D&D 5E (2014) Escapist article on SCAG is Brutal.

[pukunui]

I'm a big fan of the Book Depository too. Not only is delivery free, but it's also generally faster than Amazon's.

 

[MoonSong]

I'm a big fan of the Book Depository too. Not only is delivery free, but it's also generally faster than Amazon's.

I got there because you suggested it. I can't give you enough smiles to repay you...

 

[pukunui]

No worries. Glad I could help someone out!

 

[Mercule]

I think this review actually pushed me a bit closer to buying the book. I picked up the original gray box, read it out, and figured the setting was so stupid and clearly inferior to Greyhawk that it'd fall and not lay beyond the first print run. In the intervening decades, I haven't seen anything to change my opinion of the quality of the setting and I remain baffled that anyone would use it.

But... I don't have to understand to accept that it's here to stay.

This book sounds like it gives just enough information on the Realms to be able to use it. That's perfect, as one of my issues was that the Realms have too much detail. A new DM (or an experienced one with low interest) can pick this up and have a reasonable amount of info to digest without choking, plus some rough outlines of an unknown "yonder" to dangle and mess with. That's truly what the default/assumed setting should be.

Also, there might be just enough information on the Realms in this book to make converting to a setting that doesn't make me gag a bit easier.

The best part is that, because this is (potentially) the right size for a default setting, we might now get support for a different setting.

 

[Parmandur]

The Escapist reviewer lets some weird hangups dominate the review (dislike of the Realms, bitterness over 4E failing, etc). I bought the book, will be forming my own opinion soon enough.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Your review of the review cold use an editor. Like, now.

Muphry's Law strikes again!

BTW I love your screen name. The Brennan monster is my personal hero.

 

[Jester David]

This should have been two books or at least big enough to do the job, its neither. Too much gets left out, too much of what should have been in the book isn't in it. It fails as a campaign setting book for the Forgotten Realms and it fails as a player's guide to the realms type book.
...
If this had been two books or a larger book, and some better choices for proiritizing space had been made this could have been amazing, now its going disappoint many.

These sentences are the crux of the complaint. You (and others) wanted two BIG books. A campaign setting and making a large splatbook. But this very much wasn't that book.
That doesn't mean this is a bad book, just that you're judging it based on what it is not. In a theoretical year 2017 when WotC has released a 300-page FR campaign guide and a larger splatbook for D&D, is this book still bad?

Also, reality check, this book was late. It missed the Out of the Abyss synergy window and start of this season of Adventurer's League. Adding an extra 50-100 pages would have just added weeks to it's release.

I don't blame Green Ronin for this, alot of the writing is good in parts and entertaining as they had the space to make it for the most part, although there is some wtf stuff like why does it have filler content like bard instruments in a book starved for space to begin with as the escapist points out.

I imagine there was a word limit for the bard, or some dead space that needed to be filled. Or a bard archetype got cut and they needed to fill it. Or maybe, just maybe, it was decided there needed to be more information on these instruments, which is absent from the PHB. Right now there's just a list on page 154 of the PHB, which isn't very useful for people who don't know what a shawm or viol is.

If your looking for player content, don't bother they're far less then a plathora of options as the Escapist points out.

Yeah, that was a poor choice of words.

And to top it off you can use the Elemental Evil Companion or SCAG, not both, so you can't be a Goliath Purple Dragon Knight or Undying Warlock because I guess that would be over powered ;p.

I like the limit. It's much easier than the "everything goes" of Living Greyhawk or Living Forgotten Realms where keeping track of all potentially available books for a character was a chore.

The Escapist is right this is a $20 book, but they're charging $50 in Canada +tax.

Except they'd never charge $20 for a book this size. Paizo charges $30 for a 160-page hardcover. $40 is high but in line with the other 5e books's higher price point.

Do everyone a favour and sell D&D, including 5e and the realms to Paizo, but keep the movie rights and stuff, which is the part Hasbro actually cares about.

When has Hasbro every sold anything ever? They wouldn't. At best they'd licence the RPG rights.
But why would Paizo pay money to licence D&D when they can keep doing their own thing for free?

If anyone bought the D&D rights it'd be some small publisher that replies on Kickstarters to get books printed, and they'd likely only manage one book every year.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

The review didn't impress me much. It seemed like the reviewer didn't quite understand what he had in his hands.

I look forward to reviewing this book once I get myself a copy (no later than Christmas, I figure).

 

[JohnLynch]

Interesting review. The first few paragraphs are quite scathing, but once it gets to specifics it's quite heavy handed with it's praise. I've only started reading and I have to agree with the overall feel of the review.

People who will hate this book:
* Established fans who are playing in the 3e era.
* Established fans who are playing in the 2e era.
* People looking for crunch.

This isn't because the book is useless as an overview of the region that can be used to run a game of any time period. It's because 3e and 2e fans likely already have products that detail the regions to a much higher level of detail.

The crunch is little more than a token effort and IMO is not a good reason to plonk down $40 USD if the only thing you are interested in is the crunch.

People who will like this book:
* Established 4e fans running games in the Sword Coast region.
* Established fans running games in the 5e era who are anxious to find out what's changed (SPOILER ALERT: Read the 3e FRCS and chances are you'll have an accurate picture for 75% of the Realms).
* People who've never played in the Forgotten Realms and are either playing in it or want a book filled with settlements they can insert into their homebrew world.

If you go into this book expecting a 3e/2e/1e style of supplement you'll be disappointed. If you go into the book expecting a 3e/4e level of crunch you'll be disappointed. If you go in wanting an overview of the Realms and some inspiration for updating the 4e Realms to a post-Spellplague state, you'll likely be happy.

Note: I've only started reading so this is just my initial view and it could change the more I read.

As I've said elsewhere, this is a player's guide. People should be comparing it to books like 3e's Player's Guide to Faerûn and 4e's Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, not to campaign setting guides.

This is only a first impressions view, but I strongly disagree. There is not enough crunch in this book to make a comparison to the 4e FRPG a favourable comparison. Unlike Pathfinder or 4th Ed this is not a book where everyone needs to own it. This is a "maximum of 1 per table" supplement. I'll be advising my players not to buy it. Any fluff they want I can put on the campaign wiki. Any mechanics they want I can let them copy from the book in 5 minutes. If someone is ultra desperate to read it, they can borrow mine for a couple of weeks (with the caveat that all descriptions of outside the Sword Coast are based on rumour and hearsay and do not present an accurate view of the region).

This book (again, first impressions) most definitely embraces 5th edition's less is more philosophy. While that might be great for mechanics, fans of 3e supplements or 2e supplements will be sorely disappointed. This is aimed squarely at brand new fans with some limited appeal to fans of earlier editions.

 

[pukunui]

This is only a first impressions view, but I strongly disagree. There is not enough crunch in this book to make a comparison to the 4e FRPG a favourable comparison.

The amount of crunch is beside the point. It's the style of the thing. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is more in the *style* of the PGtF and FRPG than the FRCS or FRCG. It's intended more for players. Yes, it might not have enough stuff in it for some people's tastes, but that doesn't mean it wasn't designed as a player's guide, rather than a full campaign setting.

For those of you who have read the whole thing: Do you think it does what it was advertised to do?