Would You Buy This Game?

[Guillaume]

I find the concept interesting and would probably take a look at the work, I doubt I would actually end up buying it. I currently run my games in a homebrew and plan on sticking to it for a long time to come. If I change my mind, playing in the Inferno is not at the top of my list, since I tend to use published adventures alot, and the setting would call for major revisions of these.

All and all, I'm intrigued but I doubt I would fork the money for it.

 

[talien]

Hardcover

Most setting books tend to get pretty thick and thick books work best as hardcover. Also, most setting books are hardcovers, Rise of Evil is the only one I can think of that isn't.

Hi Crothian,

I agree, the book will be best served as a hardcover. It was originally printed as a softcover, but the content has roughly doubled the size of the book. There's a lot of rich setting information in Abyss that wasn't explored. Now it's being fleshed out.

One thing I forgot to add was ".pdf". I tried to edit the poll but it wouldn't let me. Oh well, lesson learned.

 

[Greybar]

The fact that is covers only a third of Dante's work (Il Inferno) makes me less apt to buy it. Perhaps if you covered Heaven and Purgatory as well...

Well, the expansion books are all lined up...

Dante doesn't suck, and neither does this setting or its authors, but it isn't one I'd probably buy.

John

 

[Ysgarran]

I didn't vote because if falls into a definate 'maybe' category for me. I love reading different people's worlds and have a pretty wide selection of different campaign worlds.

OTOH, my games tend to run into more of a grey area in terms of alignment. It is hard to determine an NPCs motivations. Detect Alignment will only work on outsiders, creatures without free will and those strongly aligned with a power (i.e. very high level clerics). The kind of world you describe here doesn't seem to fit in well with the kind of game I like to run.

Much depends on what else is on the market at the time. Limited budgets and all...

Ysgarran.

 

[Vaxalon]

* 17 new races, including centaurs, minotaurs, stygians, erynies, and succubi.

How are any of the listed races "New"?

 

[arwink]

I'm a no, but not because I think Dante sucks. I just have to be really, really impressed by something as off the wall as this to want to buy it. If I had the discretionary cash to pick it up as something to read but not play, I'd be ready to lay it down.

 

[talien]

Abyssal Possibilities

See, I love Dante, but I have minimal interest in this setting in hardcover or softcover (and because of your poll, I had to vote that "Dante sucks" — that hurts, man ). It seems like it could be interesting, but something about the blurb puts me off (can't put my finger on it). I'd really have to see it — I probably would buy it sight unseen in a couple of .pdfs, but I'm a .pdf junkie, so...

Understood. Honestly, I was trying to be funny. Seems I actually offended some people.

The blurb doesn't really do the book justice. To be fair, the book is still largely being planned so it's a little rough.

Here's some things that might help:
*This book would be a lot more like Ravenloft than "yet another game setting." You can easily inset it when an evil party dies, one evil character dies, or a dimensional rift sucks them in. Then they have to get out. Or perhaps, this is what they deal with until they are resurrected.
* This book is also a lot like Manual of the Planes. It's meant to be its own cosmography. Now granted, it's not your typical cosmography. But it's certainly different -- many of the pagan gods now dwell on Limbo. It's the "normal" layer players are familiar with for a typical foreign plane of existence.
* This book can easily be like the Book of Vile Darkness in that it's great for DMs to flesh out their villains beyond "he's a demon from this plane." Now you have specific classes, races, locations they come from.

So in short, I see the Abyss setting has a lot of possibilities as opposed to "I just published my fantasy campaign world and I want you to play in it."

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Originally posted by talien
Understood. Honestly, I was trying to be funny. Seems I actually offended some people.

No beef here. I wasn't offended, your poll just seemed incomplete. Thanks for putting out more information. I'm not sure that it changes anything (as I said before, I'd probably have to see it), but it's always good to have more information.

Best,
tKL

 

[Darke]

I do have the original Abyss Book - have to take a look again to decide but I never played the old game so I think I would pass.

das Darke

 

[talien]

Planescape

But I have it...somewhere, not d20, picked it up at GENCON a few years ago.

It could make for a alternative to Planescape.

Yes, I agree. To expand on my cosmography comments above:

Each part of the Abyss is a circle. The circles are detailed enough that they're really mini-planes, each with its own weather, environmental effects, monsters, and a variety of terrains. So for example, Limbo is wild and overgrown where Auberon and Titania rule, while Nocturne is the home of Queen of Lust. Glout is akin to a festering wound, guarded by Ceberus. Dis is a city of burning metal and the home of the Geryon, the elite guardsmen who keep the Abyss from devolving into complete anarchy.

The Abyss provides a place for demons and devils to coexist. Each circle has different denizens and the more lawful ones strive to keep order lest the Divine Wrath be brought down upon them. There's plenty of room for a variety of character types. It can be an exceptionally deep (pardon the pun) adventuring environment as well as a great place to stop and move on.