Spelljammer Chris Perkins and Ray Winninger Interview Discussing Spelljammer and Product Development

[deganawida]

That'd be excellent. The recent Locked Tomb novels (starting with the brilliant Gideon the Ninth) by Tamsyn Muir demonstate that murder-mystery and pretty extreme high-fantasy involving a ton of necromancers aren't incompatible, so it is surely doable.

Joel Rosenberg also had the Kami Dai’shan (not sure if I am remembering the surname correctly) novels in the 90s. I read “Hour of the Octopus” and really enjoyed it. If one takes fantasy as milieu rather than genre, there’s a lot one can do with it that doesn’t involve stabbing things (though the ones with stabbing are also good fun).

EDIT: Dam’shir? Really wish I could remember, especially as his surname was his title and he was the first to have it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Joel Rosenberg also had the Kami Dai’shan (not sure if I am remembering the surname correctly) novels in the 90s. I read “Hour of the Octopus” and really enjoyed it. If one takes fantasy as milieu rather than genre, there’s a lot one can do with it that doesn’t involve stabbing things (though the ones with stabbing are also good fun).

EDIT: Dam’shir? Really wish I could remember, especially as his surname was his title and he was the first to have it.

Internet sez: D'shai

Hour of the Octopus (D'Shai, #2)

On the eve of a grand royal wedding, a nobleman is kill…

www.goodreads.com

 

[deganawida]

Internet sez: D'shai

Hour of the Octopus (D'Shai, #2)

On the eve of a grand royal wedding, a nobleman is kill…

www.goodreads.com

Thank you!

 

[Micah Sweet]

I did the math on this at some point, and 5E pages have higher word counts on average than AD&D ones, sometimes by quite a bit: see Yawning Portal or Ghosts of Saltmarsh for some comcrete examples, but you can also calculate by counting the words on some sample and extrapolating with great accuracy.

Well, there you go.

 

[delericho]

I did the math on this at some point, and 5E pages have higher word counts on average than AD&D ones, sometimes by quite a bit: see Yawning Portal or Ghosts of Saltmarsh for some comcrete examples, but you can also calculate by counting the words on some sample and extrapolating with great accuracy.

You don't happen to know the approximate word count per page of those 5e books?

 

[delericho]

That last point is why I think that, when Dark Sun drops, it'll look a lot more like the 4e version than the original.

While I agree it will be closer to the 4e version, I can't help but feel that they'll remix it again - to restore gnomes (and other PC races) to the setting, to seriously downplay if not eliminate outright the slavery aspect, and to give Muls a new origin.

 

[The Glen]

Mystara benefitted greatly from introducing each nation with a full book, giving a far more expansive look at each nation rather than a few paragraphs like FR or GH. There were a few misfires like Ierendi relying too heavily on pop culture references like 80s TV shows, Atruaghin being notoriously rushed and incomplete and Dawn of the Emperors having both Empires crammed into too small of a book. Still there are far more hits than misses like Karameikos, Glantri, Darokin and Minrothad for example. Didn't hurt you had legendary game designers like Moldvay, Greenwood and Alston writing these books.

Sales wise it is one of the best known settings due to the legendary Capcom games and the fact the BECMI sets were translated in to multiple languages so when people from other countries wanted to buy setting books, Mystara was the only one in their language.

Any setting can be good with the right authors. If they don't want write them they can always go 3rd party route like Ravenloft in 3rd.

 

[The Glen]

I just wanted to mention bearded elves, is all.

As much as I love my bearded elves nothing beats the awesome 'staches the drow were sporting in Greyhawk.

 

[Parmandur]

You don't happen to know the approximate word count per page of those 5e books?

A normal 5E page without a chart or picture has just shynof 1000 words on average, based on my samplings. I have found a source through Google that suggests a 76,544 word count, which seems fairly reasonable given all the charts, maps, etc.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I can't forget the drow from my AD&D Monster Compedium. This is the picture. Do you know this artist died? RIP.