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

[DEFCON 1]

It could be structured something this.
Old Empires Region
Brief regional over view
Nations:
Mulhorand:
Basic Overview of Mulhorand and it's themes.
Capital City (population, major imports/exports), a less detailed list of other important cities/locations in Mulhorand for adventurers.
Religion/Government/Demographics.
After the Sundering detailing how the Sundering changed things.
Plot hooks
Unther
Capital City (population, major imports/exports), a less detailed list of other important cities/locations in Mulhorand for adventurers.
Religion/Government/Demographics.
After the Sundering detailing how the Sundering changed things.
Plot hook
Chessenta
Capital City (population, major imports/exports), a less detailed list of other important cities/locations in Mulhorand for adventurers.
Religion/Government/Demographics.
After the Sundering detailing how the Sundering changed things.
Plot hook
Tymanther
Capital City (population, major imports/exports), a less detailed list of other important cities/locations in Mulhorand for adventurers.
Religion/Government/Demographics.
After the Sundering detailing how the Sundering changed things.
Plot hook
Akanul
Capital City (population, major imports/exports), a less detailed list of other important cities/locations in Mulhorand for adventurers.
Religion/Government/Demographics. Side table for Mulhorand Pantheon listing it's Gods and key details for their clerics (worshippers).
After the Sundering detailing how the Sundering changed things.
Plot hook
Minor powers.

Then rinse and repeat with the Cold Lands, Shining South, Lands of Intrigue, Heartlands, Shaar, Chult, Lake of Steam, Sea of Fallen Stars, Turmish, Halruua, Unapproachable East, ect...

It's actually pretty easy, most of the work is figuring out how has this region changed by the Sundering a the events thay followed it, and adding fresh new plot hooks.

Later in the book they can put whatever Player options, DM rules, and Monsters they want in it, even very optionally an intro adventure, although in FRs case with all the APs and other adventures, I'd focus on the rest instead.

If it's so easy, then why aren't YOU doing it? You could write it all up yourself and post it to DMs Guild and get people to buy it from you.

Oh right... because that wouldn't be real. You need real Forgotten Realms. And the only way the story of the Forgotten Realms is real is if people who work for the brand that controls the Realms writes something that the brand then publishes. If that happens, then what was written was real Forgotten Realms. Anything else that anyone else does isn't real, and thus doesn't matter.

But as has been said time and time again... the brand that publishes the Realms has stopped caring what is and isn't real anymore. They aren't concerned with canon. The need for a long, drawn-out, ridiculously overwritten timeline and history of hundreds of locations over dozens of millennia is gone. The people who control the brand just... don't... care. They are off the canon treadmill. Because it's a waste of time, a waste of money, and a waste of energy. And it serves no purpose except to make a few obsessive-compulsive fantasy history buffs happy. But the people who control the brand aren't here for you anymore. They're now here for the other 99% of the population who only care about the Forgotten Realms for what it can do for their game. Not for the history books, but for their game.

If it's useful for everyone's game at the table, like say for an adventure that people can actually sit down and play... then sure they'll fill in some details like for the Sword Coast or Chult. But they aren't going to write setting details just for the sake of it because some people have this ridiculous need for their history book to continually be full. If you want your history book full... then write it yourself and finally accept the fact that the stuff you write is real for your Forgotten Realms campaign game. It is now just as real as anything Christopher Perkins may write.

 

[noko]

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

There is the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting guide and the Glossography. It's pretty thorough and even comes with a huge map but almost no art.

 

[Fenris-77]

Hmm, a town with a stockade, hardscrabble border-type place. I'd probably need to change the environment to...why it could be an outpost and town where they are currently playing! Jungle-filled Tymora, the ol' Isle of Dead. Tee-Hee!

I invented a Prince, son of the ruler from KotB, who had journeyed to the Isle and not returned. Impressed with the party's handling of his local crisis the ruler asks them to journey in search of his missing heir. Worked like a charm.

 

[teitan]

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

return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Expedition to Castle Greyhawk. Generic supplements included materials on the gods, planes, etc of Greyhawk. The Gazeteer itself, not just the LGG. The first adventure path was Greyhawk but kept general like the old school modules of 0e and 1e, with the occasional nod to Greyhawk deities. I’m sure there were others that I don’t recall but that’s what works for Greyhawk. It should never have support like FR and FR should not be supported like Greyhawk.

 

[noko]

If you can find a copy, Return to the Keep on the Borderlands may serve as a good alternative. They can imagine that they are adventurers a couple of decades later, drawn to the legends of their earlier character's exploits.

Oh, the return, I do have a copy but it just didn't click for me for some reason.

 

[gyor]

If it's so easy, then why aren't YOU doing it? You could write it all up yourself and post it to DMs Guild and get people to buy it from you.

Oh right... because that wouldn't be real. You need real Forgotten Realms. And the only way the story of the Forgotten Realms is real is if people who work for the brand that controls the Realms writes something that the brand then publishes. If that happens, then what was written was real Forgotten Realms. Anything else that anyone else does isn't real, and thus doesn't matter.

But as has been said time and time again... the brand that publishes the Realms has stopped caring what is and isn't real anymore. They aren't concerned with canon. The need for a long, drawn-out, ridiculously overwritten timeline and history of hundreds of locations over dozens of millennia is gone. The people who control the brand just... don't... care. They are off the canon treadmill. Because it's a waste of time, a waste of money, and a waste of energy. And it serves no purpose except to make a few obsessive-compulsive fantasy history buffs happy. But the people who control the brand aren't here for you anymore. They're now here for the other 99% of the population who only care about the Forgotten Realms for what it can do for their game. Not for the history books, but for their game.

If it's useful for everyone's game at the table, like say for an adventure that people can actually sit down and play... then sure they'll fill in some details like for the Sword Coast or Chult. But they aren't going to write setting details just for the sake of it because some people have this ridiculous need for their history book to continually be full. If you want your history book full... then write it yourself and finally accept the fact that the stuff you write is real for your Forgotten Realms campaign game. It is now just as real as anything Christopher Perkins may write.

You mean canon, not real.

 

[DEFCON 1]

You mean canon, not real.

Same difference.

 

[teitan]

You mean canon, not real.

I think this guy was unnecessarily harsh on you Gyor. Also kind of wrong. They are making such books for MTG and Eberron so his argument is Null.

 

[SkidAce]

I have no idea. Just going by what @gyor claimed. Personally, I know from when it originally came out that the support he's referring to was minimal and very little was quality, so even if it has been reproduced on the DMs Guild site, it's not sufficient.

What is posted on the DMs Guild is the pdfs of the original Greyhawk books, adventures, and supplements.

So while it might not meet your needs, its quality and sufficiency are the same as when it was published.

 

[gyor]

Same difference.

No. That Dax from Star Trek was being born in 2018 was star trek canon, if it was real, then that would mean right now there would be a Trill civilization we would someday meet. Big difference. Although from a modal realist perspective it could be true in a counterpart universe to ours, in which case it would be real, but not actual.