The Tome of Time (A second book of magic)

[sirwmholder]

Very cool that each slice has a forward and reverse effect. Even better would be finding a way to install a "present" version for some of them...

One could argue that the present does not exist in the minds of a Chrono-Mage... past has been recorded... future has been determined and will soon become the past... there is no present.

Giving this a kick in the pants. I still need to write up some of the eras I have complete. Other things have just taken my time.

Very good stuff... have you thought of putting a book out?

William Holder

 

[Brother Richard]

My thoughts

I am very angry. You create all of these cool slices and in all of your tome of time only the chronomancer can use them. I think the other classes or at least one of them can half a worse but still existent slice progression.

Thats just what I think. Right now, it feels like you made 3 totally different classes that have nothing to do with each other mechanically. The flavor is similar but otherwise it is totally different.

I don't know, maybe you met for them to be totally different, but if you look at your ritual magic, they all use the same mechanic twisted into very different flavors.

If you look at each class individually, they all look great, but I think they should have mechanics that tie them together.

Otherwise, great job!

 

[Stratovarius]

One could argue that the present does not exist in the minds of a Chrono-Mage... past has been recorded... future has been determined and will soon become the past... there is no present.

Very good stuff... have you thought of putting a book out?

William Holder

I have actually, although the first one will be ritual magic (its just down the front page), and called "Lambs to the Slaughter". This is also the reason new updates have gone dark on that particular front, or rather one of, since work, other writings and the like have had a fair hand in that. Tome of Time (new name eventually) will be the second in line, followed probably by Place Magic and Rune Magic, if I make it that far.

I am very angry. You create all of these cool slices and in all of your tome of time only the chronomancer can use them. I think the other classes or at least one of them can half a worse but still existent slice progression.

Thats just what I think. Right now, it feels like you made 3 totally different classes that have nothing to do with each other mechanically. The flavor is similar but otherwise it is totally different.

I don't know, maybe you met for them to be totally different, but if you look at your ritual magic, they all use the same mechanic twisted into very different flavors.

If you look at each class individually, they all look great, but I think they should have mechanics that tie them together.

Otherwise, great job!

Well, the Chronomancer will not be the only one to use the Slices, nor will the Historian (it needs a new name at some point, I suppose) be the only class to use the eras and histories, although the other classes that do so will likely be prestige classes at first. But yes, they are united more by flavour than by mechanics. I couldn't see a realistic way to twist the mechanics quite as easily as I did with Ritual Magic, and instead I ended up with the Historian, as the Echocaller was completed before the Chronomancer was started. This will eventually be finished, it just might take me a while is all.

 

[Stratovarius]

Alright, I have a problem now, with the upcoming release of 4e. Because this product is second on the feeding chain behind Ritual Magic, I can safely say it won't be completed in a final state until probably near 4e's release date, or at least 2008.

Do I move onwards with it? Or rewrite for 4e?

 

[EP]

ALWAYS finish what you started unless it doesn't work anymore. Besides, if you wait until 4E to put this together again, you'll have to wait until the new rules come out, then how you're going to piece them together. And since you plan on it taking a year already with 3E material, then who knows when you'll finish a 4E version.

3E isn't dead - there's still a year to go and there will still be people playing this version. Bear in mind too that 4E will likely be very Wizards heavy (meaning a lot less 3rd-party support, unless they come out with an OGL like 3E) so there'll still be a market/interest for what you have so far. Then you can do a 4E revision afterwards.

 

[Stratovarius]

I said a year not because of the material, but because of the delay before working on the material. Ritual Magic is the cause of most of that delay, as well as other projects, changing jobs, etc. I have a feeling my new job will cut down on my free time a lot (Right now, I do 80% of my designing at work, since they give me so little work). Given I have maybe 10% of the book's overall volume done, hence the thought of pushing it off and waiting. And unless I was mistaken, there were reports of an SRD/OGL already. Would seem rather strange for WotC to remove that.

 

[EP]

A 4th Edition OGL/SRD has been mentioned, but nothing has actually be announced by Wizards themselves that I've seen. Not that I doubt it to be fact, but I always wait until something official is released before making any concrete decisions.

From what little I have seen, I don't think there'll be huge changes to the rule base for 4th Edition. For example, one of thing still being worked out in the use of the d20 logo on 4E products, which means the system still uses d20 as a basis. Adapting anything you come up with shouldn't change too much and I expect they plan to have a fair bit of 3E material useable for a time until they either revise it themselves or just launch 4E updates for old books on the Insider.

Of course, after all of this, it could turn out that you don't have time to work on it any more until 4E comes out, so this could end up being a mute point. I just think that it shouldn't be put on hold solely because of 4E in a year.

(Since it is about time travel, there should be two versions. When a 4E character travels back in time to when the Realms were 3E, it's a cinch to flip back to those rules because they already exist. )

 

[Stratovarius]

I'll probably finish it, it just might take me a long time. I haven't even managed to get as much as I would like done for Ritual Magic. Too much time at work and with family around. There's also the matter of all the ancillary things, such as monsters and items, which tend to take me a fair bit longer than the classes.

 

[Stratovarius]

Alright, I'm back to working on Ritual Magic, and that has to be completed before Chronomancy revs into gear again. In order to get things a little more in gear for this one than they were for Ritual Magic, I'm looking for people who would like to be editors or play testers for the book as it chugs its slow way towards completion.

 

[EP]

Alright, I'm back to working on Ritual Magic, and that has to be completed before Chronomancy revs into gear again. In order to get things a little more in gear for this one than they were for Ritual Magic, I'm looking for people who would like to be editors or play testers for the book as it chugs its slow way towards completion.

Count me in for the editing and I'll see what playtesting I can do, but can't promise much right now unless I fit it in with the playtesting I'm already doing for other projects.