Kingdoms of Kalamar: Ask the Emperor!

[Particle_Man]

Yo! When does the 3.5 KoK superduper DM Screen hit Canada?

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Among some people I game with (a very small number admittedly) 'official' carries a lot of weight. Some people just wont' bother with 'unofficial' material. A DM of mine only accepts 'official' material in his campaigns, and he allows Kalamar stuff.

They're not alone, I pretty much decided to only buy "core" and "official" D&D products because:

a)It reduces my spending.
b)It's easier to keep track of.
c)It supports the core of d20.
d)I'm a D&D fan, so I should buy "D&D".
e)I've gotten stuck with a lot of garbage (a few WotC products are
dumpy, but all in all still better in my opinion).

I do buy non-WotC once and a while, Kalamar, Babylon 5, Lone Wolf, a a rogue Green Ronin book here and there (and a few PDFs), but my WotC and mini's cash outstrips the others.

Plus Kalamar is COOL and OFFICIAL!!

 

[NewJeffCT]

Mark, here are some easy ones for you:

1) Some early criticism of Kalamar centered on it being "bland". How would you answer those critics?

2) The 'Sovereign Lands', as I just found out today on another board, are about 1,000 mile across yet the Campaign Setting books describes the planet as rougly the size of Earth, if I recall. Why the focus on such a small area?

3) Kalamar is a human focused world. Why focus on humans?

4) Compared to actual Medieval Europe, the population of Kalamar is fairly low considering the great climate & access to magical healing to combat the ravages of things like the Black Plague (offset by ravaging orcs & hobgoblins, of course) Why such a low population?

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Even though both are high-quality products, HM and KoK are definately different settings, and I can state that w/o Gawds and Femigawds.

Correct. Well, except that it's "Gawds and Demigawds," you joker.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Can someone give me a general description of what lies beyond the eastern portion of the KoK map, beyond the desert that is near the Rheanarian Bay?

Nope.

At this point, it's completely left open to the DM. Heck, I'm working on the "Sands of the Khydoban" campaign option (the desert you mentioned), and even I don't know...

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Why is being "official" important? Can't any d20 setting that's well developed do as well commercially, and be essentially the same thing in every other way?

Sure, it can. There are a lot of great unofficial products out there.

However, being official is important for several reasons, one of them being what John said...

Among some people I game with (a very small number admittedly) 'official' carries a lot of weight. Some people just wont' bother with 'unofficial' material. A DM of mine only accepts 'official' material in his campaigns, and he allows Kalamar stuff.

Also, our official deal was set before the OGL/SRD was announced. Had there been no OGL/SRD, I have no doubt that the Kalamar setting would have seen even greater popularity.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Yo! When does the 3.5 KoK superduper DM Screen hit Canada?

You know, I really have no idea. All products are shipped from us (or the printer) at the same time, so it depends on the distributor(s) that your store uses.

I would GUESS no more than a couple weeks from now.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Mark, here are some easy ones for you:

1) Some early criticism of Kalamar centered on it being "bland". How would you answer those critics?

I can't. Oh, not because they're right, but because they BELIEVE they are right. It's all a matter of personal preference and taste.

Obviously, I disagree with them. But "bland" means many different things to many people, so it's hard to give examples of WHY the KoK setting is not bland, unless you know for sure where the other person is coming from. Maybe they wanted flying ships and armies of dragons ravaging the world, or maybe they don't like Tolkien-esque humanoid races.

Personally, I'm a strong believer that while nearly any campaign setting suffices for a single adventure, the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting will continue to be an engaging game world to explore long after the novelty of the "tourist bazaars" wears thin. I think the fact that this is Kalamar's 10-year anniversary is proof enough of that.

It's usuable for any kind of medieval fantasy adventure you could desire, and it's based on realism. So the longer you play in it, the more it feels like a real place.

2) The 'Sovereign Lands', as I just found out today on another board, are about 1,000 mile across yet the Campaign Setting books describes the planet as rougly the size of Earth, if I recall. Why the focus on such a small area?

Okay, this is embarrassing. That was my post about the mileage, but apparently I was having a bad brain day. (In fact, I've already fixed it.) The actual setting map is about 3,000 miles across.

3) Kalamar is a human focused world. Why focus on humans?

Well, that was the choice of the creators, but here's my take on it.

Most fantasy settings focus heavily on the nonhuman races, leaving the humans as a mostly generic race or relying on exact duplicate human cultures from Earth. Even then, they're not really emphasized - just kind of tucked away in the back of the book somewhere. This makes humans dull and, well, bland - to use the term from question #1.

However, the humans of Tellene are nearly as different as the humanoid races, and the importance of the humans is the first topic discussed in both the KoK campaign setting sourcebook and the Player's Guide. The humans have character, they have identity, they have different customs, political alliances, religious beliefs, etc etc etc. They're really fun to play!

Of course, humanoids exist - like the two hobgoblin kingdoms, the dwarven cities, elven cities, gnome protectorates, halfling influence in many human cities, and so on. But the humans are the bad boys.

4) Compared to actual Medieval Europe, the population of Kalamar is fairly low considering the great climate & access to magical healing to combat the ravages of things like the Black Plague (offset by ravaging orcs & hobgoblins, of course) Why such a low population?

First off, I'd say that it's because it's only been about 1,000 years since the humans first began to spread. True, they breed and expand faster than most humanoids, but that's still not much time in the grand scheme of things.

Also, I personally don't think magical healing should really be that prominent. Oh, there are good clerics that handle that kind of thing, but they stay pretty busy spreading their religion while fighting their opposition evil religions. So except for the religion that really focuses on healing the sick, they don't go out and cure every farmer who gets gored by a bull.

 

[Particle_Man]

Also, I personally don't think magical healing should really be that prominent. Oh, there are good clerics that handle that kind of thing, but they stay pretty busy spreading their religion while fighting their opposition evil religions. So except for the religion that really focuses on healing the sick, they don't go out and cure every farmer who gets gored by a bull.

I would have thought it would be because some of the evil religions focus specifically on spreading disease, famine, and other "mass killers" rather than the relatively benign "kidnap and sacrifice" which, while nasty for the person involved, usually doesn't stop population growth in a village, much less wipe it out to the last person.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Correct. Well, except that it's "Gawds and Demigawds," you joker.

Whoops! Typo on my part!