General Discussion Thread VIII

IcyCool · Aug 5, 2005

Knight Otu, thanks! One more question, if I may. What poster created Hendrallia? I'd like to put together a proposal for a Hendrallian War College (to which I'll include a bard-like "Legion Officer" prestige class and possibly a PrC or Feat Chain for a "Hendrallian Legionnaire"), but I don't want to step on any toes. If I can get together with the original creator, I'd like to bounce a couple of other ideas off of them.

Knight Otu · Aug 5, 2005

It appears that Uriel was the one who originally created Hendrallia, as a neighbour for Rivenblight. He later expanded it in the descripiton, too.
Unfortunately, his activity has dwindled for work-related reasons, so working together with him is propably not possible.

IcyCool · Aug 5, 2005

Knight Otu said:
It appears that Uriel was the one who originally created Hendrallia, as a neighbour for Rivenblight. He later expanded it in the descripiton, too.
Unfortunately, his activity has dwindled for work-related reasons, so working together with him is propably not possible.

So is Hendrallia available for modification, or is it "private"?

El Jefe · Aug 5, 2005

I'm not a judge, but my $0.02 is that it should be yours to play with, so long as what you do doesn't contradict anything else that has been posted about it up to now.

orsal · Aug 5, 2005

On the subject of all this geographic systematization...

When I created my characters, I deliberately left their geographical backgrounds vague. Scorpio at the time was working on a map, and I figured every new location named in a character's background only complicated that task. At the time, I figured I'd wait until the map was ready and figure out where my places would best fit in.

Scorpio quit LEW before finishing the map, so I figure there's no point waiting. Now Jo Guilan's background isn't an issue. All I have in mind is that he's from some wooded area. So if he ever comes back into play (unlikely), I'll pick a spot. Nurlan's is more of an issue. I envisioned him as coming from a large empire. It doesn't really need to be an empire; a confederacy would work just as well. But in the original background I called it an empire. I didn't name it, although I did name the capital city.

What I was aiming at was a region large enough to have very diverse cultures, including diverse musical traditions, but considerable trade and travel within the region. I envision that nobles in the various provinces often host musicians from all over the empire, and travelling performers often do a circuit of festivals all over the realm. I want a boy who's been "adopted" by a respected musician to have a chance to meet other musicians from all over, learn the songs and varying musical styles of a fairly wide range of cultures. At the same time, I want this to happen mostly within some well-defined region, so that When Nurlan first came to Orussus, he was going a step further.

Now to the best of my knowledge the only empire identified as such so far is the Carduthian Empire, another creation of Uriel. He had plans for it. From what he tells us... it might fit the bill above, or might not. He's described it as a military powerhouse. Hostile to its neighbours... its borders are probably not often crossed peacefully, but within the empire internal travel is another matter.

Given that Uriel has not been around for a while, that the Carduthian Empire is a country whose capital so far has no name, and that Lhondaio is a capital whose country so far has no name, would it be OK to decree that Lhondaio is the Carduthian capital, and that Nurlan's boyhood travels with his mentor Shkarna were around the Carduthian Empire?

Knight Otu · Aug 5, 2005

We want LEW to be a thriving, living setting. So, expansion and if necessary modification should be ok. It would certainly be preferrable if the original creator could be consulted (such as Shadowbloodmoon and I collaborated on expanding Sairundan), but due to the nature of PbP, this is not always possible.

Bront · Aug 6, 2005

How updated is the Wiki?

I think that as we consolidate the information, it should become more usefull with some things fairly rigidly defined, and others vague enough that individual players can adjust things for their characters. Much like most pre-published settings, LEW is a guide for adventure, but ultimately must be flexable enough for GMs and Players to get what they want out of the system.

For example, due to the nature of the shifting Deities, as they are still being filled in, players should have to opertunity to shift Deities without much recourse when a new one becomes available (I've seen it happen twice so far actualy). However, that should be finished soon, (I don't see too many more being needed, just a few to flesh out areas of expertise and alignments) after which, there won't be much change in that.

Also, with new rules that come into play, characters should have an opertunity to take advantage of them if it's not too troubling. Perhaps changing a single feat or adjusting a skill selection (Not changing classes completly). The ultimately, this is all subject to the approval of the judges, but the idea is to have fun here, and to facilitate that as much as possable.

orsal · Aug 6, 2005

Bront said:
How updated is the Wiki?

Sporadically. A few people have entered info, not systematically. Disturbingly, I recently saw that someone named Daniel had entered a lot of stuff (which is good), most of it copied from threads in this forum (which is good), but a few things of his own creation that had never been proposed, let alone approved, here. He had unilaterally created two new deities (I've since deleted them) and rearranged the elemental towers (he thought positive/negative energy should be east/west rather than north/south).

I don't know how much other stuff there might be there which is unofficial. While the wiki might have potential, I figure a disclaimer is in order. If there is any conflict between what's in the wiki and what's in this forum, this forum is authoritative, because this is where stuff gets approved to begin with.

Bront said:
Also, with new rules that come into play, characters should have an opertunity to take advantage of them if it's not too troubling. Perhaps changing a single feat or adjusting a skill selection (Not changing classes completly). The ultimately, this is all subject to the approval of the judges, but the idea is to have fun here, and to facilitate that as much as possable.

I agree, as a general principle. Ultimately, what is "not too troubling" is up to the judges' ruling, so even (what the player thinks is) the smallest change should not be taken for granted.