Scarred Lands: Ask the Sage (Going into Triple OT Folk!)

[Nightfall]

What is the title of the Scarred Lands core campaign book?

Scarred Lands Campaign Setting: Ghelspad, is probably close to a core campaign book as you can get

Is it all you need to play Scarred Lands?

Dunno can you only play Dragonlance, Ravenloft or Forgotten Realms with just one book? I mean yeah people try but then out comes Magic of Faerun, Beastiary of Krynn, Van Richten Guide to Shadow Fey. You get the idea.

Does it show a map of the ENTIRE globe? If not, have the designers produced a map of the entire planet in some other SL book?

That I can say as no. Why? Because they enjoy tormenting us and besides there are three to four major continents that actually get large HC writeups.

Who are the creators of Scarred Lands and what other well-known books have they produced in the past? (This doesn't have to be d20/D&D.)

Well hard to say since there are a lot of hands in the pot. Steven Wieck, Ethan Skemp, Clark Peterson, Bill Webb, have helped to contribute along with Dave Brohman, Joe Carriker, Ari Marmell, Rhiannon Lovue, Mike Gill. Heck even our own PC and myself have made contributions.

Hope that helps.

 

[Nightfall]

To answer Shady's question, my campaigns have been a high mixture of fighting (not necessarily dungeon crawling) politics, contacts, divine intervention and oh yeah, lots and lots of nasty stuff. Plus I have the coolest paladin in Silas, the Lightbearer, and the Irregulars of Hollowfaust. (Ban "Titanspawnslayer" Stormwatcher, Varl "Sutakbane" Kadek, Falger "Slayer of High Arcanist Titanspawn" Oria(sp), and the recently departed Daekmir "Deathbrand")

Believe me I've given my player's an education along with a sense that they are pretty much on their own unless things get dire. Well some times.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

FYI - My copy of Hollowfaust is in Bridgewater NJ, according to Amazon.

(yes, I ordered from Amazon. I also drink the blood of puppies. I'll make my next buy from an FLGS, I swear)

 

[Nightfall]

Nice going Biggie.

 

[Trickstergod]

I'd be interested in knowing what kinds of campaigns people are playing in SL, and which are the most important books. I have Ghelspad (the bigger one), CC2, CC1Rev, Div&Def, R&R1, R&R2, maybe some other ones (the wilderlands book, come to think of it ...) but have been raiding them sporadically for stuff for my own campaigns rather than actually running SL ...

Is there something I might need to actually run an SL campaign? And as I say, what kind of thing (plot, tone) is popular in this setting?

Most important books? Easy. Ghelspad hardcover, the Creature Collection
Revised, Divine and the Defeated and the first Relics and Rituals. In that order. You can conceivably switch out the Ghelspad hardcover with Termana, but it lacks some information, and isn't quite as good a book as Ghelspad.

As for campaigns and what's popular, well, for me at least, here's what I have going on.

Currently my PC's are seeking to resurrect the forsaken elf god, while also working against another forsaken elf priest currently trying to do the same. Some of the purpose to the group has been lost, unfortunately, due to PC death a few months back, but it's slowly getting back to normal again, and tightening up. They've been seeking out the shards of the forsaken one by one, as well as the Autumn Blade, during the course of which they've spoken with Nalthalos, gambled with Enkili, been hired by an incubus (unknown to them) to assassinate Aarixthic (who I have statted out as a rakshasa), have captured the Bells of Non for their own, likely made of themselves a permanent enemy with the Legion of Ash after having killed nearly 60 of them, and made buddy-buddy with Hollowfaust after having allowed them to examine the Shards of the Forsaken they've since gathered (and will likely become even better friends when they give them the Bells of Non...).

Beyond that, I already have a good idea of what my next two Scarred Lands campaigns will be.

One's going to involve the opening of the elemental seals by the Penumbral Lords, which is a plot-line I'd already started in my current campaign, but one they missed entirely. I think I'm going to have it happen anyway, as one of those "Things happen in the world that don't involve you, the PC's," but it won't play heavily into the campaign if I still do integrate it.

The other one, which I have fairly well detailed out in my head, and some writing as well, will involve the Enkili having lied to the gods about having his powers stripped by Mesos, he and Hedrada having worked together to trick everyone else out into war. This will be discovered by Vangal when he runs across a sorcerer of Mesos whose been possessed by the titans voice, and reveals to the Ravager that Mesos never did steal Enkili's powers. Vangal will use this knowledge to sic all the gods on Enkili and Hedrada, and when they're busy duking it out, he's going to free Lethene from the Abyss for even more damage - so that no one will realize what in the heck is happening when Vangal begins killing gods left and right. It will deal strongly with fate, predetermination and free will, revolving around Hedrada's Oracles, Vangals seers who have the ability to foretell apocalypse, and my own interpretation of Enkili as the embodiment of freedom from destiny and being able to forge your own path. It'll be up to the PC's to make sure that Vangal doesn't bring about the end of the world. Or, conversely, if they wanted to, to help him do that, possibly going with a Vangal and Lethene-based campaign, or Vangal and titan worshippers (as, while the titans may not be freed, at least they get to get back at the gods, even if it's with Vangals help).


Oh, and to Dead, there's currently no global map of Scarn, and it's unlikely one will be seen for another 4-5 years, after all the continent books have been made. Hopefully during which time, silliness such as the size of the Blood Sea will be fixed...

And you can conceivably play in the Scarred Lands with just the Ghelspad hardcover, but it draws upon the Creature Collection Revised, Divine and the Defeated and Relics and Rituals enough that you may feel a bit left out on some of the information in it without them.

 

[MDSnowman]

The other one, which I have fairly well detailed out in my head, and some writing as well, will involve the Enkili having lied to the gods about having his powers stripped by Mesos, he and Hedrada having worked together to trick everyone else out into war. This will be discovered by Vangal when he runs across a sorcerer of Mesos whose been possessed by the titans voice, and reveals to the Ravager that Mesos never did steal Enkili's powers. Vangal will use this knowledge to sic all the gods on Enkili and Hedrada, and when they're busy duking it out, he's going to free Lethene from the Abyss for even more damage - so that no one will realize what in the heck is happening when Vangal begins killing gods left and right. It will deal strongly with fate, predetermination and free will, revolving around Hedrada's Oracles, Vangals seers who have the ability to foretell apocalypse, and my own interpretation of Enkili as the embodiment of freedom from destiny and being able to forge your own path. It'll be up to the PC's to make sure that Vangal doesn't bring about the end of the world. Or, conversely, if they wanted to, to help him do that, possibly going with a Vangal and Lethene-based campaign, or Vangal and titan worshippers (as, while the titans may not be freed, at least they get to get back at the gods, even if it's with Vangals help).

Now I find this very interesting... I'm not sure if I'm wild about Vangal breaking the Divine Truce (he doesn't strike me as the type who'd care if the Divine War was based on a lie, he just wanted to spread slaughter, of course this news can just prove as another convient excuse to kill more). I was about to say as much until you mentioned predetermination and fate, it quickly became very obvious that you're building an end of the world themed games (it's be great if the PCs found out about the theory held by titan worshippers that the Titans formed the cycles of life on Scarn, and now that they're gone the end is enividable.) Of course they are so many major catastrophies waiting to happen on Scarn you could do this any number of ways (Mormo coming back, Calastia conqurering Ghelspad, the return of Psyclus [and the orgy of insomnia and bloodshed that naturall follows], The wall around the eternal island opening up and spilling a massive army of demons/devils onto Mainland Tremana, and the Black Pyre finally turning one of their number into a demon prince.)

 

[MDSnowman]

The other one, which I have fairly well detailed out in my head, and some writing as well, will involve the Enkili having lied to the gods about having his powers stripped by Mesos, he and Hedrada having worked together to trick everyone else out into war. This will be discovered by Vangal when he runs across a sorcerer of Mesos whose been possessed by the titans voice, and reveals to the Ravager that Mesos never did steal Enkili's powers. Vangal will use this knowledge to sic all the gods on Enkili and Hedrada, and when they're busy duking it out, he's going to free Lethene from the Abyss for even more damage - so that no one will realize what in the heck is happening when Vangal begins killing gods left and right. It will deal strongly with fate, predetermination and free will, revolving around Hedrada's Oracles, Vangals seers who have the ability to foretell apocalypse, and my own interpretation of Enkili as the embodiment of freedom from destiny and being able to forge your own path. It'll be up to the PC's to make sure that Vangal doesn't bring about the end of the world. Or, conversely, if they wanted to, to help him do that, possibly going with a Vangal and Lethene-based campaign, or Vangal and titan worshippers (as, while the titans may not be freed, at least they get to get back at the gods, even if it's with Vangals help).

Now I find this very interesting... I'm not sure if I'm wild about Vangal breaking the Divine Truce (he doesn't strike me as the type who'd care if the Divine War was based on a lie, he just wanted to spread slaughter, of course this news can just prove as another convient excuse to kill more). I was about to say as much until you mentioned predetermination and fate, it quickly became very obvious that you're building an end of the world themed games (it's be great if the PCs found out about the theory held by titan worshippers that the Titans formed the cycles of life on Scarn, and now that they're gone the end is enividable.) Of course they are so many major catastrophies waiting to happen on Scarn you could do this any number of ways (Mormo coming back, Calastia conqurering Ghelspad, the return of Psyclus [and the orgy of insomnia and bloodshed that naturally follows], The wall around the eternal island opening up and spilling a massive army of demons/devils onto Mainland Tremana, and the Black Pyre finally turning one of their number into a demon prince.)

 

[Trickstergod]

Now I find this very interesting... I'm not sure if I'm wild about Vangal breaking the Divine Truce (he doesn't strike me as the type who'd care if the Divine War was based on a lie, he just wanted to spread slaughter, of course this news can just prove as another convient excuse to kill more).

That's rather the point exactly; discovering the lie means he can split the alliance of the gods as Corean seeks justice, Chardun uses it as an excuse to try enslaving Hedrada and Enkili and so on and so on. It provides a convenient distraction by turning all the gods attention to Enkili and Hedrada, so Vangal can then start killing the gods before they know what's happening.

Not to mention that Mormo or Psyclus returning, or Calastia conquering Ghelspad, or what have you, all fail to hit that free will vs. predetermination nail on the head. The existentialist in me rankles at the idea of predestination, so every time I see prophecies and oracles and destiny and the like it makes me want to do something with the other side of the coin - that peoples destinies are in their own hands, not written down in some book or augur's fortunes.

Also, Vangal's supposedly the one who will eventually destroy the world, and when it comes to the book that I place as canon nearly always above the rest, or as a source for my ideas, it's almost always Divine and the Defeated.

 

[MDSnowman]

Also, Vangal's supposedly the one who will eventually destroy the world, and when it comes to the book that I place as canon nearly always above the rest, or as a source for my ideas, it's almost always Divine and the Defeated.

I can't say you're wrong on any of your points Trickster, but the one above is probablly the best of the lot. The Divine and the Defeated, your one stop spot of all pertinent theological information on Scarn.

 

[Nightfall]

As always Trick you enjoy being unpredictable. In any case mine rarely end the world. Just end up making people WISH it had ended.