D&D 5E 5e isn't a Golden Age of D&D Lorewise, it's Silver at best.

[Helldritch]

And frankly, who really cares about lore?
My Greyhawk is different than anyone else's.
My Forgotten Realms are different than anyone else's.
Yep, I do have things in common with the basics. But scratch a bit beyond what was printed and what I am doing, I am light years from what was. Only Eberron I haven't touch that much simply because my players prefer my homebrew or my GH or my FR.

This is why 5ed is successful. Lore is skin deep and they know it. So they went with better adventures and source books (save for TCoE...). And for me, that is a good thing. (coming from someone that has almost every FR novels, and supplements for both GH and FR.)

 

[schneeland]

To contain all the lore that was vomited up in previous editions that would be a single book the size of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica.

No one new to D&D could possibly learn the Forgotten Realms. You either know it because you grew up with it, or you don't.

I didn't specifically mention this, but I don't expect them to put ALL the lore in one place. I just would like to see a book that establishes the general outline of what they consider canonically true about the Realms in the current edition (bonus points if we get side boxes that talk about the differences from previous editions).

 

[MadArkitekt]

Yes, I think that would be a fair description.
A place that establishes a reference point in terms of history, geography and political landscape of the Realms after the sundering (including things leading up to them where necessary), so I can built upon them for my own campaigns (for specific regions, I would be willing to buy stuff that includes adventure content).
I felt, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide headed a bit that direction - it just wasn't a good book, and was too regionally limited (we don't need to go to Halruaa, but I would have like to see at least more coverage of Sword Coast-adjacent regions).

I spun up a discord server a few weeks ago with the express purpose or teaching lore and how to make the game more immersive as well as exploring the various mediums through which we now play D&D. Want in?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

To contain all the lore that was vomited up in previous editions that would be a single book the size of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica.

No one new to D&D could possibly learn the Forgotten Realms. You either know it because you grew up with it, or you don't.

I'd love a book that size, but it's not required, just a proper 5e or 5.5e FR Campaign Setting Guide that matches the quality of 3e's. And te restoration of the novel line beyond Drizzt. Anything more is gravy.

 

[schneeland]

I spun up a discord server a few weeks ago with the express purpose or teaching lore and how to make the game more immersive as well as exploring the various mediums through which we now play D&D. Want in?

I'm not a very active Discord user, but I'll gladly join and take a look.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I didn't specifically mention this, but I don't expect them to put ALL the lore in one place. I just would like to see a book that establishes the general outline of what they consider canonically true about the Realms in the current edition (bonus points if we get side boxes that talk about the differences from previous editions).

I'm pretty sure that's coming in 2024.

 

[Laurefindel]

I forgot that bloat means depth

If by “depth” you mean too thick and too deep to swim, then yes. Some depth is good. Too much depth is bloat. Where is “too much depth”? That’s where we most likely disagree. [edit: or not? I may have taken your comment the wrong way]

I do however agree with the current era not being the golden age. For me, the Golden age will forever remain 1e AD&D where the genre became well established and people look back to it with nostalgia and greatness despite all its flaws and dated themes. Not unlike pre WW2 comics are known as the golden age.

Again in the comics world, the silver age is the period of commercial success following a hiatus of sort, where most “modern” heroes and conception of the genre is cemented or redefined. Personally, I’d put that at the 3.5/pathfinder era.

This would put us in yet another age of D&D (bronze?) that is consciously aware of itself and of golden/silver ages.

 

[MadArkitekt]

I'd love a book that size, but it's not required, just a proper 5e or 5.5e FR Campaign Setting Guide that matches the quality of 3e's. And te restoration of the novel line beyond Drizzt. Anything more is gravy.

I need a tome so large it’s steel reinforced so as not to sag. I want a book so massive I can drive fence posts with it

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Not a fan of lore. Some is needed but I regard lore an enemy of new players and especially DM, particularly if given the impression that they need lore knowledge to play.
I especially despise "canonical" lore, It is the source of much argument and bile and kind of meaninglessness. Since any given groups FR or Greyhawk is bound to be different to another's in some or many details. We do not have canonical history so why should be have canonical lore.
So I am pretty happy as there is enough to act as scaffolding and I can add what I need.
I bought a few lore books in the 3.x era and for the most part never used them.

For people that like lore, I would honestly recommend going back to the TSR era and adapt what you like.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Most players now a days just want the surface level info. Run the campaign book and move on. The deeper lore doesn’t matter to the current book.

And frankly, while I own stuff like the old Dragonlance box set and the old Faerun box set, I’m more likely to look up lore info online.

Oh and novels.

Oh oh! And unless it’s super popular like Crit Role, again they probably don’t care. Another post a guy mentioned than from his observations a lot of fans where wondering If the new film was Crit Role related.

Seems WoTC just wants a generic mish mash and let others build the worlds. Kind of sad for Faerun though which is just the sword coast now more or less.