Races of Faerun... ummm.. yawn?

[poilbrun]

No space, huh?

Well, what about the human/culture chapter? Do we really need it? How many pages of that material is taking up in Races of Faerun?

IMO, that'll be the most useful part of the book...

 

[BMF]

I only skimmed the thread, so this may have been pointed out already, but when I first learned about this book, I thought, "well, it's for the people who didn't buy the campaign setting. Those people can get this book instead, and have the races without all the other information.

I know SKR has talked about the drive from management at WotC to make products "more crunchy." This seems to be an excerpt of "crunchy bits" from the campaign book with some (that is, VERY LITTLE) new material.

Personally, I was surprised at how much they plan to reprint in this book. I don't plan to buy it, because I have the campaign setting. This book has nothing of interest in it for me beyond the material I already have.

My impression of it is that it is a very weak product (because it has only a few new races and reprints old material, some of which has also appeared in Dragon Magazine).

WotC has really gotten some milage out of those races, eh?? Who would have thought that you could write up one-page descriptions of various elves, dwarves, genasi, etc. and sell them to the same group of people 3 times over in less than 2 years, and make money every time!


Sorry guys. Buying them twice is enough for me.

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

Re: Re: HEY RICH BAKER!

Why didn't we do the saurials? Well, there are a couple of reasons.

First, the book was short on space. No lie. I had to cut about 30,000 words from Eric Boyd's turnover alone.

Second, the saurials are isolated in one particular spot of the Realms, and don't seem to get out much.

Third, the saurials have a number of strange abilities that don't convert to 3-E very nicely, like the whole "we speak at a frequency you can't hear" thing.

Finally, and I hate to say this, saurials just fall a little too far on the wrong side of my personal wacky-meter. Everybody's got their own opinions, and I won't represent mine as any better than anyone else's about this sort of thing, but I'm just not in a hurry to get the saurials into 3E game product. I know a number of people will feel differently, but hey, there it is.

I see the point. Personally I like Saurials but if someone really needs them Sean K. Reynolds wrote a great article for Dragon 292 that covers all you'll need to know about Saurials - SKR handled the Saurial speech issue elegantly and it shouldn't be any trouble at all in any campaign...

-Zarrock

 

[JPL]

I only skimmed the thread, so this may have been pointed out already, but when I first learned about this book, I thought, "well, it's for the people who didn't buy the campaign setting. Those people can get this book instead, and have the races without all the other information.

I know SKR has talked about the drive from management at WotC to make products "more crunchy." This seems to be an excerpt of "crunchy bits" from the campaign book with some (that is, VERY LITTLE) new material.

Personally, I was surprised at how much they plan to reprint in this book. I don't plan to buy it, because I have the campaign setting. This book has nothing of interest in it for me beyond the material I already have.

My impression of it is that it is a very weak product (because it has only a few new races and reprints old material, some of which has also appeared in Dragon Magazine).

WotC has really gotten some milage out of those races, eh?? Who would have thought that you could write up one-page descriptions of various elves, dwarves, genasi, etc. and sell them to the same group of people 3 times over in less than 2 years, and make money every time!


Sorry guys. Buying them twice is enough for me.

How many pages does the race info in the FR campaign book fill? Eight pages or so? And the Dragon article probably ran another eight pages or so.

There was very little overlap between the PHB race descriptions and the FR race descriptions. I do not think that it is fair to say that WotC sold us the same stuff twice.

But even if they literally copied every single word on races from the three previously cited sources (plus the bladesinger)...unless they use a really big font or leave blank pages where you can draw your character, I think we're looking at around 85% new material.

If the gensai article in Dragon is any indication, I think this will be a terrific product. Good crunch, with race-specific feats and classes and spells, but also with some terrific character hooks and background info. And the breachgnome, man.

 

[AJA]

Re: Re: HEY RICH BAKER!

First, the book was short on space. No lie. I had to cut about 30,000 words from Eric Boyd's turnover alone.

Which was probably the best (and most Realms-specific) of the bunch.

I want web supplements, Rich Baker, and I want them now!

 

[Ranger REG]

If the gensai article in Dragon is any indication, I think this will be a terrific product. Good crunch, with race-specific feats and classes and spells, but also with some terrific character hooks and background info. And the breachgnome, man.

Hmm. If the Genasi article is going to be reprinted (or a revised version of that) in the product, then why not the Saurial article?

Personally, the human cultures may be most useful if one were to feature them in a region product. For example, in a Waterdeep supplement (or a chapter in the region supplement), one would the author would expore in details regarding the Waterdhavian society and cultural lifestyle. After all, most of Faerun civilizations are dominated by humans.

Of course, the Race of Faerun can focus on nonhuman cultures, such as the elves of Evermeet and Evereska, The dwarves of Mithril Hall, etc.

Sorry but I must lament to the decision regarding the upcoming product and the absence of the Saurial, one of the unique features of the Forgotten Realm, despite their non-indigenous status.

 

[Renshai]

Well if Eric Boyd is writing even part of it, I'm sold. Oh, and welcome to the boards AJA.. good to see you in these parts.

Renshai
aka Todd Antill