The R. A. Salvatore Thread

[Derfel Cadarn]

Some fans just take things too far. Malcolm McDowall got death threats after his character was responsible for killing Captain Kirk in Star Trek: Generations. I wonder if GRRM got any death threats for the Red Wedding?

[PhelanArcetus]

Except a lot of homebrew settings are shockingly bad. My friend uses one in his campaigns which doesn't make any kind of logical sense. Recently he abandoned D&D and started using his own rules as well. Mysteriously our characters' ability to affect the world was drastically reduced and we found ourselves ramroaded down a very linear path. Let's just say I avoid gaming with him now for the sake of our continued friendship. Also, no PC can no more about the setting than the DM. If the DM chooses to use FR and a player sits up and starts going on about some book or campaign guide the DM's never read, the DM just states that it isn't canon. The other problem only arises if the entire world is about to be destroyed or something (which shouldn't happen every adventure). Otherwise most big threats the PCs have to deal with would be beneath the notice of most powerful NPCs.

Well, as said upthread, a bad homebrew is likely a sign of a bad DM. When I start designing a world, every time I come up with one thing, I step back and say "ok, what other facts progress logically from that?" Sometimes I feel like FR wasn't created like that. You, it seems, ended up in a campaign where you were railroaded, and possibly where everything major had to be accomplished by the DM's pet NPCs. It happens, unfortunately.

A lot of DMs, unfortunately, lack the capability to put their foot down and say "I don't care that you have every single FR novel and sourcebook dating from the dawn of time memorized and can quote them, verbatim, with page numbers, you don't get to overrule me on this." Since it's about the campaign setting rather than the rules, it's more of a "Of course there's a powerful wizard in town, this is Silverymoon!" or "What are you talking about, Elminster wouldn't do that!" from players. Or knowing the exact stat blocks of the canonical NPCs, though those players probably know the exact stat blocks of everything in the Monster Manual as well.

The last campaign I was in was a homebrew based on 1230's Russia and Norse mythology. It worked out very well. The DM is currently at work on a 20-years later evil campaign. My only regret is that, given how the last campaign ended, we'll never meet (and be owned by) my character. We might have to face any of the other old party members, but mine essentially no longer exists.

The setting I'm working on is a low-magic one where magic is basically limited to a couple of rituals and some bloodlines. When last I fiddled with it, I was trying to select a culture to base the clans who have those magical bloodlines off of.

[Galactus]

A good thing about an "official" world, is that it is useful when the DM and/or players don't know each other very well.

I play online (with a bunch of people I met on the EU2 boards of all places) and the FR is a good "starting point" as most people are *reasonably* familiar with it. Among the "standard worlds" it also has the most detail while not requiring a special kind of game (like Ravenloft or Planescape, who, more or less, shoehorns you into certain ideas)

Oh yeah, and maybe we should start a D&D thread in the Entertainment section, so as to not keep hijacking literature threads?

[Bazzlebane]

But is R.A. Salvatore really literature to begin with?

In any case, that's not a problem for me -- I play in person with a handful of folks. The "newest" member of the group has been around 4 years. The group started over 10 years ago.

[Ashara]

In my view, Salvatore put out two bearable books every series he tried. Homeland and Exile were nice, but Sojourn dreadful. Icewind Dale Trilogy was brighter in the first and parts of the second book, but afterwards, the "Drow (or substitute) must kill Drizzt" plotlines just repeated ad nauseum and made all the rest of the Drizzt books I managed (up to Legacy, or Passage to Dawn, I think) an endless repetition of the "dance of death", "doomed creatures that did not yet know that they were doomed", "lavander flames leaping" and Cheesy Cattie that beats even Jordan's women. In the Cleric Quintet, I did not mind the books 2 and 4. In Crimson Shadow - books 1 and 2.... But yeah, ever since starting on Martin I could not imagine myself reading Salvatore again.

[Ser Doctor]

Salvator is always describing his main protaganist Drizzt as a 'Handsome man, with thick hair'.

Does this mean that R.A Salvator himself is a Ugly man with a comb over?

[Feral Bonsai]

Salvator is always describing his main protaganist Drizzt as a 'Handsome man, with thick hair'.

Does this mean that R.A Salvator himself is a Ugly man with a comb over?

I am not sure, but when I googled him, the first picture that was returned was this

[Stego]

Bob Salvatore (with an 'E') has a lot of hair. I share no opinion over his looks.

[niamh]

I'll share a female opinion then

He looks good enough and young enough

Bonsai, that isn't him .... his name is Salvatore, not Salvator

[Feral Bonsai]

I'll share a female opinion then

He looks good enough and young enough

Bonsai, that isn't him .... his name is Salvatore, not Salvator

I know. That is Norm Abram from The New Yankee Workshop.

I thought it was funny anyway

edited for link

[Nous]

Here's Salvatore.

[Sir Thursday]

Here's Salvatore.

The Name of the Rose all the way!

Sir Thursday

[valyriansword4sale]

Is it true that you actually READ his output?

[Maid Sansa]

Drizzt is a Mary Sue - or a Gary Stu, more accurately - of the highest order. As such, he should posess at least some attributes of manprettiness. Not necessary a wish-fulfillment.

[Werthead]

Wouldn't Drizzt be annoyed at being called 'a handsome man'? Surely, 'handsome redeemed drow', would be better?

Although Salvatore lost the plot a bit (particulalry with Passage to Dawn and later books), the original books still stand up well as YA fantasy. The Crystal Shard would make a reasonably entertaining D&D film. Certainly far better than the two abominations that actually got made.

[Galactus]

*nod* It's not *good* by any means, but the earlier Drizzt book are by no means bad either. Simple and rather fun.

At some point he got lost in the warriorly introspection though.

[Astra]

Greetings.

Anyone who has read R.A. Salvatore books that featire Drizzt could help me please? They idea behind my question is not to find all the books Salvatore has written about Drizzt but make a chronological list so I know what to read first, then second and so on.

Thank you in advance.

[Myrddin]

If no one has the answer here, I know RAS has his own forums where such a list is probably already there.

[Be'lal]

You should read Homeland first, then Sojurn and Exile. After that, I think the Icewind Dale Trilogy is next, but don't quote me on that.

I thought the first trilogy was the best, which is actually a good thing.

[KatieG]

It's best to read them in the order they were published and not in the strict chronological order. The first published trilogy begins with The Crystal Shard, the second and third are Streams of Silver and The Halfling's Gem. The second published trilogy happens before the first, but I feel it reads better after you've read the first. That contains Homeland, Exile and Sojurn. After those, frankly, I read some of the ones after, but they start becoming ridiculous. But if you want to keep reading, you can easily find the rest here:

http://www.o-love.net/realms/fr_books_date.html

Just look for anything by Salvatore that is not the Cleric Quintet, they're listed in the backwards order of publication. If you click on the link in the title, they group them by series also. There's also a spinoff series involving a couple of the popular minor characters from the series as well.

In my opinion, these 6 books are good for that particular genre (what I'd call roleplaying fiction). The rest of the Drizzt books I find rather blah because the main character, Drizzt is, frankly, too powerful (as in too good a swordsman so you never really fear for him in a swordfight), too angsty you want to smack him and there's no dramatic tension. Unlike Martin, killing off characters just doesn't happen much, so you never end up afraid for any of the characters (if you can even get into most of them).