Wolfspider
Explorer
This is probably the one FR book that I (a stalwart Greyhawker) will probably pick up.
Races of Faerun... ummm.. yawn?
- Thread starter GBDeluxe
- Start date
why i think the boook is boring
Ok, the FRCS is of course a necessary book for playing in the Realms. Great book. I think followed second by (and you may disagree with me) Lords of Darkness. What a great book as well. Detailed Villain plots, motivations, details of bases of operation. I loved this book. Faiths and Pantheons is cool, but I wish they would have spent less space on god Stats, and more on "a typical priest does this. here is a map of their church." etc. more like Lords of Darkness. But races.. i dunno. I think it would have been better if it was more like "This is kobold society. these are typical kobold camps / ambushes". etc. for the different races. I have a feeling it wont be anything like this though. And personally, i would rather detailed city / area books like "Cormyr" than to learn more about the differences between elven sub races. Because, those minute details are usually less important to the game, then the other things I have mentioned (IMHO)..
GBDeluxe
Ok, the FRCS is of course a necessary book for playing in the Realms. Great book. I think followed second by (and you may disagree with me) Lords of Darkness. What a great book as well. Detailed Villain plots, motivations, details of bases of operation. I loved this book. Faiths and Pantheons is cool, but I wish they would have spent less space on god Stats, and more on "a typical priest does this. here is a map of their church." etc. more like Lords of Darkness. But races.. i dunno. I think it would have been better if it was more like "This is kobold society. these are typical kobold camps / ambushes". etc. for the different races. I have a feeling it wont be anything like this though. And personally, i would rather detailed city / area books like "Cormyr" than to learn more about the differences between elven sub races. Because, those minute details are usually less important to the game, then the other things I have mentioned (IMHO)..
GBDeluxe
Jimmy Olsen
Newshound
I hate FR. Long argument I'm not going to get into. But I'm still going to buy this book, as I did FRCS, Magic of Faerun, and Monsters of Faeurn. Because there are things there I can readily steal. Conversly, I had/have no interest in Lords of Darkness (more villans? Bleh) or Silver Marches (Why would I need a setting book for a setting I won't use?).
Dragongirl
First Post
Other than the Lythari, since when do all those were-critters equate a race?
BiggusGeekus
That's Latin for "cool"
I think this could be good, but it does raise some concerns.
* I'd be concerned about DMs trying to incorporate EVERY race into their game. The old "if humans are so common, how come we don't see any" thingie. (I'd use 'phenomina' but I can't spell it).
* Roll playing tips were given on each race. There's no point in having this many races if the player is going to be an "oddball" example. That pretty much leads the way to simplistic powergaming, the Dark Side of the Force, and the apocolypse. Trust me.
* With roughly 60 races, it looks like a lot of mechanics. I mean, three pages per race with each one having an illustration and you could walk away with your job done. That's not a big problem in and of itself, but I'd really want to see this stuff playtested. The point of flavor text is to bring out the subtle differences mechanics can't provide. If this is going to be a mechanics heavy bood (and bear in mind I haven't read the thing, so I don't know) then I'm going to be less tolerant of loopholes in the rules.
* Also, a +2 STR isn't worth a INT and CHA penalty, darn it! Granted this has little to do with the book, but there's no point in ranting if I can't wander off on a somewhat irrelevant tangent.
-BG
* I'd be concerned about DMs trying to incorporate EVERY race into their game. The old "if humans are so common, how come we don't see any" thingie. (I'd use 'phenomina' but I can't spell it).
* Roll playing tips were given on each race. There's no point in having this many races if the player is going to be an "oddball" example. That pretty much leads the way to simplistic powergaming, the Dark Side of the Force, and the apocolypse. Trust me.
* With roughly 60 races, it looks like a lot of mechanics. I mean, three pages per race with each one having an illustration and you could walk away with your job done. That's not a big problem in and of itself, but I'd really want to see this stuff playtested. The point of flavor text is to bring out the subtle differences mechanics can't provide. If this is going to be a mechanics heavy bood (and bear in mind I haven't read the thing, so I don't know) then I'm going to be less tolerant of loopholes in the rules.
* Also, a +2 STR isn't worth a INT and CHA penalty, darn it! Granted this has little to do with the book, but there's no point in ranting if I can't wander off on a somewhat irrelevant tangent.
-BG
