|
ritorix posted:my first thought was "how the gently caress does someone get an rear end that big by starving in a merciless wasteland" my second thought was "oh wait her legs are just protruding directly from the sides of her butt, nevermind. wait what" dark sun: the coolest setting with the stupidest art
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 15:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 17:22 |
|
|
I love how the number of legs Baxa draws on a kank varies from book to book. The best part is that mutations are a regular occurrence on Athas, so all he has to say about it is "that's the wasteland for ya."
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 16:32
|
|
|
Gomi posted:Prescriptivism is rad, descriptivism leads to loss of culture. Look at the amount of footnotes in a high school edition of Shakespeare, it's shameful. It's good for a language to evolve in useful ways but that doesn't mean people should just start making up new meanings for things and be all 'feels good man' about taking a jackhammer to important communication tools like language. haha this would be incredibly stupid in any situation but specifically bringing up shakespeare in your rant against the evolution of language is really something else
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 17:25
|
|
|
What's funny is, Baxa knew what the things are supposed to look like he just like to make poo poo up I guess. That or when he started he didn't know and TSR smacked him in the head with the setting's art bible for later stuff. Also:  Click here for the embiggening... 
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 18:15
|
|
|
ManMythLegend posted:
I got this thing framed and hanging in my dining room.   quote:dark sun: the coolest setting with the stupidest art Shut your whore mouth and look at more awesome Brom paintings.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 18:56
|
|
|
Jeb Bush 2012 posted:haha this would be incredibly stupid in any situation but specifically bringing up shakespeare in your rant against the evolution of language is really something else There might be a tiny bit of difference between accepting useful and necessary changes in language and throwing open the doors to 'words mean whatever the guy speaking at the time chooses to think they mean, feels good man.' Standards are important and useful. Just like letting go of this derail is important and useful.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 19:04
|
|
|
Brom wrote a book, not impressed. His art is OK for fantasy art though
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 19:04
|
|
|
Gomi posted:There might be a tiny bit of difference between accepting useful and necessary changes in language and throwing open the doors to 'words mean whatever the guy speaking at the time chooses to think they mean, feels good man.' Standards are important and useful. Just like letting go of this derail is important and useful. yeah but complaining about how slang and linguistic drift is culture destroying when English started out as a pidgin between pictish whores and roman colonists is stupid. Flexibility is the primary strength of both the language and the culture, so if the language ossified that would really be culture-destroying Liesmith fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Feb 27, 2010 |
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 19:07
|
|
|
feels good man
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 19:10
|
|
|
Liesmith posted:Brom wrote a book, not impressed. His art is OK for fantasy art though Brom is the best painter of half naked women with swords since Frazetta.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 19:12
|
|
|
Gomi posted:There might be a tiny bit of difference between accepting useful and necessary changes in language and throwing open the doors to 'words mean whatever the guy speaking at the time chooses to think they mean, feels good man.' Standards are important and useful. Just like letting go of this derail is important and useful. You're right, someone who isn't a hardline prescriptivist must necessarily be the world's most tripped-out descriptivist, this argument is completely black and white with no interim space (except that no-one claimed standards weren't useful so this is a silly-rear end strawman right here)
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 19:13
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 19:14
|
|
|
Android Blues posted:You're right, someone who isn't a hardline prescriptivist must necessarily be the world's most tripped-out descriptivist, this argument is completely black and white with no interim space Why does that map of the tablelands have a chunk of forest on it? (I wasn't the first one to distort a speaker's position into a binary pass/fail, but I'll cop to playing along with it, sure)
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 20:01
|
|
|
Gomi posted:Why does that map of the tablelands have a chunk of forest on it? Are you talking about the Forest Ridge on the far western side, or the Crescent Forest near the center?
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 20:08
|
|
|
Gomi posted:Why does that map of the tablelands have a chunk of forest on it? it's there to build up your hopes that your Druid or Preservationist can find a place that has remained free of teh ravages of defilement, and then ultimately be disappointed because they are even more inimical to life than the desert is also it's there so your defiler can say Whoa, by defiling this place I'll actually make it a lot nicer because all the evil life here will die
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 20:12
|
|
|
Gomi posted:Why does that map of the tablelands have a chunk of forest on it? what would Gulg be without the forest?
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 20:14
|
|
|
ManMythLegend posted:Are you talking about the Forest Ridge on the far western side, or the Crescent Forest near the center? I wouldn't mind hearing a description of either, actually. A friend of mine played a lot of Dark Sun when he was younger, but I've had very little contact with the place and this thread has been fascinating.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 20:15
|
|
|
Well, the Forest Ridge (the big forest that follows the mountains on the left side of the map) is home to the feral halfling tribes and the remains of their once great civilization. It's dangerous not just because it's filled with midgets who will eat you and all sorts of other beasties, but also because it's located at a very high altitude, and most Tablelanders will suffer from the lack of oxygen. The Crescent Forest (in the center) wouldn't be there anymore if not for the city state of Gulg. Gulg's sorcerer queen, Lalali Puy, while a dragon and powerful defiler, recognizes the value of the forest as a source of life. Gulg's entire culture is built around the Forest. In fact, the city of Gulg is part of the forest. Her walls are made of cultivated thorny bushes native to the forest, and her major buildings (including the queen's palace) are built in the branches of massive trees. The Crescent Forest is also the source of Gulg and Nibenay's rivalry with one another. Nibenay sees the forest as merely more raw resources to be exploited, and Gulg's forces often attack Nibenay's loggers in defense of the Queen's forest.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 20:44
|
|
|
How does Gulg's forest survive with a sorcerer-queen squatting in the middle? Does she do all her magic outside the forest's borders?
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 20:51
|
|
|
She is careful to not defile too heavily and relies on a number of Trees of Life. A defiler does not have to defile to power his or her magic; the defiler can draw life power slowly and carefully (essentially what a preserver does) to mitigate the damage on the environment. Trees of Life are enchanted trees that can rejuvenate the land around them and act as power batteries for defilers. All Sorcerer Kings have at least a few of them growing somewhere in their palace complex so they can cast powerful magics without destroying their city's fields. Edit: Don't let any of this lead you to believe that Lalali Puy is anything but a supremely evil and malevolent creature. She is still a high level dragon/defiler. But she is also practical and realizes two things: the Crescent Forest is why her city state can survive, and if there is no life left on Athas, she and her colleagues will have nothing to rule over. PeterWeller fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Feb 27, 2010 |
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 20:58
|
|
|
If things like trees of life are possible, could it be possible to use similar magic to restore life to barren parts of Athas? Or even to create an ecology that could withstand, or even compliment, defiler magic? Such an undertaking would certainly be implausible, as any number of powers' interests would be upset by it, but would it be possible?
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 21:06
|
|
|
That's exactly what the Pyreen and Avangion(s) are trying to do. The problem is there's simply not enough of them. Pyreen (very powerful magical beings with a strong affinity to nature; Rajaat was actually one of them) were never common to begin with, and while they're powerful, they're no match for a dragon. Avangions are incredibly rare; they're the preserver counterparts to the dragons. Canonically speaking, I can think of only two. One of the gets killed in the mega adventure, Dragon's Crown. The other is Oronis of Kurn, who is the single worst thing about the revised boxed set (seriously, even worse than Saragar, the Last Sea) and so should be ignored. The thing you need to know, though, is that Trees of Life are just as often (perhaps more often) created by defilers as they are created by preservers. They are of great practical use to defilers, and their creation could potentially jeopardize an area's ecosystem by acting as a draw for defilers. Also, speaking of plants and magic, one thing we haven't mentioned in this thread yet is how Dark Sun handles potions. People don't brew magic potions on Athas. Instead, they enchant trees to grow magic fruits or enchant already harvested fruits. So instead of drinking a potion of healing, your character will eat a pomegranate of healing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 21:18
|
|
|
The problem with making shitloads of trees of life is that they would allow pretty much any defiler to gain much more power than they normally could. So no sorcerer king would make them available to anyone who could possible challenge them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 21:18
|
|
|
Yeah, but they're still actually pretty common. If you look on the map of Tyr, the grove of trees that surrounds Kalak's palace is all Trees of Life. Lalali Puy has them planted all over the Crescent Forest. Nibenay has a grove inside his palace as well as at least one in a public area. The other Sorcerer Kings at least keep a grove in their palaces. Trees of Life aren't incredibly difficult to grow. The reason why they haven't made an impact on the environment is that there will always be a rogue defiler looking for an easy source of power. Also, before his death, Borys made a habit of destroying any Trees of Life he came across in his travels.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 21:24
|
|
|
Thanks. Now I know the sorcerer kings are all on the path to becoming full dragons--is their transformation the only source of dragons on Athas? Were there ever natural dragons, in the Blue or Green Ages? And as an aside, the post on the first page of this thread about running a 4E game in the Green Age, during the opening stages of the Cleansing Wars, sounds like one hell of a campaign. Has there ever been serious interest on the boards for a PbP in that vein?
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2010 23:14
|
|
|
zeal posted:Thanks. Now I know the sorcerer kings are all on the path to becoming full dragons--is their transformation the only source of dragons on Athas? Were there ever natural dragons, in the Blue or Green Ages? If you make it they will come.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2010 01:44
|
|
|
Kerison posted:So, what's the info on this?
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2010 02:04
|
|
|
Aranan posted:So, what's the info on this? When it rains in Dark Sun, it rains fire!
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2010 05:18
|
|
|
PeterWeller posted:if there is no life left on Athas, she and her colleagues will have nothing to rule over. WHEN
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2010 05:28
|
|
|
No, the point with Lalali Puy is that even while she's totally evil as all get out, she wants to prevent further decline and if possible, restore the world (so she can rule over it as a goddess).quote:So, what's the info on this? It's from the adventure, Marauders of Nibenay. In it, Nibenay tries to destroy the Zwuun, a powerful spirit and ally of the Veiled Alliance. Needless to say, bad poo poo is the result.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2010 06:40
|
|
|
Its good to see that daisy dukes are acceptable clothing in the wastes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2010 06:56
|
|
|
So I've a huge desire to play some dark sun, are there any pbp games going on I could get in on? I've seen a few in tg but recruitment looks over. EDIT: something about blue turbans to fit in I guess.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2010 14:45
|
|
|
Sounds like it's time for another Dark Sun recruitment thread!
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2010 16:37
|
|
|
That would be pretty awesome,if there isn't a thread already accepting characters, a new thread would be great because dark sun owns.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2010 03:53
|
|
|
I was thinking of trying my hand at running a Dark Sun game. I had an idea for recruitment since I'm very indecisive and don't like the idea of picking 5 characters from x: Basically everyone makes a level 1 character with no equipment and you all start as slaves in a caravan. Caravan gets attacked by elves. There's a challenge there to see who survives collateral damage during the attack. After the attack, the elves leave you to the desert and you have to find your way to civilization. Whoever's alive when you get to where I want you to be is playing in the campaign. But since I haven't DM'ed before, I don't know how tough this would be to run. The hardest part would be making the encounters just difficult enough that I wouldn't end up with too many players, but not so difficult that I'd only end up with one. Sounds hard, but you have to admit that it's pretty loving Dark Sun. Thoughts?
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2010 11:18
|
|
|
s19aw posted:I was thinking of trying my hand at running a Dark Sun game. I had an idea for recruitment since I'm very indecisive and don't like the idea of picking 5 characters from x: Basically everyone makes a level 1 character with no equipment and you all start as slaves in a caravan. Caravan gets attacked by elves. There's a challenge there to see who survives collateral damage during the attack. After the attack, the elves leave you to the desert and you have to find your way to civilization. Whoever's alive when you get to where I want you to be is playing in the campaign. Every time somebody tries something like this, it doesn't work. That doesn't mean it won't work for you, but be warned.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2010 13:38
|
|
|
s19aw posted:Basically everyone makes a level 1 character with no equipment and you all start as slaves in a caravan. Caravan gets attacked by elves. There's a challenge there to see who survives collateral damage during the attack. After the attack, the elves leave you to the desert and you have to find your way to civilization. This is how A Little Knowledge starts. If you haven't checked it out (it's the flipbook adventure that came with the original boxed set), you need to.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2010 17:20
|
|
|
 Theodoric, barber of York, translated to the Dark Sun milieu. Am I the only one seeing it?
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2010 17:54
|
|
|
But excessive bloodletting is the proper cure for a Gith infestation.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2010 17:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 17:22 |
|
|
He appears to have snapped the blade on his katar 
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2010 19:21
|
|
