D&D 5E Escapist article on SCAG is Brutal.

[IlluminatedSeraph]

At the risk of sounding very, very naive... has anyone ever gone out and bought books on the number of pages that they, themselves, specifically, are going to use? Isn't it pretty much normal practice to buy the books that interest you the most, then share them with other people while they share the books that interested you the most?

Or do I have delusion of gaming as a much more communal hobby than it actually is?

 

[Hussar]

I'll admit to choosing books based on how much use they will be at the table. But, I don't buy rpg books just for reading. I have a very pragmatic approach to buying gaming material that I imagine is very much an outlier. The fact that people continue to subscribe to Paizo AP's despite the fact that we already have about ten years of gaming material proves that I'm not the target audience for this kind of book.

 

[aramis erak]

To be quite blunt, that is not the Forgotten Realms and that is where WoTc will always fail when it comes to that setting. The popularity and uniqueness of the setting is based around it having so much lore that you don't need to fill in a lot of blanks unless you want to. The setting is based around heavy and detailed lore.

You just summarized one of the major causes of the disdain for FR by a large portion of D&D fans. (People whinging about how it's not the same anymore are a large part of it, also.) You may see it as a bonus to have 10-zillion tons of lore, but I know several good GMs who won't run the realms because there is simply too much for experienced players to fixate on GM's lack of knowledge.

SCAG does what it needs to do - just enough to support the area where D&D AL play is set. Enough to keep the GM or player invested in the setting, but not so much that if feels like a college text.

And they have already implied they aren't doing the rest because the next 3 AL seasons are all implied to also be set in the Sword Coast.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a SCGMG next season.

 

[pukunui]

And they have already implied they aren't doing the rest because the next 3 AL seasons are all implied to also be set in the Sword Coast.

Have you got a source for that? I'm just curious. I didn't think they'd stay in the Moonsea forever.

 

[delericho]

You may see it as a bonus to have 10-zillion tons of lore, but I know several good GMs who won't run the realms because there is simply too much for experienced players to fixate on GM's lack of knowledge.

Yep, and therein lies a problem: for some people, those masses of lore are the very point of the setting; for others, they're a serious barrier to entry. And so WotC find themselves in a no-win situation, since you can't satisfy both needs.

(Of course, the FR aren't alone - Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Star Wars have all undergone a massive cull of the accumulated lore through a partial reboot, for much the same reason.)

I don't have any suggestion for how they could resolve this issue, since it's the mere existence of the lore that's the barrier to entry, so it's not like they could produce it but mark it as optional to serve both needs. For one group to be happy, the other must necessarily be unhappy.

 

[slaughterj]

And to top it off you can use the Elemental Evil Companion or SCAG, not both, so you can't be a Goliath Purple Dragon Knight or Undying Warlock because I guess that would be over powered ;p.

I've only briefly perused the book, but why is it that you could only use one or the other?

 

[garnuk]

I question the claim that a character would only use 3-10 pages. A player might be asked which gods they follow, and you have to know what all the options are to choose just one. So a player is going to read the whole book, and decide which city/race/religion/class/background from the sword coast they would like to play. Thats using the whole book, not just 3-10 pages.

 

[Parmandur]

You just summarized one of the major causes of the disdain for FR by a large portion of D&D fans. (People whinging about how it's not the same anymore are a large part of it, also.) You may see it as a bonus to have 10-zillion tons of lore, but I know several good GMs who won't run the realms because there is simply too much for experienced players to fixate on GM's lack of knowledge.



SCAG does what it needs to do - just enough to support the area where D&D AL play is set. Enough to keep the GM or player invested in the setting, but not so much that if feels like a college text.



And they have already implied they aren't doing the rest because the next 3 AL seasons are all implied to also be set in the Sword Coast.



I wouldn't be surprised to see a SCGMG next season.

Just got the book this weekend, read through it; following off of this comment, the book is perfect setup for playing with people who have no exposure to the Realms (happily, my player pool is such). I have no plans to start reading FR novels, nor do those I play with, but this sets up a perfect generic playground for us.

 

[Parmandur]

I've only briefly perused the book, but why is it that you could only use one or the other?

Organized play rules now forbid the mixing of supplements: if you want to play Adventurers League in store, you can do one or the other, and restrictions like Elf-only Bladesinger are enforced.

Playing at home, mix and match is viable.

 

[slaughterj]

Organized play rules now forbid the mixing of supplements: if you want to play Adventurers League in store, you can do one or the other, and restrictions like Elf-only Bladesinger are enforced.

Playing at home, mix and match is viable.

Thanks, I don't do organized play, so no problems then. The original statement was far from clear on that.