D&D 5E Do you want a Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide?

[Dorian_Grey]

I voted no, mostly because I feel that with the core books, APs set in the realms, and the SCAG that the realms is pretty fully covered. Further, as they continue down the path of new APs, then things could radically change in the realms: "Oh! Waterdeep gets destroyed!" which makes the setting book outdated.

In addition to that, in general I feel campaign setting guides are not needed (and I'd feel that way even if they announced Mystara was coming back, which was my favorite setting). What I'd rather they do is what they did for the Magic: The Gathering settings that they converted to 5e. Quick, free and high level - give me some flavor and let me do the rest. I'm actually preparing an Innistrad campaign because it was a perfect tool for inspiring a story for my players!

From a marketing perspective it works as well. A few high quality free campaign sourcebooks which give enough to salivate will also drive core book sales. Keep them short and sweet, and it isn't a large investment in resources, but could pay out large dividends later. This is where I think TSR failed with 2nd Edition (though, again, it was my favorite - not trying to start a flame war!). They took the right approach with Karameikos, but by then it was to late. The large and heavy Dark Sun/Dragonlance/FR material was to heavy to maintain - each would require a dedicated staff to monitor all the lore and maintain the story bible. A dedicated staff that WotC currently doesn't have.

Now what are the advantages of the free - and VERY short - sourcebooks?

• Provides inspiration to players and DMs, maybe some light add ons like a subrace or subclass
• Gives an "official" setting for hardcore setting fans, might encourage them to come back if they haven't already.
• Affordable. 20 or so pages of a quick whistlestop tour in PDF format is much less costly then 180 pages in hardcover with distribution.
• Encourages core book purchases by allowing those interested to dip their toes in before purchasing.
• Can be combined with UA to further maintain long term market engagement

Anyway, that's why I voted no. Not because I'm coming down on the realms, but because I think that setting guides just aren't what WotC should be spending their limited time and resources on pursuing. They should be spending their resources on expanding their market, and short free setting books would be a great way to do so.

 

[Corpsetaker]

I voted no, mostly because I feel that with the core books, APs set in the realms, and the SCAG that the realms is pretty fully covered.

Basically what you are saying is Wizards has come out with material that covers the UK and you feel they've pretty much covered the entire planet Earth.

There is a LOT of the Realms that has never been covered or has only ever gotten a brief mention.

 

[Corpsetaker]

This is basically what sums up the Realms from the view point of a big fan.

Let's take the next new Star Wars film that continues on after Rey finds Luke. Darth Vader appears in that movie and goes about his normal business as if he never died. There is no explanation for it, they just put him in the movie as a villain that has always been around.

Now as a Star Wars fan you would be sitting there scratching your head trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

The Realms has continuous stories going on that have given life to the setting. If an element is taken away because of X and then is suddenly brought back with no explanation then it really cheapens the whole thing and brings us into the realm of lame.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I'd be interested, on three conditions...

1.) A more than cursory survey of Kara-tur, Zakhara, and Maztica.

2.) Information on locations in Faerûn inversely proportional to the detail they received in the past.

3.) Nothing on the current state of Sembia, return to promise given in the Grey Box.

 

[Mirtek]

Basically what you are saying is Wizards has come out with material that covers the UK and you feel they've pretty much covered the entire planet Earth.

Also they covered the UK with less pages than a typical travellers guide to London has

 

[Guest 6801718]

I don't see getting say Dragonlance or Darksun Campaign guides before FR, because FR fans would freak out. If you want other settings, it would make sense to push for FRCG now, to get past it as it were.

I seriously doubt there would ever be a campaign book before FR of any kind. FR is far and away the most popular setting for WotC. Getting another setting is just personal preference on my part. I figure the availability of other settings depends on how well FR does. If even the most popular setting doesn't sell well, then they won't take any chances with the others. I do play a lot of FR though. My current group is playing in FR and we us SCAG, which we really like. So it's not like I wouldn't use a FR campaign guide. I've always liked the world of FR. Right now, I'm just looking for a bit of variety since we just had a FR release.

 

[Dorian_Grey]

Basically what you are saying is Wizards has come out with material that covers the UK and you feel they've pretty much covered the entire planet Earth.

There is a LOT of the Realms that has never been covered or has only ever gotten a brief mention.

No, that isn't what I'm saying. The MM, PHB, DMG, Volo's Guide, SCAG are all FR centric rules books. APs build on the lore of the FRs and the setting. As a quick whistle stop tour, you have:

* LMoP (Nice starting intro to the Realms, near Waterdeep)
* Confrontation at Candlekeep (Duh)
* Curse of Strahd (Which was a stand alone setting put into Faerun, tied via Volo)
* Elemental Evil (Moonsea)
* Rage of Demons (Underdark/Cormanther)
* Tyranny of Dragons (Phlan)
* Rise of Tiamat (Waterdeep, Thay, Icewind Dale)
* Storm King's Thunder (Northern Sword Coast)

To use your equivalent what I'm saying is that WotC has covered Western Europe - and in the process, they have provided a crap ton of material for FR players. Anything extra could be provided by UA articles at this point. I also pointed out that new APs will probably cover additional material in the realms, so a dedicated source book is redundant. You'll get your full world tour one AP at a time.

Now I get you're a big fan, and that's great. If you love FR this is most assuredly the edition for you as it is 100% FR centric. At the same time, I think the path they are using of pushing FR lore through APs is better then a dedicated source book, and the material they do create should focus on core rules (which are going to be FR centric anyway).

Why? To quote you...

The Realms has continuous stories going on that have given life to the setting. If an element is taken away because of X and then is suddenly brought back with no explanation then it really cheapens the whole thing and brings us into the realm of lame.

If they create a single source book, say 300 pages, then they're going to have to leave a lot of elements out to cover EVERY single location in the Realms. This is one of my biggest complaints about the setting. Now they could release an encyclopedia of realm lore. Based on some previous jobs I've had I might even be able to estimate for you what that would cost WotC in terms of man hours and estimated expenditures.

However, it's not worth it to them.

Instead, they can explore different facets of the Realms in depth, one at a time, with their Adventure Paths, which is exactly what they are doing and provides exactly what you want: detailed handling of the elements of the Realms that each fan cares about.

 

[Dorian_Grey]

Also they covered the UK with less pages than a typical travellers guide to London has

Average Page Count to London Travel Guides (Based on Amazon.com Survey): 250
Total number of pages dedicated to Faerun: 1,470 (Currently)

And that doesn't include the fluff parts of the PHB, DMG, MM or even Volo's guide that are dedicated to FR. So move that number upwards. That's probably in the range of a factor of six. And it's just going to grow and grow. I'm not sure what you guys want, but I don't think WotC has the manpower to provide it if you guys aren't satisfied yet.

 

[Sammael]

Where exactly is the 1,470 pages coming from? Because I own and am currently running CoS and the amount of actual FR material there is less than 1 page.

 

[Dorian_Grey]

Then subtract that amount from Curse of Strahd (though it is now officially in the realms and is NOT a separate campaign setting - hence why I included it).