What world should I run? Hunt, K of K or SL?

[Nightfall]

Boy I'm getting some good competition and it's not from WotC! Thanks guy..uhm I think.

First I'll address Kenji little poke at Metaplotting. While it is TRUE that there is a measure of control by the publishers, it's STILL about the heroes. They are the ones that have to face the wilds and dangers of the Scarred Lands. What they do DOES matter. There won't be sweeping NPCs coming down nor will there be vast arch magi running around destroying evil. Most of them have got better things to do with their time or have other private issues that don't address the Scarred Lands. So it's not all about the Vigils and/or vast conspiracies of evil. It's about the heroes MAKING such things come to light. Oh and the Vigil have enough of their hands full with the Slitheren to care much outside their own borders as much as some might believe otherwise.

Secondly the Scarred Lands is JUST as human centric. The vast majority of Ghelspad is home to many humans. The difference is, they are besiged from either themselves, (in the form of the Calastian Hegemony.) or titanspawn. Also the vast majority of the divine races, such as the elves and dwarves, intergrate well and tend to accept/adopt human ideals. Even so, there are a few places where they act like they should, different and not just people with beards and/or humans with pointy ears. And anyway what's so special about a half-hobgoblin anyway? I prefer half hags anyway!

 

[Nightfall]

Is that the best ya got

Trust me Wicht I have more! I was just warming up.

I used a spined lizard just last night in my Kalamar game! The creature collection books are great - but one can use the monsters (most of em) in any campaign world. Hookwings are also going to soon be showing up.

True but it's not as fun if you just make the Assathi another type of Lizard man!

The religions of the Kalamar campaign are far superior to the religions of the Scarred Lands campaign.

Oh yeah? I bet you can't find two priests of a Death god that can both be NG AND NE and STILL want to work together to deal with undead? Or a city where one of them is in charge of dealing with arcane necromancy excesses?

And each religion has far reaching inplications on the career of any adventuring cleric that might want to belong to that particular cleric. Want to be a Paladin or Cleric in service to the God of bravery? You aren't allowed to use ranged weapons of any sort.

Obviously you missed out on the Swan Knight. She defends the virtues of maidens as well as fights evil. Also the Silver knights like silver weapons, gold knights, golden ones, and Mithril Knights, some of the mithril from the Golem. Oh and that reminds me, where else but the Scarred Lands can a golem be considered a holy relic and people believe it will fight again?

Want to be a druid or cleric in service to the goddess of nature? You must pick one of four elements to serve.

Druids of Thulkas and/or Golthagga can make and use iron weapons. Oh and I'm pretty sure a powerful druid of Mesos could cast arcane spells.

Want to be a cleric int he home foundation? You must care for orphans, defend the homeland and preach the strengths of marriage.

Again the Gold knight works out better since he can channel healing AND have chapterhouses where they are most needed. Plus their brethren, clerics of the Order of Iron, forge weapons like few others AND do great work at seiges.

Want an evil cleric? The plague bringers are all infected with deadly diseases and must fanatically make converts or die from their disease.

Galdor, Vangal's cleric of destruction and bloodlust, is not only undead. He's the only guy to have PERSONALLY battled his Hearld AND WON! Oh yeah, he also has the BIGGEST horde of Horsemen ever.

No cleric, played right, is going to be a carbon copy of another cleric from another religion.

Neither are the ones in the Scarred Lands. They might be SIMILAR but not all of them work the same way.

You got me on the horsemen They are pretty cool.

Yeah well still think the Cult of the Ancients even better but I love my Horsemen!

Kalamar has Giilia, city of the bats, a city ruled over by a vampiress and built atop an endless maze of ghoul tunnels. It has Thygasha, a city in which two warring temples, one promoting peaceful sleep, the other promoting nightmares, war over the sleep/dream inducing drug, Silver Sand.

Again I point to Hollowfaust. A city of both living and Dead and they work REALLY well together. Necromancers there aren't evil, but if you want an evil city, not far off is the carbon dark copy in Glivid Autel.

Nearby is a desert, uncharted but filled with lost cities and mysterios lore. buried deep in the Vohven jungle is the original temple of the Founder, a temple built by the god himself and doubtlessly the home of many secrets.

Ukradan Desert, home to the Sutak, some of the tribesmen of that place, as well as the Daywalkers, Ratmen devoted to Thulkas. Also plenty of ruins there as well as Aassthi. The Gascars also have ruins of old dwarven mining that are now inhabited by dark and evil things.

Then when one is tired of hunting for buried arcane secrets one can travel to Kalamar and become involved in the depths of the great political intrigue or perhaps journey to the city of spies and try to make a living there. Kalamar has it all

So does the courts in Vashon, Lageni, Durrover, Amathela.
Oh and before I forget, Khirdet, home of the carnvious druids that pay homage to Mormo, Lady of Venom. Their leader is a Mesdusa Bloodwitch Druid, Sharliss Serpentkiss has been around for quite some time. She wants to see the elves burn and the unbelievers put to feeding troughs.

Aha! The true motive is shown at last. He has a quota. Of souls no doubt. Don't fall for it! Turn before it is too late. Take a look at Kalamar!

Course I have an agenda! I'm not pure. Neither are the people that live in the Scarred Lands.

Seriously though, the Kalamar setting book is very non specific in what edition (or even what set of rules) one must have to use it. One could likely use Harnmaster, 1e or 3e equally well with it. The Players guide and the modules are more geared to 3e but even they could be pretty easily converted.

True while it is kind of edition specific, I WILL say, the IDEAS, as well as the characters of the Scarred Lands transcend such things.

 

[JoeGKushner]

HARN!

[ducks and runs for cover]

No need to duck and run for cover. Harn is a great setting that does suffer from a lot of things when compared to D20 books. Price, Layout, and text to page content are high in those fields. Quality is good but dollars spent on "some" quality can get "lots" of pretty good stuff in other settings.

I think that if he wants D&D, and wants it at low levels of magic, then the very well supported Kingdoms of Kalamr is his gig.

If he wants a campaign with a variable setting that doesn't have a ton of support, then the Hunt, with its various ages, one world book and free downloads might be the way to go.

Scarred Lands looks like it might be a little different based on it's few gods ratio and it's locked aspect. The volumes of support thought make it a great palce for GMs wanting high magic campaigns that pit man against monster in some pretty clear cut lines.

 

[Nightfall]

Joe, thanks for being a semi-neutral party in all this. I don't have Hunt but I have read/have other stuff from Mystic Eye. It's a nice setting, but I don't think I'd use it JUST yet. Still in any case, thanks for pointing out some of the diverse issues.

 

[kenjib]

Hi Nightfall. I didn't mean "meta-plot" in a bad way, it's just that Scarred Lands has a huge over-arcing central theme. That's all. It's not a bad thing at all, just a matter of preference.

I agree with Joe. All of the settings can make for fantastic campaigns, it just depends on what type of feel you are after.

 

[Nightfall]

Ah I thought you were referring to FR's approach to Meta-plotting. In any case you are right, there are THEMES that extend in places, but I guess I don't seem them cause I use them so much!

But agree you and Joe, there's PLENTY of good points for all sides. I just happen to like mine!

 

[bloodymage]

The choice narrows...

Posted by Joshua Dyal:
The Hunt also features a lot of unique monsters (the Nightmares) but you could probably just substitute something else there pretty easily, so I think that'd be easier. I think the Hunt also has a lot of unique rules, which make it perhaps less suitable for porting into another game system (although you'd have to talk to someone a little more familiar with the setting than me for that: has anyone pointed this thread out to the Mystic Eye Games folks so they can chime in?)

Still don't have enough of a pitch for Hunt: Rise of Evil yet. Got just enough to interest me but not enough for a sale. Be nice to get Joshua's points answered too, since I won't be running it 3e.

Calling all devotees of Hunt: Rise of Evil!

Strongest contenders right now are:
1) Continue developing homebrew with Freeport and possibly Bluffside dropped in.
2) Hunt if I can get more info.
3) K of K is still in there, but seems like I might be getting into another FR, albeit more logical, with piddly magic. (As a note of explanation, my wizards are kinda like Old West gunslingers. They're deadly, fast on the draw and capable of terrorizing a whole town. However, serious magic items are hard to find and hard to make. Call my worlds "medium" magic, I guess.)
4) Sorry Nightfall. You're an outstanding evangelist for your favorite setting, but I don't think it's for me. Thank you for your help. I do appreciate it.

I've mentioned my Kyrian Confederacy earlier. It's the most detailed area on Ert (still not much). The capital is Kyria, a large town/small city that has some very particular features. Bluffside might work, but I have my doubts. The largest city is Port o' Sea in the Principality of Seavolk (part of the confederacy). I imagine Freeport would drop in very nicely there.

So, once again, someone sell me Hunt. I'd also like to know more about Freeport and Bluffside. Thanks all.

 

[Napftor]

Selling the Hunt

THE HUNT: RISE OF EVIL

Read it. Reviewed it (feel free to check it out). Liked it. Here's why...

It feels small. "What's that," you say, "Feel small?" Exactly. For the reasons you're not into FR anymore are the ones that should drive you to the Hunt setting. There are gods. Are they into everything? No (or not yet anyway). Are there big power groups? Sure, every setting needs them. But the point is that these core elements of the Hunt are not the only selling point on their own. Each fits perfectly with the other elements and does not overshadow the others. And there's still plenty of world left "off the map", so to speak, for you and your players to explore. The Hunt world book is the best price for your wallet's needs and everything is in there. You'd be getting in on it from the ground up. With other settings, things are splashed across numerous tomes, each with their own agendas (while I'm not overly familiar with the other settings, I believe this is the case). The ability to get a whole fleshed out world at a great price should be too much temptation for any gamer. You can campaign for years with it.

The Hunt's feel is good, the crunchy bits are good, and the whole presentation is easily digestible (as someone mentioned with the real-world tie-ins earlier). Should you not like the Earth dreams invading Gothos story, then don't use it. In fact, the world book gives advice if you choose this route. It's all about focus. This book knows what its presenting and proceeds to tell you how to take it in and use it. Period. Enjoy.

 

[ForceUser@Home]

No OA? NO OA?! OA is a fantastic setting! Japanese {Rokugan), Chinese (Romance of the Five Planets), Vietnamese (*ahem* ), Indian...it's all there, all different, and all cool, man!

Give OA a try, you might dig it

ZING!

 

[Morpheus]

Welcome to Gothos-Enjoy Your Stay

Ok, here it goes...

The Hunt: Rise of Evil (or TH:ROE, for short) has many good things going for it. I will try and list them in the order that they are presented.

1) Gothos and our world are connected through a powerful being known as Midnar. The dreams and nightmares of people in our world affect Gothos (a good example is the adventure "Suffer the Children" in the book, Of Places Most Foul). This unique concept also allows the players to take Dream feats to affect play during the game (think "Hero points").

2) The Gothos timeline is broken up into cycles that are determined by how far apart Gothos and Earth are from one another. The further away, the less effect a dreamer has on Gothos. If you do not like the horror aspect, just have your game during the Time of Peace.

3) Epic, blood and blight magic add a new twist to your game. Epic is for those high-level NPCs that should be thwarted and not killed. Blood and blight magic are new ways to get more powerful in a shorter amount of time. Oh, but the cost is high... (On a side note, I would probably only allow NPCs to use blood and blight magic.)

4)1 4 main gods, 4 outcast gods, 10 demi-human/monster gods, 4 pagan gods and some saints that PCs can take as a Patron.

5) 10 lands that are detailed to some degree in the main book. Each land is based on a culture from history. The website has a more detailed description of Dunreth (similar to medieval Scotland-16 pages). My personal favorites are Kirkland (Germany) and Romanus (Rome).

5) Some great epic villains. Ithganin (The Infernal Emperor) is a devil who rules a nation named after himself. The Ice Queen is a relentless foe from the north.

6) 5 new core classes and 9 new prestige classes. Out of the core classes, I liked the White Witch and Shaman (you could substitute Green Ronin's or Mongoose's versions if you like). The Samurai, Merchant and Centurion would need a little work for me to use them (nothing too drastic). The PrCs are decent enough with the Inquisitor and Seeker being notable.

7) Human Culture Racial traits (think regional feats from FR). 2 new races, the Canites (humanoid canines) and the Werefaynoddin (a race of elves).

8) A place for Freeport (off the coast of Gildor) and Bluffside (in Kirkland).

9) A calendar and list of the days of the week to finish things off.

TH:ROE is quite unique with just enough of the familiar to make you think you've seen it before, but when you get up close, it isn't what you expected (in a good way).

Pax,

Morpheus