What do you think about the fact, WoTC are deleting all their Lore Content about Elves within Modenkainen Tome of Foes for new player since this particular book wont be available after tomorrow?
Its weird, why would i as a creator of a fantasy world delete all my content about my own world for new beginner or am i in need to copy the reality into my fantasy world and delete all the negatives about races, gender, sex, so people do not have to deal with racism, discrimination... i wonder if im still playing after monster of the multiverse still a fantasy genre with its own lore or just a copy of reality with the need to eliminate any flaw humans have....
In my opinion, this book is the first drastic step towards the ruination of 5e by commercialization and popularization. Many things have been brought down by becoming too popular and apparently now the time of DnD has come.
5e has attracted more player than ever towards DnD which in itself isn't a bad thing. But this book is proof that too much popularity regularly leads to the downfall of what once made something great to begin with.
Many new players don't seek a fantasy world that is filled with a vast variety of races, species or whatever you want to call them. The reason for this being, that they project the problem of racism in the real world onto something that should serve as escapism. The different species like humans, elves, dwarfs, orcs and so on all have different things that make them what they are. And that is a good thing. They are all different and allow us to play out different fantasies that we cannot do in real life. Long or short lifespans, different body types, innate magics, innate talents for certain proficiencies and so on. All the things that define the species are factors that influence a species culture. Yet these differences are seen by some people as bad, instead of perceiving difference as something that can be good. They see them as racist or whatever. Everyone should be equal. Everyone should be the same. Like in the real world. Everyone should be a human with his own personality but nothing more.
And thus we got this book. A book that deleted the flavour and cultures of all species within it. Even what once defined some (sub-)species was taken away, so that were was nothing that could imply what a species was once good at. Dwarves, the stereotypical craftsmen, are now just stout humans with beards. Elves are humans with long ears that live longer and have this weird trance that doesn't even have an explanation of what it represents.
The worst thing however, isn't what the book provides (which isn't a lot as it is simply an errata), but another decision by WotC that came alongside this book. Two books are now legacy content. Meaning that the lore is no more representative of the current state of the game. Thus, it apparently shouldn't exist anymore. Those that bought it still have it, but those that don't, will have to resort to wikis, Youtube, PDFs or whatever to get it. Meaning that WotC clearly stated their intent for DnDs future. Lore and flavour are a thing of the past and those that want it, will have to make it themselves.
As to my conclusion. This book is 2 years early. Apparently 5.5e will come out sometime during 2024. This book belongs to 5.5e. It represents what they want for 5.5e. Yet they chose to corrupt and dismantle what 5e was and is to many of us with ideas that should remain seperate of it. Instead of putting these new ideas for what DnD should be into something new, they ruin the current edition with them and the experience that comes alongside it for those that enjoy it. Those people that like the new ideas can play their own thing if they want. But I want flavour and lore. I want to have a game that inspires me to play something different and not something that is a polished fantasy version of reality.
Ignoring the facile formulation of "new player" psychological projection and whatever rabbit hole that came from....
like, maybe all this "lost lore" might show up or be repurposed in other products.
Let's also recognize the lore in MToF is decanted at best but more accurately diluted from prior edition's lore anyway. So the "true lore" or "deep lore" has always been through 5e's edition history, maintained by, and heaven forbid this, by player communities, and freely accessible no less.
D&D Orthodoxy, in terms of lore, hasn't been a thing for some time now.
I'm sorry you feel forced to play a game you don't want to play; but I'm at a loss why you feel two books getting delisted and a book not to your liking forces that move.
I sorta feel this "my lost lore!" refrains are basically multiversal denialists. Like I can see NPCs feeling that way. But actual game players...?
They are not throwing the "default" lore away. They are separating lore from mechanics, so they can sell you entire books of lore for each specific setting in the Multiverse, including Forgotten Realms.
You're going to get more lore than you can afford.
Boxed sets of lore containing a hardcover's worth of lore but priced like 1.5x the price of said hardcover of lore because of epic maps and DMs screens riddled with lore.
And slipcases, your boxed sets of lore will come in slipcases bedecked with illustrations of lore.
The next two years will be the golden ages of 5e lore, lore without end, amen.
Until they release 5.5 and start it all over again ... lore-dy
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Do you really think they will do a "Lorebook" selling it here on their official homepage? I doubt! The way to say "there are 3rd party websites to look at" is the dumbest thing im always hearing. You as the official partnered website with all the official sets and rulebooks available should have your own wikia for this! There is no excuse for such an behavior and im very very sure related to other fanatsy Genres this will continue and im sure it will get worse by deleting flavor textes or lore textes on this page in further books belonging to classes. Until there is nothing left to interpret anything regarded to real world racism, discrimination, background etc. Like Star Wars this feels like the beginning or continuing the way to get reality into fantasy... im here to play my dark elf drow hiding in the dark never seen sunlight and if struggling with it... (but new player doesnt even get the information here on this page what drows are and where they come from, right know they just deleted their own writings...)
but time will tell if fantasy stays fantasy or becomes reality...
They are not throwing the "default" lore away. They are separating lore from mechanics, so they can sell you entire books of lore for each specific setting in the Multiverse, including Forgotten Realms.
You're going to get more lore than you can afford.
If you can show me any indication of these lore books bein in development at all, that would be awesome, because I've seen nothing that suggests that this is what they're planning at all.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Leaving OGL 1.0(a) untouched and making SRD 5.1 CC-BY-4.0 is a great first step. The next is a promise to do the same for future editions. Here's a discussion thread on that.
Well Spelljammer has got a lotta lore, Dragonlance has got a lot of lore too.....
Sure, but those are just setting books, no different than Eberron, Sword Coast, or Ravenloft. That's not a "lore book" and doesn't fill the hole that this has left.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Leaving OGL 1.0(a) untouched and making SRD 5.1 CC-BY-4.0 is a great first step. The next is a promise to do the same for future editions. Here's a discussion thread on that.
Well Spelljammer has got a lotta lore, Dragonlance has got a lot of lore too.....
Sure, but those are just setting books, no different than Eberron, Sword Coast, or Ravenloft. That's not a "lore book" and doesn't fill the hole that this has left.
What exactly is a "lore book", then? A setting book will obviously have lore in it, that's literally what history is. Granted, none of these books have a lot, but they have a lot more than the PHB does. And the other books, the earlier monster books, were specifically setting agnostic lore, which means that whatever lore they had might have nothing to do with the setting you're using, even if it's an official one.
Lore is tied to a setting, by its very nature. The stuff in Tome of Foes or whatever would really be nothing but creation myths or tied to Planescape.
Well Spelljammer has got a lotta lore, Dragonlance has got a lot of lore too.....
Sure, but those are just setting books, no different than Eberron, Sword Coast, or Ravenloft. That's not a "lore book" and doesn't fill the hole that this has left.
What exactly is a "lore book", then? A setting book will obviously have lore in it, that's literally what history is. Granted, none of these books have a lot, but they have a lot more than the PHB does. And the other books, the earlier monster books, were specifically setting agnostic lore, which means that whatever lore they had might have nothing to do with the setting you're using, even if it's an official one.
Lore is tied to a setting, by its very nature. The stuff in Tome of Foes or whatever would really be nothing but creation myths or tied to Planescape.
Yep, and let's not forget that WotC's D&D studio has published statements disavowing the notion of D&D canon, which they did almost simultaneous with their announcement of envisioning a multiversal model of game worlds. Anyone who was truly invested in lore as much as some of the plaintiffs on a number of threads that have sprouted since yesterday would have been aware of those statements. And if they weren't aware, that simply shows how actually inconsequential "official D&D's" position on lore is to your actual play lore.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
First time around playing D&D (quite a long time ago) - I didn't care on dot about the lore. We had a box of some basic rules, and just wanted to go dungeon delving :)
Later on, with a bit more investment, we went into the Krynn universe, and playing several years on the back of a single book with the vast majority effectively still being a homebrew campaign, but with a map for context, and me as a DM trying to weave in some of the "cool" bits.
Occasionally, we'd play at local conventions, which used Forgotten realms - but it was one shots, and we recognised the rules and concept, and had fun playing one shots
Fast forward around 40 years, and I am today a total lore-hound. I absolutely and completely work in Forgotten realms now, weaving lore into my campaigns ranging from the name of wines and breads, to the deep lore of the gods and planes.
But most of my players don't actually know this - they enjoy the campaign, and the richness of detail - but don't separate out what came form where (I often use older edition material for those details).
So where is all of this leading? Well personally, at my current stage of enjoying D&D content and the rich history - I do feel a tinge of sadness about the loss of lore - but that's because I like it and want it.
If I look back over my own experience of playing, lore is very much a variable feast, enjoyed by some, skimmed over by others, rewritten by many to varying degrees of success, and largely a context that reflects the DM more than the table in many cases.
So while I personally will be a bit sad to see it disconnected further, I actually don't think it will make all that big a change to the majority of games. The lore-hound DM's will still dig and dive to find those details, and the homebrew DM's will attempt to reinvent in all in their own settings :)
Th player base for D&D has grown so much, and inevitably that means catering for a wider range of people, who all wants something different from the game. The response to that from WoTC seems to be to try and disentangle years of history and baseline the mechanics for faster setups and digital systems. Will it work? I'm not 100% sure it will, since a dialogue based and open ended game will inevitably suffer some dilution from having unified platforms at the lowest common denominator. But it might be a trade off that is worth it for the sheer scale and numbers of games that are being run today, compared to our roaming living room games with notepads, graph paper, and 3 rule books of yesteryear :)
Im with you in few points however im sure if you swipe away your own written lore as the baseline for things to happen people dont need anymore books since they can imagine anything else and homebrew their own setting like they want.
Just found out they canceled the "Madness" you encounter with Demonlords. They canceled Zariels state as a ruler.(she is just a simple single strong devil)
If you dont deliver flavor in your universe there is nothing left in need to buy. Why would i buy some Monster sheets if everyone of them ends up different in a combat (HP as prime example). If you want to service a sandbox game and everything else is a discription about how you look like so you can invent whats behind you im fine with that in general but make it 5.5 oder 6e ... let 5e Orcs be the ones hunting humans, dwars, elves to kill and fight but no friendly neighbour protector sitting next to you drinking tea (as the orc text suggests they might behave). Kobolds were either enslaved or fearful living in small groups but from now on they are fighting along humans against drakes.
'This race used to be evil represented or heritage from Monster but no no dont think so they actually dont be like that or behave like that and can do great good aswell please hear me out we have something for you in store im sure'
This whole book is in my eyes just that help cry above to invite any person in the world into their game. i personally dont need a fantasy world reflecting reality and the try to harmonize any living being to avoid dark,gore,curelty, racism, **** and discriminination. Since even that is not even close to reality...
What do you think about the fact, WoTC are deleting all their Lore Content about Elves within Modenkainen Tome of Foes for new player since this particular book wont be available after tomorrow?
Its weird, why would i as a creator of a fantasy world delete all my content about my own world for new beginner or am i in need to copy the reality into my fantasy world and delete all the negatives about races, gender, sex, so people do not have to deal with racism, discrimination... i wonder if im still playing after monster of the multiverse still a fantasy genre with its own lore or just a copy of reality with the need to eliminate any flaw humans have....
I think it's unfair to the people who spent their money on Volo's and Mordenkainen's to discontinue the books and say their content is no longer true.
Also, it's sad that new players wont be able to use the books lore or even see it at all.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explainHERE.
Well Spelljammer has got a lotta lore, Dragonlance has got a lot of lore too.....
Sure, but those are just setting books, no different than Eberron, Sword Coast, or Ravenloft. That's not a "lore book" and doesn't fill the hole that this has left.
It's too bad they can't just do a Forgotten Realms setting book, with all the lore included.
Well Spelljammer has got a lotta lore, Dragonlance has got a lot of lore too.....
Sure, but those are just setting books, no different than Eberron, Sword Coast, or Ravenloft. That's not a "lore book" and doesn't fill the hole that this has left.
It's too bad they can't just do a Forgotten Realms setting book, with all the lore included.
Oh wait, they could do such a book.
What do you mean all lore? There are sixty years worth of conflicting lore for forgotten realms, good luck!
This book is 2 years early. Apparently 5.5e will come out sometime during 2024. This book belongs to 5.5e. It represents what they want for 5.5e. Yet they chose to corrupt and dismantle what 5e was and is to many of us with ideas that should remain separate of it. Instead of putting these new ideas for what DnD should be into something new, they ruin the current edition with them and the experience that comes alongside it for those that enjoy it. Those people that like the new ideas can play their own thing if they want. But I want flavour and lore. I want to have a game that inspires me to play something different and not something that is a polished fantasy version of reality.
Exactly. This more than anything else. Invalidating purchases so they can try out stuff for the next version due in two years is the wrong way to reward customers that have purchased every other thing they've published. It doesn't matter if it's an effective commercial strategy or not, it's just a lousy way to treat your customers.
I also really hate all the Legacy vs Current monster and player race options. If you're going to make the decision, then commit to it. Don't just louse everything up leaving it in a tangled state.
Just found out they canceled the "Madness" you encounter with Demonlords. They canceled Zariels state as a ruler.(she is just a simple single strong devil)
I hadn't noticed the "madness" tables being removed from the Demonlords, so thank you for pointing that out; but you're incorrect about Zariel. It's very clear she's an archdevil in the text of MMM.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
What do I think? The same thing that I thought when Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes came out and deleted all the original lore about Corellon and Elves. That the lore is still out there and I can go find those books if I REALLY need it, otherwise no big deal.
Personally, I still use the Elven Origins Evermeet established back in the 2nd edition AD&D era. I don't lament that those books are no longer casually available.
What do I think? The same thing that I thought when Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes came out and deleted all the original lore about Corellon and Elves. That the lore is still out there and I can go find those books if I REALLY need it, otherwise no big deal
Amen
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What do you think about the fact, WoTC are deleting all their Lore Content about Elves within Modenkainen Tome of Foes for new player since this particular book wont be available after tomorrow?
Its weird, why would i as a creator of a fantasy world delete all my content about my own world for new beginner or am i in need to copy the reality into my fantasy world and delete all the negatives about races, gender, sex, so people do not have to deal with racism, discrimination... i wonder if im still playing after monster of the multiverse still a fantasy genre with its own lore or just a copy of reality with the need to eliminate any flaw humans have....
In my opinion, this book is the first drastic step towards the ruination of 5e by commercialization and popularization. Many things have been brought down by becoming too popular and apparently now the time of DnD has come.
5e has attracted more player than ever towards DnD which in itself isn't a bad thing. But this book is proof that too much popularity regularly leads to the downfall of what once made something great to begin with.
Many new players don't seek a fantasy world that is filled with a vast variety of races, species or whatever you want to call them. The reason for this being, that they project the problem of racism in the real world onto something that should serve as escapism. The different species like humans, elves, dwarfs, orcs and so on all have different things that make them what they are. And that is a good thing. They are all different and allow us to play out different fantasies that we cannot do in real life. Long or short lifespans, different body types, innate magics, innate talents for certain proficiencies and so on. All the things that define the species are factors that influence a species culture. Yet these differences are seen by some people as bad, instead of perceiving difference as something that can be good. They see them as racist or whatever. Everyone should be equal. Everyone should be the same. Like in the real world. Everyone should be a human with his own personality but nothing more.
And thus we got this book. A book that deleted the flavour and cultures of all species within it. Even what once defined some (sub-)species was taken away, so that were was nothing that could imply what a species was once good at. Dwarves, the stereotypical craftsmen, are now just stout humans with beards. Elves are humans with long ears that live longer and have this weird trance that doesn't even have an explanation of what it represents.
The worst thing however, isn't what the book provides (which isn't a lot as it is simply an errata), but another decision by WotC that came alongside this book. Two books are now legacy content. Meaning that the lore is no more representative of the current state of the game. Thus, it apparently shouldn't exist anymore. Those that bought it still have it, but those that don't, will have to resort to wikis, Youtube, PDFs or whatever to get it. Meaning that WotC clearly stated their intent for DnDs future. Lore and flavour are a thing of the past and those that want it, will have to make it themselves.
As to my conclusion. This book is 2 years early. Apparently 5.5e will come out sometime during 2024. This book belongs to 5.5e. It represents what they want for 5.5e. Yet they chose to corrupt and dismantle what 5e was and is to many of us with ideas that should remain seperate of it. Instead of putting these new ideas for what DnD should be into something new, they ruin the current edition with them and the experience that comes alongside it for those that enjoy it. Those people that like the new ideas can play their own thing if they want. But I want flavour and lore. I want to have a game that inspires me to play something different and not something that is a polished fantasy version of reality.
Ignoring the facile formulation of "new player" psychological projection and whatever rabbit hole that came from....
like, maybe all this "lost lore" might show up or be repurposed in other products.
Let's also recognize the lore in MToF is decanted at best but more accurately diluted from prior edition's lore anyway. So the "true lore" or "deep lore" has always been through 5e's edition history, maintained by, and heaven forbid this, by player communities, and freely accessible no less.
D&D Orthodoxy, in terms of lore, hasn't been a thing for some time now.
I'm sorry you feel forced to play a game you don't want to play; but I'm at a loss why you feel two books getting delisted and a book not to your liking forces that move.
I sorta feel this "my lost lore!" refrains are basically multiversal denialists. Like I can see NPCs feeling that way. But actual game players...?
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
They are not throwing the "default" lore away. They are separating lore from mechanics, so they can sell you entire books of lore for each specific setting in the Multiverse, including Forgotten Realms.
You're going to get more lore than you can afford.
Boxed sets of lore containing a hardcover's worth of lore but priced like 1.5x the price of said hardcover of lore because of epic maps and DMs screens riddled with lore.
And slipcases, your boxed sets of lore will come in slipcases bedecked with illustrations of lore.
The next two years will be the golden ages of 5e lore, lore without end, amen.
Until they release 5.5 and start it all over again ... lore-dy
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Do you really think they will do a "Lorebook" selling it here on their official homepage? I doubt! The way to say "there are 3rd party websites to look at" is the dumbest thing im always hearing. You as the official partnered website with all the official sets and rulebooks available should have your own wikia for this! There is no excuse for such an behavior and im very very sure related to other fanatsy Genres this will continue and im sure it will get worse by deleting flavor textes or lore textes on this page in further books belonging to classes. Until there is nothing left to interpret anything regarded to real world racism, discrimination, background etc. Like Star Wars this feels like the beginning or continuing the way to get reality into fantasy... im here to play my dark elf drow hiding in the dark never seen sunlight and if struggling with it... (but new player doesnt even get the information here on this page what drows are and where they come from, right know they just deleted their own writings...)
but time will tell if fantasy stays fantasy or becomes reality...
If you can show me any indication of these lore books bein in development at all, that would be awesome, because I've seen nothing that suggests that this is what they're planning at all.
Leaving OGL 1.0(a) untouched and making SRD 5.1 CC-BY-4.0 is a great first step. The next is a promise to do the same for future editions. Here's a discussion thread on that.
#OpenDnD
DDB is great, but it could be better. Here are some things I think could improve DDB
Well Spelljammer has got a lotta lore, Dragonlance has got a lot of lore too.....
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Sure, but those are just setting books, no different than Eberron, Sword Coast, or Ravenloft. That's not a "lore book" and doesn't fill the hole that this has left.
Leaving OGL 1.0(a) untouched and making SRD 5.1 CC-BY-4.0 is a great first step. The next is a promise to do the same for future editions. Here's a discussion thread on that.
#OpenDnD
DDB is great, but it could be better. Here are some things I think could improve DDB
What exactly is a "lore book", then? A setting book will obviously have lore in it, that's literally what history is. Granted, none of these books have a lot, but they have a lot more than the PHB does. And the other books, the earlier monster books, were specifically setting agnostic lore, which means that whatever lore they had might have nothing to do with the setting you're using, even if it's an official one.
Lore is tied to a setting, by its very nature. The stuff in Tome of Foes or whatever would really be nothing but creation myths or tied to Planescape.
Yep, and let's not forget that WotC's D&D studio has published statements disavowing the notion of D&D canon, which they did almost simultaneous with their announcement of envisioning a multiversal model of game worlds. Anyone who was truly invested in lore as much as some of the plaintiffs on a number of threads that have sprouted since yesterday would have been aware of those statements. And if they weren't aware, that simply shows how actually inconsequential "official D&D's" position on lore is to your actual play lore.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
First time around playing D&D (quite a long time ago) - I didn't care on dot about the lore. We had a box of some basic rules, and just wanted to go dungeon delving :)
Later on, with a bit more investment, we went into the Krynn universe, and playing several years on the back of a single book with the vast majority effectively still being a homebrew campaign, but with a map for context, and me as a DM trying to weave in some of the "cool" bits.
Occasionally, we'd play at local conventions, which used Forgotten realms - but it was one shots, and we recognised the rules and concept, and had fun playing one shots
Fast forward around 40 years, and I am today a total lore-hound. I absolutely and completely work in Forgotten realms now, weaving lore into my campaigns ranging from the name of wines and breads, to the deep lore of the gods and planes.
But most of my players don't actually know this - they enjoy the campaign, and the richness of detail - but don't separate out what came form where (I often use older edition material for those details).
So where is all of this leading? Well personally, at my current stage of enjoying D&D content and the rich history - I do feel a tinge of sadness about the loss of lore - but that's because I like it and want it.
If I look back over my own experience of playing, lore is very much a variable feast, enjoyed by some, skimmed over by others, rewritten by many to varying degrees of success, and largely a context that reflects the DM more than the table in many cases.
So while I personally will be a bit sad to see it disconnected further, I actually don't think it will make all that big a change to the majority of games. The lore-hound DM's will still dig and dive to find those details, and the homebrew DM's will attempt to reinvent in all in their own settings :)
Th player base for D&D has grown so much, and inevitably that means catering for a wider range of people, who all wants something different from the game. The response to that from WoTC seems to be to try and disentangle years of history and baseline the mechanics for faster setups and digital systems. Will it work? I'm not 100% sure it will, since a dialogue based and open ended game will inevitably suffer some dilution from having unified platforms at the lowest common denominator. But it might be a trade off that is worth it for the sheer scale and numbers of games that are being run today, compared to our roaming living room games with notepads, graph paper, and 3 rule books of yesteryear :)
Im with you in few points however im sure if you swipe away your own written lore as the baseline for things to happen people dont need anymore books since they can imagine anything else and homebrew their own setting like they want.
Just found out they canceled the "Madness" you encounter with Demonlords.
They canceled Zariels state as a ruler.(she is just a simple single strong devil)
If you dont deliver flavor in your universe there is nothing left in need to buy. Why would i buy some Monster sheets if everyone of them ends up different in a combat (HP as prime example). If you want to service a sandbox game and everything else is a discription about how you look like so you can invent whats behind you im fine with that in general but make it 5.5 oder 6e ... let 5e Orcs be the ones hunting humans, dwars, elves to kill and fight but no friendly neighbour protector sitting next to you drinking tea (as the orc text suggests they might behave). Kobolds were either enslaved or fearful living in small groups but from now on they are fighting along humans against drakes.
'This race used to be evil represented or heritage from Monster but no no dont think so they actually dont be like that or behave like that and can do great good aswell please hear me out we have something for you in store im sure'
This whole book is in my eyes just that help cry above to invite any person in the world into their game. i personally dont need a fantasy world reflecting reality and the try to harmonize any living being to avoid dark,gore,curelty, racism, **** and discriminination. Since even that is not even close to reality...
I think it's unfair to the people who spent their money on Volo's and Mordenkainen's to discontinue the books and say their content is no longer true.
Also, it's sad that new players wont be able to use the books lore or even see it at all.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.It's too bad they can't just do a Forgotten Realms setting book, with all the lore included.
Oh wait, they could do such a book.
What do you mean all lore? There are sixty years worth of conflicting lore for forgotten realms, good luck!
Exactly. This more than anything else. Invalidating purchases so they can try out stuff for the next version due in two years is the wrong way to reward customers that have purchased every other thing they've published. It doesn't matter if it's an effective commercial strategy or not, it's just a lousy way to treat your customers.
I also really hate all the Legacy vs Current monster and player race options. If you're going to make the decision, then commit to it. Don't just louse everything up leaving it in a tangled state.
It should have waited for 5.5e.
I hadn't noticed the "madness" tables being removed from the Demonlords, so thank you for pointing that out; but you're incorrect about Zariel. It's very clear she's an archdevil in the text of MMM.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
What do I think? The same thing that I thought when Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes came out and deleted all the original lore about Corellon and Elves. That the lore is still out there and I can go find those books if I REALLY need it, otherwise no big deal.
Personally, I still use the Elven Origins Evermeet established back in the 2nd edition AD&D era. I don't lament that those books are no longer casually available.
Amen