D&D 5E The case for (and against) a new Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book

[Parmandur]

It's a bit of a closed loop though, isn't it?

If you want a setting book on FR you really have nothing else to buy this edition do you?

I don't think it would be a stretch to say that SCAG is one of the least well received 5th edition releases. I mean, how many more books of this format did we get? If it was such a success where are the rest of the books like this?

The Adventure books which zoom in on particular areas are the rest of the books like this.

There are several Adventures which have lower review scores on Amazon, and are not selling as well. I don't think anyone will say it is their favorite 5E book, but it has done it's job.

 

[Parmandur]

For WotC
A simplified setting book that sells well > A complex setting book that doesn't sell as well

For a particular setting's fan
A complex setting book that doesn't sell well > A simplified setting book that sells well

It's not one-size-fits-all

No, of course not, no product or product line will fit all needs.

The difference between your first case and the second, is that the first is relevant, while the latter is only relevant in the aggregate when it will effect the former enough to change.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

It's a bit of a closed loop though, isn't it?

If you want a setting book on FR you really have nothing else to buy this edition do you?

I don't think it would be a stretch to say that SCAG is one of the least well received 5th edition releases. I mean, how many more books of this format did we get? If it was such a success where are the rest of the books like this?

I would be interested in seeing a sales list with data showing purchase rankings of each book, but not including sales to consumers who just "buy every book".

Really any sort of drilling down in the data would be fascinating. How many Ravnica books were sold to MtG fans or Wildemount (sp?) books sold to Critical Role fans who have no interest in any other DnD materials? How many copies of the FRCS are sold exclusively for the character crunch and not the campaign setting materials?

 

[Parmandur]

They did something similar with Curse of Strahd as well, taking the main elements of the original (the castle) and adding a lot more material on the town and other supplementary adventures/NPCs, taking something that was fairly linear and making it a sandbox. The same was done with Ghosts of Saltmarsh, as the entire introductory chapter adds material meant to take a fairly linear adventure path and giving DMs a lot of options to make a sandbox instead.

You can probably do the same with the first few Dragonlance modules. I haven't read them back to front, but more material on the surrounding areas of where they take place, plus key NPCs and their private goals/motivations, and you can really elevate the material.

Something like that would be awesome, but unwieldy if you do the math on page counts...like, just getting the Chronicle modules together would be Dungeon of the Mad Mage in length...let alone changing anything...

 

[JiffyPopTart]

No, of course not, no product or product line will fit all needs.

The difference between your first case and the second, is that the first is relevant, while the latter is only relevant in the aggregate when it will effect the former enough to change.

I agree..but only (once again) from the WotC point of view. A fan of Dark Sun just wants a quality Dark Sun product, they don't care about if it makes money or is "popular" in general.

The chance of something being made by WotC is 100% going to be determined from WotCs point of view, however that doesn't mean that we have to take their position for every discussion.

 

[Parmandur]

I agree..but only (once again) from the WotC point of view. A fan of Dark Sun just wants a quality Dark Sun product, they don't care about if it makes money or is "popular" in general.

The chance of something being made by WotC is 100% going to be determined from WotCs point of view, however that doesn't mean that we have to take their position for every discussion.

My take on the OP was that we are reading the tea leaves for what WotC might actually do, not what we want. I'd love something like the Midgard World Book for the FR, but don't see that happening when SCAG is servicing the market

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Something like that would be awesome, but unwieldy if you do the math on page counts...like, just getting the Chronicle modules together would be Dungeon of the Mad Mage in length...let alone changing anything...

I honestly meant only the first three modules in the series.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

My take on the OP was that we are reading the tea leaves for what WotC might actually do, not what we want. I'd love something like the Midgard World Book for the FR, but don't see that happening when SCAG is servicing the market

Ah, and my take was just a general discussion on if FR has enough coverage already for the 5e era.

This probably explains why every discussion nowadays ends up in an argument so easily, because I am 100% in the camp that I don't think WotC will be doing another book (for financial reasons) and 100% in the camp that the Forgotten Realms deserves another book (for enjoying the FR reasons).

 

[Parmandur]

I honestly meant only the first three modules in the series.

Them that runs into the problem of being incomplete... it's something I also think they want to do, but it is tricky.

 

[Parmandur]

Ah, and my take was just a general discussion on if FR has enough coverage already for the 5e era.

This probably explains why every discussion nowadays ends up in an argument so easily, because I am 100% in the camp that I don't think WotC will be doing another book (for financial reasons) and 100% in the camp that the Forgotten Realms deserves another book (for enjoying the FR reasons).

One of WotC problems is that they can't assume that people are playing in a "5E era" per se: too many tables are playing FR in every "era" now. The Sword Coast has the advantage of not having radically changed since 1E. It's trivial to take any of the Adventures and transplant them into 2E or 3E time-frames. And I think that is a genuine strength of their current approach.