Would you buy FR novels if the game world didn't exist?

[Phaeryx]

1) I don't like FR, so this is moot. I am, however, forced to play in the FR setting.
2) Introduced via game.
3) No way.
4) No way.

The bigger this setting gets, the longer it's history becomes, the worse it gets. I wish it would just go away. I should qulaify that: I hate all of the official published settings, not just FR.

 

[an_idol_mind]

1) Very much the game side. I would prefer it if the big Realms-shaking events occurred in modules rather than stories, too.

2) An old TSR catalog that I had. I was intrigued by the descriptions of the modules and novels alike. The first FR product I purchased, though, was an adventure module.

4) I doubt I would have picked up the novels without the game. I used the novels to supplement my campaign. And, considering that they tend to be mediocre at best, I don't buy them now that I no longer run the Realms.

 

[BadMojo]

I am, however, forced to play in the FR setting.

That sounds horrible. Do you want us to send help or something?

 

[CruelSummerLord]

I won't disagree about Greenwood. He's a great world builder but the fiction I've read from him has been, well, no so good.

Don't know about Grubb.

I think you're doing a disservice to Elaine Cunningham by including her in that list. She's written some nuanced characters and hasn't done anything close to a "Mary Sue" character in any of her books. Paul Kemp is another Realms author who has done great stuff that seems to get ignored because it's "gaming fiction".

Part of the problem for me with Cunningham is that she created Liriel Baenre, an uber-powerful mage in a setting where being a 16th level wizard means almost nothing. I can tolerate Drizzt because of the shades of grey he puts in the setting, and makes the Realms look grayer than Grubb or Greenwood do, but I am otherwise so thoroughly sick of drow that I went out of my way to have my Greyhawk drow actually be inherently evil, with a good drow being a literal freak of nature, an abomination. Greyhawk's drow don't just readily admit to being evil, they take pride in it.

As for Danilo Thann and Arilyn Moonblade, I read one novel with them as the stars-can't remember which-and wasn't impressed. Having Khelben Blackstaff, yet another in FR's endless parade of wizards whose power would put Gandalf or Merlin to shame, doesn't help.

YMMV.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

I like reading novels set in FR, but I hate playing games set there. They always seem kind of stale, and wind up being a huge power struggle with a deus ex machina ending.

Iron Heroes Spelljammer or Iron Heroes Eberron, says I

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I think that the only truly good author of FR novels is Salvatore...

I prefer Cunningham and truth be told, i might not be playing in the setting without the books. The novels actually add a lot of panache to what otherwise would be rather standard setting.

 

[Lalato]

What about folks like me that have been around since before FR first came out, but have never read an FR novel and never bought an FR RPG book. I don't have anything against FR, it just never jumped out at me as something I had to own. Why start now?

--sam

 

[the Jester]

1) If you like FR, do you like the novel or game side more?
2) Was your first introduction to FR via the game, the novels, or otherwise (video games for example)?
3) If you came to the game because of the novels, could you see yourself having come to the game had the novels not existed?
4) If you came to the novels because of the game, could you see yourself picking up the novels had there been no game?

1. I am no longer a fan, but really enjoyed the early Greenwood FR stuff in Dragon and so forth.

2. Dragon Magazine. Then the original boxed set, then... more and more gaming stuff. I have only read, hmm, two? FR novels. As is almost always the case with gaming novels, I found them to be, well, pretty bad. (There are a few exceptions- the first two DL trilogies, and the Warhammer books about Felix Jaeger and his dwarven pal Gotrek.)

4. No. I found them to be awful, and nothing about their title or cover or anything relally stood out to me other than the fact that they were FR novels.

 

[Teflon Billy]

1) If you like FR, do you like the novel or game side more?

I guess the game-related stuff, but that's only because on the whole the FR novels are so bad. About the nicest thing I can say about the setting is that it is very complete.

2) Was your first introduction to FR via the game, the novels, or otherwise (video games for example)?

The game. I had a roommate who smoked and when he was out of smokes and money he'd start trying to sell me his D&D stuff. It went really chea after awhile.

That's where i got all my FR stuff for 2E during 2E's heyday.

4) If you came to the novels because of the game, could you see yourself picking up the novels had there been no game?

Probably not. They just aren't very good on the whole.

Paul Kemp's work is the exception. I think his books about Erevis Cale are pretty good...which puts them miles past most FR novels in terms of quality.

I mean come on...Streams of Silver? Excrement.

 

[KingCrab]

1) If you like FR, do you like the novel or game side more?

I like the setting as a campaign setting more.

2) Was your first introduction to FR via the game, the novels, or otherwise (video games for example)?

I think I played Curse of the Azure Bonds on my Commodore 128 as my intro to the realms. That was around the time I read the crystal shard, so I'm not entirely certain. Otherwise and Novels is my answer, I guess.

3) If you came to the game because of the novels, could you see yourself having come to the game had the novels not existed?

Yes.

At a certain point I really fell for the pantheon (though this was before the days of Cyric, Kelemvor, and Midnight as Mystra so it was excusable.) That was what I liked best, and is still something I enjoy about the Realms.