In a good way.
I've loved lizardmen, er lizardfolk (sorry 'bout that ... don't wanna be a gender snob), ever since I first read about them in the novel Quag Keep. way back in 19-- (errr, we won't say how far back).
Anyway, this geezer says Bravo to Amber and Wes. You guys did the old scalies justice with your Ecology article in 335. And hey, I learned Eberron has lizardfolk, too -- so the place has got something goin' for it. I may have to visit it sometime.
Anyway, good article. Liked the lizardfolk feats, lizardfolk legends and the lizardfolk tactics. So congratulations for laying an egg.
Well, Quag Keep has a copyright of 1978. I was 4 years old at the time, and I'm 31 now. The only question is when you first read the book.
It was sometime in the early 80s. It seemed like I was chewin' up books like that and Thieves World at the time. A glimpse into my ill-spent youth.
Has anyone ever officially commented on the "-men"/"-folk" switch? It seems so lame and pointless to me. "Lizard men" sounds cool in a very pulpy Robert E. Howard sort of way ("serpent men"). "Lizardfolk" sounds like they sit on the porch in torn overalls strumming the banjo and drinking from a jug of 'shine.
I haven't seen the article yet, so I'm so happy to read your praise, Troy! Wes told me it would undergo some serious edits as they revise the Ecology format, so I hope it looks good...? Did they keep the hermaphrodite lizardfolk shamans? The third eye?
(I like the sound of "folk" myself.)
-Amber S.
P.S. And did my lizardfolk magic items make it into the issue?
P.P.S. Also I didn't write any feats in my copy, so those were all Wes. Kudos to him. B-)
Has anyone ever officially commented on the "-men"/"-folk" switch? It seems so lame and pointless to me. "Lizard men" sounds cool in a very pulpy Robert E. Howard sort of way ("serpent men"). "Lizardfolk" sounds like they sit on the porch in torn overalls strumming the banjo and drinking from a jug of 'shine.
...sensing my next bard character...
- Chris Shadowens
|
"Lizardfolk" sounds like they sit on the porch in torn overalls strumming the banjo and drinking from a jug of 'shine.
What's wrong with banjo's and moonshine? Ok, true, the banjo is like the ugly step-child of the guitar. But moonshine is just like any other primitive and raw version of distilled liquor. The Europeans made this stuff waaaayy back when and look what happened... they conquered most of the world. Of course now a days they aren't much to speak of...
I haven't seen the article yet, so I'm so happy to read your praise, Troy! Wes told me it would undergo some serious edits as they revise the Ecology format,
They're revising the Ecology format? I haven't seen the issue yet either but I take it from the comments that it's getting some crunch?
I haven't seen the article yet, so I'm so happy to read your praise, Troy! Wes told me it would undergo some serious edits as they revise the Ecology format, so I hope it looks good...? Did they keep the hermaphrodite lizardfolk shamans? The third eye?
(I like the sound of "folk" myself.)
-Amber S.
P.S. And did my lizardfolk magic items make it into the issue?
P.P.S. Also I didn't write any feats in my copy, so those were all Wes. Kudos to him. B-)
1. Hermaphrodite Shaman: Yep, s/he's in there. Reminded me of how, in some Ancient American Indian cultures, androgenous, cross-dressers and Hermaphrodites were thought to be "touched" by the gods, and often became medicine men and spiritual leaders. Having the hermaphrodite shaman really tied in nicely to the creation myth you wrote.
2. Third Eye. I don't recall seeing that one. Must've been gobbled up by the kuttforspace monster. Unless you mean the Baleful Eye of Bad Juju ...
3. Lizard folk magic was it's own article: Swamp Swag, which was the Bazaar of the Bizarre. Looks like an extra check's gonna be in the mail.
For the record, the creepiest magic item was the Vivifying Bacalao. Animating lacedon's with fish is wrong, just plain wrong. Which of course for the lizardmen, er lizardfolk, works great.
"Lizardfolk" sounds like they sit on the porch in torn overalls strumming the banjo and drinking from a jug of 'shine.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if ...
"Lizardfolk" sounds like they sit on the porch in torn overalls strumming the banjo and drinking from a jug of 'shine.You might be a lizardfolk redneck if ...
... your Vivifying Bacalao are one year past the expiration date. And you use them anyway. On yourself.
:D
:-D
I knew it was going to be a seperate article, I just wondered if it made it into the issue. Apparently it did, yay! As did the shamans, yay!
And I liked the vivifying bacalao, too. :-D My friend Jav gave me the idea (who says writers don't share ideas?).
-Amber S.
|
|
Just because they find it silly to believe in an "axis of evil"?
;)Greetings from old europe.
A.
True, the whole "axis of evil" comment was pretty dumb. Especially considering that not much has been done about 2/3rds of it. And its not like those three have cornered the market on evil (can anyone say Barney and Teletubbies). But you have to admit, that Europeans don't engage in the kind of good, old-fahsioned conquest and exploitation that they used to.
Return Greetings from not-quite-as-old USA.
Zombie
Contributor
|
:-D
I knew it was going to be a seperate article, I just wondered if it made it into the issue. Apparently it did, yay! As did the shamans, yay!
And I liked the vivifying bacalao, too. :-D My friend Jav gave me the idea (who says writers don't share ideas?).
-Amber S.
And I got them illustrated! I can only imagine the illustrator reading the art order and saying, "Fish? You want to pay me to paint you fish?"
Of course, the month before I got a horsey into Bazaar. I mean horse. Ahem.
So yeah, and the egg staff looks pretty sweet as well! :)
Can't wait till next week when I see issue...gah!
I liked the egg staff best after the fish, that one was all my idea. B-)
Does this mean I have to bring my copy of 335 to GenCon? :D
Well you want me to sign it, don't you? :-p
I'm bringing #...whatever...day-glo mindflayer issue that we were both in for you to sign. :-)
-Amber
So it looks like you all noticed that we tried something new with ecologies. For a long time Ecologies has had the same format (history, physiology, psychology & society, tactics), and while okay, it didn’t have a lot of room for variation. So a while back I started adding sidebars, most notably with the “Ecology of the Kenku,” where we dropped in a sample kenku thieves guild and a list of things kenkus do with their mimicry abilities. This went over fantastically. So we did more sidebars: the history lesson ones, new gods, organizations, lairs descriptions, etc. This came to a head with the “Ecology of the Kraken” when most of the article’s most interesting info wound up in the sidebars (no offence to the good Mr. Pett, I asked for it this way). That was kind of where we decided that the article’s format was a hindrance and that the cool sidebar info should not be relegated out of the basic format. Instead, the format needed to be flexible enough to encompass the cool info. The Draconomicon, Libris Mortis, and Lords of Madness are also all awesome books doing really neat things, so we wanted to riff of the best parts from that series. The “In Faerun” and “In Eberron” bits of Monster Manual III were also pretty cool. So we starting stealing things we liked.
“The Ecology of the Lizardfolk” is the first example of our experiment. (Thanks to Amber for contributing our test subject.)
The philosophy for Ecologies is now ridiculously basic: Do what’s cool. If something has a really interesting history or an awesome societal structure, lets hear about it and cut down on other less interesting sections. On the other hand, I don’t want to spend 400 words explaining that dragons have wings and big claws in physiology. Instead, lets hear about the coolest parts, like how they make fire, acid, ice, etc. internally.
Also, I want to make Ecologies far more useful. Like I said, the old answer was cover only creatures out of the Monster Manual, that way we’re assured that everyone knows what we’re talking about. Boring. So, now, I plan to run a stat block with every ecology, but never just in repetition from the related bestiary. Since every monster presented in every Monster Manual is the weakest version of that creature, in Ecologies I want to present the bad-asses. We’re not going to go over the top and give every monster thirty templates and ten mystic theurge levels, but between the source material and the stats we present you should be able to put together a pretty cool little encounter. For example, in the “Ecology of the Lizardfolk,” the CR 5 Swamp Stalker Chakshael (barbarian 2, fighter 2) and a handful of MM lizardfolk make a pretty good hunting or raiding party without the DM having to write a single stat.
As for the feats, these will appear every now and then like they do in Lords of Madness. Some monsters will get feats if we hit on inspired ideas, some won’t if the space can be better served by something else. That’s going to be pretty much the way of everything. For example, next month in the “Ecology of the Spawn of Kyuss” we didn’t put in feats or the in other campaign settings bits… the new template was too long.
So that’s the idea. Ecologies is probably the most flexible familiar in the magazine now. While this means a lot of freedom, this also means that I take a pretty heavy hand in sheparding these through the works. Also, being one of the most popular parts of the magazine, we get a lot of submissions for ecologies that not only have to have cool ideas but have to meet the needs of the issue we’re working on (see this thread http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/dragon/generalDiscussion/ecologies).
As always, we’re happy to get submissions. I’ve still got quite a few holes to fill next year so feel free to send me several ideas at once, that way we can choose whatever best meets out needs. As for what to submit, I can’t talk about a lot of our themes but every year you can bet that we’re going to have a horror issue, a magic issue, and starting next year, a campaign classics issue. I only wish I had ecologies for all those slotted out. Ho hum.
As for what to submit, I can’t talk about a lot of our themes but every year you can bet that we’re going to have a horror issue, a magic issue, and starting next year, a campaign classics issue. I only wish I had ecologies for all those slotted out. Ho hum.
Ah, subtlety at its finest.
I liked the new format for the ecology article. That combined with the Bazaar of the Bizare article make for many good ideas to be dropped into a campaign. All the magic items were good, particularly the fish and the egg staff. Interesting concepts that worked well with the Lizardmen.
If anyone is looking for ideas for ecology articles, hook horrors and cloakers could do well for the magic theme.
|
So, I've just begun reading my issue of Dragon #335. I had to wait a while as I finished some of my moving, etc.
In any case, I did notice an error in the Advanced Lizardfolk sidebar on page 56. The alignment is listed as Lawful Neutral, but a barbarian loses access to his rage ability if he ever becomes lawful.
Would you suggest changing the alignment to N, CN, or just taking away the rage ability?
Moonshine and banjos are all right. very all right.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you have a boat parked up on logs in your swamp.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if your tribe consist of three hundred lizardfolk, four generations, and one family.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you consider your tribal rituals a good place to pick up mates.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if your tribal territory consist of "here, there, and 'over yonder'".
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if frog-giggin' makes up for most of your tribe's food source.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you insist the southern tribes will rise again... right after you buy yourself a new blowgun... and fix up your boat... and dig a better mudhole.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you raid human settlements... for banjos and moonshine.
:D
I just finally saw the issue this weekend. DeadDM, I'd recommend making the barbarian N.
-Amber S.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you have a boat parked up on logs in your swamp.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if your tribe consist of three hundred lizardfolk, four generations, and one family.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you consider your tribal rituals a good place to pick up mates.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if your tribal territory consist of "here, there, and 'over yonder'".
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you insist the southern tribes will rise again... right after you buy yourself a new blowgun... and fix up your boat... and dig a better mudhole.
Those are hilarious!
|
|
Moonshine and banjos are all right. very all right.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you have a boat parked up on logs in your swamp.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if your tribe consist of three hundred lizardfolk, four generations, and one family.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you consider your tribal rituals a good place to pick up mates.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if your tribal territory consist of "here, there, and 'over yonder'".
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if frog-giggin' makes up for most of your tribe's food source.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you insist the southern tribes will rise again... right after you buy yourself a new blowgun... and fix up your boat... and dig a better mudhole.
You might be a lizardfolk redneck if you raid human settlements... for banjos and moonshine.
Ahhh, the beloved stereotypes. You know, I'm from the south (specifically New Orleans) and I've seen my fare share of real rednecks (and not just in the south). I think it is safe to say that comparing lizardfolk to rednecks is an insult to lizardfolk.
I'm actually Sir Marcus's wife - just hi-jacking his post to give a female opinion...
My vote goes to lizardmen, not this silly "folk" stuff. All this politically correct gender-correction stuff really rubs me the wrong way. It's like "letter-carriers" versus "mailmen". This is so insulting - like a woman can't use that lump of grey matter within her skull to use a masculine term without taking personal offense or automatically assuming it is some complex covert plot to subvert women everywhere and prevent them from expanding their career opportunities. Like if a person uses the term "lizardman" one must automatically assume only males exist (which is obviously impossible anyway). Not only does "lizardfolk" sound corny, IMO, but it's hard to make anything containing the suffix "-folk" sound terribly menacing or dangerous. I agree with previous posts, "folk" sounds like people you meet at a hoe-down or something.
What's next - the "boogie-person"?
As a woman and the author of the article, I'm fine with lizardfolk. I think it partially inspired the Creole-swamp feel I channeled in my "Swamp Swag" article. But that's just me. I find very little offensive these days - I'm one of those people everything rolls off of. Lizardmen? Sure. Lizardfolk? Cool. I just write the words and leave the interpretation to others. B-)
-Amber S.
The hermaphrodite versions of the lizard folks ... they would be lizard (what?).
Not lizard man. Not lizard woman.
Hmmmm, maybe lizardfolk works after all.
I'm going to break with tradition and agree with yamo. I think lizardmen just sound cooler.
And for crying out loud, someone help wes out and query "ecology of the flumph, giant space hamster, miniature giant space hamster, or kank"
actually, I rather think I'd like to see ecology of the kank.
In the past year the Flumph got a whole Dungeon adventure devoted to it.
That alone has got to satisfy the flumph fans until at least 2010.
Spare us more flumph.
I was under the impression the flumph was made for that one specific adventure. Where did they originate?
I realy liked that adventure and look forward to running it (some day hopefuly soon when I start DMing again), only I don't like the name flumph. Just strikes me as something I'm going to get minatures thrown at me for.
I was under the impression the flumph was made for that one specific adventure. Where did they originate?
First edition "Fiend Folio". Of course, as many know, thanks to "Castle Greyhawk" (the name I believe of the humor themed adventure collection that came out oodles of years back) in the land of useless monsters the flumph is "the prime food source".
The Cretin, Mentu the mind fileter, the inhuman scorch, Queen of the Honeybee Hive where are you now :)