D&D 5E The case for (and against) a new Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book

[Ash Mantle]

I would LOVE a book just on various factions.

You betcha. We should have a club. I find factions way more useful than the standard political/geographical info. I mean you still need maps and you still need to know who's in charge, and maybe a soupcon of history, but it's really who wants what at what cost, and who wants something different, and why that makes them enemies that really bring a setting to life. In the case of the Realms, its some of the factions that are the truly international entities, so making use of that would be sensible, IMO anyway.

Oh, to go back to the heady days of Cloak and Dagger Imagine an update of that superlative supplement, and include faction mechanics like they have in Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, include faction interactions, include NPC statbooks, and then include all Forgotten Realms factions! That'll truly bring the setting to life, and make it seem like a living, breathing world.

 

[The Green Hermit]

No, those books do include a lot of information on local Settings to spin off into further adventures. The Setting info in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is far more in-depth than the Waterdeep section of the FRCS.

I'm starting to think I need to buy this book before I get to Waterdeep in ToD.

 

[Aldarc]

I mentioned, earlier, my extreme disdain for the Realms. A very small amount of that is actually not caring for some parts of what was in the 1E gray box. But, I played, quite happily, in a Realms game with that structure. Really, what fries me about the Realms is that there is so much freaking information that I genuinely don't see how anyone can actually work with the thing and have a life. It seems that you could put together a four year undergraduate program on the Realms and still leave room for a masters. That's great, if your actual hobby is studying the setting (like, say, some do with Tolkien). My hobby is playing the game. In that regard, Forgotten Realms fails to give me what I need to play -- flexibility and manageability.

This is one reason why I became enamored with the Nentir Vale. It mostly works as a fill-in-the-blank GM toolkit with a vague sense of history and lore. I have used it several times as the backdrop for 5e adventures.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm starting to think I need to buy this book before I get to Waterdeep in ToD.

It is actually useful for that, yes!

 

[Xenonnonex]

Ok, so they look for more information, and they look through SCAG, finding no mention of Ubtao. Then they read ToA, and learn that Ubtao left his people because he "grew angry over his worshipers' endless warring" and their "reliance on him to solve all their problems". Ubtao is not worshiped in Chult. Waukeen, Gond, Savras, Sune, and Tymora are.

Keep reading. "To this day the dinosaurs of Chult are still revered as Ubtao's children. Ubtao is no longer popular."
Not he is not worshipped. Saying he is not worshipped in your home game is fine. Saying he is not worshipped in other games is irrelevant.

The 3e FRCS has no stats of domains for Amaunator, but if I want to run a game using FRCS and feature Amaunator, is the book an incomplete source since it lacks the info I need?

Yes. Because the claim by the 3e FRCS is bullshite. It does not "contain all the details you need to play in FR". Even the responses in this thread think that claim is bullshite.

 

[Xenonnonex]

Also, quite frankly, they don't have ENOUGH information. I run my games purely from published settings. However, I want to know more about the towns we pass through. I want more maps. I want more possible adventure hooks in case my players go off the intended path.

Definitely agree.


Trying to claim ToA "has everything you need to run adventures in Chult" for all of us is nonsense.

 

[DEFCON 1]

How about we just all agree to change the statement to "Tomb of Annihilation has everything a certain type of player might need to run adventures in Chult, while other types of players will find it lacking"... and then all of us move on?

 

[Xenonnonex]

How about we just all agree to change the statement to "Tomb of Annihilation has everything a certain type of player might need to run adventures in Chult, while other types of players will find it lacking"... and then all of us move on?

Goddamn we need to move on.

 

[Mercule]

This is one reason why I became enamored with the Nentir Vale. It mostly works as a fill-in-the-blank GM toolkit with a vague sense of history and lore. I have used it several times as the backdrop for 5e adventures.

I really wish I'd liked 4E rules more. The Nentir Vale seemed pretty cool. It would have been good timing, too, as I killed off my 25 year home brew during 3e.

Interesting enough, for this conversation, I found that even the material I'd created from whole cloth had become too limiting and it was time to start fresh.

 

[Maxperson]

I really wish I'd liked 4E rules more. The Nentir Vale seemed pretty cool. It would have been good timing, too, as I killed off my 25 year home brew during 3e.

Did you kill it off in game, or just stop playing it. If you killed it off in game, I'm curious as to what kind of storyline did it?