Not happy with Wizard's lack of fluff.

[Solvarn]

The other day I sat down with the Tiefling's Handbook and I wanted to read up on the tiefling empire Bael Turath and learn all I can about it because I have an upcoming campaign planned. It will be an all Tiefling Campaign where each tiefling in the group has the blood of a ruling house and will eventually raise Bael Turath from the ashes of destruction.

Well I sit down and I start reading, the more I read the more interested I am getting and the more excited I get. I don't know if it was the Forgotten Realms that spoiled me, but the Tiefling Handbook left me hanging. It was essentially reading the back of a novel that you are thinking about buying only to find out that there are no pages inside.

I guess this is a rant, but I am getting a little tired of the "come up with the rest yourself" theme that 4th edition as taken on. Sure I like to come up with my own stuff, but there are times when I like to take what a great author has envisioned and take that and sometimes change it around to fit a personal agenda, or to sometimes use it as is.

When I first heard about Tieflings having an empire and such I was a bit disappointed because I was use to the old school Tieflings that were rare and no two tieflings were alike. But as I started reading about them I was really astounded at how cool they were.

I feel like I have been a little cheated because I pay all this money for the books, but I continue to be left hanging due to the lack of fluff.

What is your opinion?

I agree with you that I am more interested in the history of tieflings, but I don't think the tiefling handbook is the right place for it because it varies depending on the campaign.

What you are looking for I think is a campaign handbook with a bit more meat, and I don't think that Wizards is going to put one out. I would like to see more information on Nerath and the tiefling history in Nerath, I think it'd be pretty cool.

 

[Armadillo]

I liked the Tiefling handbook and thought that it had the right amount of fluff. It certainly stimulated my thinking about ways to feature Tieflings in my campaign.

There were a few things that I would have liked to have seen:

- Current major factions among the Tieflings. I liked the Houses, but I wanted a bit more. My concept is that the Tieflings today fall into three loose factions: The Good, that have denounced the legacy of Bael Turath and seek to atone for the sins of the past; The Unaligned, the majority of Tieflings who are living their lives without being preoccupied with the past; and The Evil, those seeking to restore the glory of Bael Turath. Having individual Houses that are aligned with The Good and The Evil and debates within other houses about working with those factions offers a number of plot hooks.

- More sex. Wizards really walked too carefully around this topic. A lot is implied but more could have been said.

- Young Tieflings. The comment that Tieflings breed true prompted a couple of thoughts. One is that there are probably a number of orphanages filled with Tieflings (not to mention a large number of infanticides of Tieflings born to Human women). The second is that some Tiefliings may take advantage of this and form a House that is dedicated to the survival and propagation of the Tieflings.

YMMV

 

[joebobodo]

This upcoming product might be something you're interested in.

Vor Rukoth: An Ancient Ruins Adventure site.
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Product (Vor Rukoth: An Ancient Ruins Adventure Site)

 

[ForeverSlayer]

This upcoming product might be something you're interested in.

Vor Rukoth: An Ancient Ruins Adventure site.
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Product (Vor Rukoth: An Ancient Ruins Adventure Site)

Thanks a lot!! I do hope it's fluff heavy.

 

[DracoSuave]

- More sex. Wizards really walked too carefully around this topic. A lot is implied but more could have been said.

Dude.

Kids play this game, and are part of the target demographic. And when you combine 'kids' and 'more sex' into anything even slightly geeky, 'mature' and 'adult' is hardly the expected result.

 

[Tsukiyomi]

Dude.

Kids play this game, and are part of the target demographic. And when you combine 'kids' and 'more sex' into anything even slightly geeky, 'mature' and 'adult' is hardly the expected result.

What a screwed up world we live in...where hacking people to bits is okay for kids, but something that is usually harmless and fun is isn't.

Just a random thought.

That said, I don't like it when books get too specific. I don't even like a lot of the content WotC produces, fluff or otherwise. The stuff in Open Grave about how undead pretty much despise living creatures period just because of what they are flies in the face of the shades of gray/creature type does not dictate alignment sort of style that I prefer. I usually just ignore specific books like that entirely in favor of creating my own material.

 

[Solvarn]

What a screwed up world we live in...where hacking people to bits is okay for kids, but something that is usually harmless and fun is isn't.

It was Lord of the Rings not Lord of the G-Strings.

 

[DracoSuave]

What a screwed up world we live in...where hacking people to bits is okay for kids, but something that is usually harmless and fun is isn't.

Just a random thought.

Riiiiiiiiiight.

What is harmless and fun for adults is not necessarily harmless for kids. And I'm not even making a value judgement on whether kids can or should know about it or sex, or sexual material.

What I'm saying is that attempts to 'mature' a roleplaying game/comic/video game/movie/any media really through sexual content or explanations of sexuality, usually ends up being asanine and immature, especially when it falls in the hands of your average 14 year old boy.

D&D is god damn marketed to 14 year old boys.

Seriously, know the audience here!

 

[Solvarn]

Riiiiiiiiiight.

What is harmless and fun for adults is not necessarily harmless for kids. And I'm not even making a value judgement on whether kids can or should know about it or sex, or sexual material.

What I'm saying is that attempts to 'mature' a roleplaying game/comic/video game/movie/any media really through sexual content or explanations of sexuality, usually ends up being asanine and immature, especially when it falls in the hands of your average 14 year old boy.

D&D is god damn marketed to 14 year old boys.

Seriously, know the audience here!

Besides, according to stereotype, none of us is supposed to know whether the depictions of sex would be accurate anyway. Because, like, were all virgins that live in our mom's basement.

 

[Tsukiyomi]

Riiiiiiiiiight.

What is harmless and fun for adults is not necessarily harmless for kids. And I'm not even making a value judgement on whether kids can or should know about it or sex, or sexual material.

What I'm saying is that attempts to 'mature' a roleplaying game/comic/video game/movie/any media really through sexual content or explanations of sexuality, usually ends up being asanine and immature, especially when it falls in the hands of your average 14 year old boy.

D&D is god damn marketed to 14 year old boys.

Seriously, know the audience here!

*shrug*

It honestly seems strange to me (also, fyi, violence is harmless for neither kids or adults -- just sayin'). I've never really understood the violence is okay but sex isn't thing -- culturally, we're pretty immature whenever it comes to the latter and that's probably the major reason (also, I'm not saying they should be actually doing either one, just talking about things like games, stories, pictures, etc). Violence isn't necessarily mature either...in fact, I'd say that all the hack and slash stuff is just as immature in the hands of a 14 year old, it's just that most people are okay with that particular brand of immaturity.

Whether more sex would've been good for this book, I can't say. It doesn't necessarily sound like it would have necessarily added anything...I mean, we already knew that tiefling + human = 100% chance of tiefling. I'm not really sure exactly how more sex stuff could be added to the book without it just being kinda irrelevant.