Far Realms poll

[stonegod]

From a publisher's perspective I wouldn't bank too heavily on this idea. I "anchored" an issue of Dragon (#330) with a huge Far Realms article by Bruce Cordell, and the issue was one of the worst sellers since the 323 "relaunch". I'm not saying it was the article's fault (that issue's cover was... unfortunate), but it didn't have nearly the drawing power I expected it to.

Here is another for the 'bummer' quote. I use 330 every session in my AoW Eberron RL campaign (I have a warlock tainted by Khyber and trying to fight of madness).

... but, I have my doubts on the viability of a full Far Realms book. I'd be interested to see it, sure, but I do not think it would be a top seller.

 

[Voadam]

I'd definitely be interested and put it on my amazon wish list for family gift considerations but I don't buy any new hardcovers so I wouldn't be buying this. If somebody else did it and put it out on pdf for a reasonable price I'd be very interested.

Cthulhu meets D&D was the theme of my ravenloft campaigns. They work well together using D&D rules without needing extra fear or insanity mechanics IMO.

 

[diaglo]

Brian Lumley should stick to writing average novels about vampire slugs with ESP and avoid, for the sake of my eyes, any further raping of Lovecraft's corpse. But that's just my opinion

:ditto:

 

[Drowbane]

For real? I just don't get it. That was one of my favorite issues (it even had new warlock invocations by Keith Baker). Halloween issue if I remember correctly, and it, along with last year's Halloween issue with the rajahs, are probably my 2 ALL-TIME favorite issues. ::sigh::

It even had a rockin mind-flayer feasting on brains for a cover! Maybe it is the chartreuse background that drives people away. ;P

That had new invocations in it?

 

[stonegod]

That had new invocations in it?

Yup. voice of madness allows you to use a lesser confusion effect that grows in duration with caster level.

 

[Shade]

From a publisher's perspective I wouldn't bank too heavily on this idea. I "anchored" an issue of Dragon (#330) with a huge Far Realms article by Bruce Cordell, and the issue was one of the worst sellers since the 323 "relaunch". I'm not saying it was the article's fault (that issue's cover was... unfortunate), but it didn't have nearly the drawing power I expected it to.

Bummer. I just now began utilizing that article in my campaign, and it's fantastic. When the skybleeder-mounted kaorti cerebrant summoned a pair of nightseeds into the already dangrous fray, the PCs were quite horrified. Now that they've reached the marrow, things are about to get creepier.

Besides the cover, 330 might have also suffered due to including two Eberron-themed articles, one of which was fiction. I have no idea if two setting-specific articles in an issue normally hurts sales, but that jumped out at me.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

From a publisher's perspective I wouldn't bank too heavily on this idea. I "anchored" an issue of Dragon (#330) with a huge Far Realms article by Bruce Cordell, and the issue was one of the worst sellers since the 323 "relaunch". I'm not saying it was the article's fault (that issue's cover was... unfortunate), but it didn't have nearly the drawing power I expected it to.

FYI.

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

That was one of my favourite Dragon covers ever, mang. Also one of my favourite articles. Of course, I'm a subscriber, so I didn't actually contribute to "sales".

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Hmmm. So long as you keep him away from Planescape

...and module writing. Heart of Nightfang Spire, anyone?

 

[ruleslawyer]

Is Guide to the Ethereal Plane that bad? (Never bought that one; it was released right after my Planescape campaign and willingness to throw cash at PS material died out.)

My answer is a giant qualified "maybe"... largely because I don't really see the need for a book that applies Lovecraftian flavor to D&D when enough can be gleaned just by reading Lovecraft stories or picking up the CoC d20 book. I could be wrong, though; eldritch horror, mind-twisting sorcery, and Weird Abominations from Beyond are pretty intrinsic parts of D&D that are always worth fleshing out.

But wasn't there a book called Lords of Madness that did this already?

 

[Zelda Themelin]

Yes, but only if it was well written and they didn't attempt to define it to the point that it lost its mystique. Going too into detail, overly defining it, risks doing to the Far Realm what August Derleth did to Lovecraft's work.

I second this.

I love Far Realms. But mystique is very important to me. If creepy alieness is changed into "they are scary ugly evil monsters, their home is second new name for Abyss", I stop caring.

Keeping the theme would be hard for most writers I think.