D&D 5E (2014) I just don't see why they even bothered with the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

[Dausuul]

I think RSEs are silly, but it's a tradition at this point. Every time you introduce a new edition of D&D, you have to blow up the Forgotten Realms. It's just what you do.

 

[Pauper]

Not really. Being ambushed with "bacon is extra" might well be enough of a nasty surprise to sour the whole breakfast experience - and that regardless of how much extra it is, or how crispy the bacon turns out to be.

Well, that's a valid response when determining whether you feel the breakfast is good or not by your own standards. But when you're putting a review together, you have a responsibility to deal in more than just your own personal opinion.

For instance, I'm not the sort of person who gets bothered by paying more for bacon if it's good enough bacon -- but if your review just says 'bacon extra -- 2 stars' and doesn't say anything about the bacon itself, then it's not relevant to me and I can't really use the information you're providing. All you're doing is speaking to the people who agree with you that spending extra money on bacon is stupid no matter how good the bacon is.

Your two-star review doesn't really add anything to the discussion; all you're saying is, 'I didn't like this because REASONS'. You can like or dislike something for whatever reason you want, but if you expect anyone else to take your opinion seriously, you should at least make an attempt to support your position with something other than REASONS.

--
Pauper

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

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.

 

[Remathilis]

I think RSEs are silly, but it's a tradition at this point. Every time you introduce a new edition of D&D, you have to blow up the Forgotten Realms. It's just what you do.

2e to 3e didn't have one, unless you count Bane's return. Certainly, nothing in the level of ToT, Spellplague, or Sundering...

 

[delericho]

But to run with the analogy....imagine the bacon got to the table and then said "hey, I cost extra and I'm really tasty and delicious, but also high in fat content"...if someone then decided to get the bacon, wouldn't that be their choice?

It depends - if they reasonably believed going in that the bacon was included, and then found it was extra, that's reason enough to complain. On the other hand, if the breakfast deal had "BACON IS EXTRA" is big honking letters, then that's on them.

Unfortunately, of course, most situations lie somewhere between the two extremes.

Well, that's a valid response when determining whether you feel the breakfast is good or not by your own standards. But when you're putting a review together, you have a responsibility to deal in more than just your own personal opinion.

Nope. I'm reviewing it based on my breakfast experience. I can't do anything else - after all, it's equally possible that I had the breakfast on the one day they actually cooked it right. If my breakfast experience is ruined because I was ambushed by a bacon surcharge, it's entirely valid that goes into my review.

And, equally, if you happen to arrive on the day they have the "bacon free today!" special, that's almost certainly going into your review - probably even if you try to adjust for it.

That's why aggregate reviews are useful: you're "bacon free today" experience negates my "bacon surcharge" one.

For instance, I'm not the sort of person who gets bothered by paying more for bacon if it's good enough bacon -- but if your review just says 'bacon extra -- 2 stars'

Sure, I get that.

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.

 

[Reinhart]

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

Lying? No. He's likely stating a fact: If they spend more on D&D books and it causes their ROI to drop, then their budget might shrink further. That doesn't mean it's his ideal preference though. Plus, his job is more focused on promotion and brand management now. It's literally part of his job to express the policy as positively as possible.

 

[JeffB]

Im enjoying all this bacon talk...somewhere Jim Gaffigans ears are burning...

Mmmmmmm......Bacon

 

[Reinhart]

Let's not put this on Hasbro's doorstep. Hasbro has nothing to do with this. Wizards of the Coast? Sure. They have budgets on how much they give to the D&D department... but saying Hasbro executives are concerned about the money spent on D&D is like saying they are concerned about how much the Nerf folks are spending on nerf shooters versus nerf balls. The only people who care about that level of detail are those who run the Nerf brand.

That's fair. I'm just trying to make it clear that there are natural tensions between the executives setting the goals and signing the paychecks and the developers working on the products. They may all want to do what's best for the company, but that doesn't mean they all perfectly agree and want the same things. Life's messy.

 

[sleypy]

2e to 3e didn't have one, unless you count Bane's return. Certainly, nothing in the level of ToT, Spellplague, or Sundering...

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

 

[Fishing_Minigame]

Up until we started getting more information about the contents, I had been hoping that the SCAG would be detailed enough that I could use it as my primary source on the Realms instead of having to dig around 20+ years of material. As is, its got enough information to be useful, but not enough to be essential.

I really do understand that they have a skeleton crew maintaining the game, but the current release rate is frustrating. Sure, we might get a bigger campaign guide next year, but that's a good 20-50 game sessions away. Will I still even need one by then? Who knows.

Its certainly fun to read though. I would buy a book that just consisted of sidebar tales about the various deities.