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Originally posted by Gambit

I did not see any of Volo in there Irennan.

Another character I also haven't seen is Mr Craulnober. I have largely been away from the Realms since the Spellplague dropped, can anyone tell me if Elaith was covered in any of the novels and what his current status is? Luckily hes an elf so can logically still be gracing us with his snarky presence.

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Originally posted by Gyor

Ghaunadaur's still worshipped by some Drow according to the Elf Racial Section, so he's still a god. He's not the only one mentioned as being a God in SCAG, but not listed in the Gods section. Its really goofy and its something an editor should have rectified.

So don't assume that its a full list. The book is well written for the most part, but poorly organized and edited.

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Originally posted by Gyor

Ghaunadaur's still worshipped by some Drow according to the Elf Racial Section, so he's still a god. He's not the only one mentioned as being a God in SCAG, but not listed in the Gods section.

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Originally posted by Caladan Brood

I caved in and bought the big FR map, too. It's quite beautiful. I just wish there was one with a hex overlay, so I could use it to calculate distances. I tried downloading the distance calculator from Candlekeep but it won't run (something about a missing .dll file). I'm trying to figure out just how long the Triboar Trail is, any takers?

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Originally posted by Caladan Brood

Yes, but the trail continues farther east, hence the question. But thank you for the tip!

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Originally posted by Caladan Brood

I caved in and bought the big FR map, too. It's quite beautiful. I just wish there was one with a hex overlay, so I could use it to calculate distances. I tried downloading the distance calculator from Candlekeep but it won't run (something about a missing .dll file). I'm trying to figure out just how long the Triboar Trail is, any takers?

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Originally posted by Caladan Brood

I actually do have the 2nd edition boxed set with those sheets, but I suspect that the distances are different between 2nd and 5th edition. It is obviously not a big deal, as I'm prepping a RPG reunion weekend (two weeks to go, wee!) and I'm going to run LOST MINE OF PHANDELVER with some embellishments. One such embellishment is that they come to the crossroads where the Triboar Trail begins (on the High Road), to meet a Seven Suns Trading Coster caravan with some NPCs (an opportunity to introduce PCs, and to ask the caravan NPCs any questions - and maybe buying a map from him, the map of the region from the starter set which I have printed out and rolled up).
I decided to have a huge stone/monolith on the crossroads with a few pointers, like "Neverwinter, 40 miles north", "Waterdeep 190 miles south", "Triboar," etc. just to give the characters / players that feeling of a large world outside their immediate attention.

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Originally posted by Irennan

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Originally posted by Gambit

I did not see any of Volo in there Irennan.

Another character I also haven't seen is Mr Craulnober. I have largely been away from the Realms since the Spellplague dropped, can anyone tell me if Elaith was covered in any of the novels and what his current status is? Luckily hes an elf so can logically still be gracing us with his snarky presence.

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Thanks for looking. Elaith's fate isn't covered anywhere, AFAIK, so we don't know what he has been up to during the 4e century.

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Originally posted by George Krashos

Well, I have it and can't help but be impressed. There's enough detail to give DMs a boost if running a 5E campaign in the North, some clever updates and changes to places and organisations as well as a bunch of crunch that has utility for all gamers, not just FR fans. There's also lots of information provided in what I would describe as an "uncertain" manner. Uncertain in that the text speculates on what could or could not be the story/history of a place or person. Examples are Evermeet and Gauntlgrym. That's good stuff and if I didn't know any better, denotes the hand of our very own Garen Thal. I like the book and if it was the first in a series that covered Faerūn in detail, I'd be a happy man. I guess I'll have to wait to see ...

-- George Krashos

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Originally posted by hashimashadoo

Anyone noticed the disclaimer on the credits page?

"Wizards of the Coast cannot be held responsible for any actions undertaken by entities native to or currently inhabiting the Forgotten Realms, including necromancer lords of distant magocracies, resident mages of any or all Dales but especially Shadowdale, drow rangers wielding one or more scimitars and accompanied by one or more panthers, mad wizards inhabiting sprawling dungeons accessible via a well in the middle of a tavern, beholders who head up criminal cartels, and anyone with the word Many-Arrows in their name. In the event of a catastrophic encounter with any or all such entities, blame your Dungeon Master. If that doesn't work, blame Ed Greenwood, but don't tell him we told you that. He knows more archmages than we do."

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Originally posted by KnightErrantJR

It's been a while since I chimed in on a Forgotten Realms product. I am moved to do so now.

Before I get to what I have to say about the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, my thoughts on 5th edition are probably somewhat relevant to the discussion.

For years I played 3rd edition D&D in various forms. When 4th edition hit, I was enough of a fan of 3rd edition that I jumped to Pathfinder. A few years more of running Pathfinder, and it eventually occurred to me that while 4th edition wasn't my preference, 3rd edition was more cumbersome and complicated that I would have liked as well, and I moved on completely from D&D for several years.

When 5th edition came out, I didn't think I was going to particularly care. Then I saw the free "basic" rules, and I was really impressed. I picked up the Player's Handbook, then the Monster Manual and the Dungeon Master's Guide, and was really impressed with the new edition. What struck me was that 5th edition felt like what I "really" wanted as a follow up to the good things that I liked about 2nd edition D&D. It felt more like an alternate reality where 5th edition was really 3rd edition, and it struck a chord with me.

Now, I say that because it's relevant to how I fell about the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. For years I picked up 3rd edition Forgotten Realms books, in part because I was afraid that the line would be shelved and I wouldn't see more Realms products. While I really disliked the changes in the setting in the 4th edition books, it started to occur to me that there was a lot that I accepted in 3rd edition that wasn't really to my liking.

The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is the first Forgotten Realms D&D product that I've been excited about in a long time. That's not to say there haven't been some good products, but many of them felt like they had some bad with the good, or spent a lot of times "fixing" things. You could argue that the Adventurer's Guide exists to "fix" things as well, but the way the material is presented, there is a feeling that "this is what the Realms are," rather than "this thing was a thing but now it's not a thing." In the places where this is true, it tends to be minimized. The book doesn't dwell on what it had to "fix" as much as just stating that those things are fixed, and then moves on.

It is not an in-depth treatment of the setting, but it is a good enough treatment of the setting to fully utilize the 5th edition rules in the current edition of the Realms, and I think if you have loved the general Realms setting for multiple editions, there is much to love in this book. Not only that, I think it was entirely the right direction to have much of the material presented by a potential unreliable narrator "on the ground" in the setting, and to minimize the quantification of things with numbers.

In a lot of ways, this almost feels like what I would have really wanted in a 3rd edition campaign setting book.

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Originally posted by Gyor

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The Dragonborn seem to be running around confused, WotC can't get rid of them now, they're spread across Faerun as refugees from Dragon Tyrants in Returned Abier and as Merchants and Adventurers from Tymanther, but now both are gone as WotC has no idea what to do with them.

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Its sounds interesting, too bad were not getting the proper book support to actually use it.

Does anyone else feel this way?

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