Awesome thread! Set, your GH-lore is appreciated.
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Wow- you're right! It did get moved. I'd forgotten about Against the Cult of the Reptile God and little Orlane. You've got me looking at some of the other notable locales on my Paizo poster-map. I'd be interested in understanding if it was a decision or if something was overlooked as well. Hence the bump. Keep us posted about your campaign, Ray!
195. Celestial Geometries- As the metallic armor you wear is subject to abuse, the metal's distress doesn't become dents and smudges. Instead the metal re-organizes itself into whorls, triangles, circles, lines, and other glyphs visible in bright light. Regular maintenance of the armor is required, but the changes are in the way the metal is cast. Research will reveal that the specific icons indicate your ancestry's names and titles in Celestial.
I like "abracastabya" Can't . . . Can't breathe! *sound of intense laughter*
Pardon the thread-necromancy, but I was curious how the 'Con went? Did you have fun? -pax-
I'll agree completely with houstonderek; When A Star Falls is my fave of the UK modules. It has quite a bit of "setting" in the short page count and tied wonderfully in with the original Fiend Folio. Plus, I have an absolute fascination with the whole "order of monks" concept. Glad to read you found your maps! Keep us posted on how the module serves your nefarious purposes... -pax-
Absolutely awesome! Good luck with the further adventures... I'm sure your archon will be the perfect gentleman; that's kind of it's raison d'etre, innit? You'd think the Underdark would get cleared out eventually, but those oozes and slimes just kind of keep on coming. Have fun with it!
Thanks Jean. I'll have to check it out when I'm home and don't have the internet filters making my life difficult. Understood - the FF stuff used to be freebies from their website. I long ago ordered one of the CD compilations, and they've sent me updated PDFs often. I'm as happy with their service and materials as I am with Paizo's. High marks! Though my wife is running a small gaming con this winter (our second) and has planned a Steampunk Luncheon for that Saturday. Ah, if only I were within a thousand miles! Sounds great! Is your wife sticking with historical Earth (with appropriate steampunk tweaks) for her games, or is she cooking something original up? Very interested in hearing more. -pax-
Sorry about the thread-necromancy, but . . . Hey, ShadowPavement, have you heard of the Forgotten Futures compilation? It's got a rock-simple core RPG system (which is not the reason to pursue the game) surrounded by about 3.6 metric tons of Victorian/Edwardian era "setting material". Awesome source for a steampunk game, all the while reflecting a lot of actual terrestrial-history. Forgotten Futures is billed as "a roleplaying game of Science Fantasy" (that odd genre of fiction Verne, Wells, Doyle, and the like wrote). Technically, science fantasy includes all those "science fiction" tales from the past that the future has not borne true. So, some of Asimov's early work could count. But then, I'm kind of fascinated with that strange flavor of fiction... Anyway, I hope this gives your wife something to chew on while reading over the Steampunk OGL book. How did this book turn out, btw? Off topic: Wolfgang - did you have a good time at SteamCon? -pax-
Haha! Classic . . . Thanks for the response, Lisa. One can only imagine how difficult guiding a company to financial prosperity in these troubling times might be. I spend more with Paizo per month than with any other publisher who prints gaming material. You've got my support - and I, for one, trust you to make the decisions that will keep Paizo afloat and producing quality work. Besides, when we can just *ask* you about developments on these forums, everyone gets to know as things unfold. Great community! -pax omnium veritas-
Quite cool how those species ended up in alphabetical order! Yeah - there's lots of stuff going on in the Underdark. I once did a game where a cult (worshipping a power of Darkness and Order/Law) found a nice home close to a thriving Illithid settlement. The cult and the 'flayers got along for a while, until the cultists manifested an avatar of their Cthulhu-Mythos inspired Shadow Crystal god-thing... Anyway, it was a great game! Lots of memorable moments. PCs were good or neutral (neutrals were mostly motivated by vengeance against the cult or the 'flayers). So, my group was kind of split about who was the worse villain. They decided to work together to get these powers in the Underdark to fight against one another. Turns out that shards of this avatar could reflect psionic hoo-haa away from those attuned to them, but they had a pretty severe price associated with it. (The Shadow Crystal could send ethereal agents / threats thru the Shard into the Prime.) It didn't take much instigation on the part of the PCs to get the nasties at each others' throats. Raids on the cultists yielded Shards. These Shards were passed on to the more powerful of the illithid's Thralls to allow them some chance to break free of their tentacled masters. Throw in a tribe of Grimlock barbarians, an insane beholder, and a duregar merchant house and you really didn't notice the lack of drow. Good times... :)
I subscribe to Pathfinder for the setting; not the system. I wasn't planning on changing anything about my gaming due to the change to 4.0. My concern is more for Paizo and the production of these books than what system you use. My advice and opinion: Take the safe path. Eric (and everyone else at Paizo) are eloquent in their announcements. They do not sound like fanboys upset with Wizards of the Coast (and neither should they - they're professionals), and they take the effort to keep us (their readership) in the loop about what's going on with the company. That's an astonishing thing, these days. Be safe, take care of your enterprise and yourselves, and do what makes sense at the time. You can always produce "3.Paizo" while waiting and shelve it should WotC come up with the goods... Regards -
What can you guys tell me about "Lords of Madness"? i really enjoyed this one. the Tsochari (correct spelling) are a nightmare i've had made real. hyper-yuck! however, the amount of material it gives for abberations is quite useful. i've run a series of adventures for my groups wherein an Illithid Hive is working on infiltrating another dimension (alternate Prime). for those adventures, this book was invaluable. i, too, owned the Illithiad from the 90's. however, WotC's new take on the origin of the mind flayers helped me flesh out the origin i'm taking in my own universe... if you count the number of abberations presented in the 3.5 d20 Monster Manual, you'll begin to understand just how common a creature type they really are. Lords of Madness gave me plenty of useful info on how to further mutate other abberants, too. overall, i'd rate it a 9 of 10. as a note; it seems that the people taking the time to post to this thread are people who enjoy the supplements you're asking about. you might wish to keep this in mind when reading recommendations! - here's to your first Tsochari infestation! -
I think this campaign should start at 1st level , and take the characters all the way to high-levels , BUT no way that they could one day fight with Shar on a direct level , I mean this campaign is set to be horrific and chilling , and all the questions shouldn't be answered to keep the tone of it..... wonderful ideas! i've been mulling over what i'd do if i got to run a game in Halruaa, and your ideas are helping me flesh out my own. i'll agree 100%; FR can be too high-level if you allow everyone's fave ultra-NPC into the mix. the PCs are who the story should concern / be about. in the case of Faerun, you've got lots of canonical material you *can* use, but you don't *have* to use.
i've recently had a revelation about running games in established settings: YOU MUST MAKE THE WORLD YOUR OWN. it's beginning to sound like you're on the right track to do just this. the FR game i'm playing in is completely different than published / canonical Faerun because the GM has diverged his history of the Realms away from the published works pretty seriously. he's made his Realms his own; and it's a blast! great ideas for the Exorcist-feel!! Shar is an under-used antagonist, IMO. please keep us posted on how this set of scenarios works out! i'm really interested in hearing how your players react to this plot. -peace is for the conquered!-
According to the campaign notes my GM has provided me to run an elf character, "In 714 DR, the fall of Myth Drannor galvanized the surviving elven realms to action, and elves began to travel westward to Evermeet." Also, later in the same paragraph, "By the Year of Moonfall (1344 DR), the Elven Retreat reached its peak. Persecuted by numerous savage races and equally put off by the invasive and often short-sighted expansion of humans, many elves simply decided to pick up and move. As a result, the elven presence on the mainland fell to the lowest levels since the arrival of the Tel-quessir twenty-five thousand years ago." So, it looks like it took a while to get them mostly over to Evermeet. But then again, it takes elves a while to do most things... Hope this helps - -peace is for the conquered!-
We call the sorcerer, "the sorcerer." And similarly, we call the ranger "the ranger." Pretty cool, huh? :) that's far too logical, IMO...
being bald myself (deliberately), i find the sorcerer to be pretty cool. especially due to his slightly oriental clothing design. what does the office call him? -pax-
It's somewhat difficult to track down, but Living Greyhawk Journal #4 contains. . . thanks for the heads-up! i'll begin digging thru my various sources of gaming material searching for that one...
indeed. indeed... could Mr. Greer be right? is there a vast, nefarious conspiracy or an executive with something to settle? or does Hasbro just really dislike Gygax that much? ever pensive, i remain -- -peace is for the conquered!-
i play in a Forgotten Realms game. i really like the deific powers of Toril... i run a Greyhawk game. the history of the world, the NPCs, and interesting cultures keep me coming back for more (and writing scenarios for my players 3 times a month). i own every Eberron book printed. the tone of the setting is very different (swashbuckling-ly good, one might type...), and i like the way artificers and their creations have been detailed. i bash no setting; however, i would *really* like to see some hardbacks for Greyhawk that had genuine GH material in them. outside the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, how many times have the Silent Ones of Keoland been written about? how does your character join this organization of magicians? what would it gain her? what would be required of her? look up the Church of the Silver Flame, and you'll find info like this. there are several books where the villains of the Realms are detailed; take a look for info on the Zhentarim or the Red Wizards and your search will be pretty quick. i'm not seeing these detail-level books for Greyhawk that the other settings get, even though there's still a loyal fan-base out there. so, while there are no hardbacks being published set in GH (with the Shackled City campaign arc being one HUGE exception), i'm relying on Dungeon to provide my GH fix. until Paizo decides to drop GH from their roster of publish-able worlds, i'll read Dungeon and Dragon. thanks again, Erik!
We have not been explicitly forbidden from running Greyhawk content... thank goodness! Maure Castle is a good example of the right tone, as is the Age of Worms, Istivin: City of Shadows, Hateful Legacy, etc., etc., etc. ah - so you're supposed to support as generic a world as possible using things from GH. like noting that the Baklunish can easily be translated into a 'nomadic culture from the north'... hmmm... i guess WotC just doesn't want to advertise GH anymore? my ignorance is vast and cream-filled... -peace is for the conquered!-
good luck, dude - i count on Paizo for my Greyhawk content. AoW fits really well into that setting thanks to the efforts of you and your crew. i appreciate the fence you're straddling due to this - and thank you for trying to get the core rulebooks' default setting supported again. - peace is for the conquered! -
And don't forget Lareth the Beautiful, the dark hope of the Demoness Lolth. blast! there's a lot to read; where have i read about Lareth the Beautiful before? the name's familiar, but i can't place it... Lareth is a RttToEE alumni, isn't she? hmmm... there was a project on Canonfire that began to describe and map the DeepOerth, but i don't have a link into the forum there. again; blast! this would be a really cool project, if only to describe the non-standard, mutant, variant cultures of the DeepOerth's caverns and tunnels. and (to move back toward the thread's original purpose) the list of DeepOerth's cultures would begin with the drow of Erilhei-Cinlu, then be followed close behind by the White Kingdom and the Realm of the Cloakers. ah - isn't it great to have a world this interesting to play in? -peace is for the conquered-
If I recall correctly, according to Dungeon #70 the White Kingdom lay beneath the Hellfurnaces not far from the drow city of Erilhei-Cinlu. In fact it seemed like it lay along the north shore of the Sunless Sea whose western tip is introduced in D3 The Vault of the Drow. It's possible it was accessed by the Slerotan Tunnel, but I cannot remember for sure. i cannot confirm the Slerotan Tunnel connection, but i *can* confirm it's under the Hellfurnaces near Erilhei-Cinlu... i'm reading through it (Dungeon #70) right now. =peace is for the conquered!=
i haven't had any real problems with any of the iconic characters; if anything, i'd like to see a bit more detail on them. like character sheets for 3rd, 6th, and 9th levels. a tiefling fighter? rock on! a drow bard? can't wait to hear some songs from Down Below... Wee Jas Chick / Tyralandi Scrimm - she's appropriately goth/mysteriously tied to the veil between Here and There. (even if her bust size seems improbably variable) the sorcerer and ranger from the first set of iconics caught my eye, but don't hold my attention as well as the new batch. when will the 3rd batch come out?
Great references, Mr. Baur! Any chance for a future White Kingdom adventure for Dungeon? Are you comfortable with others playing the in sandbox you created and submitting their own WK adventures? Enquiring minds wanna know... Regardless - thanks for sharing the WK in the first place. Lots of room for horror roleplay down there. My players don't appreciate your work, however. - peace is for the conquered!
Mordiggian is the creation of writer Clark Ashton Smith, a contemperary of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard; he's featured in the Smith story, "The Charnel God," and mentioned many places elsewhere. If you're looking for d20 Stats for Mordiggian, look no further than the d20 Call of Cthulhu rules that WotC published a few years ago. yeah - i'm an HPL/REH fan from waaay back. i recognized the name of the God of Ghouls, and really thought the lantern the one in the AoW was carrying did justice to the original story... nice touch! i'm kinda torn about the God of True Ghouls. i'm a serious Greyhawk fan, and it just seems (to me) Orcus or Nerull might serve better for under the Hellfurnaces. is there an opinion around the office up there about Mordiggian/Nerull on this? why was Mordiggian placed in the AP instead of Nerull (who's in the core rulebooks)? thanks for the details on the back issues - i'll see what i can do to find them. try and keep the bail low --
Much like the subject line implies, I'm looking for further info about the White Kingdom (a la Wolfgang Baur). The only reference I've seen is the AoW's mention of True Ghouls and Mordiggian. Weren't there other adventures and / or resources for this nasty kingdom beneath the Hellfurnaces? Any useful responses are appreciated --
-snip some of this out of the middle-
There are other roleplaying games that don't publish adventures; they publish setting books like you've described with a couple of adventure seeds in the back to support the work that's gone into it. A specific example would be _Griffin Mountain_ for RuneQuest; this was originally a boxed set with a 96 page book for the DM and another, smaller, book for the players so they could create useful interfaces between their characters and the setting. Griffin Mountain is the standard to which i hold books like this. It's fantastic. Erik Mona: if you are reading this, i appreciate the fence you're walking with the Adventure Paths "set in" Greyhawk. i understand that WotC has issued standing orders about Greyhawk, and i really respect the fact that you're publishing adventures which you didn't try too hard to file the Greyhawk serial numbers off of... Gygax may have the right idea here. ::peace is for the conquered::
I like it. Its very specific in its effect and as such should not unbalance the game. Twinsun has a great point - being as specific as it is (and the fact that it only works for the possessor, not the entire party), it keeps the balance nicely. The fact that you're dropping it into the setting and using it as a lead to the mage is just a sign of your mad-cool GM'ing skills. Good job - I'm thinking of using this myself... There might be a tweak or two for my game, but that's to be expected. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, that may be true, but the description of the item, its powers and how to unlock them, was exhaustively covered in the boxed set of The Rod of Seven Parts. That should be the basis for any upgrade to 3.5, in my opinion. the boxed set has great stats for the Rod, but (I'll agree with Mr. Mona here) the wolf-spyders as presented aren't my cup of tea. that, plus the fact that my players would laugh out loud at their appearance, would definitely make me re-work them before presenting them IMG... i've been thinking about replacing them with some fiend-y aberration-y nasty monsters. we shall see -- -- peace is for the conquered!
Is it worth getting? I'd say so - unfortunately, it's set in a 'generic' world instead of Greyhawk, but that is its only real down side. As a matter of preference, I changed the wolf-spider mutants into something a little different when I ran it, but that's all that I modified (except running it in Greyhawk). JaenChronicler - an admitted Greyhawk Junkie
if i understand it correctly, Iggwilv has been working on the Demonomicon(s) since she was Zagyg's apprentice way in the way-back... the fact that Iuz and Eclavdra survived infancy is a testament to how tough they should be; Iggwilv doesn't really seem to care about anything but gathering power. other than the authoring of the Demonomicon, the order of events you've described sounds about right to me. yup - she's Evil!
i live here on the Gulf Coast in Texas - not far from New Orleans. my wife and i have done all we could for the Red Cross. this just seemed to be the next logical step... contribution made - here's to hoping the gaming goes on for a long while...
i will agree completely with this assessment. there are some really good articles being turned out in the medium to long sizes. i get a lot of inspiration from these articles, regardless of 'setting' or 'realm'...
Maybe have just two 'class-act' articles a month, with thier length expanded into the spaces left by the single-pages evaporating?
cities of *any* kind are valuable. i don't understand the reaction to Crimmor's write up, either. Greenwood will get long-winded in prose, but his magazine articles (because of the limitations forced on them) tend to be much leaner and cleaner. while Crimmor was a little flowery in description for me, it was still a solid example of good setting development. my USD $0.02: Paizo has really opened themselves to a unique vector of feedback with the forums on the website. i just hope they have the stomach to wade thru it all without becoming demoralized.
ditto - spoon-feeding gets old. however, inspiration does not. i'll agree with the initial thought in this thread; Dragon is not at the same place as Dungeon with regards to quality. however, i don't believe it will take all that much effort to make it shine as brightly as Dungeon. my recommendations:
- keep focusing on those articles which provide real content, regardless of setting (if it's an Eberron article, it's an Eberron article - the rest of us will adapt). - take posts in these forums with a grain of salt. if they didn't care, it would be quiet. too quiet.
as for the drow, i wouldn't be offended by a write-up for the Vheraun (sp?) Masked-God guy... Graz'zt
this idea is really nice, with one wrinkle; how about month 1's page is a map, month 2's page is the write-up for the rooms? alternating odd/even months with maps/content allows people with subscriptions to slowly build an entire dungeon (which, after a year, could be compiled together for something like 'Paizo's Final Dungeon' supplement). while waiting for the contents of the room / glade / haunted house, creative DM's can populate the map themselves. if they think they've got more creative content than the original writers, post it to this forum... creating unique content would also be what people who only get the map would do, as well... those readers who only get the content could look here to the website for the map, or roll their own. i really like this idea!!
we can always use a quick gang of thugs, or a brace of trainee-paladins, or a pack of arcanist appretinces, couldn't we? the investment would be worth the single page, as well as being something quick to write - good suggestion! make the gang something non-human, with their own motivations (or three), and you've got some easy-to-fit-IMC / useful content. i might end up doing something like this and posting it to my website (or maybe CanonFire!)...
#124 showed up today, and it looks to be a wonderful resource. an observation about the cover; is the drow carrying a musical instrument on his back?!? a bard!! wow! who came up with this idea? ... and don't get me started about the cleric of Wee Jas! Wayne Reynolds has outdone himself - thanks for putting such effort into this magazine! i'll be enjoying it for quite a while this is an *astonishing* cover, and one i'd like to have as a full-sized poster / art page of some kind. wish my players luck - it looks like they'll need it.
So there's a question! Of all the 1st edition and 2nd edition adventures, which one would you like to see updated the most? The original Greyhawk / Tharzidun series: - Temple of Elemental Evil (which is done)- Forgotten Temple of Tharzidun - Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth The Lord of Entropy shall not be denied!! pax --
Have you seen the city of Istivin from previous issues? 117 thru 119... The level of detail on the plains of Sterich and Keoland is fantastic! Over these three issues, the political and adventuring possibilities scream for further PC exploration. I have decided to use Greyhawk over Eberron because of these articles. (That, and the fact that I'm a little behind with my Eberron collection...) Greyhawk also has that great 'fantasy realm' feel... I'm hooked on Greyhawk - and I blame Dungeon magazine. pax --
option B, please! I can't get enough Greyhawk material, however more DarkSun would make my players really happy. More Planescape (my secret vice) would be appreciated quite a lot. Might I recommend something like the Istivin write-up in Dungeon? Wonderfully detailed; lots of ideas just dropped on the fertile ground of the Referee's imagination (oh yeah - this noble happens to be a cannibal!), petty noble squabbles, etc... More and more detail about the worlds; not scenarios (which is what Dungeon is for), but background and flavor to inspire Refs to get off their duffs and explore these venerable realms! |