D&D 5E Is R.A. Salvatore's "Hero" the last Forgotten Realms book?

Parmandur · Oct 7, 2016

Hasbro, as a corporation, is known for really tight control of their intellectual property; they don't sell it, they license, build up value over time.

Probably right about including the books as a package deal [MENTION=12377]77IM[/MENTION] WB has the infrastructure in place for that sort of thing, more than WotC ever was.

Jester David · Oct 7, 2016

Weird Dave said:
Has anyone heard anything regarding the Troy Denning Orcus novel? Chris Perkins mentions it specifically in the forward to Out of the Abyss. I bet that would have been a fun read, I always wondered what the Demon Prince of the Undead was doing down there in the Underdark. I think his storyline was supposed to be explored in Sword Coast Legends ... or Neverwinter ... or something else, perhaps just this lost novel.

It was one two Denning novels that never ended up being published. No reasons given.

Mercule · Oct 7, 2016

EbbTide808 said:
im pretty sure that sweet pea never gave up the movie rights that warmer and Hasbro were trying to sue to acquire back, and that's why sweet pea is co-producing. I also don't believe Hasbro is going to give up the rights to the D&D brand. That's actually the most valuable part. The rpg just sustains the brand.

I actually hope that the movie is Forgotten Realms branded, maybe with D&D called out in some sort of logo like the MCU uses. D&D and FR are not equivalent and trying to make them so is a huge mistake, IMO. Why would you limit yourself by tying it all together, when you could do a Realms movie or series, an Eberron movie or series, a Planescape movie or series, etc?

Really, I could see Eberron doing quite well on the big screen. It could be done in a very visually stunning way that would be very different from, say, LotR, but still a ton of fun -- think more Golden Compass mixed with Indiana Jones. Planescape might be something of a modern Fifth Element done by Clive Barker or Tim Burton, but I'm not really that familiar with the setting. Even Ravenloft could be done as something resembling Underworld, though I'd rather see it with just a bit of actual horror.

Regardless, those would be very, very different movies than a Realms movie based on, say, Princes of the Apocalypse. All could also be done well, too. You just have to know what the brand actually is (and have good writers, actors, and budget, of course).

My one request for Hasbro is to please keep Michael Bay away from this IP.

Jester David · Oct 7, 2016

77IM said:
But as you say, "The D&D brand is the most valuable part." But how valuable is it? My guess is that the profits from a SINGLE action-movie blockbuster vastly exceed the value of the D&D brand name, and that Hasbro would be willing to sell if the price was right.

However I think it's more likely that you are right and that Hasbro kept the brand, like with Transformers and G.I. Joe.

You don't sell brands and IPs. You just license out the rights, letting other people use them. Just like how Hasbro hasn't sold Visionaries, MASK, Inhumanoids, or a dozen other properties.

If D&D ever becomes unprofitable, they'll just cancel it and move onto something else. WotC won't notice. Only 10% of the company works on D&D and it pulls in $10-15 million per year compared to Mahic the Gathering's $200 or so million. MtG likely makes more money on an underperforming month than D&D pulls in all year.

Mirtek · Oct 7, 2016

Weird Dave said:
Has anyone heard anything regarding the Troy Denning Orcus novel? Chris Perkins mentions it specifically in the forward to Out of the Abyss. I bet that would have been a fun read, I always wondered what the Demon Prince of the Undead was doing down there in the Underdark. I think his storyline was supposed to be explored in Sword Coast Legends ... or Neverwinter ... or something else, perhaps just this lost novel.

It' cancelled. As of now Hero is the last upcomming FR novel

Orcus' was the content of the last Neverwinter Expansion however

Mirtek · Oct 7, 2016

Jester David said:
It was one two Denning novels that never ended up being published. No reasons given.

They were both the same actually. First it got renamed and postponed then cancelled alltogether

Derren · Oct 7, 2016

Willie the Duck said:
I could only speculate, as that being the issue was also merely speculation. I was simply saying that we don't know that it was a lie vs. them changing their position.

Given the number of properties that wiped away well built up continuities (star trek, star wars, spider man) to accommodate new properties, it definitely seems that a nebulous continuity is an easier row to hoe.

WotC has managed a metaplot in the past so they would hardly have been surprised by the effort it took. And it is not rocket Science. Catalyst manages this with Shadowrun (even when they have a severe deficit in geography)

Nagol · Oct 7, 2016

Derren said:
WotC has managed a metaplot in the past so they would hardly have been surprised by the effort it took. And it is not rocket Science. Catalyst manages this with Shadowrun (even when they have a severe deficit in geography)

WotC may have, but have any of the current employees? Institutional memory is only as good as the employees', at best.

Shasarak · Oct 7, 2016

Jester David said:
Transformers was one example. Star Wars might be more apt.
Still, you don't want the novels going off and doing one thing, while the movies do another, while the games do a third. Not until you have an idea how successful the movies are.

The only real problem that I could see trying to get everything going along together would be for one part to just start doing what ever they wanted, which would most likely be the movie part because the novels and game parts have been working for years now.

The twice annual storyline? Maybe a little. But the events of those are only somewhat canon and the specifics are uncertain.

But that is not really what WotC wants. It wants us all to play the same adventures which means the specifics are pretty certain for a large part of your audience already. Everyone who plays Against the Giants may not be fighting the same guys but they are going to be doing the same story.

And how many novels are they expected to read before writing a movie?
Every FR? All twenty-ish Drizzt novels? Just the last couple dozen? The ten or so since the Sundering came out?

I would say at least from the Sundering but if you look at someone like Chris Perkins he would probably read all of them. Besides the novels is that not what the Story bibles are for? Also did Wotc not hire someone to be their continuity guy? Is Ed not answering his emails now? There are so many resources that could be used.

They had a summit for the Sundering. But I'm not sure they do that for every novel. They likely just have one staff member coordinate with the writers.

I am pretty sure Bob said they used to have a meeting every year or so to co-ordinate and bounce ideas off each other.

Mercule said:
My one request for Hasbro is to please keep Michael Bay away from this IP.

I would rather have Bay then someone like JJ Abrams. Now that would be a Blockbuster!

Jester David · Oct 7, 2016

Shasarak said:
I would say at least from the Sundering but if you look at someone like Chris Perkins he would probably read all of them. Besides the novels is that not what the Story bibles are for? Also did Wotc not hire someone to be their continuity guy? Is Ed not answering his emails now? There are so many resources that could be used.

How often do you think script writers *really* do their research?
How many Star Wars novels do you think Abrams really consume before writing the movies? Hasbro has a huge story bible for the Transformers franchise. How much do you think Bay read of it? (And the writers and directors of Transformers Prime ignored much of it anyway).