Scarred Lands - beyond Ghelspad?

[DragonLancer]

I was a big fan of SL when it first came out. The initial blurb gave it a real greek myth sort of feel, with gods vs titans, and the idea of the world being a blasted landscape because of it really generted some classic imagery in my mind. However, after a couple years that wore off as the source material seemed to me to be diverting away from that feel towards something ... else. More sword & sorcery, less the original feel.

As for the other lands, Termana always felt far too busy for my tastes - a Dark African continent with loads of weirdness just dropped into it. Asherak just felt like it was tacked on for the fans of Arabian Nights, and the Dragon Lands felt too much like anime for me. Fenrilik was the only one that really stood out from the last sourcebook.

 

[catsclaw227]

Meanwhile, The Divine and the Defeated describes the very heart of the setting, as it details the gods, titans, their sects, beliefs, and so on. It goes into the Divine War and provides a glimpse into the setting's history.

I'll also chime in to say that the asaatthi book is tripe, in part for completely ignoring pretty much every other bit of asaatthi information that came before it, in part for introducing various derivative forms of asaatthi (I'm not big into subraces, particularly partially humanoid ones), along with a number of other complaints I've since forgotten.

My general recommendation is that the older books are the better ones. The first few Scarred Lands books to come out gave the setting it's own unique feel - the neutral city of necromancers, dwarves and elves with a conflict that makes some sense, a slant towards Greek mythology. Then later books diluted the setting and shifted it a bit more towards generic fantasy.

I agree that Divine and Defeated is on a MUST list for Scarred Lands, but I think for pure Setting books, Ghelspad is my favorite.

There are a lot of great SL books, in my opinion, that outweigh the bad ones (The Penumbral Pentagon.... ugh). I loved Burok Torn, Mithril, Hornsaw, Calastia, Shelzar and Hollowfaust. Good flavor...

 

[Voadam]

Supplements for areas beyond Ghelspad

Blood Bayou is set in Termana as is Faithful and Forsaken.

Edge of Inifinity covers the planes.

I've used monsters from Strange Lands, its elemental and alignment templates in particular (I also wrote the King's Hound and Snowstorm elemental). I like the god info at the back as well. I have not read the setting info outside of the desert home of the gods one.

I recently got the Termana CS pdf which is currently $5 but have not gone through it.

 

[Graf]

It depends on the kind of game you want to run....

I ran two long running campaigns in SL. One went from 1 or so to 14 (with so many character deaths that they probably would have been 18 otherwise). It started in Mithril but they got transfered quickly to the wilderness and then to Hollowfaust. Hollowfaust, as has been mentioned before, rocks.

The Termana setting supports a more normal game with the existence of a good kingdom on the western shore. My second campaign ran from 1 to 6? 8?, was based in said kingdom (Isle of something? Run by the paladin's of Madriel).
It supported a more political feel, similar to something you'd have if you ran a game set in Shadowdale in FR, but with SL in your backyard.

Honestly, before Eberron came along I don't think there was another setting that was as good as this one in terms of enabling cool adventures in a more/or/less standard DnD world. (i.e. not including Planescape, Dark Sun, Spelljammer)

 

[Piratecat]

[sblock]On a side note.... I always wondered what happened to Nightfall...Hmmm, banned for pimping a setting sounds kinda heavy handed, but I don't have all the facts. I did get tired of his three word posts that had nothing to do with the topic at hand, but other than that, he wasn't mean to people.
[/sblock]

[sblock]I won't discuss moderation specifics, but Nightfall discussed this publicly once or twice. It's fair to say that Nightfall is a very nice guy who had trouble staying within certain messageboard limits. We ultimately weren't able to work out a solution when his posting style caused problems. It's unfortunate all around. For anyone interested in getting in touch with him, he can be emailed from his profile in any of his posts.

Sorry for continuing the hijack. I'll return you to the regularly scheduled Scarred Lands thread.[/sblock]

 

[Trickstergod]

The Termana setting supports a more normal game with the existence of a good kingdom on the western shore. My second campaign ran from 1 to 6? 8?, was based in said kingdom (Isle of something? Run by the paladin's of Madriel).
It supported a more political feel, similar to something you'd have if you ran a game set in Shadowdale in FR, but with SL in your backyard.

I'm curious how Termana supports a more normal game than Ghelspad due to the existence of a good kingdom - seeing as how Ghelspad has one, too, in the form of Vesh. Darakeene is also viable as a place to play without any evil overtones.

And you're thinking of the Silver Isle, the island run by Madrielite paladins.

 

[Graf]

I'd forgotten about Vesh and Darakeene.
Vesh is at war though right? And Darakeene is off in the corner? I don't remember Darakeene having a whole lot going for it as an adventuring spot. Isolationist no?

Basically the center of political life in Ghelspad is Calastia, which is kind of like the Empire in Starwars if Starwars were overrun by monsters.
(i.e. it's the evil kingdom, but it's a necessary source of order).
So you kind of have a rebel alliance feel, with the rebels operating out of Vesh, Burok Torn and Mithril (though Mithril is far away). And the neutral city too, but it's not close either.

As for the Silver Isle it's got politics, both internal and external, to consider. It's got a bunch of other the countries nearby and they're all at peace. You have political games and the possibility of easy movement across borders. Even the Carnival of Blood exists as a political entity.
(in fact, probably my best game involved the PCs protecting an ambassador from a fanatical paladin)

I think the authors admitted this when they were doing that part of Termana that way. That Gelspad SL was a bit harsh; they wanted to have a section of the world closer to the main part of FR, ehere the "post apocalyptic" feel was turned down a notch or two.
I guess I was talking about the Silver Isle being at long term peace and near a bunch of different kingdoms, more or less good/neutral places that aren't going to invade each other as soon as they finish building up bigger armies.

That flesh out what I'm talking about better?

 

[Graf]

Basically, because Calastia has conquered so many countries, and actively is working on Burok Torn most good players in that region have a bit of a responcibilty to do something. The DM can paper it up of course, but, default default "just adventuring" and not doing anything offers a real risk that your country won't be around in a generation or two.
It's big, high risk, epic stuff (not necessarily epic level but epic in scope).

The Burok Torn book, btw, is total awesomeness and includes a complete campaign. It's slightly wacky but, after hollowfaust, it's probably the best single campaign setting supplement ever (if you're looking for a directed book organized book it might be even better). Again though, it's has the potential to be be totally epic.
If the PCs don't stay committed to the quest then there are real, serous repercussions for the dwarven city (and, since they're the linchpin holding back the Calastian hordes, the whole Eastern continent).
And since the western continent is mostly a wasteland (plus a dark dwarven country and isolationist Darakeene) you're really talking about all Ghelspad hanging in the balance (on a macro-political level anyway).

So, very good, but potentially very intense.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I was always shocked that there was no Vesh supplement.

Early Scarred Lands products seemed to imply that it was the natural base of the PC's

 

[Graf]

I was always shocked that there was no Vesh supplement.

Early Scarred Lands products seemed to imply that it was the natural base of the PC's

I agree.
This was totally mysterious (and would have been frustrating if I hadn't liked Hollowfaust or wanted to run a fairly post-apocalyptic game).

Honestly after a while I started imagining the country like one hundred little homogeneous villages menaced by monsters on all sides and protected by a bunch of super-rangers (the Vigil).