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D&D 5E Is R.A. Salvatore's "Hero" the last Forgotten Realms book?
- Thread starter EbbTide808
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wicked cool
Hero
I like the drizzt books but for the most part they have never felt like real D&D. 99% of time its drow vs drow with the occasional battle vs artemis or some other bad such as an orc king.
I'm reading Archmage right now. I'm about 33% into the book and so far there has been 1 very cool fight and a lot of talking and you really have to love drow to get enjoyment out of it
what WOTC should do is have books based on classic and new adventures. What I loved about Dragonlance was not only the great characters and setting but that I could also play the adventure
Call me crazy but I would love new characters introduced that took on Phandelver or Strahd or classics such as elemental evil/tomb of horrors etc
I started reading the witcher books and I love how monster encounters are written. Sapkowskis monsters/npcs have so much personality and I'm getting much better encounter ideas from them than any recent Salvatore novel
I also bet the novels aren't coming to end but in fact some other change is coming. Wouldn't be shocked for a crossover of some kind
I'm reading Archmage right now. I'm about 33% into the book and so far there has been 1 very cool fight and a lot of talking and you really have to love drow to get enjoyment out of it
what WOTC should do is have books based on classic and new adventures. What I loved about Dragonlance was not only the great characters and setting but that I could also play the adventure
Call me crazy but I would love new characters introduced that took on Phandelver or Strahd or classics such as elemental evil/tomb of horrors etc
I started reading the witcher books and I love how monster encounters are written. Sapkowskis monsters/npcs have so much personality and I'm getting much better encounter ideas from them than any recent Salvatore novel
I also bet the novels aren't coming to end but in fact some other change is coming. Wouldn't be shocked for a crossover of some kind
Very surreal, if true. I've been reading the Forgotten Realms novels since Douglas Niles' Moonshae Trilogy. The books vary wildly in style and quality, but I've found them all to be enjoyable on some level. I recall Chris Perkins talking at Gamehole Con 2014 about their novel plans and how they would eventually line up with the big hardcover adventure releases. It was, apparently, too late to tie into the Tyranny of Dragons storyline with novels, but it sure sounded like things were going to line up in the future. Which got me excited.
And then ... nothing. Ed Greenwood had a few books since (Spellstorm and Death Masks I believe), R.A. Salvatore finished up the Companions Codex trilogy and then moved on to the Homecoming series - which at least seemed to tie into the Rage of Demons storyline - and Erin Evans released the next two books in the Brimstone Angels series. Nothing else. And now it all might end? Very surreal.
And then ... nothing. Ed Greenwood had a few books since (Spellstorm and Death Masks I believe), R.A. Salvatore finished up the Companions Codex trilogy and then moved on to the Homecoming series - which at least seemed to tie into the Rage of Demons storyline - and Erin Evans released the next two books in the Brimstone Angels series. Nothing else. And now it all might end? Very surreal.
TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
I think they know that the chance of that movie having any kind of real impact will be small.
And they don't need it, the game is doing great.
I would think that a decision to stop or redirect the novels would be based on better reasons.
It could just be underperformance (including compared to the back-catalog--there are plenty of FR novels out there). Or they could have something big and new and totally unexpected planned. You never know.
And they don't need it, the game is doing great.
I would think that a decision to stop or redirect the novels would be based on better reasons.
It could just be underperformance (including compared to the back-catalog--there are plenty of FR novels out there). Or they could have something big and new and totally unexpected planned. You never know.
Jester David
Hero
I don't want to repeat what I said on the podcast too much. (You have to listen, it's a great podcast as a whole. Worth subscribing to.) But I'm of the position that the Realms novels as we know them are done.
The thing is, there's enough of them already. We don't need more. WotC can just focus on selling the ones they already have, making money without spending money. Maybe some new covers or a re-release of the Best-of the novel line.
But, really, I don't think the novels are as competitive as they used to be. First, there's a lot of them out there already. Every Drizzt book could be someone's first Drizzt book, but every one could also be someone's last. And for new reader's money, they're competing with every Drizzt book previously published. And that's a lot of competition now.
For adults, there are a lot of much better fantasy novels out there. There's no shortage of great fantasy for grown ups now, and it's much more well known and visible. There's less need to buy a shared world D&D novel to get a fantasy fix.
For youths, they're spoiled for choices in terms of series and genre fiction. And let's face it, D&D and similar licensed novels skew young in their audience. But now there's a wealth of amazing youth fiction. There's so many great YA fantasy and speculative fiction books out there. And the D&D novels are competing with the much more well known and visible video game novel lines.
Also, I think WotC wants to focus on the movie. A single Realms. A unified continuity in a way that Marvel can't, where everything is canon and ties together. Having novels that tell their own story with unrelated characters are undesirable for that purpose, since people will want to read about the characters they know and like from the films. Hasbro is big on this, and did a similar move for Transformers, when they focused on a single continuity/backstory.
So things are on hold until the movie progresses farther. And even then, things will likely relate to the movie characters.
And if the movie is a hit and there are sequels, they can do stuff with Drizzt and the Bringstone Angels and Kleef Kenric, but allow the movie writers to do their own thing without having to work around novels.
Even if they do have plans, who's writing them? Ed's busy doing his own stuff, Salvatore's doing Demon Wars, and she's off making her own world. With Star Wars being bigger than ever and having a universe to rebuild, Troy Denning is likely off on that.
So who's writing these planned WotC novels?
WotC almost made the previous book the final one, by not hiring her to write another book. And she was always prepared for being told any book would be her last. And family problems made it hard for her to finish the current one. But she hadn't planned on Ashes of the Tyrant being the last one, since it ends on a cliffhanger.
The thing is, there's enough of them already. We don't need more. WotC can just focus on selling the ones they already have, making money without spending money. Maybe some new covers or a re-release of the Best-of the novel line.
But, really, I don't think the novels are as competitive as they used to be. First, there's a lot of them out there already. Every Drizzt book could be someone's first Drizzt book, but every one could also be someone's last. And for new reader's money, they're competing with every Drizzt book previously published. And that's a lot of competition now.
For adults, there are a lot of much better fantasy novels out there. There's no shortage of great fantasy for grown ups now, and it's much more well known and visible. There's less need to buy a shared world D&D novel to get a fantasy fix.
For youths, they're spoiled for choices in terms of series and genre fiction. And let's face it, D&D and similar licensed novels skew young in their audience. But now there's a wealth of amazing youth fiction. There's so many great YA fantasy and speculative fiction books out there. And the D&D novels are competing with the much more well known and visible video game novel lines.
Also, I think WotC wants to focus on the movie. A single Realms. A unified continuity in a way that Marvel can't, where everything is canon and ties together. Having novels that tell their own story with unrelated characters are undesirable for that purpose, since people will want to read about the characters they know and like from the films. Hasbro is big on this, and did a similar move for Transformers, when they focused on a single continuity/backstory.
So things are on hold until the movie progresses farther. And even then, things will likely relate to the movie characters.
And if the movie is a hit and there are sequels, they can do stuff with Drizzt and the Bringstone Angels and Kleef Kenric, but allow the movie writers to do their own thing without having to work around novels.
Or she's just not allowed to talk about the novel line ending, because that's insider knowledge.
Even if they do have plans, who's writing them? Ed's busy doing his own stuff, Salvatore's doing Demon Wars, and she's off making her own world. With Star Wars being bigger than ever and having a universe to rebuild, Troy Denning is likely off on that.
So who's writing these planned WotC novels?
That's not what she said.
WotC almost made the previous book the final one, by not hiring her to write another book. And she was always prepared for being told any book would be her last. And family problems made it hard for her to finish the current one. But she hadn't planned on Ashes of the Tyrant being the last one, since it ends on a cliffhanger.
Flexor the Mighty!
18/100 Strength!
Trying to read Archmage. So far it seems like I should have read 20 novels before this to have any idea what is going on. For someone who only read the first two Drizzt books 20 years ago its not very good so far, I doubt I'll keep on.
bmfrosty
Explorer
I suspect that with movies incoming, they want to plan on the movie being part of a new canon and make future novels an extension of the movies and follow it's canon. They're probably still sorting that out.
They want the movies to be the big publicly facing part of D&D and the linear fiction to be an extension of that.
They want the movies to be the big publicly facing part of D&D and the linear fiction to be an extension of that.
wicked cool
Hero
Does anyone really believe the WOTC movie will be any good? Better than warcraft?
The argument that they have made enough books seems silly. Maybe they are selling/leasing the publishing rights. Isn't drizzt usually on the best sellers when new books get released
The argument that they have made enough books seems silly. Maybe they are selling/leasing the publishing rights. Isn't drizzt usually on the best sellers when new books get released
They already have that
Nope. At best it will be semi-decent like the "[...] of the titans" movies, but won't be the hit or spawn the parade of sequels that Hasbro hopes for.
Willie the Duck
Hero
You could say that. I would say that the whole 5e kinda- sorta- wiping away all the 4e changes at least makes a continuity snarl. Still it's certainly not like Marvel or DC or Transformers or other IPs which have made movie series in the past decade.
A year or two ago, when they made clear that they weren't trying to make a mint off of D&D like they had tried with 3e and were mostly preserving it for brand identity, this would have scared me. "Oh no. Now they're just going to put it up on a shelf and let it molder." However, the frankly impressive success of 5e has me more confident in the games' future, regardless.
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