D&D 5E Is R.A. Salvatore's "Hero" the last Forgotten Realms book?

[Parmandur]

They already tried that unsuccessfully, the time needed to churn out a novel simply doesn't line up with the release schedule of the APs. That's why all the novels with the RoD tie in didn't come out until we were already well into CoS

They simply underestimated the difficulty to sync those two media

Which was of course double disappointing, meaning all their pep talk during the lead up to 5e and the sundering where they promised to get an internal "realms traffic cop" to make the continutiy even more tight and avoid lore errors, etc. was just outright lying to the realms fans to just keep them quite.
I also still doubt that as the reason. They haven't even finished the script or the casting yet. The movie is easily 3 years or more away. Way too early let everything drie up in expectation of a movie that might not even be in theaters yet in 2020. They could finish entire new novel trilogies by the time the movie is close enough to finish to start with earliest advertising

As I understand it the script is done, and Warner Bros. (the premiere makers of fantasy film, critically and commercially) start filming in a few months.

That means a 2018 release, probably, and a novelization of the script is inevitable. Everything screams "this is about the major D&D motion picture," whether that works out or not. And as to working out, the new stuff is coming from tip filmmakers, not...whatever that old thing was.

Doubt they lied, bit maybe after review they saw a fuzzy, non-metaplot heavy world as more conducive to fans. No more Times of Trouble or Spellplagues.

 

[Shasarak]

Seriously Shasarak, it is not Mecheon's fault that your and our preferred IP is a bit player in a bigger company which is itself a niche subsidiary of a global entertainment corporation.

Seriously Willie the Duck. It is not my fault that MtG is off topic when discussing DnD novels. I mean who seriously comes into a discussion about the last FR novel with the line, dont worry Apple can buy Hasbro with its pocket change? Totally nonsensical.

 

[Mirtek]

they saw a fuzzy, non-metaplot heavy world as more conducive to fans. No more Times of Trouble or Spellplagues.

Which is exactly the opposite of why FR fans like the FR. It's Spellplague 2.0 aka trying building the realms around what non-FR-fans dislike about them rather than what realms fans liked about them

Now general D&D fans grudgingly accepted the realms as the sole background for all 5e releases while almost every specific FR fan site has lost all momentum they regained when 5e was first announced and is back to it's "4e coma"

Funny how at the same time general D&D fans are complaining that there is too much FR and they are sick of it while FR fans complain that there is all but no FR and the setting is dead as a door nail for not even receiving a campaign setting (SCAG labled a weak excuse of one)

 

[Shasarak]

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.

A single continuity may work for Transformers where you only have two sides fighting each other but for the Forgotten Realms with its huge size and cast it really seems doubtful.

Besides which, what about the six monthly adventures? They would interfere with the movies just as much as a novelist can. I really do not believe WotC should cater to Movie writers that can not be bothered to at least try and get them selves up to speed with what is going on. They already have meetings where WotC brings all the writers together to talk about what is going on so the novels do not trip over themselves.

 

[Derren]

It could be that they had the best of intentions, but changed their minds when they realized the challenges that they were up against.

And what challenges would that be?

 

[Parmandur]

Actually, the Magic novels are probably relevant, for a number of reasons: same company, often the same writers, and it seems they have slowed down at about the same time and pace as D&D books: if I read the Wikipedia right, it seems 2014 was the last significant release, and they had slowed down considerably before that. Could be the novels just don't serve the bottom line for WotC these days...Erin Evans seemed pretty positive on the podcast today, for what that's worth.

 

[Parmandur]

Which is exactly the opposite of why FR fans like the FR. It's Spellplague 2.0 aka trying building the realms around what non-FR-fans dislike about them rather than what realms fans liked about them

Now general D&D fans grudgingly accepted the realms as the sole background for all 5e releases while almost every specific FR fan site has lost all momentum they regained when 5e was first announced and is back to it's "4e coma"

Funny how at the same time general D&D fans are complaining that there is too much FR and they are sick of it while FR fans complain that there is all but no FR and the setting is dead as a door nail for not even receiving a campaign setting (SCAG labled a weak excuse of one)

I like the SCAG, but then I only got into FR with 5E, so possibly a good point; but that might be the financial smart move for WotC.

 

[Shasarak]

Of course Erin sounds positive, she is working on her new novel now, plus she found out a lot earlier then us that it was going to be her last DnD novel.

 

[Parmandur]

Of course Erin sounds positive, she is working on her new novel now, plus she found out a lot earlier then us that it was going to be her last DnD novel.

Didn't get a "no more D&D, ever!" vibe; seemed to have a lot of fun with the WotC talking about the topic.

 

[77IM]

My guess is that Wizards of the Coast sold the novel rights to Warner Brothers as part of the merchandising rights to the upcoming film.

No big studio wants to make a movie when they can make a movie AND action figures AND video games AND apparel AND tie-in novels AND comic books AND lunch-boxes AND birthday-party plates AND etc. etc. etc.

So it's possible that Wizards has the right to continue producing their current D&D action figures/video games/apparel/novels, etc., but not the right to produce new ones. Warner wants to control that, to maximize their merchandising. And because Warner has a publishing arm and a well-oiled merchandising machine, they're going to use that to decide what novels to write and who should author them.

For a concrete example of how licensing rights can flip around like this, when Cryptic Studios acquired the rights to Champions, they got all the rights. Then they licensed the right to produce the RPG back to Hero Games. It's because video games are much bigger business than RPGs, and nobody's going to invest a ton of money into a video game without having solid control of the rights.

It honestly wouldn't surprise me too much if Warner Brothers now owns all the rights to D&D and licenses RPG production back to Wizards; although Hasbro has a lot more clout than Hero Games so it's possible that Warner only has film and merchandising rights.

(DISCLAIMER: I have no actual information about this, and no idea what I am talking about. Whee!)