I was getting my next campaign ready and started to think about outlining the adventure… then stopped and thought I don’t know anything about the PCs or even which island they are going to start on. So now I am just fleshing out the world and waiting for the PCs to arrive. They might be treasure hunters, pirates/privateers, spies, etc.

I’ll be running something like this for sure. Thanks Colin!

One thing about Volo’s that struck me right away was that the text straight-up admits that the monstrous races are unbalanced. [Orcs were obviously underpowered (especially when you compare them to Half-Orcs) and Yuan-Ti seem demonstrably over-powered.] I wondered if that was going to set a precedent for 5e player content going forward: choose flavor over game balance, and let DMs be the gate-keepers.

Thanks (even though this isn’t a review)! I hope you’ll enjoy the book as well.

I didn’t. I might correct that oversight someday, but when Volo’s came out, I hadn’t yet started down the path of breakdowns for every book – just UA. XGTE did this to me! 😉

I will never now be able to forget the image of a Githyanki reclining barefoot on the deck of a ship in the Astral sea, calmly sipping an iced tea, and smiling inwardly at the thought that he has literally all the time in the universe.

https://www.scribd.com/document/317549078/Entanglements

Interestingly enough, I had my proper read of MToF yesterday evening, so I can relate!!!

Aquatic Elves are the least interesting subrace of all the listed in the book. The weapon selection is partially on theme, the rest of the powers are…well almost to completely useless if adventuring far from large bodies of water. I’m interested to see how you can make them stand out in a non-aquatic campaign.

To be honest, I’d expect to see Avariel in there, since they are mentioned in SCAG, but PCs with flying from lvl1 are not usually well received, so I can understand the logic behind them not been included in MToF.

Eladrin are cool and I really like that seasonal change. Them not speaking Sylvan is weird, but my guess is that it is not braking the game if the DM houserules this in.

The same goes for Shadar-Kai and I really like the fact that they are considered to be the least Elves of them all. It also coincides perfectly with my litlle homebrew setting that has Shadowfell being the exact opposite of Feywild (that is not really original as an idea, but there is no parthenogenesis in art).

Tieflings are my favorite class in 5e D&D. But they are to be foreshadowed by Giths. I’d play one in an instant.

There is no comment for the Bestiary from my part, I haven’t really had the time to go through the beasties in detail, apart from the really cool Ogre Howdah. Well really, how cool is that?