d20 Blackmoor - Worth buying?

[jester47]

Dustin,

Im curious, it seems there are a lot of steamtech supplements out there. Are you guys going to do your own thing or see if you can't borrow someone elses rules? I mean the list is long:

There is Iron Kingdoms, Sorcery and Steam (FFG), Steam and Steel (ENP), and a few others...

Just thought I would ask.


Aaron.

 

[DClingman]

Dustin,

Im curious, it seems there are a lot of steamtech supplements out there. Are you guys going to do your own thing or see if you can't borrow someone elses rules? I mean the list is long:

There is Iron Kingdoms, Sorcery and Steam (FFG), Steam and Steel (ENP), and a few others...

Just thought I would ask.


Aaron.

To be honest, I haven't ready any of those books. The only steam related effort that I have looked at is DragonMech. Overall, I think we will try to keep our own style, but given that those things have already been done, I am sure there will be some similarities.

The main benefit of doing the steam book is to relate not only how to build those items and include them into a game, but to recognize how they change the world. Looking at the long term, the technology will create some really cool options for players looking to expand the world in that direction.

Here's a quick example for those of you who have read the previews/core book. Imagine if a Spell Focus could be used to power a clockwork item. Potentially, there would be a renewable source of energy as the focus taps magical forces that are rampant throughout Blackmoor.

Just another teaser of things to come in the years ahead.

Dustin

 

[DClingman]

Dustin - thanks for your little teasers in the IRC chat this afternoon... good to hear that the Rogues Regents and Rascals *are* in the Zeitgeist vaults (even if they're not all in the Blackmoor HC) and will be making their d20 debuts in the various and sundry Blackmoor products in the future... you mentioned Skandros the Strangler will be in the upcoming Blackmoor Module - any other RRRs we can look forward to seeing there?

Actually, Skandros is in the module in the HC. Other characters will not be in the upcoming module, but will appear throughout the upcoming products as time allows. We could also do web enhancements for them. Look for those sorts of things in the coming months.

Also, for those of us who don't want to/aren't able to purchase all the Blackmoor stuff, are there plans to at least make the RRR's (not the whole products, obviously) available later on as a web supplement or similar? Thanks! (See, told you I'd have some more questions given a little more time LOL.)

--The Sigil

Sure, we have an aggressive schedule of web enhancement releases. Look for those on the main site.

Dustin

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Maybe its because I couldn't really give a damn about a setting like Eberron.. I was disappointed that Eberron wasn't really what it had promised, but beyond that I had little invested in it.

In the interest of showing how perspectives differ on subjects like this, I'd like to say that Eberron, in my opinion, was exactly what was promised.

 

[hong]

Holy crap! It's ColonelHardisson!

Where you BEEN, mang?

 

[Samurai]

Well then I hope you do listen to people like Akrasia and me, when we tell you that leaving out the ancient alien technology was a big screw-up.

See, to most people, the phrase "ancient alien technology" is a pretty cool phrase. Its exciting. When given the choice between having "ancient alien technology" in your setting or not, its generally wiser to have it; especially if given setting is famous for that in the first place. It will please the oldtime fans and I GUARANTEE will excite the younger ones (I can't see many potential new Blackmoor fans saying "you know, I'll like this setting, but only if its more bland and generalized as a fantasy setting, cause what I really need right now is a really vanilla standard fantasy setting, and certainly not a setting that details the impact of ANCIENT ALIEN TECHNOLOGY on a fantasy world.. no, that wouldn't be exciting or fun at all").

Nisarg

I have to agree. I ordered the book because I love blending magic and technology in my games, and I'm always on the look-out for new ideas in this regard. I have pretty much every game/book of this type you can think of, from Gurps Technomancer to Castle Falkenstein to Dragonmech and OGL Steampunk. But when Blackmoor arrived at the game shop today, I was disappointed to see it only discussed steamtech for a couple pages (with no stats that I saw), and nothing about the alien high-tech! The book looked ok otherwise, but since the tech was why I ordered it, I put it back and instead got Hyperconscious, the lastest book from Monte Cook (since I'm playing a Psion in a friend's game). I was disappointed that Blackmoor looked so... generic.

 

[BradfordFerguson]

I did a preview of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor for Silven Crossroads and put a review of it in D20 Filtered. Overall, I thought it was excellent though some (hopefully) first-time publisher mistakes were made. I think everyone wins though because the end product is still very good and A LOT OF FUN TO READ. Books should be fun to read and, especially in the gazzeteer, the new-fangled Blackmoor is a very entertaining read.

Blackmoor can be summarized by saying that it is high fantasy in a very dangerous world. People are afraid to leave the towns and cities.

I understand when you have certain expectations for a product and the product doesn't meet those expectations. The publishers' websites didn't do a good job of telling you what you will get, but I did have a preview review out a week before it came out at GenCon. You can also wait a week or four from product release (waiting can stink) and then see what people are saying in reviews and on the forums of the publishers or fansites.

I always get a little dismayed when people want a game to be perfectly explained or have a really specific expectation for something that will be hard to meet (like I will have for Half Life 2). Just enjoy reading the book and have fun playing the game. It sounds like Zeitgeist has a good plan for adding on stuff and hanging out with Dustin Clingman and Jeff Quinn (two of the writers) at GenCon showed me how passionate they are and how concious they are about what they are doing.

Anyhow, check out the inaugural issue of D20 Filtered for my Blackmoor review and many other goodies...

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Holy crap! It's ColonelHardisson!

Where you BEEN, mang?

Been around...I could ask you the same...

 

[Piratecat]

Now that the (now-deleted) disruption has been dealt with by Henry, I welcome a return to discussion about Blackmoor.

 

[dead]

If Blackmoor is the FIRST EVAR campaign setting, how come it is "Supplement II" while Greyhawk is "Supplement I"?

Wouldn't have Supp 1 been released before Supp 2???

If Blackmoor is, indeed, the first campaign setting, then it is not only the first fantasy setting evar, but the first sci-fi setting, and the first fantasy/sci-fi setting evar. Quite an achievement!