D&D 5E Forgotten Realms: Rising from the Last Realms Shaking Event

[Paul Farquhar]

What D&D settings would you say are popular in Great Britain?

Well, I can only speak for my small circle, but homebrew and Ravenloft seem to be the most popular.

 

[gyor]

For those complaining that the Changeling got nerfed, they are the only race that can have +3 charisma, by design according to Jeremy Crawford. This means they can have an 18 in Charisma making them the best face characters, best sorcerers, best bards, best warlocks (including hexblade), and among the best Paladins especially ones with the Blessed Warrior fighting stye. And one of those Stats is a floating stat so they are good wizards, clerics, monks, barbarians, rogues, ect... as well.

I put this in the wrong thread.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I assume you meant "more than just a setting book this time". And, I think that dovetails kinda with what I've been saying.

WotC's very slow release schedule for 5e has been coupled with one very strong element - every book has to have maximum appeal to as broad of a spectrum of gamers as possible. Even the adventures come bundled with all sorts of stuff for players. Never minding that the adventures are what the players are going to play.

SCAG came with classes/player options. Ravnica and Eberron are both chock a block with player facing material. So on and so forth.

A "Realms Guide" book only really appeals to DM's. And, upthread I talked about casual vs fans of FR. I think I'm wrong there. That's not the separation. It's practical vs readers. For me, the only way I'll buy a book now is if I think that I will use that book at the table, repeatedly. So, a book like Xanathar's gets the nod because there are classes there I'd like to play and I know my players want to play.

But, a Realms Guide book is something that's meant to be read, more than used. After all, once you read a Realms Guide, you still have to make adventures, build NPC's, campaigns, all the actual hard work of running a game. I think it's rather telling that @gyor mentioned the novel lines as well.

I'd love for you folks to get that, but, that does not appear to be WotC's plan. What folks here want just doesn't have a broad enough appeal to make it worth it. Good enough for DM's Guild maybe, or Kickstarter territory, but, not general WotC release.

It’s entirely possible to do a Realms guide, though, with adventure seeds in each covered region, 1-2 short adventures, some player options, new monsters, etc.

My point was that the Eberron book won’t perform like a pure setting book would, because it isn’t that. It is also a Xanathars style book of player and DM options to enhance the game.

 

[Parmandur]

My point was that the Eberron book won’t perform like a pure setting book would, because it isn’t that. It is also a Xanathars style book

Same holds true for the Ravnica book: indeed, mini-Xanathar's Guide style crunchy bits wrapped in extensive fluff is what Setting books are now, it seems. I like to think of it as a genre-specific "booster pack" to the Core rules.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I'll rephrase my thoughts on FR and it's future content because I think my opinions have been spread like butter over too many comments.

If you are a Forgotten Realms fan, you should be extremely happy with the pattern of FR coverage for 5e, especially if that pattern holds.

Not only have you gotten a decent setting book for FR's core and most popular region, the Sword Coast, but several products released have detailed regions even further with incredible details.

Tyranny of Dragons covers the Sword Coast, but also a brief visit to Thay (as does a remake of Dead in Thay). Out of the Abyss is a very good guide to FR's Underdark beneath the Sword Coast. Dragon Heist includes a detailed gazetteer to Waterdeep, as does Descent into Avernus for Baldur's Gate. Dungeon of the Mad Mage is an entire book devoted to FR's most famous and largest dungeon, Undermountain. And of course, Tomb of Annihilation is an incredible guide to the jungles of Chult.

Every original big adventure book for 5e is within the Forgotten Realms, and only Descent in Avernus moves out of it (although Elturel falling into Baator certainly makes that section very FR-focused as well). It is very probable that all future original adventure books will as well, and there have been rumors pointing to regions like Lantan, Kara-Tur, Maztica and Al-Qadim that may get a central role.

If you're an FR fan and you feel as if you're somehow owed another setting book, I think you're being entirely unreasonable, as FR has gotten a starring role in this edition. I think it's entirely fair for future setting books to remain as introductions to alternative settings.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The SCAG is indeed terribly shite.
The Realms is currently recovering from the Sundering. It could certainly use a coherent setting book set in that aftermath.
Wizards though wants to include setting martial in their adventure books. And people keep buying those adventure books.
What needs to be done is to make Eberron Rising a great success and drop buying those Realms adventures for a while. Even Wizards can take a damn hint.

I wouldn't say SCAG is terribly bad (to paraphrase you), just terribly incomplete. The problem is that it's only 160 pages, while, for example, the Eberron book is twice that. If they had added an extra 160 pages onto SCAG, detailing the rest of the setting, adding some extra player options (detailing organizations in the manner of Ravnica's Guilds or Eberron's Dragonmarked Houses, for example), having a section on FR-specific monsters like the Phaerimm, and maybe putting in a mini-adventure or two, people would probably be pretty happy with that. And that's the annoying thing about it in the end - it's incomplete on its own, but has enough important setting stuff (notably concerning races and deities) that they would need to reprint those parts in an actual setting book, making many unhappy that they are buying a lot of recycled info, and, thus, making a full new setting book more unlikely...

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I wouldn't say SCAG is terribly bad (to paraphrase you), just terribly incomplete. The problem is that it's only 160 pages, while, for example, the Eberron book is twice that. If they had added an extra 160 pages onto SCAG, detailing the rest of the setting, adding some extra player options (detailing organizations in the manner of Ravnica's Guilds or Eberron's Dragonmarked Houses, for example), having a section on FR-specific monsters like the Phaerimm, and maybe putting in a mini-adventure or two, people would probably be pretty happy with that. And that's the annoying thing about it in the end - it's incomplete on its own, but has enough important setting stuff (notably concerning races and deities) that they would need to reprint those parts in an actual setting book, making many unhappy that they are buying a lot of recycled info, and, thus, making a full new setting book more unlikely...

Part of it however is meant to be more concise though... it is an important distinction that it's described as the Sword Coast guide, not a guide to the greater Forgotten Realms. It leaves the others area open for different products.