Scarred Lands Forsaken Elves; their Nameless God

[Holy Bovine]

Anyway.... on another note.... what "starting location" have all you Scarn Masters used and what plot hooks have gotten your players drooling to keep playing?

cats_claw

Does 'bordering on the brink of starvation and financial ruin' count as a plot hook?

I have one SL game in Hollowfaust. I honestly didn't think the players would want to stay around there for any length of time but they are having a hard time finding that 'big score' of treasure to be able to move on. So far they have run afoul of grave robbers (in the City of the Necromancers this is an occupation normally with a life expectancy of seconds!), a Bat Devil clan that was raiding a small onyx mine (whose leader was assassinated during some delicate peace talks) and the traditional 'ghoul hunt' that nearly resulted in the death of the several characters due to some very poor planning.

Currently they are still trying to figure out where the mastermind of the grave robbing has gotten to, locate the guard 'Freddie' who ripped them off for over 100gp (I even have a picture of him and he looks annoying), find mentors who can train them (my own addtion) and get some more work through a local 'adventurers guild' (if you read the Hollowfaust city book you will find out why it is in quotes ). I suspect they will be leaving Hollowfaust soon (after they get Freddie, of course). Possibly to Shelzar or Darakeene.

In my other campaign (currently on hold somewhere out in the middle of the Blood Sea) the party has stayed mainly around Vangrok Vale and Khirdet *shudder* - even I don't want them to go back there (think Cannibalistic Druids + Hags + Wrack Dragon = Mormo's Ressurection! Fortunately they stopped the cultists before that happened!) They have also been to Mithril (and had quite a good time there visiting the Blood Sea museum, the Golem Temple and some local fortune tellers & bookshop owners).

The best thing about the city books is that each author has really gone all out to give the city a proper atmosphere. I have never used city books so extensively before (I usually skim them and ignore huge chunks). The locations, NPCs (even when you only get class/level/race/alignment for stats you still get a work up of what the person is like) and local history are well done and interesting to read.

 

[aurance]

Okay, I can see both sides' points on this, but this argument is getting a little silly. After playing for 15 years in the Realms and being recently converted to SL, I can honestly say that they are nothing alike and have little chance of becoming similar. Apart from the flavor, difference in NPCs, history and magic use, the creators of this world have absolutely nothing in common with Big Ed.

That said, I agree with the points on meta plot. If you don't like the direction a plot takes, but it changes the material for the world you love, then you are kind of screwed. However, if has been claimed by the developers that any meta plot development will be left as optional. So the argument that "it sucks even if they include it at all, even if it's only optional" is just sour grapes. If you don't like the world, just say so, and stop posting in forums dedicated to Scarn or SS products related to it.

After 22 years of gaming, Scarn is the first setting I've been excited about since the gray FR box came out. Keep up the awesome work! And feel free to bring in the WoD team to add a little darker flavor where called for.

Just to be clear, I know that SL and FR are nothing alike in terms of plot, NPCs, power level, writers or whatever. I was only addressing the potential problem of increasing amounts of metaplot brought about by novels.

The thing with Big Plots being marked as only optional is that it's a temporary solution at best. I am assuming novels will continue to be written, in which case they will all have to have some sort of congruent picture of the world. If you reference something which novel A assumes has happened but novel B did not, this forms quite a mishmash, confusing picture of the world. I don't think the publishers want SL novels to be a series of "parallel universe" novels.

If, however, the Big Plot novels indeed are all congruent, and certain things are assumed to have happened in all of them, then from a literary standpoint things are much less confused... But then essentially you are endorcing an "official" plot even if you mark it as optional, particularly as this plotline starts getting incorporated in game supplements. You'd have bigger and bigger sections marked optional.

There's nothing wrong with plot driven campaign worlds. It's not sour grapes, I really have nothing against SL, or FR for that matter. But as a setting grows older you can't have it both ways: it's either 1. cool, sweeping plotlines in novels and accessories or 2. players making the ultimate choices. And from the tone of this trilogy, SSS seems to be moving away from 2 in favor of 1.

 

[Phoenix_Knightwind]

My 2 cents in answer to your questions:

Skip the books, You can get everything you need from the source material and can find something better to read.

I have the complete "published" library of SL and of all of the source books that provide suitable starting points, Hollowfaust is my favorite. Imagine a city run by lawful, if not lawful good, necromancer scientists who use the dead as tools to build the city around them and defend its populace. The setting alone is awesome, but whgen you get a load of some of the secrets...(shiver). Plus, it's centarly located to three of the best adventuiring areas on Scarn: Hornsaw, Urkadan and the plains. My current group likes the city so much that they have no plans to leave.

The Penumbral Pentagon is a decent set of badies, but unless you want to use them as a central plot, you won';t need the book. Get Wise and Wicked or Secrets and Societies instead. Also, the SL splat books are fantastic for helping your players flesh out their PCs.

As far as write-ups go. The intro material on the SS website is fantastic. It includes a porimer on the Gods and Titans, a brief history, a calendar and write-ups of major locations. I printed one for each of my players and they refer to it every session.

Feel free to email me if you want to see any of my materials or tools for adventure tracking, xp tracking or time tracking in Scarn.

 

[cats_claw]

Awesome. I'd love to see your materials and tools. Especially the adventure and time tracking pieces. I'll shoot you an email when I get a chance.

 

[ruemere]

SL, starting points

Cities:
- Hollowfaust and Mithril, two excellent cities for atypical campaigning environment (the former for city governed by LN necromancers, the latter for a city at the feet of mithril golem on the coast of sea of blood),
- Shelzar, for moral ambiguity and roguish fun,
- Burok Torn, if dwarves are your forte.

Opponents:
- Penumbral Pentagon, the most detailed crime organization. While there may be some issues with rather dry tone of the book, it is very complete and provides a lot of information on this organization.
- Blood Bayou, if you want supernatural freaks to send your players down the Nightmare Lane. Requires Creature Collections to fully appreciate some of the monster aspects.

Adventures:
- start with Serpent Amphora free adventure, but be careful to read it first, as some places of the adventure may result in TPK of not adjusted for your players.

Some fan creations (and links, and erratas) may be found at
- Scarred Lands Repository

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[Adlon]

My group started in Durrover, following a CS change at about 5th level. From Durrover, my group is heading north to the Mourning Marshes, where they are attempting to undo a plot to contaminate the water supplies in southern Vesh. Which means, essentially, I'm running the adventure Diseased Nest of Chernpot Mossheld, from the Vigil Watch: Warrens of the Ratmen book. I've found this adventure to be a good way to initiate the group to Ratmen, and the adventure is very scalable to party levels. Also, it's short and sweet: find the warren, kill ratmen, and defeat their design to poison the water supply.

I chose Durrover for many reasons, one being that it's geographically close to Mithril, and Burok Torn, and Vesh, having a Mithril Knight, and Dwarven Cleric, AND a Vigilant in my group. Also, future plans are to visit the Ganjus/Vera Tre, Hollowfaust, Calastia, and Hedrad.

I have all the books, and novels, with the exception of this month's releases, which will change most likely today

I find that, for me, just like the Forgotten Realms, my long time 2E CS, that the novels give ALOT of flavor to the campaign setting. Using the FR novels as an example, sure, one DM can wing it, but, how would one possibly understand Thayvian mindset, unless one reads the Harper novel, Red Magic?
This novel gave me a good look at role playing possibilities for Red Wizards. The actual events in the book were to me, optional.

Same for the SLCS novels. As one goes through the trilogy, where a dead god is resurrected, one also travels all over Ghelspad, to many points of interest, interracts with a goddess, banters with a titan, and more. From these novels, I gleaned alot of insight as to how Balsemeth's mind works, as well as Kadum's, to some degree, as well as other NPC's mindsets.

Is That Which Abides alive in my game? At present, it doesn't matter. I've no in- game interraction with the Forsaken as of yet. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

For a long time, I've seen posts where the support novels for this or that CS were treated as canon. Whether or not this is true depends on you, not the author, or the publishing company. If you liked Bane over Cyric, then you can use the FRCS before the ToT, when Bane was at his apex of power.
If you lked Cyric over Bane, you could have easily ignored the ToT, and simply had Cyric as the replacement god for Bane.
To me, the FRCS history is frozen in time, at the EXACT point where 3E comes out, and trashes the Harpers, a large part of Cormyr, and has new inhabitants in the Anarouch desert. IF I play the FRCS again, under 3.5, I'd pick and choose what of the 3E changes I like, and go forward from there. (insert: I HATE what they've done to Cormyr for 3E). My Cormyr would still have their King, and would still be a relatively stable kingdom, but, I'd probably insert those mages from the Anarouch desert.

Remember, guys, ALL of this stuff we buy, with a few exceptions, is modular, and hat I call drag and drop. Use what you will, or as Aleister Crowley said:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

 

[Nightfall]

Nicely said Ad. I do hope you took the opportunity to send in an entry for CC4.