So, I'm tempted by the SCAG with the sale. Unfortuantely, there's nowhere for me to just read the book so I can get a feel for what's in it and whether it's useful to me. I'm currently creating an adventure set in the general area.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
1. Lore about how the classes fit into the setting, lore about religion and the gods, lore about particular locations.
2. Depends hugely on what you want it for. As an inspirational text, it's great. It isn't exactly going to fill in every gap on the map though. It's good for helping you recognize what the Sword Coast is -- it's not *quite* a generic fantasy melting pot, but it's hard to describe succinctly.
3. They're interesting, but bad. Much has been said already about how suboptimal they all are, besides the bladesinger, which has been updated and rereleased anyway.
4. If you like the non-mechanical parts of the Eberron book, you'll probably like it.
Thanks. I've not read the Eberron one either, unfortunately. I'll probably give it a miss, I've looked up reviews online...and they're all pretty negative, saying it's pretty sparse. I was kind of hoping for some deep dive on lore to help me pad out my adventures in terms of making it immersive etc, make the world feel a bit more alive.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
What would have been nice was a comprehensive setting guide for the Forgotten Realms, which you'd think would be a thing given that it's the central setting. But we never actually got that. Also what seems to be a little-known fact is that the Sword Coast is only one part of Faerûn, and Faerûn itself is only one small part of the world of Toril. The Forgotten Realms has enough meat in it to provide setting books and adventures for the entire edition if WoTC really wanted to go in that direction.
What would have been nice was a comprehensive setting guide for the Forgotten Realms, which you'd think would be a thing given that it's the central setting. But we never actually got that. Also what seems to be a little-known fact is that the Sword Coast is only one part of Faerûn, and Faerûn itself is only one small part of the world of Toril. The Forgotten Realms has enough meat in it to provide setting books and adventures for the entire edition if WoTC really wanted to go in that direction.
That’s pretty much what Wizards did for most of 5e. Look at their earlier releases. Out of the Abyss, Princes of the Apocalypse, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, Lost Mines of Phandelver, Dragon of Icespire Peak, Tales from the Yawning Portal, Storm King’s Thunder, and many other 5e books have been set there. Even more recent releases like Rime of the Frostmaiden are FR-centric.
I totally agree that other parts of Toril deserve to be explored. Maztica, for example.
(I hope I spelled everything right…)
What I'm trying to say is that we never saw a book beyond the SCAG that actually provides generic content that allows one to create their own custom adventures in the world the way the books for Eberron, Wildemount, Ravnica, etc do. And the SCAG was kinda barebones imo. All the books you listed minus the SCAG were adventure modules, and in my view, the lore content is so scattered among them and so much context is missing about the world at large and its history and so on, that the FR Wiki to this day is still a massively valuable resource just to understand some of what's going on.
Of the subclasses in SCAG, the Arcana cleric is the only one that's decent and hasn't already been printed in another book. The lore in the book is sparse and not especially impressive and the new subraces are forgettable. And the spells were all reprinted in Tasha's.
As far as WotC branching out beyond the Sword Coast, I really don't think we're likely to see a book on Mazteca or Kara-Tur any time soon. The old books had some stuff in them that was pretty racist and I don't think WotC is likely to want to dig all that out.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Of the subclasses in SCAG, the Arcana cleric is the only one that's decent and hasn't already been printed in another book. The lore in the book is sparse and not especially impressive and the new subraces are forgettable. And the spells were all reprinted in Tasha's.
As far as WotC branching out beyond the Sword Coast, I really don't think we're likely to see a book on Mazteca or Kara-Tur any time soon. The old books had some stuff in them that was pretty racist and I don't think WotC is likely to want to dig all that out.
The thing about Maztica, Zakhara, and Kara-Tur is that recent stuff in 5e (namely Journeys from the Radiant Citadel and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft) has shown that WoTC can tackle these cultures in a less problematic fashion, and they have used Mesoamerican inspiration in Magic: The Gathering's Ixalan setting. So, and this might sound optimistic as heck, I think they can do something decent by these far-off lands in Toril if they really wanted to.
Of the subclasses in SCAG, the Arcana cleric is the only one that's decent and hasn't already been printed in another book. The lore in the book is sparse and not especially impressive and the new subraces are forgettable. And the spells were all reprinted in Tasha's.
As far as WotC branching out beyond the Sword Coast, I really don't think we're likely to see a book on Mazteca or Kara-Tur any time soon. The old books had some stuff in them that was pretty racist and I don't think WotC is likely to want to dig all that out.
The thing about Maztica, Zakhara, and Kara-Tur is that recent stuff in 5e (namely Journeys from the Radiant Citadel and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft) has shown that WoTC can tackle these cultures in a less problematic fashion, and they have used Mesoamerican inspiration in Magic: The Gathering's Ixalan setting. So, and this might sound optimistic as heck, I think they can do something decent by these far-off lands in Toril if they really wanted to.
"If they really wanted to" is the active part of that sentence, and I'm not seeing much that makes it look like they do.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
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So, I'm tempted by the SCAG with the sale. Unfortuantely, there's nowhere for me to just read the book so I can get a feel for what's in it and whether it's useful to me. I'm currently creating an adventure set in the general area.
So:
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
1. Lore about how the classes fit into the setting, lore about religion and the gods, lore about particular locations.
2. Depends hugely on what you want it for. As an inspirational text, it's great. It isn't exactly going to fill in every gap on the map though. It's good for helping you recognize what the Sword Coast is -- it's not *quite* a generic fantasy melting pot, but it's hard to describe succinctly.
3. They're interesting, but bad. Much has been said already about how suboptimal they all are, besides the bladesinger, which has been updated and rereleased anyway.
4. If you like the non-mechanical parts of the Eberron book, you'll probably like it.
Thanks. I've not read the Eberron one either, unfortunately. I'll probably give it a miss, I've looked up reviews online...and they're all pretty negative, saying it's pretty sparse. I was kind of hoping for some deep dive on lore to help me pad out my adventures in terms of making it immersive etc, make the world feel a bit more alive.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
What would have been nice was a comprehensive setting guide for the Forgotten Realms, which you'd think would be a thing given that it's the central setting. But we never actually got that. Also what seems to be a little-known fact is that the Sword Coast is only one part of Faerûn, and Faerûn itself is only one small part of the world of Toril. The Forgotten Realms has enough meat in it to provide setting books and adventures for the entire edition if WoTC really wanted to go in that direction.
What I'm trying to say is that we never saw a book beyond the SCAG that actually provides generic content that allows one to create their own custom adventures in the world the way the books for Eberron, Wildemount, Ravnica, etc do. And the SCAG was kinda barebones imo. All the books you listed minus the SCAG were adventure modules, and in my view, the lore content is so scattered among them and so much context is missing about the world at large and its history and so on, that the FR Wiki to this day is still a massively valuable resource just to understand some of what's going on.
Of the subclasses in SCAG, the Arcana cleric is the only one that's decent and hasn't already been printed in another book. The lore in the book is sparse and not especially impressive and the new subraces are forgettable. And the spells were all reprinted in Tasha's.
As far as WotC branching out beyond the Sword Coast, I really don't think we're likely to see a book on Mazteca or Kara-Tur any time soon. The old books had some stuff in them that was pretty racist and I don't think WotC is likely to want to dig all that out.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The thing about Maztica, Zakhara, and Kara-Tur is that recent stuff in 5e (namely Journeys from the Radiant Citadel and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft) has shown that WoTC can tackle these cultures in a less problematic fashion, and they have used Mesoamerican inspiration in Magic: The Gathering's Ixalan setting. So, and this might sound optimistic as heck, I think they can do something decent by these far-off lands in Toril if they really wanted to.
"If they really wanted to" is the active part of that sentence, and I'm not seeing much that makes it look like they do.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.