D&D General Does anyone else starting to feel like FR: HoF & FR: AiF were starved of resources because of the Core Books

[Henadic Theologian]

Like 1 Playtest that left out all the Spells and Feats, Backgrounds, and Faction Mechanic etc..., that should been playtest, not to mention they switched out one of the subclasses for one that was fameous for being mechanically unsatisfying with again no playtest.

And then there are entries in the Guide of Faerûn in FR: HoF, like clearly Damara did, or the fact that Akanul got wiped out, leaving only its Ruins of Brassune without an explanation of what happened to Akanul.

And at first folks are like its just retcons, but the deepening I look the more clear it becomes its not retcons, its just poor research and carelessness.

I don't hate these books, they a 6, or C+ or whatever scoring one wishes to use, which is high for most lore facing 5e products honestly, but honestly they should have given it an extra year if it was too close to the Core Books to give it the resources it needed to be fully baked.

 

[Parmandur]

Nah, seems they devoted pretty extensive resources to them based on the credits.

A lot of stuff left up im yhe air is to allow for folks with 4E era resources to sue their stuff, while people with 2E era resources can use their stuff, and not to confuse newer folks with unnecessary side details. The lrese cd or a sense of Akanûl is a good example of that. Maybe it is there, maybe not.

 

[Charlaquin]

You typed a lot of words there that I’m having trouble parsing into clear ideas. Assume I don’t already share your opinion and explain what specifically you’re taking issue with and why I should care about it too.

 

[Scribe]

Like 1 Playtest that left out all the Spells and Feats, Backgrounds, and Faction Mechanic etc..., that should been playtest, not to mention they switched out one of the subclasses for one that was fameous for being mechanically unsatisfying with again no playtest.

And then there are entries in the Guide of Faerûn in FR: HoF, like clearly Damara did, or the fact that Akanul got wiped out, leaving only its Ruins of Brassune without an explanation of what happened to Akanul.

And at first folks are like its just retcons, but the deepening I look the more clear it becomes its not retcons, its just poor research and carelessness.

I don't hate these books, they a 6, or C+ or whatever scoring one wishes to use, which is high for most lore facing 5e products honestly, but honestly they should have given it an extra year if it was too close to the Core Books to give it the resources it needed to be fully baked.

I don't have the books, I am too busy to even get to a shop to check the, but from what I read here I thought they were being well received?

6 out of 10 is probably what I would say the average 5e product is, outside of Xanathars and Volos.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I don't have the books, I am too busy to even get to a shop to check the, but from what I read here I thought they were being well received?

6 out of 10 is probably what I would say the average 5e product is, outside of Xanathars and Volos.

For classic setting products like Planescape, Ravenloft, and Spelljammer you are far too generous. I'd give Ravenloft a 4 or 5. Planescape a 3 and except for the Spelljammer races, which were 10s, I'd give Spelljammer slipcase a 1. Only the Eberron Books get higher then a 6, those were well made because they had the right guy heading the problem.

Look I'm sure Tondo did his best, it probably isn't all his fault, honestly he did way better then I was expecting, I'm not hating on Tondo, but it should have been Erin M Evans heading this thing instead, she's brilliant at integrating lore from different editions. She is the one who made Dragonborn and Infernal Tieflings cool in FR.

I mean I'm frustrated at the short cuts and the wasted space, but I still enjoy the product, its just I see dozens of things they should have done to make it better and it haunts me.

Oh well there is always 6th edition.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I never feel any of the setting books are starved for resources, because I have all the previous editions' material for those settings to add to it as one giant smorgasbord of setting material.

Why anyone who knows the full extent of Planescape because they played Planescape in the past would only use the 5E Planescape book and not all the older material they already own is beyond me.

 

[mamba]

I doubt it, plenty of time between these releases. I assume it got all the playtesting it was supposed to get. Not that this means much

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I have all the previous editions' material for those settings to add to it as one giant smorgasbord of setting material.

This. All this is in the public domain, and WotC are well aware of that and try as much as possible to avoid reprinting it. The new books even point readers to FRwiki.

Also, WotC are interested in creating places to adventure. They are interested in locations that lean in to certain types of adventure, not interested in writing fake-histories of places the PCs are never likely to visit.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Nope, in my opinion this is one the best books ever in the life of 5e.

 

[GarrettKP]

Truly cannot wrap my head around how someone arrives to this conclusion. These two books are probably my favorites in all of 5e outside of the core rules.