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.

 

[gyor]

Hope they do one for the Mulhorand and Unther.

 

[greylurk]

In my mind, Cormyr belongs in a book with Sembia, Shadowdale and Zhentil Keep, and I'd love to see that same book include a redo of pirates on the sea of fallen stars.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Funny. This intrigues me a lot. I am not that interested in the Realms stuff as such, but I am very interested in the options and HOW they do this. Especially considering, this 'Mini-Setting' approach is exactly what we have decided to do with out campaign world. http://cellworld.wikidot.com/forum/t-1043808/mini-settings#post-2343224.

I know people will want full Realms books, but there is already so much out there, and focusing on a small area will cover so much more ground and provide options that will fit other areas anyway. But it allows for more detail and specific subclasses etc like the PDKs.

I really like this approach and will be interested to see how it goes.

I see problems like elven subraces. If another Realms mini-setting is done, do they reference or reproduce the subrace's stats. (Not such a problem for our setting, as it is a website and you can copy/paste the stats to each mini-setting. Not so sure people want to pay twice for the same info OR on the flipside have to purchase more than one mini-setting to get the info/rules required for another).

I am sure people playing the Realms would buy them all anyway.

 

[SkidAce]

I am going to post this thought before I read the thread.

Yay! A campaign setting book. Even though I never use the Forgotten Realms, I always look forward to the sourcebooks.

As far as everyone else goes, now that we have something on the schedule that many people have been asking for...how long before somebody comes in and tries to pull the tower down?

Very civil discourse from everyone, even those who would don't plan on getting it.

My apologies for being pessimistic.

 

[machineelf]

On the one hand, I'm glad to see that there is something out there. On the other, I'm starting to think that WotC has forgotten that the Sword Coast has a world attached to it.

Yeah, but even Faerun is just one continent in a much bigger world, but no one complains when setting books only focus on that continent. Likewise with Eberron, it focuses mostly on Khorvaire while given much less detailed information about the larger world.

I think there's nothing wrong with the setting for Forgotten Realms being the Sword Coast, even though there is a much bigger continent and world out there. I actually like the more narrow focus on a campaign setting, because trying to do everything in the Realms will become too watered down and unwieldy in a single setting book.

 

[Queer Venger]

woohoooo!!! (does happy dance)

Okay, calmer now. I love everything about this, even the title captures my imagination, giving it the 'Sword Coast' is evocative, even if you dont play in the FR you want to open this. It has a serial/episodic sound to it. Happy that its an update to compliment the growing collection of 3.5e FR books Im picking up from eBay.

It'll be a worthy companion to my other books of the Realms. So glad Wizards is finally getting around to this, and hope, HOPE that this is a precursor to other books for Dark Sun, Greyhawk, and Eberron, (sorry Dragon lance can wait).

 

[MerricB]

Purple Dragon Knight? That worries me. That really should not be in a book about the Sword Coast.

Here's the thing: Would Purple Dragon Knights be found on the Sword Coast? Well, there's at least one! (Sir Isteval)

The most well-received setting of the 4E era was the Neverwinter book. Its tight focus on an area of the Realms allowed for a lot of good material, and material that was easy to use and apply. It also included a few backgrounds of people that came from outside of Neverwinter, but would likely be found in a Neverwinter campaign. Having a Purple Dragon (or an ex-Purple Dragon) turn up on the Sword Coast doesn't seem like too much of a stretch.

One of the key problems with the Forgotten Realms - and especially its presentation in the 3E campaign setting - is that the level of detail was overwhelming to new players. As an introduction to the setting, the Sword Coast is much more approachable. It is also the setting of all three of the published adventure paths so far, (and likely to be the focus of the future ones as well). Meanwhile, the D&D Expeditions line concentrates on the Moonsea region; and there have been some nice articles on their website about the cities they've visited so far (Phlan, Mulmaster and now Hillsfar).

The original presentation of the Realms concentrated quite heavily on the Sword Coast, Dalelands and Cormyr. Yes, other regions were mentioned, but it was easiest to start a campaign in Waterdeep or Shadowdale - not coincidentally, the areas that Ed Greenwood ran his campaigns in.

So, I'm quite hopeful by this approach. A Sword Coast setting makes a lot of sense given the focus of the published adventures.

Cheers!

 

[Mercule]

I'm no Realms fan (old news, I know), but I'm excited by this book for two reasons:

1) It shows they're willing to do setting(ish) books. If I'm lucky, maybe there will be something for Eberron in a year or two.
2) It might mean they've explored the Sword Coast as much as they plan to, right now. Ideally, that means they're ready to give some love to another world; but even somewhere else in the Realms would be a welcome change of pace, as an observer.

The regional scope doesn't bother me because a) the Realms is so freaking huge and b) if I convert this to Eberron, I could see each of the five nations eventually getting covered, which would be cool. We'll have to wait and see how it plays out.

There's a lot of room for error, on this. IMO, the worst possible case is a book of mostly crunch with just enough Realms flavor over the rules to ruin it for everyone else.

 

[Mavkatzer]

I'm always thrilled to have more world material to snatch up, mix up, and use in my own homebrew! I've used FR extensively for that purpose. So I'm very excited for this product!

And though I won't introduce more PC options in my campaigns, beyond what's in the PHB, I'm glad those options will be included for all the many DMs and players that clearly want that material!

We all win!

 

[machineelf]

I'm no Realms fan (old news, I know), but I'm excited by this book for two reasons:

1) It shows they're willing to do setting(ish) books. If I'm lucky, maybe there will be something for Eberron in a year or two.
2) It might mean they've explored the Sword Coast as much as they plan to, right now. Ideally, that means they're ready to give some love to another world; but even somewhere else in the Realms would be a welcome change of pace, as an observer.

The regional scope doesn't bother me because a) the Realms is so freaking huge and b) if I convert this to Eberron, I could see each of the five nations eventually getting covered, which would be cool. We'll have to wait and see how it plays out.

There's a lot of room for error, on this. IMO, the worst possible case is a book of mostly crunch with just enough Realms flavor over the rules to ruin it for everyone else.

Eberron has grown on me over the years. I hope you're right. a separate book for each of the five nations (and another book or few for lands outside the 5 nations) would be excellent. That's probably asking for too much though.