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

[JohnLynch]

Indeed. But that's beside the point. I was responding to @Shasarak's implication that WotC has already run out of ideas (or will be soon). The fact that they're thinking that far ahead suggests to me that they aren't going to run out of ideas next year.

This presupposes that their adventures have been featuring original stories thus far. I personally don't know (I know next to nothing about pre-4e adventures) but I know a number of people have complained about them simply being rehashes of previous adventures. So they could have plans up until 2018 and yet also have nothing but rehashes planned up to 2018 as well

NOTE: This post is somewhat tongue in cheek.

 

[pukunui]

Depends on what you mean by "rehash". Tyranny of Dragons is vaguely reminiscent of the War of the Lance, although it's a tale that's been a long time coming in Realmslore. Princes of the Apocalypse is more overtly inspired by the Temple of Elemental Evil, but I'm still not sure it counts as a rehash. As for Out of the Abyss, I don't think it's based on anything that's come before.

 

[Caecafortuna]

[MENTION=6670153]gyor[/MENTION]: Complete Divine was the only book in that series that I actually bought. I loved it at the time.


You know what I'd like to see? More products like the Sundering series. Legacy of the Crystal Shard and Murder in Baldur's Gate are both fantastic products. In addition to the adventures, they come with detailed regional campaign guides and a handy DM screen tailored to the region. I'd love to see more areas of the Realms given a similar treatment.

I agree, those adventures were excellent and the additional material provided a treasure trove of information.

 

[Parmandur]

Depends on what you mean by "rehash". Tyranny of Dragons is vaguely reminiscent of the War of the Lance, although it's a tale that's been a long time coming in Realmslore. Princes of the Apocalypse is more overtly inspired by the Temple of Elemental Evil, but I'm still not sure it counts as a rehash. As for Out of the Abyss, I don't think it's based on anything that's come before.

The D modules and Q? Never read them, or seen them for that matter, but it looks maybe about as related as Elemental Evil (though less explicitly).

 

[delericho]

The D modules and Q? Never read them, or seen them for that matter, but it looks maybe about as related as Elemental Evil (though less explicitly).

Hints of the Slavers series in there, too - notably the premise of starting as prisoners and minus your equipment.

 

[Shasarak]

Mike has also said that they've got stuff planned all the way out to 2018. (source)

I know that Chris said that he has Story lines planned, but Mike was the one concerned about product in year 3.

 

[pukunui]

I know that Chris said that he has Story lines planned, but Mike was the one concerned about product in year 3.

Click the link. Mike's comment about having stories planned through 2018 is in his answer to the last question.

 

[Shasarak]

Click the link. Mike's comment about having stories planned through 2018 is in his answer to the last question.

Sure and his comment about the difficulty of year 3 is here.

 

[pukunui]

Yep. I've seen that. I guess the question is: Are Mike and the gang up to the challenge of making 5e succeed through years 3 to 5? Only time will tell.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I think I'd have appreciated a bit more cohesion and inspiration in the SCAG.

Like, the Long Death monk tradition is a new tradition that is interesting. But, like, where on the Sword Coast do they come from? What organizations are they linked to? Where does my character go to become one? Not sure.

Or, I'm reading upon Daggerford because Phalorm is coming up in my HotDQ game, thanks to a side-quest in the Mere of Dead Men. The description is pretty solid. But I'm still not sure what's special about it, why it got a write-up but, I dunno, Leilon didn't, or what plots I can hinge off of the goings-on there. There's nothing really going on, there, actually - it's a place you can go, but why you would go there or what adventures that location might contain are...not really noted. Not even like a one-sentence random-blah hook like "The ghost of Tyndal has been sighted haunting the bridge these days, pointing East on nights with a waning crescent moon."

Even the great changes going on in Neverwinter are basically like "Yep, everything's fine now." Adventurers reportedly come there seeking riches, but where are these riches? What corners of the city are dangerous? What threatens them?

That's not to say the book is horrible or anything, and some parts are better than others (Bladedancers being linked to elves, forex), just that it could do its job of inspiring adventurers to explore the Sword Coast and to counter the threats to it better. As a newly minted Monk of the Long Death, I don't have much of a place in the world, and I don't have any reason to go to Neverwinter, and that's kind of a shame. I guess maybe they expect the adventures to do the heavy lifting here, which is kind of reasonable, but even from a character perspective, I want a place in the world, and a reason to do things.

That's part of why it seems anemic to me. It meets the goal of "here is what a resident of Faerun would know about this place," but it doesn't give me any reason to care about that place, or any sense that it hold a bigger appeal than brand tourism: "Now you can visit the place from the hit game that you might remember!"