D&D 5E On the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

[pukunui]

I guess that explains how Luskan got 3 pages then.

Just think how many pages it could have gotten if we cut out the Dalelands, Zhentil Keep and the rest of the Moonsea cities.

I have a feeling you're being facetious here, but I'm still not sure how to respond. None of those areas get much space in the book, probably because they're not on the Sword Coast, whereas Luskan gets three pages all to itself because a) it *is* on the Sword Coast and b) it features quite prominently in Sword Coast Legends. But you undoubtedly already knew that.

 

[Mark CMG]

It is likely a good product for a new FR fan. Smaller than a giant book like the 3E FRCS, yet enough information to introduce a new FR fan to the Sword Coast region. And that was probably the target market since 5E seems to be focused on retaining as much of the old fan base as possible, while trying to attract a new younger fan base to carry the game into the next decades.

It wasn't useful to me as a long time FR fan highly familiar with the setting mostly because I don't care about the fluff much since there is as much FR fluff as I'll ever need to do anything I want.

Basically what I figured.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...Guide/page22&p=6764191&viewfull=1#post6764191

 

[Mark CMG]

That being said, I'm not sure I am a huge fan of this in-depth look at locales. Its not that it is a hard read (I think the writing is fine and fairly entertaining), its just that I miss the little paragraph snippets on a bunch of locales... any of which may spark my imagination.

Also, it feels by focusing in deeply on fewer places, that the Realms seems smaller--there is so much excluded, even within the Sword Coast, that I think even a page or 2 dedicated to potential ruins, adventuring sites, and small towns would have helped 'flesh' the region out more.

Small concerns. Not harping. And, the design/story teams are still feeling things out obviously.

I wonder if this is indicative of the limited release schedule more so than the scope of this one book. How large an area needs to be covered to satisfy the players in a single campaign? Or, at least, in a typical campaign (not necessarily a 20 or 30 level major campaign)? Does it benefit the players to have a FR-wide scope in a players book? Would a more robust release schedule with ten or so such books over a couple/few years highlighting half a dozen or a dozen different regions give GMs and their players plenty of options for adventuring while leaving it up to the players to only need a couple/few of the guides for any given campaign? The more I read, the more I think they've done the right thing by the players, new and old, by putting out a guide with this scope and level of detail but wonder if they need more of them over time.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

I am reading this book a few pages at a time. So far it has kept my attention, mainly because the book is great at providing up to date information without being dry--a problem that the otherwise well written 3E regional sourcebooks suffered from.

Just about everything new that I have read has been interesting.

The urge to ask WotC for a SCAG-style book focusing on the Sea of Fallen Stars and all the lands it touches is building in my brain. I'm ready for an update that's fun to read and digest.

 

[MerricB]

If you're interested in the ongoing story of the Realms and how the world has changed in the last few years, even if you're quite familiar with the Realms, I think you'll enjoy the book.

Cheers!

 

[Mark CMG]

The number of spelling errors and other typos is about what I would expect from a 3PP product, not a WotC one.

Well, it's a Green Ronin Publishing book with some guidance from WotC and their named stamped on it, really, isn't it? Though I don't recall a lot of complaints about books put out by Green Ronin Publishing in the past. Do you think more care is taken by each company when a project is totally their own, perhaps?

 

[pukunui]

Well, it's a Green Ronin Publishing book with some guidance from WotC and their named stamped on it, really, isn't it?

According to WotC, it's a collaboration. In their minds, it's more 50/50, but I don't really know. I don't recall there being as many typos in the Dragon Age RPG books I've got, but it's been a while since I read them.

 

[Mark CMG]

According to WotC, it's a collaboration. In their minds, it's more 50/50, but I don't really know. I don't recall there being as many typos in the Dragon Age RPG books I've got, but it's been a while since I read them.

Yeah, I'm not sure how that works either. At some point, some one person needs to write it, or several someones need to write sections of it, and likewise with the editing. Certainly, it is never a matter of each company writing every other word. Then, of course, it falls to someone or some group to do the proofing. At some point, maybe years from now, we'll know more but I am guessing it works more along the lines of WotC loaning their setting and system bibles to GR and giving them an outline of what they want covered. Then I am guessing GR writes and edits the text of the project and passes it back to WotC for approval. Then some changes are suggested to GR who does them or they are handled at WotC (with GR being informed of them with the chance to suggest some adjustments based on what GR was thinking when they wrote it). Then a final edit, I suppose, followed by proofing at one company or the other. Anything more convoluted than that would make it tough to hit deadlines, I think, as well as being a license for incoherence. Plus, I am guessing that seems enough like a collaboration for someone to be able to say it is 50/50 without most people objecting to such a designation.

 

[Daern]

I have it and its about what I expected, which is fine. I'd play a Bladesinger or a dwarf battlerager. I just really wish the art direction had been more about evoking setting than people standing. The art just doesn't have much happening. I don't understand that. Why not show pictures of the places you are describing and heroes having adventures in those places. Why would anyone think a random picture of a "dude from Baldurs Gate" floating on the page would be inspiring to anyone?

 

[darjr]

From what WotC has said it's like their freelancing of years past, just with a company instead of a lot of individuals.

I think the results, on the whole, have been amazing. I love the flavor that each company gives each thing they are a part of.