This book has been the most anticipated WotC release for me in, I don't know how long.    probably since Lords of Madness, and I'm a lot more excited about it than I was about Lords of Madness!

For those that have been under a rock for the last 6 months or so, FC1 is going to be a book about demons/tanar'ri in the vein of Draconomicon, Libris Mortis, and Lords of Madness, by Erik Mona and James Jacobs, due out on June 6 (06/06/06, eheheheh).  I just wanted to generate a little more buzz and get people talking about it.  (We also now know that there will be an FC2, focusing on devils, later this year.)  James and Erik have been producing the "Demonomicon" series of articles for Dragon magazine for over a year now, so it should be no surprise that they got this assignment.  If you don't know a whole lot about the book, I've collected about everything I know or could guess in this post.  I'm sure they've discussed it on the Paizo forums and probably in other places, but they have commented a whole lot on ENWorld, so that's where I took my references from.

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You might want to wait until you have plenty of free time before really looking at this stuff!

My pal Shade first catches a clue of what Erik and James are working on back in September (and his guess is pretty close to the truth): http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=148261

A thread I started, actually, to get ideas for the Demonomicon articles before the beans were spilt on the big project (with innocuous comments from Erik and James therein): http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=142163

The original thread to address the book now that we knew what it was, posted several months ago and more than a few pages long: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=150288 (features a fair amount of commentary from both Erik and James)

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Erik looking for info, presumably for Kostchtchie, for either FC1 or Dragon #145: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=161589 (not a major thing, but a small hint at the details they're going into)

Some threads I started to dig up as much info as I could to help out Erik and James: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=152741,
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=153838, http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=154911 - given how much I posted, who knows how much of it will be used, though Erik did post a number of replies in each and remarked that these threads were very helpful.

Another thread about FC1 with responses: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=170046

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Other tidbits from Erik (James has been less vocal about the book thus far):

Quote from: Ripzerai (aka Rip Van Wormer)In previous editions [Abyssal Lords] were more like DvR 6-10, but this time around they realized that having your high-level paladin travel to the Abyss and kill Orcus was totally awesome, and this should be expedited as much as possible.

Giving them enough power to reasonably control their own planes was not thought to be a priority.

Quote from: Erik MonaJust you wait.

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Quote from: Erik MonaUnless something changed in editing, Charon is mentioned in the forthcoming "Hordes of the Abyss." There aren't a lot of details other than that he is "the greatest of the marraenoloths" and that he knows the Styx better than anyone in the multiverse.

Quote from: ShemeskaErik, if you can tell us, did you use the 1e or 2e name for Charon/Cerlic in Hordes of the Abyss?

Quote from: Erik MonaCharon all the way. Why change something that's such an important part of mythology? It'd be like changing Anubis to "Phyllis."

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Quote from: Erik MonaI just finished co-writing a book on the Lower Planes (Hordes of the Abyss), and I referenced liberally from all editions of the game with little fear of conflicting material.

Quote from: Erik MonaA similar list [of Abyssal layers] (and a list of all known demon lords and princes) will appear in the appendices of "Fiendish Codex 1: Hordes of the Abyss."

:ponder: :bow: :heh:

I really want to be excited about this... but I'm really not.  How often is it really going to be used?

I loved Lord's of Madness, I use a lot of Lovecraftian horror elements and beasts and Libris Mortis (fun all in itself) is a easy to use book as well as Heroes of Horror but they have beaten fiends into the ground over the years and unless you do a lot of planer hopping, you really don't see them much.

oddly enough, i might just be inspired to run a Planescape campaign which would feature on FC1 very heavily.  i came upon the idea of a plot involving a number of demon lords and their agents scattered throughout the planes, and the PCs have to figure out which ones are involved and try to stop them.  if i actually muster up the desire to run that campaign, i'll actually *use* the book.  

however, even without that, i've found the Demonomicon articles to be a fascinating read, and i know i'm not alone in that regard.  given that the authors have promised the book to be of similar quality and tone, i think FC1 will be a fun book to read if nothing else.

Quote from: BOZhowever, even without that, i've found the Demonomicon articles to be a fascinating read, and i know i'm not alone in that regard.  given that the authors have promised the book to be of similar quality and tone, i think FC1 will be a fun book to read if nothing else.

The articles are hit and miss for me, but I do agree it may be an interesting read.

Quote from: BOZoddly enough, i might just be inspired to run a Planescape campaign which would feature on FC1 very heavily.  i came upon the idea of a plot involving a number of demon lords and their agents scattered throughout the planes, and the PCs have to figure out which ones are involved and try to stop them.  if i actually muster up the desire to run that campaign, i'll actually *use* the book.  

however, even without that, i've found the Demonomicon articles to be a fascinating read, and i know i'm not alone in that regard.  given that the authors have promised the book to be of similar quality and tone, i think FC1 will be a fun book to read if nothing else.

You definitely aren't alone. I love those articles. And, I may actually buy a WotC book for the first time in awhile.

yep.  it's rare these days that i get excited about a WotC book.  often enough, it's like... uhh, wonder if this one's going to be any good...

but this one, i feel, is different somehow.  

further commentary posted today:

Quote from: James JacobsThere will be some overlap between the Demonomicon articles and Fiendish Codex I, but not a lot. In Fiendish Codex I, we had the whole Abyss to cover in a single book, while in the Demonomicon articles, we have the luxury of spending a lot more time talking about a single demon lord. If the Fiendish Codex spends 1,500 words talking about a demon lord, a Demonomicon article spends 8,000 talking about the demon lord. Of course, there are a lot more demon lords detailed in Fiendish Codex than there have been in Demonomicon articles so far...

The Demonomicon articles and Fiendish Codex I complement each other quite well, as a result.

I don't do a lot of Dragon, I'm more of a Dungeon kind of guy so I'm really looking forward to this book.

from what i imagine the book is shaping up to be (at least from the vague hints i've read), i don't know that it favors one style over the other.  it's going to follow WotC book format to a degree i'm sure, so it won't be exactly like the Demonimicons.  undoubtedly there will be a lot of adventure hooks (possibly even a few adventure outlines), so it you're looking for straight-up adventure ideas involving demons, i suspect you should get more than a few good ideas from the book.  if done right, there should be enough stuff for terrestrial or extraplanar campaigns, as well as campaigns that involve both.  i don't expect it to disappoint in that regard.  

Quote from: BOZyep.  it's rare these days that i get excited about a WotC book.  often enough, it's like... uhh, wonder if this one's going to be any good...

but this one, i feel, is different somehow.  

Those Demonomicon articles actually made me want to use Zuggtmoy in a game. Imagine that, the demon queen of ...fungus. What's next, Juiblex?

While I like the *concept* of the D&D outsiders, I hate running the damn things.  They always have so fucking many powers that I will forget half (or more) of them while I'm running them.  After the game is over, I'll see that they had something they could have and would have used against the PCs.  Just makes me want to use something simpler.  

i wind up feeling that way with damn near every encounter i run, no matter who or what the PCs are fighting.    it comes from me having poor organizational skills and an even worse memory retention ability.

a couple more bits, posted previously.

regarding the question of what sort of power level the archdemons will have:

Quote from: James JacobsI'm really proud of the answer we came up with for presenting the Demon Lords, and I'm sure it'll please DMs who want to use them as end-bosses for non-epic campaigns as well as those who run epic campaigns. I don't wanna give out any more details than that, but it's only a few months away...

and one that made me happy, but only because i'm just that picky:  

Quote from: James JacobsDemogorgon's back to the mandrill heads for good. WotC, as far as I know, used the cover to Dungeon 120 as reference for the art (at least, that's what I sent them for reference in my section of the art order, which included at least 2 illos of Demogorgon).

Hyenas are Yeenoghu's thing.

...wow!

Quote from: James JacobsIn my turnover, I statted up 14 different Demon Lords; I'm pretty sure all 14 made it in to the final book. Beyond these 14, the number of Demon Lords mentioned by name in the book (and having at least a few sentances of info about them) is around 80.

No, I'm not gonna reveal who made the cut on the list of 14.