Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk - got it!
- Thread starter catsclaw227
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Ron said:
With respect, I think that's bogus. The setting has changed plenty in thirty years. The Scarlet Brotherhood was completely exposed, almost all of the decent chaotic neutral nations were wiped out, almost all of the rulers have changed from the original iteration, and the campaign setting has more or less taken it in stride.
Robilar's betrayal of his best friend Mordenkainen _was_ out of character, and has never been adequately described. Rary's motives were given a minute's attention in a product farmed out to a random freelancer, and thus was born yet another pointless fault line in Greyhawk's fandom. There is no reason for past hackwork to intentionally piss off the people who created the campaign setting. It's bad business, for one.
I tried to add a spin to the Robilar plot that allowed the setting to reclaim one of its most important characters in a way that purges lame backstory and moves the setting forward at the same time.
To stick with your comics analogy, splitting Superman into red and blue electricity twins might be an interesting storyline for a while, but eventually you get him back into the costume that people are interested in and that stays true to the roots of the character.
--Erik
Mouseferatu
Hero
Erik,
I haven't read more than about 40 pages into it, but so far, I'm really digging it. If the quality keeps up, this may supplant EtCR as my favorite "Expedition" book to date.
If I had one wish for the book, though, it would've been for a section in the intro that gave an overview of each of the "side quests" from beginning to end. I love the fact that each individual location entry has the related side quest info attached, but for a potential DM reading through it for the first time, it's a little hard to keep track of what some of them mean.
Any chance I could talk you (or James, or Jason) into proposing such an accessory to WotC as a web enhancement?
(And yes, so far that's my only real complaint, and I consider it a minor one. Kudos to all three of you.)
I haven't read more than about 40 pages into it, but so far, I'm really digging it. If the quality keeps up, this may supplant EtCR as my favorite "Expedition" book to date.
If I had one wish for the book, though, it would've been for a section in the intro that gave an overview of each of the "side quests" from beginning to end. I love the fact that each individual location entry has the related side quest info attached, but for a potential DM reading through it for the first time, it's a little hard to keep track of what some of them mean.
Any chance I could talk you (or James, or Jason) into proposing such an accessory to WotC as a web enhancement?
(And yes, so far that's my only real complaint, and I consider it a minor one. Kudos to all three of you.)
Lidgar
Gongfarmer
Erik,
While we are at it...how constrained were you with the maps and space? It really seems like in some areas - the upper level of the War Tower being an example - where it looked like you guys really wanted to include more but had to go with a constrained map and verbal descriptions. I sometimes miss the days of poster maps - a royal treatment of the Ruins ala the original Undermountain (i.e., map only and no descriptions except for the areas as described) would have been almost too good (especially since the 2e version choked so badly in this regard - shade for elevations but no grid? Come on!). On the whole, this is some fantastic work however. You and the crew did Greyhawk, and D&D, one heck of a favor. Thanks!
While we are at it...how constrained were you with the maps and space? It really seems like in some areas - the upper level of the War Tower being an example - where it looked like you guys really wanted to include more but had to go with a constrained map and verbal descriptions. I sometimes miss the days of poster maps - a royal treatment of the Ruins ala the original Undermountain (i.e., map only and no descriptions except for the areas as described) would have been almost too good (especially since the 2e version choked so badly in this regard - shade for elevations but no grid? Come on!). On the whole, this is some fantastic work however. You and the crew did Greyhawk, and D&D, one heck of a favor. Thanks!
James Jacobs
Adventurer
The only thing that constrained us was the word count of the book. The folks at WotC basically told us how long the book was, gave us a rough draft outline, and then basically said, "Do what you want with this." So we pretty much knew how much room we had going in and wrote an adventure that filled that space. It was still tough, though. I would have LOVED to include many more levels... to basically start the adventure at 1st level and go up to 14th and where it ends as printed, but that not only would have made for a MUCH larger book... we wouldn't have had the time to write it in the first place.
And we did at first want to include a "Side Quest Tracker" of some sort in the book to help DMs keep track of everything, but that was one of those things we gave up on for lack of space. I do believe, though, that there may be a web enhancement along those lines already lined up, but it just hasn't been posted yet.
And we did at first want to include a "Side Quest Tracker" of some sort in the book to help DMs keep track of everything, but that was one of those things we gave up on for lack of space. I do believe, though, that there may be a web enhancement along those lines already lined up, but it just hasn't been posted yet.
Mouseferatu
Hero
James Jacobs said:
Excellent.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Web pages vanish. Hard drives crash. Writable CD-ROMs eventually fade into unreadable ones and zeros.Razz said:
A well-preserved book, though, is forever.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Can anyone spoil what the other demiplanes included are, other than the Isle of the Ape? I'm guessing one is Dungeonland, but I can't think of what the third might be.
And how much of a write-up does each get?
I'm thinking Goodman Games' Forest of Lanterns might fit nicely in here as well.
And how much of a write-up does each get?
I'm thinking Goodman Games' Forest of Lanterns might fit nicely in here as well.
Jason Bulmahn
Adventurer
Mouseferatu said:Erik,
I haven't read more than about 40 pages into it, but so far, I'm really digging it. If the quality keeps up, this may supplant EtCR as my favorite "Expedition" book to date.
If I had one wish for the book, though, it would've been for a section in the intro that gave an overview of each of the "side quests" from beginning to end. I love the fact that each individual location entry has the related side quest info attached, but for a potential DM reading through it for the first time, it's a little hard to keep track of what some of them mean.
Any chance I could talk you (or James, or Jason) into proposing such an accessory to WotC as a web enhancement?
(And yes, so far that's my only real complaint, and I consider it a minor one. Kudos to all three of you.)
Although James beat me to it, there is indeed a web enhancement on the way for the Side Treks in this adventure. I had a blast putting them together (and adding a few new ones too).
To everybody else, I am really quite pleased at the great response this book is getting. It was really tough making a book that lived up to expectations in the limited amount of space we had to play with.
Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager
Mouseferatu
Hero
IuztheEvil said:
Looking forward to it. And I'm glad you guys thought to put such a thing together.
You know, I could easily see further expansions on the levels of Castle Greyhawk serving as adventures in their own right, sort of like you guys did with expansions to Maure Castle.
(And kudos again. There are very few modern modules on which I feel the burning urge to expand.
Standing on the shoulders of giants, and all that...)Similar Threads
