Any love for the Scarred Lands?

[Paul_Klein]

The production values of the book weren't great either with some so-so art in most books and black and white throughout.

I agree with this. As much as I love those books, they oftentimes boasted some really terrible artwork.

Anyway, I recently picked up Burok Torn: City Under Siege. Any opinions on this one before I delve into it?

 

[Holy Bovine]

I agree with this. As much as I love those books, they oftentimes boasted some really terrible artwork.

Anyway, I recently picked up Burok Torn: City Under Siege. Any opinions on this one before I delve into it?

Oh - that is another gem of a book. The Prestige Class (some kind of rune-themed wizard) is a little wonky but the fluff text is top notch. Really nice maps of the undermountain city in that too. Basically some well written 'classic' mountain dwelling dwarfs.

 

[Lord Crimson]

I liked their world, but like you, Treebore, I never liked that Titans thing, either. The cosmology was something that I could tell they put a lot of work into but it almost seemed, well, contrived. Like they were forcing some kind of complex story.

Am I the only one that thought the Scarred Lands backstory and Exalted's were eerily, and perhaps even intentionally, similar?

Because of that "feeling", I've always sort of thought of SL as "Exalted for d20". [Edit: Maybe "Creation for d20" would be more apt.]

I never really picked up the line, mind you, so the similarity might have just been fairly superficial.

 

[Baron Opal]

What I liked best about the Scarred Lands was that it made an honest effort to develop this theme: The gods had to work together to save the mortal races. They succeed, and must continue to cooperate to maintain their gains. What next?

This gives us the city of Mithril, a town run by somewhat stereotypical LG clerics and paladins. However, they have to deal with the corruption and survival issues of a frontier town. Furthermore, all of the gods have to be respected, even the evil ones. How do you approach that?

Hollowfaust, a city of necromancers who aren't interested in taking over the world. They just want to learn more about an aspect of magic. People relocate there since they're powerful and fairly benevolent. The plainfolk live a good, if somewhat macabre, life. But the theme strongly flavors the laws and lifestyle. One of my favorites is that the bodies of those who die within the city walls become property of the necromancers.

Calastia made a good demonstration of a palatable Lawful Evil country. How a dictatorship could work without triggering a knee-jerk "must overthrow" reflex in the players. Having the weak service the strong with the strong protecting the weak makes sense in thier scenario.

Scarred lands took a Hellenistic framework and made it work. It presented a more polytheistic set of gods and explicitly, even heavy-handedly, made it so that the LG paladin could actually work with the CE berserker. Once the titan-spawn were cleared out, however, place your bets.

I think my favorites are the above city books along with Burok Torn, since it had an interesting take on dark elves, rune magic and alchemy. I also liked the planar book, but it was somewhat weak. There were a couple of books that addressed the Blood Bayou and the Bloody Sea, but I found that they fell short somehow. The Blood Sea one in particular was quite lacking. They're packed, so I can't give a more particular critique.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Am I the only one that thought the Scarred Lands backstory and Exalted's were eerily, and perhaps even intentionally, similar?

Because of that "feeling", I've always sort of thought of SL as "Exalted for d20". [Edit: Maybe "Creation for d20" would be more apt.]

I never really picked up the line, mind you, so the similarity might have just been fairly superficial.

Wow. I never actually thought of that before. I think you're right even though I have not had a lot of exposure to Exalted, I certainly know what you're talking about.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

Am I the only one that thought the Scarred Lands backstory and Exalted's were eerily, and perhaps even intentionally, similar?

Because of that "feeling", I've always sort of thought of SL as "Exalted for d20". [Edit: Maybe "Creation for d20" would be more apt.]

I never really picked up the line, mind you, so the similarity might have just been fairly superficial.

Interesting. I haven't really read Exalted and only played it couple times. I only noticed there was at least same artist and always thought that anime-style looks ok, but doesn't fit Scarn feeling. If you have read both books and get that impression, there probably is similarities, but themewise I find nothing similar.

It is very common theme in all mythologies however having somekind of parental issues between old more primordial forces and newer generation of more mortal-caring gods. I mean in real mythology of our Earth. It is almost amazing D&D doesn't do that more, but I guess they go usually more for fantasy europe feeling of more recent times than babylonian/sumerian/greek/roman style.

That said, I am pretty sure they use some stuff from their old stories, it's awfully convinient considiring how fast White Wolf went for d20 race.

 

[grodog]

Where's [MENTION=374]Nightfall[/MENTION] when you need him?

 

[Treebore]

Where's [MENTION=374]Nightfall[/MENTION] when you need him?

THATS who I have been trying to remember! The Sage of the Scarred Lands!

 

[Lord Crimson]

Interesting. I haven't really read Exalted and only played it couple times. I only noticed there was at least same artist and always thought that anime-style looks ok, but doesn't fit Scarn feeling. If you have read both books and get that impression, there probably is similarities, but themewise I find nothing similar.

It is very common theme in all mythologies however having somekind of parental issues between old more primordial forces and newer generation of more mortal-caring gods. I mean in real mythology of our Earth. It is almost amazing D&D doesn't do that more, but I guess they go usually more for fantasy europe feeling of more recent times than babylonian/sumerian/greek/roman style.

That said, I am pretty sure they use some stuff from their old stories, it's awfully convinient considiring how fast White Wolf went for d20 race.

Wow. I never actually thought of that before. I think you're right even though I have not had a lot of exposure to Exalted, I certainly know what you're talking about.

Well, yeah. The whole "the current gods overthrew their predecessors" meme has been sort of the standard for a lot of cultures, so it may not be as surprising as I initially suggested.

But both settings involve the gods teaming up with the "Earth Titan" to protect the lesser races from the careless viciousness that the other Titans represent (whereas in actual Hellenic myth, the gods banded together more to fight the Titans to save themselves from being eaten again by their father and not to protect the world at large).

In the Scarred Lands, the Titans largely represent the laws of "physics" of the world. In Exalted, the Primordials (Titans) represent the concepts that underpin the laws of "physics" of the world.

I can't recall which one was published first - but I thought that they were "around" the same time.

Just food for thought.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

Well, yeah. The whole "the current gods overthrew their predecessors" meme has been sort of the standard for a lot of cultures, so it may not be as surprising as I initially suggested.

But both settings involve the gods teaming up with the "Earth Titan" to protect the lesser races from the careless viciousness that the other Titans represent (whereas in actual Hellenic myth, the gods banded together more to fight the Titans to save themselves from being eaten again by their father and not to protect the world at large).

In the Scarred Lands, the Titans largely represent the laws of "physics" of the world. In Exalted, the Primordials (Titans) represent the concepts that underpin the laws of "physics" of the world.

I can't recall which one was published first - but I thought that they were "around" the same time.

Just food for thought.

Ah, thanks for information, I don't know that much about Exalted, and like I said, I think it's likely they borrowed stuff from that setting, considering it's their only "fantasy" setting and they wanted to be early worms at d20 market. Very reason first Creature Collection was so riddled with errors, they published it before actual WotC Monster Manual.


That said, maybe they just borrowed common meme's from earth myths. Protective mother titans/gods are quite common.

For example this is from Greek:

"In myth, Rhea was the wife of the Titan Kronos and Queen of heaven. When her husband heard a prophecy that he would be deposed by one of his children, he took to swallowing each of them as soon as they were born. But Rhea bore her youngest, Zeus, in secret and hid him away in a cave in Krete guarded by shield-clashing Kouretes. In his stead she presented Kronos with a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes which he promptly devoured."

Speaking of self-fulfilling prophesies. We actually borrowed (or my dm did) Rhea for one Scarred Lands/Shacled City game. She was Titan of moon, forgotten one, whose now dead moon called Belsameth's moon and sister to Dark moon. Dark moon is our invitation too, inspired by some astrology bits at Mithril sourcebook. Ah well, but we are now discussing Scarn mythology not how we did it.