The Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

[Darth Richard II]

20 minutes ago, Werthead said:

WotC brought back RA Salvatore to write more Drizzt books, and Weis & Hickman are the only authors who can match him on sales, so it's not impossible they'll also do some kind of relaunch of Dragonlance, likely to coincide with the addition of the setting to the 5E game. That won't happen for another year or two though, as Eberron is their focus for now and then they'll shift back to more Forgotten Realms stuff to tie in with the release of Baldur's Gate III next year.

But yeah as far as I know Salvatore is the only writer they have now, unless I'm missing releases in the store somehow. I think even Greenwood told them to fuck off.

[Rhom]

Didn’t TSR/WotC go so far as to have another author write a full Drizzt book when they got into some sort of contractual/creative dispute with Salvatore?

[Darth Richard II]

13 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Didn’t TSR/WotC go so far as to have another author write a full Drizzt book when they got into some sort of contractual/creative dispute with Salvatore?

Yeah that was way way back though, I think, early mid 90s.

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

But yeah as far as I know Salvatore is the only writer they have now, unless I'm missing releases in the store somehow. I think even Greenwood told them to fuck off.

Huh? No, Salvatore is the only author that WotC wanted releasing new books. The rest of the regular Realms writing crew were basically told their services were no longer required, even Greenwood who was happy to continue writing novels for them (particularly since they'd decided to un-fuck the Realms in 5th Edition and get it back more towards its old incarnation) and was the second-biggest-selling author in the setting.

It's all a bit weird because Realms novels were selling quite well right up through the non-Salvatore authors being told to wind down, which was around 2013-14. They weren't selling at their 1990s heyday, when every single Realms novel had guaranteed first-year sales of ~350,000 (each), but at a very satisfying and profitable amount. It's unclear why WotC decided to wind down the line when it was still quite successful.

 

Quote

 

Didn’t TSR/WotC go so far as to have another author write a full Drizzt book when they got into some sort of contractual/creative dispute with Salvatore?

 

 

That was TSR in 1994, nothing to do with the current situation.

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah, I'm a bit rambly today. I guess the thing I don;t get is WHY they decided to have all the authors wind down. But that may have been during all that 4th edition nonsense which I understand had some weird behind the scenes stuff going on. (Maybe, I'm rambling again)

[IlyaP]

3 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Blowing it up almost literally

You're referring to the Spellplague? 

[Darth Richard II]

19 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

You're referring to the Spellplague? 

Yeah, didn't a giant continent fall into the middle of the ocean or something? It's been a while.

[IlyaP]

5 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Yeah, didn't a giant continent fall into the middle of the ocean or something?

From the Forgotten Realms wiki:

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The Spellplague manifested in Toril as a storm of blue flames in the Mhair Jungles, west of Halruaa, and quickly grew to a massive size. Halruaan wizards, having divined the death of Mystra and the destruction of the Weave, were able to use the energy of the blue fire to save most of their kingdom by shifting it into another world, Abeir. However, the remaining Halruaan lands in Toril were laid to waste due to the heavy wild magic activity in the area, in such a catastrophic way that the explosion was felt as far as Waterdeep. Sespech, the Golden Plains, and the Nagalands were also affected, and those lands were transformed into an unpredictable and surreal place, dubbed the Plaguewrought Lands.

The blue flames also infected portals and planar gates, spreading even further across Toril. Almost every part of Faerûn was affected by the Spellplague and certain areas were eliminated entirely, while others were created anew. Thousands of spellcasters were either destroyed or went insane due to the collapse of the Weave after Mystra's death. In Cormyr, a third of the War Wizards were either killed or driven mad. Those who survived lost their ability to use arcane magic. Other continents, such as Kara-Tur and Osse, were affected by the Spellplague as well.

It was through the planar gates that the Spellplague traveled across time and space, and reached the world of Abeir. In that world, the Spellplague first appeared in Gontal, the southwestern region of the continent of Laerakond, where it made contact with ancient Glaur, the fortress of the Primordial Nehushta. The fortress detonated when the "Blue Breath of Change" ran through it, in an explosion as potent as the Tearfall, rocking the entire planet of Abeir and creating the Glaur Barrens where the old fortress once stood. Laerakond was torn apart in a powerful earthquake, and a portion of the nation of Skelkor, where the capital of the dragonborn nation of Tymanchebar was located, was torn asunder and disappeared amid the blue fire.

That region, where the city-citadel of Djerad Thymar was located, crashed on Unther, still enveloped in the blue flames. Many believed the Untherites and the Mulhorandi occupation forces were obliterated in the explosion that leveled and reshaped the whole region except for the Black Ash Plain, but actually Unther was instead transported to the world of Abeir. However, it was transported to the lands of Shyr, the equivalent continent to Faerûn in Abeir.

The rest of Laerakond was sent to the Trackless Sea, were it subsumed the lands of Maztica. Maztica was transported to Abeir, and Laerakond, which became known as 'Returned Abeir', remained on Toril.

 

[C.T. Phipps]

The timelines are a bit confused here.

TSR caused the 4th Age of Dragonlance that Weis and Hickman destroyed.

WOTC tried to get them back and licensed the setting out to Weis. She actually did a campaign setting with the post-War of Souls era.

Hasbro then got rid of everything but the initial book sales.

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, C.T. Phipps said:

The timelines are a bit confused here.

TSR caused the 4th Age of Dragonlance that Weis and Hickman destroyed.

WOTC tried to get them back and licensed the setting out to Weis. She actually did a campaign setting with the post-War of Souls era.

Hasbro then got rid of everything but the initial book sales.

Yeah, the setting was not best-treated over the years. Fifth Age was a debacle back in 1996 (and one of the investments that helped drive TSR under) and then the Butcher/4th Edition debacle took place around 2009-10.