Lylandra
Member

I think that because my group seems to not have a way to learn the song of forms anytime soon (or maybe never...) I will follow the route of Lyceum´s magicians coming up with the enforced flesh spell. Maybe I will have my group fight Madness and seeing that they stand no Chance as Long as the creature is incorporeal. Together with the magicians they can then develop the spell. Lylandra could you please point me to where exactly to find the 4e Tiljann´s Quest concerning Etinify? I am willing to buy the mentioned supplement if I just knew which one it is :) So now my group will get some answers (even though just vague ones it seems) in Seaquen. I think I will message them and ask in advance whether there is more they´d like to investigate concerning the background so that I will be prepared in advance. BTW: maybe someone could just tell me what is common knowledge about the Torch itself?

...rs (not saying hard choices are limited to any level; just they often do not show up so early in a big story). That the players ran with their choice and kept the role play going is great. :) There likely will be frustration as they reach Seaquen and most of their questions go unanswered. That should be short-lived as they are sent on a few side quests to acclimate themselves to Seaquen. Even then, helping the refugees work together or rescuing the dragon's egg can be more nuanced than a traditional "go kill something" quest. One of the things I really appreciate about WotBS and Zeitgeist is the nuanced and multi-layered stories and villains. The sheer amount of short- and long-term treachery in Shelter from the Storm is impressive. As for the Song of Forms, the wizards at Lyceum could produce enforced flesh, but they probably need more information (madness' attack) before they could make real progress. It might not be ready until they return from Castle Korstull. If you read Lylandra's game reports, you really get the sense of how The Fire Forest of Innenotdar is "training wheels" (as tough as it is) for what comes later in terms of negotiation and dealing with NPCs.

I think I saw someone tweaking it for FR and it was centered around Thay/Rashemen. However, I don't think it necessarily requires a parent setting as there is much established lore and regional history in the adventures and guides and the campaign is designed for level 3-20 anyway. What the adventure setting lacks though are distinct deities. Yeah, I added a sidebar regarding the lack of an established pantheon. The adventures and guides refer to deities by their domain. So a GM can choose a pantheon and then use an appropriate deity as necessary from the pantheon. EDIT: This was for those unfamiliar with the adventures and setting. I think @Lylandra 's knowledge of War of the Burning Sky might only be topped by @RangerWickett. ;)

...re is a core adventure path that runs directly from levels 3-20 while leaving enough room for the DM and players to take it in different directions. There are several big battles, but instead of turning into a wargame, the PCs embark on key missions to influence the battle to success or failure. RangerWickett was the campaign manager for both this and Zeitgeist (and wrote several chapters of each) and did a great job on both adventure paths. It includes chapters written by: Jacob Driscoll Wil Upchurch Wolfgang Baur Andrew Kenrick Jeremy Anderson Ari Marmell Ken Marable Shane O'Connor I do not know every adventure path out there, but I think this may be the closest a DM can get to a Record of Lodoss War​ style campaign in a prepackaged adventure path. For further information: wotbsadventurepath.com You can also follow my campaign which is only a couple of sessions in: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?631729-Tormyr-s-War-of-the-Burning-Sky-campaign-spoilers-abound @Lylandra is running the 3.5 (or 4e?) version, is over halfway through, provides exceptional session writeups, and is reviewing the 5e product before it goes to publication. http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?493652-Lylandra-s-War-of-the-Burning-Sky-continued

I was not a 2e guy - so I did not realize that! <turns and shakes fist at that book> Yeah, I just posted on the sister thread about best purchases that among my favorite purchases were the 2e books Lylandra mentioned. They cut a lot of the stuff that made those books really good, leaving some of the leftovers for the 3.x book, and then adding the (pretty useless) 3e avatar stats. Now the 2e books did have avatar stats as well, but they were much less complex, thus leaving extra room for more interesting stuff, unlike those bloated 3.x epic stat blocks...

...ault folks for not being unaware - nope but I do fault folks who are aware and then consciously choose to continue to support racism as if it being in a game makes it some how less real and thus an okay thing to do. I wonder how they would feel if someone started using their personal subject of racism in a game and belittled it just as equally. Would it be okay then? Some how I doubt it. Personally I feel we should judge a person by their character not by the color of their skin, or their height, or their weight, or their <insert some physical characteristic here>. Or as the German individual pointed out how folks keep equating Germany to a small window of time of its existence compared to the totality of its existence due to a stereotypical form of racism. This might get a little sticky I presume if what you are trying to portray is that time period of Germany's history but perhaps they are only meaning in cases where that is not the specific case -- not sure on that one perhaps @Lylandra will clarify what they mean.

If you assume that halflings are built to the same body plan as humans, then yes, you are correct. They probably only weigh 30 pounds, and that severely limits maximum strength. You might assume that halflings are no more strong than toddlers. However, humans are built along one of the lowest strength to mass ratios of any animal their size - built for caloric efficiency and endurance, not power. A typical 80 pound female chimpanzee is stronger than a typical 200lb male human. Supposing that halflings are built along the same body plan as chimpanzees, with relatively thicker bones and larger attachment points for muscles, and more fast muscle and less slow muscle gets us a very different answer. Such a body plan might also explain why halflings are afraid of water in the source material - they don't have near neutral buoyancy the way humans do, and instead sink like rocks. It also explains why halflings would be so athletic for their size. Interesting. I remember @Lylandra mentioning something similar early on in the thread. At the outset I'm no expert in this field, so my response is purely from a layman's perspective. I realise you are not disputing me on this but for the sake of the debate, the reason I'm reluctant to follow the chimpanzee/thicker bones or muscle idea is due to the following factors: (1) Physical characteristics of halflings resemble humans. (2) The lifestyle and movement style of a chimpanzee is different to a halfling. The halfling moves and lives much like humans do. (3) In the 2e Gnome & Halfling's Handbook the book is filled with numerous references about how quick wits and agility are their defense against brute strength which would certainly reflects that a strong physiology doesn't even enter the equation as a factor for defence. Furthermore every Halfling (including Kender) except for the Athasian Halfing has a maximum STR of 17 or 16. In 2e the 17 STR would provide a +1 to hit/+1 dmg whereas humans could go as far as 18/00...

Ok, here it goes. 1) Ogres usually are smaller than giants, and usually there's room for them to maneuver and such. Otherwise, it may look as silly as chainmail bikinis. 2) It still is a too big stretch for many people. Also, trolls regenerate. Humans do not - same with elves, dwarves, etc. Not without magic. 3) Because this process justifies anything, including chainmail bikinis.* Gamers have to deal with that in electronic RPGs. Those who defend it use the exact same argument as you. Honestly, I have dubious preferences for realism, but I can see their point. 4) Honestly, every race being equally capable at every class is just too bland. This especially 4) But @Lylandra your RL explanation of Adamant is really good, I always thought adamant is kind of forged diamond, now I know better. On your preferences, the last thing I want to do is calling your opinion badwrongfun don't get me wrong on that. I think that you are from a younger generation than I am and you probably got conditioned by the stereotypes of the MMPORPG hype, just as us oldschoolers rather grew up with the classic in ways totally unbalanced RP Systems. The good thing about it is 5E allows each of us to use their preferred style and that is most important. With my players I had to adopt a bit in your direction, as they are a bit younger than me and grew up mainly with 3rd edition although I think in the beginning they did some Ad&d. So I did accept a barbarian dwarf, the only condition was he had to use a great axe and not a halberd, and he did that for my better emersion to the game. In fact I put the timeframe on this campaign to 1000 A.D. so halberds wouldn't exist in that setting....

...e brigands that live there." or B) You hear reports of banditry in the area and the local constabulary is unable to locate the thieves. The town guard has put out a call for help and is offering a reward for anyone that can eliminate this menace. You learn that the bandits always leave a strange mark on their dead victims. After patrolling the roads you come across an unfortunate carriage. The footman and guards are dead, each marked with this strange symbol. A symbol that looks very familiar to the ranger. In fact, you're pretty sure that it's the same symbol that the men that stole your sister were wearing on their tunics.... When I am a player, I often worry that I'm annoying or bugging the DM. I frequently talk to them about what's happening in the campaign, how my character reacts and what I see him doing in the future. And it's not that I want to be the center of attention, in fact I can be shy at times, but I know that as a DM I crave that feedback so much. EDIT: Lylandra do you know what changed between campaigns? Was it a difference in styles? Did someone smack him upside the head? I was in a campaign recently where we had a chaos monger similar to yours. Every time the DM tried to meet that player half way he rejected whatever storyline she proposed. "Hey, this looks like it might have some info on your missing brother." "Nah, that's okay. I go drinking and gambling instead."

FYI, I'm German and we tend to have very strong opinions on Nazis and how to represent them in the media. I'm also very astonished every time I see how people from other (most often non-european) countries almost fetishize this dark aspect of the 20th century to the extend that we see Nazis and Nazi references everywhere. A significant number of Americans love to lampoon the Nazis, to turn them into tragic comedy figures, or to use them as safe villains. A very small proportion idealize them — about the same proportions as in Germany, so I have read — but here, they make the news. Regularly. And are very vocal in their political movements. Reich Star, for example, is a decent game, and a "What if the Nazis had won WWII and then discovered a hyperdrive in the 21st C." It paints them as "still evil"... and predicates fighting them in the flavor text. My players, including a Jew and a Romany, plus me being ethnically and religiously Ukrainian, chose to play resistance hiding inside the ...

"Never forget, never again" is basically a mantra that is taught through various means in school and trying to understand what made some of our grandparents or grand-grandparents commit such horrible crimes or openly celebrate the burning of books or the declaration of war is tough at least. Which is why many people over here see it as "our" duty to prevent the rise of another fascist regime at all cost. Which is why we usually don't want to make Nazi comparisons without true reason, lest we'd trivialise what happened in the Reich. That is a good principle. I wish that more people in my nation learned how to question the decisions of our grandparents and great-grandparents, how to recognize when they made mistakes or made evil decisions, and how to recognize the same choice when it happens again. How to make a different decision, next time. One of my distant relatives was an officer in the German army, in the 1940s. He eventually tried to assassinate the Reichsfuehrer. It is easier to thi...

These reasons are very, very, very different and I don't wish to write an essay about the hows and whys and also would love to not Godwin the thread about freakin' cross-gender play any further. FYI, I'm German and we tend to have very strong opinions on Nazis and how to represent them in the media. I'm also very astonished every time I see how people from other (most often non-european) countries almost fetishize this dark aspect of the 20th century to the extend that we see Nazis and Nazi references everywhere. I don't really think there is much to say about cross gender play. In a world which the DM is trying to portray, it is necessary to have both male and female characters, and that often means the DM ends up portraying female characters, when I'm a DM I often do it third person, as I feel more comfortable playing a narrator and describing the female characters actions, and saying "she says," every time she has something to say to the PCs. I am not going to try and speak in a false...

I agree. Combating and dealing with prejudices ingame can be fun if everyone is on board. Same as dealing with ideologies and means of government- we once had a PC with a noble background who didn't think that democracy could work at all and that it would doom the society he lived in. Despite the fact that their noble houses just ended a near-fatal war a few years ago. I'd rather direct prejudices etc. at everyone (not necessarily all at once), depending on the circumstances. Not just at PCs belonging to one kind of group. Well Democracy seems to be failing after less than 100 odd years as universal democratic ideal (since 1893 here). Monarchy was stable for centuries. I live in a liberal democracy with a monarch as head of state, when I was younger I was anti monarchist, now once I look at Republics maybe having an educated hereditary head of state is not the worst thing in the world. The Queen can fire the NZ prime minster theoretically so if we elected a pumpkin who was a disaster the ...

FYI, I'm German and we tend to have very strong opinions on Nazis and how to represent them in the media. I'm also very astonished every time I see how people from other (most often non-european) countries almost fetishize this dark aspect of the 20th century to the extend that we see Nazis and Nazi references everywhere. I'm aware that for a German, the rise and fall of the Third Reich is merely one decade, out of centuries of German history; but for some of us, it was a very... influential... decade. Some survivors were so emotionally traumatized, that it affected how they raised their children, which in turn had effects on grandchildren. Some families put "never forget, never again" at the center of their tradition of values. Not my family, directly, but I have friends in such families, and the emotional intensity has not faded away, not yet. Mike Godwin, author of Godwin's Law, says this: "The best way to prevent future holocausts, I believe, is not to forbear from Holocaust compariso...

These reasons are very, very, very different and I don't wish to write an essay about the hows and whys and also would love to not Godwin the thread about freakin' cross-gender play any further. No worries. I was merely defending Witcher. I feel to pick (not you) on 1 Polish-influenced game was rather unfair. FYI, I'm German and we tend to have very strong opinions on Nazis and how to represent them in the media. I'm also very astonished every time I see how people from other (most often non-european) countries almost fetishize this dark aspect of the 20th century to the extend that we see Nazis and Nazi references everywhere. Understood and agree. For the record I'm European I happen to be living in South Africa - plenty Germans down here, including 1 at my table :)

You do realize that there are lots and lots of reasons for that? Of course as there are lots and lots of reasons for Witcher having an all-white cast. Also, there are enough games, movies etc. out there that deal with all the major axis powers (including the Japanese), even if they tend to exclude brief members (Romania, Iraq...) Is your position being that we do not have enough fantasy games? Or is it fair to pick on the 1 Polish-influenced game? On a second thought, we did get Nazi aliens in Star Trek... twice! Ok, not sure how that relates.

Here are the top 10 geo for an unspecified time frame. 98212 I compared these with actual population of the countries. USA 0.043% Canada 0.054% UK 0.028% Australia 0.04% New Zealand 0.038% The percentages are small and significantly smaller for non English speaking ones, as you would expect. For example Brazil is 0.003% Wonder why the UK is so much smaller? From my personal accadotal experience, the UK doesn't seem to be as focused on D&D as the USA appears to be. Many RPG Cons I've seen in the UK have no D&D run at all for example, is that the same in the US?

Regarding the cultural baggage: By this I mean I don't import the colonial history of black-skinned people into my worlds. There might be colonialism, or aspects thereof, but in a wholly different context. Same thing with prejudices and biases. Some Minotaur tribes might not get along with their Hobgoblin neighbors because they think of them as stupid barbarians. Depending upon the ruleset, those hobgoblins may, as physiology, be statistically significantly less intelligent than the minotaurs and/or humans. After all, some game worlds do assign penalties to Goblinoid intellect... and bonuses to minotaurs. All the justifications used erroneously (due to conflation of education with intelligence in the 16th to 20th centuries) for colonization and/or enslavement may be factually supported by the game mechanics preventing intellect from the same range of values. In a way, I kind of miss the days when only Elves were Int 19, and only dwarves hit con 20... but I sure don't miss the clunky m...

Especially if you could customize your PC... why not give the player the choice to play as a moor? Because it raises a whole lot of issues, if part of your goal is historical accuracy. A moor would most likely be treated differently by the NPCs than a white man in the same situation, same with a woman. You need to record a whole load of extra dialogue, and produce a lot more art assets, it's not as simple as just changing the skin tone. Or, heck, why not give the player the choice to play as a woman? I think that is planned as free DLC for Kingdom Come. Because you know how a woman would be treated completely differently by society at that time, thus it needs to be a completely different storyline, it isn't just a case of reskinning the character model, so it takes time and more money. Now in a fantasy setting where racism and sexism don't exist then year go ahead and just change the skin tone add a few art assets for women, and you are probably good to go. Only that isn't the case beca...

Can you imagine the reaction of a white man RP'ing a black woman in some circles? Who do you think they will get a bigger backlash from? While my knee-jerkism is "Well granted! !" I'm not so sure. So far everyone piping up in thread defending the 'uncomfortable' angle has been from the "I've seen it only done poorly" camp, not so much the "I [I]fear it'll be done poorly"* or even the "No Cultural† Appropriation!" camp. * Though I've literally heard that excuse at the table. "Well... I've never seen it done well and I don't think you can, so no." And then later it became, "Well, okay, but only because you've proven me wrong about Kender..." † If sex/gender can be considered a 'culture', which I've heard compelling arguments for. Okay, in terms of fantasy we'd rather not have negative cultural baggage... "We"? ',:| I think you mean "drag real world negative cultural baggage into game"... and then I disagree within some genres. But yeah, in my generic fantasy games I...

I'm not so sure. Unless he portrayed that black woman in a really off-putting way, I don't think he'd get much backlash. Even 5 years ago I would agree with you. Since then we've had white authors warned off writing black characters, people attacked online for hairstyles and hoop earrings, or trying on a on a kimono in a museum, or wearing a cheongsam to prom, and ridiculous claims of "Digital Blackface". Already you are seeing more articles about cultural appropriation related to published RPGs. I don't think it has negatively affected the hobby as yet, and I'm all for the new art direction and more inclusive style D&D is going with, but you shouldn't be fearful of playing with other cultures.

I know that. But I wanted to avoid a big wall of text and tried to focus on the fact that transsexual isn't the right word and using transgender for all of them isn't right as well. Good point about the possibility of being trans even if they are blessed by Corellon, especially if their parents are not. I'd thought it was a herediary thing, but that isn't the case. For sure. I meant more to add on to your post rather than to try to refute or one-up it. Maybe my use of poker terms was poorly thought out, sorry if I came off as combative.

Okay... let me throw in one little thought: The ability to switch between male and female elf form doesn't make these elves transexual or transgender. I'd rather call it an extreme form of genderfluidity. Being trans means a person whose gender doesn't match with the sex they were born with. But these people are actually both, mentally and physically, depending on their choice. They are not mismatched by nature, they are omni-matched. And.... their still not a thing in my game.

Okay... let me throw in one little thought: The ability to switch between male and female elf form doesn't make these elves transexual or transgender. I'd rather call it an extreme form of genderfluidity. Being trans means a person whose gender doesn't match with the sex they were born with. But these people are actually both, mentally and physically, depending on their choice. They are not mismatched by nature, they are omni-matched. I'll see your "being able to change sex doesn't make them transgender" and raise you "nor does it stop them from being transgender." The idea that being transgender means your gender "doesn't match" the sex you were "born with" is a very cisnormative way of framing it. Sex and gender are different spectra (just as sexuality is different from either), so no gender inherently "matches" or "doesn't match" any given set of sex characteristics. The associations between them are culturally constructed, so a better way of framing it would be to say that bein...

Don't know why this is so controversial. I once designed a humanoid species for a space-faring RIFTS campaign that could and would switch their sex. They were born androgynous and did their first shift during puberty. The switch would take something between 1-3 weeks (this was sci-fi, so I explained it with a hormonal change that does take some time). Reasons for switching? Emotional state, a desire to try out something new, having found a perfect match... Regarding partnership and families, they were able to procreate in both forms, but only few would do so with the same partner in two different forms (those who did were considered 'true matches'). This didn't matter as the species was long-lived and a couple would usually do the child-rearing together. I don't see why a child born into a species that *is* like this would be traumatized if "mom" became "dad" someday. Switching is part of their nature, sex and gender are not set in stone and the kid would most certainly ask if "now-dad" ha...

Why is does it seem like this is an actual issue now with things like gender bending elves? If it was groovy back then, then, why are people questioning it now? There was no "Ideological Purity" requirement then being shoved done people's throats. You'll find people are more comfortable swallowing things at their own pace, rather when they are being force fed it. No. The presumption is that your character is the same gender as you because you are the one portraying the character. That's a terrible presumption. I'm not gonna to ask the strawman nonsense questions of "so then everyone at your table is playing a human with poor combat skills then". I mean I will, but only by presumption. If your elf behaves exactly like your human character then why are you playing an elf? Depends on the system... but at first blush for the inherent racial benes, duh. Or because I enjoy playing elves like the stuck up egotistical jackholes they are, and no one does egotistical as well as an...

Don't know why this is so controversial. This is controversial because sexual identity is important to people, even in make-believe medium, and that transsexuality is an oddity - i.e it differs from the norm - which troubles people. Though the best term for it is maybe not "controversial." Maybe unusual and perplexing would be a better term.

Yikes, Conan as turn-on? No, I've never seen anyone who played their barbarian like a sexy walking stick. Usually, these characters are played as power/competence fantasies by male players. Lets not get into the whole muscular male is a power fantasy, while attractive female is sexist, debate. There are enough Fabio like romance book covers to show there is a female desire for it. There is this third-person narrative kind of play ("She does XYZ") besides the fully immersive first-person play ("I do XYZ") where players play their characters, but not *as* their characters. It is far more common than you'd think. Ah I get you writing their own mental erotic fanfic as it were. Okay I can see that can be an issue, but I guess the GM also has a lot of control over things, it takes too to tango as it were. They can always fade to black or rebuff any advances if appropriate. If you cannot see the connection, then fine. You'll certainly create no such character in your RPGing carreer then ;) The ...

Yikes, Conan as turn-on? No, I've never seen anyone who played their barbarian like a sexy walking stick. Usually, these characters are played as power/competence fantasies by male players. What I did see were women portraying gay male characters as their wish fulfilment and/or - see @Lanefan s comment - way to explore their sexuality. They were rarely sticks, most of them did have a personality, but I guess they'd carry many toxic stereotypes about gay men that would make them feel uncomfortable. (google Yaoi if you'd like to inquire further.) There is this third-person narrative kind of play ("She does XYZ") besides the fully immersive first-person play ("I do XYZ") where players play their characters, but not *as* their characters. It is far more common than you'd think. Also, there is not much of a difference - besides having full "remote control" of the character - between a character in an RPG and a character in a movie or novel. And just think about how many characters are there f...