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Kerison posted:Those swords are clearly iron. Obsidian swords look nothing like that; they look like this: drat it, you're right. Edit: I might try it with your ninja edit picture...
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Feb 19, 2010 23:54
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that lion looks a lot better than the first one. I'm still partial to the lion's head as dark sun thing but you've got something there
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Feb 19, 2010 23:57
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Urik of the third kind: Did my best to finnagle the obsidian swords into it without them looking like total rear end, but they were a tough shape to get my amateur hands around.
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Feb 20, 2010 00:29
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Iron Swords could symbolize the kingdom's wealth and military might. E: NVM, you already changed it.
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Feb 20, 2010 00:29
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Kerison posted:Yeah, I have a couple pages of Gygaxian naturalism-style research on the climate and saltiness of an Athas-style Dying Earth because I'm enough of a nerd to want to know what color dyes are available, what the alcohols are made from, and what their diets are like. It should be noted that just because a crop could grow there does not mean that they happen to have it. World history might well have turned out rather differently if the horse had happened to naturally inhabit the Americas, and both the potato and cotton were huge boons to Europe and (I think) Asia when brought over from the Americas.
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Feb 20, 2010 00:39
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Hodgepodge posted:It should be noted that just because a crop could grow there does not mean that they happen to have it. If you assume a Dying Earth that at one point had all of those crops, it is reasonable to expect that over millennia of agriculture and migration during the Green and Brown Ages, they're just about anywhere in the world you feel like having them. Obviously Athas is not Earth so you can exclude real world plants at your leisure, but I can tell you one thing, Hodgepodge: Athas is a potatoless land.
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Feb 20, 2010 00:52
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Kerison posted:Obviously Athas is not Earth so you can exclude real world plants at your leisure, but I can tell you one thing, Hodgepodge: Athas is a potatoless land. Yeah, imagine having potatoes would significantly change things, unless suppressed as a crop but then undoubtably a sorcerer-king would want it to feed their armies, etc. etc. Anyway I am sure they blew it all up at the end of the blue age, lifeshaping it into something else or something.
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Feb 20, 2010 00:55
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Kerison posted:Obviously Athas is not Earth so you can exclude real world plants at your leisure, but I can tell you one thing, Hodgepodge: Athas is a potatoless land. But there might be something that's close, except that the root is 30 feet in diameter covered with horrible fanged mouths. "Potato patch" is synonymous with terrible death in the wasteland, my friend. Now pass the water skin and let us speak on how we will fetch a fair price for these miserable excuses for slaves. Hodgepodge fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Feb 20, 2010 |
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Feb 20, 2010 01:08
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All druids and rangers should have to kill and drink the blood of their animal companion to survive. Also: Where's all the kank talk?
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Feb 20, 2010 01:14
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jigokuman posted:Also: Where's all the kank talk? One word: escamoles.
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Feb 20, 2010 01:19
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Kanks are awesome. Not only are they giant ants, but they make honey, and you can ride them! Edit: You can't eat them, though. Immediately upon death, their flesh begins to emit a terrible and nauseating stench. PeterWeller fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Feb 20, 2010 |
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Feb 20, 2010 01:21
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PeterWeller posted:Edit: You can't eat them, though. Immediately upon death, their flesh begins to emit a terrible and nauseating stench. Which annoyed me when I first read it and annoys me now, given the history of entomophagy in just about all the areas Dark Sun draws influence from. All these giant bugs and they're not eaten? Nonsensical Western ethnocentrism, I say. PeterWeller posted:emit a terrible and nauseating stench. This doesn't keep people from eating durian! Well, not all people anyway. Kerison fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Feb 20, 2010 |
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Feb 20, 2010 01:27
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Kerison posted:This is doesn't keep people from eating durian! Well, not all people anyway. This is me trying Durian:  Click here for the full 453x604 image. I actually kind of liked it. I just make that face whenever I try something with an unfamiliar taste or texture (and have now learned to let people know this in advance so they aren't offended). Anyhow, if I can try something that smells like that at a party, I'm sure people would eat it in the wasteland.
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Feb 20, 2010 01:54
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PeterWeller posted:Kanks are awesome. Not only are they giant ants, but they make honey, and you can ride them! eat them alive
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Feb 20, 2010 02:13
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Liesmith posted:eat them alive that's the wastelands for you
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Feb 20, 2010 02:14
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What's this? Why, it's a list of real-world boozes derived from that earlier crop list: beer, whiskey, rakshi (millet liquor), vodka, tuzemak (beet rum), boza (wheat liquor), lāgbī (date palm wine), wine (date, fig, guava, jambul), maotai (sorghum liquor), oguro (coconut palm wine), hong zao jiu (jujube wine) There'd also be a sort of tej (Ethiopian for mead) made from kank honey and the succulent-related boozes like tequila, mezcal, and pulque from Athasian cacti. (If this poo poo isn't interesting I'll stop posting it, I'm just doing it anyway and figure, why not share?) ManMythLegend posted:Urik of the third kind: Since nobody's said anything I'll add that this is a helluva lot better than what you started with, and I think it looks pretty alright. Kerison fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Feb 20, 2010 |
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Feb 20, 2010 02:33
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Kerison posted:Since nobody's said anything I'll add that this is a helluva lot better than what you started with, and I think it looks pretty alright. Yeah it's got all the elements he wanted, looks simple enough to put on a badge but isn't childish, I'd say it's pretty ideal
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Feb 20, 2010 02:42
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Kerison posted:(If this poo poo isn't interesting I'll stop posting it, I'm just doing it anyway and figure, why not share?)  for Gygaxian NaturalismProblem is, my players are so piss-poor that if I tried to describe the bazaar of wonders they'd be like, "whatevs, I stab the nearest templar" But I love that world-building stuff.
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Feb 20, 2010 02:50
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tendrilsfor20 posted:Well, it's definitely in the vein of "All brownies can cast Know Alignment at will, and in a brownie lair there will be a 25% chance of immature brownies; roll 1d4 to determine the age group of each" but on the other hand, I have the biggest loving The nice thing about the age we live in is that I can put together a list of boozes in an hour of watching the Olympics while using Wikipedia and the Internet. Imagine doing that sort of exercise in Gygaxian naturalism before internet research. P.S. curling is literally the best thing
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Feb 20, 2010 03:05
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I watch curling religiously every olympics, and this year the Norweigians really took it up a notch with their awesome pants but before the internet it was still easy to do the booze thing, lots of people have bartending books. Just flavor them so tehy are made from bug juice or cactus sap.
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Feb 20, 2010 03:11
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Liesmith posted:Just flavor them so tehy are made from bug juice or cactus sap. 
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Feb 20, 2010 03:33
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ManMythLegend posted:
This is awesome. I could see one for each city: draj - aztec theme balic - greek crown of ivy nibenay - asian bas-relief theme gulg - trees, wild animals, crossed wooden spears raam - no one cares about raam Awesome because a player looking at these instantly gets the cultural reference and theme of each city.
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Feb 20, 2010 05:50
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ritorix posted:This is awesome. I could see one for each city: This was exactly my goal. It would be super sweet if some folks in there threw some of these together for general use later.
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Feb 20, 2010 06:07
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ritorix posted:raam - no one cares about raam  but then, everything that has ever been written about Raam posted:The city-state of Raam is located east of Urik and is one of the largest and most chaotic cities in the Tablelands. It also has one of the most mixed populations. Ruled by the sorcerer-queen Uyness, “Orc Plague.” Raam is filled with chaos and armed 
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Feb 20, 2010 06:19
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tendrilsfor20 posted:I was gonna be all Yeah, in the revised box Raam is literally the dumpster fire of the Tablelands. Dead Sorcerer-Monarch? Check Violent Civil War? Check Virulent Plague? Check Horrible Undead Monster All Up In Your Business? Check All in all, it's a tough time for the Raam Tourism Board. Also this: Raam's Veiled Alliance posted:The turbulent conditions in Raam haven’t made it any easier for the city’s Veiled Alliance. The preservers continue to operate in secret, but the contacts they once had in all levels of government have been lost. Nanda Shatri (female human/20th-level preserver, 8th-level psionicist/LG) continues to lead the Alliance and still seeks to become an avangion so that she can help restore Athas’s lost vigor. However, beyond the vague rumors that Urik’s Alliance had created such a being some years back, Shatri is no closer to her goal than she was a decade ago. She has considered siding with one of the armed bands in order to assure the safety of her people, but she has yet to determine which band to approach. Her reluctance to make a decision might be her undoing, for the Prophets of Dregoth have begun making overtures to the Alliance that the members find very appealing. In fact, the Prophets have also promised that Dregoth can help Shatri with her research into the avangion transformation process—a promise that she is seriously considering accepting. Uh-oh, speghetti-o's.
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Feb 20, 2010 06:34
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ManMythLegend posted:Yeah, in the revised box Raam is literally the dumpster fire of the Tablelands.  to considerManMythLegend posted:deals with Dregoth 
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Feb 20, 2010 06:53
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Kank's are good eating while they're alive, but how long can one expect a mount to survive on Athas? That's why you should get and erdlu or inix. Tastes like chicken.
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Feb 20, 2010 18:20
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Raam is a such a poor waste of a second fiddle city. In the original box, it's a mere red herring for the metaplot. And of the cities, it's arguably the most hosed by that metaplot, even though it's the only city not seen in the Prism Pentad. The epic battle that determines its fate is a mere speedbump for the heroes, and it happens in some random field. Raam is truly the rear end end of the Tablelands. Oh, and in The Cerulean Storm, Raam's troops are described as wearing green over yellow, and her officers wear light blue turbans. And Abalache Re legitimizes her rule by saying she is the divinely appointed vizier of some higher power. Maybe that can give you some ideas to work with for a Raamish flag.
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Feb 20, 2010 22:20
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PeterWeller posted:light blue turbans. Pfft, like Raam has a source of indigo dye to make blues.
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Feb 20, 2010 22:28
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They purchase it at exorbitant rates, crippling the city's economy and furthering its social collapse.
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Feb 20, 2010 23:06
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I'd like some clarification. I was looking at the different existing (i.e. pre-4e) Dark Sun material out there and there's a bit more than I thought. Is this boxed set the main one that everyone is taking most of the information from? I know there was a revised set/book/something that I glanced at earlier and it was completely different (peaceful halflings? bah!). Basically, I want Dark Sun info. Aside from the novels, what old materials should I read to hold me over?
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Feb 20, 2010 23:19
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Aranan posted:I'd like some clarification. Yes, that's the good boxed set. Also, Dune Trader and Dragon Kings. And Elves of Athas isn't bad. edit: can't believe I left off Slave Tribes Kerison fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Feb 21, 2010 |
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Feb 20, 2010 23:21
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Slave Tribes is also a good book. Since most of the villages scattered about the Tyr Region were founded by ex slaves, it provides a lot of good material about the smaller settlements in the region. City State of Tyr is also worth reading if your interested in the way that city works post Kalak.
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Feb 20, 2010 23:40
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Ivory Triangle gave the detailed treatment to Nibenay and Gulg. Full maps, surrounding areas, culture and lots of Gygaxian microdetail. It's another good place to set a campaign, especially if you want templars and the threat of a shadowy-but-aloof sorcerer king.
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Feb 21, 2010 00:24
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Awesome, thanks guys. I want to start up a little game and I don't want to wait until the 4e materials are released. I figure I can brush up with some of these books and just dive in.
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Feb 21, 2010 00:38
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Kerison posted:Pfft, like Raam has a source of indigo dye to make blues. woad could be used to make it rather inefficiently, grows in desert conditions!
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Feb 21, 2010 00:52
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Dystopian Rhetoric posted:woad could be used to make it rather inefficiently, grows in desert conditions! 
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Feb 21, 2010 01:00
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Dystopian Rhetoric posted:woad could be used to make it rather inefficiently, grows in desert conditions! There you go! Raam devotes its fields to growing woad to make into dye to make turbans for its templars. Civil unrest ensues. Also, Ivory Triangle was excellent and really brought that area to life, but I was bummed Draj and Balic never received that kind of treatment. They were really characterful cities, and would make excellent bases for a trading house style campaign.
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Feb 21, 2010 01:54
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I'm echoing others, but I want to throw in my votes for, besides the first boxed set: Dragon Kings, Slave Tribes, Dune Trader, Veiled Alliance and The Ivory Triangle boxed set. All three are great looks at the Tablelands from the perspectives of slavery, trade, and preserving magic (respectively). If you can find them, the Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix I (black and white, loose pages designed for insert in a binder) and Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium II (color, squarebound) are both very good, in different ways. The first volume is a good set of Athasian wildlife, spanning what would be in 4E all three tiers, but weighted much more strongly toward heroic through mid-paragon. You get a very good sense of Athas as a tremendously dangerous, difficult, and sheerly brutal place to live. The second volume skews more toward the paragon and up, with a lot more of the "cosmic" or supernatural Athas, with various elemental entities, psurlons (See a couple of pages ago for my  thereon.), powerful undead, etc. Note that this second volume is post-revision, and so has a lot of inane Rajaat poo poo that the 4E set will, god willing, be ignoring or expunging.
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Feb 21, 2010 02:31
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It's a crapshoot, but there's a bunch of free stuff (including a campaign guide), all updated to 3.5 for free on http://athas.org
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Feb 21, 2010 10:18
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