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| terraleon |
 Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 16 Jan 2008
Posts: 2016
Location: upstate NY
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mmmmm...
Exalted.
*shake*blink*blink*
Sorry, just having a flavor flashback to the delicious creamy goodness of Creation...
Regarding 3/4E, I think this could be done. It would require some finagling, but I've got some ideas. And since this would be an arc where you're retiring the characters afterwards, breaking some rules would be expected...
-Ben.
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 2:18 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 16 Jan 2008
Posts: 2016
Location: upstate NY
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| Aberzanzorax wrote: |
| I'd be interested in their answer if you get one! |
I did get a response from Rich Rowan. He said:
"No, it was never released. The writing was completed (96p), it has cover art, but it was never typeset nor had the interior art ordered."
which makes me suspicious of the copy on Amazon...I did send a message to that seller and asked some additional details about the product. We'll see what they say. It could be the "review copy" sent to Gamer Report, and that would explain a lot of the paucity of description the entry has.
-Ben.
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| Aberzanzorax |
| Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 3:39 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 01 Jul 2008
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Very interesting!
Too bad the original was never released. I wonder if it would be worth doing that bit of finishing up for the pdf market?
As I gather it's the sequel to Gryphon's Legacy, I really wouldn't mind seeing that at all.
As for the godlings and followers (apostles? It needs a better word than followers) I also have a bit more hammered out mechanics-wise, but I'll hold off on flooding this thread with my ideas for now. |
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 4:46 am Post subject: |
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| Aberzanzorax wrote: |
| Too bad the original was never released. I wonder if it would be worth doing that bit of finishing up for the pdf market? |
We'll see if he agrees. I've made the offer, but if "Zombie Wood: Open Design" gets picked up by the Patrons, then I won't be able to participate so as to ensure no cross-pollenization occurs.
-Ben.
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| Aberzanzorax |
| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 01 Jul 2008
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Ideally?
I'd love to see Zombie Wood done as is (and finalized). As far as Open Design, I don't think there is a lot to gain on the patrons sinking their (our) teeth into a mostly finished manuscript, or even in taking a mostly finished product from the ground up.
Note that I'm not at all opposed to a well done ZOMBIEPOCALYPSE!!!
But, if there's all this work done out there, why not polish it off, sell it as a PDF, and create something new (even making the other a prequel a la evil dead versus evil dead 2...i.e. basically the same thing, but with important aesthetic and thematic differences. OR better yet, release Zombie Wood IN TANDEM with this...maybe similar to the Gazeteer???? The publicly available prequel to the REAL terror in the forest/wood/*cough* Army of Darkness.)
I guess what I'm really saying is to "Think Smart. Think S-Mart."
OR!
One other option could be making Zombie Wood available as a Pathfinder Licensed Adventure.
It has one customer, for sure (HINT, HINT)...Especially discounted from $180.
It'll be a STEAL! |
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| varianor |
| Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:20 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 602
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I've been pondering this for a while. First, I have to say that I tend to agree that while the idea of the "neogods" adventure is cool, D&D is not the optimal system for it. Second, I agree that Open Design isn't the format for it. The system of conditions that attach to figure out the adventure (a flowchart would be easier) grows exponentially with every higher level ability.
That said, I think the kernel of the idea has some real merit. What about an adventure in the realm of the gods. Or _a_ realm of the gods? Heck, even a pocket dimension ruled by a retired god or a powerful divine servant hiding out from his master? Set it with an access point in Zobeck and that would be really cool.
Because I have to say that at the end of the day one of the things that really attracted me to OD was the setting. |
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| Neal |
| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:58 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 19 Dec 2008
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Location: Baton Rouge
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If we decide to go the extra-planar route, is there a compelling reason that we can't use Beyond Countless Doorways as the road guide to how the planes are organized in Zobeck-land?
I stole that splatbook from one of my players 5ish years ago, and won't be parted from it. It's seriously awesome - and since Wolfgang and some of the contributing editors of KQ/OD wrote it under the OGL I'd think it's fair game.
Or what about real steampunk? Iron Kingdoms is basically dead, and aside from Scarrport there hasn't been much on the steampunk front. I would be very interested in (say) "Rusted Heart of the Clockwork God" or a D&D-meets-Shadowrun political conspiracy adventure that takes us through the steam-powered planar gate recently built by the Zobeck steamworkers guild.
Anything China Mieville/Alan Campbell influenced, really.
-neal
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| varianor |
| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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Ironically, I once wrote an adventure called The Clockwork God. 
Mieville/Campbell influence is cool. BCD is a good supplement for planar stuff certainly. |
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| hedgeknight |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:34 am Post subject: |
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Not a huge fan of plane jumping...and I'm talking about D&D extra-planar travel, not skydiving. 
But...I could get on board for a Zobeckian (is that a word?) creation of sorts.
I also like Neal's steampunk idea - that would be a challenging, and I think, rewarding project.
Other ideas would be an arctic adventure or even a sea/underwater adventure.
Just thoughts.
Oh, and I am delving into Griffon's Legacy this summer to run it in the Fall as a kick off to my next campaign. Very excited about it! |
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| Dan Voyce |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:41 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 04 Dec 2008
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Hey all
| Neal wrote: |
| If we decide to go the extra-planar route, is there a compelling reason that we can't use Beyond Countless Doorways as the road guide to how the planes are organized in Zobeck-land? |
Funilly enough Neal, I pitched pretty much exactly this idea as an option for the next OD... an exploration of the Zobeck's planes in the style of Countless Doorways, hitting the high points of the Zobeck mythos - Courts of the Shadow Fey, the Gear Plane, Mammon and the Goddess of Night & Magic etc etc that you could insert into an existing cosmology.
Although I was originally talking about a gazetteer, there's no reason it couldn't be turned into a plane-jumping adventure of the demi-god kind mentioned earlier... or heavilly steampunk it up with with the Gear Planes, automatons, and gearforged.
| terraleon wrote: |
| if "Zombie Wood: Open Design" gets picked up by the Patrons, then I won't be able to participate so as to ensure no cross-pollenization occurs. |
We'll just have to rely on your awesome playtester skills then |
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| Aberzanzorax |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:47 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 01 Jul 2008
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Oh YEAH!
I would SO be on board for that Dan Voyce. |
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| Dan Voyce |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:54 am Post subject: |
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Yup, I think it would be pretty awesome.
Here's hoping we can convince some other folks too! |
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| Neal |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:58 pm Post subject: |
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If OD does end up doing an extra-planar deal, I strongly suggest we avoid epic levels - for 3.5e, the complexity of doing the necessary statblocks will sacrifice needed page count for flavor, story and more. Paizo's latest RPG Superstar kind of demonstrated the danger of dealing with this stuff, and it's a lesson I hope we take to heart.
Though this is less of a problem with the 4e rules, it's still a real problem - and I wouldn't want to see us have to cut down on art and maps to accommodate unwieldy stat blocks. I suspect a planes-hopping adventure that hits levels 10-13 in 3.X and 15-17 in 4e would allow us to get the "epic" feel without dealing with the print realities of doing what the systems errantly define as epic.
Then again, it's not my call. I've told Wolfgang how much I enjoy editing Open Design's patronage projects and wouldn't be surprised to find out I'll be working on this one, too, when the time comes.
But my intuition is that the fun of a patronage project isn't spending hours working through statblocks that possess all the charm of an algebra equation - it's in creating cool things. Any idea that allows patrons to do the latter instead of the former is a good idea in my book.
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| Zherog |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:34 pm Post subject: |
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Are you implying algebra equations aren't charming?
(All kidding aside, as much as I like my stat blocks, high level - even pre-epic levels - are insanely complicated and large, and would rather save the space for the cool factor.)
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| Neal |
| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Zherog wrote: |
Are you implying algebra equations aren't charming?
(All kidding aside, as much as I like my stat blocks, high level - even pre-epic levels - are insanely complicated and large, and would rather save the space for the cool factor.) |
I wouldn't be quite as anti-epic statblocks if the amount of effort that goes into creating epic critters actually produced EPIC critters. 4e has fixed this (some, but not enough) - but I cashed out of the whole "epic adventure" concept when I saw D20 stats for Cthulhu.
I love/hate Exalted's rules (for all the usual reasons), but at least Exalted can create epic villains that feel epic.
Maybe REIGN could do this sort of thing well - Stoltze's Unknown Armies boasted a system that created epic villains with aplomb....
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