D&D 5E I just don't see why they even bothered with the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

[Mistwell]

Sorry, but the plural of anecdote is not data. It's not unreasonable to assume, even from your own examples, where you have one example player and four or more counter examples, that saying that players tend to stick with one edition to the exclusion of others.

I will let you know when I plan to offer something intended as data as opposed to a single anecdote. Until then, maybe better to ask me what my intent is rather than assuming you know it? If you didn't find my anecdote helpful, that's fine. I didn't find your response to my anecdote helpful either, so I guess we're even on that score.

 

[Mistwell]

They're not reading the market right

How is your RPG company doing?

 

[Shasarak]

Two adventures. An accessory every year or two. Board games. The tabletop miniatures. The miniature game. Maps. The video games. The dice game. The comic. The novels. Plus whatever else they can licence and sell.

How well did the adventures. An accessory every year or two. Board games. The tabletop miniatures. The miniature game. Maps. The video games. The dice game. The comic. The novels. Plus whatever else they can licence and sell work for every other edition that has come and gone.

 

[Jester David]

How well did the adventures. An accessory every year or two. Board games. The tabletop miniatures. The miniature game. Maps. The video games. The dice game. The comic. The novels. Plus whatever else they can licence and sell work for every other edition that has come and gone.

It didn't work well. But a different situation.

First, because they weren't trying to coordinate the licences to direct sales back to the tabletop game. The side licences were all just their own little projects.

Second, because they were banking on the accessories to keep making money. That was the revenue stream.
So they had the huge staff that was required for constant books, high production costs to make said books, and were expecting those to keep sales of the Core books high. They were spending a lot of money to make a little extra money.
But that didn't work. Regular accessories arguably had a detrimental effect on the game, making the game bloated and difficult for new players to join, with a daunting number of books.

So they're changing a variable. They're removing endless splatbooks and seeing if that helps extend the edition and prevent a hard sales slump.

If you have another option I'd like to hear it? What's the genius idea to prevent the edition from having a slump after 3-6 years that won't fracture the audience and force everyone to buy waves of new books?

 

[Huntsman57]

I would say the biggest disappointment with SCAG isn't the lack of crunch, because that's understandable. I think they're trying to avoid bloat. I would have liked to have seen somewhat more crunch, particularly in the realm of spells and feats, but perhaps that missed opportunity can be remedied in a future guide.

The biggest drawback SCAG suffers from in comparison to its brethren from a prior editions (like the 2E Moonsea boxed set for example) is the lack of detail. SCAG does a passable job at allowing the reader to garner a general sense of the flavor of each town, city, etc...but SCAG's 2E grandpappys really went the extra mile to make you really feel immersed in the goings on to the point where all kinds of adventure ideas would spring to mind. After reading through the Moonsea boxed set you knew all the political players, their secrets, their plots, the interplay of regional politics...you had detailed maps above and below ground...you knew how the commoners lived and the immersion was so thorough that it felt as though you already slept in every inn from the Laughing Goblin to the Pride of Zhentil Keep (where even the chamber pots leak).

At the very least I was really hoping that at the very least SGAG would answer some questions about the changes in this part of Faerun from prior editions that have never really been well explained thus far.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on SGAG. I rather like its conversational approach in fact. Still, it could have been better.

 

[Eubani]

The fact that we keep seeing new spells but not maneuvers shows that the caster favoritism of past editions is still something that the designers have yet to shake.

 

[Shasarak]

If you have another option I'd like to hear it? What's the genius idea to prevent the edition from having a slump after 3-6 years that won't fracture the audience and force everyone to buy waves of new books?

Sure, what kind of budget are we working with here? What is our target return over what period? Do we have creative control or is there an upper management that needs to be in the loop?

 

[Jester David]

Sure, what kind of budget are we working with here? What is our target return over what period? Do we have creative control or is there an upper management that needs to be in the loop?

Assume the budget is comparable to what they currently have to work with, since that's what the upper management at WotC I content to give them? I.e. a half-dozen staff, little real marketing. And very, very likely heavy managerial involvement.

 

[Corpsetaker]

If you have another option I'd like to hear it? What's the genius idea to prevent the edition from having a slump after 3-6 years that won't fracture the audience and force everyone to buy waves of new books?

Here is my option and I can guarantee you that it will work. Now before we begin, let me remind you that as long as I am making enough money to pay all the bills and everyone gets paid well then all is good. I do not jog on the profit treadmill nor do I expect unrealistic goals.

I would basically take Paizo's strategy with a few differences here and there because it works.

 

[Celtavian]

My friend picked this book up. I've read through it more thoroughly. I can't find much in it I would use.

Fluff: Better fluff in all the previous books. There's no new fluff that is very interesting. I couldn't and wouldn't keep track of all the fluff changes if I wanted to and I don't. I use the Realms to tell stories about the characters my players are playing and I don't care what other characters are doing.

Deities: Same old deities. Fewer domains which makes them seem more alike. If they wanted to make the Realms deities more interesting, they would have come up with more domains. They add the Arcana domain, then divide the small number of domains among the 40 or so gods. Makes for very boring deities. No specialty priests. Very little flavor or thought put into the religions of the Forgotten Realms.

Races: The half-elf extra options were nothing that couldn't have been thought up by a DM and player in a few minutes. They added the Duergar. They talk about them walking about invisible all the time, yet it only lasts an hour. That is hardly all the time. The Duergar could have been released in the Monster Manual.

Archetypes:

Barbarian: Battlerager is a weak archetype. Battlerager armor is supposed to be plate armor from the books. Instead the spiked armor is some weak AC 14 armor. Bad conceptual and implemented design. Extra totems might see some use, but probably not.

Bard: Lots of fluff talk about colleges. Some different instruments. Mostly useless.

Cleric: One new domain with forty plus deities. Start writing domains and show some creativity. This game could use 5 or 10 more domains easily.

Druid: More fluffy fluff.

Fighter: Purple Dragon Knight will likely never see any use in my campaigns.

Monk: A couple of decent archetypes that might see use. I guess I'll see in time. Sun Monk is better than the elemental monk.

Paladin: I haven't see anyone play much besides vengeance. Oath of the Crown likely won't change that.

Ranger: Not much going on with the ranger. Wish they would do something to get the beastmaster class right.

Rogue: A couple of ok archetypes that might see some use, not by me, but maybe by someone. Swashbuckler too melee oriented with the limitations on rogue AC and hit points. Mastermind could be interesting in certain types of campaigns.

Sorcerous Origin: Storm sorcerer might see some use. Removal of bonus spells huge minus. Shadow sorcerer was much cooler than this storm sorcerer. High level flight is pretty good though.

Warlock: Undying doesn't look particularly appealing.

Wizard: Bladesinger archetype looks like a good way to waste your time. I much prefer Pathfinder's Magus class which better models a bladesinger. Bladesinger and similar classes should be a five level wizard/fighter hybrid like paladins or rangers with bladesinger as an archetype. I believe making the Bladesinger an archetype of the wizard to be a poor design choice that will make it unattractive in the long run.

Overall, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide was a poorly done book that shows a real lack of creativity whether you are looking at mechanics or lore. I'm very disappointed. Last time I was purchasing WotC products was during the 3E era. From the time FR became WotC's default world, the FR books were some of their highest quality books in 2E and 3E. It's very disappointing to see such a drop in quality in all areas from those eras. I look at the FR boxed and guides from 2E as well as the region books and campaign setting from 3E, I wonder where the creativity and pride are at WotC. When I purchased the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting in the 3E era, that book made me feel like WotC was giving me a bargain. It was a big, beautifully made book with a large pullout well detailed map. I had regional feats, traits, prestige classes, spells, god information, magic items, feats, and each region had a section. It was a beautiful book that made you feel like WotC was really putting effort and money into producing an amazing book. This Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide really makes me wonder, "What happened to WotC?"

I know other people have to remember the 3E FR books. I don't mean some of the insanely overpowered options like the first release of the archmage and hierophant I mean the quality of the books themselves. I felt like those books were on par with Pathfinder, heck, they were better than Pathfinder regional books. This Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is not at all on par. I get nearly as much information in a couple of issues of a Pathfinder adventure path as I received in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. What happened to the creative minds that used to put out those great books during 2E and 3E? Are they all gone?