Looking Forward to "Stormwrack"

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't own Sandstorm or Frostburn, but I must say Stormwrack intrigues me the most. I just had a campaign leave a ship and although the DM could not have done a better job with the sea voyage I think the PC's certainly could have. Perhaps this book will provide help for the future.

I don't think I would ever be interested in Sandstorm but Frostburn also has possibilities.

I've always been puzzled by them not leading off with the book, now called "Stormwrack," that obviously had the largest appeal to the masses. I like "Frostburn" and I'll be getting "Sandstorm" soon, but it seems like only a handful of people wanted those books more than "Stormwrack." I guess WotC's decision was good news for Necromancer, who got their sea book out first this way.

 

[Aeolius]

I guess WotC's decision was good news for Necromancer, who got their sea book out first this way.

There have been quite a few d20 pirate releases (Pirates!, Skull & Bones, etc) and a handful of undersea supplements (The Deep, Into the Blue, and so on), before WotC announced Stormwrack.

 

[zoroaster100]

I didn't bother to get Frostburn or Sandstorm, because I didn't think I would need such detailed rules for such environments, but if Stormwracked has more rules in it for underwater adventures, especially suggestions for a DM to conduct combat with miniatures for underwater encounters, I'll be very interested in it. I would also have interest in rules and flavor ideas for ships, pirates, sea travel, sea monsters attacking ships, combat involving ships and boarding an enemy ship, etc.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Yeah, I like Book of the Sea by Mongoose for example.

Stormwrack is on my list of books to take a look at, which puts it a couple of notches above most WotC books. (Though I did get Heroes of Battle, despite the complaints that I have heard I found it a very handy book, and an alternative to running a wargame to handle the battles. (At least sometimes... other times you just got to knock down a city with a horde of undead.) I tend to have war and the sea in my games a lot.

The Auld Grump

 

[the Jester]

not even the Complete Book of Halfling Wanderlust?

Dude, one party in my campaign is halflings- the whole setting is focused on water.

And I haven't gotten enough water stuff in a long time.

 

[CM]

I'm just happy to see the return of the Airy Water spell from 2e in Stormwrack.

That and another spell are provided in a sidebar in Dungeon #125.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Yeah, I didn't go with FB or SS, but SW looks like it could inerest me. I'm apprehensive, because the looks I've gotten at FB and SS haven't been that impressive, really (a few good monsters, some rules I won't ever really need....), but ships and the sea can be a common enough occurance that rules for them might be very useful, and can even be extrapolated to other forms of similar movement (airships, land vehicles, etc.).

They'll have to beat Bastion Press's Airships, though. Which is not an easy thing to do at all.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There have been quite a few d20 pirate releases (Pirates!, Skull & Bones, etc) and a handful of undersea supplements (The Deep, Into the Blue, and so on), before WotC announced Stormwrack.

I'm well aware, thank you. And there was one -- Necromancer's -- between the beginning of the environment series and the release of the inevitable "official" sea book.

 

[Felon]

I've always been puzzled by them not leading off with the book, now called "Stormwrack," that obviously had the largest appeal to the masses.

OK, I was considering asking folks why anyone would get so revved-up about the one earthly terrain that adventurers are least likely to spend any great deal of time exploring or adventuring in, but I figured I'd let it pass because I wouldn't receive satisfactory answers.

But now I have to take the bait. How the heck does water qualify as having "the largest appeal to the masses"? A party trekking through desert or tundra has a certain heroic appeal to it. I can paint a cool picture of that in my mind. But a party trekking across an ocean floor with schools of fish swimming around them and checking their watches every few minutes to see if it's time to take another swig of their water-breathing potions? That just strikes me as an absurd visual. I don't see that as having the greatest mass appeal.

Water is an obstacle that separates point A from point B. Sure, your ship can attacked by krakkens and pirates in transit, but that alone doesn't merit an entire book IMO.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

OK, I was considering asking folks why anyone would get so revved-up about the one earthly terrain that adventurers are least likely to spend any great deal of time exploring or adventuring in, but I figured I'd let it pass because I wouldn't receive satisfactory answers.

But now I have to take the bait. How the heck does water qualify as having "the largest appeal to the masses"? A party trekking through desert or tundra has a certain heroic appeal to it. I can paint a cool picture of that in my mind. But a party trekking across an ocean floor with schools of fish swimming around them, and checking their watches every few minutes to see if it's time to take another swig of their water-breathing potions? That just strikes me as an absurd visual. I don't see that as having the greatest mass appeal.

Water is an obstacle that separates point A from point B. Sure, your ship can attacked by krakkens and pirates in transit, but that alone doesn't merit an entire book IMO.

*Blink, blink* Consider how many sea going and pirate supplements are out there. The sea has a siren call all its own, readily available mental images, and a history of high adventure, from pirates to sunken treasure, from Nelson and Hornblower to Tugboat Annie. Pirates of the Carribean to the Abyss. 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea to Noah.

I suppose that you could compare wilderness adventures to travelling down I95 - it would make about as much sense in regards to the 'Sea is an obstacle from Point A to Point B'.

The Auld Grump, boggled by Felon