oATHBOUND

[teitan]

Ok, I am getting kind of tired of the general fantasy stuff, like the Realms and similar settings and want something different. What is Oathbound like? I hear conflicting statements about about it being essentially Planescape 3E and read all the reviews, but I want to know what it is like in play, what is the feeling. I would go with Planescape, but sold all my oxed sets years ago and the prices on Ebay are real disheartening...

Jason

 

[Crothian]

Oathbound is a high magic setting. Characters are ususally brought to this world from any of the others for reasons unknown to them. I give it a good mystery feel. While I give the players what they want with lots of combat, high stakes role playing, and amazing trasure, at the same time I give them the feelinmg that there are other forces at work pulling their strings.

 

[Staffan]

Oathbound has some similarities to Planescape, mainly in that it's a "melting pot" setting on account of weirdos from all over the multiverse being pulled in on occasion. Another similarity is that a lot of the focus is on a city that's sort-of ruled by a mysterious but powerful person that takes a pretty hands-off approach to ruling.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Feels like Shadowrun gone fantasy to me, but I never played planescape so I can't do that comparison.

I really like Oathbound. Some of the races are super neat and the prestige classes are very tight but limited in number.

 

[Jim Butler]

You can download a free preview of the 352-page Oathbound hardcover at:

http://www.bastionpress.com/Downloads/Oathbound Preview.pdf

We've also released a free Introductory adventure (Waters of Akaya) to bring your heroes into Oathbound at:

http://www.bastionpress.com/Downloads/Akaya.zip

There are a number of free downloads in the Downloads section of the website as well.

 

[Derulbaskul]

We've played two long sessions of Oathbound and the feeling is very much one of mystery and of being manipulated.

We started with the introductory adventure, Waters of Akaya, and we're now alternating between a slightly variant Speaker in Dreams as well as some custom encounters (the PCs have the amulet of Akaya and the Temple of Knowledge has agreed to analyse it... provided the PCs go to the Great Archive to collect certain tomes).

I'm also using the Book of Vile Darkness (the hidden plot is based on the rivalry between Demogorgon and Orcus... which is being exploited by Israfel for her own ends) and Monte Cook's excellent Requiem for a god. Anyway, we're all enjoying the "different-ness" so far, but it's also allowing us to appreciate our more normal games as well.

Cheers
D

 

[Darrin Drader]

We started with the introductory adventure, Waters of Akaya, and we're now alternating between a slightly variant Speaker in Dreams as well as some custom encounters (the PCs have the amulet of Akaya and the Temple of Knowledge has agreed to analyse it... provided the PCs go to the Great Archive to collect certain tomes).

Hey, wow! Its good to hear that people are actually playing and enjoying Waters of Akaya and using elements of it in their ongoing campaign.

Just so you know, Wrack & Ruin is about to be released. If you have any intention of using the maze or the ruins, you'll want to pick that one up. You can read about it here http://www.bastionpress.com/Oathbound/wrack.htm

 

[Ashy]

As someone who is intimately familiar with both Planescape and Oathbound, I can assure you that while there are some elements that are shared by both CS'es, Oathbound IS NOT 3e Planescape. Take my word for it - if you remotely like PS, you will LOVE Oathbound!