D&D 5E Anyone else feeling "meh" about recent 5e releases?

[Paul Farquhar]

Discworld has newspapers.

 

[Parmandur]

Don't see it, honestly - maybe it's the Newspaper part that's losing me.

(OK, Planescape is anachronistic and WoD-derivative enough that it could have newspapers.)

The Forgotten Realms has printing, and newspapers. And Shifters.

 

[Parmandur]

Heck, one of the official Dragon Heist related steaming games from WotC included a Harper front in Waterdeep disguised as a conspiracy theory tabloid.

 

[Retreater]

I'm just not big on campaign setting books. Honestly there is a ton of story and information, and I have a difficult time piecing it together and bringing it to life. And most of the time there is someone in the group ready to correct me because they've been reading the novels for decades. But to me it's just a bunch of unpronounceable proper nouns - the cities, factions, rulers, and other NPCs all meld together in a meaningless stew of vowels and consonants. I'd likely feel the same way about a Dark Sun, Planescape, Birthright, or Kara-Tur book. I'm just not going to get excited about it.
Now an Eberron adventure path that has all the information about the setting that I need to tell that particular story? A pulp adventure featuring a magical train robbery, going through dinosaur lands, recovering artifacts from a lost war while being pursued by an army of warforged? I would LOVE that. (I don't even know if that's what Eberron is, but you get the idea.)
Or to use a real example. "Curse of Strahd" = yes. "Big ol Ravenloft Campaign Guide" = no.
"Descent into Avernus" is a soft "maybe." If I hear good things about it, I'll probably thumb through it. But it's not a Day One, excited-to-get-it purchase. Hence why I say "meh." Not that these are bad releases (for me). Just not exciting ones.

 

[Greg K]

Well... Xanathars might very well be the single most successful book out side of the core.

What I also find telling is that Xanathar's was popular despite, imo, not setting a very high bar in terms of quality and the amount of worthwhile content-ommv

 

[Parmandur]

What I also find telling is that Xanathar's was popular despite, imo, not setting a very high bar in terms of quality and the amount of worthwhile content-ommv

Disagreed entirely.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

I am happy with the new releases.

I'm really excited at Descent into Avernus: basically a Planescape adventure.

I really like the sandboxy nature of each adventure, rightfully a mini-setting in itself, and the fact that a DM can connect them.

I'm also happy about Eberron - I'm not a huge fan, but at least WotC is beginning to write down different settings.

So I think WotC are on the right path.

 

[S'mon]

Heck, one of the official Dragon Heist related steaming games from WotC included a Harper front in Waterdeep disguised as a conspiracy theory tabloid.

Looking through the Essentials Kit adventure, I noticed they're amping up the Ye Olde West stuff even more than before - the NPC pics especially look like they belong in Deadlands.

 

[S'mon]

Disagreed entirely.

I'm really finding XGTE more and more useful the longer I spend looking through it. May have to start bringing it to my game sessions! Normally I just bring PHB & MM.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The Forgotten Realms has printing, and newspapers.

This is starting to slide from "you should be excited about Eberron" (which, yeah, a bit) towards "you should just forget about the Realms." ;P

Greg K said
What I also find telling is that Xanathar's was popular despite, imo, not setting a very high bar in terms of quality and the amount of worthwhile content-ommv,

Disagreed entirely.

So it /wasn't/ popular?
;P
Seriously, though, X's set a higher bar for amount of worthwhile content (I'm guessing that means player options) than SCAG had.