Player's Primer Preview

[Zaukrie]

Big fan of the primer. It sounds interesting and like something I might run for a new group that might be forming.

I probably missed it, but how close are we to releases?

 

[Sentack]

I like it, a good start at least. I'm curious to read about all the different cultures. Seems though you're going with a traditional top 3 to start. Big human empire, The dieing Elven empire and the reclusive dwarves. Not that it's a bad thing but it's okay to start. Big thumps up on how Devas work, that's an awesome concept. I love it. I like how you added in the Tiefling empire but lumping all the 'other' races into a 'Monster empire' is sort of odd. I'll admit, with D&D 4e, there are just way too many damn races sometimes. Adding them in to any campaign can be rather problematic so I can see you've taken a bit of a 'and here's the mixing pot' approach to dealing with one off race/class options. (You're a Goblin Bard? Okay fine, you're from here...)

The interesting concept will be if anyone wants to play an Eladrin female. How is that going to work?

Over all, I really am looking forward to this new product. It looks rather awesome, I must say and I think it's going to keep me subscribed to the site for many months to come.

 

[Morrus]

I like how you added in the Tiefling empire but lumping all the 'other' races into a 'Monster empire' is sort of odd. I'll admit, with D&D 4e, there are just way too many damn races sometimes. Adding them in to any campaign can be rather problematic so I can see you've taken a bit of a 'and here's the mixing pot' approach to dealing with one off race/class options. (You're a Goblin Bard? Okay fine, you're from here...)

If someone's really dead set on playing a half-thri-kreen-half-goliath-paladin, we figure it's best on leaving that to the DM's judgement. We don't want to tell him "no, you absolutely can't". You can trim that down to whatever limitations you prefer.

The interesting concept will be if anyone wants to play an Eladrin female. How is that going to work?

"Most" eladrin females.

 

[Eccles]

Colour me intrigued. Steampunk is always a winner as far as I'm concerned! The primer looks really good, I thought - lovely map, I quite like the background, tbh - and the stuff up the edges looks good too.

 

[RangerWickett]

The interesting concept will be if anyone wants to play an Eladrin female. How is that going to work?

You'd almost certainly not be one of the 500 year old survivors, but rather a descendant of an eladrin who happened to survive. Maybe you or your mom was a prized possession of an tiefling aristocrat (anything rare is seen as a sign of status, and eladrin women are very rare), but she managed to smuggle you out of the country to be fostered in Risur.

 

[mdusty]

So....for the Pathfinder version..... i see a place for humans, elves, dwarves, half-orcs all mentioned in the primer. half-elves are self-explainatory. but what about halflings & gnomes? what part will they play in this world if any?

 

[RangerWickett]

Halflings chill mostly in the Risur countryside, not usually getting involved in world affairs aside from the occasional bad apple with wanderlust, whose knack of adventure is a total disgrace to good halflings everywhere.

Gnomes? They tend to roam.

I gotta admit, I've got no plans for halflings or gnomes in the campaign. I mean, they'll show up here and there as individuals, and they're of course valid as player characters, but they're not populous enough to play a major role.

Maybe some day we should do an adventure focused entirely on the wee folk.

 

[renau1g]

As long as it's just a short adventure you should be fine...

 

[Zinovia]

I like what you have shown us, both in terms of content and layout design. It looks very Victorian, while maintaining the legibility of more modern type. The races and history are intriguing. What you did with devas is cool. The map is amazing. So far it is looking like a very interesting adventure path. Nice work!

 

[Colmarr]

I have to say: Whoever did this primer did an awesome job.

I'd been sort of ignoring Zeitgeist until the prospect of an upcoming TPK in our current campaign reared its head. Then I checked this primer and now I'm not sure I'd be that upset if that TPK came to pass.

I love the layout and the map and the idea.

About the only suggestion I would have made if I'd seen it in draft would have been to get the timeline onto the front page somehow. Until you read that timeline (I ignored it at first) - particularly the hows and whys of the goddess' death - the setting doesn't really "click".

I have to ask though (forgive me if it's the wrong thread), is Zeitgeist inspired by either of:

1. Robin Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy; or
2. the Dragon/Dungeon article they published just prior to the end of 3.5 that listed alternate philosophical clashes to build a campaign around. I think the article was called Zeitgeist (or at least used the term)

I specifically remember the latter because Nature/Technology was the clash that really fired my imagination.