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<blockquote data-quote="Rich Baker" data-source="post: 6889937" data-attributes="member: 6746624"><p>Hi, Superchunk --</p><p></p><p>Good questions! Let me see what I can do with those . . .</p><p></p><p>1. As I noted earlier, Star*Drive was really part of Bill Slavicsek's original Alternity pitch to TSR management. I did add some bits just by being part of the team--for example, StarMech came into existence because I wanted a generic corporation for a playtest adventure, and then to my surprise it became a star nation when other team members picked it up and ran with it.</p><p></p><p>2. The biggest problem with the Prism Pentad IMO is that it "solved" the setting in a lot of ways. Half the sorcerer-kings die, too many of the mysteries solved, etc., etc. (er, spoiler alert). There are two basic ways to manage a world: episodic and epic. In an episodic world you try to tell stories that keep the world much the same as it was when it was introduced. Star Trek is episodic, ditto Forgotten Realms (at its best). In an epic world you tell the biggest story of the world and let the story change the world--Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, and many other stories. Prism Pentad was an epic for a world that felt like it might have worked better with an episodic story. That said, the books are great and Troy did a great job, I just wish he hadn't been so thorough.</p><p></p><p>3. None that I can think of, sorry. I think pretty much all the pieces I wrote for it were published.</p><p></p><p>4. Sure, I've thought about that. It's a little tricky because Wizards of the Coast owns the copyright to most of the world. I haven't looked at how Ed tackled his Forgotten Realms book, but I am assuming the first thing I would need to do is create a brand new Cerilia-like world of my own to serve as the setting.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Rich</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rich Baker, post: 6889937, member: 6746624"] Hi, Superchunk -- Good questions! Let me see what I can do with those . . . 1. As I noted earlier, Star*Drive was really part of Bill Slavicsek's original Alternity pitch to TSR management. I did add some bits just by being part of the team--for example, StarMech came into existence because I wanted a generic corporation for a playtest adventure, and then to my surprise it became a star nation when other team members picked it up and ran with it. 2. The biggest problem with the Prism Pentad IMO is that it "solved" the setting in a lot of ways. Half the sorcerer-kings die, too many of the mysteries solved, etc., etc. (er, spoiler alert). There are two basic ways to manage a world: episodic and epic. In an episodic world you try to tell stories that keep the world much the same as it was when it was introduced. Star Trek is episodic, ditto Forgotten Realms (at its best). In an epic world you tell the biggest story of the world and let the story change the world--Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, and many other stories. Prism Pentad was an epic for a world that felt like it might have worked better with an episodic story. That said, the books are great and Troy did a great job, I just wish he hadn't been so thorough. 3. None that I can think of, sorry. I think pretty much all the pieces I wrote for it were published. 4. Sure, I've thought about that. It's a little tricky because Wizards of the Coast owns the copyright to most of the world. I haven't looked at how Ed tackled his Forgotten Realms book, but I am assuming the first thing I would need to do is create a brand new Cerilia-like world of my own to serve as the setting. Rich [/QUOTE]
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