D&D 5E (2024) Here's The Covers of BOTH of November's Forgotten Realms Books

We've known for some time that in November, WotC will be releasing not one but two Forgotten Realms books--one aimed at players, the other at Dungeon Masters. Thanks to Game Informer, we now have a look at the covers of Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun and Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun. The article showcases more art, and is well worth checking out--and for those who want more, the print magazine has a full feature previewing the books.

 

[Scars Unseen]

WotCs could place crisp $20 bills in the back of each book and people would complain it's not a $50.

Then again, I'm increasingly convinced fandom is a net negative for any given franchise. I've yet to meet a a fandom that isn't overwhelmingly critical of the thing they claim to enjoy. Things are always better before, the franchise is always dying, the current owners are incompetent/greedy/hateful and it's the burden of the True Fans to save the franchise from the casuals who are watering it down.

I think the Internet has solidified what petty, vindictive and unsatisfied people the world is really full of.

I don't know, I've seen pretty positive things in the RPG community for individual games and creators. It's mostly the big corporate products that get the negativity, and it's mostly product lines with several distinct versions that get comparison and contrast. D&D just happens to fall under both umbrellas.

Frankly, there are going to be people who do feel that other editions are better, or at least that the newer editions have made changes that are worse. That's perfectly fine. To be honest, you labeling them like you are in this post is more of a negativity issue than them labeling the products like they are.

 

[Zardnaar]

I don't know, I've seen pretty positive things in the RPG community for individual games and creators. It's mostly the big corporate products that get the negativity, and it's mostly product lines with several distinct versions that get comparison and contrast. D&D just happens to fall under both umbrellas.

Frankly, there are going to be people who do feel that other editions are better, or at least that the newer editions have made changes that are worse. That's perfectly fine. To be honest, you labeling them like you are in this post is more of a negativity issue than them labeling the products like they are.

New core books art was ok or not worth complaining about.

I like my alt art versions of them especially the MM.

Ymmv but these new ones are terrible. It's not a 5.0 was better or 5.5 sucks or D&D is doomed.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't know, I've seen pretty positive things in the RPG community for individual games and creators. It's mostly the big corporate products that get the negativity, and it's mostly product lines with several distinct versions that get comparison and contrast. D&D just happens to fall under both umbrellas.

Frankly, there are going to be people who do feel that other editions are better, or at least that the newer editions have made changes that are worse. That's perfectly fine. To be honest, you labeling them like you are in this post is more of a negativity issue than them labeling the products like they are.

It's a frame issue. I'm not wildly excited about the cover, but it's kinda tiring that the same group of people always finds a way to find the worst thing to say about every action the franchise does. Does matter if it's D&D or something else. Which is why I say it's an Internet thing: the echo chamber of negativity always amplifies itself and drowns out positivity.

I'm an old man shaking my fist at clouds though, trying to remember a time when reading about my favorite things wasn't a constant stream of negativity.

 

[Azzy]

FR adventures isn't great. It's a masterpiece vs the latest atrocity.

Atrocity? The hyperbole is flowing like wine during a bacchanalia.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Atrocity? The hyperbole is flowing like wine during a bacchanalia.

People are reacting as if the covers are portraying an act of torture or the like. Or like a 3-year-old with just 4 clashing crayons available created them. Yeah, they aren't my favorites, but they're just merely OK, aggressively mid-tier. Not something approaching horrifying self-eye-gouging Lovecraftian monstrosities that some descriptions seem to be headed towards...

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The first picture, the one for the Player's Guide, the whole thing is blurry / not crisp. The only thing that is, is the text, so to me the picture is just a bad, low detail, blurry mess. That has nothing to do with my device and everything with the picture. I circled the most egregious parts

View attachment 412374

Compare that to

View attachment 412375
and tell me you do not notice a difference

The only thing I notice are the clearly different artists and styles. SCAG looks blurrier to me just by either the image quality or how the artist did the faces.

 

[Scars Unseen]

It's a frame issue. I'm not wildly excited about the cover, but it's kinda tiring that the same group of people always finds a way to find the worst thing to say about every action the franchise does. Does matter if it's D&D or something else. Which is why I say it's an Internet thing: the echo chamber of negativity always amplifies itself and drowns out positivity.

I'm an old man shaking my fist at clouds though, trying to remember a time when reading about my favorite things wasn't a constant stream of negativity.

Oh for sure, things were much simpler before the Internet. I was also much younger and didn't have as specific wants in my gaming back when I had a blast playing Heroes Unlimited and Palladium Robotech.

I'd hesitate to call what you're seeing an echo chamber though. For sure, any online community for just about anything is going to be an outlier in the greater interest group for having enough interest to choose to talk about that specific thing online. And with that comes more extreme or intense feelings about what's being discussed than what you'd likely get in a more localized discussion. But in general, and specifically here, diverse views on any given topic are present and welcomed (outside of some specific taboos meant to keep the community a welcoming one).

If there are a greater ratio of negative to positive comments about a given official release, it might have less to do with an echo chamber, and more to do with the fact that as a community, this place is bound to skew towards older players in general. It's an older community, and it's a forum, which is sadly not really as popular a format for discussion as it once was. So you'll have people whose preferences were formed by editions in some ways wildly different than what's being put out there more (not to mention people who feel that this iteration of D&D isn't different enough from what they've been playing for the last decade).

That said, the comments and arguments in support are definitely visible, and at least in my case, noticed. You are right that ultimately it's the contents of the book that will matter, and your point of how there have definitely been duds in the past is well taken (though in fairness, if TSR had put out a marketing release with only that cover to go by, I would have similar criticisms that I do for this one).

 

[Zardnaar]

Atrocity? The hyperbole is flowing like wine during a bacchanalia.

It's really bad ymmv of course. Generally i don't comment to much about art as it's subjective. Hard sell for this lot though.

Wel the first one anyway. Second ones better.