WotC WotC needs an Elon Musk

[Scribe]

I get that, but I always copy stuff like that offline. I just need it to exist first.

Yeah but then you gotta print it or whatever. I enjoy books.

 

[Maxperson]

Not many people care about the rest of Faerun, by that logic...? All the video games are set in the Sword Coast, going way back, the bigger books she in the Sword Coast region, etc...

That is incorrect.

 

[Maxperson]

If someone wants lore on Chult, Tomb of Annihilation is the way to go. They not only expect people to buy that...they have.

Yes, they expect people to buy it to run the Tomb. They do not expect people to buy it just to get a bit of lore on Chult. You'll need to quote official sources saying that if you want me to believe that they are that stupid.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

If they do not refresh the book mechanically, do not add anything mechanically, change no lore, then it would be quite literally a reprint (or reformat) with a new cover?

At that point, I would question why I would need it.

No, sorry, I might have misspoken. I was asking if:

1. You can buy the individual mechanics of the 5e setting book on their own that you want on a site like D&D Beyond.
2. WotC doesn't ever revise or delete the content you own with errata (maybe by allowing you to choose which publication of the book you want to use)

Would you still want the rest of the setting book to be basically copied-pasted from the older setting books? Or would you be okay with WotC doing a "modern update" or lore revisions on the setting in the rest of the book?

Keep in mind however you are talking to a guy who refuses to buy a book because WotC removed a minor restriction on Alignment, for an optional Feat.

Yeah, I got that already. I'm just trying to see how far these strange buying preferences go.

 

[Parmandur]

SCAG didn't detail anything, not even the Sword Coast. It did mention a little bit about the Sword Coast and almost nothing of the larger setting. On the other hand, Eberron had MUCH more information in the 300+ pages dedicated to it.

It provided sufficient coverage for the Western Heartlands, Sword Coast North, Savage Frontier, and the islands to run campaigns. That's a "real" Setting book...and at this point, it's been in print longer than the FRCS was! And they produced tons of supplements that expand it with usable Adventure material.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah but then you gotta print it or whatever. I enjoy books.

The DMsGuild has Print on Demand books, goes quality at a reasonable price, even.

 

[Parmandur]

That is incorrect.

OK, the big video games: Eye of the Beholder, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights...stuff that was way bigger than the Gold Box games.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Not really. They put lore in there, but they cannot expect that people will buy them to get the lore. I'm not paying $40 for a few pages of lore and a ton of useless pages of adventure.

See, I personally think that a good adventure is perhaps the best way to introduce a setting (or part of a setting) to the DM and players. So I really don't have anything against books like Tomb of Annihilation and The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Gazetteers aren't much use unless there's an adventure for them, IMO.

 

[Maxperson]

It provided sufficient coverage for the Western Heartlands, Sword Coast North, Savage Frontier, and the islands to run campaigns.

No it didn't. It provided sparse coverage.

That's a "real" Setting book

It's a "real" setting book in the same way as the Cliff's Notes on Moby Dick is the "real" Moby Dick.

...and at this point, it's been in print longer than the FRCS was!

Oh, well keeping something in print is a clear sign of quality! No bad books out there have been around for a long time.

 

[Parmandur]

Yes, they expect people to buy it to run the Tomb. They do not expect people to buy it just to get a bit of lore on Chult. You'll need to quote official sources saying that if you want me to believe that they are that stupid.

Believe it, don't believe it: their longstanding policy has been to make all their books multipurpose, and making the big Adventure books Setting supplements is part of that. The population of people who want Chult 8bfoz and aren't interested in usable Adventure material, is likely negligible