derek_cleric's page

Takasi wrote:

IMO, it would be smarter for them to stop segmenting the market ...

BLASPHEMY!!!

Double Blasphemy! I'm still wishing for a unified Mystara Campaign manual. That's one I will never see.

I have to admit. I'm surprised by WotC dropping support but not too much. FR and Eberron seem to be their thing now. Which is too bad for them as neither setting get me excited. Now GH and Mystara, that's adventuring!

--Ray.

Are these those modules where the buuts in the monsatery were introduced. The ones with the juggernaut in the desert? I ask, because I only know the german titles...

Yes. These are the modules that introduce the Bhuts, the second introduction of the Juggernaut (it was also in another module that I can't remember the name of), as well as, the Dusanu, the Geonid, the Malfera, the Mujina, the Nagpa, the Soul Eater, the Spectral Hound and the Tabi.

Lots of good stuff in there. :)

--Ray.

Save yourselves $$$$$! Use The Gimp instead! There is a Windows verion as well as verions for Linux and other OSes.

http://www.gimp.org

--Ray.

Although I don't think it will happen, I'm holding out hope for the Master of the Desert Nomads (X4/X5/X10) series. I've always said that these three modules could be put together into a "super-module" and rewritten into an amazing campaign. I'm running a highily modified version that I converted into 35e for my group now. I had to OCR them and do some major hacking/editting on the modules but I'm more certain than ever that it's true (now that the campaign is almost over).

All that being said.... I would guess that it's going to be another Gygax module. Tomb of Horrors? (I hope not, AIR, everyone dies in the ToH.)

--Ray.

- Two high-profile WotC/TSR authors will do "revision advenutures" in the vein of Maure Castle.

Did they give any hints as to which modules are going to be updated?

--Ray.

Every time I try to download the submission style sheets, Windows tells me "Malicious Script Detected," and I have to shut IE down. Any ideas?

Don't use IE. Firefox would be a better and safer choice.

Derek - difficult for a few reasons... wil save was only one page. While this works for Maps of Mystery (though I seem to recall Erik saying something about Maps of Mystery being more expensive on the Paizo side of things than any one page column), Critical Threats run 2 pages and side treks 3-5 pages.

I know of a quick way to find 2 more pages. However, I think many here on the board wouldn't like it. Dungeon could rotate Downer as well. There's 3 pages of space and everyone would get a little bit of what they want.

--Ray.

What about a rotating set of articles. In January do a Map of Mystery, February -- Critical Threat, March -- Side Treks, April -- A guest writer article (e.g., Gary Gygax writes something up about the early days) and then repeat the cycle. This would make several good ideas appear but they wouldn't appear every month. Instead, they would appear 3 times a year.

--Ray.

And so as to end on a negative note, a few things I'd rather not see -- no power plays for half-dragon ninjas, no 15th level kobold were-dire badgers, nothing that would be regarded as k00l!!! on the optimisation boards :)

I wouldn't call the disappearance of this problem, 'a negative note.' I find myself 'normalizing' critters that are half-this and half-that. Not doing a fiendish half-dragon 15th lv kobold ninja is a very good thing. Doing a fiendish half-dragon 15th lv kobold, IHMO, is a quick way to ruin a module.

--Ray.

Back to the topic at hand, 2 "adventure arcs" in a year of 3 adventures each strikes me as about right. Plus one "adventure path." Plus two installments of Castle Maure.

GVDammerung,

I agree with everything except the Castle Maure part. I think it would be a better idea to do only one CM level per year for another year or two, and use the other adventure "slot" for a first level adventure. That's an area that Dungeon doesn't seem to be able to do very well. It's not their fault as it's largely a submissions problem so everyone should submit their 1st level adventures!!! :)

--Ray.

The only problem I've seen with the campaign arcs so far, and it's not really a big deal, is that they have been for higher levels. It would be nice to see an arc for 1st-3rd level characters. There aren't many low level adventures in Dungeon but I guess that's a submission problem on it's own.

--Ray.

You could not compare any of them in ability, because their good writing is in different fields.

I think you have described the situation perfectly. I didn't like Wil Save at all but I couldn't say anything about Wil's writting ablities. He's quite good. I just didn't think he should be writing for Dungeon. I could, however, see his column in Dragon. His column was more player oriented rather than GM oriented. I think that no one would have had problems with it in Dragon. Erik should talk with Wil and get the column moved to Dragon. That's where it should have bee all along.

What will be replacing Wil Save?

I hope for the rebirth of "Side Treks". I always could get alot of mileage out of one of those! :)

--Ray.

With Wil Save gone, there's an extra page available in Dungeon. What would you like to see in that space?

Do you guys remember the "Side-Treks" from about ten years ago? I took one called, "Manden's Meathooks" and stretched it into three sessions! The whole thing came out of the DM's butt! No notes. No nothing. I just had some paper behind the screen to keep the players thinking I had it all written out. That's what needs to replace Wil Save!

Erik, bring back Side Treks!!!

--Ray.

I'm not counting the 27% as positive; the 83% figure is a combination of positive and neutral responses. I'm saying that 83% of respondants don't want to tear the Eberron pages out of their magazines and then rip said pages into tiny bits.

This pole was meant to address a theory that a huge majority of the readership wants less Eberron in Dungeon -- the results show that 83% don't want less. They might not want any more, but not less either.

Good -- Neutal -- Evil The three levels of the Eberron Poll

In your first post you said.....

Do you use the Eberron content in Dungeon (or plan/want to use it in the future)? Sound off with a "yes," "no," or "other" and feel free to explain your choice.

You're showing a bias by placing the "other" category into the "yes" category. The ones who are in the "other" category are neither for nor against and should be counted separately from both the "yes" and the "no." categories.

You need to keep three levels here in order to be accurate in your poll. Don't draw the conclusions that you wish to see. You're trying to say that 80%+ of the Dungeon readers want to keep the Eberron content. I just don't see that in the results. I see a slight majority for it with a smaller group that is neutral (e.g., I take things but don't use the modules) and another smaller group of against (Eberron! Ick!). Basicly, I guess it would be somewhere around a 60-30-10 breakdown.

--Ray.

We're almost to 500 posts about Wil Save!!!!! Quick everyone post!!!!! :) I read the latest Wil Save. I promised to try it again earlier in the thread but maybe I'll give him next month too as I suspect that the article was already at the printer by the time I said I would give him a second chance. However, that being said.....This one sure stunk! Having a beer with a friend and talking about the kids. Hmmmmmmmm.......just didn't work for me.

--Ray.

In summary, 57% use the Eberron content in some way, and 83% want to see the same level or more of Eberron in Dungeon.

I believe your conclusions of the results are incorrect. The 27% should not be counted as a positive in your survey as it's a neutral answer. All you have is aproximately a 60-40 cut so far which would seem to me to be a realistic outcome.

My suggestion is that the written content be made available to paid subscribers in an editable format (such as MS Word).

Just get out your scanner and OCR the text of the sections that you need to rework. Instant Word document or as in my case, instant Open Office document.

--Ray.

I've dropped the simple "yes/no" results for now

Now, now..... Yes means, "Yes I do" and no means, "No I don't". Can't be all that hard can it? :)

--Ray.

From a DM's POV, I wouldn't use Eberron. It's just not the kind of DnD game I would like to run. That said, I wouldn't covert Eberron adventures for my Mystara game either. Well, I guess I should never say never but then again.......

From a PC's POV, I'm not in an Eberron game but it might be interesting to play. The Techno/Magic mix of Eberron is interesting. It's kinda like the way I have always imagined Mystara's Blackmoor.

For this poll, I should be considered to be a "No."

--Ray.

We assume that most DMs paraphrase the material in the "read aloud" text.

--Erik

This is interesting. When I DM, I read, verbatim, the flavor text and then let the PCs have at it aftward. I wonder how many DMs paraphrase and how many do not? Hmmmmmmmmmmm......

--Ray.

On a lighter note, I like to consider myself educated. I can spell words with one syllable, and I know an incomplete sentence when I see one. That said, I’ve run more than my fair share of official Dungeon adventures, and have more than once been derailed by text that I am supposed to read aloud to players that usually describes the scene. I don’t have a Dungeon handy for examples, but in virtually every adventure there is at least one word like “elucidate” or something to that ilk that I have never seen before, and there I am stammering to even say it correctly.

Why don’t I just replace the word with one that is familiar? Because I have NO Idea what it means!

Do I not read enough Tolkien or something? What Gives?!

Anyways, it’s a good problem to have I suppose, and I would never ask Dungeon to reword the adventures. Maybe I should quit being lazy and crack open a dictionary.

I know what you mean but you have an interesting choice of an example word. :)

e·lu·ci·date
v. e·lu·ci·dat·ed, e·lu·ci·dat·ing, e·lu·ci·dates
v. tr.

To make clear or plain, especially by explanation; clarify.

I dunno. I think it would be pretty awkward to have to pull a whole year's worth of Dungeon issues down off the shelf just to read-up on a campaign world.

I was thinking that at a later time Paizo would publish the whole thing in a special additional (read: not as part of your subscription) issue or as a soft/hardback book. Those who didn't buy the special issue would, of course, have to pull down the year's worth of issues off the shelf to find that information about the Kingdom of Karameikos or whatever place.

The area of Mystara known as the "Known World" could easily be done this way as each country could be handled as it's own separate "module" of the setting. The way I envisioned it was each issue could cover one country or perhaps a single city or region. I guess this would depend on how each article were written though.

--Ray.

Has Paizo considered creating a new campaign setting or remaking one of the other classic campaign settings as a series of articles in Dungeon? There's a thread over on the WotC Mystara board about just this kind of thing for Mystara.

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=413219&page=1&pp=30

I think Mystara would be a perfect candidate for this kind of treatment but I wouldn't be upset with a new setting either.

--Ray.

I can back down too. :) If Wil Save costs that little to have in the magazine and Erik (and others) do really get something from it, then it's worth having in Dungeon. I will give it the benefit of the doubt and try rereading some Wil Saves from my back issues. Maybe I can start to relate to it. :)

--Ray.

Zherog said:

However, my own second hand annecdotal information is most likely useless to everybody. ;) And yet it is still more relevant that 90% of Wil's columns . . . go figure.

Yes. This is so very true. I do like Wil but I don't really want to read about Wil's experiences, neither in nor out-of-game. If Paizo would like to keep Wil Save, I'd move it over to Dragon. I think it would be more appreciated there. Besides, Wil Save doesn't add any DM material to the magazine. It's just fluffy stuff.

--Ray.

We'll try to console ourselves with the 97% approval rating, then. ;)

--Erik Mona

I hate to disagree with you on this Eric, but I find this one hard to believe. A 97% approval rating for Downer and Wil Save?!! Dungeon is designed for DMs. Downer and Wil Save (nothing against Wil Wheaton) simply do not add any value to the magazine. Your "flavor text" in the "From the Editor" and the input from the readers in "Prison Mail" are interesting good enough to keep me happy. There are two quality side-bar cartoons, "Mt. Zogon" and "The Portent" already. At best Downer is a far distant third. Wil's stories are sometimes cute but it doesn't help me prepare for my next gaming session and that's what I really need......That's why I subscribe.

In short, keep the fluff to a minimun and give me lots of crunchy bits. Otherwise Paizo should just save the $$$ on those three pages and simply shorten the magazine by that much.

Thanks,
--Ray Allen.

Serious Aside. Does anyone know if the CAS stories have fallen into public domain?

That depends on the publication date. If it is 1921 or before then it is.

--Ray.

I'm running the Master of the Desert Nomads series (X4 and X5) with my group. Had to make some pretty massive changes to it to make it work with MC but the modules are adaptable enough that I can make it work. I basically rewrote it. The Master attacked Karameikos instead of Darokin and he wins. The Duke is forced to fight a guerrilla war and meets up with the pcs. He sends them after the Master.

I would love to have some Mystara adventures in Dungeon. There's no reason why they couldn't do it. Especially if they select generalized modules. There's lots of information on the 'net about the setting.

--Ray.