Troll lord games' THE CANTING CREW

[Golem Joe]

From the Troll Lord Games website:

Gary Gygax's World Builder, Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds, Vol. II
by Gary Gygax and Dan Cross

Other books in the series include the following:  
Gary Gygax’s Living Fantasy*, Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds Vol III
by Gary Gygax

An essential handbook for all those who engage in Fantasy Role-Playing Games, from building whole worlds to populating communities.  This work deals with the socio-economic classes, from nobles to knaves.  The who, what, where, when, why and how of life in the late medieval-renaissance fantasy milieu is fully detailed herein.

Gary Gygax’s Essential Places*, Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds Vol IV
by Jon Creffield with Gary Gygax

Gary Gygax’s Nation Builder*, Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds Vol V
by Alan Kellog with Gary Gygax
Nation Builder is the story of a kingdom and its people.  An instructional tale of using Gary Gygax's Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds to create kingdoms, republics, city states, regions, and lands for use in your fantasy campaign.

All in all, I think its a far better approach than just spinning class splatbooks. Canting Crew just makes it look that way because the criminal underclass is composed of...well, thieves!

BTW, from what I've heard, the Word Builder book is going to be a series of lists, much like the three pages of lists found in the 1st ed DMG. If that's the case, consider it sold. Plus, gotta love getting more Lejendary Adventure content!

 

[Troll Lord]

Hello and hello

News from the Battlefield!

Golem Joe has hit the head on the nail. The series is designed to give the player/DM the most material to create his own setting, or to flesh one out (I've used the Canting Crew a bit on the Heart of Glass ). The Canting Crew is particular in the series as it highlights the rogues (er, thieves) and their whole cultural heirarchial setting. The pictograms and cant dictionary really add a solid punch to this material.

Now, that said, I mentioned JoeKushner's ideas to Gary over the weekend and it perked his curiosity. He has a great deal of interest in priestly societies, religion in a fantasy world and what not, and might (with some inticing) look to adding such a book(s) to the Gygaxian Fantasy Setting.

The good news is: I received the Canting Crew advance copy in my office today and it turned out much better than expected (if I'm allowed to toot the TLG horn). I won't say more, leaving it to you to decide. But look for it soon or rattle your local retailer and get em to order it.

The next cover will be done shortly, the one for the World Builder!

Thanks for listening . . . now I must finish the stat block for William "Crowbill" Lindholm for the Heart of Glass (companion book). (that was a cheap shot at spreading the word on the heart! )

Steve

 

[JohnRTroy]

Everyday Life Stuff

Hi guys,

I've done some reviews and contributed some stuff to the upcoming products. Not all that much for the Worldbuilders guide, but plenty of sidebars for the Everyday Life book.

I think you will be pleased with the Everyday Life book. It's more a guidebook to a realistic Fantasy society. Most people creating worlds don't seem to research the period well and how the addition of magic changes things. Put it this way, if you liked the stuff Gary wrote about Social classes in Dangerous Journeys and some early Dragon Magazines, you will love this book.

 

[mythusmage]

I had a brief look at the World and Everyday Life books. From the few files I was able to translate into Appleworks both appear to have lots of good stuff. You may consider this a plug.

As things go now, Nation Building will build on the previous works to give the reader a set of guidelines for creating nations etc. Including a sample country you can use as is, or as a source of ideas/inspiration.

If you have ideas you'd like to pass on, feel free to write me privately.

(Possible opening to chapter one: How a culture, a society develops depends greatly on the local environment. More specifically, on climate, physical geography, geology, and topography. A semitropical coastal marsh will result in a very different people than arid grassland on rolling hills. Having Vikings come roaring out of the Amazon basin shows that somebody isn't taking nation building all that seriously.)

 

[MEG Hal]

Can't wait till I get my copy!!!

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Steve...

Just stumbled onto this thread

Funny THG Hal should mention that, considering the recent email about figuring out how to grant permission for direct use of the material from the line in other game work ;-}>

Ciao,
Gary

 

[mythusmage]

Well, if Gary and Troll Lords are okay with it, I'd like to invite folks to use Nation Builder to help with their projects.

Now to get the thing written.

(Gary. could you send a print out of the World Builder and Everyday Life files?)

 

[bolen]

Gary,

I'd love to get some ideas. Like I said I am running a game in Kalamar in a city on a bay. The players will start out as lowly street urchens. Much like Oliver Twist or your own Gord books. Yea I read them as a kid.

I am trying to come up with unique campain story. Any ideas for good hooks.

 

[Mac Golden]

street urchin adventures

Bolen,

I like the street urchin angle and have used it in the past. Here are a couple of adventure ideas for the beginning levels. As you can noted in mentioning Oliver Twist, other stories of that era also lend themselves to ideas:

(1) All the characters begin play as part of the same street gang, which happens to be ruled by a villainous adult urchin. : ) The first adventure would involve ridding the gang of its overlord in some empowering way, probably by outsmarting the villain.

(2) This would most likely lead to one of the characters taking over as the leader of the gang, and then he and the gang learn the downsides of controlling your own ship: rival gangs, crooked politicians and guards, thieves, etc....

(3) Once empowerment and turf is established, a good plot device would be to have the gang hired occassionally by a "Sherlock Holmes" type figure, thus, the gang becomes the NPC's "Baker Street Irregulars" and become involved and embroiled in a lot of mysteries and adventures. After a few of these, you could have the NPC placed in peril and the gang must directly come to their rescue.

(4) Here's more of a motivation for an individual character that could provide a hook later on in the campaign: the character looks up to a well known local, regional, or even national hero/adventurer, always striving to emulate them. When they actually meet the hero, do they live up to expectation? Lots of ways to go with this one, and the DM could weave off it over the course of the campaign.

Anyways, I hope those spur some ideas for the game.


-- Mac Golden

 

[Doc_Souark]

Great it's out, now that I can't buy anything it's finally out, o well.

See y'all on the chat tomorrow night Steve.