Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide: The First Official D&D 5E Setting

Yes, it is new, I was just creating a thread for it myself.

 

[Patrick McGill]

The first 4 major releases of 5e just match what was already available originally (although not compiled into hardback) and the other 2 may or may not actually be useful depending if you use pre-designed adventures or not which historically is not the case.

So really we currently have a few UA articles and a couple of pages from the Dragon+

What edition of D&D had available at the very beginning the number of classes, races, and subclasses that 5e offered right at the start? What you can build from the first three 5e books took a bit longer to get, even in the last edition.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Hmm...

Best case scenario that I could see is that this is sort of a combo product. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Volume 1, which includes all the extra crunch, timelines, and cosmology details you need for adventures in any part of the Realms (or at least Faerun), plus specific setting details on the Sword Coast.

Then subsequent volumes would be pure fluff focusing on another large region in the Realms, or such area specific coverage could be baked in to the mega-adventures. So, for instance, if they had been doing this already (which I doubt they are) the Rage of Demons book would double as an Underdark region guide.

What I hope we do not see is additional regional setting books also loaded with crunch-bloat. So I'm hoping that the inclusion of Purple Dragon Knight means this book's crunch is pan-Realms. I hope the other subclasses are more or less Realms comprehensive. Sha'ir, Wu jen, etc. I do not want to see them multiplying crunch just to make sure each region book has several new options.

 

[Shasarak]

Uh no lots of people use Pre Designed Adventures if only for ideas. Stuff like Against the Giants and Tomb of Horrors would not be so iconic if they were not used.

Which begs the question: What were people using for seven years before "Against the Giants"?

 

[Mistwell]

The first 4 major releases of 5e just match what was already available originally (although not compiled into hardback) and the other 2 may or may not actually be useful depending if you use pre-designed adventures or not which historically is not the case.

So really we currently have a few UA articles and a couple of pages from the Dragon+

The reference was to the first year of 1e AD&D, where they just had one hardback book out (a core book) and 6 Dragon magazines, which had roughly half their content about the game. The first four major releases don't match anything that was already available for 5e...nobody had the Stater Set, PHB, MM, or DMG. And we're not talking about "useful" we're discussing sparseness of the release schedule. The first year of 5e content releases clearly outpaces the first year of AD&D 1e content releases.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Which begs the question: What were people using for seven years before "Against the Giants"?

Nothing because the Release Schedule was really poor.

So you have not really helped your point.

 

[Uder]

Which begs the question: What were people using for seven years before "Against the Giants"?

Third party & home brew.

 

[Shasarak]

What edition of D&D had available at the very beginning the number of classes, races, and subclasses that 5e offered right at the start? What you can build from the first three 5e books took a bit longer to get, even in the last edition.

That is a good question. If we can only count original ideas in the core books then I guess that oDnD had the most, ADnD had nothing new in core, maybe the Bard?, 3e added the Sorcerer.

Pretty slim pickings for original ideas though.

 

[Shasarak]

Nothing because the Release Schedule was really poor.

Bingo, exactly! Not using pre-packed adventures. QED.

 

[Shasarak]

The reference was to the first year of 1e AD&D, where they just had one hardback book out (a core book) and 6 Dragon magazines, which had roughly half their content about the game. The first four major releases don't match anything that was already available for 5e...nobody had the Stater Set, PHB, MM, or DMG. And we're not talking about "useful" we're discussing sparseness of the release schedule. The first year of 5e content releases clearly outpaces the first year of AD&D 1e content releases.

If your first Hardcover is a Monster Manual then obviously you must already have rules for creating PCs to fight the monsters.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Bingo, exactly! Not using pre-packed adventures. QED.

But once they started being made people used them. So it's still not helping your point.