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

[Eosin the Red]

An alternitive to Bluffside or Freeport would be Geneavue in KoK.
It is doesn't have any of the geographical requirements that the other two do.

It is stand alone providing you a base that would not hamper your homebrew. After running a few adventures there you should have a feel for what you want.

 

[Morpheus]

One Last Pitch for The Hunt: Rise of Evil

The core rulebook is a whopping $19.95...You can't beat that.

 

[Wicht]

Re: The choice narrows...

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.)

Kalamar is the perfect medium magic world. The Campaign book features no characters over 20th level and the major movers and shakers of the world are not necessarily high level. The gods certainly play an important role but most magic-users are rare and as likely to be mistaken for divine casters as anything else. Wizards are present, but most of them are presented as lore-masters or villains, not as "Elminster types. In my current campaign, non of the players are arcane casters. Kalamar is fairly flexible though in regards to magic and your style of wizards could easily fit in.

 

[MEG Hal]

First I emailed Doug to drop by and tell you about "The Hunt", but here is info about Bluffside:

Nearly 200 years after its founding, Bluffside looks over the bay below, confident in its power; power brought about from adamantine. The otherworldly metal permeates the surrounding mountains, brought to the world nearly 200,000 years ago by an asteroid that tore a portal between the prime material plane and the plane of shadow and nearly annihilated the world's civilizations. The ruins here are alive with the ghosts of the ancients.

Bluffside uses Sordadon, a city floating in the bay below, to dominate sea trade in the area. The connection between Bluffside and Sordadon is through Undercity, a vast series of underground passageways that extend off into the unknown. From temples to mining to adventuring, Bluffside has something for every adventurer.

Bluffside is the first in our line of truly modular sourcebooks. Designed to be easily dropped into any middle fantasy setting, Bluffside promises to become the center of your campaign. Over 100 places of interest (POI), along with corresponding NPCs and adventure hooks, give life to the city and allow the GM to jump right in.

But that's not all! Bluffside also contains new races, prestige classes, magical items, spells, feats, domains, and much, much more. Jammed packed and ready to run, Bluffside will change the way all city sourcebooks will be made in the future.

It is 144 pages crammed with over 100 POI's(places of interest) and over 100 NPC's to make this a truly living city, a pullout map with NO detail so the players have to explore the city not just state "I want to go to #14 next" and is the most detailed RRG city to date with expansions for each section coming in 2003 and the http://fancc.org City on the Edge: Bluffside free netbook, with over 20new POI's for each section. As well as specific adventures based in the city as well as all of our regional sourcebooks start you from it (or any major city) so you always have a homebase!

Free maps and goodies always being loaded in the password protected vault as well.

It is generic enough to use in any setting that is mid-fantasy but has and will have specific places in The Hunt: Rise of Evil as well as settings from Troll Lords, Dark Portal, MEG, Fiery Dragon.

Ok, enough from me.....

 

[Mystic Eye]

What Can I say, Napftor, Morhpeus and a few others gave great descriptions to the Hunt. There is also the on-line support. The Dunreth Gazatteer is posted for free for owners and adds 15 or so more pages of detail to that nation. We are working on the others now as well as some other tid bits.

The cyclical nature of the world makes it very flexible to your playing style while still making sense. We have also given a great thematic way to introduce things like say "Jack the Ripper" into the world and have that make sense as well, through Mindar and the dream relationship to earth.
All of the cultures are a twisted version of earth cultures (as if filtered through dreams, etc) so they are familiar but different. An example is the Romanus Empire. It has the look and feel of the old roman empire of earth but in their history they betrayed their gods and moved towards science and magic. At that time the empire was invaded from below by the Drow with the power of their evil goddess. The war was terrible and in the end the Romanus won but the Drow queen cursed them to forever carry the seed of the drow in their blood. Since the Romanus abandoned their faith they had no defense against the curse and now they are an odd hibrid of drow traits and roman culture, forver trying to seek forgiveness from their gods. They are now so strong in their faith that they are the mighty core of the Church called the Pantheon, or the Church united.

Well, I could write about it all day. The various classes, feats, etc were designed to fit into Gothos but can be used elswhere and the ability to tie into earth dreamers and bond a player to his or her character add a ton of flavor.

One of the best ways to learn more is to pop by our site at http://www.mysticeyegames.com and cruise around. There are also many reviews that can be found on The Hunt. Several here as well as other places.

It is a big world so if you have any specific questions please fire away and I will see if I can help you.

 

[Mystic Eye]

**Bump**

In the event that bloodymage did not see this.

 

[bloodymage]

**Bump**

In the event that bloodymage did not see this.

I'm definitely keeping up with it. I'm ruminating

Took a look at the reviews for Freeport and Bluffside. I may have had that backwards. Freeport wouldn't do at all to drop in as Port o' Sea but Bluffside could work as Kyria. Freeport might work as the core of my 15-island pirate kingdom, the Kingdom of the Ivory Pearl. After investigation, FP seems a little cheesy tho.

One thing about the info from you Mystic Eye folks. I'm interested in "fluff" (groan!), not "crunch" (groan again!). Your comments about the nature of the world entice, but the 3e bits are useless to me. I'll be running 1e.

I do appreciate all the help everyone has given me on this. I've yet to make a decision and I'll keep an eye here for any more info that pops up. Here's my order of thinking right now:
1) Homebrew with CC2 (gotta learn how to use it! -- time)
2) Homebrew with Bluffside
3) Kalamar
4) The Hunt

Might take a while, but I'll let you all know what I come up with. Thanks again.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Well, whatever you choose, just have fun with it!

I would like to throw in a few more points about the Kingdoms of Kalamar and, specifically, the "Geanavue" city supplement. Of course, be sure to check the "reviews" section to get some other opinions...

The only two negative comments I've seen against Geanavue are that:
1) it's not a "roguish" city full of obvious dangers, monsters, riots, and so on.
2) some people say that the names (in the Reanaarian language, one of many different languages in the KoK setting) are hard to pronouce. It's just like the real world, though - after all, how easy is it for the average American to speak Japanese?

Otherwise, you get:
- 208 pages of useful background, npc profiles and stats, maps, rumors, a full glossary, artwork and campaign details
- well over 100,000 words detailing hundreds of noble houses, guilds, inns, taverns, NPCs, spells as well as a beautiful 2-sided poster-sized map of Geanavue (city on one side, undercity/sewer system on the other)

Geanavue is a haven of peace and prosperity, but one that, for the unwary, can be just as deadly as the monster-haunted hills. In my opinion, it would also be very easy to drop into any homebrew world.

And remember, even if you decide to run homebrew, the KoK campaign setting will provide you with dozens of individual towns and cities, and hundreds of plot hooks!

Mark Plemmons
Kenzer and Company
www.kenzerco.com

 

[bloodymage]

And the winner is...!

Told all I'd let you know which way I decided to go. I just ordered Kingdoms of Kalamar, Geanevue and Bluffside. I'm still looking at The Hunt, thinking of incorporating some of its innovations, probably on Ert, my homebrew. Doing it this way allows me to develop Ert properly and not feel rushed about.

Thanks to all for your help and insights. The EN community was invaluable in helping me make an informed decision. Thanks again.

 

[kenjib]

I am glad I could help you. I am sure everything will turn out great. I hope yoiu have a great campaign!