D&D 5E Grumbling about New (and Announced) Releases

[Marc_C]

I don't care much for adventures and setting books. I only buy rule books and monster books as I prefer making my own adventures and settings. Having said that I have no interest in a book on Dragons.

I used to buy D&D adventurers and settings in prior editions but now I find my money is better spent on other rpg games.

 

[cbwjm]

I'm generally not too worried about books I'm not into, I just don't buy them, something else will come along, whether from WotC or a 3rd party. There's always been books for dnd that I've never been interested in, the current releases are no different.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

They have confirmed that the book will be available separately, though it's premiering in the gift pack.

The weird part there is that the carnival is a minor note in the book: the core of the book is 5 pretty seperate 32-page modules, and only the intro module is carnival related. The other 4 are very, very different.

I fully expect to see all 3 in the next few years.

Re: available separately, it's totally not okay with me for them to put in the gift pack FIRST. It should be available separately FIRST, then in a gift pack, otherwise it's just a direct and crappy attempt to rip off desperate nerds, which like, no, do not do that.

I think in this case it seems like maybe it was a screw-up, from their apologetic attitude, like, maybe due to the pandemic completely screwing with publishing, they somehow managed to produce the ones for the gift pack but not the rest, or only were able to ship the gift pack ones or whatever, so I'm willing to cut them a break. Especially if it goes on D&D Beyond and so on at the same time as the gift pack - in fact that'll kind of prove is this is an honest or dishonest move - if it doesn't go on on Beyond when the gift pack comes out, that's pure dishonesty and attempt to manipulate customers in a very base way.

If they make a habit, in future, of bringing out books in more expensive, or gift-pack-only formats, months before they're available in normal editions (and/or digitally), then okay WotC, you can take a nice long walk off a very short pier thanks, one more time and that's literally the last WotC book I'd buy under current management. It's not something positive on any level.

Interesting re: carnival, they sure pushed that angle pretty hard - I guess a lot more people like that aesthetic than dislike it (The Greatest Showman did ludicrously well despite being a terrible film full of dodgy songs and with awful messages, albeit some of that was small children love it but still) - that actually increases my interest.

If they do all three settings they will get quite a lot of money out of me. I might even go back and buy Spelljammer if they do both PS and DS.

 

[Parmandur]

Re: available separately, it's totally not okay with me for them to put in the gift pack FIRST. It should be available separately FIRST, then in a gift pack, otherwise it's just a direct and crappy attempt to rip off desperate nerds, which like, no, do not do that.

One must consider who the target audience is for this book, which is: people who don't already own both Volo's and Mordenkainen's, and completionists. I have no interest, since I already have Volo's and Mordenkainen's, but it makes a good starter pack to be able to give someone every splat from 2016-2020 in one package.

Interesting re: carnival, they sure pushed that angle pretty hard - I guess a lot more people like that aesthetic than dislike it (The Greatest Showman did ludicrously well despite being a terrible film full of dodgy songs and with awful messages, albeit some of that was small children love it but still) - that actually increases my interest.

It's worth flipping through: the middle three modules each cover a different sort of Fey environment (Hither is a swamp, Thither is a woodland, and Yon is in the mountains) with a different Hag "boss" to address (violently or diplomatically) and the Palace of Heart's Desire is an old fashioned dungeon crawl with

Spoiler

the two Law and Chaos factions from the LJN action figure characters being central to the conflict, and a classic Greyhawk characterat the center of everything.

There is enough plot connecting tissue to run straight through, but each of the five sections is a pretty classic Module in length and portability.

If they do all three settings they will get quite a lot of money out of me. I might even go back and buy Spelljammer if they do both PS and DS.

I really think they will. There are two classic D&D Setting books coming in 2022, and one in 2023...and the list of candidates is pretty short.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, the problem for me isn't that I'm losing interest... it's just there's too many books now! We used to get a book every quarter, but now we're getting books every month.

Not really, but I bought Witchlight and haven't finished reading it. Fizban's comes out next week, Strixhaven in December, and now this CR book in March. No way I'm catching up with that release schedule, so I'm skipping some of these even though they all appeal to me at least a little.

Plus, there are older books I've still got some interest in, like Storm King's Thunder or Ravnica.

So I've got too many products to buy, too little time to read them all. And it sounds like the release schedule is only going to increase!

This. I’d love to have more time between releases.

 

[Stormonu]

Actually, I'm getting a bit worried that the popularity the game is enjoying now is in danger of negatively affecting the quality of what is put out. While a slower release schedule makes for aggrevating waits, it gives the team time to do their best work, instead of rushed work. I think, in part, the "rush" is why there's some grumbling about the new stat blocks - as for example it doesn't look like they fully contemplated how the interaction of Dispel Magic and Counterspell would be affected. It'd be even more concerning if it's something they don't even care about how it impacts people's tables.

 

[Parmandur]

Actually, I'm getting a bit worried that the popularity the game is enjoying now is in danger of negatively affecting the quality of what is put out. While a slower release schedule makes for aggrevating waits, it gives the team time to do their best work, instead of rushed work. I think, in part, the "rush" is why there's some grumbling about the new stat blocks - as for example it doesn't look like they fully contemplated how the interaction of Dispel Magic and Counterspell would be affected. It'd be even more concerning if it's something they don't even care about how it impacts people's tables.

They have more than doubled their team, but less than doubled their output. Seems OK.

 

[Ancalagon]

I'm quite interested in the dragon book, but the critical role thing, the fey adventure, the college of magic all leave me cold.

That's ok, I backed the Drakkenheim kickstarter, that will be my next 5e campaign

 

[teitan]

The Nentir Vale originally was supposed to be part of FR or something, and FR already eat some of the best parts of that setting, but with its own spin on this, sometimes more interesting (4e/5e style Tieflings, Dragonborn, Gloomwrought, others).

No it wasn't. It started as a generic town in the DMG and was generally vague. They then hinted around that Red Hand of Doom COULD be part of the same world but Nentir Vale and the 4e fluff was not intended to be part of the FOrgotten Realms at any point. There were supplements set in the world of Nentir Vale but separated enough to be plugged in anywhere like Hammerfast for example and the Dragonborn supplement and the generic supplements for 4e. FR only got 3 supplements in the 4e era and much of the classic materials from previous editions like Against the Giants, Tomb of Horrors got Nentir Vale based adventures while the setting never really got a setting book. It was loose and vague with a world map and Fallcrest and a small handful of settlements laid out, the cosmology and some adventure sites. The settlements laid out were in relation to adventures or the aforementioned Hammerfast where it was a quick supplement. Nerath, the Raven Queen, Vecna as the God we know now (he was a different kind of God before), etc comes from Nentir Vale. Tielfings in 4e comes from Nentir Vale as before they had a much more... sinister spin to them and were largely a Planescape thing. Even Dragonborn were much different. So if ANYTHING, Forgotten Realms was beaten with a hammer, smacked around, told to shut up, abused, threatened and then cuckolded into fitting the Nentir Vale tropes into its lore and not the other way around.

 

[teitan]

I have no real objection to any of the new books individually, but I do feel like 5E has reached an inevitable tipping point of edition bloat. And while I like a lot of things in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, I think that book for me marks the point of "enough is too much" and was really the first time I saw power creep become a pervasive problem at my tables (due to a few specific unbalanced subclasses and abilities).

There's more content than I can reasonably use. I'm interested in the Strixhaven book and the Critical Role adventure, but the fact is that I'm still in the middle of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus campaigns and will likely be playing them well into 2022. I own both Candlekeep Mysteries and Wild Beyond the Witchlight and haven't even read them. So in terms of adventures I feel like I'm swimming in them, and there's a backlog.

That said, the CR adventure is overdue and something that will absolutely help grow the game, and it will be a hugely successful book from a sales perspective. As a pro DM, selfishly I'm thrilled to see it because people will want to hire me to run it for them. In terms of story ideas and lore, I thought the Wildemount book was very strong. However, the player-facing subclasses and spells in that book I found to be game-breakingly powerful at the table, so I hope things are handled more carefully on the mechanics side for this book if there are any new subclasses or races thrown in.

Fizban's just isn't something I feel is missing from my table. I like dragons but feel they are generally best used as abstractions at a distance to preserve their mystique. I use them sparingly and don't feel like I'd necessarily know what to do with a book full of dragon stuff. I have pre-ordered that one on DNDBeyond but, like a few other books, I'm unlikely to pick up a physical copy.

Edition bloat? How? It has 5 supplements. 5. 6 if you count Acq. Inc. Xanathar, Tasha's, Volo, Mordenkainen and Fizban. If you count settings it has more, sure, but those aren't all that bloaty since the others tend to reprint the crunch from those that are class based and the setting books tend to reprint the same races as the monster books and each other. We don't even have an undead book for 5e and they're doing a reprint compilation book of Volo's and Mordy's already? Have we already forgotten 2-3.x era bloat? I can fit all the settings and rules supplements for 5e on one shelf and still have room for more.