Eladrin, Green Dragons, and the Royal Road

arscott

First Post
Some musings:


1) Do Eladrin teleport like Nightcrawler or like Batman? When Nightcrawler teleports, there's a loud "Bamf!" and a puff of smoke. Batman doesn't actually teleport as such, but if you glance away for a few seconds, he's gone when you look back.

Obviously, the Eladrin's teleport is a magical effect, so it's not like Batman's in that regard. But I usually envision fey magic to be on the subtle side, unless a flashy effect is specifically called for (and in fact, Fey-pact powers like Eyebite and Curse of the Dark Dream bear that out somewhat. Only Witchfire seems to have a big, flashy look to it).

2) I hate the new green dragon look. Worlds and Monsters said it looked too generic, but did any of them see the 2e MM picture? That green dragon looked very serpentine and cunning--the perfect look for something that's supposed to follow in the footsteps of Cyan Bloodbane. Instead, they make the new green dragon very spikey. Congratulations, now instead of looking like a generic dragon, it looks like a blue dragon--I'm not sure how that improves things.

3) I live about 200 ft from El Camino Real, the road that went north from mexico and connected all of the california missions.

I really like the concept of a missionary road leading into the wilderness--I think that'll be the focus of my first 4e Points of Light campaign. Of course, with the collapse of the last empire, the church has abandoned the missions to fend for themselves. Some have been overtaken by the Wilderness and the monsters it contains. Some have become bastions of corrupt power, forgetting that they exist to convert the natives, not to exploit them. And perhaps one still recall their holy task (though I doubt they'd have much luck without the backing of civilization).

The PCs will be travelling along the road, but I don't think they'll be travelling to the missions as such. Instead, they'll probably be part of a trading venture, heading deeper into the wilderness, beyond the farthest mission.

Hmm. Getting Back to El Camino Real (but reversing the directions somewhat), I think they'll be heading into a Mexico/Central American inspired Jungle realm, Inspired by the Maya, as well as more primitive tribal cultures. Especially since it gives me the chance to use grippili, everyone's favorite colorful, non-evil frogpeople.

But what possible reason would the PCs have to travel that deep into the jungle? What sort of Central-American luxury is worth a dangerous, months-long trek?

Why, Chocolate, of course. :)
 

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arscott said:
Some musings:


1) Do Eladrin teleport like Nightcrawler or like Batman? When Nightcrawler teleports, there's a loud "Bamf!" and a puff of smoke. Batman doesn't actually teleport as such, but if you glance away for a few seconds, he's gone when you look back.

Batman is ninja, like eladrin.
 

arscott said:
But what possible reason would the PCs have to travel that deep into the jungle? What sort of Central-American luxury is worth a dangerous, months-long trek?

Why, Chocolate, of course. :)
YES! Oh my goodness, yes! I thought for sure you were going to say gold, but adventuring to get chocolate is so, so much farther up on the scale of awesomeness!

That, sir, is brilliance.
 

arscott said:
1) Do Eladrin teleport like Nightcrawler or like Batman? When Nightcrawler teleports, there's a loud "Bamf!" and a puff of smoke. Batman doesn't actually teleport as such, but if you glance away for a few seconds, he's gone when you look back.

Since they are still elves, I strongly suspect sparkly bits will be involved...
 


Since it's described as stepping through the Feywild, and it takes a move action, I don't see it as an instant bamf kind of thing. I envision an eladrin starting to walk forward like normal, but vanishing into the air as he completes his first step, as if he were walking behind an opaque screen, except there's nothing there. Then a moment later he emerges from air the same way a short distance away.
 

Pink dust with sparkles... they are elves after all:p

Generally I try to give each "kind" of transportation power its own distinctive effects.
arcane teleportation & plane shift-combination of Sliders and Star Trek, glowing blue portals that pop out of space and disgorge things or "beaming down" effects.
Shadow Magic/Shadow Weave- Nightcrawleresque 'bamf' effects and erupting from pools of shadow, sometimes pools of unnatural shadow that leak out and attach themselves to objects before characters emerge.
Fey- subtle, you blink and things are different
Fiendish-area darkens and character comes from fountain or cloud of ruddy sulphorous smoke
Celestial-area brightens and shaft of pure light accompanied by smell of dogwood and jasmine
Law/Order-everything in area driven into stark detail with oversaturated contrast and smell of oil
Chaos-anything you make up on spur of moment the more incongrous the better
 

My Eladrin Fey-Step (I don't consider it true teleportation) has the Eladrin simply disappear and leave behind a shimmer in the air that quickly dissipates.
 

In my game when eldarin feysteps, he/she leaves behind a golden dust copy of him/herself, which disperses in a second and while everyone watches it, he appeares in the new place.
 

I like the idea that Eladrin disappear and reappear yet nobody ever seems to see them actually do it, like the movies where you glace to the side and back and they are gone, or you blink and missed it. The Eladrin has such a subtle method about him that nobody ever actually sees the effects, only the results, even if they are looking right at them (teleport mid blink).
 

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