D&D 5E (2024) Next issue of Game Informer will have details on the two upcoming Forgotten Realms books

[Parmandur]

So, we have 3 big Setting equivalence with the DMG here:

• 50 pages of 1 page low prep Adventures, spread across 10 regions, similar to the 5 sample Adventures in the DMG tied to the Greyhawk region
• 5 focused "mini-settings", which seem similar to the 11 page zoom in on the Free City of Greyhawk and the region around it in the Campaigns chapter
• and 50 pages in the PHB that sound like the same sort of material in the 11 page Greyhawk Gazateer covering the entire continent of the Flannaes, also in the Campaign chapter: of note here they divide the Flannaes into 5 regions of about 2 pages description each

Given that, a Faerûn Gazateer of about 50 pages could give each region a good 4 pages each, with room for more general information similar to what we see in the DMG Campaigns chapter.

 

[GarrettKP]

So, we have 3 big Setting equivalence with the DMG here:

• 50 pages of 1 page low prep Adventures, spread across 10 regions, similar to the 5 sample Adventures in the DMG tied to the Greyhawk region
• 5 focused "mini-settings", which seem similar to the 11 page zoom in on the Free City of Greyhawk and the region around it in the Campaigns chapter
• and 50 pages in the PHB that sound like the same sort of material in the 11 page Greyhawk Gazateer covering the entire continent of the Flannaes, also in the Campaign chapter: of note here they divide the Flannaes into 5 regions of about 2 pages description each

Given that, a Faerûn Gazateer of about 50 pages could give each region a good 4 pages each, with room for more general information similar to what we see in the DMG Campaigns chapter.

I really think the 50 pages in Heroes of Fearun won’t be as focused on regions or places, and just be more about the setting for a player as a whole. Here’s the factions and what they mean for you, here’s the gods of the world and how people worship them, here’s what gold is called, here’s any special equipment the setting uses, etc etc. At most I expect surface level overviews of stuff to help players with backstory, I really don’t expect them to put that much lore in the player focused book.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I really think the 50 pages in Heroes of Fearun won’t be as focused on regions or places, and just be more about the setting for a player as a whole. Here’s the factions and what they mean for you, here’s the gods of the world and how people worship them, here’s what gold is called, here’s any special equipment the setting uses, etc etc. At most I expect surface level overviews of stuff to help players with backstory, I really don’t expect them to put that much lore in the player focused book.

At most, it will be a very brief and macro-level overview of the setting and its various regions in the players' guide. Maybe a few pages at most. I expect the DM's book will have much fuller coverage.

I'm beginning to wonder if the DM's book will be somewhat larger than the player's guide, given that I'm struggling to think of enough things to fill 240 pages for the latter. 8 subclasses, even with an illustration for each, probably won't even fill 20 pages. No new species, and a discussion of FR-specific species lineages, even if some get substitute features, again will take up maybe 20 pages. We're getting more feats and backgrounds than in the PHB, but those only took up 24 pages in the PHB, so maybe 40 pages? 50 pages for the basic setting overview stuff as mentioned in the article. Spells? Even for a setting known for its magic, I can't see that going over 30 pages (which would be fully 1/3 of the length of the spell section of the PHB), and let's add on 10 pages for circle magic and the other setting-specific systems. That's 170 pages there, and even adding extra pages for some of what I mentioned and things I've overlooked, maybe we can push it to 200? I'm going to guess an approximate 200/280 page ratio for the two books. I do wish they had given the individual page counts so we could work out what might be in both a bit better...

 

[Demetrios1453]

Also, the bestiary (presumably in the DM's book) is almost certainly going to be 60 - 70 pages. Every recent book with a full bestiary - Spelljammer, Planescape, Fizban's, and Bigby's - all have bestiaries in that range.

 

[Mercurius]

It sounds like they're splitting up material to optimize chances that people buy both. "Most of X type of material is in this book, but some is in the other." Especially for those who want the setting/fluff stuff OR the splat/crunch stuff, but not both.

 

[Zaukrie]

Since there's 160 extra pages, there's plenty of room for a much expanded bestiary (and the 50 one-page adventures) without infringing on the page count for other things. The bestiaries for both Spelljammer and Planescape were 64 pages; I wouldn't be surprised to see the same here.

But the font is, thankfully, bigger I'd guess. And way more art.

In any event, I'll be buying these.