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Nov. 8th, 2003 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebitterguyOnce again: Written in March. Published never.
Did you ever stop and think about what kind of world you would need to live in for Dungeons and Dragons to make sense?
The game has certain quirks that require Dungeon Masters & Players to accept or ignore them in game. The presence of two and a half classes of arcane spellcasters, Charlemagnic paladins, templaresque clerics, pagan druids and Kung Fu-esque monks seem to be strangely incongruous, and indicate that a DM must be willing to trim what is not appropriate to his own game world.
The Scarred Lands, however, is a different story. "One of the biggest draws for the Scarred Lands is the fact that the traits that make D&D unique are given a reason, in-setting, for being there," explains Scarred Lands co-developer Joseph Carriker. "There is a reason clerics are different from druids. There is a reason why arcane spellcasters and armor don't get along. A lot of the assumptions about D&D that sometimes feel clunky in other settings fit quite nicely."
Scarn, the world that is host to the Scarred Lands setting, is a world where the eight gods (each of whom represents a point of the D&D alignment wheel) have overthrown their tyrannical titan parents. The Titanswar has had long lasting physical effects on Scarn, and the resultant hordes of Titanspawn also provide a rationale for the throngs of evil creatures that heroes are called upon to defeat.
He also feels the setting is designed to reward the player characters with more than just gold pieces and shiny new swords. "In the Scarred Lands, the PCs make a difference.
Many of the heroes of the setting become (heroes) because there is no one else to do it. If they don't take up sword and spell to keep their families and loved ones from being eaten by titanspawn, no one else will."
"Adventuring in the Scarred Lands is generally less about going out for fame and fortune and more about ensuring the survival of your people. The fame and fortune," he says with a smile," are just rewards."
"People like that when playing in the Scarred Lands. They like having their characters walk into town, with Titanspawn heads on the pommels of their saddles and people breathe a sigh of relief, rather than sneer at them as "those dirty adventurers" as is all too common in many other settings."
The Scarred Lands is one of the most strongly supported settings in print for Dungeons & Dragons. There have been two books of monsters (The Creature Collections), two books of spells and magic (Relics & Rituals and Relics & Rituals II), a book on the gods of the setting (The Divine & the Defeated), a soft cover Gazetteer and full hardcover sourcebook on the continent of Ghelspad, and adventure trilogy, as well as half a dozen books on various nations and cities across Ghelspad.
Sourcebooks will continue to be produced for the Scarred Lands setting. A revised version of the first Creature Collection will be released over the summer to coincide with the release of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, and a third Creature Collection, titled Savage Beastiary, is due for late 2003 with new monsters, including some from the third continent of Scarn, Asheraki.
"We want to continue giving everyone something they can use, such as the Creature Collection and Relics & Rituals books in the past and future."
"But, we also have a great fanbase that loves the setting itself, so we plan on giving them lots more of what they love about the setting."
Carriker is also developing a series of Player's Guides. The Players Guide series "is about giving players the tools to make their characters a more integral part of a setting."
"Though it is slanted towards the Scarred Lands (because you can't effectively describe such a thing without tangible and extensive examples), it is intended to be a toolkit for any D20 fantasy game."
The Player's Guides will allow players to get a strong sense of how their character fits into the game setting. "Helping players to explore the ways in which one aspect of their character (that is, the character class) is a part of the legacy and history of the setting, we might give them a better sense of "ownership" over that setting," he explains.
The Player's Guides will each cover multiple character types. "The first book is The Player's Guide to Wizards, Bards and Sorcerers, where we explore the legacies and traditions that have sprung up around the use of arcane magic in a setting."
Following that will be Player's Guides to Fighters & Barbarians, Clerics and Druids, Rangers and Rogues, and finally Monks and Paladins. Carriker explains the final pairing as "because both of those professions have two things in common - a very lawful outlook on life, and an absolute dedication to a higher ideal (that of "Truth and Justice" for the paladin, and the perfection of the mind, body and spirit for the monk)."
Each of the Player's Guides will be 160 pages and retail for $23.95.
Future supplements will continue to explore the fertile Scarred Lands setting. A full campaign setting detailing the continent of Termana will compliment the recently released Gazetteer, while sourcebooks will cover the Blood Bayou and Shelzar.
The tragic Forsaken Elves and the sinister Charduni Dwarves will be covered in more detail in The Faithful and Forsaken.
By combining an engaging setting with products that are very strong in their portability between settings, the Scarred Lands have proven to be the strongest third party setting for D&D, and should remain a popular setting for some time to come.
Did you ever stop and think about what kind of world you would need to live in for Dungeons and Dragons to make sense?
The game has certain quirks that require Dungeon Masters & Players to accept or ignore them in game. The presence of two and a half classes of arcane spellcasters, Charlemagnic paladins, templaresque clerics, pagan druids and Kung Fu-esque monks seem to be strangely incongruous, and indicate that a DM must be willing to trim what is not appropriate to his own game world.
The Scarred Lands, however, is a different story. "One of the biggest draws for the Scarred Lands is the fact that the traits that make D&D unique are given a reason, in-setting, for being there," explains Scarred Lands co-developer Joseph Carriker. "There is a reason clerics are different from druids. There is a reason why arcane spellcasters and armor don't get along. A lot of the assumptions about D&D that sometimes feel clunky in other settings fit quite nicely."
Scarn, the world that is host to the Scarred Lands setting, is a world where the eight gods (each of whom represents a point of the D&D alignment wheel) have overthrown their tyrannical titan parents. The Titanswar has had long lasting physical effects on Scarn, and the resultant hordes of Titanspawn also provide a rationale for the throngs of evil creatures that heroes are called upon to defeat.
He also feels the setting is designed to reward the player characters with more than just gold pieces and shiny new swords. "In the Scarred Lands, the PCs make a difference.
Many of the heroes of the setting become (heroes) because there is no one else to do it. If they don't take up sword and spell to keep their families and loved ones from being eaten by titanspawn, no one else will."
"Adventuring in the Scarred Lands is generally less about going out for fame and fortune and more about ensuring the survival of your people. The fame and fortune," he says with a smile," are just rewards."
"People like that when playing in the Scarred Lands. They like having their characters walk into town, with Titanspawn heads on the pommels of their saddles and people breathe a sigh of relief, rather than sneer at them as "those dirty adventurers" as is all too common in many other settings."
The Scarred Lands is one of the most strongly supported settings in print for Dungeons & Dragons. There have been two books of monsters (The Creature Collections), two books of spells and magic (Relics & Rituals and Relics & Rituals II), a book on the gods of the setting (The Divine & the Defeated), a soft cover Gazetteer and full hardcover sourcebook on the continent of Ghelspad, and adventure trilogy, as well as half a dozen books on various nations and cities across Ghelspad.
Sourcebooks will continue to be produced for the Scarred Lands setting. A revised version of the first Creature Collection will be released over the summer to coincide with the release of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, and a third Creature Collection, titled Savage Beastiary, is due for late 2003 with new monsters, including some from the third continent of Scarn, Asheraki.
"We want to continue giving everyone something they can use, such as the Creature Collection and Relics & Rituals books in the past and future."
"But, we also have a great fanbase that loves the setting itself, so we plan on giving them lots more of what they love about the setting."
Carriker is also developing a series of Player's Guides. The Players Guide series "is about giving players the tools to make their characters a more integral part of a setting."
"Though it is slanted towards the Scarred Lands (because you can't effectively describe such a thing without tangible and extensive examples), it is intended to be a toolkit for any D20 fantasy game."
The Player's Guides will allow players to get a strong sense of how their character fits into the game setting. "Helping players to explore the ways in which one aspect of their character (that is, the character class) is a part of the legacy and history of the setting, we might give them a better sense of "ownership" over that setting," he explains.
The Player's Guides will each cover multiple character types. "The first book is The Player's Guide to Wizards, Bards and Sorcerers, where we explore the legacies and traditions that have sprung up around the use of arcane magic in a setting."
Following that will be Player's Guides to Fighters & Barbarians, Clerics and Druids, Rangers and Rogues, and finally Monks and Paladins. Carriker explains the final pairing as "because both of those professions have two things in common - a very lawful outlook on life, and an absolute dedication to a higher ideal (that of "Truth and Justice" for the paladin, and the perfection of the mind, body and spirit for the monk)."
Each of the Player's Guides will be 160 pages and retail for $23.95.
Future supplements will continue to explore the fertile Scarred Lands setting. A full campaign setting detailing the continent of Termana will compliment the recently released Gazetteer, while sourcebooks will cover the Blood Bayou and Shelzar.
The tragic Forsaken Elves and the sinister Charduni Dwarves will be covered in more detail in The Faithful and Forsaken.
By combining an engaging setting with products that are very strong in their portability between settings, the Scarred Lands have proven to be the strongest third party setting for D&D, and should remain a popular setting for some time to come.
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Date: 2003-11-08 08:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-08 10:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-08 11:55 am (UTC)Actually, I've seen this setting before...
Date: 2003-11-08 09:02 pm (UTC)Speaking as someone who's played D&D3 since 2000 ... how is this any different? You can't go two sessions in D&D without someone getting horribly killed. And unlike Dark Sun, Scarred Lands doesn't make resurrection any rarer.
And don't get me started on Rituals and Relics, or I'll force you to roll a saving throw for every strap on your clothing (q.v. "Untie").
Re: Actually, I've seen this setting before...
Date: 2003-11-08 09:38 pm (UTC)Because in the Ravenloft I'm thinking of, most PCs aren't perceived as heroes by the general populace. At best they are strangers from distant lands, likely to be possessed, or haunted, or hunted or something else gods forsaken. At worst, they are likely to be meddlesome do-gooders who will disrupt the careful peace that the community has created over the generations with the horrors that exist out there.
And I would go so far as to suggest that if you have a problem getting killed in D&D, look to your DM. The foibles and incompetencies of the people you play with should probably not be blamed on the game.
Though, I will admit, if what you are using to judge the Scarred Lands is the first Relics and Rituals, then I suppose I can understand part of your mistake. There has been several years since those early days of folks still struggling to understand a game system - and that includes many WotC designers. Let's use current facts, shall we?
Regards,
Joseph Carriker
Death is Inevitable to Us All...
Date: 2003-11-09 08:54 am (UTC)In fact, these death effects are so common at high levels, WotC's own Epic Level Handbook wrung its hands for a solution ... and wound up with a weak "three strikes and you're out rule."
Of course, you could page through the books and find all the anti-death magic items and load up on those. That brings up the old-school D&D issue of which is more impressive: your character or your inventory. I'm guessing in Scarred Lands, there are no magic shops?
These are fundamental assumptions of the game. D&D3 expects you to die. This is why even death is presented as a revolving door ... any 9th level Cleric can raise the dead, on folks deceased for weeks! Yes, D&D3 is no longer actively hostile towards players, with better saving throws vs. traps and lots of Skills for dealing with problems, but even D&D3.5 devotes several paragraphs on the constant inevitability of death.
This isn't to say that Scarred Lands can't be a fun setting. The major issue with all this d20 supplements is that they don't discuss when to put on the breaks. "Everything's good! Throw in everything! To be used with any d20 book!" A setting like Scarred Lands needs more discussion on what to leave out. Scarred Lands isn't scary or oppresive when combined with a two-foot stack of player-boosting books. To hear you describe it, Scarred Lands sounds "like Ravenloft, only you can WIN!"
I suppose that's in line with the original post in this thread, but I'd hate to think that out of all the d20 source-books out there, Scarred Lands sounds rather ambitiously tagged with "strongest third party setting for D&D" when it promises little more than new monsters to fight using the same old character-classes and races. Kingdoms of Kalamar has the strongest presentation of politics I've seen in ANY d20-fantasy setting, and Sovereign Stone steps outside the box to offer a different conception of magic and fantasy races.
Re: Death is Inevitable to Us All...
Date: 2003-11-09 09:09 am (UTC)Re: Death is Inevitable to Us All...
Date: 2003-11-09 09:32 am (UTC)Re: Death is Inevitable to Us All...
Date: 2003-11-10 05:39 pm (UTC)Re: Death is Inevitable to Us All...
Date: 2003-11-09 09:44 am (UTC)But, if you really need a clarification of my effusive praise of the SL setting, here it is: it clicks right onto D&D with no fuss.
And it even makes me like Druids, which is odd because I hate them.
Yeah, it uses 'the same old character classes and races'. That is why it's a D&D setting. It's all nice and good to have 20 new races n' stuff, or convert another system over to D&D like Sovereign Stone was. But SL succeeds because it does the job with the game as presented, and in an engaging fashion.
As for Kalamar? Never read it. Don't have the time or the money for them.