The latest "IN" thing with 3E......

[Sulimo]

This is actually "On-topic!!!"

Well... mostly....

First I hope the next big thing is richly detailed City settings for richly detailed campaign settings.

"Why is that Larry?"

I'm glad you asked. Available next month (don't quote me, but I think that's accurate) is Living Imagination's Streets of Silver, a richly detailed city setting of the City of Parma in the Northern Imperial Province of Novarum. It will include adventures, Maps, hundreds of detailed buildings and characters, some astounding artwork and within can be found both orcs and pies! Though not necessarily together.

You know, this sounds right up my alley. Even the pies. What kind of page count will this thing have?

 

[Larry Fitz]

Was originally conceived as 180, we're probably looking at a little over 200 though (maybe as many as 240). Like all our products SOS will be densely packed crunchy bits. Check out the website... if you dare.... Living Imaginition Inc.

 

[Sulimo]

Was originally conceived as 180, we're probably looking at a little over 200 though (maybe as many as 240). Like all our products SOS will be densely packed crunchy bits. Check out the website... if you dare.... Living Imaginition Inc.

Excellent, although crunchy bits hold little interest for me personally. So, whats the price likely to be? and will it be soft or hard-cover?

 

[Larry Fitz]

Soft cover, and for the life of me I can't remember the price.... but I'll check.... I'm thinking around $29.95 (American) but again, don't quote me....

Larry Fitz
Instigator/Mendicant
Living Imagination, Inc.

"Don't quote me... I don't like to be... quoted."
-Hekix, a Lich with privacy issues.

 

[incognito]

minute plots (just add water)

I need shake and bake intrigue .

Like P-Cat's Noble who married a demon, and even if/when the party discovers this can't expose her due to the cities policy of stoning anyone known to associate with demon's (the Noble is thier buddy).

Or an NPC antogonist, or Protagonist, with fleshed out long term goal and timeline's. Someone who can interact with the party socially, not combatively.

Scenarios for gather info, diplomacy, forge document, bluff, sense motive. And they ahve to be able to drag and drop into an exsiting campaign. I am not looking for stats, exactly, but hooks that amke sense - none of this: fetch treasure and kill monster - put political struggles worth dying over. Scandal, and rock and a hard palce choices (Sophies Choice, etc).

Moral and eithical challenges for good (like not enough natural recourses which forces two nations to compete and have hostility). Pholisophical cahllenges for Law, or Chaos (maybe slavery as an accepted practice in a lawful campaign, or a lack of public services in a chaotic one - no one wants to be the fire dept, or police dept., or the militia)


finally, I need good puzzles and traps. Not like the book of challenged (you walk into a room and the doors 'magically' seal. but a well laid out crypt, or den of a beast, or a castle with some sensible, craft traps.

By the same token who about some good old player driven 'block style' puzzles. Like some sort of see saw, or bags of sand that have to be places correctly to advace the party. Not simply three color coded keys (blue key get through the blue door), but genuine brain teasers.

Anyone know a good resurse for something like that?

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Re: minute plots (just add water)

By the same token who about some good old player driven 'block style' puzzles. Like some sort of see saw, or bags of sand that have to be places correctly to advace the party. Not simply three color coded keys (blue key get through the blue door), but genuine brain teasers.

Anyone know a good resurse for something like that?

Yeah, actually. Those kind of traps make appearances in good 3-D adventure-type video games- The Legend of Zelda games on the N64 being the best example. I'm generally unimpressed with the "traps" in videogames, but a few of those in the N64 Zeldas (especially in the second one) were actually cunning. Of course, they were also very forgiving, if you completely botched things they reset for you. One of the best was an underwater temple that you could raise and lower the water level via a series of valves in order to access new areas.

Even the simplistic traps sometimes gave me "Ooh, that would be really cool if it did X" ideas.

Whoah. Sorry to turn into a Nintendo shill all of a sudden. I guess I'm sort of a Zelda fan-boy

 

[Florin]

Don't forget the new Greenwood novel: Elminster goes to Nightfall!

 

[zyzzyr]

I recently purchased "Path of the Sword" by FFG, which had interesting "schools" in it. The schools are themed - e.g. defense, stealth, etc. By joining a school, you gain a new power (usually a feat-like thing), but you have to trade time and XP. (First level costs about 100 xp, but it goes up from there). If you want to join more than one school, it costs more xp for each level
(sort of like having a cross-school).

I really liked it - would like to see more of these. It gives my Bbn/Fgh something to do while the wizard in the party wants to sit around for 3 months making magic items.

It's a "new rule" though, so at some levels (e.g. I'm at 10th now), I can burn quite a bit of xp for some cool powers, and not even notice. Unbalancing? Maybe not - I haven't seen Paths of Magic but I'm sure they've got it there too.

zyzzyr

 

[Terraism]

Yes, I believe Mongoose's next book is The Slayer's Guide to Nightfall.

Ok, this was much too good. I actually got an outright, rolling laugh out of this - that doesn't happen much anymore. The rest of the pokes are good, but this one just takes the cake. I WANT that book. No offense, Nightfall.

 

[Painfully]

One can never have too many MAPS! I'd like one of those fancy WotC cartographers to go out on a limb and just put out a book of about 50 high quality maps (page- or poster-sized), and just sit back and see how it sells.

3E demands the use of some kind of battlemap, and frankly, I would much prefer nicely made maps that are already drawn out.

If publishers would include quality poster-sized maps with their modules, I'd certainly spend two or three extra bucks for it--especially considering it is reuseable once the module is over.

I don't see this trend happening currently, but I certainly hope publishers will see this thread and consider it.