Raven Crowking
First Post
Prince of Happiness said:
Thanks!
RC
Tired of traditional Fantasy Campaigns?
- Thread starter Alebrije
- Start date
Thanks!
RC
Desdichado
Hero
Yeah, I've actually never had any trouble finding either Dunsany or CAS, over the last 20 years.
BiggusGeekus
That's Latin for "cool"
CalrinAlshaw said:
Weird.
I'm looking at the icon on the front page of http://www.drivethrurpg.com/catalog/index.php and it's there next to the gamma world icon.
:: shrug ::
Violet Dawn
I'll field this--I'm one of the Inner Circle's freelancers.
Violet Dawn is the fantasy d20 product line designed for the world of Avadnu. All the sourcebooks are compatible with standard d20 rules, but there's a world book scheduled to come out at GenCon.
The main Violet Dawn website is http://www.violetdawn.com. There's information on ordering the products, design diaries, expanded Taint rules, and other fun bits there.
There's also the world site, which has an introduction to the world as a whole, snippets on the races, writeups for example iconic heroes and iconic villains, and more.
I won't get into whether or not Avadnu qualifies as nontraditional--it's too subjective a question for me. Compared to baseline D&D, it's about as different as Dark Sun--it lacks the normal D&D races, takes place in an alien environment (two suns, living farmland, rivers of flesh, no horses, and so on), has a different cosmology, etc. On the other hand, it's still a fantasy game about protagonists using swords and magic to fight evil (or one another). It still uses the base D&D classes (except clerics, and with adjustments), and while many of the monsters are different, the world's still chock-full of them.
The first Violet Dawn product, a 224-page color hardcover monster collection, is getting enthusiastic reviews (scroll toward the bottom).
On a completely different topic, I'm really looking forward to Dream Pod 9's City of Clocks game. Not d20, and maybe not fantasy, but I had to mention it.
Alebrije said:
I'll field this--I'm one of the Inner Circle's freelancers.
Violet Dawn is the fantasy d20 product line designed for the world of Avadnu. All the sourcebooks are compatible with standard d20 rules, but there's a world book scheduled to come out at GenCon.
The main Violet Dawn website is http://www.violetdawn.com. There's information on ordering the products, design diaries, expanded Taint rules, and other fun bits there.
There's also the world site, which has an introduction to the world as a whole, snippets on the races, writeups for example iconic heroes and iconic villains, and more.
I won't get into whether or not Avadnu qualifies as nontraditional--it's too subjective a question for me. Compared to baseline D&D, it's about as different as Dark Sun--it lacks the normal D&D races, takes place in an alien environment (two suns, living farmland, rivers of flesh, no horses, and so on), has a different cosmology, etc. On the other hand, it's still a fantasy game about protagonists using swords and magic to fight evil (or one another). It still uses the base D&D classes (except clerics, and with adjustments), and while many of the monsters are different, the world's still chock-full of them.
The first Violet Dawn product, a 224-page color hardcover monster collection, is getting enthusiastic reviews (scroll toward the bottom).
On a completely different topic, I'm really looking forward to Dream Pod 9's City of Clocks game. Not d20, and maybe not fantasy, but I had to mention it.
Khayman
First Post
Try Elric / Stormbringer. A very different take on alignment and magic as seen in D20, and using the Chaosium percentile system (like Call of Cthulhu).
Of course, character mortality can be a bit high... sick thing is, I got to like it. A less mortal non-d20 game with some interesting races is Earthdawn. Our band just kept venturing like adventure addicts into the horror-filled city of Parlainth.
Of course, character mortality can be a bit high... sick thing is, I got to like it. A less mortal non-d20 game with some interesting races is Earthdawn. Our band just kept venturing like adventure addicts into the horror-filled city of Parlainth.
Dedlands D20 and Rokugan
I picked up most of the Deadlands D20 books when they were first coming out. Like a lot of other people though I've never played anything other than traditional D&D style fantasy because it's hard to find a critical mass of players with other interests. Deadlands D20 is kind of like a dark version of that silly Will Smith "Wild West" movie (inspired by the TV show) from a about 10 years back but with evil spirits and undead and other creepy nasties. I actually got into it because I wanted to run a campaign in a kind of post-apocalyptic "Cowboys of the round table" world based loosely on Stephen King's Dark Tower (Gunslinger) series of novels. Since then and after thinking about how so many American westerns were influenced by Japanese Samurai movies (by the likes Akira Kurosawa and others) and vice versa I've spent a lot of time sifting through Oriental Adventures as an alternative backdrop for the same campaign... one I'm hoping would be less of a leap for players from the traditional fantasy milieu (think Samurai Jack). In summary Deadlands D20 never felt like a really strong system to me… it felt kind of forced into D20. Rokugan D20 is to way political and bloated for what I wanted… I can’t even begin to keep track of all of the crazy timelines, factions, and rules extensions (feats, etc.). Call of Cthulhu D20 is probably the closest to the kind of campaign that I would like to run but with Samurai or Cowboys and a massive transcontinental road trip to save the planet (oops that’s Tolkien again).
I picked up most of the Deadlands D20 books when they were first coming out. Like a lot of other people though I've never played anything other than traditional D&D style fantasy because it's hard to find a critical mass of players with other interests. Deadlands D20 is kind of like a dark version of that silly Will Smith "Wild West" movie (inspired by the TV show) from a about 10 years back but with evil spirits and undead and other creepy nasties. I actually got into it because I wanted to run a campaign in a kind of post-apocalyptic "Cowboys of the round table" world based loosely on Stephen King's Dark Tower (Gunslinger) series of novels. Since then and after thinking about how so many American westerns were influenced by Japanese Samurai movies (by the likes Akira Kurosawa and others) and vice versa I've spent a lot of time sifting through Oriental Adventures as an alternative backdrop for the same campaign... one I'm hoping would be less of a leap for players from the traditional fantasy milieu (think Samurai Jack). In summary Deadlands D20 never felt like a really strong system to me… it felt kind of forced into D20. Rokugan D20 is to way political and bloated for what I wanted… I can’t even begin to keep track of all of the crazy timelines, factions, and rules extensions (feats, etc.). Call of Cthulhu D20 is probably the closest to the kind of campaign that I would like to run but with Samurai or Cowboys and a massive transcontinental road trip to save the planet (oops that’s Tolkien again).
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