The Glade 4.0

I seem to recall killing Drizzt in the first game as well, he dropped his two scimitars.. it was near some tower with chickens near it.

I don't remember the swords disappearing though, but its been a very, very long time.

Hmmm. You may be right. I seemed to recall his encounter being a pop-up encounter (like Elminster's) with him leaving after you done talking to him (and therefore no opportunity to attack). But searching shows he appears fighting gnolls.

That triggered my memory some more. I remember thinking it was a cheesy way of working him into the game. Drizzt asks for your help to kill the gnolls he is fighting, I believe. Which, if you read the books, is completely absurd. It would be like Batman asking some hero wannabes to help him take out some street thugs.

Which also brings to light some of my biggest problems with the Forgotten Realms books. Blatant munchkinism. Drizzt was one example. In fact, the character of Drizzt broke several different rules for the system in which he was created, 2e (he was dual classed, he was a ranger when only three races could be a ranger, etc.).

The worst I've read was Elminster though. Has anyone read the book that details Elminster's origin? Holy crap, it reads just like internet fanfiction. Except worse, it reads just like BAD internet fanfiction. You know, the kind where the author is obviously overcompensating for his real-life shortcomings by saying (but not directly) that his main character is really himself. And that he is so powerful that God says, "Damn!"

I honestly couldn't get through that Elminster book. And I own the stupid thing.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Greenwood is a hack.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Yes, but his setting is decent all the same. Not that anything that's officially happened in the realms for the last few years has had his stamp of approval. From what I understand, the campaigns he himself DMs are post "time-of-troubles" but pretty much before anything that happened since the War of the Spider Queen series (which started off well, but ended up leading into a lot of dumbassery in the Lady Penitent sequel.) He also games 2nd edition. You'd like him.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Salvatore has always said he doesn't write his books according to the rules. Drizzt is badass. He's supposed to be superfantastic, which is why he takes on other superfantastic beings. It's a swashbuckling adventure story, and in such stories, your heroes are supposed to pull off the impossible. It's like Jason Bourne with scimitars.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

By all accounts he's rather a nice and approachable guy. Makes the con circuts; loves to hang with the fans.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

He's good people. I met him at a party in Lake Geneva, WI many years ago. My D&D buddy and I managed to get invited. He was kind enough to answer a big debate we had about Symbol of Death, and signed my PHB.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

Doesn't mean he's not a hack

He's just a nice hack.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Yeah, chumming with the gods isn't really interesting to me. There's nothing in that for me unless I just wanted my characters to become super awesome powerful and didn't care about how interesting the story was getting there.

And Greenwood is terrible. I read the elminster series up to "Elminster in Hell," where I just threw the book away. He loves detailing excruciating agony for no particular reason. I think that book was probably his horrifying torment magnum opus. It's really boring to read about though.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

On the way home from Louisiana we listened to the rest of Salvatore's Demon Wars saga (the three books with the plague). It's very Drizzt-esque (like most of his stuff), but I'm actually ok with that. His characters never seem to fail to insinuate themselves into my heart, despite them being less well rounded than, say, GRRM's characters in a Song of Ice and Fire. It was a good story with fairly compelling social commentary, excellent action (as always), and a lot of heart.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

Same thing, except I met Keith Baker at Gencon 3 years ago....

I think I had him sign like 4 of my Eberron books, and he signed an Eberron DM screen too

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nice. I like me some Eberron. Go go steampunk all inclusive D&D.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

I dunno, Terry Pratchet probably has more character and heart in his stories and he's taking a tongue in cheek approach to fantasy.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Apples and oranges, really. I love me some Terry Pratchet, don't get me wrong. But when I pick up an adventure novel, his name is unlikely to be at the top.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show