Comments on: Dungeon Mastering Reviews: Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:44:47 +0000

@Barbican: Why is that so absurd? A book like that should be able to serve as an introduction for people who don’t know much about the setting. I was able to evaluate how well it did that without the contamination of outside knowledge. There are a lot of people with websites and knowledge of FR, I’m sure they write great reviews for other people who know about FR. However, in my opinion those are only a portion of those who would be interested in the book. I was upfront about my ignorance and instead tried to cater to the last two categories in my article, who I felt would be under served by the traditional review.

By: Yax

Yax — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:34:59 +0000

@Barbican: Feel free to not review whatever you want.

By: Barbican

Barbican — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:27:49 +0000

I really can’t believe that someone who knew nothing about a setting felt confident in reviewing a book about that setting. I appreciate you taking the time to write the article, but it just seems inappropriate. There are lots of people on the web with both a website and a working knowledge of FR.

I agree that there are a lot of useful little feats and paragon paths that could be used in any kind of campagin. I will surely buy the Eberron book for the character crunch even though I am unlikely to play an Eberron campaign and don’t know that much about the history of the game world. However, I will not review it.

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:52:28 +0000

@Janna: I like crafting my own worlds and adventures when I run games. I don’t read fantasy novels at all, it tends to attract way too much terrible writing (although not as bad as many Star Wars novels). I’m sure there are plenty of good fantasy books out there but I just don’t have the money or reading time to take the chance finding them.

I’m glad people like the review. I’m actually quite fond of the book, it does an admirable job serving many masters.

By: Bobby

Bobby — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:58:40 +0000

I was mixed about it when it came out. This has been my go-to setting since the grey box when it came out X many years ago. Ahem…
The books does what it was designed for. Give a brief overview of the Realms for the players, plus little goodies for particular portions of the realms that you come from. New races, and a new class to choose from. Hard to top the Genasi write up’s. The Drow are nice, in that they’re the same-only different now.

I mean, its hard for any new player just to come into the 20(or so) years of the Realms and not feel overwhelmed. This helps. It goes along with the new system and although I was against it at first, I like it.

Sure its thin. Its the Player’s Guide. Not the crunch of the Campaign Setting(which was still abit lacking), which has a lot of usefulness. I think the big thing of this version of the Realms is that it goes back to the original edition with lots of open spaces. There are a few places with details, but the rest is left opened for GM’s and Players to flesh out. It gives you the tools, and helps push you along to do so.

My only real complaint, is the lack of write-ups for deities and groups. Those would have been nice to have more of for the players to associate and be involved with.

And as far as your write up, luv the break down of categories. Nice touch.