D&D 5E Future format of books that mimic SCAG: Will you buy them?

[Celtavian]

I think this a very "it depends" answer for me. It's worth noting that I didn't buy SCAG, though I get to have it in my house because my lover did; I've got exactly the wrong mix of familiarity with and general distaste for the Realms for the book to appeal much to me personally. That said, I thought it was very well done as the introductory guide it set out to be, and if they ever put out such a guide for a setting I'm not familiar and am intrigued by then they're very likely to make a sale.

As for the mechanics, [MENTION=5834]Celtavian[/MENTION], I was actually pretty pleased with most of what was in there. I probably wouldn't have bought the book for them, either, but I'm really glad to have those options available at my table (Sun Soul and Bladesinger are already set to get play in an upcoming game, and Purple Dragon Knight, Long Death Monk, Storm Sorc and both Rogue options have prompted speculation from my group).

My players are power gamers in general. From a mathematical standpoint, most of the mechanics were inferior to what is offered elsewhere. If you have players that either aren't concerned about the math behind the mechanics or are unable to determine superior options, then you'll probably be ok. In my case, if I can't create a character concept that equals or exceeds an available option for the majority of material with this early a release, it's on my no buy list. I found the mechanics in the SCAG to be inferior to what I could create using the PHB for the majority of options. The Bladesinger being one of the worst offenders. You could make a better Bladesinger with an Eldritch Knight or a wizard/fighter hybrid.

And having played a monk before, I find the Death Monk problematic because the monk will not land many killing blows due to inferior damage and the requirement he be in melee. Sun Soul monk could be fun and interesting providing some ranged attacking. But if you an archer in the group, the monk is sort of a third wheel waste of time.

Storm Sorcerer is somewhere between Dragon and Wild Mage, closer to Dragon Sorcerer with a nice high level ability. The Shadow Sorcerer's mechanics were much more powerful within a group.

Provable in play and on paper mechanical viability is extremely important to me. The monk archetypes would probably be ok in my book if I had not played one in a group with an archer and a warlock/fighter. My damage and defenses were inferior in nearly every way. I rarely landed death blows because of it. I was useless with ranged attacks. My group liked to take advantage of their superior ranged capabilities to take things down as often as possible. It was pretty rare that ranged wasn't a vastly superior option to melee. Close-Quarters Combat fighting style pretty much made ranged better than melee in any way very early on. I'm allowing its use right now, but I do hope maybe they look at that Fighting Style again and modify it some. Way too good.

 

[IlluminatedSeraph]

..... Honestly, that just sounds incredibly dreary to me, but if it works for you and your table then more power to you.

 

[Celtavian]

..... Honestly, that just sounds incredibly dreary to me, but if it works for you and your table then more power to you.

I would not have mentioned it, if it did not work for our group. Making as powerful a character as possible and employing as powerful tactics as they can think up is what at least half the group likes to do. From what I understand, my group is in the minority. So maybe the SCAG will do very well. I'm finding 5E far too easy a game at the moment. It showed real promise when I read it. Once you see all the mechanical options in action, the monsters really don't have much of a chance. It becomes a faceroll game. That is disappointing.

Though the DM in me does enjoy coming up with tactics that truly challenge my power gamer group. The game is more interesting when both sides are making it very challenging.

 

[JeffB]

Yes if cheap ( $ 20 or less) and something like Mearls' pre-wars Greyhawk. Or DS, RL, or Mystara. Not that I need any of it but morbid curiosity to see how they would handle it.

Already have plenty of Realms stuff.
Not a PS or SJ fan.
I pretty much only use XenDrik when I run Eberron, so no need there either.

 

[Ezequielramone]

For me, it works as a players guide to the sword coast. That means, you knows the "color" of everything in the region, but you don't know what is really going on, like plots or evil rising or whatever. This is something like the basics a faerunian could know about every thing. If you want to know more, you have to play (yes, play, not pay).
This is something I can show to my players without spoiling a thing. I remember in the adnd era books like this I liked for the same reason: players guide to: Dragonlance, forgotten realms and greyhawk (those are the ones I have, don't know if there were more)
As a dnd enthusiastic this is a good book.
As a 95% time dm this is not enough. I would love to see a campaign setting. I have hope. It is not realistic to ask for everything at the same time, so I'll patiently wait for a CS. And I'd buy both guides and CS.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

The only things i'd be likely to buy at full price would be Adventurer's Guides to Khorvaire or to Sigil. Anything else would have to be at a deep discount.

 

[Mercule]

Almost certainly, with a couple of caveats:

- Quality is always a factor. If the maps suck, the writing sucks, etc. forget it. My affirmative assumes competence.

- No more Realms. I haven't bought SCAG because it covers the Realms. I really wish the Realms would just find a corner and die, but that's not happening. Eberron, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, and Dark Sun are all gimmes, though. One of the principle reasons for my excitement about SCAG is that it feels like a capstone product to exclusive support of the Realms. If the next SCAG-type product is for the Realms, then I'm out. It'll be just one more product supporting that sad, bloated setting in a different edition. The Realms may be D&D, but D&D is not the Realms.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I said no but there are things that have to be considered:

• WotC needs to change their policy on PDFs, I don't think I would have been as disappointed with it if there was a PDF format.
• New material, a lot of this book was material you could find from older editions of the Forgotten Realms. Give me a new setting built on the ruins of a blasted realm.

 

[AtomicPope]

I say "Yes" with a but...

The "but" is quite simple: but only if it's Greyhawk or Darksun. I love those two settings, Greyhawk for the low-magic, lack of metaplot, fading magic, classic sword and sorcery style; and Darksun for the post-magic-apocalypse. Both of those settings lend themselves to a SCAG format since the lack of intimate details is a feature and not a bug.

 

[TwoSix]

I'll buy a SCAG style book if it's about a campaign setting I'm invested in, such as Eberron. (Other contenders are Birthright, Planescape, and al-Qadim.) For FR, not going to happen. I might buy a $50-60 book if it's 320 pages and has at least 1/3 crunch, though.