Necromancer Games-update by Orcus

[Shemeska]

"End of Eternity" has the party visit the Elemental Chaos replete with Primordials (renamed "proteans") - the Pathfinder issue even dedicates a whole ecology article to them.*

I'd be surprised if it uses any of the WotC terms *goes back to look at my copy*

But regarding the proteans in PF#22 (and in Paizo's planar book as well). The proteans' home plane is known as The Maelstrom. And they're conceptually very, very different from WotC's primordials. WotC's primordials are vaguely like the Greek titans, and have a thing against the gods of 4e. The proteans are more like a physical manifestation of the Maelstrom's reaction to the rest of the cosmos, like an immune reaction to the advent of a very foreign concept of law and stability.

They were there before the gods but perhaps only within Golarion's cosmos, since it's not a settled question of where the gods came from in the first place. The proteans also don't have any monolithic ideology, instead being split apart into innumerable groups -called choruses- each with a specific vision of how to carry out the Maelstrom's will. The gods also don't have any monolithic interaction with them either, excepting perhaps Asmodeus.

That said, if you use the proteans, regardless of what cosmology you set them in (heck even plugged into 4e's default) I'd be flattered. A lot of stuff I make can be adapted to other cosmologies if that's your thing, though some of the larger context they were created within might be lost if you don't also bring along some other concepts with them.

 

[Knightfall]

Necromancer Games had a hell of a sweet spot for with the S&S brand, any company would have wanted that type of positioning, I am sure they struggled to regain that kind of distribution as a print publisher (examples of Kenzerco and Paizo partnerships come to mind) Now they will have to recreate themselves as a pdf and PoD publisher.

I hope that Necromancer Games has tremendous success.

Okay. I have to chime in here.

While I personally agree with you regarding the S&S Studio brand, the truth is a lot more convoluted.

Internet-savvy d20/OGL fans quickly learned they could count on great d20 products under the Sword & Sorcery Studios brand. However, that brand doesn't get as much love from the retailers (this is based on personal experience) in my neck of the woods. And I bet it's the same in a lot of other markets too.

For example, there is one specific FLGS here in Edmonton that considers ALL S&S products to be poo. (If it doesn't say D&D on the cover then it isn't D&D, in that store, period.) S&S Studio products are regulated to bins where they collect dust.

The owner of the store doesn't give much thought to Pathfinder either. Now, his opinion might change as Pathfinder grows into a successful brand (I think it will), but I cannot hope for him to change his mind. (There are other FLGS in Edmonton where Pathfinder gets its due.)

Also, many local retailers I know either never knew the difference between a S&S Studio/Necromancer book and a S&S Studio/Malhavoc book or they didn't care! To them, S&S Studio books were all the same mess -- 3PP books that WERE NEVER truly D&D. (A few knew better... but only a select few.)

Of course, the good part is that those same retailers now discount all their S&S Studio books. It saves me money.