Dias Ex Machina
Publisher / Game Designer
There was a question on Gleemax on the extent of Amethyst's compatability with future DND books. I thought the answer deserved to be reposted here...
There are two forms of Amethyst: Mine and yours. I can declare what is in the official Amethyst and what is not. That does not change what you do with your game. I got a guy on the playtest who has a group including a Kodiak and a Gimfen from Amethyst gaming with a Dragonborn and Tiefling, which would never happen in the real Amethyst as there are no Dragonborn and Tieflings in Amethyst. You play your game as you wish.
The 3.5 book detailed what monsters were in the official version of that game. Since we are making a lot more original monsters, the number of official DND monsters has decreased substantially for the 4ED game.
This spreads to the Player's side as well. The official Amethyst has no Clerics and no Warlocks but it won't stop a DM from allowing it in his or her game. It all depends on how much you want your game to match what's presented in the book. So for the 4ED core PHB, we said Fighters, Rangers, Rogues, Warlords, and Wizards are in. The others are out. We also said certain Rituals were out. We declared ALL PHB races were out, replaced by our own. So that answers part of what people may be asking. Unlike Eberron, which was "everything included and more", Amethyst is attempting to be a totally original fantasy setting, which means certain elements have to change.
But you asked about future books...and that is a point we discussed at length. This is why we didn't bother making a single new fantasy class. Why bother? WOTC will do it for us and we can support the DND franchise that way. There are rumours PHBII will have Barbarian, Druid, and Monk among others. A DM is can make whatever judgement calls he or she wants for their game. I can safely say that all Martial class will be welcome. Druid may be as well. Any spellcasting classes will be problematic (given our definition magic). Our setting has its own races, so any monster or races that have developed an actual civilization won't appear in the official Amethyst. As these future books are released, we'll post on our site what elements can appear in a "canon" Amethyst game. I imagine some buyers may care while others will do as they like. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, someone might just buy the game and pull out our techans classes and create a science-fiction RPG with no fantasy elements whatsoever—which is starting to look like a selling point.
If there is a weakness with Amethyst, it is because it is not designed to be a modular 100% compatible DND role-playing game (like Eberron). It is designed to be a story setting where you can have role-playing adventures within it (closer to Midnight in its application). As the game has been developed over SIX YEARS...(cough), it has been modified repeatedly to make it more original, which has resulted in many of the DND and clichéd fantasy staples being removed. The first game, as it was built in 2002, was just like Eberron. It has evolved since then to be more than a simple RPG campaign setting packed full of dungeon crawls. It’s meant to be a plausible, living, breathing setting with its own distinct voice.
So...ahem...yeah, there will be opportunities to use future DND books with Amethyst but we can't say for sure as to what extent until we read them.
That’s a page long explanation for me saying, “I dunno.”
There are two forms of Amethyst: Mine and yours. I can declare what is in the official Amethyst and what is not. That does not change what you do with your game. I got a guy on the playtest who has a group including a Kodiak and a Gimfen from Amethyst gaming with a Dragonborn and Tiefling, which would never happen in the real Amethyst as there are no Dragonborn and Tieflings in Amethyst. You play your game as you wish.
The 3.5 book detailed what monsters were in the official version of that game. Since we are making a lot more original monsters, the number of official DND monsters has decreased substantially for the 4ED game.
This spreads to the Player's side as well. The official Amethyst has no Clerics and no Warlocks but it won't stop a DM from allowing it in his or her game. It all depends on how much you want your game to match what's presented in the book. So for the 4ED core PHB, we said Fighters, Rangers, Rogues, Warlords, and Wizards are in. The others are out. We also said certain Rituals were out. We declared ALL PHB races were out, replaced by our own. So that answers part of what people may be asking. Unlike Eberron, which was "everything included and more", Amethyst is attempting to be a totally original fantasy setting, which means certain elements have to change.
But you asked about future books...and that is a point we discussed at length. This is why we didn't bother making a single new fantasy class. Why bother? WOTC will do it for us and we can support the DND franchise that way. There are rumours PHBII will have Barbarian, Druid, and Monk among others. A DM is can make whatever judgement calls he or she wants for their game. I can safely say that all Martial class will be welcome. Druid may be as well. Any spellcasting classes will be problematic (given our definition magic). Our setting has its own races, so any monster or races that have developed an actual civilization won't appear in the official Amethyst. As these future books are released, we'll post on our site what elements can appear in a "canon" Amethyst game. I imagine some buyers may care while others will do as they like. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, someone might just buy the game and pull out our techans classes and create a science-fiction RPG with no fantasy elements whatsoever—which is starting to look like a selling point.
If there is a weakness with Amethyst, it is because it is not designed to be a modular 100% compatible DND role-playing game (like Eberron). It is designed to be a story setting where you can have role-playing adventures within it (closer to Midnight in its application). As the game has been developed over SIX YEARS...(cough), it has been modified repeatedly to make it more original, which has resulted in many of the DND and clichéd fantasy staples being removed. The first game, as it was built in 2002, was just like Eberron. It has evolved since then to be more than a simple RPG campaign setting packed full of dungeon crawls. It’s meant to be a plausible, living, breathing setting with its own distinct voice.
So...ahem...yeah, there will be opportunities to use future DND books with Amethyst but we can't say for sure as to what extent until we read them.
That’s a page long explanation for me saying, “I dunno.”