(Discussion) General Part VII

[Rystil Arden]

I asked to use monsters from other sources (principally monster manual 3) on proposing my adventure, and it was aproved for purpose of the module.

I realize Knight Otu just said about the same thing, just giving an example of the policy in practice. Feel free to read through Faerie Woods if you would like, several MM3 monsters in there. Same goes for the Burning Tower -- I remember using a Warforged Juggernaut among other critters.

Thanks for the examples I figured as much--It just makes sense that it should be OK to run the monsters from those books as long as the GM has the book, since there is no need for the PCs to have the enemies on hand to reference (in fact--better if they don't!).

I guess it may be obvious to those involved with Immortal Awakens, but I just might be using some desert stuff

 

[Knight Otu]

As another example, the fungus creatures I tossed against the Pest Removal team in the sewers were slightly modified twig blights, with a different appearance.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Hmm...now here's a related issue--magic and/or abilities for NPCs: If the PCs could not be reasonably expected to gain the use of it, can enemies use unfamiliar magics and/or abilities that have not been approved? My guess would be yes again.

 

[Knight Otu]

That's more dicey, and should propably be avoided, though there are cases where it can work. In the case of spells, characters may want to research that spell, in the case on magic item, duplicate it. If you email me, we can work it out.

 

[orsal]

I believe for us judges, the consensus is, as long as the creature remains in only that adventure, or in some cases, campaign, it is allowable. For more than that, it needs to be approved.

It follows from this that non-OGL material that makes its way into an adventure will necessary be "exotic" -- you can't introduce anything that you expect your adventurers to run into later. I'd recommend that this be done sparingly; one thing that makes the living setting cohesive is that the same kind of creatures may be encountered again. But it seems fair to me to allow it to be done on occasion.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Hmm...now here's a related issue--magic and/or abilities for NPCs: If the PCs could not be reasonably expected to gain the use of it, can enemies use unfamiliar magics and/or abilities that have not been approved? My guess would be yes again.

to a certain extent, I consider this unfair to the players. The characters are part of Enworld, if they have taken knowlege skills or spellcraft, they have a basic grounding in what is possible in the world, and to say "here's something new and alien, and no you can't learn from it or ever do it yourself," seems cheap.

Obviously it depends on how its used, but I try to avoid giving the 'enemy' alien abilities that will be forever denied the players. :\

 

[Patlin]

Does that only apply to spells, KB, or do you feel the same about spell like abilities? No one expects to be able to duplicate those anyway.

One thing I'm doing with Faerie Woods is using a magic location. Some of what happens there is a result of the location, and not of any inhabitant thereof. Fair game, or not?

 

[Rystil Arden]

That's more dicey, and should propably be avoided, though there are cases where it can work. In the case of spells, characters may want to research that spell, in the case on magic item, duplicate it. If you email me, we can work it out.

K, e-mail sent.

 

[El Jefe]

Patlin, your magic location is tied to its inhabitants. So long as they stay there, (and I get the impression that it's been centuries), it stays there too.

From my perspective, the important thing is that your unique location (and NPCs, I'm thinking that fey king is an important part of LENWorld, or at least just the lands around Orussus) gets captured in the appropriate Atlas/Gazetteer/Guide thread. But you've been pretty good about that so far, I just hope you keep up the good work.

Take a quick look at what's happening in Festival of Halina (2nd page) as an example of a dogged attempt to tie adventure-unique geography from one adventure into a different DM's adventure. Now, multiply that times the number of adventures that are running, and you'll see why it's important if we want to preserve the feel of LENWorld as a persistant world.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Does that only apply to spells, KB, or do you feel the same about spell like abilities? No one expects to be able to duplicate those anyway.

spells, definitly make me nervous, as there's no really good reason why the character couldn't research or learn the same spell. A spell like ability that introduces some totally new form of attack or defense would also get a long look from me - theres a certain amount of balance built into things, and if the spell like ability is out there, there should be a decent chance of a spell, class ability or other tool to be out there to counter or defend against it.

My way of looking at it is this. If rules for poisons didn't exist, and you invented them for a special ability of a creature the party faced, they would not have any of the poison related spells, antitoxins, the hope of higher level class abilities to help out, etc. A poison special ability introduced under those circumstances would be very powerful and somewhat unfair. I look at 'new' abilities thrown at the PCs in the same way - is this actually new in the world, and if not, why isn't it compensated for in the overall balance of the rules? If it is new in the world, why and where should it go from here? I would be wary of using the bad sci fi trick of introducing something new and powerful that conviniently cannot ever be harnessed by the PCs.

One thing I'm doing with Faerie Woods is using a magic location. Some of what happens there is a result of the location, and not of any inhabitant thereof. Fair game, or not?

I'm not familiar with the effects and of course, its not my place to say (and obviously the judges have been fine with it) but I would wonder, if that location has been there for some time, are there spells, items, uses of skills, feats, prcs, etc that have emerged to deal with its effects? Low level characters going there for the first time might not have those benefits, but if a higher level group has to deal with a different issue there, would they have any greater options?

Just things to think about. As orsal pointed out, this is supposed to be a cohesive, 'living' setting, and I think part of that is a reasonable understanding of what is in the world from one day to the next.