Blackmoor Questions

[GravyFingerz]

I have a small question about the Peaks of Booh; in the text, it describes the peaks as extending 350 miles, but by the map scale it extends 60-80 miles. Which is in error here?

Btw, I love this book, all involved did an excellent job, and it has a wonderful old school feel.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Several people on the Necromancer Game Boards have added to that old school feel by placining this whole setting in the wilderlands.

 

[DClingman]

The mistake is in the text. The map is correct. I have to take the blame for that one.

I can answer any additional questions on Blackmoor in this thread if there are any.

Dustin

 

[GravyFingerz]

Thank you Dustin. It wasn't a game breaking mistake, but an odd one, and thank you for your speedy response.

Also, are the new weapons exotic weapons, or martial weapons? Also, the Elven Longblade is little better than a longsword, but more expensive.

Also, the Spidersilk Armor grants a bonus on Hide checks due to its camouflage ability, but a bonus to Move Silently? The shield only grants a bonus on Hide checks. Is there an error here, or is this intentional? Either way, it is all good. I point these out because they stand out as odd to me.

Again, an excellent product. I look very much forward to using it in my games. I really like the Dragon Knight and the Inquisitor.

One more question. These new classes, were they always a part of Blackmoor in Dave's setting (not necessarily as classes, but jobs or orginizations or whatever), or are they developed for the 3.5 version of the setting? I have no knowledge of the setting beyond this book.

Again, very excellent book, I look forwad to any supplements for Blackmoor.

 

[GravyFingerz]

Bump

 

[DClingman]

Thank you Dustin. It wasn't a game breaking mistake, but an odd one, and thank you for your speedy response.

Also, are the new weapons exotic weapons, or martial weapons? Also, the Elven Longblade is little better than a longsword, but more expensive.

Ah, an excellent question!

The list in the book fails to make this clear. I would call it like this (and included this in the errata)

Light Melee Weapons
Dwarven Bayonet - Martial

One Handed Melee Weapons
Elven Longblade - Exotic
Sickle Sword - Exotic

Two Handed Melee Weapons
Arbir- Exotic
Bullova - Exotic
Grazer Spear - Exotic
Sickle Mace -Exotic

Ranged Weapons
Dwarven Slug Bow - Martial
Elven Sword Bow - Exotic

Also, the Spidersilk Armor grants a bonus on Hide checks due to its camouflage ability, but a bonus to Move Silently? The shield only grants a bonus on Hide checks. Is there an error here, or is this intentional?

Actually the armor bonus is for both Hide and Move Silently checks because the joints and ties of the armor are woven with web. This prevents alot of the sound from normal movement in armor. The shield's bonus isn't there because you can still bang the shield against something (including the armor) to make a sound. Also, it would stack with armor and make give a high advantage.

One more question. These new classes, were they always a part of Blackmoor in Dave's setting (not necessarily as classes, but jobs or organizations or whatever), or are they developed for the 3.5 version of the setting? /QUOTE]

One of the things that we wanted to do was to try to capture as much of the feel of the original world as possible. When Blackmoor started off, they didn't have the idea of classes, so you were just a guy who would do some stuff. They gradually progressed towards that idea, but there was alot of flexibility in what a player could do and how they could customize the character. The new base classes try to cover a few of the variant wizards as well as the need for nobility. Our nobles are very different from the standard ones you would expect in a feudal system. The arcane warriors are one of the newer ideas to be presented. They work for the Wizards Cabal, which was more of a subversive organization in the prior Blackmoor than they are today

Overall, we had overwritten for the book... This was the first book that Zeitgeist Games had produced and we wandered in the dark for a while. We also have a variant Monk class that was cut due to space needs that fits nicely into the world. All told, we overwrote on classes, feats and some rules stuff by about 30K words. That's another 32 pages of goodness to be filtered out elsewhere as needed. You may see some of that stuff in the future.

Thanks for the compliments! I am glad you like the book.

Dustin

 

[qstor]

I'm looking forward to the adventure that comes out this week. The hardcover is a great intro for those of us that never had any of the OD&D books or the Mystra books for Blackmoor!

Mike

 

[GravyFingerz]

Thanks again Dustin, your vigilance is appreciated; I'll save the weapon classifications for when I run Blackmoor.

One nitpick: the Elven Longblade is an exotic melee weapon, does 1d8 damage (M), 19-20/x2 crit. It is also 100 gp. This weapon has the same stats as a Longsword, except more costly and requires a feat to use. I was thinking it should be 18-20/x2, which puts it more in line with the Elven Thinblade, since they are both based on a similar concept.

Will this be addressed in the errata?

Also, the Afridhi are basically 2nd level human warriors, except that their Favored Class is Fighter instead of Any. They seem to be at a disadvantage, race wise.

 

[DClingman]

The notation of exotic in that case is due to the racial specialization. Many humans living near the Cumasti prefer the blade to the longsword. We wrote that stuff before Complete Warrior was released. If you think it works better to extend the crit range, be my guest. I don't plan to identify this as a mistake though.

As for the Afridhi, the monster entry was to make sure they were present in a basic form but they are way cooler than just 2nd level fighters. We have alot of plans for them, but didn't want to miss them in the book since they play an important role in the world. Future supplements will detail religious hierarchies, battle tactics and other mysteries. They are quite interesting and nefarious. As for the favored class, you could say they are disadvantaged, but Fighter fits into the culture more than any other.

Hope that helps.

Dustin

 

[Man-thing]

Starting gold

We were recently stumped when rolling up characters. Several of my players were using the new core classes presented but not using the starting packages.

We could find the amount of gold they started with if we used a starting package but we could not find starting money if they did not use the packages? Have we missed this somewhere?