Scarred Lands

[Nightfall]

And doing a FINE job of it. Ruined and Lars are to of the BEST SL storytellers out there. I'm proud to have them as my faithful reading material!

 

[BronzeDragon]

Thanks for the rundown on Necropolis Nightfall.

Indeed, I think a campaign for a SLCS would become necessary if I can't find it in stores in the next couple of months...

Now, seriously, I talked to the guy at my store and he promised he would bring one of those in the next shipping, as well as the city books, of which I have none.

 

[Horacio]

So it seems Hollowfaust is a fairly common entry point to Scarred Lands.

What did you pick, Doc? Hollowfaust or SLCS?

 

[Gumby]

Hey Ethan, sorry to hijack the thread, but in addition to writing for Scarred Lands, are you still WW's Garou guru?

 

[Ezrael]

I'm sure I'll annoy some people for saying this, but I'll say it anyway.

I really didn't like Hollowfaust as a setting. I thought it was well-written (in general, almost everything released under the SSS logo has been) but I found the book kind of...well, just not useful to me. Part of that is philosophical (I don't have much use for a city which uses the dead so callously...no more than I would have much use for a city that charmed debtors into use as slaves) and part of that was the fact that I felt it was kind of trying so hard to evoke several feelings at once that it sort of grounded itself out in the middle. It didn't remind me much of Klarkash-Ton, nor of Gormenghast although it did remind me of Pompeii, and also to an extent it reminded me of a Necromantic Lankhmar, which does mean I dig it more than I would have otherwise.

But the way it was included in the SLCS changed a bit of that for me. The idea of pitting the necromancers of Hollowfaust against Calastia...that works for me, somehow. Suddenly, and I freely admit this may have been there all along and I just missed it somehow due to my own scruples, Hollowfaust seemed more like a city doing the best it could with what resources it had, and its people seemed heroic in the face of massive opposition. In general, I thought the SLCS was one of the best campaign books I've seen in a while (I liked it more than the FR book, more than the recent EQ book which I thought was pretty good...I don't think I've seen a d20 product that felt more cohesive as a campaign setting with the possible exception of Green Ronin's Freeport book, and Freeport's a city, not a whole continent...it really should be compared to, say, Mithril or Hollowfaust, not all of Ghelspad. I also should admit I haven't seen Nyambe or Oathbound yet.) and I'll probably steal from it heavily when it comes to run my next campaign. The gods don't interest me as much as the Titans do, actually...I'd very much like to run an all-Titanspawn game (even though, yes, I understand that almost all races were in fact made by the Titans) if I ran it at all.

So, anyway, what I was *trying* to say several paragraphs ago is that the Scarred Lands won me over by releasing quality products, even when I wasn't enamored of the concepts at first. They're worth owning just to cannibalize for ideas for your own game even if you never run a Scarred Lands campaign. (I'm very fond of Mithril and its take on theocracy.)

 

[Barastrondo]

Hey Ethan, sorry to hijack the thread, but in addition to writing for Scarred Lands, are you still WW's Garou guru?

[hijack]Yep. My work on Sword & Sorcery Studios things is totally in a freelance capacity; Werewolf: The Apocalypse is still my baby, but I got tapped for freelance way back when because I (a) had a lightly infamous D&D game around the office, and (b) was also one of the people keeping track of Eric Noah's site, and therefore was one of the writing stable most familiar with 3e. But werewolves are my day job, and will continue to be as long as they'll let me work with them.[/hijack]

Ezrael, I'm glad that Hollowfaust gradually grew on you; I personally always saw the people as pretty heroic, and at the least sufficiently pragmatic that they'd accept a governing body of necromancers and unusual death rituals as a small price to pay for security. A lot of gamers reject the idea that LN would be a popular alignment (since it in effect means having to do things other than what you want to do), but I personally have always seen it as probably more popular than you'd expect. A lot of people like places where the neighborhoods are safe, even if it means more cops and more rules.

 

[broghammerj]

I too am one of those people that see the SL bandwagon riding by but not sure if I should jump on. I find the FR setting really enjoyable, but I have a number of problems with the setting. The PCs aren't even blips on the radar in terms of functioning in the world. The FR is so vast, which makes for good variability in adventuring, but the PCs never seem to make a difference. Also there is too much meta gaming my the group. I "know" about the Underdark because you read about it on the billboards to WaterDeep even though I'm 1st level. Or of course I think he's a Zhent. My neighbor works for the Zhentirem (sp-?). The idea of pulling out all new material for a game which they have little background on is very intriguing.

I have a number of direct questions about the SL setting.
1. What is the land/adventuring area equivalent to the FR? Ghelspad appears to be roughly equivalent to Cormyr/Dalelands by my eye.

2. Are the roles of the core races similar or does the setting really challenge the stereotypes? Dwarves -miners? Elves- wood dwelling, etc.

3. Are the evil races still goblins, orcs, kobolds, gnolls, etc? Are there new core evil races? Can the old ones still be used?

4. Are creatures from MM still used? Do they upset the flavor of the setting?

5. What is the political structure of the land? By the supplements it appears to be city states rather than nationstates.

6. Clerics are one of my favorite characters. Is there enough variety in the panthenon without creating my own gods.

7. The titans vs gods intrigues me. Do the denziens of the SL fight over the two? Is there a contingent of people who still worship the titans and those who support the gods?

8. I don't have the time to write my own homebrews and I'm generally like to stick to canon for a setting. Is this a packaged setting which is "ready to run."

Thanks for all the help. See if you can sell me.

 

[Wolfen Priest]

... after running for several months with a party of PCs of 9th-13th level with them having full access to the R&R spells I have found that there a precious few 'game-breakers' and several now overlap with similar spells available in the classbooks. I haven't come across any spell that the party has had a hard time dealing with or that wiped the floor with a NPC nasty (the only one I found way overpowered and needlessly complex was Salamar's Quiet Contemplation). I admit I haven't used every spell in game but I have read them all and found only that one to be too powerful for its level.

What about R&R 2? Also, I being a big fan of the SL, sometimes find myself thinking that some of the cleric spells are a little on the powerful side. Especially since, unlike arcane casters, they basically have access to "them all." Does anyone running a SL campaign have any opinions on this?

 

[Dr Midnight]

What did you pick, Doc? Hollowfaust or SLCS?

I didn't. My rent situation is rather tight this week, and I shouldn't be buying campaign settings I couldn't possibly use for some time. My campaign's in Greyhawk, and there's really not much I can do about that. Oh well. I'll pick this stuff up eventually, though. I'm intrigued.

As for what I want: I want your traditional fantasy world. Darkness doesn't interest me. Great locations and opportunities for adventure are important. Not being anything like FR is also important, as I'm sick to death of it all. FR doesn't give me the fantasy feel. The Greyhawk books don't give me what I want, so I make it up. I want some CS to have it ready for me.

 

[Valen]

I too am one of those people that see the SL bandwagon riding by but not sure if I should jump on.

I'm not a SL expert, but I am a fan of the setting and I can at least give you some preliminary answers, before the "experts" come along.

I have a number of direct questions about the SL setting.
1. What is the land/adventuring area equivalent to the FR? Ghelspad appears to be roughly equivalent to Cormyr/Dalelands by my eye.

Can't answer this one. I don't really know FR that well. I can tell you there are a variety of geographic locations on Ghelspad (and that's just the one continent) that range from lush forest, to cold mountains, to scorching deserts, and just about everything in between. There are certain areas that are just completely infested with titanspawn (i.e. nasty monsters) and unfortunately for the civilized folk, they are in the interior of the continent, so if you want to get from one nation on the east, to one on the west, you may have to go through some monsters or else take the long way (one way is through the Calastian empire, which may be more dangerous than the titanspawn).


2. Are the roles of the core races similar or does the setting really challenge the stereotypes? Dwarves -miners? Elves- wood dwelling, etc.

While there are certainly dwarven miners and elven rangers, there are plenty of examples of challenges to the stereotypes. I had one player laugh when I told him that a dwarf from Burok Torn could have wizard as a favored class. One of the richest arcane traditions within Ghelspad are the dwarven runewizards. There are the "non-evil" necromancers of Hollowfaust, many of which set up healing clinics. There are also halfling fighters, half-orc sorcerors, and anything else you can imagine.

3. Are the evil races still goblins, orcs, kobolds, gnolls, etc? Are there new core evil races? Can the old ones still be used?

Goblins and orcs yes. The other's I don't recall reading about, but I may have just missed them. They certainly fit with the other races and could be slipped in without anyone the wiser. The titans created a wide variety of races, often at a whim, and a large number of them are composed of characteristics of animals and humanoids, so kobolds and gnolls fit perfectly alongside, say the sutak (horseheaded humanoids) or the assathi (alligator headed humanoids).

4. Are creatures from MM still used? Do they upset the flavor of the setting?

The creatures from the MM are 100% compatible. In addition, the world's history gives an explanation for the extensive variety of creatures, as the titans would create a race and forget about them, or after they were slain, their blood would mutate a variety of creatures. Many races were created by the gods or the titans just to fight in the war between the two. Dragons for certain existed (at least at one time, they haven't been seen recently) as have many other "old standbys". Of course, CC and CC2 have lots of great creatures...

5. What is the political structure of the land? By the supplements it appears to be city states rather than nationstates.

There is essentially one major nation that seeks to conquer the continent. They have already absorbed several other nations. A few nationstates and independent city-states still oppose them. The world is rebuilding after the divine war, 150 years ago, so any nation is somewhat tenuous, but there are at least as many nations as their are independent city states. The supplements focus on the city states, I think mainly because a city is easier to reduce to a single book.

6. Clerics are one of my favorite characters. Is there enough variety in the panthenon without creating my own gods.

There are 8 gods and at least 3 demigods. They are at least as comprehensive as the Greyhawk gods. The gods and their domains are in balance with one another leaving little room for additional gods without disrupting this balance (although it could be done...)

7. The titans vs gods intrigues me. Do the denziens of the SL fight over the two? Is there a contingent of people who still worship the titans and those who support the gods?

There are still a large number of those who worship the titans, although most worship the gods, they did win afterall. The average person in SL worships several gods, depending upon what he or she is praying for. Some even worship BOTH the titans and the gods. There is an extra twist since Denev, the titan, helped the gods in the war, she is worshipped by many followers of the gods, although some clerics frown on this practice. Other titan worshippers despise Denev and her followers, considering them traitors.

8. I don't have the time to write my own homebrews and I'm generally like to stick to canon for a setting. Is this a packaged setting which is "ready to run."

Yes. There are plenty of threads on these boards about what books you need to get started. My recommendation is to pick a city book you like and use that as a homebase, pick up a monster book (CC2, CC1 is being revised) to fill you in on the major threats, and then get the Ghelspad hardcover, or, if you are on a budget, the Gazeteer, and you are on your way. The other books are great, too, but that ought to be enough to get you started and probably enough to sustain an entire campaign.