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| Wolfgang |
 Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:40 pm Post subject: Lords of Lost Arbonesse |
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Kobold Overlord
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 4990
Location: The Mines
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Lords of Lost Arbonnesse
This pitch was originally titled Lords of Lost Atlantis, as a placeholder name to suggest where it is headed. Lords is an island/water adventure, somewhere between pure Indiana-Jones pulp and pulp Cthulhu style. Lots of room for player heroics on an epic scale, raising/sinking a small continent. As a real wrath-of-the-gods type adventure, I'd expect major sea monsters, deadly terrain elements, lost islands with mysterious temples, hints of a cataclysm in forbidden lore, demonic involvement, the corruption of a great culture and perhaps an artifact or lost tech in there somewhere. A storm and shipwreck seem almost a requirement though that will be tough with high-level PCs.
The plots feature large-scale seaborne and undersea elements as the party goes to a lost continent and the deepest, blackest portions of the ocean, where the Mythos creatures are waiting.... Or perhaps its more a matter of the sahuagin king and other threats to health and sanity. The adventure concludes with some high-stakes bargaining with the Deep Ones, aboleth, or Mer-Kings, to decide the fate of a land lost to the sea and the souls of everyone who drowned with it.
Length of about 50,000 words (about ~70 pages), plus four design essays on the Mythos, horror, epic play, etc.
Senior patrons can suggest major monster set-pieces and create the trap-puzzle elements, in addition to generally suggesting monsters, themes, and plots as the mood strikes them.
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Wolfgang Baur
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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Kobold Overlord
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
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Location: The Mines
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So, how MUCH Mythos would be too much? I think just a seasoning encounter or two would be enough.
Also, this pitch assumes that something like the Sinister Adventures Death Beneath the Waves mini-rules would be part of the game. I think seafaring and underwater have been done badly far too often. Time to put some serious thought into making those adventures as much fun as, oh, Errol Flynn in Captain Blood, or Indiana Jones doing his thing in Atlantis.
Finally, though I keep talking about the ocean, this adventure does have a serious land-based portion as well.
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Wolfgang Baur
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| Watcher |
| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Wolfgang wrote: |
So, how MUCH Mythos would be too much? I think just a seasoning encounter or two would be enough.
Also, this pitch assumes that something like the Sinister Adventures Death Beneath the Waves mini-rules would be part of the game. I think seafaring and underwater have been done badly far too often. Time to put some serious thought into making those adventures as much fun as, oh, Errol Flynn in Captain Blood, or Indiana Jones doing his thing in Atlantis.
Finally, though I keep talking about the ocean, this adventure does have a serious land-based portion as well. |
I think you just hit upon something with the last sentence. When these three proposals were batted around by the Senior Patrons (and before Nicholas Logue unvieled Sinister Adventures) I was a heavy advocate of the undersea adventure. I love the idea.
But upon thinking and refining what about it appeals, I think what I would really like is something more of an undersea campaign setting. A setting that would be completely water AND land based right from the start. No just going underwater when the obligatory level was high enough to warrant magical water breathing resources.
That's something you don't see every day, if ever. A completely new frontier unmatched by anything save something like Planescape.
And therein lies the problem. We're given the impression of an undersea world, whose encounter level seems based on the level of the party that can survive in the hostile environmental conditions. There are no low levels under the seas. 
(Actually I'm sure someone has probably attempted this, and I'm not exactly an encyclopedia of DnD RPG supplements- but if so, I've never heard it mentioned before).
And it's completely out of the scope of what you're proposing unless you modified it to something like 6AN.. with a setting and some adventures interspaced across some levels. With an entire campaign setting, you can add your Mythos, Mystery, Horror, and Wonder and Beauty.. and politics.
Such an arc of adventures would almost certainly required a pre-defined race that could work with both environments. Yet that is workable, because many adventuring parties can be of a single race, particularly humans.
I'm not trying to lobby that you change the proposal Wolfgang, I'm just sort of sounding what I find attractive about the idea as I write.
And maybe I am talking myself out of this idea, since the proposal isn't exactly what has me excited...
If this doesn't come to pass, will you keep this idea (and my proposed variant on it) in your files for future consideration?
Innercaine / Watcher |
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| varianor |
| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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That would be cool. I've run underwater adventures with "surface dwellers" and it gets very frustrating if you apply the DMG rules. You have to give them special ways to get under the water, and move around, and so forth. It's fun, but tough for them.
I like the idea a lot. However, it seems the least well blurbed of the lot and the vaguest. Certainly if it were expanded a bit more as Watcher suggests, that might give it a ton of appeal. You are absolutely correct that few of the "ocean" books out there address D&D campaign issues when you're on the waves. |
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| Watcher |
| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 5:35 am Post subject: |
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| varianor wrote: |
That would be cool. I've run underwater adventures with "surface dwellers" and it gets very frustrating if you apply the DMG rules. You have to give them special ways to get under the water, and move around, and so forth. It's fun, but tough for them.
I like the idea a lot. However, it seems the least well blurbed of the lot and the vaguest. Certainly if it were expanded a bit more as Watcher suggests, that might give it a ton of appeal. You are absolutely correct that few of the "ocean" books out there address D&D campaign issues when you're on the waves. |
Yay! I am glad to see the support! 
Yes, for future consideration I'd like to suggest an underwater campaign setting which is comparable to 6AN, in that it's fully amphibion right from level one! |
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| Valmiras |
| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 10:34 am Post subject: |
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I really look forward to this project (wait for it) re-surfacing in the future.
I think it sounds awesome. |
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| cgplayer2000 |
| Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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| The requirements of an underwater adventure argue for a fairly high level affair. Having the means to survive without air for a significant period of time is, of course, a fundamental requirement. I like the idea a lot, and was planning for such a series of modules in my home Forgotten Realms campaign based on the rules in Stormwrack. I recently changed directions, and won't be headed that way. However, I've looked over the Sinister Adventures rules (and Dajobas) and I like the looks of them. Presumably this would be a 3.5e adventure? |
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| ve4grm |
| Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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| cgplayer2000 wrote: |
| The requirements of an underwater adventure argue for a fairly high level affair. Having the means to survive without air for a significant period of time is, of course, a fundamental requirement. |
Actually, it doesn't really need you to be high level.
All it needs is a MacGuffin.
This can be a ritual cast on the party by the quest-giver, or a set of magical rings that allow for water breathing under certain conditions.
It could even be that the specific area they're in is enchanter with a permanent Water Breathing spell that affects only that area. (Which would be interesting if the party reached the edge of it.) |
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| varianor |
| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:11 am Post subject: |
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| Correct. I wrote some low-level underwater adventures a while back that explicitly had a huge, imbedded magic item that gave water breathing to the party. (It was huge so they couldn't move it around at their convenience.) |
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| Watcher |
| Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:28 am Post subject: |
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| varianor wrote: |
| Correct. I wrote some low-level underwater adventures a while back that explicitly had a huge, imbedded magic item that gave water breathing to the party. (It was huge so they couldn't move it around at their convenience.) |
Or.. and underwater race (aquatic elves), if the party was amiable to a somewhat defined campaign setting. |
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| cgplayer2000 |
| Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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| varianor wrote: |
| Correct. I wrote some low-level underwater adventures a while back that explicitly had a huge, imbedded magic item that gave water breathing to the party. (It was huge so they couldn't move it around at their convenience.) |
All true...I withdraw my comment about the necessity for it being a high level encounter.
The sahuagin are intriguing, and I'd be interested to see what could be done with those. The Eberron campaign setting has a non-traditional role for sahuagin that makes them kind of interesting. Combining sahuagin with horror, a mist-shrouded secluded island home with a lighthouse (of course) and a mystery that must be plumbed.... I like mysteries. |
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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Kobold Overlord
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
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Location: The Mines
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Sorry about the thread necromancy, but it occured to me that the Old Azlant hook in the PATHFINDER Chronicles writeup of Varisia is a perfect tie-in for this in a fantasy campaign.
So, I posted about that over at the Paizo forums and then realized I'd rather discuss it here.
Pathfinder licensed Open Design project: Threat or menace?
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Wolfgang Baur
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| Eyebite |
| Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 9:45 pm Post subject: |
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| An official Pathfinder licensed project sounds very interesting. |
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| Daigle |
| Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 11:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:55 am Post subject: |
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Kobold Overlord
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Well, I may be getting ahead of things. The Paizo folks have made it clear that some sort of license will be available for Pathfinder, but the terms of that license are (quite understandably) not yet available.
I'll talk to them about it next time I see them, and let folks know. I think the odds are quite good, depending.
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Wolfgang Baur
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