BenS's page

James, I just looked up what I own from Mike Mignola's work on Corum. Of the 2 trilogies Moorcock wrote, Mike drew the 1st (the Swords trilogy--as good as any of the Elric stuff, as far as I'm concerned!), and the 1st book in the next story arc, "The Bull & The Spear". That was a total of 16 comics.

Please let me know if your mention of a TPB is something other than these works. Hell, I might get it just to have it in a TPB. Thanks.

FTR, I so-loved the Swords trilogy that I incorporated Kwll & Rhynn into my own D&D cosmology. They're 2 of 6 Elder Gods that are at the top of the foodchain, above even "normal" deities. Sometimes I call them "The Endless" (yes, I stole that from Gaiman's Sandman series), to represent that "gods" come and go, but these (6) will never go away...

Hmm. How did I miss this thread for so long?

D&D was my 3rd RPG, after starting w/ Runequest and toying a little w/ Tunnels & Trolls. Even after playing D&D I kept up w/ Runequest (and then Stormbringer, of course). I think I started around 1979. The (older) guys who ran the local comic store were playing D&D, and I wormed my curious way into their group. Then I started playing w/ some new friends in high school, and one of those friends has become a friend for life.

I was "out of the game" for a while in the 90's b/c of grad school, but got back into it when 3rd edition rolled around. Kudos to those Dragon magazine articles for inspiring me to get back into the game.

I mostly DM'd, but had some of my own early characters become NPCs for later campaigns. In fact, a buddy's Runequest characters later became D&D NPCs. Ah, those were simpler times. When a dwarf (Frowgrin the Feared) and elf (Valer the something) could adventure side-by-side w/ little friction :)

I'm 42 now, an old-gamer by this thread. But not quite the oldest (whew!).

This was recompiled and re-released recently and I'm curious if anyone on the boards has read it. I plan on taking a look tomorrow or Thursday on my usual foray into the comic store, but I haven't read the original stories, so I'm not sure how well I can look at it objectively.

Mike Mignola is my absolute favorite comic book artist, though, and I'm eager to see not only this but his Corum: The Coming of Chaos adaptation from several years ago if I can track it down.

I have the originals for this wonderful series, but might get the TPB as well.

James, when you say "from several years ago" about that Corum adaptation, were you being literal? If so, I'm missing something! But I do have all the originals (Mignola) from the comic back in, hell, it must have been the 1980's. If he's done something new, I would love to know about it. Thanks!

My son's name is Ben S, and our last name, Staats, is spelled the same way backwards and forwards.

Strange events are afoot!

In service,

Rich

Go to www.drgames.org.

Rich, thank you for both posts. I had no idea Greg Stafford's world went back to 1967! Any idea what happened to Steve Perrin?

(And that is weird about my alias and your son's name being the same.)

It seems like Mongoose's version of Runequest is spitting out books left and right. I hope that means a revival for what was truly a great game setting.

it's C. Wesley Clough... you can call me Wes if you want (Not to be confused with Wes S. who works for Paizo).

Wes it is! I thought I recognized your name; maybe from the WOTC boards where some other fool asked you what it stood for :)

Thank you James, thank you Cwslyclgh (Wes??). I was thinking of something along the lines of Keoland already; now I know it should be a bit bigger.

I'm poor at calculating things like this, especially w/ map scales and such. So I appreciate your help.

BenS wrote:

I'll have to do a little digging for Arcana Evolved. Its apparent scarcity explains why it was being sold by Amazon for more than the listed price of $50 (through another seller).

You can buy the PDF of Arcana Evolved online for a lot cheaper than you can get a copy of the book. Although my preference was to get the book, I spend way too much money on gaming as it is, and decided to use Arcana Evolved (which I probably won't use much, at least for a while) as a test to see how well I can tolerate using PDF rulebooks.

Well, I bit the bullet and ordered it from Amazon, via another seller. Hopefully I won't get screwed on the deal.

I'm resisting PDFs of books--and this one is huge--if at all possible, though I hope it worked out for you. I already stare at 2 monitors at work all day, there's no way I'm scrolling through a PDF of a book. Which means the chances of me using WOTC's "Digital Initiative"...well, you can probably guess :)

How about the functional equivalent of Dungeon's "Side Trek" (short) adventures? I haven't seen them for a while, but they were great for inserting on either the front- or back-end of longer adventures.

Will we see them in Pathfinder?

Maybe when you open up PF for submissions, short adventures like this would be a good way to gauge the quality of other submissions from not-yet established authors. Give you a taste of what they might do in a longer product (e.g., a GameMastery module).

Neomorte wrote:

Will there be any psionics supported?

- Neomorte

Psionics won't be banned in our world, but I wouldn't expect a great deal of support. The simple truth is that psionic fans form a small but vocal minority. Most D&D players are only neutral at best toward psionics, so it's not a system we're going to spend a lot of time or effort supporting. That said, we're not going to prevent psionic fans from including the system into their campaigns (i.e., we're not going to say "Psionics don't exist in our world. Nyeh!").

While I completely understand this from the perspective of appealing to the most possible people--after all, you are starting a brand new venture that you need to sell to we, the masses--on a personal level, it's too bad.

I think they finally got Psionics "right" in 3.5, and I've stopped using arcane magic users simply b/c I prefer psionic manifesters. That, and I'm suffering from spell overload. But that's ok. Nothing wrong w/ being a small but vocal minority. I can do the work myself to add manifesters into the setting; I realize that. Thanks for addressing the issue.

I know it's been stated to be, in real world terms, about the size of California. But oddly enough, I'm curious as to how it would "size up" in terms of something I know better. You know, like the Flanaess region of Oerik/Oerth :) (Never mind that I lived 10 years in CA)

This is a minor issue/concern, to be sure, but I'm just wondering why the # of posts can be quite off the mark once you open up a thread and view the total number? This can include threads in which no one has posted recently as well.

I'd also like to add on to a pre-order (#720309), if I may. Could you add in a copy of "Monster Ecologies" when these all ship? Thanks in advance.

I'll join in the chorus of fans of Tome of Magic. Along w/ Tome of Battle, I think it is one of the best non-core books WOTC ever put out for D&D.

For those interested in the Shadowcaster, the designer--Ari Marmell--admitted that the class was a little underpowered. It was back on 1/4/07, in the WOTC boards, but I'm sorry I don't have the exact post/thread link. Anyway, he mentioned something about providing "unofficial errata". Don't know if he followed through on that, but I thought I'd throw that out there...

I'm a bit out-of-touch w/ modern fantasy writers, and have been for about the last decade (I blame it on all those years I was in graduate school). So I guess I'm undercutting any worthwhile opinion already :)

But. I'd like to second the few suggestions that there be an anthology rather than one overarching novel. I know Monte Cook had (2) anthologies for his Diamond Throne setting, and while I've just ordered them and can't comment on their quality, I think the idea is a sound one. And dare I say, perhaps more realistic than getting an "A-lister" to write an entire novel.

One possible advantage to an anthology is that some of the people w/ proven track records, adventure-wise (i.e., have already published in Dungeon, especially), would be able to take the next step in their creative careers. This also allows people already involved in the creation of Pathfinder's new world--like James Jacobs--a shot at fleshing it out in a different way. It's more likely he'd have time for a short story than a novel. Just a thought.

A few people have mentioned Troy Denning. Between Brom's outstanding artwork, and Troy's Prism Pentad (?) series of books set in Athas, I quickly became a hard-core Dark Sun player in 2nd edition days. Something to think about: art + fiction to draw in new people. We've already got WAR doing covers and getting rave reviews; now all we need is some fiction to bring in some more people.

Let's face it. We're not trying to sell ourselves (those of us on these boards). We're already sold on the new world. But we could help out the cause by bringing in some more. Erik, this was a great thread to start.

Lisa & Andrew, thank you for your quick responses!

I will be ordering Ptolus and other Malhavoc releases before I log off of this site :)

I'll have to do a little digging for Arcana Evolved. Its apparent scarcity explains why it was being sold by Amazon for more than the listed price of $50 (through another seller).

Don't know how I missed the Malhavoc Press stuff on the site...

Ok all you Ptolus players, here's my question: does the CD-Rom that comes w/ the game only play on PCs? I ask b/c I have a Mac (no flames please :)), and I'd hate to sink over a $100 in a product and not even be able to use the CD, which I know is jam-packed w/ goodies!

So if any Mac users have Ptolus, and give me the green light, I will purchase this quite soon.

Thanks in advance.

(Btw, how come Paizo doesn't sell Malhavoc Press stuff? I'm going to get Arcana Evolved and related products too.)

Sben,

Thank you so much. That was quite informative! You've given me some food for thought.

Do you realize our screen names are the same 4 letters, but backwards? :)

I would absolutely buy it, especially since Pathfinder will be relying on OGL creatures. I know there's plenty of room to create new monsters, but no need to reinvent the wheel, per se :)

I'd definitely pick up a copy of that.

Now that Dragon & Dungeon are being laid to rest, it would be kind of cool to have an artist homage issue, for all the great contributors from the past 30 years. Hell, maybe Tramp would even send in the last page of Wormy. :) (wishful thinking)

I might just be a sentimental fool, but I think there's something valuable about preserving and honoring these guys. They shaped the way a lot of people think about this genre as a whole.

I'd be all over an art homage book, being an old-time player. Now how did we get through all these posts and no one has mentioned "Fineous Fingers"?!

There was a compilation, which I sold to a good friend at the time. He was nice enough to then get color photocopies of the entire compilation for me. Those I still have :)

I wanted to scream UnderOerth after reading the first few posts, but hey,

BenS.. you go girl!

Anyway. Underrealms sounds good.

I'm a guy, actually :)

I'd already asked in a different thread about Pathfinder being set in a different area of our beloved Oerth...no go. Apparently WOTC owns the whole kit and kaboodle, not just the NE tip of Oerik.

Back on topic: After reading this thread further, my choices would be--in no particular order--Underdark (for the sake of continuity); something outside-the-box, like a descriptive phrase (e.g., if X is the Death God/dess in the new world, then "X's something"; I'm just not fond of "Lamashtu's Lair", mentioned earlier); or maybe not have one set word.

I mean, like different races would refer to it in their own way. Just a thought.

Ooh, ooh! I hope someone at Paizo is paying attention to Mr. Baur's last 2 posts! The more continuity I can have w/ D&D from this new world, the better. The Underdark is simple but perfect, IMHO, for the subterranean regions.

In a perfect world, it'd be UnderOerth, but hey :)

Hi all,

D&D is technically my 2nd RPG, since I started around 1979 w/ Runequest, set in the world of Glorantha. I've noticed in my Paizo emails from time to time that there is a new version of the game, w/ products coming out.

When I check out the offerings in the Paizo store, though, I'm confused. There is a series called "Runequest", and another series (different company) called "Glorantha". From what I can tell, it's the same world. I don't remember names from my edition, back in the day, except for Steven Perrin & Greg Stafford.

Anyone know if either of them are involved in these products (and, if so, which ones)? Or why there appear to be 2 different, competing product lines??

Thanks.

BenS wrote:

A question that maybe can't be answered in this particular forum: w/ the cancellation of the magazine rights, is there any chance that the new Pathfinder settings (and maps) could be...

Hi Ben:

Thanks for the praise! I personally can feel your pain in regards to Greyhawk. I have been DMing in that campaign exclusively since 1981. I was the Greyhawk Brand Manager at WotC from 1997 to 1999 and I was part of the group that came up with the idea for Living Greyhawk. Of course, I don't need to tell you where the loyalties of Erik Mona, James Jacobs, and Jason Bulmahn are. They have all be Greyhawk loyalists to the nth degree. Trust me when I say that if we could find a way to set Pathfinder in Greyhawk, we would have.

That said, Greyhawk is owned by WotC and we don't have any rights to publish in it. So I am afraid that it is not on the table for Pathfinder. So instead of crying over our favorite campaign setting, we've gone out and created a new one that we will use as the backdrop to all of our adventures, including Pathfinder. This new campaign is assuredly one that tips it's hat to Greyhawk in its feeling. How could it not considering the folks who are creating it? But it isn't set on Oerth and won't use any of the names you associate with Greyhawk.

Personally, I am pretty pumped about what I have seen about the new campaign setting. Enough so that I will most likely set my Pathfinder campaign in our new world once I finish with Shackled City. I will do this because this new campaign setting is one that would do Gary Gygax proud. And that is something that excites me.

-Lisa

Lisa, thanks for the hands-on response. We obviously started gaming around the same time. I'm excited about Pathfinder, to be sure, but I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too :)

I think it's clear in your mind and reply, but do you mean that WOTC owns the entire world of Oerth, and not just the Flanaess region of Oerik (what most refer to as "Greyhawk")? If that's the case, I guess there is no hope currently. I guess I can only hope then that Erik et al. have some success wooing GH away from WOTC.

Sorry to quote you in full, I'm not that adept at replying to a post w/ quotes...

Krypter, you stole the words right out of my mouth!

I'll buy the compilations to further support these great artists/satirists, but of course, they're compilations of stuff I already own in the magazines. Having the strips simply stop is a serious bummer.

Paizo staff: I don't know if the decision not to have the comics in Pathfinder was financial or not, but I wonder if you took a poll of subscribers to see if ordering Pathfinder was in any way contingent on the comics continuing. To be honest, I expected it (book or not) to fill the shoes of Dragon/Dungeon in as many ways as possible.

Maybe have a poll rating the comics, and then make a decision on what you could include in Pathfinder based on popularity?? I don't know, I'm grasping at straws I know, but I will seriously miss those comics.

EDIT: I apologize for using a 2nd account name; I forget that I have 2; this one w/ no avatar. I posted earlier as BenS as well.

Ok, I'm traditionally more of a lurker than a poster, but the cancellation of 2 of my favorite magazines has brought me out of the, well, somewhere. My initial reaction was shock & disbelief. As one of the 25+ years-of-playing-D&D crowd, you can understand my reaction to this news.

That said. I have to agree w/ other posters that the Paizo years have been some of the all-time best for these magazines. All the more reason to be depressed that they're ending! But I want to thank you one and all for the quality and commitment you've shown to our favorite RPG, and a big special thank you to Erik Mona who relentlessly pushed for all things Greyhawk (still my favorite setting!).

I've jumped onto the Pathfinder bandwagon b/c I want to support you, not only for what you've done in the past, but for what you'll do in the future. I'm honestly a little worried about only being able to use OGL creatures/classes (?)/etc., but on the other hand, I'm very excited that the people behind the beloved Adventure Paths will be working on a new campaign world (if I can call it a world). It tortures me not to have future adventures set in the Flanaess and beyond--and oh have I prayed for campaigns set beyond the Flanaess, on Oerik or elsewhere on Oerth--but I trust the collective creative minds to create something fantastic. Early readings on the Pathfinder blog have been interesting.

I hope the readership of the 2 magazines jumps into Pathfinder, though the costs will seem prohibitive for some. I'm fortunate not to have to worry about that, but not everyone will be in that boat.

If at all possible, continue some of the comics in Pathfinder!!! Especially the ones, like Downer and Zogonia/Mt Zogon, that I don't believe are printed in other magazines (or maybe none of them are printed in other magazines, now that I think about it).

A question that maybe can't be answered in this particular forum: w/ the cancellation of the magazine rights, is there any chance that the new Pathfinder settings (and maps) could be incorporated into Oerth? Maybe place them on the other side of the globe, so Wizards doesn't get nervous about Greyhawk infringement? Could you get some kind of permission from Wizards to do this? I would hope they wouldn't see this as a threat to their intellectual properties, but maybe I'm just naive. I'm going to put these settings in an unused continent on the other side of Oerth myself, in my home campaign, but making it "official" would be that much sweeter.

Sorry for the long post. It's one of my first to the forums :)

Yes, please! I love the comics in these magazines, and have even pre-ordered the Downer & Zogonia compilations coming out in the next few months. A few pages of comics in our Pathfinder would be greatly appreciated!