Letters to Dyvers: Problems, Problems. We've All Got Them, but Only a Few of Us Wallow in Them.

Have I ever mentioned that I like getting mail from you guys?

Well, I do.

Anyway, I'm in the process of catching up on about a year's worth of e-mails so I'm going to do a bit of a clearing house and answer three of them real quickly.

P.S. I've cleaned up the e-mails a bit to make it easier to read.

Problematic Media 

Have you seen the Mary Sue article, Everything I Love is Problematic? Thoughts?

Largely the article is just a bunch of pretentious hand wringing designed to get people to recognize that the author is so very self-aware of her privilege and blah, blah, blah. Boring rubbish for the most part that wants you to feel guilty for loving the things that you love. 

Forget that noise. 

Love what you love; don't hate on other people's things. Moving on.

Magic Items

If you could pick one Magic Item, and have it in real life, what would it be?

In my games I always have a downside to the magical items that I introduce to my players. Life is more fun when there is a consequence to your actions and the game is more fun that way too. Still, I would love to find something like the Mighty Servant of Leuk-O.  

Arts

You post a lot of art on the blog: who's your favorite?

As much as I love art I don't really have a favorite. I have styles that I love but there isn't really an artist that I go out of my way for over the others. That said I've been really digging the work of John Harris and Jakub Rozalski lately. 

You've All Been Lied To [Letters to Dyvers]

Back in early May, 2015 I started looking into the soon to be released Out of the Abyss (D&D Accessory) campaign (see Out of the Abyss, Rage of Demons, Announced and a Look at Other Connected Products that have been Announced for more) and one of the things that became apparent during my investigation into the product was that Drizzt Do'Urden, R. A. Salvatore's famous Drow, would be playing a prominent role in the story throughout the majority of the connected products. While some of my readers were unhappy about this connection others were excited by the possibility of having one of their favorite characters taking a prominent role in the game.

Zohaletha was one of those looking forward to having Drizzt Do'Urden play a big role in the games with the players having an opportunity to interact with the world's most famous Drow in a big way. Unfortunately it seems that Zohaletha was more than a little bit disappointed in the final product.

You've been lied to about Drizzt Do'Urden being a part of the Out of the Abyss campaign. I just double-checked at the D&D sites, thinking maybe I misread. I did not. The Rage of Demons publication line, computer-games to RPG, were ALL supposed to feature Drizzt Do'Urden. Out of the Abyss is the RPG campaign for that line and was advertised to have him. But our local gaming store actually got the campaign early (release date 9-15-15) and we have been able to purchase them.

IT IS A LIE!!!!!! Drizzt Do'Urden is nowhere in the campaign setting of Out of the Abyss. There isn't even a hint of him. The closest you get is a single interview with Bruenor (who doesn't even mention his good friend, btw). The adventure starts you off as prisoners of the drow. Upon your escape you can line up with an NPC to do some sidequests that don't really have anything to do with anything until you're sent back into Menzoberranzan on a sidenote by Bruenor. After that you line up with an evil drow (who is previously unheard of) to complete the storyline. I'm so angry. I waited months for this campaign to come out, believing that at least in some way, shape or form our characters would work with Drizzt Do'Urden. I made a character especially for this campaign. I'm pissed and I'm returning the product. I'm willing to bet the video game and computer game are the exact same way. Don't waste your money on this product. The company (TSR, WotC, Hasbro, whatever they are calling themselves these days) have lied to you.

Regards,
zohaletha

Undoubtedly some will find Zohaletha's terrible experience to be a blessing as Drizzt has been a source of concern expressed in my feed since the early announcement of the new storyline. For myself Drizzt was more of a curiosity than anything else as I've never actually read anything with him involved so I was looking at the possibility of his inclusion as I did every 'famous' non-player character I've ever run across in my years playing: as a good source of precious loot and experience points. Although I will say that I kind of enjoyed seeing him leap into Demogorgon's mouth . . .

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