D&D 5E Should You Buy The Setting Books Regardless?

[Dausuul]

I pretty much always run homebrew settings, but I will buy setting material from settings that I like. Sometimes there's material that I want to use, but mostly I just enjoy reading the books. One of the things I love about 5E is that they realized how many of us buy D&D books, not to use them, but to read them.

Since magipunk has never been my thing, I am unlikely to buy the Eberron book. But I'd snap up a Dark Sun book in a heartbeat.

 

[SkidAce]

I have bought every single one so far.

They have all had pieces that I stole to use in my homebrew of 30+ years.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I bought the Eberron book because of a Black Friday sale. Even though I initially had no interest in using it, people online encouraged me to give it a try. And unsurprisingly, I am underwhelmed. I might be able to pick through and use about 10% of the product.

Huh. I can’t imagine only finding 10% of that book usable. Patrons, the new items, the new monsters, and the PC options, are all outright excellent. The advice on running adventures is also solid.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Setting books are tricky because I want to support setting books, but I wouldn't buy them if I didn't know the world. In my experience, people want to play Dragonlance not because I said it's cool, but probably because they read the Legend of the Twins and Chronicles trilogies. I have no interest in Eberron because, without having read novels, I don't feel I could make it come alive and breathe (even having played D&D Online, set in Eberron).

The Eberron novels are largely really good, if that helps.

Although, the perspective of needing to read novels to make a setting come alive is very surprising to me.

 

[toucanbuzz]

@doctorbadwolf It's not a necessity, but it helps me, including authors like the late Robert Jordan who made his locales come alive more than any other writer I've come across. I also feel whatever people are reading or watching influences what they want to play. My previous group had two amateur fiction writers, and when they began writing gothic detective noir (and one player published a horror-themed module), it was two hands up for Curse of Strahd when we began talking what to run next. To get into Strahd, to get the mists, to get the people, I picked up my old Ravenloft novels (the good ones), and read them.

Cycling back to Eberron, having not read any novels or literature, my excitement level is "meh." However, I don't fault WOTC for putting it out. It was a popular setting when first published and a lot of people have setting material they can recycle with just a little update.

 

[Retreater]

Huh. I can’t imagine only finding 10% of that book usable. Patrons, the new items, the new monsters, and the PC options, are all outright excellent. The advice on running adventures is also solid.

I'm not a player - I'm a DM. So I likely won't use the PC options. Maybe the other stuff will be usable at a later date?

 

[tetrasodium]

I'm not a player - I'm a DM. So I likely won't use the PC options. Maybe the other stuff will be usable at a later date?

Patrons spans 38 pages & adventure building spans 92 pages. Put in perspective, one of the first eberron previews was done by someone who admitted not being very into eberron but kept saying stuff like "oh my god, why is this not in the dmg/core books". The patrons are not just a list of eberron factions & loot tables you can pick from, they are a whole system of dials & knobs you & your players can use as a gm to add depth while interacting with various systems like economy/plot/treasure/resources/etc

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think it's fair to say that if setting books do well, we'll see more setting books. I doubt we'll ever get to 2e proliferation levels (nor should we), but money speaks.

For me, I bought it, though I'm not running an Eberron campaign. For me, there's plenty of stuff to pillage (same with Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica). But even beyond that, anything can be fodder for imagination. You never know what might inspire you. The more you have to draw on, the greater the creative fires.

 

[Sadras]

Personally, I'd probably purchase many setting books
Realms, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Planescape and Mystara (one can only dream) but I would not purchase setting books I actively have no interest in just for the sake of support and to hopefully have them do a setting book I do care about.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think it's fair to say that if setting books do well, we'll see more setting books.

I think that's an important point. The 3rd edition Forgotten Realms book it as boring as [expletive] to read, and SCAG isn't much better. But Eberron Rising is an entertaining read irrespective of if I use it in the game or not.