Grim Tales: SLAVELORDS of CYDONIA - Advance Copy: Taking Q&A!

[Verequus]

After calculating the price I would pay at amazon.com (amazon.de didn't offer SoC (while having a specific error page), but Grim Tales), I found it along with buying Grim Tales and the included shipping fee too good for not taking it. It would be nice, if you could ship SoC earlier than the 1-2 months, amazon.com threatened me. Receiving them at end of January would be okay - at the end of my exams.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Receiving them at end of January would be okay - at the end of my exams.

I could manage that after the holidays. Email me after Jan. 3rd and we'll work something out.

Amazon is giving you a late date because they probably have not received a supply shipment yet. Once they have it in stock, I would expect their delivery time to drop dramatically.

Wulf

 

[Selganor]

I guess I'll ask my favorite retailer (Dragonworld.de) about when they think they'll get it...

 

[tameszu]

Edit: I just realized that you are one of the authors. um, Awesome. Now go away and write something else.

Oh, hey, thanks--although Matt was the really big creative force when we were writing it. I just gave him as much back-up as I could and tried to help iron out technical issues.

If you by "write something else," you mean notes on my law school texts that I've been trying to pound down over the last couple of days, or that dissertation I haven't touched in awhile, yeah, I should do that...

Anyway, from that point of view, I'd say that I pretty much never run modules. I've got a multi-year game going that is all my own creation, setting and plot. So I think I am a pretty good GM. I'm good enough to run this thing, but not good enough to have come up with it myself. I think this is exactly the kind of thing that can take my game up one more notch.

Well, good luck with the campaign and be sure to keep us updated--I'm confident that it will be a lot of fun. And thanks for your great feedback!

 

[Turanil]

You can always order from Amazon of course.

Amazon? "Usually ships in 1 to 2 months"

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Amazon? "Usually ships in 1 to 2 months"

I've seen folks mention this a couple of times so I better address it.

This is automated code, placeholder text for Amazon which means, "We don't have it in stock, yet."

However, I know it's on the way, as we speak, so I would expect to see that text updated to "ships in 2-3 days" as soon as they have it in hand.


Wulf

 

[JoeGKushner]

Got my copy yesterday and a quick read through shows that it shouldn't be too much of a problem to use the Black Company with this. I'm not going to change anything from Grim Tales to Black Company. Too much of a hassel. I'm just going to have the players use Black Company rules. (Now to get a group together.) After all, hit points are hit points and base attack bonus is base attack bonus.

When looking over the book though, it mentions something about rolling for encounters and using the Jungle part of the chart. Am I just missing the jungle part in that chart? Is it the Valley or Wilderness?

On looking at that tiny thing that goes into your body, (moilied or something?) one of the hidden meances, it lists it's Initiative as +8 but it's dex is like 21 and it has improved iniaitive so shouldn't it be +9?

So far Book One has fallen under my heel. One question pops into mind. Is there a map of any general swampland since the PC's may head into that region or is that something GM's should just wing it with? Perhaps some work with Ed over at SkeletonKey Games (as he did the other maps here) would be a good tie in? The secondary ruins look like some good old fashioned dungeon crawling but not too terrible.

More questions and actual page referencs latter.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Got my copy yesterday and a quick read through shows that it shouldn't be too much of a problem to use the Black Company with this. I'm not going to change anything from Grim Tales to Black Company. Too much of a hassel. I'm just going to have the players use Black Company rules. (Now to get a group together.) After all, hit points are hit points and base attack bonus is base attack bonus.

Yep. I hope lots of folks find broad applicability for the adventure.

I haven't looked at the BC mass combat rules in any great detail, but you might find them more to your liking for Book Four than the mass combat rules provided.

When looking over the book though, it mentions something about rolling for encounters and using the Jungle part of the chart. Am I just missing the jungle part in that chart? Is it the Valley or Wilderness?

Valley.

On looking at that tiny thing that goes into your body, (moilied or something?) one of the hidden meances, it lists it's Initiative as +8 but it's dex is like 21 and it has improved iniaitive so shouldn't it be +9?

Oops. (Don't show John Cooper.)

So far Book One has fallen under my heel. One question pops into mind. Is there a map of any general swampland since the PC's may head into that region or is that something GM's should just wing it with?

Joe, you're going to find as you go through there are a lot of places where the GM is expected to wing it. Our goal was to provide the things the GM is going to need and not sweat the small stuff that most experienced GMs will play fast and loose. I hope that doesn't get you down on the product.

There is a very rough sketch of the valley area in Book One you may use as a reference point. If you're playing a more "cinematic" game, I doubt you'll need much more detail than that.

More questions and actual page referencs latter.

I look forward to your questions!

Wulf

 

[JoeGKushner]

One thing with the 'wing it' approach.

I have no problem with it because the book notes, "Experienced". Now to me, that's one of the problems of some other publishers. Take Goodman Games and Necromancer Games. both have retro to them but the former is actuall retro in style and substance while the latter are often better suited for GMs with more experience under their belt who are capable of taking source materail beyond it's starting goals. Very few 1st edition adventures required that type of thinking and they rarely note how experienced the GM should be in handling it.

As far as mass combat, the only reason, so far, that I'm thinking of using the Black Company version, is that Fighters in that setting get the Command ability and it seems a shame not to use the ability they get in place of their first level feat.

Now one thing I'm wondering, is how do you get other humans into the campaign once you've started? For general purposes, I can see that they might come from the valley itself, but it seems a bit of a stretch at the same time. I do like the option presented in the gladiator ring that they can switch out their character with one whose more in line with combat and continue to gain levels in both classes. Good thinking there.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Now one thing I'm wondering, is how do you get other humans into the campaign once you've started?

Getting humans into the campaign is easy; getting Earthlings into it would be more difficult.

There are native Cydonian humans, though their lot is not a happy one... They aren't relegated to a food source like the skreet, but other than that their situation is not much improved.

Even so, there are feisty humans available (the Mendicants, of course, but Bret leaps to mind as a more aggressive example) so you'd have no trouble pulling native Cydonians into the adventure.


Wulf