Giants in the Earth

[Mycanid]

"Giants in the earth" is a term from the Bible, the book of Genesis.

Ahh ... good.

There ARE others in here who know of this. That, of course, is the quote on the ... err ... frontispiece (?) ... of the book. But somehow I thought it more likely that the book itself would have been the catalyst for the articles rather than the verse.

Hmm....

Maybe a question for Col Pladoh in his thread?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

But somehow I thought it more likely that the book itself would have been the catalyst for the articles rather than the verse.

You can ask him if you want (though I don't know if he had anything to do with the creation of that series of articles), but I imagine that the Bible is a more likely inspiration, since, being one of the most printed and circulated books in the world (if not THE most printed and circulated), it's a lot more common than the book you mention, which is pretty obscure.

 

[Mycanid]

I have no argument with you on THAT good Colonel!

Nonetheless, I think I may ask Gary one of these days....

 

[Steel_Wind]

Didn't Dragon do a detailed writeup of an author's world for a recent issue? I think it was the World of China Mieville, based on the brief descriptions on Paizo's website. If they can do that, why not writeups for other books, and the characters in them.

China Mievelle gave express permission. Once upon a time, we was a gamer.

Plus, he calculated that getting the substance of his work known to all of Dragon's readership was bound to generate sales of his novels.

He was right. I had never bought one of his books and never would have. I bought Perdido Street Station as a direct consequence of that issue of Dragon.

 

[starwolf]

Paizo's new fiction line will be reprinting several of Leigh Brackett's Eric John Stark novels, starting with "The Secret of Sinharat/People of the Talisman" in November. If you haven't read them, I strongly recommend them. It's a crime Brackett isn't better known than she is.

--Erik Mona

Now that's good news. It's nice to know that Paizo will be looking to reissue some older works that have been let go out-of-print. I remember back in the day porting whole chunks of Skaith (Ginger Star, Hounds of Skaith, Reavers of Skaith) into my campaign world.

 

[Celebrim]

The power level of most of those seem significantly inflated. I'm of the 'less is more' school. The write up that stated Aragorn out as a 5th level character is far more impressive to me both in its understanding of the character and its elegance, than any write up of Aragorn as a 30th level ranger.

Does anyone have a feel for how good of a job was actually done in this series. There are only a couple I'm familiar enough with to offer criticism.

 

[Glyfair]

The power level of most of those seem significantly inflated. I'm of the 'less is more' school. The write up that stated Aragorn out as a 5th level character is far more impressive to me both in its understanding of the character and its elegance, than any write up of Aragorn as a 30th level ranger.

Even though it was stated that these were designed between OD&D and AD&D (this being very inconsistant), I think they hold together reasonably if you measure them in BD&D terms, where levels go to 36th level.

 

[S'mon]

Even though it was stated that these were designed between OD&D and AD&D (this being very inconsistant), I think they hold together reasonably if you measure them in BD&D terms, where levels go to 36th level.

Pickman ain't a Name Level Fighter in any iteration!

I think most of the listed levels are about double what would be reasonable in AD&D.

 

[TerraDave]

Good stuff. It is interesting to see just how high level some where. Though Maal Dweb--I just read the two short stories where he is just featued--is basically a self-made god and might be a little low level.

The series continued in latter issues, though I think there was a shift to historical/legendary charecters for the copyright issue. And at some point they dropped the title "Giants in the Earth". Ones I remember off the top of my head include Robin Hood, multiple Beowulfs, and at least one Cúchulainn.

It would be great if Enworlders started to do something similar.

 

[Celebrim]

I think most of the listed levels are about double what would be reasonable in AD&D.

In general, I tend to think you are correct.

Even John Carter works perfectly well as a 15th level fighter, although in his case he's got some serious LA going on - especially in his Mars incarnation (where among other things he effectively gets a +10 STR bonus and other goodies that make him as roughly as strong as the dire apes and dire lions of that world) - but even his earthly incarnation is immortal and possesses the ability to do astral traveling (and later on take his body with him).

However, there are some exceptions to that. ShadowJack's stats as a 60th level character are reasonable, given that by the end of the story he's basically a god.

My take is that the chosen level should be as low as possible in order to do what the character does in the narrative and that the understanding of what the character does in the narrative should be equally conservative. For example, there is no need to assume that the character defeats 1st level fighters when 1st level warriors would do, no need to assume a 1000 when the text says 'many', and so forth.