Is anything in Monsters of Faerun OGL?
Nope, but that doesn't mean the concepts cannot be used, especially if they don't originate there.
Thank you for posting examples. After reading this sentence all I could imagine was the PCs wandering around being all angsty about various ideas. Obviously that is not what you meant.I wonder if you could do a three part AP in 6 parts. So using your example, after the first episode a book would come out that supported PCs who made choice A and the next book in the series would support characters who made choice B (choice C types could pull from either). Of course that means that at most a group could use around 1/2 of the books in a given AP.
Not sure I like that idea, but I thought I would throw it out there. I guess I still think this type of thing is just best when written for a stand alone product with individual DMs moving the storyline forward based on how their players interact with the sandbox.
Sean Mahoney
Thank you for the kind words. I know it would be difficult to do. I suppose some people would not like the idea of splitting the book in half, with half of the information being useless to half of the people who run the game. I suppose this is an inherent problem with person v. ideas/ideals games.
I did some more brainstorming and came up with this. (I believe it is inferior to my 50% idea... but it might be more workable)
The game is not well suited to the person v. ideal concept, but it already has a sort of person v. ideals theme at a basic stage- the law v. chaos/ good v. evil conception, so it may be easiest to draft a campaign around one of those struggles.
Note; below is very gimmicky but it will allow everyone to use around 3/4ths of the same material. Hopefully this can be done more elegantly and with something more enthralling than mere law/chaos or good/evil.
Gimmick - Throughout the series, in the adventures and events each player gains "fate" points to demonstrate their position on the law/chaos axis.
Book 1 - Action beginning. Explosions, etc. Then the players hear a legend about the struggle of law and chaos- but in a nuanced way. They hear a near philosophical discussion of libertarianism v. regulationism or somehow a neutral planar creature chooses the characters to be the avatars of choice in the world, to determine the balance of law and chaos and how their actions and their choices will determine the structure of the world. Campaign arc begins. The characters may also end up trying to be neutral.
Book 2 - Characters confront struggles. They run into the same events, allowing full use of the book except for 1/4th of the book which is dedicated to the different resolutions of events.
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5- Epic Ending part I. Whatever side the characters did not choose feels very upset and they end up challenging it; but more importantly, they have to deal with the consequences of their choices- if they chose one or the other, the balance may have shifted too much. The world may have exploded in chaos, or be brought down under bureaucracy and litigation.
Book 6- "Exalted" feel to the game. The characters need to set everything straight, come to terms with themselves, and fight out their own intra-party struggles if different ones had different ideas about how the world should be run. Each of them discovered strengths and weaknesses in their own and others' points of view and everyone has grown as a player, as a person, and as a character.
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How about that?
~LD.
Picking up on Light Dragon's stuff. Sean Mahoney, save resources and start simple? You have two Sides A and B, no middle ground. The encounters are split evenly between the two in terms of aggressiveness, and are somewhat reversible. If group A needs items from X then group B's flip is either defending X or getting X before the NPC As do.
The trick, like railroading, is to do this flipping in such a way that the Players either don't notice or give the one disbelief slide (and hope you don't need another).
That is also a good idea to make the 50% idea work. It would be difficult to do elegantly, but I believe it can be done.
When I ran my game, I was able to reuse about 75% of the same material. By setting out characters and how they might react to situations, I was able to have some flexibility in how I responded to character decisions. I basically drew a map and named locations, then wrote up about 25 personalities, where they would be; then I wrote up about 15 encounters and where they would be and what would trigger them; I wrote about some of the struggles that were going on in the city, both philosophically, politically, and morally within the characters' minds, then and I wrote a bit of a timeline on what might happen independently of the character's actions.
Then the game sort of played itself out, loosely going around a few planned events that needed to happen, the characters had a lot of free range.
I think something like this can work for Paizo.
~LD
Is anything in Monsters of Faerun OGL? I'd be surprised.
No, they are not.
However, the name of creatures that were not created by or for Wizards or it's predecessors whose rights it now owns can not be claimed as property of Wizards.
So in a case like the Peryton the myth for which appeared well before the advent of TSR or WotC, the name and mythological traits can be converted into an OGL creature and used however the creator would like. The only restriction would be that the stat block itself could not be directly converted from a WotC owned property to OGL, though it would be very tough to show that is what actually happened.
Sean Mahoney
Hrmm... I am not sure I am seeing how a published adventure series could work this. That isn't to say it COULDN'T, jut that perhaps I could not create a published series that would work well (of course, I probably couldn't make an AP as good as Paizo anyway).
I guess I will have to let this go as something that I would be interested in seeing if Paizo said that they could do this type of thing well. I will remain open minded.
Sean Mahoney
Is anything in Monsters of Faerun OGL?Nope, but that doesn't mean the concepts cannot be used, especially if they don't originate there.
That part I'm clear on.
Is anything in Monsters of Faerun OGL? I'd be surprised.No, they are not.
However, the name of creatures that were not created by or for Wizards or it's predecessors whose rights it now owns can not be claimed as property of Wizards.
So in a case like the Peryton the myth for which appeared well before the advent of TSR or WotC, the name and mythological traits can be converted into an OGL creature and used however the creator would like. The only restriction would be that the stat block itself could not be directly converted from a WotC owned property to OGL, though it would be very tough to show that is what actually happened.
Sean Mahoney
Right. But for some reason, I was thinking that Paizo had used stats fro the peryton from the ToH, whose stats are OGL. I'll have to go back and check I guess.
Right. But for some reason, I was thinking that Paizo had used stats fro the peryton from the ToH, whose stats are OGL. I'll have to go back and check I guess.
But I don't think they'd make a bestiary entry then.
The ToH doesn't contain a peryton as far as I can see. I'm not sure about II and III, but only the ToH is mentioned in Howl.
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Back to the OP for a sec, and someone else mentioned earlier, so I want to follow up...
SO instead of an AP, or adventure for that matter, being man vs man (or monster or elf), why can't it be man vs nature or even man vs self?
For example, Stephen R Donaldson wrote a series of books, the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. This series combines man vs man, man vs nature and relies heavily on man vs self to create a whole web of conflicts.
OK, coming up with a way to 3-6 men vs themselves may be tricky, but I have no doubt that if ANYONE can pull that off it would be Paizo.
James Jacobs, consider this a challenge! Just think about it for a while... let the idea fester for a few months, see if you and the Paizo staff can come up with any ideas at all... I bet you can! I will have a pizza delivered to you if you just are not capable of coming up with something.
"Fester" is probably a great verb to describe what ideas do in Paizo's nefarious editorial and developmental pits.
And I think it is a great idea to think of the APs in terms of types of plot conflicts...but maybe you already knew that. :)
Creative Director
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We're on the 4th AP. I think it is WAY early to be concerned about variety.We're on #7 if you start counting with Shackled City.Nah, that was owned by WOTC... I don't count anything from that error... errr... era... lol :)
It all begins when Paizo went wholly independent. :)
Actually, Shackled City was entirely Paizo. The first Paizo issue of Dungeon was #92, I believe (maybe #94); Shackled City didn't start until about a year after that in issue #97 (Dungeon didn't go monthly until issue #98). Shackled City was pretty much 100% a Paizo production from the start.
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Creative Director
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James Jacobs, consider this a challenge! Just think about it for a while... let the idea fester for a few months, see if you and the Paizo staff can come up with any ideas at all... I bet you can! I will have a pizza delivered to you if you just are not capable of coming up with something.
Well... if we let an idea fester for, say, 3 months, then the earliest that idea will see print will probably be late 2010 or maybe early 2011. Who knows if there'll even BE pizza that far into the future?
Pizza? Not exist in the future? That's just crazy talk.
Even if the roaches were the only life left, I'm sure they'd evolve to become pizza makers.
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James Jacobs, consider this a challenge! Just think about it for a while... let the idea fester for a few months, see if you and the Paizo staff can come up with any ideas at all... I bet you can! I will have a pizza delivered to you if you just are not capable of coming up with something.Well... if we let an idea fester for, say, 3 months, then the earliest that idea will see print will probably be late 2010 or maybe early 2011. Who knows if there'll even BE pizza that far into the future?
As long as we see it hit print before 2012... nothing remains after 2012...
Well, makes long term business planning seem kind of useless doesn't it.
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Who knows if there'll even BE pizza that far into the future?
Krome should renew his offer in terms of free tickts for the entire Paizo staff to take a day off ... to go water sliding at San Demus. Not only is that guaranteed to still be around at 2012 and well beyond. Also, all photos taken that day would then be featured in the follow-up product, "James' and Erik's most excellent adventure...path!"
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Who knows if there'll even BE pizza that far into the future?Krome should renew his offer in terms of free tickts for the entire Paizo staff to take a day off ... to go water sliding at San Demus. Not only is that guaranteed to still be around at 2012 and well beyond. Also, all photos taken that day would then be featured in the follow-up product, "James' and Erik's most excellent adventure...path!"
Tell you guys what... I get a good enough job and you guys come up with an AP that involves man vs self, and I will pay for everyone at Paizo to go to Disneyworld!
You're going for the toughest one? Why not start them out with Man vs Society or Man vs Environment? Tough crowd.
Just chiming in that im all for the current PF AP formula, the sandboxy approach would be better suited for a boxed set type product(which I wouldnt mind having one or two myself).
I also agree with James on the fact that Paizo must be doing something right with the current AP formula. I like them all so far (though I prefer CoCT and LoF over RotRL and SD), and I wouldnt change much.