Discussion - LEW 4th Edition

[Moggthegob]

I, for the record, would be quite interested in helping with this. I believe I am the only member of LEB who is not a member of LEW. Odd, but I just for some reason found LEB more accessible.
Anyhow that is not important. I would like to help shape this if i could. I think the most important thing before we worry about anything else is flavor. Unfortunately, we won't know the default flavor until the system comes out but it still warrants thinking about. The world itselfshould probably have some girth to it but for world building purposes It would probably be best to flavor and drawup a city, stick it on a continent near and ocean and see how it develops. My basic idea is a Mediterranean set up with an archipelago floating off of it.

However here is where flavor comes in.. Do we want this to be like Eberron or a published setting where everyone already knows where everything is or are we going to opt for more of a dark ages/age of exploration style thing where we are not really sure what lies beyond that for est or what lies out in the ocean there.

 

[Knight Otu]

I think an exploration aspect is pretty much a must, though its extend does depend on how prevalent teleportation magic is. I suspect long-range teleportation won't come into play before level 10, and if we want to encourage a "the PCs are the heroes" feel limiting high level allies, an exploration aspect could be major. Personally, I'd like a middle ground between exploration and "in-character mapped out" (not necessarily ooc mapped out) similar to LEW shortly after the beginning.
My basic idea would be similar to yours, a major coastal city on a continent, with known terrain around including several islands. Beyond natural boundaries like mountain chains and deserts, knowledge becomes sketchy to inaccurate, and while it is known other continents exist (I'm for three other continents and a sunken continent that is supposedly destined to rise ), contact is low if even existent.

 

[Bront]

Mog, there are several in LEB and not in LEW, and vice versa. LEB has the world books you can buy, LEW you have to do more forum reading. The Wiki helps a bit.

I like your general idea KO, though I'm still torn on exactly what to expect from the first city. Part of my thoughts might be that perhaps the continent the city is on is fairly small, and the seas have been impassable due to odd magical storms that have cleared up after over 100 years. The world could be in some kind of post war recovery (a rumored near magical apocolyps), and the world itself is rebuilding. The initial continent has been unscathed for a while, so is semi-prosperous, but is finaly getting a chance to explore outward.

yeah, now that I wrote that, i'm not so sure, but it's an idea.

 

[Wik]

I've sort of changed my thoughts on things, after a few months have passed. Really, I'm not too concerned about the setting itself. I think the points I brought up, though - particularly the last post I made, about voting for judges - are something to be considered. I really think voting in a world design team might be the best way to go about things.

But, considering how I'm losing the thrill for 4e (don't ask me why, I have no clue myself), I'm not too worried about L4W. It'll work, no matter what we do, I guess is all I'm saying.

I'd like to see a fairly small setting, so we can throw in a lot of detail as we go, without things getting weird. An area roughly the size of the caribbean (I've been reading about the Bahamas, lately) is perfect for our purposes, and there's a lot of room to expand upon. But that's personal preference, and since my current home game is set in the caribbean (post-apocalytic game in tropical islands), I can work with other "map models"

I think, though, that a medium-size city, that is politically independant, is a must for the purpose of a base city. I think the archipelego idea is perfect for the campaign, for reasons I've already stated. A nearby continent is a good idea, especially if it is ruined or largely unexplored - so we can throw in huge jungles, deserts, and all that jazz. Beyond that...

I think keeping the setting fairly generic is a good idea - so no Eberron, I'm afraid.

Meta issues I still think I'd like to see:

1) A PDF download that details all the main elements of the setting - and preferably, one that is updated yearly.
2) A wiki that is easy to navigate.
3) Either make planes more accessible to low-level PCs, or drop 'em out entirely.
4) use the new DM credit rules (for adventure write-ups) that is being used in LEW.
5) You can only have one level 1 PC at a time; all PCs start at level one. There is no limit on how many PCs you can have.
6) A map. I don't know how we do it, but a map is a MUST. (it'd be neat if we had a map that everyone could add to, but I don't think software exists for that).

 

[Wik]

Mog, there are several in LEB and not in LEW, and vice versa. LEB has the world books you can buy, LEW you have to do more forum reading. The Wiki helps a bit.

I like your general idea KO, though I'm still torn on exactly what to expect from the first city. Part of my thoughts might be that perhaps the continent the city is on is fairly small, and the seas have been impassable due to odd magical storms that have cleared up after over 100 years. The world could be in some kind of post war recovery (a rumored near magical apocolyps), and the world itself is rebuilding. The initial continent has been unscathed for a while, so is semi-prosperous, but is finaly getting a chance to explore outward.

yeah, now that I wrote that, i'm not so sure, but it's an idea.

Post-apocalyptic could definately work, especially with that whole "points of light" thing in 4e.

One thing I'd like to see, especially if we went 4e - that the current "era" is called the "4th era". The eras would be:

1) The early eras. A time of mythic races, where heroes were heroes, and the world was wild and unpredictable.
2) The first era. A harsh time, of demon cults and harsh orders.
3) The second era. A time where it seemed like every facet of the world was being uncovered. A time of great exploration, but where power abuses between peoples and nations eventually caused an economic depression.
4) The third era. An age of wizards, and ocean exploration. And also a time of great upheaval of the very universe. Rules of physics that had long stood as fact were changed. But ultimately, a happy time.
5) The fourth era. No name, yet.

 

[Boddynock]

Wik, I like a lot of your ideas.

• A small setting sounds good to me.
• On the other hand I'm not sold on the idea of an archipelago - it could work, and it would give a different flavour to the world but I'm only lukewarm.
• I like the four (five) eras.
• I really like the idea of the downloadable, regularly updated PDF of background material.
• Only one 1st level PC at a time, with no limit on the number of PCs - why not? So long as established players allowed newbies the chance to get in on adventures if there's a shortfall.
• I'd say keep the planes as they are - it allows for something different, and I think the power creep of making them accessible to low level PCs is something to be avoided.
• Generic setting sounds good. Let's hope there's an easy way to define "core" in L4W, as there has been in LEW.
• By all means use the new adventure summary rewards - having spent all this time thrashing them out, we may as well make the most of them.
• I'd actually really like to see a good map - which could be updated regularly. Perhaps there's an adventuring company, an exploration company, or a Guild of Cartographers, which would regularly produce updated maps. Of course they're not available to everybody - so our adventurers would still have some surprises in store for them - but certain basic information should be well-known.

 

[LogicsFate]

A map would be nice this time around. I like the idea of the Hex maps. They seem like they'd be easy to update, as long as we keep things vague in the beginning. Maybe as we could talk about a genral shape of the world and let the hexs fall as they may.

Also, until the rules get taken through their paces, one character a piece would be a good place to start. I'm thinking about the character judges with the amount of people that might play in L4W and the effort of learning the new system will have there hands full without everyone submitting more than one character.

Though I'm not sure what you meant by dropping the planes if the are not easily accessable. Care to elaborate?

 

[Boddynock]

Also, until the rules get taken through their paces, one character a piece would be a good place to start. I'm thinking about the character judges with the amount of people that might play in L4W and the effort of learning the new system will have there hands full without everyone submitting more than one character.

Well, given the veritable flood of character approvals we've been faced with recently, I appreciate the thought (or would, if I were one of the L4W character approval judges ). Still, I think the system would be self-regulating to a certain extent. The very fact that you have to get your first character to level 2 before submitting your second character reduces the torrent somewhat. And since not everybody will hit level 2 at the same time, the approvals requests should be somewhat staggered anyway.

 

[Phoenix8008]

Though I'm not sure what you meant by dropping the planes if the are not easily accessable. Care to elaborate?

Can't speak for what he meant, but from what I've heard, the planes are gonna be a lot more accessable in 4E core. And a lot more survivable for lower level PC's. Sounds like a good idea to me if you want more people to adventure there. LEW already kind of had a taste of that with the towers providing elementally influenced areas.

I agree that keeping it limited to one character each for awhile would be good (for the character approval judges at least). As for later letting people have any number of characters, I'm not sure. I can see the appeal, but also the difficulties.

Good maps and wiki would be great.

Turthfully, the carribean idea doesn't do anything for me at all. I prefer more land based stuff personally. Although having the main city on the shore to enable any water based adventures is an emminently good idea. I just would hate to see it restricted to always being water travel to have to go much of anywhere. That could get old quick. You wanna have an archipeligo nearby that you can run to sail and play in, be my guest. Just leave me my continent to explore please.

The idea for the eras sounds fun, even if it is fluff. I'd put it there beside having some veiled reference to teh LEW world once being a part of the L4W world.

I'm fine with the "Points of Light" idea and making it post-apocalypse of some sort (magical?, planar? whatever...) is a good way to explain that.

Can't wait to see the rules and can't wait to play them here!

 

[Bront]

Post-apocalyptic could definately work, especially with that whole "points of light" thing in 4e.

Why can't I get past thinking that's a quote from George Bush Sr. when you say that?


And no, that's not political discussion.