NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 7965137" data-attributes="member: 8461">I once tried to get to the bottom of this rumor once and for all. It was an exercise in frustration.For those who don't know, here's a brief recap: there's a longstanding rumor that, when TSR purchased the rights to the Forgotten Realms from Ed Greenwood, Ed got a clause in the agreement saying that they had to publish at least one book (apparently either a novel or a sourcebook) by him for the setting each year, otherwise ownership of the setting would revert to him. This is typically cited as him having some sort of creative input (if not control) into how the setting develops, since it requires something of his to be put out lest WotC (who is said to have inherited that clause when they bought out TSR) lose their rights to the setting. Another point that's often touted as being part of the agreement is that, so long as it's not contradicted by any published material, everything that Ed writes for the setting (e.g. on forum posts) is "official" and "canon."In trying to find out if there was any substance to the rumor, the closest thing I could definitively find was repeated references to it on the Candlekeep forums by a poster called <a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/The_Hooded_One" target="_blank">The Hooded One</a>, who is apparently a member of Ed's gaming group. In particular, one post has them asserting that they'd seen the agreement in question.Personally, I find the entire thing dubious; taking a look at Ed's bibliography on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Greenwood#Bibliography" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> or the <a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ed_Greenwood#Works" target="_blank">Forgotten Realms wiki</a> shows several years where nothing was published, with 2018 and 2019 being notable examples, and yet insofar as I'm aware WotC still owns the intellectual property rights to the setting. Now, it's entirely possible that there are works that are missing from those pages, but really the entire thing sounds rather outlandish. I'd treat it like any other Internet rumor.</blockquote>

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