4e Extravaganza Seminar (with Cover Pics)

[doctorhook]

I'm not really sure what of interest is in the Astral Sea. Aside from Hell and maybe Sigil... what is of interest in the Godly domains?

...Seriously? Off the top of my head, and other than Baator, which you already mentioned, I can think of the following dominions that interest me:

• Pandemonium, the howling dominion of wind and caves created by Tharizdun prior to his creating the Abyss;
• Shom, an abandoned paradise of sand dunes, pyramids, obelisks, and forgotten knowledge collected by the now-lost perfect servants of Ioun, who disappeared mysteriously; and,
• Hestavar, a city of floating islands, waterfalls, white sand beaches, and blue lagoons, and which is the center of trade in the Astral Sea. Aside from legions of Angels and a Devil-run embassy from the Nine Hells, the city also boasts all manner of planar travelers, including Efreet merchants, Githyanki hunters, powerful mortal Wizards, and spelljamming pirates happy to kill the PCs just for the thrill of it. (Hell, I'd buy a book just about Hestavar, it's that cool.)

Honestly, I'm even more interested in this book about the Astral Sea than I am in the one about the Elemental Chaos! (And FWIW, I'm very interested in that one too.) This new cosmology is so much more exciting than the Great Wheel was!

Also, as an aside, Sigil isn't in the Astral Sea; it's a demiplane that exists on its own somewhere.

I sure hope the Underdark touches on the Fomorians in the Feydark. Sine otherwise we'll be waiting forever for info on them.

They've said we can expect further books dealing with other planes. The Feywild and Shadowfell all next in line, obviously.

 

[Rechan]

...Seriously?

Yeah. It may be that planar travel for me is pretty "eh". I really don't anticipate ever managing to play/run a game in the paragon tier at this rate, either.

They've said we can expect further books dealing with other planes. The Feywild and Shadowfell all next in line, obviously.

Which is why the end of that piece you quoted said "otherwise we'll be waiting forever for info on them." Over a year for info = forever.

 

[doctorhook]

Yeah. It may be that planar travel for me is pretty "eh". I really don't anticipate ever managing to play/run a game in the paragon tier at this rate, either.

That's fair, although FWIW, one could probably run a pretty decent Heroic-tier planar campaign in 4E if one wanted to -- Paragon isn't really necessary.

At any rate, you've made it pretty clear that your disinterest in the Astral Sea is simply a matter of personal taste. I wish you the best.

Which is why the end of that piece you quoted said "otherwise we'll be waiting forever for info on them." Over a year for info = forever.

lol Ahh, I see: you're just not as patient as I am.

 

[Shroomy]

In my campaign, we're only 13th level and we've already visited, Carcosa, Sigil, the Shadowfell, and the Feywild. You can definitely venture through the planes in the heroic tier.

 

[Scribble]

In my campaign, we're only 13th level and we've already visited, Carcosa, Sigil, the Shadowfell, and the Feywild. You can definitely venture through the planes in the heroic tier.

My players just hit 10th level, and they went through the feywild, into a demiplane of my own creation (really just a city in a giant cavern) and are now in a domain of dread of my own creation.

All this time they've been trying to get back to "manland".

as for the "supplement treadmill" I think you also have to take into account how the system adds to itself when comparing the effects of the different editions.

In my opinion what adds to a system's "bloat" are new rules that effect the system as a whole. IE rules that effect everyone in the game, like if you add new rules for surviving in a cold environment or something.

They seem to have thought that out because while I'm seeing a lot of books with new options (new powers and races and classes) I'm not seeing a whole lot of new system updates. So in effect the "new rules" elements only effect those that want to be effected by them.

 

[Starsunder]

Honestly, I'm even more interested in this book about the Astral Sea than I am in the one about the Elemental Chaos! (And FWIW, I'm very interested in that one too.) This new cosmology is so much more exciting than the Great Wheel was!

Yeah, Im super psyched about both of those books. Planar adventuring is one of my absolute favorite things and the MotP barely whet my appetite (it was pretty good but God I wanted more!).

As an aside, didnt Ari write The Plane Below? If you read this Ari, could you say in a very general way what the book covers (ie. everything the MotP did but in greater detail, or mostly new stuff not covered in the MotP).

 

[Mouseferatu]

As an aside, didnt Ari write The Plane Below? If you read this Ari, could you say in a very general way what the book covers (ie. everything the MotP did but in greater detail, or mostly new stuff not covered in the MotP).

I wrote about 3/5ths of it, give or take* (with Bruce Cordell, Stephen-Radney McFarland, and Luke Johnson doing the rest). But honestly, I'm not really allowed to say anything about it that's not already been made public. Sorry.

*Unless you hate it, in which case I only wrote 1/5th of it.

(And yes, I assigned Bruce most of the material on the slaads, to make sure they were as weird as possible. )

 

[Starsunder]

I wrote about 3/5ths of it, give or take* (with Bruce Cordell, Stephen-Radney McFarland, and Luke Johnson doing the rest). But honestly, I'm not really allowed to say anything about it that's not already been made public. Sorry.

*Unless you hate it, in which case I only wrote 1/5th of it.

(And yes, I assigned Bruce most of the material on the slaads, to make sure they were as weird as possible. )

Haha hey man it's no prob. I didnt really think that you'd be able to say anything about it, but I thought that I would try anyway.

Looking forward to it!

 

[Rechan]

HA. Plane Above has Slaad! ARI LEAKD IT.

 

[Mouseferatu]

HA. Plane Above has Slaad! ARI LEAKD IT.

That'd be Below, not Above.

(I did work on both, but I only did a small bit of Plane Above, and I wasn't the lead on that one.)