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

[dave2008]

I thought you couldn’t publish Greyhawk specific stuff to the DM’s Guild. Mr. Welch complained about that in his latest YouTube video.

You are correct, @Maxperson either miss-spoke or was wrong.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'd be fine with a continuations of the ToA approach to cover other areas in the Realms. A full Setting Book would be cool, but I don't care enough about it to want to push back either Dark Sun or Planescape.

 

[Maxperson]

You are correct, @Maxperson either miss-spoke or was wrong.

As I said, I was going based on what @gyor claimed about Greyhawk stuff being remade for DMs Guild.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Once you add the SCAG, and the Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate Gazetteers, and the Chult Gazzetteer, there's actually quite a bit of setting information for Forgotten Realms in 5E. It just isn't in one book.

 

[dave2008]

As I said, I was going based on what @gyor claimed about Greyhawk stuff being remade for DMs Guild.

Yep, I noticed your clarification after I posted - sorry. To clarify: WotC can publish any of there old content on DMsGuild, but only certain settings are open for homebrew content and Greyhawk is not open for Homebrew content.

 

[teitan]

I think we will get a proper Forgotten Realms book. Sooner or later but the demand is there for it. WOTC is blind to not see it. SCAG is adequate for starting a campaign but it’s like a “players guide” as they did in 4e. I would not be surprised if it is in development now and the reason that they didn’t do it first was that the SCAG was out and selling reasonably well. Now they have a good template and Ed is under an NDA so that may mean something.

 

[Parmandur]

Ya, that just seems like to much to me for a setting book to do it justice. I can't imagine that a lot of people are just looking for region by region bullet points. I think that is what I see as the issue. FR has just gotten to big for one good setting book. I think it would really need multiple setting books to even cover it close to as well as Wildemount, Eberron: RftW, and I am guessing Theros.

It's complicated: they have produced a book that does cover all of that, the 3E FRCS which is great. However, that book exists and is 95% 5E compatible, except for NPC statblocks and some Feats, and is readily available in print or on the DMsGuild. What's more, now there is a Forgotten Realms Wikia that has the "barebones bullet points" approach mastered. A book can't compete.

There is definitely room for FR Adventure generation material and monsters (plenty of FR specific monster still not reprinted)...

 

[Mercurius]

I'm always happy for new setting books and I'd buy a new FR setting book if it was purty, but I have to ask: What would people actually expect from it that the classic 3e book didn't already do, except updated stats and player options that were already in SCAG? Meaning, as much as it is fun to get a new setting book, it feels a bit like that second (or third) squeezing of a lemon. Maybe time to slice open new fruit? How about a lime? Or a pineapple or some rambutan?

This endless re-hashing of old setting material--or at least yearning from it, from (I'm guessing) a relative minority of setting-faithful fans--just seems like re-inventing the wheel, again and again. WotC isn't likely to improve upon the FRCS, which is a masterpiece that many consider the best setting book ever made. I for one am rather pleased that they've chosen differently and are branching out into new* settings like Ravnica and Wildemount. I truly hope that the next setting book is Zendikar or Dominaria or maybe the home setting of one of the WotC people. New worlds to explore, and all.

That said, what does make sense is a Planescape or Manual of the Planes book. There's enough edition-specific material that hasn't been covered to not only justify such a product, but to make it almost necessary to easily play a planar game.

(*new for non-Magic players, but still new as D&D settings)

 

[The Green Hermit]

I quite like SCAG, but it does look a little thin when compared to more recent sourcebooks.

There's such a huge amount of FR lore at this point that it makes sense to break new 5e material into regional books. I'd like to see more options than just the Sword Coast make it to print - whether they are direct WotC products, or sanctioned third party releases.

This. I don't mind that it is this thin for the area, but give us other areas as well!

 

[gyor]

As I said, I was going based on what @gyor claimed about Greyhawk stuff being remade for DMs Guild.

It wasn't remade, it was converted to PDF form for D&D classics, D&D classics got merged into DMSGUILD. It's the exact same books as in 1e/2e, it's just in PDF form, not print.