quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

We're in the intro. Greg leeds kicking it off. Great pictures of. Gygax and Arneson

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Piratecat is the MC.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Panel of ed, mike mearls and art director(missed his name)

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Mike gave a great bit on accomodating all play styles, giving the game back to the folks around the table.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

John, art director, is talking about the new style, using owlbears as an example, drawing on all eras.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Depth of untapped lore is grat. Grand tapestry of the realms. We're going to unleash it. Coordinating visual, writing in a way thats never been donedone before.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Releasing backlist online. All productts ever produced.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Ed is telling story of everyone telling stories.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Gods and chosen and war and common folk in sundering books.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Video of the creative process meeting last fall.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Drizzt, elminster, freida tiefling warlock, half shade, embittered paladin of helm, turmishan pirate ...

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Another Rse? (Piratecat)

Mike: novels will focus characters as individuals ... after rse of sundering ... ending era of upheaval ... focus shift to pcs ...

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Next year two adventures ... ed and bob ... will solicit input ...most common outcome will become canon ...

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Need more players for playtest ...

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Two year process on playtest ....

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Will support lots of spellcasting traditions in dnd next ....

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

The James brothers have arrived at the Candlkeep seminar

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quote:

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Originally posted by George Krashos

I know they have the fullest intention of making the Realms live again. In the chat I had with WotC two weeks ago, I pointed out to them that in my view, one of the reasons 4E was unsuccesful was a lack of product support and follow-up. I saw James Wyatt scribbling furiously as I pontificated.

It's all going to start with the 5E Campaign Setting book. If it's a 300 page behemoth in mouse print with a ton of places, people and realmslore giving people information overload and players and DMs lots of campaign ideas and options, then I think the Realms will live again.

IMO D&D has moved on from the days of a graph pad, dice and a cardboard screen. People don't have the time/inclination to create their own homebrew world from scratch. They want a big, shiny new car where their choices are what window tint, colour and floor mats to buy. The car is "as is". Where the 4E Realms failed was that it gave you three boxes full of car parts and asked you to build it yourself. Most people passed.

This time, if I have anything to do with it - and I'll do it for nothing - I'm planning on building a car. One that's going to make people go "Wow! I want one!".

-- George Krashos

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

All I want to say is the design of the realms now goes through Ed......what more,could we all ask for? I,can know go home knowing the Realms have not seen their best days, and I am happy.

I will keep the other changes to others who can explain best.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Faraer

One positive thing was Mike Mearls's 'I've seen a lot of things done with, or done to, the Forgotten Realms that I haven't necessarily been thrilled with.' Wizards has rarely spoken of the Realms as something in its own right to which things are done, rather than equating it to whatever they chance to publish.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

Ed is here edjucating us all.....

The sundering is the moving apart of the two worlds......wow....endless possibilities.

And AO is back.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Quote #1: "I come from a small town where no one played DND ..."

Designer who shall remain nameless: "That's because we'd run out of virgins AND candles ..."

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer

LINK to some video of the address twitch.tv.com.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by The Sage

I very much like what I'm hearing so far. I'm definitely keen on learning more about the Sundering -- whether it's an RSE or not really doesn't matter to me. I just want to see what comes after it as a result of it's impact on the 5e Realms.

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It's my understanding that , yes the two worlds that collided are being separated.

And it's going to be a huge RSE, which will address the spellplague, missing gods , etc etc.....with the intent of faerun being a place for the gm/em/ Players to do the heavy lifting and the novels to tell small in scope, character driven stories.

So one last RSE to set the table (set things right or whatever metaphor you are comfortable with)

Maybe I will recall more after I get 4 hours sleep until I get up for work!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Erik Scott de Bie

Official news:

No retcons, no reboots.

Gods are coming back.

The worlds are coming apart again.

The Spellplague is being solved.

Lore support for multiple eras is on the table.

Questions?

Cheers

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by Alystra Illianniis

Can you hint which gods? REALLY interested in this- for obvious reasons.... And is that what they mean by the Sundering?

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Only ones mentioned by name are the ones we kinda know already, Mystra and Helm.

Ed said they are just at the beginning of this, like a meeting yesterday (and more this week)hammering out not only the Sundering, but what comes next.

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

Sourcebooks and adventures - edition and time neutral

You can run your game in 1480 or back in the crown wars, all new stuff won't pigeonhole you into a tight spot.

Also maybe, most likely authors will be able to write a novel set in any time. It was mentioned that they realized certain authors would most likey not return to the realms unless they could use there characters.......who are now long dead. So it's possible (they did not It say it would happen, just possible) to see a new Alias novel by Jeff Grubb or Jim Lowder could pick up right after The Ring of Winter.......the novel possibilities are wide open. Even prequels are possible

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

I, personally, am reserving judgement until I have more information. Right now, I feel like I've got less than what you'd get from a movie trailer.

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Listening to Ed, it's really more like we are being allowed to "sit in" on the conversations that decide what goes into the trailer.

Ed stressed how early into this they are, he said they are just beginning and in fact a meeting earlier at GenCon more decisions were discussed, but in no way is the whole outline done.

And for those worried about the 2 year wait. I cant blame you, but here is why we were told it was going down like that...in my own words of course..

They do not want to make a huge mistake with this They want the rules easy and fluid. Not holding you back in anyway. I took the impression that there will be books and adventures coming before the rules, because all new things are striving to be time/edition neutral.

Just to restate....we we told that Realms design now goes through Ed....myself, thats all I ever wanted and could hope for.
If this hold to form I can wait 2 years...hell I can wait 5. 2 years seems excessive, but the novels from 10-15 years ago still feel so close, 2 years is nothing.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by Bakra

My thanks to Red Walker & Eric for providing information from the Candlekeep Seminar. If you two ever make it to the dallas/Ft Worth area I'll buy you a beer or a cowboy hat.

My only question, will someone make a transcript?

Also, Godborn appears to be the first novel in the Sundering storyline and WotC hasn’t pushed back its release date…yet.

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Bob Salvatore Will lead with the first novel. Why? Well Ed said because when the Sundering was brought up to Bob...he said something to the effect of ....Great..I'm writing the first book and here's who's in it and here is where it is taking place. Basically Bob's work is always character driven and if that the new direction, who better to got first?

Then Ed is last, batting clean up as he said, so he can make everything the first five books did work.

Paul was there and confirmed The Godborn will be moved back to fall 2013,


Also I believe Ed stated Bob was going to write two realms products per year....did I hear that right?

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:

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Originally posted by Elsenrail

2 years more of playtesting? Frankly, I'm only interested in the novels and the lorebooks for 5th ed FR, but 2 years time is a bit excessive... I was pretty sure that the 5th edition will be released next summer.

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I don't care how long the ruleset takes; I'm simply not interested in that. I do hope, however, that we can get some edition-neutral Realmslore a lot sooner than 2 years.

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Oh yes, they said that stuff would start coming before the rules.

In fact the just released Menzoberrazan sourcebook is fairly edition neutral and is all or just about 100% all fluff. I'm sure Brian can explain that much better than I though.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

Ans the way I understood it was all future sourcebooks will have minimal to zero "crunch" and be as close to if not 100% "fluff" as possible

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

James just gave a rich, historical account of 32000 years of faerunian lore.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer

Eric, which event/seminar are you at now?

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What is the sundering?

Erin and paul have talked about how they realized that stories they wanted to tell became better through brainstorming on Sundering.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Richard just talked about a new character and the realms feel coming back.


Troy just talked about a fallen paladin and forbidden love.

Ed is talking about elminster ... wants to die but needs a successor ... how does affect him and storm

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

Ans the way I understood it was all future sourcebooks will have minimal to zero "crunch" and be as close to if not 100% "fluff" as possible

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Oh, that would be wonderful!

I'm not opposed to having mechanics in a sourcebook, but I preferred the way 2E handled it: mostly lore, with a separate appendix for nastybad critters, magical toys, and spells. And the minimal statblocks, of course.

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I wish I could remember who Ed said wanted to do it, but there was talk of a monster book. Not just pics and stats, full ecology on each. Big enough and detailed so itprobably won't fit into one book.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by Faraer

quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

Sourcebooks and adventures - edition and time neutral
. . .
Also maybe, most likely authors will be able to write a novel set in any time.

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Both excellent news.

quote:

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Originally posted by Erik Scott de Bie
Lore support for multiple eras is on the table.

Questions?

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What can we do to help ensure it's an actuality?

quote:

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This I can answer in part. Keep doing what your doing now, just do more. wotc has two persons whose jobs entail of monitoring forums like this. And we were told definately they read everything going on here at the keep as well as their boards and others. They hear what we are saying and they are listening.

A generic tip not pointed at anyone. Feel free to post your true feelings, questions and concerns....just keep it civil. Myself I suggest we start a scroll begging wotc to ask Elaine to finish Reclamation if it is at all in her to do so

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

This I can answer in part. Keep doing what your doing now, just do more. wotc has two persons whose jobs entail of monitoring forums like this. And we were told definately they read everything going on here at the keep as well as their boards and others. They hear what we are saying and they are listening.

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Really? I am surprised by this news... I knew they were aware of us, but I had no idea they actually checked out the commentary here.

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You can believe it my furry little friend, we do matter.

Now to try and prove it I'm going to try and paraphrase what Ed said about this very thing, dangerous for me since I showed up after work, didn't leave too til after 12:30am...and then drove home, slept 4 hours and have worked all day!

Ed said wotc knew they had three masters to consider when making this move and number 1 was taking care of the large base of long time fans/customers and making us happy....and darn if I can remember the last two! I'm sure one of my friends on attendance can pick me up and finish my partial memory

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by The Sage

quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

This I can answer in part. Keep doing what your doing now, just do more. wotc has two persons whose jobs entail of monitoring forums like this. And we were told definately they read everything going on here at the keep as well as their boards and others. They hear what we are saying and they are listening.

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Really? I am surprised by this news... I knew they were aware of us, but I had no idea they actually checked out the commentary here.

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You can believe it my furry little friend, we do matter.

Now to try and prove it I'm going to try and paraphrase what Ed said about this very thing, dangerous for me since I showed up after work, didn't leave too til after 12:30am...and then drove home, slept 4 hours and have worked all day!

Ed said wotc knew they had three masters to consider when making this move and number 1 was taking care of the large base of long time fans/customers and making us happy....and darn if I can remember the last two! I'm sure one of my friends on attendance can pick me up and finish my partial memory

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I'm particularly interested in learning more about this.

While I've always suspected that Wizards' has had one of it's special little eyes on us [given the regular presence of such Realms luminaries like Ed and such], I'd like to know how they feel about Candlekeep, generally.

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Something else that should interest you. When the discussion about The website that is going to be rolled out is going to have everything about the realms ever published available in PDF form....Ed brought up a product he had write with the expectation of 96 pages.he was asked to cut I down to 32 pages of which one was an ad. (i really wish i had taken notes, Haunted Halls of Eveningstar I think it was) Ed asked if we would have interest if something like that was made available in it original form. Of course almost every hand shot up. Ed was then asked by " a decision maker" if he would rather make available a restored "directors cut" or a re-imagined version. I believe Ed thought a re-imagining would be much fun to do.

So truly, every option is on the table.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

There have also been discussions (nothing decided yet) about the possibily of adopting more open licensing position, which would allow better and easier workings with third party entities. Many reasons for considering such a thing, including the lack of a really great Realms video game since Baldurs Gate 2.

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by Eilserus

They need to get behind the folks working on the remastered original Baldur's Gate series and fund them to roll out BG3. Those peeps did an amazing job with both original games and their expansions. BioWares first Neverwinter Nights was really good too.

A director's cut of Ed's Haunted Halls would be damn sexy. And why stop there, I bet there's more products and things Ed could do the same with! PDF profit margins are so high they can most likely get away with including extra page counts in them. I do like PDF's, but maybe they can look into doing print on demand or some such for certain things. Certain classics I'd buy in book format. The beauty of them being open to Ed packing in the word count for products means we might see a fire hydrant of lore, buried for years or not used yet due to page count restrictions, unleashed upon us. Oh man, now that prospect gets me excited.

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We were told the games are more than a remastering. They are including new content, It was said last week new voice work was recorded, including a t least one new character. The game experience will be a new one from what you got out of the original.

Also if they sell well, a part three would surely happen

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quote:

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Originally posted by Erik Scott de Bie

I will make an attempt to articulate what was discussed during the 4.5 hour panel. Probably I won't get this done from the con. Other than spotty sleep, I literally have not stopped since early Wednesday morning.

Cheers

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quote:

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Originally posted by The Red Walker

quote:

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Originally posted by GX.Sigma

[quote]Originally posted by The Sage

everything about the realms ever published available in PDF form

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Did they [i]specifically say PDF? In the keynote, they just said "electronic format," which could mean anything.

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I wats tired, but I am pretty sure that it was said PDF in the Candlekeep seminar.

But I wholly reserve all right to be 100% wrong

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quote:

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Originally posted by Faraer

From the What is the Sundering? panel: the six novels are coming out (in hardcover) every two months starting August 2013, i.e.
Aug 2013: R.A. Salvatore, The Companions
Oct 2013: Paul S. Kemp, The Godborn
Dec 2013: Erin M. Evans, The Adversary
Feb 2014: Richard Lee Byers, The Reaver
Apr 2014: Troy Denning, The Sentinel
Jun 2014: Ed Greenwood, The Herald
or thereabouts.

Which also suggests a time frame for the RPG material.

Also mentioned: Old Grey Box maps have been scanned and vectorized, to use as the basis for new maps.

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quote:

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Originally posted by LastStand

Thanks for keeping those of us who wheren't at the con informed. I appreciate the effort.

As a reader first and a player second I am both excited and pleased at the announcements involving the novel line.

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Originally posted by daarkknight

I would like to thank you as well. While I had kept up with most of this information, there were a few tidbits that I hadn't seen/heard yet.

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