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.

 

[epithet]

I've found it easy to combine 5e mechanics with Greyhawk material.

Dark Sun... not so much.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

I'm really looking forward to this product because, as can be seen in a thread I started, I'm looking to get into the Forgotten Realms so I better use whatever WotC puts out by understanding the background/world behind the adventures a little better. I followed a couple of suggestions and picked up the 3e Campaign Setting, the 4e Campaign Setting and a couple of the Volo guides, but... DAMN! The information contained within them is so overwhelming. My old brain cannot retain it all! Or even a fraction of it it would seem.

What I and others like me who are just now picking up the Forgotten Realms (or D&D or both) is something that breaks out a smaller chunk of the FR with teasers about the rest of the world. Something that I can take in with smaller bites to process and assimilate. From the sound of it, this may be that product. Of course, it may not, but at least it gives me a solid place to start.... I think... I hope.

 

[Queer Venger]

I think you hit the nail on the head. Wizards is being smart in releasing setting contents in a way that does not overwhelm the new comer. I think that by focusing on less known regions of the Realms, like the Sword Coast, lets new players manage the scope of a home base, were before Wizards would release an entire encyclopedia and this tended to overwhelm.

Plus its in keeping with the very roots of D&D (Greyhaw) where TSR released only a slim module with a bit of setting contents and then only later released the Greyhaw box set. I see why Wizards is following a similar philosophy, and it makes sense.

 

[Shasarak]

Less known regions like the Sword Coast?

Sure if it is 1978.

 

[CapnZapp]

Don't forget that unless Wotc keep publishing info about the sword coast, it won't stay "most well known".

That is: a lot of chatter here from old hands. You are not the customers Wotc is trying to win, you're already won no matter how much you grumble.

PS. You = we

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm really looking forward to this product because, as can be seen in a thread I started, I'm looking to get into the Forgotten Realms so I better use whatever WotC puts out by understanding the background/world behind the adventures a little better. I followed a couple of suggestions and picked up the 3e Campaign Setting, the 4e Campaign Setting and a couple of the Volo guides, but... DAMN! The information contained within them is so overwhelming. My old brain cannot retain it all! Or even a fraction of it it would seem.

What I and others like me who are just now picking up the Forgotten Realms (or D&D or both) is something that breaks out a smaller chunk of the FR with teasers about the rest of the world. Something that I can take in with smaller bites to process and assimilate. From the sound of it, this may be that product. Of course, it may not, but at least it gives me a solid place to start.... I think... I hope.

Yeah, unfortunately picking up the entire Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book is not always the best solution for people to start a campaign because of exactly what you said... too big an area with too much info of which 95% is pretty much useless for any one campaign. What tends to be a better option for some folks would be to pick up one of the three "microsetting" books of the Realms that WotC produced for 3rd edition-- Silver Marches, Unapproachable East, and Shining South... or the 4E "microsetting" book Neverwinter. All four of those select a much smaller area of Faerun but go much deeper into the history and specifics of the land. Many more NPCs, many more plot hooks, many more locations to visit. Had you bought one of those books instead, you might not have felt as overwhelmed.

So as it stands now... the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide will drop into the same place of usefulness as the other four, and thus will probably be much closer to what you are looking for. The one advantage of that one of course being that it'll be written from the "current" year of Realms canon, as opposed to the earler times for the 3E and 4E books.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

From what I understand both Steve Kenson and Brian Cortijo worked on this product.

I have played D&D using material written by Cortijo, but have never used anything written by Kenson.

So, has anybody purchased anything by Steve Kenson? If yes, did it help your game/was it fun, or no?

 

[Bluenose]

I think Steve Kenson has mostly been involved with superhero RPGs, Silver Age Sentinels, M&M, and the Freedom City setting; none of whihc I can help with. But, his name is also on some of my Shadowrun books, both fiction and sourcebooks. In my opinion only, the fiction was good for a game-line tie in, especially Born to Run and it's sequels; some of the setting material was very fine, Super Tuesday! and Brain Scan, but the Tir Na nOg chapter in Shadows of Europe was not a good one.

 

[garnuk]

Just want to throw in my obviously minority opinion.

My group is just starting to get into Rise of Tiamat, and we started with DND next modules from dndclassics.com

This new release interests me but I'm not going to buy it for a long time, if I ever do buy it. I feel that WoTC is trying to sell me too many books at this point, too quickly.

Not only is there tons of content, but the DMG even gave us enough info to build our home homebrew class conversion from the WFRPG careers. Hello ratcatcher and pharmacist. (Due to DMG guidelines the classses are nicely balanced from what we can tell in play)

It's certainly going to be a while till I'm ready to purchase more books for any reason other than making my shelf look pretty.

 

[Nellisir]

I think Steve Kenson has mostly been involved with superhero RPGs, Silver Age Sentinels, M&M, and the Freedom City setting; none of whihc I can help with. But, his name is also on some of my Shadowrun books, both fiction and sourcebooks. In my opinion only, the fiction was good for a game-line tie in, especially Born to Run and it's sequels; some of the setting material was very fine, Super Tuesday! and Brain Scan, but the Tir Na nOg chapter in Shadows of Europe was not a good one.

http://stevekenson.com/rpg-bibliography/