Grim Tales: SLAVELORDS of CYDONIA - Advance Copy: Taking Q&A!

I had the pleasure of meeting Wulf (Ben) last night and it was extremely generous of him to lend me the first copy (it has the number 1 written on the inside cover) of Slavelords of Cydonia. I haven't had too much time to take a look at it yet (it looks sweet so far though) but I'd be more than willing to answer any questions that anyone might have.

Here's the synopsis Wulf sent to me and posted in this thread:
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107718

"The PCs begin the adventure exploring an ancient ruin on Earth. They find
that they are preceded to the ruins by an archaeologist intent on activating
a strange gate (the Pylon Gateway). The gate opens, and the PCs soon find
themselves on Cydonia-- a mythical Mars ruled over by the Sli'ess, a race of
reptilian humanoids.

The PCs are rapidly forced to learn the ways of the Sli'ess, who are equally
interested in learning about them-- and particularly about Earth. The
Sli'ess Empire is a cruel place, ruled over by the snake-headed ra, policed
by the croc-headed bru, and manipulated by the chameleon-headed priests,
the suul. Gecko-headed scientists (lor) and tortoise-like merchants (yul) round
out the rigid caste system-- with the mixed-blooded abominations (got),
humans, and rat-man slaves sinking to the gutters.

Negotiating the tricky political landscape of the Empire will be one of the
PCs greatest challenges.

PCs being what they are, they soon gain stature in the eyes of their
captors, and they are moved from House to House as a valuable commodity.
After a stint in the Arena, the PCs are "rescued" and pressed into service
by a high-ranking agent of the Authority Slave Hunters. He's particularly
interested in activating and controlling the local Pylon system that has
lain dormant on Cydonia for millenia.

In the course of this task the PCs uncover a hidden threat-- the cthulhoid
Lethid. Lost to history, even to the Sli'ess, are the details of the First
Lethid-Sli'ess War. It was Earth, in fact, that was at one time the seat of
Sli'ess power, and Cydonia a mere outpost. At the end of the First War, the
Sli'ess retreated to Cydonia and severed the gateway to Earth, trapping the
lethid there. In time the Sli'ess forgot, content to merely rule over Mars--
but the lethid never forgot. With the gateway open, they have secretly
insinuated themselves onto Cydonia, and they are eager to finish the war.

The PCs rise to power in defense of Cydonia, moving from guerrilla like
raids to command of entire armies. They are instrumental in recovering
ancient Sli'ess weaponry, forging alliances between bickering factions
(including the outlawed magi cult, the Red Cadre), and even in reactivating
the devastating "Deimos Starhammer Array," a massive ion cannon based on
Deimos and controlled from Phobos. Before the end of the conflict, the PCs
will be honored commanders at the head of countless ranks of loyal bru
soldiers.

In the final Chapter of the adventure, the PCs must pay the devil his due--
having defended the Sli'ess Empire from the Lethid, they realize they must
now defend Earth from the Sli'ess. They have several options here: siding
with the Cydonian rebels in overthrowing the social order on Cydonia,
assassinating the Sli'ess Emperor, or destroying the Pylon Gateway--
including some options that, in truly heroic and epic fashion, don't allow
for a return home, and in some cases means the death of the PCs in pursuit
of the cause."

Glassjaw,
Are there suggestions about starting characters at different levels (since I know this goes from 1-20) to "shorten" up the epic campaign a bit? Not that I want to shorten it up a bit but rather to move things along fatser since my running time is so limited these days. As I recall in a much earlier post Wulf said it was organized into "books" that held broad plot lines that could be rearraigned or skipped.

Are there suggestions about starting characters at different levels (since I know this goes from 1-20) to "shorten" up the epic campaign a bit? Not that I want to shorten it up a bit but rather to move things along fatser since my running time is so limited these days. As I recall in a much earlier post Wulf said it was organized into "books" that held broad plot lines that could be rearraigned or skipped.

Click to expand...

Well there aren't really "suggestions" per se but within each book, there are a lot of possible scenarios. Some of those scenarios, however, are necessary to get to the next book. The campaign starts at level 1 but I suppose if you started the characters at a higher level, you could increase the power of the enemies in the first book a bit and then skip right to encounters that contain the crucial plot devices so you could get to the later books quicker.

Bear in mind that these are just some of my thoughts after browsing through the campaign itself. Wulf would probably have a lot more specifics for you since he obviously is much more familiar with the campaign as a whole than I am.

Info or suggestions on characters is actually pretty vague overall but I think that's kind of the point. As I'm reading through some of the early encounters of the campaign, I can really envision a variety of settings and time periods that it could take place in.

Anyway, I hope that answered your question.

HC & compatability

Is it still hardcover?

How compatable does it seem to be with the core D&D d20 mechanics? Can I run core D&D characters through it? How about Star Wars, Judge Dredd or Omega World charcters? I am doing a crossover game right now with all those elements, and I would like to be able to do the same with Slave Lords of Cydonia (SLC). I don't mind a little shoehorning here and there, but I would like to know how dependent this module is on the Grim Tales (GT) rules set (which I don't have and likely would not use as I don't even like d20 Modern that well). From the little I know of GT, it looks more like a d20 tool kit than a vastly different d20/OGL game. I hope SLC will be very portable.

Did the Mass Combat System make the cut? How does the scale work?

Is this just an adventure campaign guide? A campaign setting?

Is it still hardcover?

Click to expand...

Yup. The cover art is really nice too.

How compatable does it seem to be with the core D&D d20 mechanics? Can I run core D&D characters through it? How about Star Wars, Judge Dredd or Omega World charcters? I am doing a crossover game right now with all those elements, and I would like to be able to do the same with Slave Lords of Cydonia (SLC). I don't mind a little shoehorning here and there, but I would like to know how dependent this module is on the Grim Tales (GT) rules set (which I don't have and likely would not use as I don't even like d20 Modern that well). From the little I know of GT, it looks more like a d20 tool kit than a vastly different d20/OGL game. I hope SLC will be very portable.

Click to expand...

I'd say you'd have to do a little tweaking but it would definitely work. It obviuosly would work best with GT but there are actually conversion notes if you aren't using GT. It's a very nice addition and doesn't take up a lot of pages either (so if you do have GT, there aren't a lot of pages taken up with conversion notes).

As far as running it with D&D or Star Wars characters, it would probably work although magic and the Force might have to be toned down a bit. It's a low-magic setting so any abundance of magic would definitely change the challenge level substantially. If you used non-casting and non-Force characters, you could probably run with very little tweaking.

The beauty of SoC is that you can run it with characters from very timelines and it still works. Using D&D/fantasy characters would be reminiscent of the old Barrier Peaks module where the PC's find weird alien tech. In the Star Wars universe, it could be a new and previously undiscovered alien race. Both would be really cool actually.

I would also encourage you to give GT a second look. I'm not a huge fan of d20 Modern either but I love the GT class system.

Did the Mass Combat System make the cut? How does the scale work?

Click to expand...

Yes, there is a MCS. It looks pretty good but I haven't delved into it too much yet. I'll post some details this weekend after Turkey Day.

Is this just an adventure campaign guide? A campaign setting?

Click to expand...

It's both and more! The first half of the book is a full 1-20 campaign but in the process, it fleshes out the world of Cydonia. The second half of the book is the crunchy stuff: the races, monsters, mass combat system, new equipment, etc.

GlassJaw said:

Yes, there is a MCS. It looks pretty good but I haven't delved into it too much yet. I'll post some details this weekend after Turkey Day.

Click to expand...

I'll be more specific - my group helped playtest the mass combat rules. Is the map scale table still there? Does it vary by unit size?


BTW - These Mass Combat Rules use one of the most clever mechanics to make them seemless with d20. I have been using a modified version in my campaign ever since we tried it. My players really enjoy it.

Ow!

It looks like a good match for Omega World (OW) characters, which is great since I LOVE that game. And since there are many types of anthropomorphs in Cydonia, there should be room for OW mutants in the game. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this one.

OK Glassjaw,
You've had a few days to drool over it. You owe a review! or Has the drool fried your keyboard

Seriously,
How flexible are the scenarios that Wulf presents? How fast or slow can this go? What are leveling times like? I would presume that there are level "checks" in there somewhere.

And from what you've read what era do you think Wulf had mind for characters to start (I know it could be any but...)? Fanatsy characters would start with more melee prof than a modern char.

Any magic that can be aquired while on Cydonia?

Thanks again