SoS review

[kingandy]

Okay, I've been enormously lax with posting to LJ since discovering World of Warcrack.  So here's a quick something.

This weekend's SoS was a lot of fun. The dungeon adventure I went on was nicely statted so as to be challenging without being harsh - the party didn't have a masive amount of healing, and while there were some high pointed characters (my character Isaac's just broken 600, in fact, which for those of you who don't know is pretty darn high) they were still pushed by the number of monsters and the levelling effects (Paralysis and Fear being used to great effect).  Anyway, the majority of Isaac's points have been spent on frivolous things like Disguise skills which, while useful, aren't that great in a fight.  While nobody actually died there were a couple of points where somebody could have if we hadn't been working properly as a team.

Alright, maybe it was a walkover.  But there were a couple of hairy moments.

The weekend in general was entertaining, with all three linears forming part of the whole; information gathered on the first was used to fuel the second, which recovered a vital item for use in the third.  It would have been nice to have more interlinking - say, have all the adventures set out from the same staging point, possibly the town hall that was secured during mission 1, since they were all either in the same area or reached by ritual transport magics (which could start from anywhere and it had been established there was a ritual circle in the area).  But that's just me being finicky.

Something that may interest richc - Chad got very excited at one point.  We were having that old conversation about Wamphyri Planet and I mentioned your old bugbear regarding the nature of the campaign world, to wit: it doesn't have to be the same old balls.  It could be resting on the back of a giant turtle; perhaps the universe is a crystalline solid with holes in where people live; there may be an Exalted-type arragement whereby Nastrond is the centre of the universe and the further out you get, the stranger and more fantastical the surroundings become.

And that was the point when his eyes lit up.

EDIT: Forgot to mention - I also had a fair amount of fun in tavern by simply painting Isaac's mystical Fey marking on in black instead of red. Such a small change, but it fucked with so many people...

Comments

[alucardo.livejournal.com]

server?

Im on mal'GOONis.

Level 46 shaman =]

[kingandy]

Ching!

My highest character is about 17 or 18 I think. Despite having all day and all night to play, I'm still behind most of my friends. I think I am just less good, or less obsessed or something.

[samharber.livejournal.com]

Do not give Chad ideas.

[kingandy]

Interestingly, though his ears pricked up at the mention of Exalted, I think he was ultimately more entertained by the idea of SoS as Discworld.

[arwel.livejournal.com]

You'd think that after 8 or so years people would have agreed on a cosmology for Nastrond by now.

[kingandy]

Oh, we've got the cosmology. It's the geography that we've never bothered to flesh out. We know all about what alternate planes there are (though even that is subject to some disagreement), because players are basically more likely to go there than - say - the far side of the globe (or underside of the turtle)...

[kingandy]

Hell, it was about four years before we even bothered solidifying what was beyond the Endless Forest.

[richc.livejournal.com]

It was irrelevant until someone decided they wanted extra planets (like there isn't enough space on one). There are more important questions that have never been worked out properly such as 'what is magic', the main problem being retro-fitting something interesting to the rules and the fact that you'd just get something thought out and someone would throw a spanner in the works.

[kingandy]

I always thought of magic as a sort of energy field that surrounds, penetrates, binds the world together. When you go into a "magical realm" you're having your physical form translated entirely into that energy and existing solely within the field.

I am coming to agree that there's no reason why Vampire Planet has to be a planet, even if somebody's said as much they could easily be wrong or lying. Maybe it's just impossibly far away, and the differences in environment (lack of the Gods / different sun/moons or whatever) result from localised factors. Or rituals.

[blue-room.livejournal.com]

Mark W: Vampire planet, why not make it one really big vampire, or like Ghroth from CoC with the Vampires as it's spawn.
Or that giant living pyramid thing 2AU across at the end of The Authority by Warren Ellis. If you want to get far out why not get really far out.
Might be cool if all planets are on the backs of different big animals, turtles, bears (forest moon etc), whales (water planet), frogs (swamp worlds) etc etc.

...I'll get my coat.

[richc.livejournal.com]

Thats about as far as magic ever got, it's OK, but a bit dull.

As to the vampire 'planet' a basic crystal spheres set up can sort most of the above problems.

[renniek.livejournal.com]

I hate the extra planets sh*t. I's like to see the Wamphyri "world" categoprised as a place on the same world as Nastrond, or a place in anohter plane. The other world stuff just felt horrible and wrong to me (along with the rest of the Wamphyri plot, really...)

[renniek.livejournal.com]

I also had a fair amount of fun in tavern by simply painting Isaac's mystical Fey marking on in black instead of red. Such a small change, but it fucked with so many people...

Lilith approved. Maeglin and Kitsune have both started acting like light fey, it's about time the dark side got a few more converts ;-)

[myki.livejournal.com]

I know, I know... you walked into a door. Isaac... You can tell me, has Armus been hitting you?

[batelf.livejournal.com]

I never touched him. Honest.