Why is the Scarred Lands Setting so popular?

Fenros said:
Wow. Thankyou everyone for the awesome responses. I think I'm starting to get where Scarred Lands is coming from. Still not sure what you guys mean when you mention Gods vs. Titans. But I think I can fill in the blanks.


Gods are basically divine entities capable of grants spells and dependent (well most of them, Vangal being the lone exception), on worshippers. Titans are basically forces of Scarn/nature given some level of sentience and being. They are not god but are god-like in power.

Fenros said:
Okay, so maybe I'll give this setting a shot. Where do you start? Is there an over-all world book? Like the way Forgotten Realms has one? And then they go into area specific books? Which book is the core book? Or the first book?


I recommend starting with the Scarred Lands Campaign Setting: Ghelspad. This will give you a feel for the place. After that, Relics and Rituals 1 and 2 then Creature Collection 2. (Wait for Creature Collection Revised to fill the need for CC1.)

Fenros said:
I don't mind authors basing core concepts of their dieties on established dieties from Earth religions. But my tastes (and I know its a personal thing) tend to not like my fantasy settings that include "our Earth" in it. Unless.....unless that's the main core concept behind the over all storyline. Like I guess, "Nine Princes in Amber" or "Guardians of the Flame" series. That's okay. Because that's the established setting that's woven into the main storyline.

But with fantasy gaming (most of the time). I want the setting to having nothing to do with our reality. It is a setting that has its own plane of existence/dimension/universe. Nothing where our own real world folklore, myths, or religions cross over. I don't want to meet Hercules, Buddha, Thor, or Horus. Know what I mean?

Don't think you have to worry about. While there might be a few striking similiarities to Greeco-romanesque panethons, the difference are far more striking, especially when you look at the gods as whole.
 

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Adlon said:


To get a good, inexpensive look into Scarred Lands, I strongly suggest the Ghelspad Gazeteer. IT's a 9$ mini-world book, and is one of the best buys around. IT will give you a good solid look at the campaign setting as a whole, and you WILL get an in depth feel for how the CS works.

After that, as you can see, there is a plethora of sourcebooks/suppliments for the CS, including the Hardbound main campaign setting book.

While not to disway anyone, I would add the Gaz for Ghelspad is more of a primer for players and DMs wanting to get their feet wet. Those wanting to know a lot more real fast, go for the SLCS: Ghelspad. :)
 


Just to tell ya'll, I flaked out today. (Grrr ... thanks Nightfall ;D)

Broke down and got the Gazateer, Ghelspad, Divine & Defeated, Mithril, Burok Torn - City under Siege, Secrets & Societies, and the Wise & Wicked (added to my previous collection of SL books RR2, CC2 and Hollowfaust). I essentially cleared out my store.
 

Azure Trance said:
Just to tell ya'll, I flaked out today. (Grrr ... thanks Nightfall ;D)

Broke down and got the Gazateer, Ghelspad, Divine & Defeated, Mithril, Burok Torn - City under Siege, Secrets & Societies, and the Wise & Wicked (added to my previous collection of SL books RR2, CC2 and Hollowfaust). I essentially cleared out my store.

;) Glad I could convert so well on such short notice. ;) If you have any questions Azure, you know where to find me.
 

new books

so when you get a chance tell us what you think, I would especially be interested in the wise and the wicked book Sounds like a cleric book) but I have not heard anything about that one yet so do tell.
 

Bought it

I just wanted to say that the comments on this thread got me into buying Ghelspad campaing setting. I appreciate the comments made here.
 


There already a lot of good points regarding the Scarred Lands in this thread, but I would like to add a thing or two nonetheless.
I had been DMing a campaign in the scarred lands since last spring, and I find it very enjoyable.
One of the things I like best is that the whole campaign is united by a common theme. While a lot of other campaigns feel like a patchwork, you always get the feeling that every place within the scarred lands does has it's place and it's connection to the rest of the world. So, even though there is a great diversity within the world, with places as different from each other as the necromancer city Hollowfaust, the empire of Calastia or the Blood Sea, which is tainted by the blood of the Titan Khardum, it all fits together. This diversity that is nonetheless connected by a common feeling makes the world very enjoyable, and helps building up suspension of disbelief.
Furthermore, the Scarred Lands have a very rich mythology. You get the feeling that the designers assigned a higher priority to mythology and legends than to numbers, statistics and cold hard facts. This feels exactly right for me. After all, I enjoy fantasy- and this fantasy comes to life if I can get a feel for all the fantastical elements. Details about economical background, demographics, etc., while interesting, come secong.
This is also one of the reasons why the Scarred Lands sourcebookds are such a fun read- reading them, I found many, many secrets, mysteries, adventure hooks, etc. Just reading the first gazetter for instance made me want to DM this campaign setting.
Speaking of secrets- have I mentioned that often you are left in the dark when it comes to some details of the world? You are, and that is a good thing. Reading the books, you get enough hints regarding what happened to the Slarecians (a mysterious species of the past), and what they were all about, but you never learn everything- leaving you enough space for your imagination to run wild.
Furthermore, there are a lot of elements about the scarred lands which are truly unique to it and which can be found in no other setting- the blood sea, the Slitheren (my new favorite Specie) and many other elements come to mind.
The sourcebooks are well written, and many of them offer enough material to run an entire campaign on. One example would be the Mithril sourcebook, which doesn't only give informations about the city itself, but also about the very complex surroundings, like the blood sea and the plains of Lede. Believe me, leafing through it, you will find tons of adventure hooks, ranging from city-intrigue, to social interaction with Orc, to downright dungeon-crawling.

Well, so much for now, I gotta go back to work. Incidentally, I would like to pimp my Scarred Lands story hour as well: You can read my personal campaign logs so far there- just click on my link. :)
 

Yes do check out Lars' story hour folks! It's really good! :)

San, Wise and the Wicked is kind of a who's who in the Scarred Lands (Though some of it will have to fixed, since there were a few errors. Calastia fixed Anteas, since they didn't have a Calastian Battlemage Pr-class. They also edited one of his items (his battleblade) to match the rules more closely. The others, Virduk and Geleeda),they only made a few minor insignificant changes (most to the roleplaying notes.)

Beholder, hope you enjoy it! :) If you have questions, comments, concerns, let me know.
 

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