Covers Preview for Elemental Evil Adventurer's Handbook and Princes of the Apocalypse!

So, it's official now. The Elder Elemental Eye has been somehow released from The World of Greyhawk to unleash havoc in the Realms. No fantasy world was described in more detail than the Forgotten Realms, and they still manage to produce not one, but two storylines in a row with themes and antagonists that have nothing to do with the Realms. Good job, Wizards.

 

[Prism]

They couldn't even get the details right when porting Tharizdun into the Realms- he/it is NOT imprisoned in the Abyss, but rather in the "demiplane of imprisonment", hidden away deep deep deep in the ether.

Of course, 4e also took the "Tharizdun = Abyssal" approach. Sadly.

That's just a public wiki not official. 4e source said he created the abyss but was not imprisoned there. For me, Tharizdun as portrayed by Gary Gygax is far more powerful than a god within a single prime/pantheon and I'm fine with him being a force of evil across many worlds. Having said that I'm not sure the elemental evil cult is a strong enough idea to cross prime planes. Surely a god of pure evil would have a wealth of more interesting faces than being the big bad elemental guy on each plane

 

[TheCelric]

Ouch. This whole "Abyssal Plague" story sounds like the kind of thing I used to enjoy as a 12-years old young nerd. Now I wish I had never learned about its existence. Ignorance is bliss, after all.

Keep in mind that the Abyssal Plague was for 4th edition. Personally I would have been more excited if it referred to the spilling over Blood War, but whatever.

Actually, there were some decent parts of the FR novels that related to the AP, but... no, wait... that was something else

My main point was that the FR has certainly been a "dumping ground" for shoehorning elements into the setting for, well, for a long, long time. To start complaining about that *now* seems like a foolish conceit. And while there are other settings that have stronger elements of "X", that doesn't mean that those things aren't also canon in the FR. Everyone knows that Dragonlance was the setting for Dragons and lances, but Dragons are everywhere in Realmslore, even riding them into battle. Ditto for Ravenloft and Vampires, Greyhawk and liches, Ebberon and, er, maybe not Warforged per se, but automations are there, and there are probably a few on the gnomish island of Lantan. And I'm not even talking about the barbarian Steppes where there are [Mongols] or the Chult Peninsula [dinosaurs], or Mazteca [Aztecs], or Kara-Tur [Oriental everything, including the "Great Wall"], or Zakhara [Arabic everything], or Mulhorand [Egyptian]. They might not be the most popular places to visit, but they exist and *have existed* in the Realms since at least 2nd Edition.

What I am most interested in is the story, the area, the tie-ins, and the immersion factor. If they do those correctly, then IDC if you're a die-hard fan of whatever setting, you'll happily play the adventure and make it yours. Or, steal all the ideas for it and make that yours, or port the story to your favorite world. Whatever. Good adventures > badly written adventures, period.

 

[Kobold Stew]

1) I expected the title to be "Elemental Evil Adventurer's Handbook" not just "Adventurer's Handbook".

That appeared to be the case back in August.

Since then, the byline seems to have been tweaked too (the cover now seems to read "Create heroic characters possessing elemental power in this [attractive? authoritative?] supplement for the world's greatest role-playing game".

 

[Jester David]

It's hard to make out in the low res images, but the black area in the upper left of both covers I think reads "Elemental Evil"... so perhaps the correct title IS "Elemental Evil Adventurer's Handbook"

My initial reaction is this might be confusing to a new player, who cannot just identify a book via its title.
But I don't think many new people will buy these books. And, as it's a group game, I imagine someone will emphasise "checkout the logo in the corner".

 

[Mistwell]

Seems pretty clear that they are doing Realms stuff for OP and the Neverwinter MMO to tie into; more than OP, they should get a Sigil-based MMO to tie anything, anywhere together.

Covers are alright; if the setting is as central as it is inToD, which is to say not much, shouldn't be a problem to port or file the serial numbers off.

If the quality matches Rick Bakers other recent adventure, this should kick ass.

I think you overdid the acronyms OP usually means Original Post, or Over Powered. Given that, I have no idea what you just said. Nor am I sure what inToD means. At least I know what MMO means.

 

[the Jester]

That's just a public wiki not official. 4e source said he created the abyss but was not imprisoned there. For me, Tharizdun as portrayed by Gary Gygax is far more powerful than a god within a single prime/pantheon and I'm fine with him being a force of evil across many worlds.

You won't get any argument from me on this- although I thought Big T was imprisoned in the Abyss according to 4e lore, I may be wrong; it may be that it was never explicitly specified. Huh.

Having said that I'm not sure the elemental evil cult is a strong enough idea to cross prime planes. Surely a god of pure evil would have a wealth of more interesting faces than being the big bad elemental guy on each plane

Yeah, well, the shoehorned merging of The Elder Elemental Eye and Tharizdun never appealed to me, and was a product of the 3e-era meatgrinder Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (which hardly did ever return to the ToEE at all).

I much prefer a universe/multiverse that has lots of big, evil, primordial, inchoate threats.

 

[Chimpy]

Really looking forward to the next adventure, hoping I find it better than HotDQ. Rich Baker's stuff has been good before.

 

[Mirtek]

Well, from an in-universe perspective it makes sense.

They already tried their ToEE thingy twice on Oerth. Now they either need a new shtick or move their old to a world that has not yet heard of it.

Guess they wen't for the lazy route instead of having to come up with a new scheme. Even ancient evils can be uncreative

 

[gweinel]

How i would love the Dragon-Tiamat series was tied on Dragonlance setting and the Elemental Evil series was tied on Greyhawk...

 

[lyle.spade]

Did you know that you can just put these - or any! - adventures in any world you'd like? Seriously. You can. The WOTC folks won't ever know...

On a serious note, FR bores me, but good adventures with dragons and cults and evil and temples fit anywhere for the DM who puts in a little time to tweak the fluff. I don't see what all the grousing is about.