Wizards are doing that thing where they toss out previews of an upcoming product each time their Extra Life charity team hits another fundraising target. So far the book's preface is up here (http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/SCAG_Preface_3ms9.pdf), and the upcoming previews include the following:
Table of Contents
New Cantrip: Greenflame Blade
New Background: Urban Bounty Hunter
New Roguish Archetype: Mastermind
Duergar race entry, including subrace traits.
Full, updated, high res, labeled map of the northwest portion of Faerün, from Amn to Icewind Dale and the Moonshae Isles to the Dalelands.
The scope of the map makes it seem to me like the scope of the supplement is pretty big - it covers about half-to-two-thirds of the map in the 1E Grey Box, which considering how much development the setting has seen over the years is pretty good going (and represents more than a large enough area for campaigning in). Plus the preface lays it out in black and white - the supplement's going to cover the Sword Coast and northern regions in detail, but also give a broad look at Faerun and Toril as a whole.
EDIT: Main page for previews is here (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/dd-extra-life-update) if people want to follow what comes out.
Table of Contents is up. (http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/SCAG_ToC_2k33.pdf)
Interestingly, there's an appendix entitled "Class Options In Other Worlds", with entries for Dragonlance, Eberron, Greyhawk, and homebrewed worlds. Presumably, these are suggestions on how to adapt the various new class options in this book to other campaign worlds, which should at least make this book a little more useful to those who aren't into the Realms.
I'm a little sorry to see Ravenloft and Planescape not on the list, particularly since Wizards' surveys a while back established that those two settings are actually still quite popular with the fanbase, but then again I guess you don't need to work so hard to explain how the class options in question ended up in those settings - people of the appropriate classes went adventuring in the planes/got caught in the mists, taught others, boom done.
On the other hand, it's interesting that Wizards are working in a bit of official support for those settings in this book, which suggests to me that they at least have ambitions to give them the full 5E treatment at some point.
160 pages, 100 of setting and 60 rules. About what I expected. Looks a good supplement to the existing three campaigns and starter set.
The Moonshae Islands are included? Cool. I always liked the "Vikings-versus-Celts" vibe of the 1e version of that region. It's a pity that it subsequently was neglected. (However, I'm not sure how it changed in later editions, esp. with the 'Spell Plague' [ugh].)
The Sword Coast always was my favourite part of the FR, primarily because of my deep affection for the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale CRPGs, but also because the original (1e) version of the Savage Frontier was excellent -- essentially the Wilderlands area of the FR (which shouldn't be surprising, I guess, given that it was written by Jacquays).
Looking forward to this...
Interesting. 60 pages of rules, but how much of those are going to be older-edition style "tons of new feats/prestige classes/spells and other shit that will totally wreck the power level and balance of the game, for your players to whine about wanting to have so they can min-max their PC" variety?
I suspect perhaps not that much. At least, I hope.
With each new announced release the more I'm realizing that I'm perfectly happy with sticking to the core books and doing everything myself. Even the UA articles and errata have felt extraneous. Oh well.
Quote from: RPGPundit;859146Interesting. 60 pages of rules, but how much of those are going to be older-edition style "tons of new feats/prestige classes/spells and other shit that will totally wreck the power level and balance of the game, for your players to whine about wanting to have so they can min-max their PC" variety?
I suspect perhaps not that much. At least, I hope.
Looking at the extra life page (http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=21011) that has the additional previews linked from it, things like the new backgrounds or class specialities seem to have been carefully built using the parameters of the existing ones, so hopefully the new options will add choice without bringing in power creep.
Of those 55 pages of rules, 3 seem to be about converting this stuff to other settings, 10 are dedicated to backgrounds (which tend not to add that much power), 18 seem to be about contextualising the various races in the Realms, leaving 24 covering class stuff and spells. The spells are only cantrips, and some of the class stuff seems to be setting flavour rather than crunch, like suggesting Realms-specific patrons for warlocks and the like.
Quote from: Necrozius;859150With each new announced release the more I'm realizing that I'm perfectly happy with sticking to the core books and doing everything myself. Even the UA articles and errata have felt extraneous. Oh well.
That may be a good thing. Not a bad thing.
The new stuff does not have that overpowered "gotta have it to be uber!" feel so far.
I wonder if they'll do that for the entire run, where they break down the setting into several regional books.
If they do just one a year they would have a fair amount covered by the end of 5e. Depending on how much is covered in each one. Like a glorified Gazetteer.
I'm hoping for regional guides for Kara-Tur and Zakhara to cover the OA/Al-Qadim bases myself.
Are you kidding? In these times of social media outrage and accusations of cultural appropriation, Oriental Adventures would be a PR nightmare because of the title alone.
If they hired actual Asian or Islamic people with a good grasp of history and folklore, it could work.
Quote from: Warthur;859266I'm hoping for regional guides for Kara-Tur and Zakhara to cover the OA/Al-Qadim bases myself.
Unless WOTC starts major cross platform story lines in one of these regions it isn't likely to happen. FR as a setting to play tabletop games in, is a distant concern these days.
Quote from: Necrozius;859272Are you kidding? In these times of social media outrage and accusations of cultural appropriation, Oriental Adventures would be a PR nightmare because of the title alone.
They'll probably call the OA one the Kara-Tur Adventurer's Guide for precisely that reason.
QuoteIf they hired actual Asian or Islamic people with a good grasp of history and folklore, it could work.
Frankly, I'd say that this is a good idea regardless of whether or not you're worried about the PR or accusations of cultural appropriation. You don't need to hail from a particular part of the world to write a game about it - I don't see Qin: the Warring States or Weapons of the Gods getting much stick (or, for that matter, Pundit's own India-inspired game, despite the fact that he's a favoured target of protest) - but at the same time you just don't get the same take on a culture by reading about and studying it or even visiting it than you do if you grew up in it, and the experience of such contributors in my view can only enrich and improve the end product. (And if they can help you sell it in their community, all the better.)
They wouldn't necessarily have to be direct hires either; given that Wizards seem to like the idea of bringing in third parties to produce material for 5E, this might be the sort of project which is perfect for collaborating with a suitable third party publisher.
Quote from: Warthur;859276...Frankly, I'd say that this is a good idea regardless of whether or not you're worried about the PR or accusations of cultural appropriation... you just don't get the same take on a culture by reading about and studying it or even visiting it than you do if you grew up in it, and the experience of such contributors in my view can only enrich and improve the end product. (And if they can help you sell it in their community, all the better.)
Agreed: it would be win-win: respectful of those cultures AND being more accurate and rich.
Quote from: Exploderwizard;859273Unless WOTC starts major cross platform story lines in one of these regions it isn't likely to happen. FR as a setting to play tabletop games in, is a distant concern these days.
That's likely to be the case for anywhere outside the Sword Coast, though.
The model they are going with seems to be to put out some published adventures and run some Adventurer's League stuff in a setting first, and
then bring out the sourcebook for that setting once the preceding material has whetted people's appetites and gotten people engaged with the setting. It's the reverse of the way most settings are published, and it's the sort of model which I suspect can only work if you have an organised play program as extensive as Wizards', but it's a clever idea: the adventures and AL stuff allow them to gauge the appetite for a full-blown campaign setting guide, so if a particular setting tanks they can just move away from it for the next big organised play story/adventure module and not revisit it, they can get an income stream from the adventures as people are into the whole organised play/plot-of-the-season model purchase them, and they can sell the campaign setting both to the organised play sorts as a souvenir of their adventures in the region and to people who prefer to cook up their own adventures (who are more likely to buy campaign setting guides than modules).
I wouldn't be too surprised if they moved on from the Sword Coast as a setting for published adventures - or at most put out one or two adventures after this - before taking things to a different region of the Realms, or indeed a different campaign setting altogether. That way they can say "we've told the stories we intend to tell in this region, so if you want to keep adventuring there get the campaign guide and see what future you and your group dream up for the Sword Coast", and start the process of building up a head of steam for the next campaign setting book.
Quote from: Necrozius;859272Are you kidding? In these times of social media outrage and accusations of cultural appropriation, Oriental Adventures would be a PR nightmare because of the title alone.
If they hired actual Asian or Islamic people with a good grasp of history and folklore, it could work.
Bullshit. Even if it was written by people from the ethnic groups that those settings are mean to represent, there would still be people raising hell because they weren't the
right kind of representatives.
I doubt we will see more region books for FR any time soon. Other than more adventures, next up is likely to a Monster Manual or Unearthed Arcana.
I expect that we may get a region book for another setting like Eberron or Greyhawk, should the adventures move to that location.
Quote from: Necrozius;859277Agreed: it would be win-win: respectful of those cultures AND being more accurate and rich.
Except these arent historical recreations of real cultures. OA and Kara-tur were pattered on fantasy mashups of various ninja, martial arts, wuxia, and samurai movies from China, Japan and other eastern countries. Who themselves arent usually representing anything historically accurate.
In other words, it's a funhouse mirror version of Asian cultures just like much of D&D is a funhouse mirror version of medieval Europe.
Quote from: Warthur;859317In other words, it's a funhouse mirror version of Asian cultures just like much of D&D is a funhouse mirror version of medieval Europe.
Remember when we were allowed to enjoy that? Before the Internet came along and ruined it all? I miss those days.
I'm not averse to a 'Gazetteer' style of hard covers for the Realms.
Quote from: Skywalker;859304...
I expect that we may get a region book for another setting like Eberron or Greyhawk, should the adventures move to that location.
I'm sceptical that we'll see much, if anything, for Greyhawk from WotC for 5e. For better or worse, GH is (viewed as) not distinct enough from the FR. (Yes there are important differences between the two setting, including in tone, but they both are regarded as 'vanilla D&D' settings.) The fact that the Elemental Evil stuff (which I've always regarded as paradigmatically Greyhawkian) was reworked for the FR suggests that this is the case.
Consequently, I would expect something for Eberron or Dark Sun to be far more likely than anything for Greyhawk.
(Personally, I would most like something for Planescape. But I'm not holding my breath…)
Quote from: Akrasia;859328I'm sceptical that we'll see much, if anything, for Greyhawk from WotC for 5e. For better or worse, GH is (viewed as) not distinct enough from the FR. (Yes there are important differences between the two setting, including in tone, but they both are regarded as 'vanilla D&D' settings.) The fact that the Elemental Evil stuff (which I've always regarded as paradigmatically Greyhawkian) was reworked for the FR suggests that this is the case.
Consequently, I would expect something for Eberron or Dark Sun to be far more likely than anything for Greyhawk.
(Personally, I would most like something for Planescape. But I'm not holding my breath...)
You see, on the one hand I'd be tempted to agree with you, particularly since Wizards' own poll found that Dark Sun, Eberron and Planescape rank alongside Forgotten Realms in the top tier of popularity, and there's a distinct second tier of somewhat less popular settings like Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Spelljammer and then another big gap before the remaining settings come in. I would have thought that we'd see the top-tier settings getting attention first - in fact, if anything I'd have thought we'd see Planescape at the front of the queue so as to provide a mechanism for people in the Adventurer's League to transfer their favourite characters from the Realms to whichever prime material world is next.
But then the table of contents for the SWAG clearly shows there's a section on using the new class material in there in Greyhawk and Dragonlance, and I start to wonder.
It is, of course, possible that they may let a third party take on those settings whilst Wizards focus their attention on the top-tier ones.
Part of the problem for Greyhawk is that it is also the least represented in the novel department. Norton and Kidds books are about all that come to mind. Were Gygax's Gord books set in Greyhawk?
Quote from: Omega;859364Part of the problem for Greyhawk is that it is also the least represented in the novel department. Norton and Kidds books are about all that come to mind. Were Gygax's Gord books set in Greyhawk?
They were - in fact, when Gygax left TSR he kept the IP rights to Gord and put out a few more novels. The post-TSR novels end up diverging from TSR's Greyhawk continuity in some significant ways.
Spoiler
The major one being that Oerth blows up at the end of the Gord series.
Is there any reason why they need an Urban Bounty Hunter and a plain ol' Bounty Hunter? Does the Urban Bounty Hunter only hunt criminals within the city? (seems like a needless delineation--isn't a bounty hunter a bounty hunter?):confused: