Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Guildmaster's Guide = Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes 2.0?!
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="pukunui" data-source="post: 7549776" data-attributes="member: 54629"><p>Lacking in both depth and quality. And by quality, I don’t just mean the content. I’m also talking about the physical quality of the books, which have been plagued with printing problems that previous editions didn’t seem to suffer from (cheap bindings that fall apart, poor printing controls that result in blurry headings, low quality paper and ink that easily smudges, and so on).</p><p></p><p>In terms of content, I regard the SCAG and Volo’s as the edition’s best supplements, and neither of those is without its problems (the SCAG could/should have had more crunch in it, including more FR-specific stuff, more spells, and maybe even some magic items; Volo's was fine except for the PC race options, most of which needed more playtesting -- as an alpha playtester, I was disappointed to see that WotC felt the draft versions were good enough to publish virtually unchanged; it's like they just couldn't be bothered to try and balance them and decided to make us DMs do all the hard work*). </p><p></p><p>XGE was a big disappointment for me as the content is not just a random grab bag thematically but also in terms of quality. The subclass options are very hit-or-miss. So are things like the expanded rules for tools and the revised downtime activities. There’s so much in that book that clearly could have done with more refinement than it got. But again, WotC deemed the content good enough to publish, knowing that we long-suffering DMs would iron out the kinks for them.</p><p></p><p>I think my main issue with MToF is the choice of content: what they included vs what they didn't include comes across as somewhat nonsensical and seemingly random to me. For instance, there are PC stats for sea elves but no fluff to go with them. And the chapter on gnomes and halflings, while nice, really doesn’t belong in this book, even as a so-called "constrast" to all the other chapters about long-running feuds and the like. And did we really need the deep gnome a third time?! I think “Tome of Foes” was a poor choice for this book’s title, given its content.</p><p></p><p>And so on and so forth.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>*Something else I'd like to touch on is that, when I was younger, I would houserule and homebrew the game to my heart's content. These days, though, I just feel like I don't have the time and/or energy to do all that. I want to be able to pick up these books and use the contents more or less as written, but I feel like, in many cases, I just can't do that. I could go on, but I think what it all boils down to is this: I am worried that I am no longer in WotC's target market. I don't enjoy watching all the streaming shows. I don't enjoy the "wide but shallow" / "do it yourself" approach to the game's support.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pukunui, post: 7549776, member: 54629"] Lacking in both depth and quality. And by quality, I don’t just mean the content. I’m also talking about the physical quality of the books, which have been plagued with printing problems that previous editions didn’t seem to suffer from (cheap bindings that fall apart, poor printing controls that result in blurry headings, low quality paper and ink that easily smudges, and so on). In terms of content, I regard the SCAG and Volo’s as the edition’s best supplements, and neither of those is without its problems (the SCAG could/should have had more crunch in it, including more FR-specific stuff, more spells, and maybe even some magic items; Volo's was fine except for the PC race options, most of which needed more playtesting -- as an alpha playtester, I was disappointed to see that WotC felt the draft versions were good enough to publish virtually unchanged; it's like they just couldn't be bothered to try and balance them and decided to make us DMs do all the hard work*). XGE was a big disappointment for me as the content is not just a random grab bag thematically but also in terms of quality. The subclass options are very hit-or-miss. So are things like the expanded rules for tools and the revised downtime activities. There’s so much in that book that clearly could have done with more refinement than it got. But again, WotC deemed the content good enough to publish, knowing that we long-suffering DMs would iron out the kinks for them. I think my main issue with MToF is the choice of content: what they included vs what they didn't include comes across as somewhat nonsensical and seemingly random to me. For instance, there are PC stats for sea elves but no fluff to go with them. And the chapter on gnomes and halflings, while nice, really doesn’t belong in this book, even as a so-called "constrast" to all the other chapters about long-running feuds and the like. And did we really need the deep gnome a third time?! I think “Tome of Foes” was a poor choice for this book’s title, given its content. And so on and so forth. *Something else I'd like to touch on is that, when I was younger, I would houserule and homebrew the game to my heart's content. These days, though, I just feel like I don't have the time and/or energy to do all that. I want to be able to pick up these books and use the contents more or less as written, but I feel like, in many cases, I just can't do that. I could go on, but I think what it all boils down to is this: I am worried that I am no longer in WotC's target market. I don't enjoy watching all the streaming shows. I don't enjoy the "wide but shallow" / "do it yourself" approach to the game's support. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Guildmaster's Guide = Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes 2.0?!
Top