D&D General Forgotten Realms cover to "Guide to the Dalelands" revealed, book delayed

The cover to Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood's first sourcebook in the Realmsbound series has been revealed.

Guide to the Dalelands is the first of four books, and is a regional sourcebook for both DMs and players. It will be released on the Dungeon Master's Guild. The book has been delayed from Q1 2026 to Q2 2026. They are hoping to release it in June.

The other books in the series are:

• Guide to the Dalelands: A regional sourcebook for both DMs and players.
• Inn Sites of the Dalelands: Geared towards social encounters, it covers not just inns but also NPCs, mini-games, and social occasions such as festivals and tournaments.
• Delves of the Dalelands: a collection of dangerous locations to serve as fodder for adventurers.
• Adventures in the Dalelands: An anthology of adventures for levels 1 to 12.

 

[Koloth]

That archer only needs one shot. The arrow is the Arrow of Yondu, found in a crashed metal ship that fell from the sky a few years ago.

 

[aco175]

Maybe it is Prince Herbert shooting. He packs quite a punch with his arrows.

 

[dave2008]

Not a fan of Ed , the Dalelands, or the Forgotten Realms?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Lets be fair. The bow is clearly using magic to be easily concealed and manuevered with while magically releasing with the force of a heavy war bow.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I’m a fan of Ed as a person, but the Dalelands are the most generically boring part of the Forgotten Realms.

 

[Jahydin]

Maybe a Halfling...?

 

[BiblioTek]

I dont hate it, but the lady crouching in ambush looks like she needs a larger bow.

She (and the artist) also needs to learn how to hold a bow. She's not going to be able to make any shots holding the bow like that.

 

[VashVet]

She (and the artist) also needs to learn how to hold a bow. She's not going to be able to make any shots holding the bow like that.

I don’t think that arm guard is gonna help much.

 

[Morrus]

She (and the artist) also needs to learn how to hold a bow. She's not going to be able to make any shots holding the bow like that.

Normally I'm perfectly happy to ignore stuff like that, but that is just wild.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Normally I'm perfectly happy to ignore stuff like that, but that is just wild.

Agreed.

I'd just skimmed the picture. I was all prepared to say "it's clearly not that kind of art, guys" (given the guy on the left has the headband/wrist wrap get-up of a mid-80s Karate Kid-inspired teen martial arts movie) and bemoan how every time we have a depiction of arms/armor or combat we always have to whip out and measure our IRL combat expertise/historic knowledge, nerd-style. And then I saw the hand positions on the bow and the arrow.

Like maybe if they were the ambushed, not the ambushers and they were fumbling to get their bow out and ready, it would make sense (as a failure). Or if they had dropped them and were fumbling to pick them up. Even then, ending up with the bowstring on the top of the hand instead of under it seems harder to have done than actually getting it right. It's weird and weirdly specific in a 'you had to actively try to depict it this way, and I don't know why you did.' Best guess is they didn't want to try drawing the bowstring going under the wrist and didn't want to flip the arm over or redraw the whole thing to be being held in a different way and they just kinda punted ('how many people are going to notice, and of them how many will care?').