PDF preview for Scarrport: City of Secrets

[Urizen]

Greetings Everyone,

I've attached a beefy preview for RDP's upcoming 4th edition book, Scarrport: City of Secrets.

The document is 32 pages and contains 2 sample districts, the ghodon player race, a look at the Elementalist character class, with the entire heroic tier powers, 2 paragon paths, and one of the epic destinies.

There's a black spot in the preview. That's a placeholder for art I'm still waiting on.

I hope you enjoy it!

[Knightfall]

Wow! That is an amazing preview!

I'm not a fan of 4e but this product looks really cool.

4e fans are going to love this book.

[EP]

Looks good. Nice maps, nice artwork, and a good overall design. Looking forward to doing some reading.

[fissionessence]

Very cool big preview. The elementalist looks neat.

I see that you're using Gods of the Shroud; that's pretty exciting, too. I'm interested to watch how all that pans out. I for one am not really into those gods, mainly for the reason that they all have titles instead of actual names, but oh well.

Here are some comments based on just what I read (pretty much just the Elementalist):
Healthy Blow: Please do something with this power. Players interested can now just take a PH2 feat for this effect without taking up an at-will slot. Also, it has the wrong Target line. It should say "One creature" [I think], since it's not a burst. (Unless it's supposed to be a burst?)

Also, I have to wonder at your indenting decision. It's the opposite of what WotC does . . . and I'm not a fan of the blue for the dailies.

I love the four implements, though.

Anyway, if I ever get to play a character ever ever again, I might take a more thorough look at this, but I'm overwhelmed with options. That said, I could also use it to make NPCs . . . hm.

~ fissionessence

[Urizen]

Originally Posted by fissionessence

Very cool big preview. The elementalist looks neat.

I see that you're using Gods of the Shroud; that's pretty exciting, too. I'm interested to watch how all that pans out. I for one am not really into those gods, mainly for the reason that they all have titles instead of actual names, but oh well.

Here are some comments based on just what I read (pretty much just the Elementalist):
Healthy Blow: Please do something with this power. Players interested can now just take a PH2 feat for this effect without taking up an at-will slot. Also, it has the wrong Target line. It should say "One creature" [I think], since it's not a burst. (Unless it's supposed to be a burst?)

Also, I have to wonder at your indenting decision. It's the opposite of what WotC does . . . and I'm not a fan of the blue for the dailies.

I love the four implements, though.

Anyway, if I ever get to play a character ever ever again, I might take a more thorough look at this, but I'm overwhelmed with options. That said, I could also use it to make NPCs . . . hm.

~ fissionessence

Thanks for the feedback.

I don't have PHB2, so I didn't realize the feat you are referring to was in there, but thanks for pointing it out. We're working on changing it.

And thanks for the catch on the indent! My power-text paragraph style was setup with a first line indent, and I didn't realize it. I sort of got into tunnel vision laying out all those powers.

As for the Daily color header... I don't mind the blue, but yeah, it's not the same as the core header color, primarily because I don't know the hex code for that color.

Ahh the joys of errata.

Thanks again.

[Urizen]

Originally Posted by EP

Looks good. Nice maps, nice artwork, and a good overall design. Looking forward to doing some reading.

Thank you. I'm glad you're liking it so far.

[Urizen]

Originally Posted by Knightfall

Wow! That is an amazing preview!

I'm not a fan of 4e but this product looks really cool.

4e fans are going to love this book.

Thanks!

Now.. come over to the dark-side of gaming.

[almuric]

Hmm. On page 8, It's 'Torel'. On page 9, in the drawing, it's 'Torrel'. And in the text it seems to be 'Torrell'. Need a proofreader?

'Raph Tonsilflare'? I like it, but is it supposed to be a comedic setting?

"If you wish to have your ghodon character become a ranger, change the racial +2 Constitution bonus to Dexterity or Wisdom in order to maximize her potential."

What? No way would I allow that. Why not let everyone just do the normal point distribution then give everyone +2 to two stats they want.

Why is 'Healthy Blow' a Constitution attack? Having a tertiary skill as the attacking stat seems cruel. Who would ever take that? Even if you evened out your stats and started with an ok Con, when/why would you ever raise it?

These are just things that jumped out at me in my quick lookover. Overall, it looks ok. I like the artwork. You definitely need a proofreader - too many examples to list. Not something I'd run, but definitely better than some other stuff I've seen out there.

[Urizen]

Originally Posted by almuric

Hmm. On page 8, It's 'Torel'. On page 9, in the drawing, it's 'Torrel'. And in the text it seems to be 'Torrell'. Need a proofreader?

It's getting a thorough proof. This is a preview of the content, but it's not completely finished. thanks for those catches though!

Originally Posted by almuric

'Raph Tonsilflare'? I like it, but is it supposed to be a comedic setting?

Erm. I suppose it could be comedic if you want it to be comedic

Originally Posted by almuric

"If you wish to have your ghodon character become a ranger, change the racial +2 Constitution bonus to Dexterity or Wisdom in order to maximize her potential."

What? No way would I allow that. Why not let everyone just do the normal point distribution then give everyone +2 to two stats they want.

It's just an option. The race is designed to work with the existing racial modifiers, and most people will use the existing racial stats as is. Others might go "hey, this guy would have been be a little cooler if only he had a bonus to X."

I'm just offering options and pointing out possibilities.

Originally Posted by almuric

Why is 'Healthy Blow' a Constitution attack? Having a tertiary skill as the attacking stat seems cruel. Who would ever take that? Even if you evened out your stats and started with an ok Con, when/why would you ever raise it?

Healthy blow has been revised, because of some other issues raised by other posters.

It now looks like this:

Healthy Blow Elementalist (All) Attack 1
With the force of your body, you strike with your weapon.
At-Will • Elemental, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature.
Attack: Intelligence vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Intelligence modifier, and you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifer.
Special: If you satisfy the the condition of your elemental connection class feature, you instead gain temporary hit points equal to 3 + your Constitution modifer.
Special: This attack counts as a basic melee attack.
Increase damage to 2[W] + Intelligence modifier at 21st level.

Originally Posted by almuric

These are just things that jumped out at me in my quick lookover. Overall, it looks ok. I like the artwork. You definitely need a proofreader - too many examples to list. Not something I'd run, but definitely better than some other stuff I've seen out there.

Thanks, and, we're working on getting these issues taken care of. The book is still in layout. I can't complete it until a couple more pieces of artwork come in, so I'm going through it and combing the text again.

[fissionessence]

I like the new healthy blow; I'm not sure it should be a basic attack, but it's much better than the previous version.

As for the race having the option of changing its stats . . . I think this is a good idea. It will rub some people the wrong way, but I think it's a good step toward solving what many to be a problem: races only working well with small subsets of classes. Giving the races and/or classes more freedom without just ripping out the rules (in the cases of some house rules ideas I've seen) I think is good.

~

[Knightfall]

Originally Posted by Urizen

Thanks!

Now.. come over to the dark-side of gaming.

That isn't likely to happen. Still, if I see this book in print in my FLGS then I'd consider it just for the setting.

[Urizen]

Originally Posted by Knightfall

That isn't likely to happen. Still, if I see this book in print in my FLGS then I'd consider it just for the setting.

I understand completely! And thank you for your support in spite of your dislike of 4th edition.

When I first picked up 4th edition, I didn't like it much. Now I'm pretty well hooked, though, I have to say I sort of wish there was more about social interaction..

I kind of think it would be cool to have at-will powers, encounter powers, utilities and dailies for social situations.

It's a rough, loose concept right now, but I've been brainstorming some on the idea of developing a 'social combat" mechanic which incorporates the 4e combat system as a method of resolving encounters that aren't focused killing things.

Examples would be oh, bartering, court intrigue, fast talking, seduction etc...

I guess skill challenges would work, but.. ehh.. they seem to gloss over the subject, using a series of dice rolls to attain to goal in a very fast way. IMHO it takes the role-play out of the process.

Ok I'm rambling.

Thanks for your interest, btw. I really appreciate it.

[Urizen]

Originally Posted by fissionessence

I like the new healthy blow; I'm not sure it should be a basic attack, but it's much better than the previous version.

As for the race having the option of changing its stats . . . I think this is a good idea. It will rub some people the wrong way, but I think it's a good step toward solving what many to be a problem: races only working well with small subsets of classes. Giving the races and/or classes more freedom without just ripping out the rules (in the cases of some house rules ideas I've seen) I think is good.

~

Thanks for the feedback.

One of my proofers has noted that the ghodon bonuses do tend to make the race a bit_too_versatile compared to the other races, which leads me to believe the ghodon probably need to be tweaked.

[Urizen]

Just an update.

We've received a lot of really good feedback on the preview, and want to incorporate the changes before the book is released.

It'll push things back a bit, but in the end, I think Scarrport will be much, much better for the effort.

Many thanks to everyone who was kind enough to contact me.

[raptor112]

I really like the preview, and am looking forward to the finished product.