Dragon 366 - Wish Upon A Star

[Ed_Laprade]

I probably ought to keep silent, but here goes anyway.

Having been a sci-fi fan long before discovering fantasy I was quite annoyed with the fluff, extreamly flavorful though it was. In fact, it was too extream IMO. The stars wink? Everyone sees it. You make a Star pact to a dead star, which you can't see, therefore you don't know that it exists. If the stars are winking, they aren't winling at you, it takes years, decades, or centuries for the light to get to you. Stars that move around aren't stars.

Now, if this stuff was supposed to all be in the Warlocks head that would be one thing. But the way it's written doesn't sound that way. Of course, the GM will do whatever, if anything, s/he wants with it, but it just rubbed my sci-fi geek button the wrong way.

Besides, I prefer the fey pact Warlock anyway.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I liked the article. I especially love the tentacled moon with eyes.

I probably ought to keep silent, but here goes anyway.

Why? Just because it might be fun counter-nit-picking your post?

Having been a sci-fi fan long before discovering fantasy I was quite annoyed with the fluff, extreamly flavorful though it was. In fact, it was too extream IMO. The stars wink? Everyone sees it. You make a Star pact to a dead star, which you can't see, therefore you don't know that it exists. If the stars are winking, they aren't winling at you, it takes years, decades, or centuries for the light to get to you. Stars that move around aren't stars.

Now, if this stuff was supposed to all be in the Warlocks head that would be one thing. But the way it's written doesn't sound that way. Of course, the GM will do whatever, if anything, s/he wants with it, but it just rubbed my sci-fi geek button the wrong way.

Besides, I prefer the fey pact Warlock anyway.

Doesn't the dead star appear to be a black whole? You might "see" him when he is sucking in gas from nearby stars. (Of course, I am not sure if any pseudo-medieval astrologist would call a quasar a dead star...)
Or the star died "recently" - someone wrote down how a star glowed very brightly for some time, until he suddenly disappeared. (Star went nova and then turned neutron star or black whole - effectively invisible now)

And the stars might still be blinking at you - and that's the creepy thing - how did they know that they should blink at you _now_, when the light travels decades or even millenia? Maybe Astralogists are correct when they believe the stars allow them to see the future...

---

One idea I recently had connects the Far Realm and Psionics at once. I thought about how the Feywild and Shadowfell are basically physical reflections of the real world. But what about the "mental reflection" - maybe call it the mindscape or the dreamscape.

A world that doesn't really make sense (because what dream does?) entirely, but is shaped by our minds (or does it shape our minds?). The source of psionic powers. It is the world where indeed, if we look up to the moon, the moon looks back from one of his many eyes. Where the geometry is warped (and not just to 5 x 5 square fireballs ), so we leave our house and are suddenly in the middle of our school or office (possibly naked), or teeth are suddenly falling out (and we know _this_ time, it's not just a stupid nightmare!)
And the dark truth about this world? The "Dreamscape" are the Far Realms. Mind Flayers? Aboleths? They existed because someone thought of them (or do we think of them because they always existed there?)

And the spots in the material world that are presumed to allow us entering the Far Realms, they are a little like that office in "Being John Malkovich" (where you could go through a tunnel to enter the mind and take control of John Malkovich!).

And if you can enter a physical place to get through a purely mental place, what does this tell us?
Maybe there is an even more troublesome truth - the real world is just as unreal as the Far Realms or the DreamScape. Or again, the other way around - the things of our dreams and nightmare are just as real as the material world!

 

[the Jester]

And the dark truth about this world? The "Dreamscape" are the Far Realms. Mind Flayers? Aboleths? They existed because someone thought of them (or do we think of them because they always existed there?)

Or perhaps we only exist because they thought of us.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Or perhaps we only exist because they thought of us.

the Jester, always thinking a step further then others.

 

[DM-Rocco]

There's a couple. Not sure if it's an error.

Yes. Much too strong for a feat, and ZOMG BORKENZ in the hands of a Cha-based Paladin who dipped into Warlock. Seriously, a free At-Will? Guys, the entire Human race just ran out of the room crying.

Cheers, -- N

Okay, I didn't read everything word for word, just a quick glance to see what everyone is talking about, but I didn't see a ZOMG BORKENZ. I know this is going to sound ignorant, but what is a ZOMG BORKENZ?

 

[DM-Rocco]

At first I was disapointed it wasn't the Scales Player primer. However, this is a great add on. The warlock pacts were neat, but split between three types, needed a little more to them. I like the additions this brings.

The star pact is the hardest stat wise for a warlock (save maybe a half elf) but that tiefling feat does seems a little overboard. Seems their racial feats should be only related to the infernal pact.

It, to me, would seem that the star pact racial feats would fit better with an Aasimar, even though they aren't in the core classes and the infernal pact type feats fight better with the Tieflings.

 

[DM-Rocco]

I probably ought to keep silent, but here goes anyway.

Having been a sci-fi fan long before discovering fantasy I was quite annoyed with the fluff, extreamly flavorful though it was. In fact, it was too extream IMO. The stars wink? Everyone sees it. You make a Star pact to a dead star, which you can't see, therefore you don't know that it exists. If the stars are winking, they aren't winling at you, it takes years, decades, or centuries for the light to get to you. Stars that move around aren't stars.

Now, if this stuff was supposed to all be in the Warlocks head that would be one thing. But the way it's written doesn't sound that way. Of course, the GM will do whatever, if anything, s/he wants with it, but it just rubbed my sci-fi geek button the wrong way.

Besides, I prefer the fey pact Warlock anyway.

Even though it takes years for the light to reach the warlock, it could be that "years" ago the star in question new about the coming of a warlock that would be born and could wield the power offered through prophecy or other means and thus sent a signal through time to trigger the interest in a young warlock before he/she was even born.

Also, black holes were initially found because a star moved behind a black hole in relation to us and thus could appear to "wink" at us through space.

How is that for fluff?

 

[That One Guy]

I like M_R and Jester's take on things.

How I'd interpret things is that the Warlock 'sees' these things happen far away or perceives them in some fashion (and with some attack forces others to perceive them as well). Because... uhh... how would a lot of those things work underground? A beam of light from a distant star - that shoots through the earth into the underdark? Right.

Also, who says that the lights in the sky are stars... or even that the sky is not a thin veil on two sides of reality? Stars are just holes cut through that veil by terrible and ancient things.

::shrugs:: Either way, I dig the Lovecraftian tones added to things.