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

[teitan]

I just double checked: XGtE has less than three pages of reprints from another printed book.

In comparison, the Baldurs Gate Gazeeter is a huge section of Descent into Avernus.

I was making a joke.

 

[teitan]

Sure, I don't use Beyond myself: I buy the hardcover books from my FLGS. Thing is, it would undermine the stores to re-release large sections (again, XGtE has a handful of pages of previously printed material) from a book just a few feet away on the shelf.

and yet Wildemount has about that many pages in reprinted material. We aren’t going to convince each other either way so let’s just let it go.

 

[teitan]

Those are all from published sources.

yeah and? Those aren’t readily available right now as they aren’t in print. And some is post Sundering. Not published but extrapolated. I’m bowing out of this because man, some people don’t get it. Really don’t get it. I get what you all are saying, but your answers just aren’t resolutions to the issue. They are half cocked answers and essentially telling people to shut up.

 

[Parmandur]

and yet Wildemount has about that many pages in reprinted material. We aren’t going to convince each other either way so let’s just let it go.

Wildemount has about ten pages in reprints scattered around, based on my quick count, whereas the Baldur's Gate Gazeeter is 50 pages long.

I'm not necessarily trying to convince you of anything, this is my distracting small talk.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

yeah and? Those aren’t readily available right now as they aren’t in print. And some is post Sundering. Not published but extrapolated. I’m bowing out of this because man, some people don’t get it. Really don’t get it. I get what you all are saying, but your answers just aren’t resolutions to the issue. They are half cocked answers and essentially telling people to shut up.

They are post sundering, yeah. They're from an Erin Evans novel and from Death Masks by Ed Greenwood. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it is repeated in the Waterdeep adventure as well.

I think you're forgetting something. With the end of all non-Drizzt novels, the ongoing "story" is confined solely to Adventures modules. There will be no more metaplot coming from the novels. If something needs to be detailed for an adventure, it will be, otherwise, they will leave it available for DMs to utilise.

Forgotten Realms in 2nd and 3rd edition acquired Dragonlance syndrome, that is, the novel tail was wagging the RPG dog. It eventually made Dragonlance unplayable as a setting until the original authors would be brought back to blow it up...which they ruined with more metaplot. It only reached a sort of equilibrium when the novels finally ceased and the world was once again belonging to the players. Unfortunately, MWP's license to print the product was pulled shortly after and the setting goes into hibernation until yet another iteration of the original modules (yawn).

Forgotten Realms finally has this chance. It would be a shame to blow it again.

 

[Xenonnonex]

[QUOTE="Paul Farquhar, post: 7963163, member: 6906155"
The opinion of someone who is a professional writer (as well as a teacher), yes
[/QUOTE]
Which makes your opinion as worthwhile as anyone else's. No more. No less.

 

[Alzrius]

A forum isn't a place to "cite." An official source of some sort would be required for this.

I once tried to get to the bottom of this rumor once and for all. It was an exercise in frustration.

For those who don't know, here's a brief recap: there's a longstanding rumor that, when TSR purchased the rights to the Forgotten Realms from Ed Greenwood, Ed got a clause in the agreement saying that they had to publish at least one book (apparently either a novel or a sourcebook) by him for the setting each year, otherwise ownership of the setting would revert to him. This is typically cited as him having some sort of creative input (if not control) into how the setting develops, since it requires something of his to be put out lest WotC (who is said to have inherited that clause when they bought out TSR) lose their rights to the setting. Another point that's often touted as being part of the agreement is that, so long as it's not contradicted by any published material, everything that Ed writes for the setting (e.g. on forum posts) is "official" and "canon."

In trying to find out if there was any substance to the rumor, the closest thing I could definitively find was repeated references to it on the Candlekeep forums by a poster called The Hooded One, who is apparently a member of Ed's gaming group. In particular, one post has them asserting that they'd seen the agreement in question.

Personally, I find the entire thing dubious; taking a look at Ed's bibliography on Wikipedia or the Forgotten Realms wiki shows several years where nothing was published, with 2018 and 2019 being notable examples, and yet insofar as I'm aware WotC still owns the intellectual property rights to the setting. Now, it's entirely possible that there are works that are missing from those pages, but really the entire thing sounds rather outlandish. I'd treat it like any other Internet rumor.

 

[Maxperson]

I once tried to get to the bottom of this rumor once and for all. It was an exercise in frustration.

For those who don't know, here's a brief recap: there's a longstanding rumor that, when TSR purchased the rights to the Forgotten Realms from Ed Greenwood, Ed got a clause in the agreement saying that they had to publish at least one book (apparently either a novel or a sourcebook) by him for the setting each year, otherwise ownership of the setting would revert to him. This is typically cited as him having some sort of creative input (if not control) into how the setting develops, since it requires something of his to be put out lest WotC (who is said to have inherited that clause when they bought out TSR) lose their rights to the setting. Another point that's often touted as being part of the agreement is that, so long as it's not contradicted by any published material, everything that Ed writes for the setting (e.g. on forum posts) is "official" and "canon."

In trying to find out if there was any substance to the rumor, the closest thing I could definitively find was repeated references to it on the Candlekeep forums by a poster called The Hooded One, who is apparently a member of Ed's gaming group. In particular, one post has them asserting that they'd seen the agreement in question.

Personally, I find the entire thing dubious; taking a look at Ed's bibliography on Wikipedia or the Forgotten Realms wiki shows several years where nothing was published, with 2018 and 2019 being notable examples. Now, it's entirely possible that there are works that are missing from those pages, but really the entire thing sounds rather outlandish. I'd treat it like any other Internet rumor.

I did a quick Google search and the only hit I got immediately was from a site called 1d4chan. One look at the name and I didn't bother to click the link or go any further. It's not on me to prove the claim.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Personally, I find the entire thing dubious; taking a look at Ed's bibliography on Wikipedia or the Forgotten Realms wiki shows several years where nothing was published, with 2018 and 2019 being notable examples, and yet insofar as I'm aware WotC still owns the intellectual property rights to the setting. Now, it's entirely possible that there are works that are missing from those pages, but really the entire thing sounds rather outlandish. I'd treat it like any other Internet rumor.

AFAIK, the clause states that TSR/WotC has to release a yearly Forgotten Realms product, or lose the rights. It doesn't necessarily has to have been penned by Greenwood. That also explains the gaps on the Wiki page.

Now, whether the clause is a geek legend or not, I have no idea.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I once tried to get to the bottom of this rumor once and for all. It was an exercise in frustration.

For those who don't know, here's a brief recap: there's a longstanding rumor that, when TSR purchased the rights to the Forgotten Realms from Ed Greenwood, Ed got a clause in the agreement saying that they had to publish at least one book (apparently either a novel or a sourcebook) by him for the setting each year, otherwise ownership of the setting would revert to him. This is typically cited as him having some sort of creative input (if not control) into how the setting develops, since it requires something of his to be put out lest WotC (who is said to have inherited that clause when they bought out TSR) lose their rights to the setting. Another point that's often touted as being part of the agreement is that, so long as it's not contradicted by any published material, everything that Ed writes for the setting (e.g. on forum posts) is "official" and "canon."

In trying to find out if there was any substance to the rumor, the closest thing I could definitively find was repeated references to it on the Candlekeep forums by a poster called The Hooded One, who is apparently a member of Ed's gaming group. In particular, one post has them asserting that they'd seen the agreement in question.

Personally, I find the entire thing dubious; taking a look at Ed's bibliography on Wikipedia or the Forgotten Realms wiki shows several years where nothing was published, with 2018 and 2019 being notable examples, and yet insofar as I'm aware WotC still owns the intellectual property rights to the setting. Now, it's entirely possible that there are works that are missing from those pages, but really the entire thing sounds rather outlandish. I'd treat it like any other Internet rumor.

I'm guessing the wiki just hasn't been updated recently, as the two Waterdeep adventures were published in 2018 and Baldur's Gate: Decent to Avernus was published last year.