Agamon said:
There's the DDM Icons release with Icingdeath. That's the only one I'm aware of.
That's this year. They're writing about 2008 being chock-full of Drizzt releases, with DDM, D&D, and Novel releases. That sounds a lot like they plan more minis related to Drizzt (I doubt it will be another set with Drizzt in it, but his friends and foes are often requested by people).
ender_wiggin said:
they, conciously or not, are willing the same perfection into their characters.
It's still a perfectly viable concept: Someone who is morally spotless (though he does not fight fair, so he's not quite stark white).
I think saying ‘Haters’ unnecessarily corners people into defending an impossible viewpoint (‘why be hatin’ man?’).
The way some people responded, I'm not cornering anyone unecessarily. I'm not talking about those who say they never had an interest in Drizzt and his books. I'm talking about those people who think it's cool if they talk like stereotypical cave men while stating their dislike, and others like them.
Regardless, WOTC can do what it wants; coincidentally I’ve never bought anything from them in this age of *.pdf and *.torrent.
Did you just confess breaking the law or was that just a sly demonstration of that "stark white is impossible" concept of yours?
ender_wiggin said:
An author should be responsible for the words that he writes.
Not if he just borrows the characters and world. This goes for the FR, for Star Wars, and for so many other things. That's the disadvantage of sharing a world with other Authors: you can't do as you please. Personally, I think the advantage is so much greater: You create a vibrant, living world, where more happens than just one story line, and where you can experience more happening than that one story line.
So any Author writing Star Wars novels couldn't just write how Luke Skywalker was seduced by the Dark Side, resurrected Emperor Palpatine in a ritual where he killed a million children, and then the two together made every sentient being in the universe their mental thralls. You can't even just write how Skywalker's wife dies in a car accident, or how Han Solo discovers his homo-sexual side.
CruelSummerLord said:
Surely it can't be that hard to write a good story where the protagonists are only 6th-8th level, don't have all sorts of weird templates or abilities, and don't wield masterwork or magical items, and yet still use some of the recognizable D&D monsters and races?
If you're writing for D&D, it can very likely be. The novels should fit the game at least loosely. A character without some magic (or at least masterwork!) items is quite unlikely. 6th-8th-level characters don't routinely save whole worlds, and they don't routinely stay 6th-8th-level that long. Abilities are what it's all about in D&D, so the novel heroes should have some. They should not consist of experts and warriors - there's so many classes out there to limit yourself to those two.
But the FR novels have a surprisingly small number of protagonists with any templates (weird or mundane).
Why not something like making a ranger an alcoholic ladies' man? Why not give a dwarf serious Vietnam-like flashbacks?
So you want to escape the same old characters by making other other "same old" characters? I can't even begin to count the number of movies I saw with people crawling into the bottle, or womanising the heck out of the female cast, or being haunted by Vietnam (sometimes, all three are present).
I think if you want to go away from some clichés, avoid them all while you're at it.