Far Realms poll

[Asmor]

Agreed: Far Realms, insanity, Epic, and DM-centric book. They could sell it like a monster book with a small module in the back.

Heh, or they could sell it like an environment book. "Tentaclescape: Mastering the Perils of Insanity and Non-Euclidian Geometry!"

-- N

Reminds me of my favorite flavortext from Dreamblade, the Unspeakable Freak. "It neither understands nor respects Euclidean geometry"

Chalk me up for the "Buy it without a doubt camp." Unless it was really, really godawful, I'd be all over it. I'm a total planar whore. On the other hand, the fact that they've been so vaguely described is part of their mystery... It's kind of like Wolverine's (Marvel comics) origin. It's probably better off not being done until it can be done right.

But like I said, I'd probably still get it.

Oh, just out of curiosity, would anyone mind giving a brief explanation of why Bruce Cordell is the de facto 'man' for this job? I know the name, but I don't really pay much attention to who writes what.

 

[Nifft]

On the other hand, the fact that they've been so vaguely described is part of their mystery...

Yeah, maybe it should be done Lords of Madness style, with different chapters about different groups that visited the Far Realms and came back. So, a chapter on kaorti, a chapter on ... uh ... yeah. More chapters after that.

But the point is, each chapter would present one view of the Far Realms, and none of the views would agree with each other. Depending on who (or what) the PCs encounter, their information about the Far Realms would be different.

It's still up to the DM what "local conditions" hold if the PCs ever decide to visit, but he'd have several cool vistas to draw from.

Anyway... someone go write it! Now!

Thanks, -- N

 

[Shemeska]

Ouch!

I can appreciate that he isn't everyone's cup of tea, but that's a little...extreme, no?

Lovecraft actively encouraged other authors (notably Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E Howard) to use his characters and concepts in their own works to create the illusion of a "real" mythos that spanned the works of multiple writers. I think he would probably approve of Lumley's usage of his characters, not to mention the numerous other modern authors who borrow from and contribute to the mythos.

It's not Lumley in general. I've got his entire Necroscope series, and I rather enjoyed most of them. That said, I find his lovecraftian work to be August Derleth fanboy'ism more than anything else. Some portions of his stuff on Shudd'mell isn't that bad, but as for much of the rest of his mythos work, I can find better fan fiction online for free.

Writing a story in homage of lovecraft's work, or that of anyone in his circle like C.A. Smith, can be really cool. But I just don't find much of Lumley's work in that area to be well written (admittedly he did a lot of it early in his career, republishing it later when he had the name to do so) and more so, I just don't find his mythos work to be all that inspired.

 

[Shemeska]

Oh, just out of curiosity, would anyone mind giving a brief explanation of why Bruce Cordell is the de facto 'man' for this job? I know the name, but I don't really pay much attention to who writes what.

He came up with the idea in D&D, starting with the module 'Gates of Firestorm Peak'. It also sneaks into a creature and a location in 'Guide to the Ethereal Plane', and in a large number of books that he's written since. As a pet idea seemingly, he's one of the logical choices for writing more on the topic.

 

[Tsillanabor]

Probably, but it would depend on the writing team and the approach taken. It's very easy to completely lose the flavor and appeal of someplace like the Far Realm by detailing it too thoroughly. The whole point of it is that mortals can't comprehend it; it's maddening. If the book went into detail on how to use it--both mechanically and as a plot point--without making the mistake of trying to define it too closely, then yes, I'd buy it.

QFT. Knowing 'how it works' would ruin the Far Realm (Deep Immaterium in my game).

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Personally, I think you can never have enough Cosmic Horror in a game. So yes, a well-written Far Realms book would interest me.

 

[JustaPlayer]

I selected yes if it had good content. There is so much crud being put out, and much of it's from WotC. Brue could do a good job on it, but I still don't think it would be great because of the WotC factor.

 

[Psion]

From a publisher's perspective I wouldn't bank too heavily on this idea. I "anchored" an issue of Dragon (#330) with a huge Far Realms article by Bruce Cordell, and the issue was one of the worst sellers since the 323 "relaunch".

Wow. That's too bad. That particular issue had perhaps the most direct influence on my game that any in recent publication. (#313 had me pretty jazzed as well, but I never got a chance to put some of the great ideas from that into play.)

 

[Psion]

I don't want to sound like a jerk, but I just don't see what the draw is for Bruce Cordell that everyone goes ga-ga - I've never found anything of his to be a "WOW!" moment for me.

Hmmm. So long as you keep him away from Planescape, I find Cordell's stuff to be gold. He's one of the best writers currently on staff at WotC AFAIAC.

 

[DM_Matt]

No, I don't play Cuthulu. I play D&D.

I'll third that. And for me, Dnd is about mighty, horrible villains who try to take over the world, only to be slaughtered by the good guys. "Eeek, a Kobold, now I'm schitzo!" just isn't for me.