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.

 

[AmerginLiath]

I'm sure it is somehow the fault of all the 5E Great Old One warlocks. Little do they know that every time they cast a spell, the Apocalypse draws nearer...

...and I was going to blame it on Wild Sorcerer's reduction of the Weave to entropy, thus hastening the Heat Death of the Multiverse...

 

[Sailor Moon]

Perhaps I'm missing some sarcasm here, but . . . the Realms IS a pretty generic world. It's why Greyhawk, Mystara, and even Dragonlance don't see much action, because they are ALL fairly generic worlds without much to distinguish themselves from each other. And the Realms has long been the most popular of the three, so it makes perfect sense for WotC to highlight the setting.

The storylines of Tyranny of Dragons and Elemental Evil are PERFECT matches for FR. Retreading the War of the Lance in Dragonlance does not excite me, retreading the Temple of Elemental Evil in Greyhawk does not excite me. But adapting those themes to a different setting, one that is EASY-PEASY to translate to any homebrew? That is interesting to me, and I suspect to a lot of other people too, despite the Internet Kvetching Team's best complaints.

Guys, you are simply not going to get a new Greyhawk release anytime soon. It's also pretty unlikely we'll see a Dragonlance release in the near future. I'm a fan of both settings, and I'm excited to see their themes brought forward into the new edition. If I get a hankering to run me some classic Dragonlance, adapting Tyranny of Dragons should be super easy. Likewise with the upcoming Elemental Evil campaign if I really want to run me some Greyhawk goodness.

Or, I suppose, this is the internet. I could just join in on all the sour grapes and offended fans. Jeesh.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and the artwork is fantastic! Really don't get the complaints and weird "transgender" comments. Keep up the good work WotC! You are making at least this guy happy with 5E!

From this statement, I'm going to assume your knowledge of The Realms is limited. As well as what exactly generic fantasy is.

The Forgotten Realms is high fantasy that covers many areas such as european, asian, middle eastern, egyptian, and south american influences. It has a fully established set of lore that dates back thousands of years. Greyhawk has it's own lore but it is considered to be generic fantasy. The Forgotten Realms is not something you can just drop something like this into because you run the risk of it not making sense. You can actually go back and follow the lore and timelines and see why something would not fit.

 

[Sailor Moon]

I for one like to follow the Realms canon so I don't want it to be a dumping ground for this kind of thing.

This is really going to turn a lot of Realms fans away from the setting who maybe thought about coming back.

Wizards still don't have a clue.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Nice covers!

IIt look like instead of having Player's Handbook 2, 3 etc... we'll get a supplement book supporting campaigns adventure, like a set of options that ties to the theme and flavor of the storyline. I like the concept and think it may even help drive more sales for these splat books but giving them an additional purpose. Brilliant!

Adventurer's Book: Elemental Evil
Adventurer's Book: Alice's Wonderland
Adventurer's Book: Against the Giants
etc...


source: http://www.nerdsonearth.com/2014/12/dungeons-dragons-5e-release-schedule-2018/

 

[Mirtek]

connected the realms to Dragonlance and Planescape. [...] Evermeet ate Spelljammers. There are domains in Ravenloft from the realms

The whole point of Spelljammer and Planescape was that it was the space between the settings that connected them.

London is also connected to Washington DC insofar as you can go from London to Washington by plane in a few hours (just like you can planewalk or spelljamm from Toril to Oerth). That doesn't mean that White House Down should have been taken place in London

 

[Shemeska]

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.

Tell me about it. I wrote up Tharizdun's demiplanar prison in 3.x, so it was a shame to see it and the earlier material I built upon ignored.

As for these modules, Rich Baker is quite talented, so it really all comes down to how much is imposed by WotC in terms of the setting assumptions. We'll see how it works out I suppose.

 

[mouselim]

What?!

Yeah, had these not been set in the Realms, they would have been an almost sure-fire sell to me.

In the Realms? No interest.

For Christ's sake, the Temple of Elemental Evil, the Elder Elemental Eye and the whole elemental evil cult thing are all huge fixtures of Greyhawk. Sigh.

Say what?! These are set in the FR?!!?! OMG!! Why oh WHY? If they wanted materials, can't they create more instead of taking something that we fans cherish and warp it?

Let's see how it goes - hopefully, it will not be an utter flop like the previous series (and to think that I held such high hopes that I bought two copies (one for expected thrashing through use and one for shrink-wrap collection) of each book!).

Honestly, I found it strange that such a renowned author could have produce something that will tarnish his reputation as such...sigh - guess happens.

 

[mouselim]

Nice covers!

IIt look like instead of having Player's Handbook 2, 3 etc... we'll get a supplement book supporting campaigns adventure, like a set of options that ties to the theme and flavor of the storyline. I like the concept and think it may even help drive more sales for these splat books but giving them an additional purpose. Brilliant!

Adventurer's Book: Elemental Evil
Adventurer's Book: Alice's Wonderland
Adventurer's Book: Against the Giants
etc...


source: http://www.nerdsonearth.com/2014/12/dungeons-dragons-5e-release-schedule-2018/

That just allows them to sell more books ...

 

[IchneumonWasp]

That just allows them to sell more books ...

Isn't that a good thing? It would be in our advantage if WotC made a profit and D&D 5e was a financial success.

 

[Morrus]

That just allows them to sell more books ...

What would you rather an RPG company sell, if not tabletop RPG books? They're hardly in a position to move into an alternate business of interpretive mime!