[Parent's Basement Games] Murchad's Legacy Campaign Setting - new!

[HalWhitewyrm]

So, what's exactly does the change mean?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

So, what's exactly does the change mean?

It means that as long as it is text you're allowed to use it. The paragraph thingie essentially said that only game mechanics were open. That was back when I though that ML was going to make me millions of dollars and I wanted to prevent you peasants from stealing my genius intellectual property. Soon before we released the book I had a long talk with my partners and we decided we were being really stupid.

Plus, there's some stuff like how we've changed teleport and why. There are no mechancis there, just game history. The offending paragraph isn't clear if that's open or not. So we'll take it out (well, maybe leave the bit about the logo in, just to be on the safe side).

EDIT: PS we're also pulling together our terms about map use. We're going to be pretty open about it, but not "OGL open".

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

That sounds cool. PI-ing all graphical elements is pretty standard, so I figured that would stay. So, for all intents and purposes, ML is an OGC setting ripe for development! Nice.

 

[Yair]

I just finished reading my copy and I must say I like it, very much. I have a few quibbles, but overall it's very good.
I even got a review all typed up (which I only rarely do), but then realized you aren't listed as publisher. Morrus assured me you will be ASAP, whatever that means

I don't suppose you have some ingenius replacement ideas regarding the whole elven racial transmutation thing? Something that will leave the Quarrel, Shintai, and Penitents flavor valid but will allow for a more prosaic source for the common races? I was thinking Conjuration instead of Transmutation, but that doesn't quite cut it.

 

[Nellisir]

I just bought this and have to say that I like the general lack of art (makes printing easier and reduces distractions).

I will get back to you on how much I enjoy the content.

I have to say that I hate the general lack of art. What artwork there is is good, but the lack of any kind of border and the layout in general just kill me. It just doesn't look professional. I think there can be a happy medium between too much art/color (Bastion Press's borders) and too little (this).

Sorry to be negative, but it's a real problem for me.

Nell.

 

[Crothian]

I have to say that I hate the general lack of art. What artwork there is is good, but the lack of any kind of border and the layout in general just kill me. It just doesn't look professional. I think there can be a happy medium between too much art/color (Bastion Press's borders) and too little (this).

Sorry to be negative, but it's a real problem for me.

Nell.

I tend to agree, even in PDFs this one looks light on art and really could use borders or something a little more.

 

[Yair]

I tend to agree, even in PDFs this one looks light on art and really could use borders or something a little more.

I also agree, but would add that the too-simple style used also hurts. A slightly more stylized format, with clearer headings in different font for example, would have improved its appearance.
I find it amaturish in places (sorry), but also found very good content.

 

[DMH]

I just spent some time reading part of my printed copy and have some comments:

You either need to rearrange the chapters or have an introduction that explains what the nations are in short. I really don't like reading about them in the character creation chapter and have no idea what they are.

Some stuff needs to be added to the index. Like Murchad and other important NPCs. What pages describe him? I couldn't find the main listing and only found page 197, the timeline and a bit in the orc's land chapter.

I like your interior artists. The campaign tracker, PrCs, and earned feats are interesting.

With proper chapter order and better index, I would have given it a 4. Currently it is a 3.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I don't suppose you have some ingenius replacement ideas regarding the whole elven racial transmutation thing? Something that will leave the Quarrel, Shintai, and Penitents flavor valid but will allow for a more prosaic source for the common races? I was thinking Conjuration instead of Transmutation, but that doesn't quite cut it.

Yeah. I'm getting a lot of feedback on this. Here's the summary: People aren't jazzed with the bright elves zapping gnomes and humans into things that are not gnomes and humans.

The thing is that I took way too much biology in college to permit a great deal of species diversity. It's crazy insane in some worlds. Look at the Forgotten Realms. A bunch of elves can't go to a family reunion without coming back as a subrace. But we wanted to stick to the core rules as much as we felt possible within our own constraints (gnomes were dropped because we couldn't think of anything to do with them thematically, halflings are an obvious example of something we kept because we could).

I'm planning future products now and I'm halfway through writing our next PDF, which will be much, much, much smaller. I hadn't thought about alternate creation histories, but I think that's a pretty cool idea. It wouldn't affect the campaign, because Murchad's Legacy is all about what's happened in the last 50 years or so. Nobody cares very much about how the orcs were created, they care that they exist and are about to invade.

I'll see if I can think of something for halflings, dwarves, and gnomes. It won't be "core" Murchad's Legacy, but it will serve as an optional history for those who desire one.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I have to say that I hate the general lack of art. What artwork there is is good, but the lack of any kind of border and the layout in general just kill me. It just doesn't look professional. I think there can be a happy medium between too much art/color (Bastion Press's borders) and too little (this).

Sorry to be negative, but it's a real problem for me.

This isn't negative, this is an observation.

If you had hated the prestige classes and said so, nobody would think twice about it. Presentation is very important to some people. If you don't like looking at a page, you won't read it.

I have to update the ML file anyway for our Section 15. I'll look into a border, but we might not be able to swing it with the software we have. We can't do much about the layout because we want to book to be 256 pages for printing, so anything that might throw that off is out. You have to admit: this is a pretty dense book. We don't have a whole lot of wiggle room. Ironic that one of the book's strengths is undermining a weakness, but there we are!

I am very happy you liked the artwork. EN World's Allen Palmer was one of the artists and I found him a delight to work with. I personally didn't want to fill the book with clip art or a lot of art that was free and worth the price. However, as you noted, layout was not a prime consideration in development!

Happy gaming!