Heroes of the Elemental Chaos Excerpts

[Pour]

Is it just me or have the last two excerpts been phenomenal?

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (January: In the Works)

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Elemental Magic)

I wish I had this book year 1 or 2 for the treasure trove of information we appear to be getting on primordials, elemental cults, the princes, prisoners, and free titans, etc. The PC options don't hurt, either. Honestly, I hope they carry this "Heroes of" line till the very last breath of 4e. Give me my Heroes of the Astral Sea, at least!

If this, and Heroes of the Feywild before it, indicate the quality of book we might have been getting moving forward into 4e for another imaginary 3-5 years, I kind of lament 5e's announcement. Actually, I still kind of lament it... but that's neither here nor there. I'm convinced, at least, WotC will finish its official support with some strong offerings.

 

[Zaukrie]

if 4E had started with some story elements, like found in these books, it would be a better edition. Abandoning story for rules that are free from story was a bad decision, imo.

That list of primordials in the link, that's a great list. The whole excerpt was great.

 

[keterys]

I think WotC's made a ton of great product lately since they took a step back and started thinking about Essentials, Monster Vaults, Mord's, Feywild, Elemental Chaos, that I wish we'd had in year 1.

I'm dreadfully curious how differently the edition launch might have gone. But, eh, they didn't know as much. Oh well.

 

[Arctic Wolf]

I can't wait to get this book. All that information is awesome. Like everyone has said, if they started out with this level of detail 4e would be doing a lot better.

 

[Mirtek]

Well, there were some people complaining about the lack of fluff at the beginning of 4e, however they were shouted down by overzealous 4e defenders claiming that all one needs is crunch, since people can easily create their own fluff . Official fluff is just restricting and it's waste of space if they have to read the official fluff about how some creature lives in it's habitat, since that creature would live in a totally different area in their homebrew world and yadda-yadda

 

[Pour]

Well, there were some people complaining about the lack of fluff at the beginning of 4e, however they were shouted down by overzealous 4e defenders claiming that all one needs is crunch, since people can easily create their own fluff . Official fluff is just restricting and it's waste of space if they have to read the official fluff about how some creature lives in it's habitat, since that creature would live in a totally different area in their homebrew world and yadda-yadda

I sympathized with the vocal population then, having come from an edition where the rules and the fluff did not easily divorce, but given my experience with 4e I'm now convinced this edition is immune to the 'fluff burden'.

Reskinning, reimagining, the separation of rules and world, the 4e DM is pretty open to do what he or she wants and is given clear guides on how to do it. That said, a suggested stories like what's going into the 'Heroes' books make for great models, ones we aren't necessarily beholden to in the same way we were in the past. At least I think.

 

[Rechan]

Lack of fluff was one of the weakest complaints. It wasn't a dealbreaker, just one on a long list for those who didn't care for 4e.

4e started getting really good fluff around the time of Divine/Primal power.

Having had this sort of fluff from the beginning would have been nice though. I mean why wasn't this info in The Plane Below?

 

[Pour]

Lack of fluff was one of the weakest complaints. It wasn't a dealbreaker, just one on a long list for those who didn't care for 4e.

4e started getting really good fluff around the time of Divine/Primal power.

Having had this sort of fluff from the beginning would have been nice though. I mean why wasn't this info in The Plane Below?

Agreed. I'm still enamored with Primal Spirits and this pseudo-spirit-world they sometimes allude to. Heroes of the Spirit World, focusing on primal spirits and ancestor ghosts, would be wicked.

 

[pemerton]

if 4E had started with some story elements, like found in these books, it would be a better edition. Abandoning story for rules that are free from story was a bad decision, imo.

I think WotC's made a ton of great product lately since they took a step back and started thinking about Essentials, Monster Vaults, Mord's, Feywild, Elemental Chaos, that I wish we'd had in year 1.

I'm dreadfully curious how differently the edition launch might have gone. But, eh, they didn't know as much. Oh well.

Well, there were some people complaining about the lack of fluff at the beginning of 4e, however they were shouted down by overzealous 4e defenders claiming that all one needs is crunch, since people can easily create their own fluff .

I am an (over?)zealous defender with a different view - namely, that 4e started with a lot of story in its rules - found in the race descriptions, the monster descriptions, etc - and that the claim that it was all mechanics and no story was mistaken. Those lore entries in the first MM are full of creation myths, for example - for hydras, for goblinoids, Lolth's time as a god of fate, etc. (And there was also Worlds and Monsters.)

My own view is that the biggest mistake in respect of story was not to include big chunks of Worlds and Monsters in the DMG. Not only is W&M full of story elements, but it talks about how to use those elements in the course of running a game.

As for the more recent stuff, I'm a big fan of the Heroes of . . . information about other planes. But I find the fiction in Mordenkainen's Magnificant Emporium mostly irritating, I'm not a big fan of the wordier monster entries (the Wandering Tower being a noteable exception), and I loathe the extra fluff in power entries, which is normally badly written, vacuous and often seems to contradict the italic (and now redundant?) flavour text in the stat block itself.

Overall, I've been a big fan of the default story for 4e from release, and have enjoyed the various books - esp Plane Above, Denomicon, Feywild and now it seems Elemental Chaos - that have built on it.

 

[Incenjucar]

Ignoring the fluff/no fluff perceptions, the Heroes of the Elemental Chaos book looks like it will be fantastic. I really really wish it had elemental classes, but it sounds like it's otherwise exactly what I've been wanting - since before 3rd edition was announce.