Warlords of the Accordlands - Wow!

[Soel]

Questions for those who have the monster book. What is the ratio of truly new monsters as opposed to just variants on existing ones? How about the ratio of humanoids to others?

I'd be interested in this book, if its not just full of re-treads.

 

[catsclaw227]

Questions for those who have the monster book. What is the ratio of truly new monsters as opposed to just variants on existing ones? How about the ratio of humanoids to others?

I'd be interested in this book, if its not just full of re-treads.

I would definately say it is NOT just full of re-treads, but there are some interesting spins on existing monsters. They have a series of gargoyle types, a new look at elves (setting specific -- they've got horned brow-ridges and they're mostly necromancers), and a bunch of new monsters. There are some duplications, but I think that these have been modified to suit the setting (like cockatrice, skeletons, etc)

They also have some unique dragons of the chromatic types, similar to NPCs, since dragons play a specific role in the setting.

The book uses the old-school stat-block (if that makes a difference), though I haven't error checked the stats. I like the book. It's got flavor. If I plan to run an Accordlands campaign, then it'll get some serious use.

Even with my Wilderlands game, the new hags, gargoyles, new races, etc.

 

[Allandaros]

...When I first saw this threat's title, I totally read it as Warlords of the Accordionlands.

That is all.

 

[Fishbone]

With the massive size of the monster book the errata could be longer than most WOTC softcovers. I'd been awaiting these books too, I find it really disappointing. The class variants sound very good, though, maybe I'll pick them up for that.

 

[Land Outcast]

wow... probably I'll be getting this as soon as Mr.Pocket communicates we have the needed capital for the investment.

 

[DM_Jeff]

Having returned from GenCon, I now have my author copies. I am delving into them, but they are HUGE, even bigger than I expected. I'm going to pry Rappan Athuk Reloaded and Ptolus from my own hands and get to jumping into reading these four massive tomes. I can see nearly all the flavor text I threw into the feats and spells was retained. Whee!

Three immediate notes.

1) Each book comes with 2 poster maps.
2) All books except the adventure book are in full color.
3) They are not shrink-wrapped. They are baggie-sealed with a resealable flap and sticky strip for opening and reusing the bags. Those wanting to peruse at the FLGS shoukld just ask, they fit back together very neatly.

-DM Jeff

 

[catsclaw227]

I'd love to hear your feedback DM Jeff.

 

[DM_Jeff]

I fully understand why they might be reluctant, but I just can't get behind shrinkwrapping books this expensive. We're talking about a decent chunk of change for each book, let alone all four. Since I have nothing invested in the setting to start with--I'm not familiar with the game (CCG, is it?) on which it is based--the only way to turn me from a potential sale to an actual one is to let me give the books a pretty solid flip-through, to see if I'll find enough of it useful in my non-Accordlands-specific games. Until/unless I can do that, there's just no way I'm buying the books unless I find them at a substantial discount.

Hi Ari! Just to reiterate, they're not actually shrink-wrapped. They are in a resealable "comic-like-bag". I doubt a FLGS owner would have an issue you looking through one supervised.

I spent about an hour with the Master Codex last night just getting the lay of the land. Layout and art are really fantastic. Amazing-like. Page content is clear and text small and broken into manageable chunks. Color-coded tables for organization. A+ are the visuals, no doubt. I stopped every few pages to read a small bit that caught my eye. I found what little I read in order.

Interestingly, I found a small handful of my favorite spells from AEG's Mercenaries in this tome to round out the spell lists. I like this because they were some of my favorites that I wrote from that book, and many help the Seer class actually BE a Seer pretty well. So far I like what I see.

-DM Jeff

 

[jim pinto]

I picked up the 4 Warlords books at Origins. When I got home last night, I sat down and started reading through the books a little at a time. All I can say is, "Wow!" The setting book and master codex is eesentially exactly the kind of campaign setting I have been after for the past several years. Evil is truely evil, not some shade of PC gray. Heroes are in short supply and the BBEG isn't stupid. This is definitely going to be a campaign that I am going to run in the near future.

I do not want to sound like sour grapes, so let me be very careful how I say this.

I already spoke with Zinser about this error and so while the mistake is distressing, I still deserved to be credited for my efforts on these books.

I am saying this here, now, one time only.

I re-wrote (almost every word) the entire Monster book. I won't go into the details, but the book was not publishable before I fixed it. Credits do not appear in the book to reflect my work.

The campaign book and player's codex were heavily touched by me, as well. I won't go into the details about it, but I did everything I could to bring things into perspective for this project.

I wrote the entire city of Baraxton with John Zinser in the world book, but that is all I had to do with that book.

If you hate the project, blame me and a few others. If you love it, I'll let the work speak for itself.

I was also the Art Director for the entire project.

Robert Lee did the world maps and Christopher West did the remainder.

These people were also not given proper credit.

Again.

Not sour grapes, but I saw ghostwinded posted a thread here and I felt obligated to say something.

I personally think the campaign book is one of the smartest things in a long time. And the chapter on Race/Class combinations in the player's codex was the second smartest.

I hope everyone enjoys the project.

I have not read this thread yet, so if people are sending hate mail, I should probably find suitable escape routes from this page.

Peace

 

[jim pinto]

I imagine it was cheaper to print them all at the same time though.

The concept was to do something no one had done in gaming before... release everything you need to play the game ALL AT ONCE.

Personally, I think it was a great idea.

I'm just sad how long it took us to get the books out.