Michael Goldsworthy
08-05-1999, 07:34 PM
>Almost everyone makes SOME changes, if only because they have to >create
and flesh out the background of whatever realm they're >in. This almost
necessarily means that things in one persons >game will conflict with things
in another persons (unless >they're on opposite sides of the continent,
maybe). But I'd much >rather this than the case of FR, where everything is
set, and >all the big changes happen in novels, rather than the PC's being
>the instigators.
I'm assumung that FR means Forgotten Realms? Assuming that's correct, I
agree. I don't know of any FR(?) netbooks, and why should there be? It's
the flagship of TSR. That means it's more documented than anything else
they got. But that leads to less input from the players of... Though to be
honest, before Birthright I GMed FR quite a bit; and like anything else, I
used the "shopping cart" approach (take what you want and leave the rest).
But still, I have to agree with you. I just wish if the world is going to
have all of its changes by novels, that the writing of said novels would be
more of a uniformly higher quality, instead of a bunch of mediocre to bad,
with a few great ones hidden therin.
>Nothing official that I know of. I tend to consider Darkstar's >stuff
official. (Which doesn't mean I don't tinker with it... :)
So where is Darkstar's stuff? in the Netbook, or on his own site? Hello
out there Mr. Darkstar?
>What can you do w/ first level PC's in FR or GH? Hang around in >inns and
beat up the rowdies until you reach 5th level? Only >then do you have change
of surviving the average dungeon crawl. >In BR, the importance of politics
means that there's plenty of >stuff to do that first level PC's are capable
of handling.
Another agreement, at least for FR (GH?? Greyhawk?). It can be tough to
come up with something of intrest to PCs in such places, if for no other
reason the high magic of the place (FR, in this instance). But I think that
maybe one should take a lesson from BR and apply it elsewhere: it is
possible to act in things of political/socio-economic/whatever nature in
someplace like FR, as well, just takes a bit of juggling...
But that can apply to almost any long-established game; I've
played/game-mastered everything from Spelljammer to Ravenloft to GURPS to FR
to Shadowrun to Rolemaster, etc. etc. etc., and all of them have thier
problems... We as GMs just gotta try not to let those problems apply to our
games...
Michael Goldsworthy
A Man Saw a Ball of Gold
(Lines 1-8)
A man saw a ball of gold in the sky;
He climbed for it,
And eventually he acheved it--
It was clay.
Now this is the strange part:
When the man went to earth
And looked again,
Lo, there was the ball of gold.
Stephen Crane (1871-1900)
-
and flesh out the background of whatever realm they're >in. This almost
necessarily means that things in one persons >game will conflict with things
in another persons (unless >they're on opposite sides of the continent,
maybe). But I'd much >rather this than the case of FR, where everything is
set, and >all the big changes happen in novels, rather than the PC's being
>the instigators.
I'm assumung that FR means Forgotten Realms? Assuming that's correct, I
agree. I don't know of any FR(?) netbooks, and why should there be? It's
the flagship of TSR. That means it's more documented than anything else
they got. But that leads to less input from the players of... Though to be
honest, before Birthright I GMed FR quite a bit; and like anything else, I
used the "shopping cart" approach (take what you want and leave the rest).
But still, I have to agree with you. I just wish if the world is going to
have all of its changes by novels, that the writing of said novels would be
more of a uniformly higher quality, instead of a bunch of mediocre to bad,
with a few great ones hidden therin.
>Nothing official that I know of. I tend to consider Darkstar's >stuff
official. (Which doesn't mean I don't tinker with it... :)
So where is Darkstar's stuff? in the Netbook, or on his own site? Hello
out there Mr. Darkstar?
>What can you do w/ first level PC's in FR or GH? Hang around in >inns and
beat up the rowdies until you reach 5th level? Only >then do you have change
of surviving the average dungeon crawl. >In BR, the importance of politics
means that there's plenty of >stuff to do that first level PC's are capable
of handling.
Another agreement, at least for FR (GH?? Greyhawk?). It can be tough to
come up with something of intrest to PCs in such places, if for no other
reason the high magic of the place (FR, in this instance). But I think that
maybe one should take a lesson from BR and apply it elsewhere: it is
possible to act in things of political/socio-economic/whatever nature in
someplace like FR, as well, just takes a bit of juggling...
But that can apply to almost any long-established game; I've
played/game-mastered everything from Spelljammer to Ravenloft to GURPS to FR
to Shadowrun to Rolemaster, etc. etc. etc., and all of them have thier
problems... We as GMs just gotta try not to let those problems apply to our
games...
Michael Goldsworthy
A Man Saw a Ball of Gold
(Lines 1-8)
A man saw a ball of gold in the sky;
He climbed for it,
And eventually he acheved it--
It was clay.
Now this is the strange part:
When the man went to earth
And looked again,
Lo, there was the ball of gold.
Stephen Crane (1871-1900)
-