Since there are no new Dragonlance books coming anymore, I have decided to read the ones I never got around to read in the first place.
Yesterday, Amazon delivered the Eleven Nations Omnibus, which I am looking forward to reading. I like the work of Tonya C. Cook, Douglas Niles and Paul B. Thompson a lot, hopefully this book will live up to the expectations.
I haven’t had tine to watch the key note yet, but I thought I would show some support and post it to my blog.
The topic is “The Future of Dungeons & Dragons”, which I find pretty interesting. Hopefully I will have some positive comments after I watch the entire thing.
Despite claiming I was done with gaming, I have decided to renew my domain. If it is because I am reading the Lost Chronicles or something else remains unknown, but for some reason I can’t seem to let go of this RPG thing.
The funny thing is, that I was reading an article about D&D next, which was published on a Danish tech news site, and I made feel slightly optimistic about the future of our game.
Maybe I will even find a group one of these days.
RPGs aren’t quite dead yet, although I and others on the internet have proclaimed the demise of the once popular game. It turns out that the game is still quite popular.
I stumbled upon an article written by Paul Alexander Butler, who is a store manager, and who would know a heck of a lot more about the state of RPGs than little old me. Here’s a little snippet:
There are those who will tell you that traditional table top Role-Playing Games are dead. More often than not, you will hear this cry from brick-and-mortar retailers. They will point to the popularity of online games such as World of Warcraft. They will direct you to the proliferation of PDF sales and suggest that they have cannibalized hardcopy sales. They will hold up examples such as White Wolf publishing, who, for all intents and purposes, now only publishes print-on-demand. They bemoan the fact that DUNGEONS & DRAGONS has fallen from its pedestal of “best selling role playing game.”
Role-Playing Games are dead?
On behalf of myself, our Assistant Manager George, every gamer who turns out every Thursday night for Open RPG night, and the whole staff here at Games and Stuff, I respectfully say: Bullshit.
Source: Paul Alexander Butler @ Games and Stuff
The short version of this story is that I suck really badly. The second more interesting aspect is that RPGs aren’t really as dead as we might think. So why don’t we see Dragonlance, Greyhawk or Mystara material?
I suppose our good friends at Wizards of the Coast have decided it is not worth their time and energy to produce more material for these, or any other worlds, since the bottom line won’t benefit from it. I hold an MBA, so I know companies exist to make money and nothing else, however, I will also stipulate that there are ways to make money from these hitherto forgotten worlds.
Most likely I am dead wrong about this. Let’s face it, I have been dead wrong about a great many things in the past, but surely there must be some clever guy or girl at Wizards who can come up with a distribution model or something to make these worlds profitable again. Perhaps on a smaller scale than before, but still profitable none-the-less.
So, my little conversion project is moving a long steadily, but I seem to have hit a couple of problems here.
My first issue is; if you gain a level as an Alchemist for instance, do you also get a spell level, just like if you gained a wizard level? I am leaning towards a No, since the character will attain a special ability, which is pretty powerful.
The second issue is; when you reach Circle 3, you have access to two abilities. Now, do you get the both of them, or should I split them, and basically add more levels to the prestige class? I am leaning towards a Yes, since it will expand the class in terms of advancement, however, it violates the tradition of the Seven Secrets of Glantri, in the sense that there are all of a sudden more circles than the original five.
What do you guys think?
I was reading a post over at the Dragonlance Forums where one of the users talks about expanding the pantheon and that made be remember a project I started some years ago.
The idea was to collect all the weird references to other gods and entities and try to create a complete list of divine beings. Originally, I intended to create a list for Ansalon and one for Taladas, but as you can see below, I never quite finished it.
Continent of Ansalon
Gilean Knowledge N M
Ionthas* Nihilism E M
Mishakal Healing, beauty, life, blessing LG F
Paladine Hope, leadership, light, protection LG M
Reorx Weapons, technology N M
Sargonnas Revenge, destruction, fire LE M
Takhisis Night, hate, intrigue CE F
Branchala Music, forest, beauty NG M
Chemosh Nemesis, undead LE M
Chislev Nature, savagery CN F
Habbakuk Animals, sea, creation NG M
Hiddukel Greed, slavery, treason CE M
Kiri-Jolith War, courage, valor LG M
Lunitari Neutral magic N F
Majere Meditation, inspiration, control NG M/F
Morgion Disease, rot, weakness NE M
Nuitari Black magic LE M
Shinare Riches, freedom N F
Sirrion Change, fire N M
Solinari White magic LG M
Zeboim Sea, storms, jealousy CE F
Zivilyn Wisdom N M
Artha Greed, debauchery CE F
Daidlin Sea vegetation CG F
Jiathu’li Chaos, underworld, intrigue CE F
Kailthis Love, creation CG F
Raistlin* Loneliness, magic, excellence NE M
Randoril’thi Luck CG M
Tumarq Trade, crafts LG M
* These gods are singled out because unlike the rest of the pantheon they do not have any actual priests. They should be considered to be supplements to the gods in the core rule books. Below there is a thorough description of each of these gods.
Continent of Taladas
Taladas name Ansalonian name Perception
Paladine
Majere
Qu’uan Kiri-Jolith
Mislaxa Mishakal
Habbakuk
Branchala Not worshipped
Gilean
Zivilyn Aspect of Gilean
Sirrion
Shinare
Chislev
Reorx
Erestem Takhisis
Hith Hiddukel
Chemosh
Zeboim Not worshipped
Morgion
Sargonnas
Solis Solinari Magical force
Lunis Lunitari Magical force
Aengomis Nuitari Magical force
So, it turns out that I have some free time on my hands, and therefore I have decided to embark on another project, that might never come to fruition. I have started converting the Seven Secrets of Glantri into D&D 3.5 prestige classes.
Now, I am not a big rules guy as such, for me it has always been about the story and the role playing game. However, I love to gain a new level as much as the next guy, and I have always liked the concept of prestige classes. I think these classes allow the player to develop the character in new directions as the game moves forward, and that is always a plus.
I have been a huge Mystara fan for many years, and the Principalities of Glantri has always been my favorite Gazetteer. Since Bruce Heard started blogging I rediscovered that long lost game world, so I thought I would at least attempt to contribute a little bit. In order to avoid any copyright infringement I am not going to write a whole lot, you will have to find GAZ3 somewhere to do that I’m afraid. Of course, there’s always the author himself who might be persuaded to answer a question or two. I recommend heading over to his blog, it is really excellent.
Yeah yeah, I know, I am a fan boy.
So, I finally found the time to catch up on my reading, and my first book this summer is The Children of Hurin by J.R.R Tolkien.
The book has been edited by Tolkien’s son, since the author himself never finished it, however, that Tolkien feel is definitely there.
The book takes place during the Morgoth days and follows primarily Turin the son of Hurin and his life from cradle to the grave. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so you will just have to go read it yourself.
The book is quite dark and has some pretty horrendous aspects that rival that of the most know Greek tragedies, however, it is rather nice to be back in Tolkien’s Middleearth once again among orcs, elves and dragons.
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The Children of Hurin |
So, I have been a grumpy old man lately. Well, truth be told, I have been too old, too grumpy for too long. I have been complaining about the decline of roleplaying ranging from the lack of material to the lack of novels.
Well, no more. Who needs Wizards’ to support a world in order to play it? Who needs novels to keep the passion going? I don’t it seems.
Therefore, if there are any gamers around Roskilde, Denmark, who are interested in playing D&D shoot me an email. Ultimately I don’t care which rules or which world we use, but I do like Dragonlance and Mystara quite a bit. Greyhawk is also really good, but I have very little material about this world.
I prefer the focus to be on roleplaying and so much about the stats and levels. Call me old and grey, but I just don’t get a huge kick out of mindlessly killing orcs. Well, I do, but it needs to have some roleplaying flavor. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy killing orcs?
As for me, I am 37, married with children and all that. I have no idea who you are, but if you are old and funky like me I am sure we will hit it off. If you are younger, don’t be a stranger, I need your blood to sustain my vitality. Seriously, I don’t care about how old you are, as long as you are ready to roll the dice.