Anybody know anything? Hypotheses and educated guesses welcome, just state them as such...
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I'm leaning toward it being the My Little Pony adventure Wes Schneider is supposedly working on (the link is here). I don't see how all that pony-goodness could fit in one issue.
I thought it was the collaborative work of several posters on these here boards...
Well, we recently had the Greyhawk arc in Istivin.
Then we got the FR arc that had the vampires.
I think Eberron is next.
Well we also had the Shards of Eberron 3 part campaign too. So I guess it could be any setting this time round.
Well we also had the Shards of Eberron 3 part campaign too. So I guess it could be any setting this time round.
Oh, yeah. I forgot about those.
Hmm...
Well, it'll either be something new...or it's back to Greyhawk.
Obviously the next one is in a fairly advanced stage of planning and won't be changed by my input, but I vote for a GH-flavored arc set in either the Pomarj (yes, "Slavers" series nostalgia!) or the vastly underdeveloped Great Kingdom successor states. (Intrigue at the Court of Ahlissa, anyone? If I were an Established Author like messrs. Pett, Logue, and Vaughan, I'd put in a proposal for this one myself. Unfortunately, I'd better work on my academic publishing if I want to get a job and get tenure.)
Given the tasks associated with getting one adventure published, let alone 3 consecutive ones, I am confident that any 3-part adventure will be done by an established designer with experience. I'll simply be praying that it's Greyhawk, Greg Vaughan or no Greg Vaughan.
Given the tasks associated with getting one adventure published, let alone 3 consecutive ones, I am confident that any 3-part adventure will be done by an established designer with experience. I'll simply be praying that it's Greyhawk, Greg Vaughan or no Greg Vaughan.
Just no Greg Vaughan would be great:)
*bingo*
1)The Dragon Magic book2)The Dragons of Faerun book
Something to do with dragons and Forgotten Realms is my best wild guess.
Would you care to make a friendly wager?
::Looks through copy of 139 again to make sure he didn't miss anything::
Celebrating the Year of the Dragon,
The Great Green God
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*bingo*
1)The Dragon Magic book2)The Dragons of Faerun book
Something to do with dragons and Forgotten Realms is my best wild guess.
Would you care to make a friendly wager?
::Looks through copy of 139 again to make sure he didn't miss anything::
Celebrating the Year of the Dragon,
The Great Green God
When I get #139 I'll think about it. I hear, "run, Heath! It's a sucker bet!" in my head right now.
When I get #139 I'll think about it. I hear, "run, Heath! It's a sucker bet!" in my head right now.
Damn precognitive radioactive spiders, who can pass on their powers with a bite!
Not celebrating the Year of the Dragon as much because he has no money,
The Great Green God
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When I get #139 I'll think about it. I hear, "run, Heath! It's a sucker bet!" in my head right now.Damn precognitive radioactive spiders, who can pass on their powers with a bite!
Not celebrating the Year of the Dragon as much because he has no money,
The Great Green God
Heh heh heh.
I feel like I've won in more ways than one.Far Realm invasion indeed.
And instead of inform me of that, you try to sucker-bet me.
I like guys like you.
Far Realm?
When I get #139 I'll think about it. I hear, "run, Heath! It's a sucker bet!" in my head right now.Damn precognitive radioactive spiders, who can pass on their powers with a bite!
Not celebrating the Year of the Dragon as much because he has no money,
The Great Green GodHeh heh heh.
I feel like I've won in more ways than one.
Far Realm invasion indeed.
And instead of inform me of that, you try to sucker-bet me.
I like guys like you.
F2K, do you know what he's talking about?
The real Year of the Dragon (for this dragon anyway) starts in issue 142...
GGG
That's going to be a really short year, GGG. Considering the Year of the Greer(tm) begins in issue #143. :P
Edit: I'd be more than happy to call it the 2nd Quarter of the Greer, but that just doesn't have the same ring to it.
That's going to be a really short year, GGG. Considering the Year of the Greer(tm) begins in issue #143. :P
Edit: I'd be more than happy to call it the 2nd Quarter of the Greer, but that just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Oh, Steve I didn't see you there. How's that "Alice in Wonderland" thing going for you? ;P
GGG
Heh heh heh.
I feel like I've won in more ways than one.
Far Realm invasion indeed.
And instead of inform me of that, you try to sucker-bet me.
I like guys like you.
So a Far Realm invasion huh? Are you sure? 'Cause that would be cool, though perhaps it's filled with Far Realm dragons it being The Year of Me (and Steve's second quarter) and all.
GGG
That's going to be a really short year, GGG. Considering the Year of the Greer(tm) begins in issue #143. :P
Edit: I'd be more than happy to call it the 2nd Quarter of the Greer, but that just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Oh, Steve I didn't see you there. How's that "Alice in Wonderland" thing going for you? ;P
GGG
Seems to be going pretty well, as far as this link indicates...don't mess with the self-proclaimed cabbage lord!!
I'll buy it, as well as that Ironstorm thingy by someone and some others....I'm a sucker for a good author :) (or collaboration of authors). I remember how much work you guys put into Ironstorm.
That's going to be a really short year, GGG. Considering the Year of the Greer(tm) begins in issue #143. :P
Edit: I'd be more than happy to call it the 2nd Quarter of the Greer, but that just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Oh, Steve I didn't see you there. How's that "Alice in Wonderland" thing going for you? ;P
GGG
Heh. Thanks for the opening for a shameless plug, GGG. http://www.goodmangames.com/5037preview.php
I've already been asked to write a sequel, which is in the works. Something tentatively entitled Heroes' End. I'm a wee bit stoked :)
Edit: D'oh! F2K beat me to it.
Seems to be going pretty well, as far as this link indicates...don't mess with the self-proclaimed cabbage lord!!That's going to be a really short year, GGG. Considering the Year of the Greer(tm) begins in issue #143. :P
Edit: I'd be more than happy to call it the 2nd Quarter of the Greer, but that just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Oh, Steve I didn't see you there. How's that "Alice in Wonderland" thing going for you? ;P
GGG
No worries on that score. I just wish I had half his word count (though that didn't stop me from tryin'). Either way I still think either title sounds better that "Year of the Loguey" although the "Year of Heavy Pett-ing" has some appeal...
So anyhow? Far Realm dragons... are you sure you don't wanna bet Heathansson? I mean it's a (pseudo)natural!
;)
G#3
Hah, at least I put in the actual links for both you guys. Congrats on the sequel, Steve.
My question remains...what's a "Far Realm?" Like another plane? I think I like "Far Realm" better than "plane" anyway.
Hah, at least I put in the actual links for both you guys. Congrats on the sequel, Steve.
Thanks, man. When are they going to get that cover art up on Ironstorm? I've checked that page a few times for a peak, but it always says the cover art is pending. Oh, and I'm happy I've finally learned how to make things BOLD and italicized on these forums. Give me another year and I'll figure out how to create links ;)
Hah, at least I put in the actual links for both you guys. Congrats on the sequel, Steve.Thanks, man. When are they going to get that cover art up on Ironstorm? I've checked that page a few times for a peak, but it always says the cover art is pending. Oh, and I'm happy I've finally learned how to make things BOLD and italicized on these forums. Give me another year and I'll figure out how to create links ;)
I don't know, the Ironstorm cover I think bespeaks a certain amount of mystery, don't you think?
For my money though a 3-part Far Plane (far too plain a name in my view) is probably worth the hard cover treatment by WotC (or Paizo). That place needs a source book, or perhaps a "Masks of Nyarlathotep" treatment, something that would be tough to pull off inside the covers of a magazine (even spread over three issues).
Shameless threadjacker and confidence man,
GGG
Shameless threadjacker and confidence man,
GGG
LOL.
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Hah, at least I put in the actual links for both you guys. Congrats on the sequel, Steve.Thanks, man. When are they going to get that cover art up on Ironstorm? I've checked that page a few times for a peak, but it always says the cover art is pending. Oh, and I'm happy I've finally learned how to make things BOLD and italicized on these forums. Give me another year and I'll figure out how to create links ;)
I learned it from watching you! Errrr, I mean, I picked up this trick from Lilith:
{url=www.whateverdamnsite.com}Linky-linky{/url}replace the curvy brackets with the squared ones that you use for Bold and Italics.
Here is an example. Lilith's Sweat
If you hit reply and look at how it is put together you can see how easy it is.
Hope it helps.
FH
Can you bold and italicize a link or would the site explode?
I betcha that's the hook to get you into the Far Plane - syntax error!
So seriously what better setting than the Far Plane?
Steers back onto the thread like a monster truck in two feet of mud!
GGG
I learned it from watching you! Errrr, I mean, I picked up this trick from Lilith:
{url=www.whateverdamnsite.com}Linky-linky{/url}
replace the curvy brackets with the squared ones that you use for Bold and Italics.
Here is an example. Lilith's Sweat
If you hit reply and look at how it is put together you can see how easy it is.
Hope it helps.FH
Well, there goes my year of procrastination... Thanks, FH :) (is there some kind of code for a forced smile?)
My question remains...what's a "Far Realm?" Like another plane? I think I like "Far Realm" better than "plane" anyway.
the far realm was covered in the manual of the planes. it is based on Lovecraftian literature and is a dimension of madness beyond the planes.
my age of worms campaign is soon to take a Lovecraftian twist. i feel the campaign lends itself nicely to a Mythos-like game: illustrations of some of the Kyuss thingies were vaguely Mythos-like, Kyuss himself is a Worm That Walks (a Mythos inspired creature), he's trying to return to Oerth from a place between the planes, and cultists are working to help him return. HPL would dig it.
Never had the manual of the planes. I'm not a big "extra-planar" fan.
My question remains...what's a "Far Realm?" Like another plane? I think I like "Far Realm" better than "plane" anyway.the far realm was covered in the manual of the planes. it is based on Lovecraftian literature and is a dimension of madness beyond the planes.
my age of worms campaign is soon to take a Lovecraftian twist. i feel the campaign lends itself nicely to a Mythos-like game: illustrations of some of the Kyuss thingies were vaguely Mythos-like, Kyuss himself is a Worm That Walks (a Mythos inspired creature), he's trying to return to Oerth from a place between the planes, and cultists are working to help him return. HPL would dig it.
F2K is a real down to earth sort really gets his hands in the clay if you know what I mean. Yeah the far realm as it is described in the Manual O the Planes is okay but I've always been the sort who liked it better when it was the reality and that our humdrum lives were the illusion to keep us all form going mad at the truth. The truth that the universe doesn't revolve around us but actually revolves around incomprehensible alien deities so ancient and powerful that earth and everything on it is like so much dust on the front step. Beyond that they are so completely alien that often when I run a Call of Cthulhu game and have to play an alien monster who has a choice of things to do I often roll randomly to see what they will do rather than do the obvious human thing.
The Great Green Outer God
Any chance the next adventure path could be a trilogy? You know, three loosely linked 4-parters (one low, one medium, one high-level). Each fourpart adventue series would be intricately related, but less stringent tie-ins between the three groups of adventures. This would allow people to opt out of high or low level play if they want. You could use different characters for each set or do the whole thing with one party. Would also help groups who can't/don't play as often. At least they could accomplish smaller goals.
If these ideas have been expressed before, I apology for my ignorance and I concur with you 100%.
It's not a bad idea, Waltero. I think this thread was speculating on the next campaign arc to come out in Dungeon magazine, which are self-contained 3 part adventures like the "Istivin" series, the "Shards" series in Eberron and the "Vampires in Waterdeep" series of the FR.
I like the 3-part campaign arc because the individual adventures are easy to mine for ideas or play on their own if you don't want to play the whole arc. The best thing about them is that they give you a nice taste for the setting they're set in.
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Heh heh heh.
I feel like I've won in more ways than one.
Far Realm invasion indeed.
And instead of inform me of that, you try to sucker-bet me.
I like guys like you.So a Far Realm invasion huh? Are you sure? 'Cause that would be cool, though perhaps it's filled with Far Realm dragons it being The Year of Me (and Steve's second quarter) and all.
GGG
Well...far realm incursion. It says something to that effect in the James Jacobs editorial with the little picture of him decked out all Crockett Miami Vice style at the top.
Any chance the next adventure path could be a trilogy? You know, three loosely linked 4-parters (one low, one medium, one high-level). Each fourpart adventue series would be intricately related, but less stringent tie-ins between the three groups of adventures. This would allow people to opt out of high or low level play if they want. You could use different characters for each set or do the whole thing with one party. Would also help groups who can't/don't play as often. At least they could accomplish smaller goals.
If these ideas have been expressed before, I apology for my ignorance and I concur with you 100%.
Check out a thread in the Dungeon Messageboards called "In praise of the three-part arc" (or words to that effect). There are a lot of people who shared that sentiment, me included.
GGG
Well...far realm incursion. It says something to that effect in the James Jacobs editorial with the little picture of him decked out all Crockett Miami Vice style at the top.
Yes, but what sort of incursion??? At first I would have said that James had let the pseudonatural cat out of the bag rather than dropping a "clue" in the editorial. Over this last year we've had "And Madness Followed," which I thought was a cool nod to the mythos featuring elements of the King in Yellow/Hastur Cycle, with pseudonatural commoners, alienists, and the Thing from the Lake. But the Mythos and Far Realm are both weird places full of unexplainable stuff. So now I'm wondering what comes through the breach this time.... a half far-spawn delorean? The band Poison? What?
GGOG
Or pseudonatural Teletubbies?
Isn't that a bit redundant.
Again! -(in a teletubby voice)
GGG
.... The band Poison? What?
GGOG
Maybe they're from the "Valley of Lost Souls"....which is where their career went...along with their spandex and their hair.
Have you seen a 42 year old Poison groupie lately? Talk about farspawn!!
Using the Far Realms is a good idea, as long as it doesn't turn into another "stop the cultists" adventure. We've had quite a few of those already (the entire Age of Worms, for one), and while I love Lovecraft as much as anyone, there are plenty of inspirations other than mad horror that could be used for such a scenario. A Voyage to Arcturus springs immediately to mind (and leaps back out again just as quickly), or even something in the vein of Elric and the Gods of Law & Chaos, or Dunsany's Gods of Pegana.
It's certainly a good idea to have something other than FR/EB/GH featured in a story arc, and maybe it will serve as a good cover to introduce some Planescape elements into Dungeon (hint, hint).
Cultists are common because the bad guys in an adventure need to have a common theme to pull them together. I think the reason cults, religious orders and such appear as "overused" are because that is one of the few plausible commonalities that could be used to explain why the bad guys in an adventure are working together in a determined fashion, especially in a D&D game where there are no corporations and such.
I think having the monsters and creatures scattered through an adventure with no rhyme or reason, as in the 1e days, would be less acceptable to a 21st century RPG audience.
I believe it would be relatively easy to replace a "cult" with any other large organization appropriate for a DM's particular campaign. I see the "cults" in Dungeon adventures as more of a placeholder--if you have a different group or organization in your particular campaign world that would be a perfect replacement for the canned "cult" then, by all means, use it.
My definition of "cult" is "bad guys who are working together in this particular adventure." It's a convenient term and often used, but easily replaced in most adventures and settings.
The fun thing about clichés is that it doesn't take much of a twist to make them interesting. In regards to evil cults, a possible twist would be to just make them fanatically lawful good instead. Then, it's just a matter of reflavoring their scheme so that what was a nefarious plot becomes well-intentioned, but drastic. The cult remains dangerous and an opponent to the PCs, but not evil, per se. That changes the whole dimension of the adventure; instead of the standard "charge in and butcher the lot of them," the PCs have the dilemma of how they can complete their objective without destroying a potential source of good in the world...
Cults are kind of overused, but I still love them. Even if it's a cliche, a cult is more likely than a run of the mill organization to be an indefatiguable foe to adventurous "meddling kids", to use the Scooby Doo parlance. When motivated by something like greed, lust for power, etc. it's difficult to justify the nihilistic mindset of a fanatic: because the more human justifications can be appeased in the short term and a desire for material wealth may drive others to kill, but it isn't a cause worth dying for. But if The Lurker Beyond the Stars is just going to come down and give humanity a new (more perfect!) form, then dying for the cause isn't such a big sacrifice.
Ideology and necessity are the only good motivators for prolonged confrontations like D&D campaigns. Though, I would like a nice return to the old "Organized Cadre of Evil Wizards and Their Bodyguards" villainy. Or even better, a rival group of adventurers that will stoop to any underhanded trick to leave the PCs in the dust and always escape to fight another day.
Loves me some team fights.
I guess another thing to remember is that there has been no official word of a cult yet. Lovecraft's and his circle's writing certainly lends itself to cults, but just as often there is a strange alien race, a lone mad man or no cult at all. Really who worships evil, uncaring blasphemies from beyond the stars when there are demon princes and powerful devils who grant actual tangible rewards for your devotion. All for a mere nothing - the cost of a single soul - that the person in question probably wasn't using anyhow. Infernal creatures are soooo cheap. I mean really how much could the soul of a speck of dust be worth? You might as well spend time trying to put a price to the aspirations of a single one-celled organism, or determine the overall effect that a lone blade of grass has on your life.
GGG