 pages, reused art, great utility; $26.95

2. Grand History: 160 pages, mostly taken from the net, reused (and inappropriate art), great utiliyt; $29.95.

Minor price difference overall, but it screams cash grab to me.

 

[jdrakeh]

Anyway, you are being sarcastic there, jdrakeh? Right? >.>

About the GHotR being a smash hit? No. I absolutely thought it was a smash hit based on fan response here at ENWorld, at RPGNet, and at the WotC forums. I mean, I do recall the usual five or six members of the "WotC killed my puppy!" crowd screaming that it was horrible but, outside of that, I recall the response being overall positive.

I don't recall any of this supposedly widespread outrage about the 4e content therein or the price of the book or anything else being trotted out in this thread. I recall the product receiving high marks frome people who weren't wearing their unfettered hatred of WotC on their sleeves.

Somebody suggested that WotC should have changed this and I honestly wondered why they'd want to. Why would you want to change a product to ignore the demands of the many and, instead, cater to the demands of the few? That makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

[Shemeska]

Somebody suggested that WotC should have changed this and I honestly wondered why they'd want to. Why would you want to change a product to ignore the demands of the many and, instead, cater to the demands of the few? That makes absolutely no sense to me.

You've said something like this twice now and it really miscatagorizes what folks have complained about, or just completely ignores what people have made complaints about in this thread itself. The only complaints the book really had were the massive recycling of artwork and the page of 4e material tacked awkwardly into the back of the book. Nobody has suggested that anything else needed to be changed, nor that the vast majority of the text of the GHotR was anything other than good.

 

[D'karr]

Minor price difference overall, but it screams cash grab to me.

Because printing a color, hardbound book that will probably have "less" demand than a core book is not cheap.

If the book had been $50 then I could see a cash grab, but not for what you posted.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Because printing a color, hardbound book that will probably have "less" demand than a core book is not cheap.

If the book had been $50 then I could see a cash grab, but not for what you posted.

So when every other book is 160 pages for the same price, even though they have less demand than a core book...? Not following the arguement. If saying that they charged more than they did for a "core book" then why are all of the other core books not cheaper than the $29.95 price tag?