(SL) Ghelspad Atlas Hardcover

[Nightfall]

To each his own Wolfen and I certainly think you are right, the idea mines here in the Scarred Land products are by far some of the BEST I've seen and/or enjoyed. I mean I find myself thinking more of the habits of each of the races, their place in social straficiation, and so on. I don't feel that way when I run other settings, except maybe Dark Sun and/or Ravenloft. Guess that's why I have fun.

Me, I LIKE the gods being around. Certainly with a smaller panethon to work with, I feel I can get more...well intimate with the gods. Not to mention the fact that I can basically create on the fly various shrines rather quickly, especially if I just make one, have it be the main shrine to ALL the Eight Victors. That and I think while they are about their alignments, they define the alignments MUCH better than some of their older 2nd edition counterparts.

 

[Wolfen Priest]

Nightfall...

I guess my only "issue" with the gods is that they are supposed to be somewhat the 'good guys' while the Titans were villains. Dead villains, but villains nonethless.

And yet, the 8 gods occupy all eight alignments, which also makes it somewhat more difficult to deal with things like planshifting and the outer planes in general. If the gods play a more minor role, I think it leaves me more room to incorporate ideas from other sources; and for that matter, I think the Manual of the Planes was about the only good WotC product outside of the core 3, so I do want to use it!

 

[Nightfall]

Wolfen,

Well while it's true that the Titans' aren't the most loveable guys, they aren't really quite villians either (at least not ALL of them. Certainly Golthagga, Golthain and even to a degree, Hrinnruk, had some attractive qualities to them. And also they aren't REALLY dead. They still might come back, some with better chances than others. Kadum, for example, could be reconstituted IF you could get a piece of his heart from Belsameth. Mormo CERTAINLY has enough followers to get her to be reborn in some manner.

Not sure I understand what your deal is about planeshifting...or the Outer Planes deal. I do understand that there's not many other planes BESIDES the ones the Eight occupy, but certainly there's more to planar travel, especially with the plane of shadow right there. If you wanted to incorporate say, shamanism, there is a plane of dreams, even if it's not a TRUE plane. Not to mention the other things, like the traditional illithids and Gith could be used, since I do think they could be known, but are considered unreachable.

But then to each his own Wolfen. I just think there's PLENTY of room for both the gods having a major role as well as having other things in there as well. I liked MotP but it's not the ONLY comoslogy that can work.

 

[SSS-Druid]

To answer a couple of issues folks have brought up:

* As Nightfall indicated above, we would have *loved* to have reprinted the racial write-ups from the DM Companion that came with the Screen, but frankly, it was a choice between old material and new. We just couldn't justify cutting new material it in order to do so.

* Drendari is not a trickster goddess. She may be the daughter of Enkili, certainly, but that is far more in his nature than hers. Drendari is deceptive, but not a trickster. There is a difference at work here.

 

[Sulimo]

Looks like it has made it to my isle after all. Got an email from my supplier that my copy of the hardcover and the novel Forsaken shipped today. If I'm lucky I might get it for the weekend

 

[Nightfall]

Good to hear Sul! I can't wait to see your thoughts.

Dru, thanks for explaining that. I guess though I felt that being deceptive, she deserved trickery..but in any case, she's got enough domains.

Btw, do I have to WAIT for the book or can someone spoil me a little and explain this "Ninth" God to me? I just wondered if that was some other god that's been mentioned or not.

 

[SSS-Druid]

No. The god - whose existence, I would like to stress, is merely a rumor spawned from the ramblings of a near insane Incarnate - is the Ninth of the Great Gods of Scarn.

This god's demise, just before the beginning of the Titanswar was supposedly less than honorable and was covered up as only gods can cover such things up.

At best, he is a Forgotten God.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

No. The god - whose existence, I would like to stress, is merely a rumor spawned from the ramblings of a near insane Incarnate - is the Ninth of the Great Gods of Scarn.

This god's demise, just before the beginning of the Titanswar was supposedly less than honorable and was covered up as only gods can cover such things up.

At best, he is a Forgotten God.

Yep, this supposed 'missing god of neutrality' was called Urkanthus.

Sounds like a fanciful legend to me.

Maybe someone in Scarn too wondered too many nights, why there is no god for neutral alignment, and you know, Incarnates and their obsession with balance.

Son of Belsameth (demi-god, I think) was another being, called Hadarus, who died in battle against Slarecians while Drendari was captured.

 

[SSS-Druid]

Sounds like a fanciful legend to me.

Maybe someone in Scarn too wondered too many nights, why there is no god for neutral alignment, and you know, Incarnates and their obsession with balance.

Well, especially if even the other Incarnates thinks he's a bit bent...

 

[Psion]

1. The colored maps inside the front and back covers are exactly like the map in the Gazeteer (though obviously not as big) with the major exception that they have a lot more cities and locations placed on them, which is nice for those who have long wondered exactly where in Vesh the capitol is...

The maps sort of disappointed me. The city maps are nice in that "Forgotten Realms Adventures 2e cities of the heartland" sort of way, but not as functional as I would like. More importantly, I was expecting/hoping for more detailed reqional maps embedded in the text and a nice big fold-out (bigger than the gazeteer).

Some of the art struck my wrong as well. Can't name the artist right off, but one artist's lines are so wispy I can harndly make out some of his pictures if I have any sort of glare at all.

Oh, one other thing. I was disappointed when I didn't find the obsidian pyre in Secrets & Societies, and they didn't say too much more about it here, either. For some reason in the Gazeteer, that was what struck me as coolest and I really wanted more information.

Ah well. The rest of the book looks real nice, but as I just got it last night, I can't say I have read too much of it yet. And I especially like the S&SS still seems to be putting out nice, big, pretty hardcovers for a good price while everyone else seems to be pushing their prices up. This book was a long time coming and it's nice to see it finally here!