Klaus
First Post
That would be a daily Utility. Or, it could work as a Skill Power based off the appropriate monster knowledge skill.
Rule of Three 6/13/2011: "semi-obscure but flavorful setting" in Dungeon and Dragon
- Thread starter FireLance
- Start date
Nemesis Destiny
Adventurer
Whatever it is that they decide to release support for, I'll be happy about it. I am SO completely tired of FR that it's not even funny. Never liked Eberron much. Dark Sun is a great setting, but I have only limited use for it, and as much as I like the assumed setting of PoLland, sometimes I want more meat.
It's not going to be Greyhawk. It would be swell to see more GH support, but it by no means fits the title of "smei-obscure"
It's not going to be Ravenloft. Also not semi-obscure enough, and they'd already started a full box based on that and then shelved it (I really want this to see the light of day!)
It's not going to be Dragonlance. Very not-obscure, and, I suspect, has the most red-tape involved with bringing it back.
It's not going to be Planescape. It does not fit the "semi-obscure" descriptor well at all - it had its own video game, and a fairly popular one at that.
What does that leave?
Mystara/Hollow World? That would be awesome, but I very much doubt that will be it. Too generic and similar to PoLland, I think.
Maztica? Could be, but I dont' see the mass-appeal in resurrecting what is basically a bad allegory of "conquistadors in South America."
Kara-Tur? I don't know how obscure it is. It's a FR spin-off, so my guess is "not very," but I wouldn't rule it out. Oriental-flavoured things sell pretty well, especially to the anime crowd. I, personally, am very take-it-or-leave-it on the topic.
Lankhmar? While I have my doubts, I would like to see something like this. There is always room to do up a city write up and plop it into the magazine. Minimal mechanics required. Like a lot of the Ed Greenwood puff pieces that we've been seeing.
Birthright. It would be interesting. I never found much interest in it when it was out, but I was probably a little too young to fully appreciate it. I knew it wasn't popular, but I also knew other gamers who have played it, so that might meet a reasonable definition for "semi-obscure".
Al-Qadim probably fits the bill pretty well (I think it's pretty obscure, though I did know one guy who bought the box), but I wouldn't have picked it as my first guess, because, not knowing much about the setting, I would have assumed that it would be much too similar to Dark Sun. Some of the things pointed out here have led me to believe that this is a likely choice, however, given the strong ties to elemental themes and the upcoming Elemental Chaos book, and also the hint allegedly given by Chris Perkins about the Sha'ir.
The last thing this game needs is more classes, so I hope that this was a red herring, or that this was a lie. Maybe as a theme, but please, NO MORE CLASSES!
Other than that, I look forward to it as an article or three, and more like it, hopefully. It's a great way to support campaigns that won't sell as boxed sets. It also gives me more material to steal for my own "desert area" on my campaign world.
It's not going to be Greyhawk. It would be swell to see more GH support, but it by no means fits the title of "smei-obscure"
It's not going to be Ravenloft. Also not semi-obscure enough, and they'd already started a full box based on that and then shelved it (I really want this to see the light of day!)
It's not going to be Dragonlance. Very not-obscure, and, I suspect, has the most red-tape involved with bringing it back.
It's not going to be Planescape. It does not fit the "semi-obscure" descriptor well at all - it had its own video game, and a fairly popular one at that.
What does that leave?
Mystara/Hollow World? That would be awesome, but I very much doubt that will be it. Too generic and similar to PoLland, I think.
Maztica? Could be, but I dont' see the mass-appeal in resurrecting what is basically a bad allegory of "conquistadors in South America."
Kara-Tur? I don't know how obscure it is. It's a FR spin-off, so my guess is "not very," but I wouldn't rule it out. Oriental-flavoured things sell pretty well, especially to the anime crowd. I, personally, am very take-it-or-leave-it on the topic.
Lankhmar? While I have my doubts, I would like to see something like this. There is always room to do up a city write up and plop it into the magazine. Minimal mechanics required. Like a lot of the Ed Greenwood puff pieces that we've been seeing.
Birthright. It would be interesting. I never found much interest in it when it was out, but I was probably a little too young to fully appreciate it. I knew it wasn't popular, but I also knew other gamers who have played it, so that might meet a reasonable definition for "semi-obscure".
Al-Qadim probably fits the bill pretty well (I think it's pretty obscure, though I did know one guy who bought the box), but I wouldn't have picked it as my first guess, because, not knowing much about the setting, I would have assumed that it would be much too similar to Dark Sun. Some of the things pointed out here have led me to believe that this is a likely choice, however, given the strong ties to elemental themes and the upcoming Elemental Chaos book, and also the hint allegedly given by Chris Perkins about the Sha'ir.
The last thing this game needs is more classes, so I hope that this was a red herring, or that this was a lie. Maybe as a theme, but please, NO MORE CLASSES!
Other than that, I look forward to it as an article or three, and more like it, hopefully. It's a great way to support campaigns that won't sell as boxed sets. It also gives me more material to steal for my own "desert area" on my campaign world.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I can't imagine anyone at WotC describing Ravenloft as "obscure."
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
I thought the answer on the ranger favored enemy mechanic was pretty logical. This feature always suffered from the same sort of issue that clerics run into where they are great against undead, and thus by extension must be slightly worse against everything else to balance it out. Except at least undead feature pretty consistently in most games. Worst case you get to shine now and then, and in the old days at least undead were NASTY, you were glad to have Turn Undead and otherwise the cleric was a strong class already with a bunch of interesting options.
The ranger, meh, once in a blue moon your one specific sort of enemy showed up, you got a nice but bland damage bonus, and chances were said enemy was fairly uncommon or only showed up in a specific level range.
As the answer stated, 4e already provides a wealth of ways to gain advantages against certain types of enemies. I don't really see a good reason why this kind of thing should be restricted to rangers either. It just doesn't seem like a terribly justifiable thing to limit to one type of martial character. Why can't fighters have special enemies (admittedly this objection always existed, but that doesn't make it any less cogent in 4e than it was in 1e, but 4e tends to at least try to allow more concept flexibility so it seems less in keeping with 4e design).
As for a 'semi-obscure' setting... Well, depending on what audience you're addressing ANY D&D setting could be 'semi-obscure', though presumably we're not talking about Greyhawk here...
The ranger, meh, once in a blue moon your one specific sort of enemy showed up, you got a nice but bland damage bonus, and chances were said enemy was fairly uncommon or only showed up in a specific level range.
As the answer stated, 4e already provides a wealth of ways to gain advantages against certain types of enemies. I don't really see a good reason why this kind of thing should be restricted to rangers either. It just doesn't seem like a terribly justifiable thing to limit to one type of martial character. Why can't fighters have special enemies (admittedly this objection always existed, but that doesn't make it any less cogent in 4e than it was in 1e, but 4e tends to at least try to allow more concept flexibility so it seems less in keeping with 4e design).
As for a 'semi-obscure' setting... Well, depending on what audience you're addressing ANY D&D setting could be 'semi-obscure', though presumably we're not talking about Greyhawk here...
Incenjucar
Legend
Personally, I've always disliked enemy type mechanics. However, this issue is easy enough to solve through paragon paths, since you don't normally switch those out. Prior to that, a character can show how much they hate their enemy by actually choosing powers that are effective against that enemy type's tactics and statistics (anti-flying powers for dragon-haters, etc).
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Personally I have no interest in either DL or GH though. I mean I ran some stuff in GH way back in the early 80's when it first came out. Nothing WRONG with it, but honestly it just isn't that different from FR in overall tone. They are both generic kitchen sink settings. (Yes, I know there are people that will kick and scream about that characterization, but effectively anything that will not be out of place in FR won't be out of place in GH either, they differ slightly in canon but who cares?). DL just never pushed any of my buttons. It also feels rather tapped out. I won't quite say it is in the same category with FR/GH, but it is still rather generic.
Really, I think what I'd like to see more than anything else would be one of the more culture-specific settings like Kara-Tur, Maztica, Al Qadim, etc. Yes, they eventually BECAME tied to various larger settings, but none of them started out that way and none of them is really all that tied to FR etc. (and in fact I think all three of the ones I mentioned have been migrated from one setting to another at least once in its lifetime). They can stand on their own and a nice little writeup on one of them that I can leverage for use in homebrew would be great.
Really, I think what I'd like to see more than anything else would be one of the more culture-specific settings like Kara-Tur, Maztica, Al Qadim, etc. Yes, they eventually BECAME tied to various larger settings, but none of them started out that way and none of them is really all that tied to FR etc. (and in fact I think all three of the ones I mentioned have been migrated from one setting to another at least once in its lifetime). They can stand on their own and a nice little writeup on one of them that I can leverage for use in homebrew would be great.
