Grimcleaver's page

I would never have thought that FR is medium fantasy; a setting where all of the widespread secret societies have at least mid-level casters, where there are umpteen special forms of magic, where every town has an archmage and a dead god, and every society is descended from some magic using behemoth does not come off as mdeium fantasy. From where I stand, FR is magic-soaked, a place with so much you can't throw a rock without hitting a level 10+ caster.

The description you give, about the +1 being special, is low magic.

Like I said, my standard is a bit different I think than the board sets up. I think what marks FR as medium is that so many of the magical traditions ARE secret societies or lost forms of forgotten magic. Yeah there's a lot of mages, hence it's not a low magic setting, but these are fairly low to mid level guys who look after their own concerns. The "every town with an archmage and a dead god" experience would be high level, yes...but I don't see that if Faerun. In fact, the majority of towns don't really even have much in the way of wizards or magic. You need a large city or a big-time adventurer town before you start running into that.

Now it's not that +1 items are particularly special in Faerun. They're the standard "magic" that an adventurer is familiar with, or y'know magic missile and entangle spells. The stuff that is special are dancing swords or boots of flying. That stuff is beyond the experience of the average low level swordswinger.

High magic is closer to what (I gather) Eberron is shooting for. Airships are as common as donkeys. Golems are a race. People have +1 can openers of speed. Magic is a day to day tool, less than even a sword--more like a hammer or a crowbar. You use it to get the job done better or faster. I'd say if Faerun was nearly all places like Halruua or Lantan, you would have there a high magic setting. As it is, I'd stick with calling it medium.

This is not so much 'real' mythology as Greek Mythology. This trait of scheming Gods with humanistic personalties and lots and lots of very human weaknesses is far more prevalent in Greek Mythology then pretty much anyone else's mythology.

Well I was thinking Greek, but its' also just as true for the Egyptian, Norse, Mesopotamian, Hindu, Celtic, and Aztec religions. The big idea isn't so much the flaws though, as the complexity of personality going beyond the simplistic "I like war" or "I like summer" to get at a real fleshy ideology and divine personality that a character can champion without feeling silly. That's the hope, really--good stories and good story hooks for characters.

Healthy (3/4+1 base hp to full hp)

Full-Round Action: Free
Standard Action: Free
Move Action: Free
Free Action/No Action: Free

Injured (1/2+1 to 3/4 base hp)
Full-Round Action: 1 hp
Standard Action: Free
Move Action: Free
Free Action/No Action: Free

Disabled (1/4+1 to 1/2 base hp)
Full-Round Action: 2 hp
Standard Action: 1 hp
Move Action: Free
Free Action/No Action: Free

Dying (1 to 1/4 base hp)
Full-Round Action: 4 hp
Standard Action: 2 hp
Move Action: 1 hp
Free Action/No Action: Free

I really like this idea of increased injury taking its toll on the target, particularly the idea that the risk of exerting yourself is that you take further hp of damage.

Possible benefits of this are that you can use it to sap a strong opponent--hit the giant hard and then make him chase you, tiring himself out, and then turn around and kill him once he's dropped to a knee gasping for breath, blood dribbling out his mouth.

Likewise it works nicely for those heroic moments, when the hero knows he will die if he continues trying to fight, but lifts himself up on his sword and hobbles back into the fight, each step painful, blood soaking his clothes with his every move.

I like that much better than the fighter with 74 hp who takes a battleaxe blow and six crossbow bolts, but somehow they're all grazing wounds--even when the battleaxe guy critted, and he still strides around killing everything with a big grin on his face.

The reason I play my games so hardcore is so they don't feel like video games, goodguys and badguys hacking on each other like they're chopping wood. I find it cheesy in video games and impossible to swallow when I'm trying to tell a good story. This system seems like a nice alternative.

As with many things, it boils down to balance. The point is that if NPCs and PCs had the same wealth, a party of four PCs would each gain one quarter of their current wealth every time they took on an NPC of their level. You would gain wealth far too quickly.

It's always been harder for me to come up with loot on badguys that the characters would want. With stuff out there like gnolls and bugbears that mostly carry greasy bits of wood, nasty hole ridden patchwork armor and maybe...what, a human-skin blanket? It's nice when the PCs in my group can actually fight people with loot worth looting!

And really thinking it over there are a good number of things an NPC might carry around with them that PC's would like to have--but just as likely a lot of stuff they wouldn't. Try lugging around a full suit of platemail, or even taking it off a dead body. Likewise weapons are even a bit cumbersome in large amounts--so there'd be some on-site procurement of better weapons and such. But what with similar level characters having similar stuff, they'd mostly either have to leave it or cart it around until they can go back to someplace and arrange to sell it, which can be tricky. Plus characters marching into town with a bunch of bloody hacked up armor and weapons to sell is a good way to advertise the fact you've been out killing other people which can lead to long and hazardous explainations to the authorities.

I was pretty pumped for Eberron when the first articles started coming out for it. It was the FUBU of gamers. I loved the idea that we sorry dregs had the capacity to jump in there and pitch some ideas to the big guys. Heck, I pitched three. When the big day came and I got some previews of Eberron I read eagerly.

I think the first sign something was amiss was the "Maltese Falcon meets Raiders of the Lost Ark" mission statement. From there every impression I've gotten of the game has been less like hate and more like tired dissapointment.

I'm a pretty easy sell usually, but the setting seems somewhat sketchy in its development, a little heavy on whizbang and full of derivative stuff like doppelganger-people, golem-people, werewolf-people, etc.

Really I want to be sold on Eberron. I don't like having a D&D setting I don't like. Honestly this would be the first one. What I really need is a good sell that doesn't wrankle me.

I think what Eberron needs is a good computer RPG along the lines of Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment and Temple of Elemental Evil. The fact that they've created Warcraft and Everquest style games as their intro to Eberron just make me think its even more of a lightweight setting.

Dragon #342 has a really good article that covers this topic. If you haven't read it, I suggest you pick it up.

Which issue is that? Can you let me know what the cover is or something? I'll definitely try and track it down. What advice do they give? I'd love a brief synopsis if you don't mind.

I make some changes in creatures. Most of the time I don't have too much problem, but there are cases where the base creature seems "leveled up" for no obvious reason other than to provide challenge to higher level adventurers. Other times monsters are given a double dip of both AC and DR to account for their armor. Then I step in. Often it's enough to take the range of HP given and assume a lowball roll rather than the average. Sometimes it takes some more love. I think it's worth it though.

Usually the flavor feels more like fantasy stories, rather than a video game which suits me and my crowd just fine. Dragons are something mighty to be feared. Battles are harsh and bloody because swords and arrows can kill you.

I've always balked at the idea that a longsword put to maximum effect does only 8 points of damage plus strength and a half mod--twice that on a crit. At first level that strikes me as about right, but a few levels down the line and a sword stabbed straight into a guy's guts is like a papercut. Granted new rules like the massive damage clause and the coup de grace are fair patches, but I think there's nothing like going into a fight with a bead of sweat on your brow. But because a badguy, even one of much higher level, is just as mortal, there's also more hope. Maybe an arrow or two will kill the ubermage before he hucks his big ol' fireball at you, rather than it taking 30 arrows to do the job. Me I'll take the extra risk for the extra realism.

As for the half-orc wizard? I'll leave a seat open for you. It's another 8 hit points, and in exchange you take a kick in the pants with that awful Int hit.

Besides, even if there weren't a balancer built in--I'd still much prefer a world where you can have a tough half-orc who can cast spells (believable to me), to a world where a halfling barbarian has three times as many hit points as the half-orc wizard at starting level, but stands a mighty three feet tall, where the wizard stands an imposing seven (which is just lame and game-mechanicy)

Well for one, I'm glad the names of spells are getting the names of archmages from Oerth yanked from them--not anything against Greyhawk, but I've always felt it hurts the setting when someone in Faerun uses Mordenkainen's Disjunction or Bigby's Crushing Hand when the actual guys don't exist in that setting.

As for a primer on 3.0 Greyhawk, you're in luck Thanis! I found a booklet cheap called The Dungeons and Dragons Gazateer with the whole map of the Flanaess, history, and whatnot. Apparently Iuz has been held in check by Canon Hazen who used a powerful artifact called the Crook of Rao to banish most of the evil outsiders that formed the backbone of Iuz's power. Now he'd largely a defensive force with an oppressed kingdom--a threat to his neighbors but largely held in check. You can get it for a penny at Amazon. There's also a larger Living Greyhawk Gazateer, but flipping through it I was not terribly impressed. It's a homely book with bad art and uninspired content (from what I could gather skimming it). It's out there though. Granted I think Greyhawk could really do with a book of the lavish quality of the Faerun or Dragonlance products. It's kind of a shame.

For me I'm just glad to hear that the 3.x world is actually supposed to be Greyhawk as opposed to all sorts of other stuff I'd been hearing.

Now where it gets weird is when you read in the Manual of the Planes that the Spelljammer is alive and well floating around in the Elemental Plane of Water. Crazy. Yeah nobody knows its called the spelljammer, but there it is.

I'm a relative new guy to the forum here, so I'm sure this is probably somewhat of a dead horse to everyone but me. So in advance, sorry. I also know it may earn me the paratrooper landing in a tree in enemy territory award. But here goes anyway.

I keep reading about how Dungeon people felt like Polyhedron was an invasion and a cut into their supply of dungeon romps and adventures. I'm probably the only guy on earth who felt that the Dungeon material was an invasion into my Polyhedron material. I bought just about every mini-game produced (except for the Zoinks! one about rock star crime solvers...erg) and have worn them white and dog-eared from use. I have, on the other hand, never used a single adventure in any Dungeon magazine.

Just a thought. I just wish there were some way to reward the staff enough to get them to come out with a few more of those tasty mini-settings. Heck I'd buy 'em as internet downloads. It's just a shame that such a great source of new gaming products--stuff I actually USE, gets gakked because nobody liked it.

*sigh*

Some thoughts...

I'd agree that games that haven't gotten any light of day should get priority over settings that have seen reprint in one form or another. Oriental Adventures/Kara-Tur, Ravenloft, and certainly Dragonlance should take a backburner while games like Birthright, Spelljammer and Mystara (Red Steel!) should be front and center. While I do love Dark Sun, I feel satisfied with the huge two magazine spread it recieved. That's been plenty for me to run a campaign of it (summarized in the Campaign Journal if anyone wants to see how it went).

So shotgun approach or focused info? I'd say focused info on a couple of the above REALLY forgotten settings would be much better. Not so much maps and things, unless the articles do the Darksun thing and provide a mini gazateer (which I thought was great!) I'd much prefer solid info on the new versions of the settings.

As for the issue of new vs. classic spelljammer--I'm of two minds. I like the re-envisioning it got in the Poly article, a setting of its own rather than its old status as a setting jumper meta-setting. The latter was cool in the days of cross planar action, when 2nd edition was crossover mania. Third edition seems different, its settings more clearly separated, and I'd much prefer a Spelljammer update that fleshes out rather than nullifies the stuff in the Poly article wherein Spelljammer is taken seriously as its own setting with its own worlds to explore.

So my proposal would be something like this: go the way the darksun article went, with a page or so of details of each race/class for the couple of games you want to cover with nothing over a dime sized portrait of each, then either a good gazateer or a snapshot monster manual. I mean articles on how ships work is cool and all--but I can come up with the crunch myself, what I need is setting backstory!

Like I said, I'd have you go with games like Spelljammer, Mystara and Birthright if I had my way.

P.S. Oh and here's a thought. People seem crazed for an update on events in Greyhawk and a brief geography and cultures tutorial. I certainly wouldn't mind. Heck I'd even like a big writeup on one or two of the countries just so I can tell my Nyronds from my Keolands!

My ultimate Trek idea?

I'd love to see a wartime drama like Band of Brothers set during the Eugenics Wars and the post WWIII setting that Q presides over in the grand tribunal in the first TNG episode. I dug those big drug-user guys with the over and under submachineguns in the armored hazmat suits.

Believe it or not...that's the acceptable one. The other one I'd like to see is the adventures of Pike's Enterprise (that's what I got all pumped about Enterprise for--the Enterprise before Kirk, I thought was going to be Pike).

I'd cast everyone as close to the original cast as I could and keep all the sets very close to how they looked in the original (like when old Scotty goes back onto the bridge in the holodeck?) It'd just be the technobabble, the aliens, the planet sets, the raygun and exterior ship FX, and what the guts of the ship looked like when you take the panels off, that I'd give a facelift to. Everything else would be vintage Trek with a modern twist. There could even be some subtle wry humor poking fun at the way people in the 60's though enlightened people would act--but all very straight faced.

Like anyone but me would watch them. Heh.

Heh-heh.

Actually I run HP by race...

Halfings/Gnomes start with 4
Elves start with 6
Humans and half-elves start with 8
Dwarves start with 10
Half-orcs start with 12

Then I add in Con modifier. When do you get more? When you buy Toughness as a feat or up your Con!

I also give a DR for armor equal to its listed AC because armor lessens impact.

AC is only granted by shields, etc. that keep the blow from hitting you or fail to do so. Other than that it's all Dex+10. Oh and I give a +2 for the Dodge feat--which can be bought multiple times and stacked like Toughness.

Likewise magic damage is modified to scale. the first die type is rolled and dice are added on as a raw modifier. For example a 6d6 fireball = 1d6+6 dmg.

I let people bleed out to their full Constitution score below 0 HP rather then -10 for everyone.

Oh and I add character level to initiative--cause I mean what value is the savvy of having been adventuring if not how to respond first in an adventuring-type situation.

The templars of Draj discover to their rage that a major artifact has been stolen from their Dragon King's treasuries by one of their most loyal number. They commision a young defiler (PC #1) to go recover the item for them, assuring him that of course the Dragon King Lord Atzetuuk is well aware of the situation and that he will be richly favored by the templars if he succeeds. The templar is to be brought back--alive is better, but well things happen. Either way, the artifact must be intact. They give him two Cilops to track with and the services of a skilled elven tracker (PC #2) to help.

Meanwhile in the deep sandy Tablelands a thi-kreen monk (PC #3) stops for water at what was once a small checkpoint fort. Inside are some hard rations, largely unedible to kreen, but there is a small parched well besides. As he roots through the small guard shack a mul slave wanders over the dunes and collapses at the well's edge. The kreen comes out, and the slave figures he's lunch. He holds the pottery jug used for drawing water hostage and is able to get enough water to be on his way. As he gets out of range, he calls out to the kreen that if he's up for it there's a load of nice juicy slavers to munch on down south.

He heads south and finds the bone slave pen full of miserable looking figures and a circle of lizardskin tents set up around a tiny campfire. Just to one side is their massive mekillot (part triceratops, part Star Wars bantha) strapped with waterskins and supplies. The thi-kreen stalks about the camp a bit, discovers that there are two half giants, a tattoed human and a dwarf manning the camp. He steals their water, tries to kill and eat their dwarf, but once they're alerted and armed the event turns into a clear standoff, with the kreen hiding behind a large dune and the slavers arrayed using their mekillot for cover. Suddenly the mournful wail of a Spinewyrm cuts the air, and the slavers abandon the slaves and take the mekillot and hightail it. From the direction of the Spinewyrm come a trio of elves, laughing to themselves with some sort of horn--clearly the source of the wail. They divvy up the slaver's camp loot and free the slaves to go on their way but not without some disparaging remarks in elven.

Failing that, the kreen monk continues his travels--coming upon a dead aprig around dawn, down in a furrow in the cracked dirt and boulders. Hungry, the kreen goes to get his meal and finds himself surrounded by sligs (like inbred hick versions of slaadi--no chaos powers, just hungry lizardy things.) It's an ambush. Fighting insues.

Wandering nearby, a thi-kreen cleric of earth (PC #4) whose clutchmates all pacted to see which of them would be chosen by casting themselves into the silt sea--he the only survivor and cleric. He is now guided by the wraiths of his three brothers to uncover the secret lore the earth has long covered up. Suddenly he hears fighting, and squeals in kreen and rushes to help a fellow mantisman. Together they fight off the brutish creatures and settle down to eat them. Now clutchmates, they go off toward the place where dreams have guided the earth cleric to meet his brother--a hidden cave in the mud craggs south of Draj.

This is exactly where, caught in a duststorm, the young defiler and elven guide end up. No tracks, but a cave, and from the fairly abundant plant life around the entrance--the promise of water inside. They split the juicy but acrid fruit of a succulent plant to get up their strength and head inside. Caves, the trickle of a slight stream of water, and then, obscured by a zone of magical darkness, an actual underground stream rimmed by phosphorescent fungi. They are met by a contingent of gith scouts, but not like the gith savages that wander the desert in tribes. These gith are civilized, with cruel looking swords. Casting Tongues, the defiler is able to parley. He tells them he's looking for one like him, with an artifact. They say they found a man trying to steal their water and have him locked up. If he pays them enough they would release him. He asks for the artifact as well, price being no concern. They refuse, claiming that if he wants it so badly, then they want it more. He pulls rank on them, saying he represents the Dragon King of Draj. This apparently was unwise for they retort that if keeping the object will anger the dragon-people then they shall keep it for that reason alone, and will not give his friend back either. Battle ensues. The clamor is enough that the two kreen are able to discern the hidden shadowed entrance and make their way through. The monk scouts ahead and finds a great wall, apparently a dam holding back some great underground water source and beyond a great city of austerity and decadence with psudo-pagoda architecture and vast winding streets. An underground gith city!

They draw back and camp, giving the defiler time to prepare his full compliment of spells. The cleric casts lots to see if waiting will bode well or ill--and is suprized to find that it will bode well. The thi-kreen monk scouts ahead, poking around to test the security of the city, and is dissuaded from further examination by the swath of open ground between the stair leading from the wall to the streets of the city. As he watches from the shadows an invasion insues, gith soldiers sent out in fat columns to fight creatures that seem to be phasing into the city in coronas of blue lightning. Once the majority of gith forces are ammassed in the combat at the edge of the city, the invaders disappear in another crackle of blue energy, reappearing far off in the city center, near the huge central towers that mark the middle of the city.

About this time the characters are done resting and make their way through the strange, and now nearly deserted, streets--gith commoners from the corners and windows of the streets hissing at them as they pass, but not interfering. Suddenly as they approach the central tower, a figure jumps from the balcony into the street in front of them. He has one arm severed, and from the bloody stump protrudes a shadowy insectoid arm of gray mist. The kreen wraith sloughs off the borrowed body of the templar--the templar emprisoned by the gith, the very same the defiler was charged with obtaining. He immediately faints from shock and is tied up by the PCs. The wraith explains that the artifact he took was the key to the making of the Dragon Kings--that young Atzetuuk is not one of the original Dragon Kings and when he was created the templars had to reinact the ritual that had made the others. If one knows the making of a Dragon King, he then might discern the key to their unmaking. Inexplicably at this point the defiler pledges himself to the wraith's service. Not understanding the real significance of this, he instead asks the defiler and his ranger friend to agree to join their clutch. They do.

Apparently as they approach the tower, the armies of the invaders have already breached the outer door. From inside fighting can be heard. Cages hang outside the doors of the tower, inside are the withered forms of wretched creatures seemingly half human, half dragon, but long dead. The cleric animates them as undead, and brings them along. As they proceed into the massive gothic-asian structure they hear ahead the sounds of screams and flame and see eerie orange light ahead. So far it's been an even mix of gith bodies and dragon-men (the invaders--called Dray). Going into the next room the bodies are all gith, mostly melted away like candles in a forge. There's a pool of melted rock and the floor is pitted and black from extreme heat. Here are two summoned magma paraelemental beasts, like giant lizard-bulls of lava, conjured by the dray and the stairs leading down to where the surviving dray are headed. The thi-kreen wraith says he must travel ahead to cut off their escape and the PCs agree. With liberal doses of clerical and defiler magic the magma beasts are blown apart by savage defiler winds and bombardments of stone.

Once the danger is passed, the captured templar is revived and made to walk as a bound prisoner. He does not complain about his fate but immediately begins trying to pour his poison into the ears of all, trying to turn them against each other and play his foul hand of cards to best effect. At the last moment, the defiler hisses into his face that he will see the Dragon King the templar worships dead by his hand and cuts his throat. They track the dray to a treasure room where they have recovered the artifact and are already laying down a psionic teleportation circle to make good their escape. The PCs, now desparate, charge forward to stop them. Too late the psionic effect activates and the dray dissapear. All but one. Strangely his eyes are glowing red...and he holds the artifact. He had stepped out from the circle the moment he'd activated it. Sickly the dray pitches forward and a thi-kreen wraith rips its way out through it's hunched back. Still it holds the artifact. The PCs quickly dispatch the prone, dazed dray psionicist. In a feral whisper the wraith intones "It is an act of great faith to trust one to teleportation you--when you do not know where he intends to take you."

The defiler then finally opens up to the party. He was once no one of importance in Draj, merely one who loved a girl who was chosen to be sacrificed in their daily blood rituals. He begged her not to go, but she wanted to--believed it was an honor to give her life so the people of Draj could have the abundance they enjoyed. She died, torn apart on a bloody alter, and the young boy swore revenge. He proved his worth, climbing the ladder of power until he could be in a place to kill Atzetuuk for taking his love from him. Only as he rose in position he discovered a maddening truth. No one can kill a Dragon King. They are all powerful and invulnerable. Feeling himself an abject failure, but realizing his great accomplishment to have risen to such a lofty place of power, he began to turn his self-hatred for failing his love outward on the people underneath him, embracing his evil nature...but now...now he might finally be able to make Atzetuuk pay, strip him of his draconic status and make a boy of him again. Yes, and then sacrifice him upon his own blood covered altar.

They looked over the artifact, an orb of obsidian called a guardian, a phylactery into which the essence of a psion is bonded, turning him into an object without personality. This one was a tutor, an ancient psion who had witnessed the original transmutation of the original Dragon Kings and had been locked in crystal for all time as the keeper of the great and dreaded secret. Within the orb, like the eye of a dragon, was his acid green psicrystal--radiating it's one emotion: suspicion, and ready to trigger an arsenal of potent psionics against anyone who would dare access the guardian without permission. Alas they would not be able to use the guardian without somehow first placating the crystal.

Therefore the characters set off toward Tyr, looking for a powerful psionicist who may discern a way to unlock the great secrets of the guardian.

And that's where we left it. From here we shifted campaigns and have yet to come back to it. Thought it a mighty fine story though, just the same, and figured I'd share it with you all. Let me know what you think.

Hmm...

First thing I'd say is the smoking out the dire badgers thing actually sounded like a lot of fun. I guess if I had my way I think it would have been fun to send the PCs in there in the first place, deputized by the sheriff themselves, rather than having that all be prehistory and the characters bullied into involvement later somewhat against their will and with little promise of reward. Rather it might have been fun if they found a chewed up something in the offal filled cave after having killed a bunch of squalling blind maggoty baby dire badgers--took a closer look and found the note nearby. Then it'd be they who discovered the gnoll danger and hence might have more feeling of wanting to see it through.

My second thought is that perhaps there was a bit too much track and camp. The feel seemed to be that the characters were always ten jumps behind the game. This would get me into a rush too probably if I was one of your characters. I probably would have let the humans fend for themselves against the goblins, would have left the goblins and kobalds to it, and probably would have douced the wererat with alchemist's fire just to avoid having to waste time dealing with him. No doubt the characters were not in deep think mode. They were in furious flight mode, and all the hassles they faced every time they camped probably weren't helping. Dramatic tension is good, but can turn to panic if squeezed too hard. It's a shame when interesting things are afoot, but the players feel like they're wasting precious moments to take time and handle them because they have to rush headlong or fail the mission.

I thought the battle at the ruin had a nice feel to it. I like the fact that the characters were able to concoct a pretty solid attack plan. That healing wand could not be more valuable to the group though if it were made of solid diamond. They got hashed! A bit harsh too, thinking it really all came apart because the gnoll was standing in the wrong spot. I've often felt that when the momentum of a plan is going so nicely and it'd just take a little tip to nudge things into clockwork brilliance or abject awfulness, I oft like to tip toward the brilliance end just as a benny to reward clever planning.

Overall I'd say the story was an interesting one. I'm certainly curious what the artifact was all about, and what plans were in place to see the gnolls ascend to power and I like that it started with something as innocuous as a bid to clear out a den of giant vermin. I'd have liked if the characters hadn't been so bullied into it--if they'd had more of a stake in things. It also felt a titch as though you were DMing against the characters, tailoring events to their weaknesses, having NPCs act in ways that were clever thinking on their part but harmful to the flow of the story at times.

Even in the finale, when the characters planned to distract the gnolls by using illusion to make them expect an attack from a different direction, it would have been more polite to assume they didn't mean to cast their illusion right where they were standing (even if that's what it sounded like they were doing) especially considering that even with a good distraction they were pretty well taxed to pull off a win.

Let me know what you think. I don't mean to be harsh at all. Its by analysing the PC wipeout games that we can tinker out solutions.

Far and away my favorites:

#321's article on the Imbued! Man oh man. That's just begging to be a campaign setting. It has the feel of high octane super fantasy like White Wolf's Exalted but with less cheese.

The ressurection of Darksun!

#315 the issue dedicated front to back to the great settings that are no longer supported. I LOVE it!

The whole series dedicated to expanding the good and evil classes, warriors and spellcasters. There's stuff in there I would buy a whole book to get at twice the normal gougariffic WotC prices!

I'd have put this in the other (non interrogative) post, but it was getting long and I would have gotten buried. But here's my question...Isn't Greyhawk pretty much the core setting?

I mean I bought Temple of Elemental Evil, and amonst the pregen characters available are all the signature characters from the Core book--in a game set in Greyhawk. The gods of the PHB are all the gods of Greyhawk.

I've tried ever since 3.0 came out to figure it out. Is it just like the developers used Greyhawk and then made a big messy mudball out of everything else and just piled it on top? Planescape is now Greyhawk (Last two Planes books pretty much guaranteed that). Spelljammer is now Greyhawk (Neogi mindspiders are apparently back, according to the Abberations book).

I have to imagine Greyhawk IS the "standard" setting or else something REALLY goofy is going on...

WAIT! I get it. Greyhawk is the Doppel Cosmology of the Standard D&D Setting! (I'm kidding, but as I mull it over it would explain alot...nah!)

I know it's not really what was meant, but settings (as in published ones) I really like are:

Forgotten Realms (you have to be cool to be so ordinary but held so dear)

Spelljammer (particularly with the Polyhedron rebreathing of life into it)

Darksun (just obviously the awesome bleak deadly kind of setting)

As for *kind* of setting I like best? I love a good gimmick. I'm really a sucker that way. I love some aspect of a setting you can't get anywhere else. After I've swallowed the hook, however I love it when a setting can reel me in with huge amounts of reality--depth and detail, settings where I can ball my fists up in the earth of it and smell the solid reality of it as I squeeze it through my fingers. Good politics has a lot to do with this, as does geography, pantheon and history.

Settings I don't like...heh-heh. Can I say how much I don't like the "standard D&D non-setting". It's -like- sorta' Greyhawk, but then not. See, there's all the stuff from Greyhawk, but then other stuff that isn't. It's whatever you want it to be, man...you're the GM...not MY problem.

AAAARGH! And every product is written for it so you can't escape it! It's like they're trying to make me go crazy and beat my head in with a D20...

A few musings on gods and pantheons. I have personally never been as interested in gods who were the physical embodiments of *something*. They tend to be too flat and boring--to unmotivated. Why does a god of fire like fire so much? No reason, he just does. It also creates some issues as there are only really so many things a god can be the god of before you run out of good ideas.

Instead I like the idea of gods with a personality, whose portfolios are a summation of the various things the personality reflects. You see this in real mythology. What was Athena the goddess of? Well war at times, but also crafts, and wisdom, and sneakiness, and gutsiness, and was also thought to be a goddess of beauty. You know what she's like, and then choose the domains to fit her dogma.

So take the bland god of fire; say he's actually a god that approves of mortals meeting their ends as spectacularly as possible. He's the god of the 1 and the 20, so to speak, as both result in something exciting. He enjoys liquor as it always expedites something bold and unplanned that the sober mind would never go for. He enjoys flash and excitement and passion.

See that way you could have him and a half dozen other fire gods and they could all exist together because its not really ABOUT the fire thing. Fire's just a manifestation.

I will say I love the pantheons as laid out in the main settings. I like the role of religion in their societies and the diversity of good original religions the developers have come up with. It blows me away. Aside from the odd Time of Troubles style mass god rumble I don't think they get too involved in mortal affairs for my tastes, usually its the plans of various gods as acted out by mortals eager to earn favor for their initiative and inventiveness that result in much of the woes of the world--not the gods themselves.

As for size of pantheon and who gets what gods, I like the idea of multiple pantheons--all in conflict with one another. Entire lists of dead gods and whole pantheons that have gone out of style or whose civilizations have ended pass from all knowledge--a vague curiosity for bored historians. I like rich pantheons full of politics and backstabbing (even among the good guys). For me religion is one of the big attractions to D&D, particularly in settings where gods are not just "cleric juice", but where the majority of people are of one faith or another. It adds a nice extra layer of depth to characters.

My current campaign (of many but a personal fave of mine) is an Epic Level Faerun campaign. First thing I let the players know is that there's a distinct difference between making a 20th level character, and a 1st level character. 20th level characters aren't just powerful...they have history, so much history in fact that the inertia is naturally for them to retire and rule over some plot of land somewhere. They are often married with kids old enough they can give them lip. The characters are somewhere in the vicinity of middle age to elderliness with all of the aches and scars and haunted memories of a life spent adventuring. The concepts turned out were beautiful, and for two of the most memorable characters in the game--family is what it's all about:

Rhondel, think Ian Rickman, is an ooze merchant with a sick fascination with the formless and amoebian. So much so that he has started a little ranch for his family. The kids tend the ooze pits watched over by their mother, a matronly if somwhat nerdish Emma Thomson type. Rhondel goes about the world trying to peddle his "unusual" wares as guard animals, sewer cleaners, and whatever other capacities he can imagine for them. The catch being however, that addled old Rhondel is actually hiding a great secret. He was once the dread General Talthea of the North, bane of orc and giant. His tactics and dark armor of chill were the stuff of both legend and nightmare--the nightmares mostly his own. After many campaigns and atrocities he sought to abandon his old life, burying himself in a business and becoming someone totally different. He has a closet in the cabin, magically locked, that opens into a frozen waste of a demiplane where the old gear of General Talthea slumbers in an austere cave. Circumstances being what they are he has been forced to go in and don once more the aspect of Talthea. Needless to say his family is distraught, having to cope with the thought that their dad is a General known in many bards tales as the Great Murdering Wind. The wreckage of this has yet to even work itself out, but when it does, wow will that be good roleplay.

Thorin, think Michael Ironside, once a pleasant lad from a good family in Tethyr, got himself into a relationship with a young elfmaiden he met once wandering in the forest by the name of Selisea Arsmaior, harder to imagine--the closest I have come is a hybrid of the slightness and breathtaking features of a Milla Jojovich with the savage femininity and animalness of an Angelina Jolie. The two fell into something more passionate than love does justice to, but in the atmosphere of war and hatred between the elves and humans of Tethyr, it cost them both everything. They gladly left, however, and joined a group of outcasts, a religious commune of Lurue. Time passed however, and the sting of their rejection began to burn in Selisea's heart. The Loviatans found her in their tract for members and she turned to their doctrine of hate and vengeful spite. She tried to turn Thorin as well, unable to imagine life without their young daughter. When he refused to join voluntarily, she turned to pain to instruct him. He eventually escaped his torture and with his half-elf daughter Shanalee in his arms ran to the clerics of Lurue to help him. They offered him hostice and healing--but refused him what he really wanted in his heart--vengence. Thorin turned his bloody back to their order for the last time, nothing but contempt for them now. Eventurally he discovered Torm, a god after his own heart--lawful and good but with no illusions as to the need to seek evil out like the lance of a rider and run it down until it dies. He became a paladin, and Shanalee his charge. For decades he thwarted evil in the form of corrupt officials and dragons alike, always on the move--always watched by Selisea. Time after time defeating, but never willing to kill her, each time fueling her hatred more. Now strangely, her path of recovering her daughter and the hatred she bears her husband has marked her paraiah even among her underlings, who tried her for forsaking the faith of the Maiden of Pain in the pursuit of her own goals. They tried to kill her, but as always Thorin was there and saved her life. In associating with her in her hate and evil, Thorin risks his paladinhood to be with her, even now discovering his powers waning. It seems they are drawing full circle, facing rejection from their new homew in sacrifice for their love. But are they strong enough to do it again? Or will their pride and loyalties and the weight of a Wyrd prophecy tear them apart and slay them both?

Wow. A bit more verbose than I'd intended--but it's a good story and I'm very proud of my players that more than that it is THEIR story. I'm just honored to be able to run it for them.

Still, an article that talks about the deities heralds and provides examples of what that deity sends to the Material Plane to answer planar ally spells has potential for a good article.

Exactly. I guess I'm not stating a problem. I don't have difficulty creating new material on my own. What I've got is curiousity. Good articles fill blank spaces that already exist in a setting, casting the lantern into the unseen shadows of a world. I'm hungering for some official word from the guys at Dragon who I trust to give me something both autoritative and creative. Until then I can continue to do what I always have and fudge my way along until the truth be known.

PC: Baldur's Gate (Best of all time really, if you ask me)
Playstation: Final Fantasy VIII or Xenogears probably
PS2: still playing through backlog, but Xenosagas are great
X-Box: Probably Fable--though Oblivion is looking impressive.
N64: ... (something that didn't have a cartoon character?)
SNES: Chrono Trigger!!

Mind Flayer vs. Reason Stealer

Just some sick irony for those of us who don't get enough of that sort of thing...

Superelves. The bane of my particular player group, in which elves are hated with a furious passion usually reserved for dead german fascists.

And why I wonder? I got into AD&D relatively late, after a good many years of Worlds of Darkness and Cyberpunk under my belt. For my money starting out I just wanted to play a human. Why? Well elves were flighty, girly, malnourished humans. They didn't seem particularly fantastic. They had a +1 Dex and suffered a -1 Con. Likewise dwarves were crude, rude, fat and hairy. Gnomes were goofy old yoda-esque guys. Halflings were short fat homebodies. Humans were where it was at for me coming into AD&D. Granted my attitudes have matured a bit from these thumbnail appraisals, but still.

The short answer is humans are better than elves because they get another feat at character generation, more skill points, and suffer no class preferences.

The problem with elves that I have is quite another one. They start out being like 120 years old right? What have they been doing all that time? One-hundred-twenty years with no levels to show for it? Talk about living in their mom's basement. How's that for a level adjustment. If you want to talk about the part of the D&D universe that just don't make no sense to me. This is where the problem is--not "why are elves so cool" but rather "why does it take an elf 120 years to figure out what end of the arrow do you put into the bow, when a human is ready to adventure in 16"

Wow. Humans really are the master race.

Y'know, I must say I go off a different scale. For me Forgotten Realms is medium fantasy--and that's about where I like it. Magic is an oddity, not everyone uses it but most are familiar with it. There's as many quack remedies and old wive's tale folk remedies as there are magic potions. Old magic persists but is largely the stuff of legend. The closest thing most adventurers find to real magic are +1 rings of protection and their handy +1 longsword. That's magic where I like it.

High magic for me is about magic items and artifacts as the usual tools of the trade. Teleportation circles and recall stones are how people travel long distances. People are as likely to have a pack golem as they are to have a mule. Fortune tellers in seedy tents actually do read fortunes, and can turn you into a werewolf if you try to rob them. That's high magic to me.

Lately my big problem with magic has been its ability to utterly defuse drama. A high elven diplomat summoned by a wish spell sacrifices his life to say some key choice words to a completely psychopathic blood soaked villain, words that catch in her heart only after she has struck him down in her hate--a sacrifice that helps to change her and might even redeem her. Then the high level cleric resurrects him and *poof* no more noble sacrifice. Yuck. Likewise there's just been a huge battle in which thousands of people from Teziir have died in a sensless attack. People are weeping, hearts are full--and the group's archmage is researching an Epic spell using the life seed to raise them all en masse. Huh? Likewise there's a prophecy. One way a paladin husband and marauder wife will be brought happily together, though thousands of lives will be lost. On the other hand the thousands will be saved, but husband and wife will die. Great moral quandry for the characters--except it won't happen. It can't happen because all this insta-life magic keeps popping up and killing the dramatic moments of the game (epic level campaign by the way if you couldn't tell).

So I'll ammend my statement. I love my idea of mid-level magic (aka high magic) for game settings, but would make bringing back the dead lots harder, riskier and more roleplay intensive no matter what level characters are.

Well, according to the DMG it should take approximately three sessions for a character to go from one level to the next. In a perfect world, this would mean 300xp x level per session broken up into various encounters, either traps or fights or key roleplaying situations. As characters level up, the pace doesn't slow down, the encounters just become bigger and badder until you're facing storm giants instead of goblins. Granted that's the official word.

Me? Myself I think that's way faster than I'd like to see the game go. I have a problem imagining a world where everyone grows in power on a nearly weekly basis--and characters should fit into the world they're in, should they not? I'd like to see the level gain slowed to molasses. My players would probably lynch me if I doled out XP the way I would want, but I'd enjoy maybe 50 to 200 XP a game.

People would hate me for it, but the roleplay would be so much more rewarding and the character development would be so much richer. More than that, however, the growth would feel like real people getting better through long hours of honing their skills rather than a cheap game mechanic so people can get their next special goodie.

I came back a while ago from a convention where one of the better DMs did his best to describe each blow in the combat. I liked it quite a bit. So I wanted to check and see how many DMs and players out there actually did this and how many liked it.

I totally know what you mean. I try and describe the battles as intensely as I can. A big part of the energy of a good game can be from the feeling of emminent danger from big sharp bits of metal whizzing around. The heaviness is important. Often, even when an attack misses, the whistle of the blade past the character or adversary can mean a lot.

It makes things feel more serious. It's particularly good if the DM does his research to know what realistic damage looks and feels like from different weapons. There tends to be a lot of hollywood damage in games, which tends to make the game feel like Mortal Kombat or some B movie slasher flick, which can be unfortunate (or great...heh-heh depending on the game)

Is the proud owner of (I think) the only Dark Dungeons t-shirt!

I kid you not. It's the "Blackleaf NOOO!" scene. I photoshopped it a bit, and moved up the "Your character was weak. Her death was inevitable" line the evil DM lady says later and removed the girl with the pigtails. Its a great shirt. I still have that photoshopped image too.

Not a request, but more like a question as to who would want to see such an article. I'm envisioning presenting some wild magic spells, stats and bios for a couple of prominent wild mages, and probably some magic items too.

for those who don't know, wild mages are from the Complete Arcane.

I don't know a lot about the 3rd ed. wild mages, but I know they were one of my favorite things from the old 2nd edition and it would be fun to see them brought up to date in some form. I always liked the idea of people forming raw magic energies on the fly and the rules for magical mishaps when wild magic goes wrong were great!

I'll take a thumb through Complete Arcane.

Awesome. A fusion of what are perhaps my two favorite D&D settings ever. No luck actually running either of them yet, but really really favorites of mine. All the luck to ya.

Looking through the Monster Manuals I have found their selection of Celestials to be exeedingly spare. If you want a nature god's servitor, you're fine. They have lots. Otherwise you're left with a few choices, none of which is particularly compelling--balls of light, guys with wings for arms, etc.

Thumbing through the gods of the D&D Core Rulebook (not to mention Faiths and Pantheons) I wish I knew what, for example, the divine servants of Boccob were like or Fharlanghn, or Olidammara. How are Tyr's servants different from Ilmaters?

Such topics could fuel an entire line of articles.

P.S. On a related note while there are entire books written on the Standard Cosmology's planes there's next to nothing on the planes of the Forgotten Realms. I would love to know what some of these planes are anyway--The House of the Triad? The Barrens of Doom and Despair? The Gates of the Moon? Each could be an article of its own. I would love it!

First a love and understanding of the setting, so that wandering down its streets and talking with its inhabitants feels genuine and interesting.

Second a love of language and storytelling, so that the game feels both lavish in its description yet sweeping in its pacing.

Third and above all, a focus and interest in the CHARACTERS. Any GM can abuse his position to tell some story he came up with and make everyone else ride along. A great GM is one who sifts the pasts of his characters for story elements, and who invites them to pursue their personal agendas toward the ends they want to accomplish. Without this, it does not really matter what kind of character a player creates or whether he puts any effort into it at all. With this character centered focus, the great GM will find his players handing him tomes about each character, full of lavish histories--and suddenly finds he has to prepare less than he thought because his players are providing him with story and setting.

Razz wrote:

Yes, more prestige class. Just perfect my campaign. I love variety in my games and I want tons of it. Always surprises, always more options for my players, and always more options for me when I make NPCs and monsters.

Don't hate on the crunch people. Not everyone is so professional and gets together in teams everyday, getting paid for it, to come up with new crunch material to bring to the game that's balanced enough to play. Fluff is way easier to create, since all you need is a---*gasp* oh no...a freaking IMAGINATION!

*gasps* Oh my...does such a thing exist in a D&D game anymore? I sure hope so...

IMO the imagination of the player is being crunched by power-gaming options upon options -- new feats, skills, spells, and prestige class galore.

I disagree with your assessment of imagination vs crunch. Of course, this is subjective, but I believe that creating "crunch" materials, while tedious, is not nearly as challenging as setting up a campaign with characters that breathe verisimilitude. I am tickled pink by the Shackled City HC, but this Dragon compendium I will not pre-order. I'm not saying I won't buy it; rather, I'll check it out at my FLGS and then decide. I'm just not excited about more character options. I've got volumes of them that I'll never use, nor will my players.

Here's my take, as I step into the morass:

The condition of D&D nowadays is pretty amorphous. There's a few solid settings out (namely Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Eberron, and Dragonlance) but for the most part things either abort to Greyhawk or else are in the floaty limbo that is the "core setting" which is largely Greyhawk with anything else the DM wants lumped in. Hard to use for guys like me who are interested in keeping their settings clean.

So when there's an article that presents an event, or a place, or an artifact or guild I kinda' go..."Yeah, but where is this event taking place in?" If I can have a straight answer, then I can use it. If the answer is "wherever you want, cause you're the DM!" I tend to trash it.

Races and classes, however, can be used anywhere...well most of them. Therefore it is of the greatest use to me in my games.

Personal thing here. Though there's been a lot of clammor for adventures and whatnot, I have to disagree--or at least recommend that old Dragon dungeon crawls be put in their own book.

I have NEVER run a dungeon crawl, and while most of the background information, races, gods, classes and other crunch (I guess, although I'm not really sure what "crunch" even means ;) ) are tremendously helpful to me--the adventures are typically very long and I never use them. I'd feel like I would be getting a lot more value from a book that didn't have the adventures in it. For me, adventures are mostly a waste of space, and I'm sure that for the dungeon crawl crowd it would be nice having all that stuff in one place rather than scattered around.

I'd very much like to see the Planes be the next compendium, if for no other reason than to see the Nine Hells articles updated.

Of course, WOTC may want all of that for Fiendish Codex II...

OOH! Planes stuff! Especially anything you have on planes of other settings. Not sure what there is, but anything for the Forgotten Realms cosmology and outsiders for example--or really any other settings would be ultra-keen!

Has the possiblity of an "Updates" volume been explored?

I for one would love to see a hard or softback compliation of various material such as the Oriental Adventures 3.5 update, the Darksun material published in Dragon/Dungeon, and the Spelljammer material from polyhedron (yeah I know it isnt Draogn specifically but a bear can dream!)

Incidently (not to hijack a thread) Could we maybe see some hard or softbound love for the late great Polyhedron? Please 0_0

This guy's my hero! Everything he said! I would love some campaign specific OA and DS stuff. Spelljammer and any Polyhedron stuff would blow my socks off.

(You have to understand...all it took was a glance at an ad in the back of the latest Dragon mag that the compendium was coming that's gotten me on the boards posting something like three or four posts already. I'm that excited!)

You'd better snatch it up, then, since the lupin race appeared in Red Steel. ;)

(It also includes the sha'ir class from Al-Qadim)

Hey I remember that article! I didn't catch the name glancing through the races. Never got a chance to play Al-Qadim, though I always liked it...hmm well I'll definitely keep an eye out for the book when it shows up. Could be cool!

P.S. What, by the way, is the difference between crunchy vs. non-crunchy content? Just curious.

I don't know how feasible this is, but in the wake of the Dragon Compendium v.1 I would like to request some kind of compilation of all the Ecology articles I can get my hands on. I'd take it on CD or in a printed book. I just would love to have a handy reference to all of those. I've missed out on a bunch of them, but after seeing how awesome the Spellweaver article was I would desparately love to get my hands on them all!

I feel sheepish not talking about the dice (everyone else seems to be). So um...they're really cool too. ;)

Unlike most here I LOVE extra races and classes! The more the better. Prestige Classes are great (particularly if they're not dedicated to Greyhawk-only deities, near impossible to qualify for, or if they're not the uber-weak "THAT'S an Archmage??" type classes).

The big problem I see is that of the races, I recognize not a blessed one. I guess a "Diabo"lus is some kind of demony tiefling thing? Still I'd like to see races that seem more recognizable, particularly ones from now discontinued game settings (Red Steel, Darksun, etc. etc.)

Likewise, though some of the classes sound interesting, I don't recognize any of them and am dubious as to their value in my games. It'd be nice to have classes that filled more obvious niches (for example I loved the variant rogues and rangers, as well as the paladins and blackguards of other alignments!) The classes listed seem okay, but I'm a bit standoffish until I get a better look at them. It'd be neat if there were new versions of some old classes: like the old vengence based fighters from Ravenloft, or the Gladiators from Darksun--just a thought.

Anyway I'll probably look for the product in the store. I'll probably buy it if only for the promise of more volumes to come!