I review the Acquisitions Incorporated book on twitter

jerryrice4949 · Jun 17, 2019

mach1.9pants said:
Haha that you've never even seen! That's a bit presumptuous and hyperbolic, don't you think?

Personally having now looked at AI it's really not my bag, and maybe the worst FR product for me, but judging it sight unseen I won't.

And there had been some really, really bad novels in FR....

i browsed through the book this weekend at B&N and can confirm that it is awful. Not just the cartoonish art but the actual content. I get it is aimed at a niche audience but man on the whole it is a pretty terrible book.

Parmandur · Jun 17, 2019

gyor said:
I'm fine with something merely being not to my taste, but I stand by my statement that is book appears so far to be the worst official book written for FR.

In a game line that included Jungles of Chult, it would take extraordinary evidence to make that claim probable: far more than cartoony art and a focus on a particular form of campaign.

gyor · Jun 17, 2019

Parmandur said:
In a game line that included Jungles of Chult, it would take extraordinary evidence to make that claim probable: far more than cartoony art and a focus on a particular form of campaign.

Jungles of Chult is still better then this. Heck making a Dr. Seuss book FR canon would be better then this book. It doesn't fit the setting and given this FR not fitting a setting is hard to achieve.

gyor · Jun 17, 2019

jerryrice4949 said:
i browsed through the book this weekend at B&N and can confirm that it is awful. Not just the cartoonish art but the actual content. I get it is aimed at a niche audience but man on the whole it is a pretty terrible book.

See it's not just me. WotC should have let them kick-start, then this would just be a silly harmless book, but instead FR is now stained with this. Where is a Spellplague or Sundering to clean up this mess?

They can publish this, but FR novels they can't do? WTF?

Parmandur · Jun 17, 2019

gyor said:
Jungles of Chult is still better then this. Heck making a Dr. Seuss book FR canon would be better then this book. It doesn't fit the setting and given this FR not fitting a setting is hard to achieve.

Given that Acquisitions, Inc. is one of the biggest media successes in the history of the Forgotten Realms already, by definition of it fits the shownitnfits the Forgotten Realms. The published FR books have made references to the show and characters for years, even Greenwood's novels. Sure, it may not be your style, but this has been canonical in the Realms for a decade now. This doesn't really change anything.

Parmandur · Jun 17, 2019

gyor said:
See it's not just me. WotC should have let them kick-start, then this would just be a silly harmless book, but instead FR is now stained with this. Where is a Spellplague or Sundering to clean up this mess?

They can publish this, but FR novels they can't do? WTF?

It's all about the money: this is already selling like hotcakes on Amazon, and it isn't even out yet. They have started getting new FR novels, on the publishers dime rather than their own. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an Acquisitions, Inc. novel in the future.

Mercurius · Jun 18, 2019

I'm mixed on this and will have to take a look at it when it comes out.

On one hand, I like the idea of a "franchise" - or a new way of running a game, be it Birthright or the old Aria RPG from the early 90s.

On the other, I don't like the art, nor do I at all connect with "geek culture" and "nerd humor," which this seems drenched in.

That said, I'm glad that WotC is branching out with variants from the core product line, so I hope that this is successful as it may increase the chances that they'll branch out in different ways going forward.

Azzy · Jun 18, 2019

The whole premise doesn't appleal to me at all. I'd have to have a more indepth look at it, but I doubt I'll get this one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

gyor · Jun 18, 2019

Parmandur said:
It's all about the money: this is already selling like hotcakes on Amazon, and it isn't even out yet. They have started getting new FR novels, on the publishers dime rather than their own. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an Acquisitions, Inc. novel in the future.

So far it's only 1 Drizzt novel a year, hopefully that expands when BG 3 comes out, starting with a novelization of the game.