Scarred Lands: Ask the Sage [Version 3.65729 with Upgrades!]

[JoeGKushner]

Faithful & Forsaken + Where's Errat?

Well, I'm a little behind on my SL reading. Just looking through the Faithful and the Forsaken. Is it just me or is it like a massive patch for the Termana Hardcover with all of the various updates, both country wise and race wise to the elves? Once again, so much back history is added, that I'm kinda just stratching my head going, "Hmmm... 30K years eh? Yeah... okay..." Some interesting little ideas between the elves who won't rejoin with the elves who've already joined through.

Few places the book goes boom though.

1. Where are the stats for the good old "That Which Abides?" Maybe I haven't gotten to it yet, but I haven't even seen his domains.

2. I read the trilogy when it first came out and thought that the good old Titan Slayer was the one who killed his god under gease from old pusbag?

3. Did the power level of this setting just get boosted up about 10 levels? Man, some of these dudes are so powerful here, it's no wonder the equally powerful Assathi haven't made any empire spanning moves yet.

4. Where is the timeline? How long has Jandaveos been back? He comes back in 151 AV but it ends with Present Day.

5. Internal maps by Ed Bourelle are fantastic. I'm relaly hoping that he gets to do a world map or country maps.

What are other's overall opinion of the book? I'd say a strong 2, weak 3 on the old 5 star rating. It's good that some of the stuff is updated, but it's a BIG update for the forsaken elves and is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow due to the heavy handed nature of the meta-plot update.

Now onto the next question:

http://www.swordsorcery.com/swordsorcery/scarredframe.html

This is pretty much the old S&S page for product updates and web extras. I am missing something or is it pretty barren of errata? Or is that another page? And would it be possible to get those product lines on separate pages? Ravenloft and SL don't have that much in common.

 

[Nightfall]

Trick,

I added the flaming/flaming burst to represent great power to cause fire damage. If you think I should do say 1-7 HD: 1d4 additional fire damage, 8-15: 2d4 and 16+ 3d4 damage, I could do it like that.

Fire is also an inspiration. It's the spark of life that warms as well as destroys. Plus it's also radiant. That was my reason. If you don't agree that's fine.

Mm your reasoning on the magic part is sound. I think I will change it.

Joe,

1. Jandaveos doesn't have any stats. Nor does it list his domains. We have debated (that is Trick, myself and some other SL posters) on some of the domains but primarily we all agree with Chaos, Knowledge, Magic, and Trickery. I added Good.

2. No it was Jandaveos' Herald that killed him. Chern corrupted him and then killed him. Vladwen just was there, and commanded not to attack until Chern made landfall. He was the first to kill Chern however.

3. Yeah the power level did seem to climb in Faithful and Forsaken along with Secrets. But hey at least they aren't using epic level weapons!

4. Hard to say but I'd say at least a month, maybe two.

5. Ed is my favorite cartographer period. I know others might disagree but Ed rules when it comes to doing maps.

No you're not off. However the errata is not a high priority and web updates even less so. (I blame that partly on Conrad Hubbard, as he's no where near the web master S&SS or WW needs. I'd much prefer to have someone else in charge.) However I am working to correct that by doing my own updates...sort of.

 

[Trickstergod]

Hmm. Buggery boards. Just you wait, this is going to turn out to be a double-post.

Ahh, my thoughts on Faithful and the Forsaken? I've gone into the book ad nauseum. Suffice to say, I find it to be the worst Scarred Lands book I've yet read (having not read the Penumbral Pentagon). Anyway, onto those questions...

1) You really would expect to find Jandaveos' details in there, wouldn't you? Anyway, you can find his domains listed in the original Creature Collection, along with the revision. Good isn't listed in there, but it's been my opinion that's due to his death - one of the NPC's in the book is listed as having the Good domain, so it's a safe bet that he offers that as well.

And, ah, Nightfall, you added the Good domain? You were the one arguing against it from the start, primarily in regards to the fact that it would give Jandaveos as many or more domains than some full gods.

2) As Nightfall said...

3) It's been more or less inferred from the start that the forsaken elves are a mighty, powerful lot, so the power level isn't so surprising in some regards. The only thing that stuck in my craw was the excessively high ability scores that most of the NPC's have.

4) The timeline in the Faithful and the Forsaken is screwy, anyway - compare it with the one in Termana, and you'll find that events don't match up. It remains to be seen how well this will hold-up, but I get the feeling Sword and Sorcery Studios is looking to make present time and events fairly nebulous, anyway.

5) Ahh, my primary interest in maps is whether or not they add anything to pre-existing maps, or show something new in some fashion or another. His maps in the Termana hardcover didn't particularly impress, because everything on those was also on the world map, but at least those in the Faithful and the Forsaken show new sites.

And, yeah, the Scarred Land stuff on the site hasn't been up-dated in a long, long time. Joe did put up the Ignan template, at least, on the messageboards, but other than that...it's been a while since anything's been done with the site.

In either case, the Faithful and the Forsaken...ahh...yeah. A whole lot of unnecessary.

 

[Nightfall]

Trick,

Funny I don't remember that. I did think though he might have stayed CN but that's my opinion at the time. (trust me though PP is much worse.)

But in any case Trick I think you'll agree Ed is probably the best cartographer out there in d20. At least I'd hope you agree. Doubtful that you will.

 

[Trickstergod]

But in any case Trick I think you'll agree Ed is probably the best cartographer out there in d20. At least I'd hope you agree. Doubtful that you will.

I didn't pay much mind to the maps in the Faithful and the Forsaken at first simply because the ones Ed did for the Termana hardcover were fairly useless - they didn't show anything that the color maps inside the covers didn't, so I felt they were primarily a waste of space.

However, having looked at the maps in the Faithful and the Forsaken that he did, they're useful (being that they show stuff not on the full map of Termana), at the least, and I don't actually have any problems with his style.

Edit - Grammar

 

[Nightfall]

Well I guess after being exposed to bad cartography such as in White Plume Mountain, Ed Bournelle is kind my redemption. That plus the cartography in Hollowfaust wasn't that good.

 

[Nightfall]

Figure since it's been a while I'd bump this back up to the top. So any else got any comments, questions, queries for me?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Well, most of my questions will be waiting on if/when I get hte next batch of review products from White Wolf. The last few reviews I've doen on their old products have been in the 2-3 range with some of the earlier ones being 4s.

Here's one for ya. Have you ever thought of using Luclin from Everquest (their Moon), as a Moon in the SL setting and using it as is?

 

[Nightfall]

Well I won't hold your Faithful and Forsaken review against you. I was pretty uninspired by parts of it as well. I've read better that's for sure. Read worse too.

Lucin? Everquest? No man to me that's like mixing old sweat socks with cheese. Not a great tasting combo for me. I figure two moons are quite enough for me to handle.

 

[Nightfall]

I figure one bump every three days is good for the soul.