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I know it's just a mock-up (I mean, I hope to God WotC isn't recycling art for arguably one of the most important books coming out in 2008), but why was I not at all surprised to find this cover on the new campaign setting?
The real cover has 9 naked tieflings dancing around a fire, while Elminsters smokes his pipe in a hot spring with seven silver haired sisters enjoying Mountain Dew in wine goblets...
Drow sell. Drow have always sold. I'm stunned they aren't making them a core player race, although Teiflings are the new Drow, or so I'm told.
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So I clicked on that link. That awful link. Forgotten Realms is one of my favorite settings to play in and yes Drizzt is their big cash cow--but there is so much more to Forgotten Realms than a "good" drow, which is relatively rare and hokey as crazy.
With all the changes going on. Mages are going crazy. Mystra is dead. Everything's going haywire. What does some elf with two swords have to do with any of that?
Even something from Year of Rogue Dragons, the last book series, which was really great, would be better than this. I mean at least that guy, Richard Lee Byers, cares enough about Forgotten Realms to work with what's there. He does his research. He doesn't just create stuff he thinks is cool ex nihilo and blob it onto the map like "that other guy".
I don't like Salvatore. He's their best selling author, but he doesn't seem to have any real respect for Faerun.
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I don't like salvatore's books either, but I think he isn't to blame for the recent drow hysteria we've seen. Sure, he made them popular and many of his idea were really cool ones I have to admit. I think he really overdid the theme, but the fact that drow are nearly everywhere has to be blamed at the marketing guys at WotC.
It is not Salvatore's fault, that they don't have the guts to advertise the diversity of the setting and take the "safe route" instead and plaster their covers with drow.
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Add me to the "not a fan of Salvatore's books" list. And I absolutely hate Drizz't. He is so *not* the Realms that it doesn't surprise me that he's on the cover. They are, after all, selling out all of the credibility of the setting for 4e, so why not go all the way?
I wonder what the "full-color poster map" will look like... Probably rearranged some more stuff so they could fit in their new logo and a nice compass. Didn't need the Sword Coast anyway...
grumble.
... and yes Drizzt is their big cash cow
Can anyone photoshop some cow utters onto the picture of Drizzt, please?
Question: Does anyone know how they're planning on doing Red Wizards of Thay without schools of magic? Or are there not going to be any red wizards anymore?
I wonder what the "full-color poster map" will look like...
Well you see, it's less what you'd call a map.
More sortova' centerfold. A big one.
Of Drizzt.
See, now doncha' wanna' buy it?
Hey, Drizzt=$$$. That's all ya need to know. When something goes big time
it's cool to say you don't like it, or uncool to agree with the crowd; but I like Drizzt. I thought he was cool 20 years ago and I still think he's cool. That said, I really prefer the original Easley cover art from the Dark E trilo (even though the weapons depicted in those are actually falchions, not scimitars). Is this new one Lockwood? I personally don't care for his style.
It is nice to see a book cover with a strong, iconic male hero and no rippling bare flesh or bouncing cleavage.
It is unfortunate that hero is Drizzt.
I thought the 3.0 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Hardcover was beautiful and classy. The burnt looking, ancient brass and terra cotta looking textures really gave the feel that inside this book there is HISTORY.
Now: A picture of Drizzt. Not classy. F*ckin nerdy.
Drizzt is on the cover because he's just about the only recognizable FR character who's still alive.
What does some elf with two swords have to do with any of that?
Ah but you forgot. They are really shiny swords.
And look he looks over his shoulder waiting for everyone else to catch up to him and 4E.
The silly smurf view:
'Ash Drizzt durbatulûk, ash Drizzt gimbatul, ash Drizzt thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul'.
Aieee! It reads like it was actually ever intended to scan that way! The OP is correct. A party must be mustered at once in the elven haven of Evereska to carry the One Drow to the land of shadows, where the One Drow must be cast into the fires of doom where alone he can be unmade!
On the way hazards will threaten, such as the treacherous foremost wizardly champion of good in the land (AKA Elminster) who has turned traitor and must be put down, along with the... err... 'seven' silver-haired riders, who serve the will of The Dark Lord, and who can only be forever destroyed when he is.
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Question: Does anyone know how they're planning on doing Red Wizards of Thay without schools of magic? Or are there not going to be any red wizards anymore?
I THINK I remember reading that Thay (or at least the Red Wizards) is one of the casualties of the Spellplague/merging worlds. I don't remember where I got that information though...
Far more interesting to me is that, if that cover is in fact more than just a mock-up, the FR campaign book is using D&D 4E trade dress rather than having its own distinctive look. If true -- again, it's hard to say for sure at this point -- that gives some credence to what I've been saying all along: 4E is as much about strengthening the D&D brand as it is about producing a better game mechanically. By this I mean that I think WotC is trying with 4E to make D&D the cart that pulls the horse rather than, say, the Realms or Eberron. They want to turn people into D&D fans rather than Realms fans and many of the changes we're seeing, including the rape of the Forgotten Realms setting, is at least partially calculated to strengthen the core D&D as a brand over and above everything else.
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I have always like Drizzt and R.A.'s books but I don't think he should be on the cover of the C.S. I think some thing noniconic would be better because I hate Elimester.
I don't really get where the hatred for Drizzt came from but I think because all the R.A. Salvitore books did so well Drizzt was the 'face' of FR and people got tired of seeing him.
Everyone always says that the good drow is supposed to be rare and as far as I know Drizzt is the only one which makes it rare.
I don't know but I tried reading several of the other FR novels and I don't think they are as good as R.A. Salvitore's so I don't know much about the rest of FR's.
Its definitly a mock up cover. Like the OP said its recycled art.
This particular painting of Drizzt was on boxes of D&D Miniatures. The Archfiends set that came out in 2004 to be exact.
I have always like Drizzt and R.A.'s books but I don't think he should be on the cover of the C.S. I think some thing noniconic would be better because I hate Elimester.
I don't really get where the hatred for Drizzt came from but I think because all the R.A. Salvitore books did so well Drizzt was the 'face' of FR and people got tired of seeing him.
Everyone always says that the good drow is supposed to be rare and as far as I know Drizzt is the only one which makes it rare.
I don't know but I tried reading several of the other FR novels and I don't think they are as good as R.A. Salvitore's so I don't know much about the rest of FR's.
I think it's not so much a hatred of Drizzt, I like Drizzt, I think he's cool. I think it's more a dislike of turning Forgotten Realms into Drizzt's Realms. There is SO much history and so much magic in the Realms, so many interesting places, interesting people, beautiful landscapes, evil and good organizations, that to embody all of it in Drizzt is to do a great disservice to what the Realms is meant to be: a place of deep history, beauty, and danger.
Question: Does anyone know how they're planning on doing Red Wizards of Thay without schools of magic? Or are there not going to be any red wizards anymore?
Not a complete answer, but (Spoilers for the Haunted Lands Trilogy):
(Spoilers for the Orc King)
I thought the 3.0 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Hardcover was beautiful and classy. The burnt looking, ancient brass and terra cotta looking textures really gave the feel that inside this book there is HISTORY.
Now: A picture of Drizzt. Not classy. F*ckin nerdy.
I loved the 3e Realms cover theme. Now it's just like other D&D stuff. Which fits, because everything that makes the Realms unique is being killed off.
Question: Does anyone know how they're planning on doing Red Wizards of Thay without schools of magic? Or are there not going to be any red wizards anymore?
The FR Story, Episode 405: Mystra is killed, all Thayans go insane. Everyone Dies. The End.