So, Dark Sun: It's officially out. What do you think of it?

[Tarril Wolfeye]

I don't allow Warforged or Sharmind Characters in my - soon to start - 4E DS campaign simply because they don't need food and water. That would make it too easy to survive in the Wastes of Athas.

On the other hand, a Revenant hailing from Giustenal, hmm...

epochrpg: Aaracokra are in the DS Creature Catalog, sorry no race stats.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You're suggesting they put that into the cover image to falsely entice you to buy the book on the assumption that thri-keen could wield more than two weapons?

While that is indeed the literal use of the term, I was more implying that the dichotomy existed and that WotC didn't care enough to correct it by using different art.

There is simply no excuse for an RPG to have cover art depicting a PC or NPC doing something that cannot be done in the rules. ESPECIALLY when it involves a rules change from previous editions.

It raises certain expectations and then negates them in a fairly negative way. That's NOT good marketing, and it shows a lack of respect for your consumers.

 

[Scribble]

It raises certain expectations and then negates them in a fairly negative way. That's NOT good marketing, and it shows a lack of respect for your consumers.

Or conversely that you're making a mountain out of a molehill maybe?

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Whoa, whoa, whoa!!!

You are presupposing anyone inside WotC talks to anyone else inside WotC they are not currently on a project team with!!! D&D guys have no idea what those wacky minis guys do with their free time or why they are still putting out men riding on horses, when clearly it's the female demographic that gives a sh--, uh, likes horses.

Also, WotC never made minis and never will make minis. You must be confused.

If you need minis for 4E you use whatever tokens--like those found in several D&D Essentials(tm)(r)($)()(x-P)(Y) boxed sets you can find at Amazon or Target or 4sharingtorrentz.web--you can get your hands on and 1" square grid paper printed out from a website your DM googled 15 minutes before the game started.

Needs more exclamation marks.

I also like that you think torrenting tokens is a good idea - why, of course you only mean those non-existent torrents for homemade tokens, right? It´s good that nobody on these boards creates art for tokens for a living. Oh, wait...

Oh sorry, you were talking about torrenting the whole box. Got that mixed up.

 

[Henry]

Two minor points, DA:

There is simply no excuse for an RPG to have cover art depicting a PC or NPC doing something that cannot be done in the rules. ESPECIALLY when it involves a rules change from previous editions.

Who's to say you can't actually HOLD a weapon in each hand? Certainly not the rules. Hell, in 3E it was perfectly valid for a normal humanoid PC to hold a weapon in each hand, and alternate attacks each round with no penalty - with no handedness in 3E, a fighter with a +10/+5/+1 and a sword and dagger could attack with the sword, attack with the dagger, then attack with the sword -- with no penalty. In 4E, it's a major problem that the Thri-kreen is HOLDING two sets of weapons, even if he's not necessarily attacking with them each round? I don't expect to change your mind or anything, I just have to disagree there.

Dark Sun left out one I thought would have been fascinating: Warforged. Yeah- they're metal...think about what you could do with that from a RP perspective. On Athas, a typical Warforged PC would be hunted like the Hulk. Or from a DM's perspective, they could have been part of why Athas was so metal poor...

In my opinion I wouldn't have found it fun to waste book space talking about how to be a character who wouldn't survive getting assassinated in the first adventure by his own party, if not cityfolk or desert raiders. You might as well be made of a big container of water, or one walking piece of inix-jerky...

Come to think of it, you'd be better off teaming up with the desert terrors against the adventurers!

 

[Tzarevitch]

While that is indeed the literal use of the term, I was more implying that the dichotomy existed and that WotC didn't care enough to correct it by using different art.

There is simply no excuse for an RPG to have cover art depicting a PC or NPC doing something that cannot be done in the rules. ESPECIALLY when it involves a rules change from previous editions.

It raises certain expectations and then negates them in a fairly negative way. That's NOT good marketing, and it shows a lack of respect for your consumers.

I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Just saying you don't like 4e or you don't like 4e DS is one thing. You're saying that cover art has to totally and accurately depict something in the book and you dont like it because of that? That's absurd. It isn't a textbook, and even they don't do that. Half of the old DS stuff didn't do that either. Hey use artwork that is reminiscent of the subject matter but looks good.

If you see an auto brochure with a bikini-clad woman leaning on a car, most people are bright enough to realize that the woman doesn't come with the car. She's there to attract your attention.

 

[nightwyrm]

If you see an auto brochure with a bikini-clad woman leaning on a car, most people are bright enough to realize that the woman doesn't come with the car. She's there to attract your attention.

You have no idea how sad I was when I found out my new car doesn't come with that hot blonde model in the picture.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Just saying you don't like 4e or you don't like 4e DS is one thing. You're saying that cover art has to totally and accurately depict something in the book and you dont like it because of that? That's absurd.

Does it have to make sense to you? It is his opinion. Sounds like you are getting all filled with umbrage because his opinion differs from yours. That's absurd.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Who's to say you can't actually HOLD a weapon in each hand? Certainly not the rules.

<snip>

In 4E, it's a major problem that the Thri-kreen is HOLDING two sets of weapons, even if he's not necessarily attacking with them each round? I don't expect to change your mind or anything, I just have to disagree there.
!

IMHO, the Thri-Kreen depicted on the cover art (repeated in the Races chapter) is not "holding" his weapon- it is clearly in a 2-handed grip readied for a horizontal striking. IOW, wielding.

Hold your hand over the top arms/torso of the Bug depicted, leaving the lower arms uncovered. You can't tell me it doesn't look like that weapon is going to be swung in a deadly arc as soon as a target steps in range because that is precisely what it looks like to me. YMMV, of course, but to me, that's wielding.

 

[GrandMasterofFlowers]

As to the point of using Thri-keen minatures, i usually end up using the Mezzodaemon fig for my thri-keen.