Scarred Lands

[Nightfall]

Manual.

Firstly I'd make sure to consult me at all times. I need the ego boost.

Second, make sure to inform players that this setting isn't exactly like every other FR/GH setting. It's a unique place where adventuring isn't the norm but adventurers/heroes are needed. Thirdly, always be stingy with magic items, but magical effects (like say tattoos) are less stingical(sp). Fourth, inform them NOT to wake up titans.

 

[William Ronald]

Manual.

Firstly I'd make sure to consult me at all times. I need the ego boost.

Second, make sure to inform players that this setting isn't exactly like every other FR/GH setting. It's a unique place where adventuring isn't the norm but adventurers/heroes are needed. Thirdly, always be stingy with magic items, but magical effects (like say tattoos) are less stingical(sp). Fourth, inform them NOT to wake up titans.

One thing that you have mentioned in the past, which is important, is that sometimes clergy of deities who might be strongly opposed to each other will find themselves having common cause ... such as trying to prevent someone from waking up the Titans.

 

[Nightfall]

Exactly. Diamatrically opposed clergy will work together if a common threat (IE titan awaking) occurs. Usually though it has to be pretty blantantly obvious for that to occur.

 

[Twowolves]

On a more serious note, Nightfall, what is some of the advice that you could give to someone planning to run a campaign in the Scarred Lands?

I'm not Nightfall, but I'll put my 2 cents in:

The central theme is very much Gods vs Titans, and in the mortal realm that means Clerics vs Druids (with one notable exception, that being Denev). This conflict overrides Good vs Evil, in that evil gods will work with good ones to stop a titan.

Along those lines, there is also a schism between wizards and sorcerers, the former having "stolen" the secret of magic from the later on behalf of the gods. Not that all wizards are allied with the gods, but at one time, almost all of the sorcerers were firmly aligned with the titans.

The world is "young", because most of what came before was wiped away in a recent (150 years ago) divine war, and the world is slowly recovering. The center of Ghelspad is wild, untamed wilderness, with pockets of civilization mostly clinging to the coasts. Perhaps one day, far in the future, it might resemble other worlds (Oerth, Toril) with the divine rivalries, but for now, it's at a point where civilization is still fragile and carving a place from the devestation. Many places are still swamped with refugees (Hollowfaust, Mithril, Burok Torn) and empires are being made (Calastia), sometimes at the expense of other nations (Durrover).

And psionics, if you use them, really ARE different. It's the only thing the Gods and Titans ever teamed up to take care of.

 

[Nightfall]

no you're not me but that's some decent 2 cents.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

As a partial threadjack before heading to work -
Nightfall, is it just me or does this:

look suspiciously like a critter that you might find in the Blood Sea?

A part of the McFarlane Dragons Series 4.

The Auld Grump

 

[freebfrost]

The central theme is very much Gods vs Titans, and in the mortal realm that means Clerics vs Druids (with one notable exception, that being Denev). This conflict overrides Good vs Evil, in that evil gods will work with good ones to stop a titan.
<snip>
The world is "young", because most of what came before was wiped away in a recent (150 years ago) divine war, and the world is slowly recovering.

This is what attracted me to the setting in the first place. That very conflict between gods and titans in the recent past lends itself to explaining some limitations inherent in the game. For example, one limit I never really liked was on using Resurrection magic - it is limited to 10 years per caster level. Why? From a metagaming standpoint I understand it is to limit character power in the game, but there's no good reason "in game" for this. And I like internal consistency.

As I read the Scarred Lands, it struck me that one of points around the gods/titans conflict is the belief that some hold that this rift has unbalanced the cosmos.

Well now, we have a rift that unbalanced the cosmos around 150 or so years ago, or approximately the length of time that the god's worshippers can cast Resurrection magic. Finally an explanation!

This whole revelation became the basis of current campaign - the reason godly magic can only Resurrect those back a hundred or so years is because there are no souls older than that in the outer plane (singular in my game)! Interesting and fun stuff there...

It's simply a great setting.

 

[Twowolves]

I also like the fact that there is conflict "hidden" in other areas. For example, Forsaken Elves have this bad habit of kidnapping human babies, and there is the ugly concept of taking female human slaves for breeding purposes to keep their doomed race alive. Druids of Denev (and almost all the wood elves), while technically "good guys" and on the winning side of the divine war, are still "titan worshipers" and are NOT welcome in a lot of places. Undead are evil and vile, unless of course you live in Hollowfaust, where it's just got to be done to survive. Hollow Knights are dying out, Charduni are building empires, Cannibals of Ket are eating people, the sages of the Library of Lokil have Slarecian troubles in the basement, Calastian troops are "pacifying" Durrover, Mithril is slowly losing the Northern Perimeter, and the ratmen and Aasathi are just plain awesome! Unlike FR and the Harpers therein, the Vigilants are really important, and the stakes are a lot higher.

As to the limitations of the game being built in to the setting, I think it did well with the sorcerer/wizard split, the concept of evil druids, psionics being very different, and arcane spell failure. Also, True Rituals are the "missing link" between fire'n'forget magic and the really big, far reaching and long lasting magic effects seen in a lot of settings but just hand-waved away and dismissed as "DM fiat".

 

[freebfrost]

Hey Twowolves....

Nice avatar.

 

[Nightfall]

Grump,

Looks like a Piscean to me.

*likes all this stuff and more.*