Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cthulhudrew" data-source="post: 1984028" data-attributes="member: 4090">You're right. In Wrath, the Nucleus is changed to drain from Entropy. For some strange reason, though, Kingdom of Magic switches it back to Energy. Neither of which makes all that much sense, frankly, as the Spheres aren't actual things/places, just concepts.Bruce wasn't the designer of the Red Steel boxed set, but as product manager he had a lot of input. From what I recall, much of that boxed set was done based off of his notes, so he certainly had something to do with it. The major changes, however, had to do with a perception at TSR that the cinnabryl/cinnabar empowerment seemed a bit too much like an addiction (which, admittedly, it was- which was why it was so cool). Addiction was a no-no at then Politically Correct ("Mothers Against Demons?") TSR. So instead they replaced that concept with people who are cursed with deformity-inducing powers, and have to rely on "medicine" (cinnabar) to keep them from breaking out. Basically, they replaced Crack with Methadone. It's like Disney making pirates more palatable by giving maidens plates of food. "They're not chasing them to rape them, only to get the food." Meanwhile there's still all sorts of looting, pillaging, burning, and slaving going on. Makes lots of sense, no?Kingdom of Adventure was actually pretty good, despite some minor problems with ages and NPC descriptions (they really should have allowed Grubb to advance things there more than they did). Kingom of Magic just didn't appeal to me at all. I liked that it had a more serious tone than Gaz3 (although part of me still likes the tongue in cheek humor of it), but for my tastes, it was just too much of a rehash of something I already had, and not enough "new" information to make it worth the cost for me. I have a feeling that Monte Cook may have been hamstrung on that product like Grubb was, based on my experience with other Cook projects since, and would have liked to have seen more done with it. But it does have its merits.BTW, Whizbang- is this Beau speaking? Haven't seen you around in a while, if so.</blockquote>

Verification