D&D 5E WotC & Novels

[Morrus]

I would have thought novels fitted into the general brand focused approach.


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[Dire Bare]

I would have thought novels fitted into the general brand focused approach.

I would think so too. But outsourcing them also fits into the "small team" D&D team has going right now. WotC has outsourced miniatures, digital tools, and board games, all things they used to do themselves. So to add novels to the list, isn't surprising.

 

[Valetudo]

Do you think WotC is completely done with putting out novels for D&D? I find it kind of a shame if they truly stop, as they put out some of my favorite Fantasy novels. I've thought that they might just let a publisher pick up the license, but it could be a bad move as there would be less quality control over what comes out. What do you all think?

quality control hah.

 

[Dire Bare]

quality control hah.

Sigh. I knew some of this irritating snark directed at the quality of TSR, and later WotC's novels would pop up in this thread. [SARCASM]Thanks for validating my faith in humanity.[/SARCASM]

Hundreds of novels were published between the debut of the Dragonlance Chronicles and Salvatore's last Forgotten Realms novel. Some years, the novel output rivaled the RPG output during TSR's more active phase. I've read most of them. Some of them were TERRIBLE. Many were mediocre, but also fun and pulpy. Some of them were pretty good, and some were PHENOMENAL. More than a few have hit the NYT bestsellers list, are considered classics today, and launched the careers of several authors who continue to write, sell novels, and engage fans with quality storytelling. This track record of D&D novels mirrors ALL OTHER FANTASY AND SCI-FI I'VE EVER READ, from all publishers, all authors, and all genres. Art in general, especially novels, have a mix of terrible, okay, and superb stories. And, of course, which is which is subjective and different for different fans. The D&D novels over the years were no worse and no better than everything else on the shelves. The idea that somehow the entire line was substandard and crap is lazy and uninformed thinking at best.

Rant over. Whew!

 

[Morrus]

Calm down, man!

 

[Dire Bare]

Ah, you're right! Sorry, both to Morrus and Valetudo. I let my buttons get pushed.

 

[Valetudo]

Look, I never said every book they did was a piece of crap. I think ther where a few books that really stood out for their time. The OG dragonlance, the crystal shard, heck the finder stone books where some of my personal favorites. But there was alot of trash along with them. Especially the later dragonlance and most of RAs later books. Too many drow fan fiction got published and connecting novels with the table top game never helped. So relax homie.

 

[DM Howard]

Look, I never said every book they did was a piece of crap. I think ther where a few books that really stood out for their time. The OG dragonlance, the crystal shard, heck the finder stone books where some of my personal favorites. But there was alot of trash along with them. Especially the later dragonlance and most of RAs later books. Too many drow fan fiction got published and connecting novels with the table top game never helped. So relax homie.

I can understand where you're coming from, but your reply would have been better served with the above extemperation than the one-liner you started with as, due to the medium, tends to come across as snarky and contributing little to the conversation.

I think the majority of D&D novels were at least at the "I'm not upset I bought this" level, But I can't really same for other franchise novel lines.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I recall hearing news they were not done with them and had plans. And it was on the website. I can't remember when however. (Though it was after Hero)

 

[Zardnaar]

Novel lines went to crap a few years back. They blew up the Realms and Dragonlance ran outta steam in the mid 90's.

After that you don't have a lot to hang a novel line on.