Thoughts on Kalamar

[reanjr]

I just want to know why it's named after an obscure city in the Dragonlance setting.

I believe you are thinking of Kalaman. And I wouldn't consider Kalaman an obscure city; it was the location of an integral siege suring the War of the Lance.

 

[reanjr]

The setting istelf is great. The rest of the stuff associated with it didn't thrill me much.

One thing to beware of tho. There are something like 52 common dieties included with the setting. Thats ALOT for the DM to keep track of and even more so for the players, especially if they don't have easy access to the material. So be careful when involving religions, or else use a different pantheon.

The Kingdoms of Kalamar DM Shield (the best D&D screen, hands down) has a nice reference of the gods on one of its panels. Makes it pretty easy to keep track of.

 

[Corvidae]

my only problem with kalamar is the lack of flesh on some of the bones. I mean, in the players guide we got new poisons and quite a bit of neat stuff like weapons, magic, new uses for turning abilities etc. However, I did not like the simple guide to kalamar. It has alot of ideas, however, it does not flesh out any characters and does not really give a feel to the towns and cities that it describes. That said, I would love to get my hands on the rest of the books and see how they do.

john

 

[reanjr]

I haven't read the books in a while, but my impression is that there are around a dozen dieties, but each nation has a different name for them, giving the appearance of a lot more flavor with the same mechanics.

You're half right. There are just over 40 deities, and each of those has different names among different cultures and races to add even more flavor than 40+ deities already provides.

 

[reanjr]

One of the best things about Kalamar is its atlas. I wish every setting came with the same sort of atlas! The pirate book is great too; well worth using in any setting.

Salt and Sea Dogs. I've got to second that. Very useful for any pirate/privateer setting.

 

[reanjr]

Why is Dark Sun a one-trick pony? It's a large detailed setting with a nice broad canvas to work on.

While I disagree with the assessment of Athas as a one-trick pony, I can see the argument. There's not alot of differing environs (all desert unless you are going off the beaten path), the city-states in the original boxed set were all pretty similar due to their associated political systems, seems to be mostly designed for lost ruins types of games, etc.

 

[reanjr]

One of my gaming buds back in high school used to come up with character names by slowly sounding out nonsense syllables unitl he got something he liked. "Sto... ster... star... starm... starmolo... Starmoloandabar! Sweet." If I didn't know otherwise, I'd have assumed he worked for Kenzer now.

There's actually alot more consistency in Kalamar names than that. It's just that there are so many cultures each with their own languages that you have to switch context alot. I find the Svimozish names somewhat difficult to pronounce, but most of the others are fairly easy if you have decent knowledge of real-world pronunciations of a few different languages.

 

[Treebore]

I love the setting. I think its detailed and has plenty of good adventures to support it. I think the main setting book is nicely done. And the players book has plenty of stuff too. Its one of my top *favorite* settings after Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms.

Someone mentioned Erde, I think Kalamar is a lot better than Erde for the amount of material for it. I think the Erde book is ok but not as good as the Kalamar book. The index in the Erde book isnt that good and the material just isn't there. It seems like Troll Lord Games kinda dropped the ball with it.

I play a lot of the RPGA Living Kalamar adventures too, thats how I've gotten involved in the setting.

Mike

Your totally right. Erde is a totally rusted out old car in comparison to the presentation of Kalamar. Like I mentioned, Erde "sparked" for me when I read through it. Kalamar doesn't. I like Kalamar, I'm sure I would even love it if I were to start using it. Until I read something in the books, and I do own a lot of them, that give me that spark, I'm going to go with other settings that have and do give me that spark, such as Erde, Ravenloft, and the Wilderlands.

If it helps any I used to run everything in Greyhawk. I love Greyhawk. It hasn't sparked my imagination in years. Over a decade. I love FR, well, my FR, not that crap that TSR did. I have bought all but 3 of the books for it in 3E and own everything from 1E/2E. Haven't felt a desire to run it for over 5 years now.

Who knows? One of these days I'll need some inspiration and I'll pick up one of the Kalamar books to see if I can find it. Then that magic will happen and all of a sudden I'll come up with a Kalamar campaign idea that gets me jazzed and it will just have to be done in Kalamar!

Then this well thought out, many layered, well detailed setting will become my new "home" for who knows how many years.

Until then, the ancient rust bucket of Erde is getting me where I want to go. Plus, in the next year or two, the new, suped up, super glossy Erde is going to be released! Who knows how long that will keep me going with Erde! Even if it is being redone as "Airhde", it will always be Erde to me.

 

[Treebore]

The Kingdoms of Kalamar DM Shield (the best D&D screen, hands down) has a nice reference of the gods on one of its panels. Makes it pretty easy to keep track of.

That screen is frickin AWESOME!!! I even find it useful to reference while running Castles and Crusades, let alone keeping my players noses where they belong! For a 3E game it is awesome! The xp and cr charts are right there! Equipment lists! Poisons! Diseases! Turning! DC checks! Everything except spell descriptions! With that shield the only time you need the DMG or PH is to look up magic items, spells, or the specifics of Grapple, sunder, etc....

I bought 4 of those things hoping that 4 would last the rest of my life.

 

[reanjr]

That screen is frickin AWESOME!!!

...

With that shield the only time you need the DMG or PH is to look up magic items, spells, or the specifics of Grapple, sunder, etc....

It's funny you mention it. I haven't used my PHB since getting that screen. I still use DMG for magic items, but that's it. I leave spell mechanics up to others in the group.