Jack Vance, Dying Earth, and the Primer of Practical Magic

[Drifter Bob]

I only had a chance to look at it briefly as I am in the middle of moving (in fact if you asked me where exactly my copy was right now I couldn't tell you...lol).

The short of it is that I liked it a lot. From a flavor stand point it was great. The spell failure rules are a major case of "why didn't I think of that!", and the vat creature mechanics are going to replace the current rules for acquiring familiars in my games ASAP.

On the negative side from my cursory look I think there may be balance issues with some of the spells & feats, but I'll have to have some time to study them more in-depth to be absolutely certain.

Oh yeah, count me among the "more info on the Sandistans would have been nice!" group.

All in all it was a great book to steal ideas from. It wasn't perfect but was definitely worth buying (BTW the lack of editing errors was a pleasant surprise as well!!).

Whenever I get settled in & I'll take a longer look at it & give you my impressions.

Krieg, did you ever have a chance to look over the book in more detail? I'd like to hear from anybody who has read it by now, what your likes and dislikes were.

The web enhancement (including a lot more about vat creatures and sandestins) is finished now and should be avalailable online as a pdf this week. As y'all probably know there is also a contest going on for naming spells, and we also finished a mini-adventure which will also be available for download this week.

JR

 

[Ikdyby hobily]

From the description on Amazon, it seems like they're 136 interesting pages

It looks very cool but $30.00 for 136 pages is pretty steep.

Here is the description from Amazon:

Book Description
The Primer is filled with extraordinary spells, items and new powers for the magicians in your campaign. Whether you wish to spin your enemies to death with Phandaal's Gyrator or control them like a puppet with Clambard's Rein of Long Nerves, the is the libram for your discerning wizard's library.
The Primer contains:

*Over 100 spells of all levels

*22 magic items including the Cloud of Knives,

*Rules for growing henchmen and creatures in magical vats

*New character classes including the fearsome Diabolist

*New magician feats

All these new powers find there way to you from the Dying Earth RPG, but you don't need the Dying Earth RPG to use and appreciate the powerful sorcery within. The Primer has been carefully balanced and playtested to work with the latest rules and provides a subtle but distinct advantage to those who use it.

The Primer requires the use of the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook published by Wizards of the Coast.



Growing henchman in vats is a pretty tempting reason to get it.

 

[Psion]

Growing henchman in vats is a pretty tempting reason to get it.

They have that? Cool! I wish the guy at Pelgrane I was talking to would have spelled that out. That's probably one of my favorite aspects of Dying Earth. And the main reason I love Mongoose's EA: Constructs.

Please arrive... please arrive...

FWIW, I have always thought the exotic wizards in Sepulchrave's story hour had a bit of Vancian feel to them.

For those who have not read Vance out there, there's a lot more to Vance than "you forget spells when you cast them." Dying Earth was an imaginative peice (er, collection) of fantasy fiction. I mean what other setting has demons harvesting magic gems (to be precise, IOUN stones, there origin was DE) from stars being swallowed up in oblivion?

 

[Psion]

More things to do:
- Heavily encourage use of the Rogue class. In fact, pretty much everyone should be a rogue, unless they're a wizard. And even if they're a wizard they're probably a rogue.

Hey, another use for the Gestalt rules! Everyone's a rogue.

Actually, I often think these little variant campaign ideas sound interesting, but usually dismiss them. That one sounds like a LOT of fun.

 

[blackshirt5]

They have that? Cool! I wish the guy at Pelgrane I was talking to would have spelled that out. That's probably one of my favorite aspects of Dying Earth. And the main reason I love Mongoose's EA: Constructs.

Please arrive... please arrive...

FWIW, I have always thought the exotic wizards in Seph's story hour had a bit of Vancian feel to them.

For those who have not read Vance out there, there's a lot more to Vance than "you forget spells when you cast them." Dying Earth was an imaginative peice (er, collection) of fantasy fiction. I mean what other setting has demons harvesting magic gems (to be precise, IOUN stones, there origin was DE) from stars being swallowed up in oblivion?

Um, what's "seph"'s full username? I wanna read that Story Hour.

 

[Psion]

Um, what's "seph"'s full username? I wanna read that Story Hour.

Whoops. Slight miskey/brain fart. I mean Sepulchrave II, esp. Lady Despina's virtue.

Of course, much of his setting is deeply entrenched and detailed European-flavored, with a church that strongly resembles the Catholic church and whatnot... I am specifically speaking of how he treats wizards as distinct, cloistered, and aloof, and often with bizarre, outlandish magical contraptions and unique spell research.

 

[Olive]

Whoops. Slight miskey/brain fart. I mean Sepulchrave II, esp. Lady Despina's virtue.

Of course, much of his setting is deeply entrenched and detailed European-flavored, with a church that strongly resembles the Catholic church and whatnot... I am specifically speaking of how he treats wizards as distinct, cloistered, and aloof, and often with bizarre, outlandish magical contraptions and unique spell research.

Sep has said several times that his wizard's are strongly influenced by Vance, and that the player of Mostin is a huge Vance nut, this isn't surprising.

 

[Ikdyby hobily]

Thought I was the only one farting from my brain...

Whoops. Slight miskey/brain fart. I mean Sepulchrave II, esp. Lady Despina's virtue.

 

[Drifter Bob]

Primer Errata

The Primer codicilliary document (eratta and bonus material) is up now, according to Simon at pelgrane press:

http://www.dyingearth.com/downloads/Codicillary.pdf

For some reason my browser is unable to get to the dying earth website right now so I can't verify this. If somebody could tell me if it is showing up or not I'd appreciate it (as well as any feedback on the content, particulalry from those of you who had asked for specific things, we tried to answer every issue that was raised)

The maps for the mini adventure are being converted with mapping software, and it should be up shortly after that.

JR

 

[Olive]

For some reason my browser is unable to get to the dying earth website right now so I can't verify this.

I can't get there either...