D&D General Forgotten Realms Book preview from NYCC

Nerd Initiative on YouTube previewed the new Forgotten Realms books with Mackenzie De Armas in this short video, including a quick flip-through of the Adventures in Faerun book.



During the quick flip-through, he shows off blurry but mostly readable pages from the Dalelands section of the book, including a few of the DMG-style adventures, including a level 13 adventure called Heart of Fire, where the party is asked to recover a magic item in an Adult Red Dragon's hoard.

Notably, none of the adventures you can see in the video seem to have any new monsters from the book included. Also, not all of the adventures are confined to a single page. Some seem to be at least a page and a half, while others are even smaller to just a half page.

 

[Parmandur]

It's inspired by Lankhmar, but its a lot more London. Pratchett's time playing D&D was before the Greyhawk setting was released, so not really that.

It's "culture" is generic. It has no specific cultural details.

Right, the culture is "generic"...which means it is the subconscious assumptions fof the creator from Toronto at work.

The Blackstaff and the Masked Lrods of Waterdeep? Geewiz gosh golly, they are just trying to do the best they can, donchaknow.

 

[Parmandur]

I think having an Evil faction or two is actually good for the book. There are plenty of tables that want support for playing evil people, and for those that don’t they still have 5 overtly good factions to use.

Don't necessarily mind that, but guidance on a more non-evil party option would be nice. If there are aplinter seats of the Cult of the Dragon (and there are)...why not one thst is less Dommsday-is? The Discalced Reformed Siblinghood of St. Klauth the Unrivaled Ancient or something.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Don't necessarily mind that, but guidance on a more non-evil party option would be nice. If there are aplinter seats of the Cult of the Dragon (and there are)...why not one thst is less Dommsday-is? The Discalced Reformed Siblinghood of St. Klauth the Unrivaled Ancient or something.

Probably because the splinter sects are still dominated by madman, evil goddesses and all that funky stuff.

 

[GarrettKP]

Don't necessarily mind that, but guidance on a more non-evil party option would be nice. If there are aplinter seats of the Cult of the Dragon (and there are)...why not one thst is less Dommsday-is? The Discalced Reformed Siblinghood of St. Klauth the Unrivaled Ancient or something.

I think that takes the teeth out of it. If you’re giving us an evil faction, don’t give us an out. The out is leaving the faction.

You can take the Dragon Cultist background, and say you’ve left the cult and that gives a reason for you to be good and a plot hook without sacrificing the mechanical benefit. Even the Dragon Cults General feat works for someone who has left the cult.

And then if you want to stick with the cult, you get renown benefits while grappling with being a… less than good guy.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Right, the culture is "generic"...which means it is the subconscious assumptions fof the creator from Toronto at work.

Which don’t seem to differ in any significant way to someone from the UK. Gygax and co from Wisconsin - yeah, you can see some religion based cultural assumptions. But Canadian looks pretty much indistinguishable from British.

 

[Yaarel]

Which don’t seem to differ in any significant way to someone from the UK. Gygax and co from Wisconsin - yeah, you can see some religion based cultural assumptions. But Canadian looks pretty much indistinguishable from British.

My parents view Canada as a "compromise" between Europe and the US.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Which don’t seem to differ in any significant way to someone from the UK. Gygax and co from Wisconsin - yeah, you can see some religion based cultural assumptions. But Canadian looks pretty much indistinguishable from British.

We are very different from Brits and Ameicans, how could you say such mean things?

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

My parents view Canada as a "compromise" between Europe and the US.

Not for nothing, but it was Canada, rather than the two titans of empire the UK and the US, that produced McLuhan.

 

[Parmandur]

I think that takes the teeth out of it. If you’re giving us an evil faction, don’t give us an out. The out is leaving the faction.

You can take the Dragon Cultist background, and say you’ve left the cult and that gives a reason for you to be good and a plot hook without sacrificing the mechanical benefit. Even the Dragon Cults General feat works for someone who has left the cult.

And then if you want to stick with the cult, you get renown benefits while grappling with being a… less than good guy.

How does the book frame Cult of the Dragon characters...?

 

[Parmandur]

Which don’t seem to differ in any significant way to someone from the UK. Gygax and co from Wisconsin - yeah, you can see some religion based cultural assumptions. But Canadian looks pretty much indistinguishable from British.

Matter of perspective: from my Midwestern roots, it looks Canadian in Rennfaire clothing, whi h to be fair is fairly British but is also somewhat distinct.