Only the Lonely: Why We Demand Official Product

[3catcircus]

Of the 3rd party settings "The Lost Lands" by Frog God Games probably hews closer to the spirit of early Greyhawk.

Really it's probably more Greyhawk than Greyhawk is.

Í have the Known Realms (World of Aereth) boxed set from Goodman Games. I really like the setting because it is in the same spirit of being more GH than GH.

Just enough info. No mechanics on the major NPC rulers, a decent pantheon of deities that can be easily swapped out, and some 3.x crunch. The world-shattering events are local, not global, so no destruction of the setting like Greyhawk Wars or the Time of Troubles.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Just curious as I actually don't have a ton of knowledge on this subject... but how cosmopolitan was medieval Paris?

Very, though details are hard to come by the further back you go, obv, and I don’t know much about early medieval France at all. Their first real king was named Hugh, though. Not a name I associate with the Middle Ages and yet there it is.


Not as much as Constantinople, though, until you get into late Medieval and Renaissance Paris.

Edit: I seem to keep losing the last thing I type in a post. Anyone else have that happen? Just, once you hit post there is text missing?

anyway, the idea that Paris wasn’t diverse when it was a major city is pretty silly. Mass immigration was absolutely a thing throughout history, for one thing, but Paris was a major center of trade and culture. There were absolutelyAfricans and South Asians living in Paris. Again, nothing like Constantinople, until late medieval and Renaissance Paris, but still quite a bit more diverse than folks tend to think of medieval Europe as being.

as you said before, and others, the common conception of Medieval Europe is largely false.

 

[Anoth]

McDonald’s has quality control and is consistent. But 5 star restaurants are generally not owned by the big corporations. The same is with rpg’s the best products are made independent. Quality control for mass consumption generally means mediocrity at best and consistently subpar at worse. Do you want a corporate Big Mac. Or the perfect medium rare filet. You are not getting the perfect tender juicy medium rare filet at McDonald’s or even Texas road house (which I like), but from a master chef that runs his own place. Good chef’s are master artists.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I just can't buy Waterdeep as having 2 million people. Chang'an had the Great Canal, one of the greatest engineering feats in history to transport food.

Rome and Constantinople at their heights relied on massive grain shipments from Egypt (and the population of Constantinople plummetted when they lost the middle-east to the Arabs).

Even if we assume huge amounts of farms outside Waterdeep that are not shown on the map, it seems doubtful that the region really has the transport and storage capacity to feed 2 million people. If we assume peasant technology and a 9 to 1 population of farmers to urban dwellers that's 18 million people labouring to keep the city fed.

Fortunately it's all pretty irrelevant. The population of Waterdeep is big, exactly how big is just a number. Chop a 0 off the end and make it 200,000 and nothing really changes.

To be fair it probably is possible with magic-shenanigans allowing the amount of food and quality of it to be inflated beyond natural capacity. But again, not very realistic.

 

[Greg K]

. IMO, if you need a medieval fix, why not play Pendragon or Ars Magica?

A dislike for the game mechanics, troupe play, and/or something else depending upon the system.

 

[Anoth]

A dislike for the game mechanics, troupe play, and/or something else depending upon the system.

Why not play d&d. That’s what it is designed for. But... everyone should try pendragon.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

There are different projects, but these have to arrive after the videogames titles, and now they have to get ready for the hardware of the next generation of videoconsoles.

And now its main project is the D&D movie. To produce a true blockbuster, because even after some succesful titles the team may start to be burnt. Not even Disney has found the ultimate key for an action-live without superheroes or classic princesses/heroines.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

McDonald’s has quality control and is consistent. But 5 star restaurants are generally not owned by the big corporations. The same is with rpg’s the best products are made independent. Quality control for mass consumption generally means mediocrity at best and consistently subpar at worse. Do you want a corporate Big Mac. Or the perfect medium rare filet. You are not getting the perfect tender juicy medium rare filet at McDonald’s or even Texas road house (which I like), but from a master chef that runs his own place. Good chef’s are master artists.

Doesn’t translate. The indie games are fun and weird, but they are not better games.

 

[jmucchiello]

Doesn’t translate. The indie games are fun and weird, but they are not better games.

It's actually a pretty good analogy. Even a master chef can create an exquisite meal that you or I will call meh. Being a master chef will improve quality of technique but it will not necessary please everybody.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

There are different projects, but these have to arrive after the videogames titles, and now they have to get ready for the hardware of the next generation of videoconsoles.

And now its main project is the D&D movie. To produce a true blockbuster, because even after some succesful titles the team may start to be burnt. Not even Disney has found the ultimate key for an action-live without superheroes or classic princesses/heroines.

I wouldn't be so confident in your language. Nothing "has" to happen.