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drrockso20 posted:SWN is definitely better than White Star, but I still found it to be an incredibly mediocre game and pretty much the only OSR product I regret buying a physical copy of You keep posting this every time someone mentions SWN. Care to elaborate?
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Jul 14, 2015 21:24
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Speaking of Kevin Crawford, when's that recruiting thread going up, LeSquide? 
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Jul 14, 2015 21:33
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Simian_Prime posted:You keep posting this every time someone mentions SWN. Care to elaborate? Unfortunately I'm posting from the phone app right now so I can't go in depth at this time
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Jul 14, 2015 21:43
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Simian_Prime posted:You keep posting this every time someone mentions SWN. Care to elaborate? While unsure about dr's reasoning on the physical copy, mine fell apart several months after purchase, resulting in having to give it the Kinko's Treatment. It was also full of errata and spelling errors. The most recent version through Drivethru fixes this, but the original Moongoose ones had their flaws. Still a great system and I wish I could play/run more of it!
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Jul 15, 2015 00:03
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Evil Mastermind posted:Speaking of Kevin Crawford, when's that recruiting thread going up, LeSquide? I'm bad at maps  My desire for a suitable map is currently the biggest hurdle left, not going to lie.
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Jul 15, 2015 00:22
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Dr. Doji Suave posted:While unsure about dr's reasoning on the physical copy, mine fell apart several months after purchase, resulting in having to give it the Kinko's Treatment. It was also full of errata and spelling errors. no mine was a Drivethru printrun, my issues were more with content than anything, it generally felt lacking in most areas on a content level, and what was there felt incredibly bland and dry
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Jul 15, 2015 00:36
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Power Player posted:Has anyone in this thread made a list of what 1e/2e modules are actually good? It's sometimes hard to figure out what I should be looking at, as a lot of "Best Of" lists have a lot of TPK-fests. Depending on "your thing", contrast Ravenloft with Planescape and see what you think. They were both great settings but lead to very different games. (Well I never actually ran Ravenloft, I just read some of it for fun, but the setting material was good.) Opinions vary on all things FR, but some of the specific setting boxes were pretty good. Unfortunately some of them have gotten loving ridiculous to get. I mean you could always grab a new copy of "The North" for a mere $2,400 bux! http://www.amazon.com/The-North-Frontier-Forgotten-Expansion/dp/0786903910 If you want a super-mega story out of modules, you can run the T series, the A series, and then the GDQ series. (I dont know anyone that ever strung them together, but they are semi-made for it.) T: http://www.amazon.com/Elemental-Advanced-Dungeons-Dragons-Supermodule/dp/0880380187 A: http://www.amazon.com/Scourge-Slavelords-Supermodule-Advanced-Dungeons/dp/0880382759 GDQ: http://www.amazon.com/Spiders-Advanced-Dungeons-Dragons-Supermodule/dp/0880383216 Hunt used book stores. Gain massive nerd cred. Impress the ladies. (Also get rich on Amazon when your games done.) The U series (Saltmarsh) I remember thinking was so amazing! when I was a kid, no idea how it reads now. If you want to beef it up with lore stuff (and surprises) look for the super-sahuaguin book: http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Advanced-Dungeons-Dragons-Edition/dp/078690643X
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Jul 15, 2015 01:32
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Ettin let me know he'd crossposted my review here. That opening line became retroactively hilarious when it turned out that I love the sound of my own voice too much to stop talking (metaphorically speaking.) In any event, I'm happy that anyone found it useful or informative. I don't have a copy of White Star in front of me right now, but I remember there's a Gunship in the sample spaceships that has, like, a couple dozen guns on it. Does that mean it has crew for all of them? I guess that means it's huge if there are even bunks for all of the crew, or maybe even with hot-bunking? Unless space travel is so fast that they can do all their stuff in a single duty shift...? I think that was the actual moment where my opinion of the book started to bottom out. Anyway. I am pretty much a SWN loyalist, even though I also bash on SWN for not giving me deckplans and more detailed information on stuff. More starship models! Also, it drives me up the wall that "frigate" is both a size classification of hulls and a specific hull model. "It's a frigate." "Do you mean a frigate-frigate, or some other kind of frigate?" There's no reason for that kind of linguistic ambiguity. There are also some problems with the rules in Suns of Gold that I don't necessarily need to go into great depth on, but they are in there. I still give Crawford huge credit for going there, though, instead of just telling us to make something up. I will say that the Battle Stations rules in Skyward Steel (the navy book for SWN) are excellent, and I recommend them highly.
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Jul 15, 2015 03:59
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Could you go into depth about your issues with Suns of Gold? I've used bits of it quite often, but never the actual commodity trader type campaign.
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Jul 15, 2015 04:01
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Oh, also, 1E modules. Look for Jaquay's Judge's Guild stuff. Caverns of Thracia is the bomb dot com. I don't remember if it's written for 1E, B/X, OD&D, or what, but who cares they all convert pretty easily on the fly. Somewhere out there in the depths of the OSR blogs there's an interesting article on the way that Jaquays did dungeon maps. Here we go: http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13085/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon Please note that Jaquays has in later life come out as a transwoman, and I don't think answers to Paul anymore, although that's the way she was credited on the modules at the time.
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Jul 15, 2015 04:03
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Ok, good modules from back in the day from BECMI: B2, X1, CM2. AD&D 2e wise, I only used the Ravenloft modules but Feast of Goblyns and the Evil Eye were both good. The 2e version of Ravenloft, house of straud, is better than the original in every way because it includes the original if you remove the extra content. The collection of mini modules was good too, it was called something like tales from the crypt. Thoughts of Darkness is one of the hardest "fair" modules I've ever run, but it can wipe a party very easily if they aren't aware of the threats they face. Feast of Goblyns is almost an entire campaign though, it takes months to get through.Covok posted:All this tells me is, if you want an OSR space game, play Stars Without Numbers instead.
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Jul 15, 2015 04:04
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LeSquide posted:Could you go into depth about your issues with Suns of Gold? I've used bits of it quite often, but never the actual commodity trader type campaign. The commodity trading is not bad, what I've used of it. The optimum strategy from the player's POV is to carry a few units each of multiple different types of cargo (at twenty tons cargo space per unit of free mass, you can carry a LOT of poo poo for one free mass so long as some of your cargy types are Compact. Which are the good ones anyway.) Then when you hit a new planet, you make a bargain roll for all of them and seal the deal on whichever one you roll hot for. Diversify! Secondly, you need a LOT of seed money to get started doing this. The good cargo types can cost like 25,000Cr for a tenth of a ton. If you have some random cargo that you check against whenever you come to a new planet but you are basically making a living as adventurers? Then that's fine. If you want to make a living as traders and do adventuring only as necessary in order to keep trading, then that is a very different animal. I suggest the players and the GM get straight about which one they're doing. Also, if you read it carefully, it's sort of suggested that: 1. Money from world A is worthless on world B, and there isn't in fact universal money. I don't run my personal game this way, but if I could go back and do it over again I might. Assume that currency exchanges charge hilariously ruinous rates. This is fun, because it forces your players to keep their money *as cargo*, so if they show up on a new world and want to buy power armor, they don't have money to do it with. They need to sell something in the hold for local currency, and then spend that on stuff before they leave, because it won't be good anywhere else (or I guess they could save some for if they come back?) 2. Interstellar bulk trading does not exist. There is close to nothing in the way of "regular" trade routes or traders. Customs is hopelessly corrupt and the authorities will rob them or casually require graft as a matter of course. Dealing with this stuff is the "adventuring" part of the game, if you are traders. 3. Use the trouble tables! Always! ... The big obstacle you might run into is if you do something like what I did, and allowed your players to set up a production facility for rare jewels on a low-tech world where they could dazzle the locals with their superior technology. They now have access to a LOT of money. Basically, holdings that produce valuable goods that they have a good market for nearby are like a money machine. At minimum, change the text for production facilities such that they produce "units" and not "tons." Crawford's advice on this is sound: The primary limited resource of the PCs becomes not money, but time and attention. Things go to poo poo without their direct intervention, and they can only be in so many places at once. ... A thing that is not actually a problem, but that I don't like too well, is that there is almost no detail about what is in these units of cargo. It isn't clear whether a "ton" of cargo is a displacement ton, 1 cubic meter, a thousand kilograms' worth, or what. Or what the contents might be! I think any truly ambitious player would want to know how many units of small arms: energy he needs to equip a third-world army. (My complaining about this may actually have led to the inclusion of a sidebar in the new Mercenaries supplement.) EDIT: Please note that if I was giving the book a score, it would actually be pretty high. Suns of Gold is still a great campaign resource, even if you need to tinker with it some. The Wyzard fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 04:16
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Babylon Astronaut posted:Hulks and Horrors is pretty good too. I don't like most of the rules in H&H, but I have made a great deal of use of the star system generation rules. There's some goddamn excellent random tables in that book.
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Jul 15, 2015 04:17
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The Wyzard posted:Oh, also, 1E modules. Look for Jaquay's Judge's Guild stuff. Caverns of Thracia is the bomb dot com. I don't remember if it's written for 1E, B/X, OD&D, or what, but who cares they all convert pretty easily on the fly. Somewhere out there in the depths of the OSR blogs there's an interesting article on the way that Jaquays did dungeon maps. I converted Thracia to Arcana Evolved and it still rocked almost 30 years after it's first release. Also Jennell was one of the level designers for Quake and Quake 2. (also check out her module Dark Tower, also published by Judge's Guild) Humbug Scoolbus fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 04:21
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As a follow up to talking about Jennell Jaquays: if you're looking for FR stuff to convert for 1e play, you want the actual 1e supplements and materials. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (called the Old Gray Box) and the FR# series of accessories are older, sketch overviews with lots of room for your own details and additions. For example, DON'T get the North. It's actually a really bad box set, and the good parts of it (Ed Greenwood and Steven Schend's work) are probably of limited use to someone who isn't engaging in the Realms for Realms' sake. Instead, get a copy of FR5, the Savage Frontier. It covers most of the same areas, is better written and tighter, and is much more approachable for people not familiar with the Realms. Jaquays' work on it was specifically called out as being in the OSR spirit by the Grognardia guy way back when, if that means anything to you. edit: and as a general note, trans people are trans men and trans women as applicable, not transmen and transwomen. It's an adjective, not a noun. Arivia fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 08:25
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Power Player posted:Has anyone in this thread made a list of what 1e/2e modules are actually good? It's sometimes hard to figure out what I should be looking at, as a lot of "Best Of" lists have a lot of TPK-fests. It depends on if you want something where you can just read the boxed text and run the encounters as is because if that's what you're looking for, you're generally going to be pretty disappointed. Earlier adventures are best when you tinker with them and tailor them to your group. I'd say that's true about any scenarios from any game or era, but with older stuff it's going to leave a much more bitter taste in your mouth if you don't. Also I'm curious about which typical Best Of D&D adventures are the TPK-fests you point out? I mean there's Tomb of Horrors (which I think has it's place, the main problem seems a lot of people looked at it and thought it was a blueprint for what a typical dungeon should be like) Angrymog posted:I've heard that B10 - Night's Dark Terror is very good. It is. In my opinion it and Isle of Dread (which I also recommend) are the archetypical wilderness adventures. Night's Dark Terror can easily be the basis of an entire campaign. Other good modules include N4 - Treasure Hunt. It's a cool starter adventure and introduced the concept of Level 0. What the characters do during the adventure is supposed to influence what classes they become. It takes place on a chain of islands in the Forgotten Realms nation of Moonshae, which is basically fantasy Wales. It was retconned into the Realms actually. N5 Under Illefarn is sort of vaguely a follow up (not really but it has suggestions for what to do if the players are coming off of that) and it's a solid starter module that opens up into a worthwhile dungeon excursion later on. UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave is an exploration of a magical hidden garden full of leprechauns, satyr and the like. The garden is under an effect that causes time to be slower inside than outside and prevents fires, so it has some rules that might not be to your taste but this can be easily changed. It's an interesting adventure that tries it's best to emphasize talking and puzzle solving and mostly succeeds but some of the garden's inhabitants (specifically the leprechauns) are annoying and players might start frothing at the mouth and try to kill the poo poo out of them. I recommend the rest of the UK series too, even if it's been awhile since I've read or played them. B4 The Lost City: I've run this recently, and it does a good job of porting the idea of Red Nails, the Conan story over to D&D. The titular city is full of weird, decadent types who seem to be under some kind of influence. The city, the inhabitants and their different factions are a bit loosely sketched out and will probably require blanks to be filled. I3 Pharaoh, I4 Oasis of the White Palm and I5 Lost Tomb of Martek: Another early Tracy Hickman joint (although I think the middle module was by someone else and reworked) about a cursed pharaoh's tomb that opens up into dealing with a greater threat. I think the first one is the most effective, but they all have good points. I11 Needle and I12 Egg of the Phoenix: Mentioned together because they're both Frank Mentzer adventures (big fan of his) that involve journeying to another world, a common theme in his work. Lastly in general avoid the compilation versions of adventures, especially Realms of Horror. They're usually truncated and hacked up. The only one that doesn't apply to is Temple of Elemental Evil because it's not *really* a compilation. The latest WotC re-releases are straight from the originals and good quality though barring some reprint issues, they're recommended if a bit pricey. It's a bit unfortunate that 2e has a general bad rep amongst people into older D&D. It's kind of like superhero comics in the 90s. Yeah, yeah, Rob Liefeld. But that wasn't the whole story and churned out Forgotten Realms sourcebooks aren't the whole story here either. 2E's coolest stuff was settings, but the mega adventures like Night Below, Rod of Seven Parts and the Gates of Firestorm Peak in the realm of more generic stuff rock too. It's been awhile since I've checked out the Planescape and Ravenloft modules so I forget which ones are good and which aren't but general thumbs up for them. For Planescape, I remember enjoying Dead Gods, (probably the best thing Monte Cook made?) The Great Modron March, Tales from the Infinite Staircase, Doors to the Unknown, the scenarios in Hellbound, The Eternal Boundary and Well of Worlds. Ravenloft, I ran RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead for Halloween a couple years ago and it went over very well, the players dug the faux New Orleans feel. I think I remember RA1-RA3 being good adventures, maybe I'll do that again. Haunted Halls of Eveningstar: Kinda the equivalent of Keep on the Borderlands or the Village of Hommlet for Forgotten Realms, an iconic introductory dungeon crawl. The Night Below: A long, involved Underdark campaign (gets you from level 1 to 14) that focuses on aboleth, illithid and derro instead of drow. Undermountain: The 2E boxed set is pretty good. I really like how distinctive each level of this dungeon is. Also, metal scorpion magic robots. Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga: Baba Yaga's hut is a really weird and interesting place to explore. Spoiler: there's a part with Godzilla. Rod of Seven Parts: Like most of the boxed set adventures of 2e this is a long campaign dealing with the struggle of Law against Chaos over the titular artifact. There's some interesting stuff where Chaos gets the upper hand and the campaign world gets warped. Gates of Firestorm Peak: I'd recommend this one because it starts out as a typical D&D adventure but then descends pretty rapidly into craziness. In fact it's where the Far Realm that was prominent in 3.x came from. Dragon Mountain: I like the idea behind this but there are just too many legions of kobolds for it to be fun. I'd probably need to take the thing apart and put it back together. It has a superb Jennell Jaquays cover though. Arivia posted:As a follow up to talking about Jennell Jaquays: if you're looking for FR stuff to convert for 1e play, you want the actual 1e supplements and materials. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (called the Old Gray Box) and the FR# series of accessories are older, sketch overviews with lots of room for your own details and additions. Let me second what she says here! Everyone who brought up Jennell Jaquays' Judges Guild work is correct. They're strong candidates for the best D&D adventures. Also agreed, the early FR# is probably the best Realms material. Lastly in addition to her D&D stuff, Jaquays created the classic Runequest/Glorantha adventure Griffin Mountain with Rudy Kraft. That's highly recommended too. Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 09:55 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 09:35
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The Moonshaes weren't retconned into the published Realms, actually. They were incorporated as part of the original publishing and editing work for the Old Gray Box, like Kara-Tur and so on. Doug Niles' first Moonshae trilogy novel was actually the first Realms product released. As an addendum, Ed Greenwood has gone on record as saying out of the mentioned two adventures he wrote, he'd choose N5 Under Illefarn as an introductory adventure over Haunted Halls of Eveningstar. Make of that what you will, but they're both very good. Additionally, there's two box sets (Ruins of & Ruins of II), three adventures (Maddgoth's Castle, Stardock, and one I can't remember), a 2e supplement (Skullport) a 3e adventure (Expedition to), and a 4e adventure (which I forget the name of) for Undermountain. If you're just looking to do your own thing with Undermountain, get Ruins of and either Expedition to or 3e's City of Splendors: Waterdeep for a good overview. If you're actually wanting to run Undermountain, you need all of the above except the 4e adventure, and there's some old Dragon issues by Steven Schend about Skullport that have important details. ("Sing a Song By the Deep-Water Bay" being one.) Undermountain is the most detailed mega dungeon in D&D and yet still not all of it has been published. It's incredibly massive.
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Jul 15, 2015 11:21
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In case anyone missed it, I'm running Beyond the Wall in the Game Room. I just posted the game thread and if you want to follow along you're free to do so, but please leave your comments about how I suck as a GM for the Peanut Gallery Thread. I'm currently considering running an IRL game of Beyond the Wall as well. I'll probably start with one of the scenario packs and then segue from that into a share sandbox campaign with a couple of different Threat Packs in play. Actually, depending on how my PbP players feel about going on with the game after we've finished with the scenario pack, I might expand this one into a shared sandbox as well, and I already know which Threat Packs I'll be using (the player of the Would-Be Knight rolled "You will slay a dragon!" on one of their tables, so if this goes into an extended campaign the Vengeful Wyrm is definitely in). e: Also, to tie this more into the topic of the thread, I wish the OSR was producing more stuff like Beyond the Wall. There are already a million clones of traditional D&D fantasy, we've got the weird angle covered with Dungeon Crawl Classics and Lamentations of the Flame Princess if you're into that sort of thing, and obviously Kevin Crawford deserves praise for doing stuff like Spears of Dawn and Red Tide that explores genres outside of the standard swords and sorcery fantasy. Speaking of, what genres of fantasy would you like to see being done in OSR games? I don't mean just pasting fighters, magic-users and clerics on, say, romantic fantasy, but using the same kind of simple design that informs the classics like B/X for other types of fantasy. Ratpick fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 12:39
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Arivia posted:Instead, get a copy of FR5, the Savage Frontier. It covers most of the same areas, is better written and tighter, and is much more approachable for people not familiar with the Realms. Arivia posted:Additionally, there's two box sets (Ruins of & Ruins of II), three adventures (Maddgoth's Castle, Stardock, and one I can't remember), a 2e supplement (Skullport) a 3e adventure (Expedition to), and a 4e adventure (which I forget the name of) for Undermountain. If you're just looking to do your own thing with Undermountain, get Ruins of and either Expedition to or 3e's City of Splendors: Waterdeep for a good overview. If you're actually wanting to run Undermountain, you need all of the above except the 4e adventure, and there's some old Dragon issues by Steven Schend about Skullport that have important details. ("Sing a Song By the Deep-Water Bay" being one.) The boxes are probably as difficult to get as all the other high-demand 2e stuff. Looks like 70 and 35 for low end used: http://www.amazon.com/UnderMountain-Fantasy-Roleplaying-Forgotten-Realms/dp/1560760613 http://www.amazon.com/The-Ruins-Undermountain-Forgotten-Adventure/dp/1560768215/ Heres the original North/Waterdeep supplement: http://www.amazon.com/Waterdeep-Fantasy-Roleplaying-Forgotten-Realms/dp/0880384905/ edit: I have one of the "Volos Guides" and it was pretty great for on-the-fly details about "whats in this tavern" and "what interesting thing does that merchant do". I considered trying to grab the rest a few years ago but ran into the same "everyone wants them now" problem. Looks like they came down a bit. FRINGE fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 15:18
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Arivia posted:The Moonshaes weren't retconned into the published Realms, actually. They were incorporated as part of the original publishing and editing work for the Old Gray Box, like Kara-Tur and so on. Doug Niles' first Moonshae trilogy novel was actually the first Realms product released. I think what happened is that the Korinn Archipelago from N4 Treasure Hunt got incorporated into the Moonshaes much in the same way as the Bloodstone Lands from H1 Bloodstone Pass became part of the Realms. Also, Steve Perrin, the creator of the crunchy side of RuneQuest, wrote Under Illefarn  Undermountain is probably one of the best megadungeons too. Have you ever had a look at say, the World's Largest Dungeon? It's a piece of garbage.
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Jul 15, 2015 19:51
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I'm so weak, I ended up buying the AD&D 1e PHB and MM rereleases  and I grabbed OSRIC Unearthed while I was at it too.
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Jul 15, 2015 20:09
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N4 Treasure Hunt is one of my favorite modules, because it's about starting as a zero-level shlub who washes up on the island after a shipwreck and getting stuck in the middle of a bunch of pirates trying to find an ancient treasure, and earning your first "real" level along the way.
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Jul 15, 2015 20:19
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1e/2e resurgence! 
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Jul 16, 2015 02:02
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Lightning Lord posted:Undermountain is probably one of the best megadungeons too. Have you ever had a look at say, the World's Largest Dungeon? It's a piece of garbage.
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Jul 16, 2015 07:09
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Evil Mastermind posted:N4 Treasure Hunt is one of my favorite modules, because it's about starting as a zero-level shlub who washes up on the island after a shipwreck and getting stuck in the middle of a bunch of pirates trying to find an ancient treasure, and earning your first "real" level along the way. I kind of want to grab this and run it as the lead in to Pathfinder's Skulls and Shackles adventure path. @LL: My bad about N5. Must have confused it with something else then.
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Jul 16, 2015 08:08
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Babylon Astronaut posted:The first Undermountain box set is incredible, and I think the realms are a silly place. The cards it came with are gold. You can fill any room in any dungeon at the speed you are describing it with the dungeon cards. Can you describe the cards more? That sounds pretty cool and I enjoy most of the 2e card products, like the encounters, the spells, and the treasures.
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Jul 16, 2015 13:51
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Arivia posted:I kind of want to grab this and run it as the lead in to Pathfinder's Skulls and Shackles adventure path. Do it.
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Jul 16, 2015 17:47
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Arivia posted:I kind of want to grab this and run it as the lead in to Pathfinder's Skulls and Shackles adventure path. Do it, then when they escape immediately shipwreck them again on X1 The Isle of Dread.
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Jul 16, 2015 23:16
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Well, with an undefined next part, here's a Treasure Hunt pbp for whoever wants to play some 0-level OSRIC.
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Jul 17, 2015 02:25
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JonBolds posted:Do it, then when they escape immediately shipwreck them again on X1 The Isle of Dread. I love the idea of an old-school campaign that's just a sequence of shipwreck-instigated adventures. "Oh come on, this is the sixth time this month!"
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Jul 17, 2015 02:28
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So aside from what's been mentioned anyone got any favorite starter adventures?
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Jul 17, 2015 04:45
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Lightning Lord posted:So aside from what's been mentioned anyone got any favorite starter adventures? Inheritance, from some old dungeon mag, reprinted in the 2nd edition Road to Adventure compilation. Long lost uncle dies, wills keep to a PC, they have to clear out the hobgoblins that took up residence there.
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Jul 17, 2015 04:50
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Lightning Lord posted:So aside from what's been mentioned anyone got any favorite starter adventures? I remember what the weird Ravenloft book called. It's Book of Crypts and it has 13 or so mini adventures that you can throw in whenever. I layered it on B-2 and it was a fantastic way to start a horror campaign. B2 is such a trite answer, but it works with anything once you nix the caves of chaos. I hate modules where you basically watch something happen and follow someone around into set pieces then a small maze.
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Jul 17, 2015 06:07
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There was an intro adventure in the Planescape "anthology of mini adventures" (cant think of the title) that used the World Serpent Inn in Waterdeep. The main interesting things are: if you like dungeon crawls this is a direct entryway into Undermountain diving (and eventually Skullport politicking if youre into that), and it gives an easy controlled transition into Planescape stuff via whatever extra portals you decide might be present. edit: Oops. Its not in Waterdeep, Maybe I just put it there for my own convenience. Apparently its also one of the few (official) chances in/out of Dread as well? (Ravenloft) quote:Now, that said, there are places on the Material Plane that reliably lead to the World Serpent Inn. The Wild Goose Inn in Arabel (in the Forgotten Realms) is one of these. The Wild Goose Inn in Greyhawk City and Helkam's Pit in Irongate (both on Oerth) are two more. Dragon #351 mentions others in Ecstasy (in the Outlands), in Zakhara, Kara-Tur, Krynn, and the Demiplane of Dread. Basically this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InnBetweenTheWorlds edit: Maybe I am mixing some World Serpent adventure in with Well of Worlds in my head? I cant remember.  From some dudes blog: https://joesomebody2.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/review-the-well-of-worlds/ quote:As I read it, what got me the most was the change of atmosphere I’m otherwise used to. Sigil, the city Planescape is built around, exists as an otherwise complete neutral ground for all (sometimes referred to a prison as well). In this place you can actually see demons and angels wandering the streets together, due to the fact the powers (Gods if you will) have no hold of the place because the Lady of Pain decrees it. Mind you this doesn’t mean the city is peaceful, because it’s quite possibly the most dangerous place in the multiverse if you aren’t careful. While I was looking for memories, I saw this in the wiki and thought it was entertaining: quote:David "Zeb" Cook developed Planescape when he was assigned to create "a complete campaign world (not just a place to visit), survivable by low-level characters, as compatible with the old Manual of the Planes as possible, filled with a feeling of vastness without overwhelming the referee, distinct from all other TSR campaigns, free of the words "demon" and "devil" and explainable to Marketing in 25 words or less".[3] For inspiration, Cook listened to Pere Ubu, Philip Glass and Alexander Nevsky, read The Dictionary of the Khazars, Einstein's Dreams, and The Narrow Road to the Deep North, and for fun at "Bad Movie Nights", watched such films as Naked Lunch and Wolf Devil Woman.
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Jul 17, 2015 07:50
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What's the difference between a deity's portfolio and their domain? Is the portfolio what they're the god of and the domain just some stuff that's related to the god's domain so clerics have spells?
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Jul 17, 2015 13:04
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Robo Reagan posted:What's the difference between a deity's portfolio and their domain? Is the portfolio what they're the god of and the domain just some stuff that's related to the god's domain so clerics have spells? Pretty much. A portfolio is something like 'Agriculture' or 'War' or 'The South'. A domain would be 'Healing' or Chance' or 'Deception'; basically one facet of the deity's influence.
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Jul 17, 2015 16:19
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Help, old-school thread! Where are the deities in AD&D 1e, and is the concept of Clerics being limited to certain spells based on worshipped deity a thing yet?
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Jul 17, 2015 17:20
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gradenko_2000 posted:Help, old-school thread! Where are the deities in AD&D 1e, and is the concept of Clerics being limited to certain spells based on worshipped deity a thing yet? The main book dealing with the divine is Deities & Demigods, later reprinted as Legends & Lore. However, it mostly just describes gods and lists their stats, with a few extras like possible bonuses and restrictions for worshipers of pantheons or individual gods, like how apparently Greek mythos priests can't ride horses unless they're priests of Poseidon. Other gods were presented in settings or published in Dragon magazine. Anyway I figured this was important for our game so I dug into this stuff earlier and guess what... the Spheres system, where spells are split up like you describe, from 2e? Unless I missed a Dragon article somewhere, it seems to have first appeared in Dragonlance Adventures from 1987. The book talks about it as if it was new and on page 120 there's a chart splitting up clerical spells into the spheres. Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Jul 17, 2015 |
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Jul 17, 2015 22:55
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gradenko_2000 posted:Help, old-school thread! Where are the deities in AD&D 1e, and is the concept of Clerics being limited to certain spells based on worshipped deity a thing yet? 1e clerics could pick any spell from the cleric list. (I believe back then they were required to pray for them ahead of time, like a wizard memorizing a spell, as opposed to the later alternatives where they could pray/cast from their smaller domain lists on the fly.) This is all from memory, so one of the people with books at hand will correct me any minute!
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Jul 18, 2015 01:57
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gradenko_2000 posted:Help, old-school thread! Where are the deities in AD&D 1e, and is the concept of Clerics being limited to certain spells based on worshipped deity a thing yet? Specialty Priests weren't until 2e like Fringe said. There might have been something in a supplement before then, but there's no "spheres" (domains? whatever) for cleric spells in AD&D so maybe not. You might be able to do something with spell schools, which are right there in each spell description but have zero rules relating to them. I think there might be lists of deities (like "Norse pantheon: Odin, Thor, Frey, etc") somewhere in the DMG, or you can look for the Deities & Demigods book, which I remember being disappointingly stat-blocky. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Jul 18, 2015 |
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Jul 18, 2015 02:16
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