Eberron? No way - I'm old school.

[Henry]

Odd, Henry. I'd have to sit in on a game to understand what we're doing differently. I've run Patriotic War at least six or seven times and never had a problem with it.

I think it goes back to "your players have to be willing." I think most of them at the time we played were in a mood to blow up.

BTW, that game ended with 5 soldiers dead, 3 due to the hand grenades that one was lobbing poorly in enclosed spaces, and the last man escaped out into the streets with a 20 sanity hit, and gibbering like a madman. The GAME ended predictably, it was the players who were bouncing off the walls while playing it.

That's all I'll have to say in this thread about it, because I've hijacked enough.

 

[WizarDru]

because I've hijacked enough.

To paraphrase Lisa Simpson: I know those words, but that statement makes no sense.

 

[Hellcow]

I’ve got a story to tell.

Thanks for the story, Destan - it brought a smile on a day that's had too few of them. Congratulations on Valus - I look forward to checking it out at GenCon!

 

[Destan]

Thanks for the story, Destan - it brought a smile on a day that's had too few of them. Congratulations on Valus - I look forward to checking it out at GenCon!

Thanks, Keith. I've got plenty of stories, should you need a smile in the future. Not all of them may be true, but that's never stopped me in the past.

Until GenCon,
Ryan

 

[Funksaw]

I disagree too. Here's why looking at the hobby from an economic point of view matters: The decision about what new products get made for you is largely an economic decision.

So it's not pointless. The hobby game industry is small compared to some other hobbies, sure, but economic data is still driving game companies' decisions like what cool stuff to make, when to make it, etc.

Sincerely,
Inev.

Not really. I mesn, sure, WW, WOTC, SJG - they're deciding mostly on monitary concerns. But you can't tell me Starchildren, Fvlminata, or Sorcerer were written with the idea that the author would make a profit on them. And that's not only where the innovation is happening - but also where I'm more likely to spend my money.

-- Funksaw

 

[Trainz]

“st00pid Dinotopia with trainz.”

Hey there woah. You mess with da Trainz, you find him.

 

[woodelf]

No, it isn't. They present it within limits, but they also tell you how you can expand and expound upon them.

If I can take a setting, from any setting and even time period, how can that possibly be limited in scope or theme?

Well, by being horror? I mean, would it really be reasonable to refer to it as "Ravenloft" if it wasn't some flavor of horror/suspense/thriller? Sure, you can fit any setting or time period into Ravenloft, but i contend you're quite limited in mood and theme, because a specific mood and a narrow selection of themes are exactly what makes it Ravenloft.

 

[Kaleon Moonshae]

Side note: I have yet to see a successful Ravenloft Comedy-Themed Game.


OK, Maybe you can run Abbot and Costello meet Strahd von Zarovich and Adam, but I haven't seen a DM with the guts to do it.

A dM I knew in college used t love telling stories of his 'zombie highscool' game he ran in Ravenloft.

 

[Kaleon Moonshae]

[personal sarcasm]I should talk,[/personal sarcasm] Because I have yet to ever run a Call of Cthulhu game that didn't dissolve into players wisecracking and degenerating into players discharging firearms and grenades into everything that moved, and getting killed. I don't think I could run a successful Horror game if I started bringing thumb screws to the table.

I once ran a coc game where the two players never called me again because I made one of them wet his pants. Seriously, I was both embarrassed and proud. We were in a very dark room with candles and I was in the kitchen getting a drink and talking them through part of it (it was the sleep disorder clinic from the coc d20 book actually) and he was sitting there getting non chalant and smiling like he knew what was going to happen. His friend was getting spooked but this guy was "brave" and so when I let his friend conitnue talking into the darkness and let wet fingertips across his face bout the time his character first saw the monsties...well... it was great.

Then ran another game online that was a cross between wod and coc and gave one of the players nightmares for a couple weeks because of what his rokea found in the sewers beneath austin texas.

A game I ran in college that was another crossover wod and coc game focusing on the baali and BSD actually converted a gamer to horror genre period. It was a great game, revovling around baali using all these young children to call forth the Lord of Flies.

 

[woodelf]

Keith Baker made a comment about his campaign setting on these very boards. Or, rather, he commented about some of the negative criticism he had seen prior to Eberron's release. Seems some folks were comparing Eberron, sight unseen, to “st00pid Dinotopia with trainz.” That made me laugh when I first read it, and it makes me laugh now.

Hey, if only there were an RPG setting out there that was half as cool as Dinotopia, or had anywhere near the caliber of art.

Not saying i don't like Eberron [or, for that matter, saying i like it--i've started to give it a look a couple of times, and i keep getting stuck in the crunch, where my eyes just glaze over and i lose interest; I suspect if i can avoid that and get straight to the fluff, i'll love it], just that it's not Dinotopia. And, therefore ,probably not as cool as Dinotopia.