D&D 5E With the release of each new setting book, the SCAG looks worse and worse...

[FrozenNorth]

That is hardly a scientific poll or even a good source of information, most FR fans aren't on Enworld.

There are dozens of us! DOZENS!

More seriously, given that the EN boards tends both towards older RPG gamers and more invested RPG gamers, I suspect FR fans are overrepresented on the board, not underrepresented.

Just the fact that EN has a single board for all D&D players, rather than separating by edition, suggests that many previous edition fans of FR could have voted in Uriakk’s poll.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm a FR fan from back in the day. It was my first setting box, and it will always have that first girlfriend nostalgia about it. If I'm going to run D&D FR is my default setting - I run other settings, but in those cases I've chosen them for a reason. FR is just easier too due to my level of familiarity, and the fact that it maps well to 'fantasy' for new players and is thus easy for them to come to grips with.

 

[Maxperson]

My point was that at one point Greyhawk had an edge because it was older and at the time it had more stuff and the blessing of Gygax, but FR was more popular when it came out and eclipsed Greyhawk and it rode that popularity until it had way, way more material then Greyhawk.

That's because when it came out, the Realms was more detailed than Greyhawk. People liked that expanded detail. It wasn't because the Realms was somehow inherently superior to all other settings. Had Greyhawk had the same level of detail, it might be the giant in the room.

They even tried to boost Greyhawks popularity by making it default in 3e, but FR was way more popular.

Oh dear lord. Do you actually believe that? The only part of 3e that was Greyhawk "default" was the list of gods in the PHB. It got literally no support other than that.

 

[billd91]

Oh dear lord. Do you actually believe that? The only part of 3e that was Greyhawk "default" was the list of gods in the PHB. It got literally no support other than that.

cough, cough Living Greyhawk Gazetteer plus their whole Living Greyhawk organized campaign. cough cough

 

[Maxperson]

cough, cough Living Greyhawk Gazetteer plus their whole Living Greyhawk organized campaign. cough cough

Hah! Forgot about that. How much did it detail the world? I didn't do any of the RPGA stuff. I refuse to do organized play.

 

[noko]

I'm using FRCS as a general setting and then letting the lot drift away into ever more idiosyncratic world-building. Chult has morphed back into the old Isle of Dread now called Tymora with Dwellers of the Forbidden City dropped into an old volcano basin in the center of it. Which is what TOA is. Dave Cook wrote some great material back in the day. And, as far as SCAG goes, I handed it to one of my players as the entire bunch was starting into 5E as a new system and FR was completely unfamiliar. It's just about useless as a campaign setting book and pretty damn near spoiler-free.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Hah! Forgot about that. How much did it detail the world? I didn't do any of the RPGA stuff. I refuse to do organized play.

The Gazatteer had pretty comprehensive coverage of the setting. It was actually quite good, other than the abysmal art.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm using FRCS as a general setting and then letting the lot drift away into ever more idiosyncratic world-building. Chult has morphed back into the old Isle of Dread now called Tymora with Dwellers of the Forbidden City dropped into an old volcano basin in the center of it. Which is what TOA is. Dave Cook wrote some great material back in the day. And, as far as SCAG goes, I handed it to one of my players as the entire bunch was starting into 5E as a new system and FR was completely unfamiliar. It's just about useless as a campaign setting book and pretty damn near spoiler-free.

Most of my campaigns are set in the Realms. I just have a ton of 2e and 3e stuff for it, so I really don't need any 5e reprints of fluff and lore. I bought SCAG and it's only really the few bits of crunch that are of any use to me.

 

[Undrave]

At 159 pages, the SCAG is the shortest setting book released for 5E so far. Out of all the 5E setting books (Ravnica, Eberron, Wildemount), the SCAG has the least amount of lore, the fewest player options, the fewest monsters (zero), the fewest magic items (zero), and the fewest adventures (zero). I really want to like it, but it's just so... slight. And... inadequate. It needs about 100 more pages to be really good.

I know it will never happen, but I wish Wizards would release an updated and revised version of the SCAG. Failing that, I wouldn't mind another Forgotten Realms setting book that matched the quality of Eberron and Wildemount. Because as it is, despite getting a lot of attention this edition, FR definitely got shafted in the setting-guide department.

An Icewind Dale setting book could be cool...

 

[noko]

Yeah, I received as a Christmas gift from one of my players. She thought it would be useful, bless her heart. most of the modules these days are seriously fluff and lore reprints. I find myself searching my ancient modules and dusting off the good bits and matching them to bits of 5e crunch.