Alzrius
The EN World kitten
Uruk said:
There is a Jordain-born template, and a Jordain prestige class on the WotC website. View them here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/fr/jordain
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FR Novels
- Thread starter Exquisite Dead Guy
- Start date
There is a Jordain-born template, and a Jordain prestige class on the WotC website. View them here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/fr/jordain
BadMojo
First Post
Mystery Man said:Yes. Had I been a monitor on those boards they would have closed them down much earlier due to no one posting because I'd just delete those rude morons.Some people are honestly scary in their need to get a life.
It's a shame that closing the boards was the only way they could solve the problem. Not being able to discuss WotC novels on the official WotC forums is pretty silly.
Anyway, to be quite honest I've had a hard time finding WotC novels that I really enjoyed. Lately I've been reading Elaine Cunningham's first "Songs and Swords" book and its been a good read so far.
I don't mind that Elaine Cunningham doesn't bring a lot of "D&D" stuff in to the story. I don't really *want* to read a novel where the author is writing with a set of game mechanics in mind. "Elfshadow" seems to have enough Forgotten Realm-ish-ness to fit in and I can't hear phantom dice rolling while I'm reading.
So, any other highly recommended Realms authors? What's the scoop on Lisa Smedman?
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Alzrius
The EN World kitten
I think Uruk is right, really. It's hard to read even the first few chapters of Cunningham's Evermeet: Island of Elves and not wonder if she checked any sources at all for what D&D deities are capable of. It's that sort of thing in her stories.
Personally, this is one of my major pet peeves with quite a few D&D novels, and their authors. Lynn Abbey and the Chronicles of Athas series, J. Robert King and the Blood Wars trilogy, Gene de Weese and Lord of the Necropolis, it goes on and on. All of these authors either didn't read or disregarded something fundamental about the subject matter of their writing, which, for me, lessens the novels enjoyment value considerably. When I read a book about the Planescape setting, I want to know that it's going to conform to the basic rules of that setting...otherwise why even call it a Planescape novel to begin with?
Admittedly, this is further than what Uruk was talking about. I'm going on about novels that break the rules of their settings, whereas he (I think) meant things that just didn't "feel" D&D.
I'm going to get crucified for saying this, but I've always felt that way about Weis & Hickman's work. They never seemed to particularly care for D&D, focusing more on the tone of the stories they wanted to write, and less for the absolutes of the world/universe that it was set in. Examples of this show up again and again in their works, and attitudes to related works of others. Their flat-out denial of Soth in Ravenloft, their use of Fizban in some of the Deathgate Cycle books (and a brief nod to that at the end of the Legends trilogy), their rather contemptuous lack of note for Jean Rabe's excellent Dragons of a New Age trilogy...no, I don't like Weis & Hickman much at all, for the same reasons as Cunningham.
Personally, this is one of my major pet peeves with quite a few D&D novels, and their authors. Lynn Abbey and the Chronicles of Athas series, J. Robert King and the Blood Wars trilogy, Gene de Weese and Lord of the Necropolis, it goes on and on. All of these authors either didn't read or disregarded something fundamental about the subject matter of their writing, which, for me, lessens the novels enjoyment value considerably. When I read a book about the Planescape setting, I want to know that it's going to conform to the basic rules of that setting...otherwise why even call it a Planescape novel to begin with?
Admittedly, this is further than what Uruk was talking about. I'm going on about novels that break the rules of their settings, whereas he (I think) meant things that just didn't "feel" D&D.
I'm going to get crucified for saying this, but I've always felt that way about Weis & Hickman's work. They never seemed to particularly care for D&D, focusing more on the tone of the stories they wanted to write, and less for the absolutes of the world/universe that it was set in. Examples of this show up again and again in their works, and attitudes to related works of others. Their flat-out denial of Soth in Ravenloft, their use of Fizban in some of the Deathgate Cycle books (and a brief nod to that at the end of the Legends trilogy), their rather contemptuous lack of note for Jean Rabe's excellent Dragons of a New Age trilogy...no, I don't like Weis & Hickman much at all, for the same reasons as Cunningham.
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Sirius_Black
First Post
Alzrius said:
Limits as to what gods are capable of? Okay, now and then I think I've heard everything possible that could be uttered. Thank you for proving me wrong again.
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
Sirius_Black said:
Always a pleasure.
Um, excuse me? Who said anything about "limits"? I sure didn't. I said she hadn't checked to see what they were capable of - if anything, she makes them vastly underpowered! Why was Corellon Larethian running to get back to his domain when all gods can innately teleport without error and (if they're above demigod level ) plane shift, all instantaneously and at will, with no limit per day (those were the 2E rules for gods, since the novel was written during 2E)? That's just the tip of the iceberg, but you get my point.
And just for the record, there are indeed limits to what gods are capable of in D&D. Even in 1E and 2E there were, such as how much they could create, what forms they could take, how many avatars they can have (and how long it takes them to make another) etc. Frankly, I'm surprised at your surprise about that, its rather common knowledge.
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Alzrius
The EN World kitten
Cevalic said:
Hmm, going back through the end of Test of the Twins I couldn't find the scene I was thinking of, but I'm sure I saw it somewhere. It's a scene where Tas is looking through his things, and sees a book (IIRC it was a book) belonging to "someone named Haplo", who is the protagonist of the Deathgate Cycle.
Anyone who can say where in which DL book that was in would have my gratitude.
Pseudonym
Ivan Alias
I wonder if this is going to make its way into the forthcoming Shining South campaign book? I thought Cunningham's Halruaa novels were awful. Plot, pacing and character development aside, I was left wondering if she even owns a map of Faerûn. I meanAlzrius said:
it really makes me wonder when she has Halruaa face an invasion by forces from Mulhorand. Even if the army was already assembled and on the occupied side of Unther it would still have had to march around the Great Rift, over the Lindrise and across nearly the length of the Shaar to get to Halruaa. And from the pacing of the story she makes it seem that from the time the invasion plan was plotted it took all of a few days to get there.
