Bluffside in my hands

[Forrester]

I think the THG people are being a bit sensitive. Yes Forrester is making a mountain out of a Molehill. But c'mon, this is Forrester, Mr. "make a mock lecture about the 50 piddly gaming conventions that make me whine." I wouldn't get too bent out of shape.

Flattering that you can't seem to get my lectures out of your mind, Psyaen! You elf-sympathizer you. Hmmm. Mayyybe you're on their *payroll*! Are you folks planning on hiring him?

Anniversary of the lectures is coming up, by the way.

And die_kluge, I never "blasted" Bluffside. In sum, I said that Neatness Counts. I picked on Mongoose more than I picked on you guys . . . and my original propositions remain the same:

1) If I'm going to pay 20 bucks for something, I want to see the "good content" professionally produced.
2) The more errors in your product, the less you seem like a company to be trusted and the more you seem like a bunch of fanboys with Pagemaker. An exaggeration, but you get my point.

NOT that I know that there's even ONE error in your product! #1 and #2 are a general statement to the d20 community in general, and not targeted at you. But yeah, obvious misspellings on your company website suggest that your ship isn't run quite as tight as it needs to be .

But I'm sorry if you (or anyone else reading this thread) interpreted my post as an attack.

(Unless you're Mongoose Matt. C'mon, guy! Shape up!)

(PS -- Psion -- look what I found in your review of Mongoose's Necromancy:

"No exception to this trend is a template for recreating a classic creature from old editions of the D "& amp";D "

All the ampersands are screwed up. Tsk tsk. On the other hand, your reviews are free
I suppose it could be a browser thing . . . oddly, when I cut 'n pasted it into here, it read perfectly.)

 

[DungeonKeeperUK]

Can we turn this thread back where it started...
I think Forrester made an honest and possibly pertinant point, but it got stretched a bit far by everyone, nobody wants to see sloppy editing,grammar in a product, but as Curtis said the books are edited by different people, the site may relfect what will be in a priduct to some people but hopefully people won't be too swayed and check the book out, I beleive the content will be received well, there should be something in there for everyone..
... and that brings me back to where I started..

Hand of Evil you've had the book a bit longer now.. anymore brief thoughts on it?

Cheers
andrew. from TG:

 

[THG Mage]

Ok..fine

I'll chime in one more time on this topic then I'm done with it. If you want someone to agree with you about typos and such, then fine, I'll do it. I hate typos. I hate mistakes in products and on the website. Ask Hal how much I critiqued the website when I first joined TG and right after we got it up on the web. I still do when we have something new go up. I scanned that thing inside and out for mistakes, because in my opinion, ANY mistakes that are seen by the public in ANYTHING you do reflect badly on you as a company or as a person. If you don't take the extra time to make sure something is clean looking before it "hits the street" so to speak, it will ultimately make you look bad.

That is my opinion anyway, for what it is worth.

I hope everyone at least takes a look at Bluffside and judges fairly. Does that mean leave anything out in youe critique? Hell no.... Judge it as a complete product. Content should be the biggest part of the impact to you, but that doesn't mean not to include layout or typos or anything in you opinion. I know when I look at Bluffside for the first time, the FIRST thing I will be looking for will be any mistakes in it. I did it for Interludes and I will do it for Bluffside. Does that make me anal or picky? I don't think so. If I find mistakes in Bluff, then I know others will and that will reflect on me as a TG team member. Will it make be be critical of my fellow team members. No. It will mean that we use a finer tooth comb on the next product when scanning for mistakes.

I hope this helps put an end to this whole typos thing. I hope the RPG community enjoys Bluffside as much as we had making it.

Good luck to everyone and great gaming.

 

[NeuroZombie]

Unfortunately my "personal" editor was at work today as I worked diligently to get the RELAUNCH of the page done.

The site was run through spellchecker, but since I was at school, on a deadline to get a project done, and working on another website, and working my day job, I didn't have time to sit and read every inch of TG's site. Forgive me?

Oh, and Forrester, my wife wants to know why almost all your posts are edited....for typo's perhaps?

She's an anal retentive typo hound also, who just found the VERY convenient spellcheck button on this message board!

 

[Forrester]

Unfortunately my "personal" editor was at work today as I worked diligently to get the RELAUNCH of the page done.

The site was run through spellchecker, but since I was at school, on a deadline to get a project done, and working on another website, and working my day job, I didn't have time to sit and read every inch of TG's site. Forgive me?

Oh, and Forrester, my wife wants to know why almost all your posts are edited....for typo's perhaps?

She's an anal retentive typo hound also, who just found the VERY convenient spellcheck button on this message board!

The "relaunch" poke was a joke . And I'm sure you meant "typos" not "typo's" .

I agree that this whole thing went too far -- this thread should be for talking about Bluffside, not about d20 editing, poor or otherwise, in general. My little throwaway comment struck a raw nerve (I know if I were a new d20 company I'd have several million of them) and got everything off track.

WHICH is ironic, because I am interested in buying good city sourcebooks. I am definitely interested in Windhaven when it comes out, I just bought Skraag: City of the Orcs, just got the 2nd edition city "Skullport" on Ebay, and now I'd like to hear more about Bluffside.

To be honest, I was less than impressed with Skraag -- the "city map" was lacking detail, to say the least, and while it had an impressive backstory, it was lacking a lot of the specificity I'm looking for in a city-I-can-drop-right-into-my-campaign.

I liked Skullport a lot more. A lot more detail about specific rooms, buildings, personalities -- just felt more *complete*.

So, I ask: which is Bluffside more like? What kind of detail does it have regarding individual buildings and their inhabitants? The local economy? The legal system? Is it a LG town, or are there nifty things like slavery going on?

 

[NeuroZombie]

And I'm sure you meant "typos" not "typo's"

Yeah, what you said!

As for Bluffside, I am really happy with it. Since I live in between Hal's (TGHal) work and home, he dropped me off a copy when he first got it in! A few highlights you may find interesting:

* Over a hundred city locations complete with description of establishment and owner, list of regulars from the NPC section and, in most cases, 2 hooks. Not extreme details on each, but so many that extreme details would have pushed the page count (and the price) way up.

* A couple pages on the Power Structure of Bluffside, more of an overview than real detailed analysis, but it gives the goods on it.

* The map are highly detailed, both the pull out and the maps inside the book. One thing TG did, that I really like, is the fact that the pull out does not have keyed locations, the internal district maps do. That way you can show the map to your PC's and have them actually explore rather than say "We are heading to #3."

* It is NOT a lawful good town! There are so many plots and intrigues, what with all of the power groups in the city, let alone smaller adversary's.

* SO many different settings, all in one place... and they make sense together! You have the main city districts (old city, mage, temple, etc...), ruins of the city that stood at this location in ancient times, The undercity (a full city in and of itself, extensive sewer systems and more), and Sordadon, a floating city that makes Mos Eisely (sp?) look tame (well...)!

I have never ran an exclusively city campaign before, but with Bluffside, given the many markedly different types of locations, I definitely would!

Just my 2 cents, and its not because I work for the company either, I truly like the product.

 

[DungeonKeeperUK]

I've attached the post Hal put up on a nother site, so its from the mouth of the Boss...

As for alignment I don't think you could stick one to it, it works on different levels I beleive.. (there again that statement may put it in the CN bracket) ... but really you can make of it what you will

Mind you I do like the Undercity and Sewer System... but then I would..
I still havn't recived my copy and only a seen a pre-release version so wouldn't like to comment on anything else too much, there was a lot of stuff that had to be cut to fit it all into the book..

____________________________
Bluffside is 144 pages with over 100 POI's and over 150 fully fleshed out NPC's, new races, classes, domains, skills, and more here is our write up:
Nearly 200 years after its founding, Bluffside looks over the bay below, confident in its power; power brought about from adamantine. The otherworldly metal permeates the surrounding mountains, brought to the world nearly 200,000 years ago by an asteroid that tore a portal between the prime material plane and the plane of shadow and nearly annihilated the world's civilizations. The ruins here are alive with the ghosts of the ancients.

Bluffside uses Sordadon, a city floating in the bay below, to dominate sea trade in the area. The connection between Bluffside and Sordadon is through Undercity, a vast series of underground passageways that extend off into the unknown. From temples to mining to adventuring, Bluffside has something for every adventurer.

Bluffside is the first in our line of truly modular sourcebooks. Designed to be easily dropped into any middle fantasy setting, Bluffside promisses to become the center of your campaign. Over 100 places of interest (POI), along with corresponding NPCs and adventure hooks, give life to the city and allow the GM to jump right in.

But that's not all! Bluffside also contains new races, prestige classes, magical items, spells, feats, domains, and much, much more. Jammed packed and ready to run, Bluffside will change the way all city sourcebooks will be made in the future.
_____________________________________

 

[MEG Hal]

Just wanted all to know that Bluffisde is available to be reviewed in the ENWorld review section now....thanks . And have a good weekend.

 

[THG Mage]

Well?

So, is there any more info on Bluffside and people's feelings about it? Someone has to have some comments or questions to ask. Please feel free.

Thanks.

 

[Nightfall]

So far I have not found a Nightfall but it could be a nick, like Bruskin "Nightshade" Thorvar.

What?!! Are you sure? Not even a guy with stats like rogue8th/bard 6th/wizard 4th? Or something like that? Carries around a sword name Nightlight?