Recent content by Stoat

Thanks for the help. I didn't see anything at the Cartographer's Guild, but I'll see if I can run down those Dungeons.

I'm working up an adventure set in a treetop village, someplace like the ewok village from Return of the Jedi except with Bar-lgura demons. Can anybody point me to a tactical-scale map of anything like that? Something I plunk tokens and use with Roll20.net? Or, can anybody think of a...

I know I saw an article in Dragon circa 1992 or so that talked about ships sailing in the Astral Plane. Damned if I can remember any real details, though.

I didn't like the big meta-setting that TSR used back in the 90's. It seemed forced, frex when various sourcebooks retconned spelljamming into the Forgotten Realms. And some elements were just downright out of place. Neither spelljamming nor Sigil, City of Doors fit with Dragonlance very...

Stereotypical elements to include: Orc bandits. Ogres in caves. A Red Dragon sitting on a Pile of Treasure. A Demon trapped inside a Summoning Circle.

There you go. That's the solution to all your problems right there.

I agree, and I think one problem with D&D's fiends is that they were not designed with that umbrella concept in mind back in the late 1970's/early 1980's. Devilish appearances are only kinda cohesive (frex, both the Gelugon and the Osyluth stand out from the others). Demon appearances are not...

IMO, this is the essence of the whole debate. As best I can tell, the 1E fiends (devils, demons, daemons, demodands, hordelings, etc.) were not created according to any particular plan or for any particular reason other than, "That sounds cool, do that!" They are functionally identical and the...

Where does the Great Wheel come from anyway? Wikipedia says it was first published in Dragon #8 in 1977, and (un)reason's thread confirms that fact without going into much detail. I'd love to know why Gygax chose the setup that he did and how the planes evolved during the late '70's. Does...

This is a thing that's always bugged me a little about D&D's cosmology. I'd be happier if the various evil gods had their own custom-built servitors. I'm vaguely unsatisfied with D&D's demons for the same reason. On the one hand, the game includes at least dozen fully-fleshed out demon...

Which may be one of the reasons why I stuck with Spelljammer. I understand the cant, I just find it distracting, particularly when mixed into "rules text". I like the way Games Workshop handles this sort of thing. Rules/game information is presented in (relatively) clear, straightforward...

I haven't read a lot of Planescape books, but the cant drives me crazy. I remember one Planescape splat (IIRC it was a Planes of Chaos) that used the cant throughout the text, including in the rules and DM information. It's one thing to have a sidebar or whatever with some NPC talking in...

I think it depends on what parts of Planescape you focus on. When I think of Planescape, I think of Sigil, the Factions, Rule of Three, portal keys, Dabus, etc. That stuff is unique to the setting and not present in the 1E MotP.

Serious question. When did Eladrin (as outsiders) enter the game and what were they? I don't remember them from 1E or 2E.

I voted "No" with some reluctance. The 1E Manual of the Planes was one of the first D&D books I ever bought. I really enjoyed reading it, and I've run some interesting adventures using it. There are bits and pieces of the Great Wheel set up that really, really appeal to me. But those bits...