quote:Originally posted by Wooly Rupert D'oh! I should've considered that minor detail...
Well if a train carrying Champions of Ruins leaves the station today at noon heading west at 30 mph. And I on another train leave a station at 3 p.m. heading east, how soon til I get my damn tome?
If they had worded such questions that way back in school, I wouldn't have had to study as much for the math section on the GRE.
And, if memory serves, Resurrection, a short time ago, shipped out late one week (either a Thursday or Friday) and started being available early the next week (Monday/Tuesday). Thus, I figure the same will happen here. At least it makes sense that it would happen that way.
I just doomed it I think with that last statement.
That has got to be about the worst bunch of excerpts from a product I've ever seen on the WotC site. It had absolutely no FR relevance whatsoever - it could have been talking about the latest Eberron product for all we know. I hope that the excerpts aren't a microcosm of the whole - general stuff with a stray FR reference here and there to accomodate the logo on the cover page.
-- George Krashos
"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus
No disrespect to anyone here who was disappointed with the excerpts, but WOTC knows they have your $. You are hardcore Realms fans. Thus, they know you will purchase the product no matter what excerpts are up. I mean based on what you have seen, is anyone now not going to purchase the product?
What WOTC wants with the excerpts is to attract the audience Richard Baker once described that simply mines the Realms products for home brewed campaign worlds.
Again, no offense meant and if anyone's feelings are hurt, my apologies. But, I feel that what I've said is the simple truth.
No disrespect to anyone here who was disappointed with the excerpts, but WOTC knows they have your $. You are hardcore Realms fans. Thus, they know you will purchase the product no matter what excerpts are up. I mean based on what you have seen, is anyone now not going to purchase the product?
What WOTC wants with the excerpts is to attract the audience Richard Baker once described that simply mines the Realms products for home brewed campaign worlds.
Again, no offense meant and if anyone's feelings are hurt, my apologies. But, I feel that what I've said is the simple truth.
SB
I said it earlier. I'm a FR whore, course I'll buy it. :) Use it, well that's a different story.
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
quote:Originally posted by kuje31 I said it earlier. I'm a FR whore, course I'll buy it. :) Use it, well that's a different story.
One thing I do want to make clear...my comment wasn't said with a gold elf attitude of superiority. I'm going to buy the product too.
Although, I have been uneasy about this product since I first heard about it. Still, I hope my fears are wrong. But I just get a generic feeling in my gut. If that's the case, my copy will be headed back to the vendor for a refund. I'll eat the shipping costs rather than waste $ on a FR product I will never even wish to read through again.
Again, no offense meant and if anyone's feelings are hurt, my apologies. But, I feel that what I've said is the simple truth.
You're right!
The generalised material from the excerpts has to be as un-setting specific as possible. Besides, actually using setting specific details in these excerpts, especially for newcomers and gamers still not sure on the world itself, may have the opposite effect.
There are D&D fans who stay away from some settings simply because there is TOO MUCH to learn about.
quote:Originally posted by The Sage The generalised material from the excerpts has to be as un-setting specific as possible. Besides, actually using setting specific details in these excerpts, especially for newcomers and gamers still not sure on the world itself, may have the opposite effect.
There are D&D fans who stay away from some settings simply because there is TOO MUCH to learn about.
My only question then would be....<sigh> praying I'm not stirring up a hornet's nest here.....yet the Lord hates cowards...so here it goes
Okay, I understand as you and I have mentioned that excerpts for Realms releases might tend towards generic material being highlighted over material rich in Realms content/lore.
Does that same standard apply to the other WOTC gaming world? Do excerpts from Eberron products also highlight generic material over material that enriches the setting?
quote:Originally posted by SiriusBlack One thing I do want to make clear...my comment wasn't said with a gold elf attitude of superiority. I'm going to buy the product too.
Although, I have been uneasy about this product since I first heard about it. Still, I hope my fears are wrong. But I just get a generic feeling in my gut. If that's the case, my copy will be headed back to the vendor for a refund. I'll eat the shipping costs rather than waste $ on a FR product I will never even wish to read through again.
Your comment didn't seem that way to me.
I don't return FR material even if I don't use it. Hells half of the 3/3.5e material for FR I DON'T use cause I prefer the older material. I still find a lot of the new lore to be very dry except for the sourcebooks from the game designers that have been writing in the setting for years. That's not to say that I don't have 2e lore that I don't use. There's probably 20+ 2e sourcebooks I never look at but I bought because I love FR. :)
Also since I'm not one to worry about balance or more rules and or mechanics, I always pass over the new prestige classes, etc. Spells I might glance at but I tend to favor 2e's versions better. So with the amount of mechanics and or rules in the new lore, that makes me only use half the book cause I ignore all of those mechanics and or rules. I'm a rules lite DM and 3/3.5e is just to rules heavy for me.
Now from what I've read, the other setting also gets that treatment also. I've heard the most complaining about Races of Eberon.....
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
quote:Originally posted by kuje31 Also since I'm not one to worry about balance or more rules and or mechanics, I always pass over the new prestige classes, etc. Spells I might glance at but I tend to favor 2e's versions better. So with the amount of mechanics and or rules in the new lore, that makes me only use half the book cause I ignore all of those mechanics and or rules. I'm a rules lite DM and 3/3.5e is just to rules heavy for me.
With each passing year, my players and myself depend less and less on strict rules and more on simple role-playing. Thus, I'm like you in that the prestige classes, feats, other rules heavy material are simply not that interesting to me and often glossed over at best.
Still, I'm enough of a Realms fan that even with my foreshadowings of gloom, I will purchase CoR to give it an examination. But, these excerpts did remind me of the need to purchase it from a vendor that will allow me to return it if it proves to be something invaluable as some past Realms products for 3.0/3.5 edition.
quote:Originally posted by SiriusBlack With each passing year, my players and myself depend less and less on strict rules and more on simple role-playing. Thus, I'm like you in that the prestige classes, feats, other rules heavy material are simply not that interesting to me and often glossed over at best.
Still, I'm enough of a Realms fan that even with my foreshadowings of gloom, I will purchase CoR to give it an examination. But, these excerpts did remind me of the need to purchase it from a vendor that will allow me to return it if it proves to be something invaluable as some past Realms products for 3.0/3.5 edition.
Nod. I'm surprised I haven't gotten that far yet. I guess I keep hoping that WOTC will dazzle me but a lot of the times, when a new sourcebook comes out, it conflicts with the old lore or it even conflicts with 3/3.5E's lore!
Soooo I'm jaded and bitter I guess, but I love this setting to much to just say screw it, I give up. :)
Just from the except it looks like they open another hole in the whole Shadow Weave debate. How can something that was supposed to only exist in the Material leak into the Material? Sooooo what now? Does it exist on the planes? This then conflicts with what the sourcebooks, Ed, and Rich have said. And the Shadow Weave is newly created? This also conflicts with the lore since it existed before Netheril fell. I don't consider that "newly created." But that's me.
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
quote: Just from the except it looks like they open another hole in the whole Shadow Weave debate. How can something that was supposed to only exist in the Material leak into the Material? Sooooo what now? Does it exist on the planes? This then conflicts with what the sourcebooks, Ed, and Rich have said. And the Shadow Weave is newly created? This also conflicts with the lore since it existed before Netheril fell. I don't consider that "newly created." But that's me.
When it comes to making sure new lore and old lore mesh, I just chose which pieces sound the most reasonable to me and ignore the rest. Using the Shadow Weave as an example, it makes no sense to me that Mystra didn't notice the Shadow Weave sooner. She's a fairly perceptive Goddess. Shar may have been contemplating a Shadow Weave since the days of Netheril, but it wasn't up and running until recently. She may have been building it in small pieces, constructing like a sandcastle made one grain at a time, but I've always figured that new concepts shouldn't be introdiced retroactively into a setting's history. Leaking onto the Material Plane? I thought that was silly too, so in my campaign it's just got places where it's going haywire and opening little rifts to the Plane of Shadow. Shar's got some gremlins in the works yet that she needs to eliminate.
Does that same standard apply to the other WOTC gaming world? Do excerpts from Eberron products also highlight generic material over material that enriches the setting?
Immediately after the setting was released, I would have said, no. Online supplements from WotC for Eberron were always specifically toned for EB-only campaigns.
However, in some of the articles I've read over the past few months, I've been noticing that some of the details are becoming less "setting-specific" and more generalised in scope, to refer to fantasy campaigns as a whole.
The Sharn Inquisitive series is an example. It was, at the beginning, a reference/news resource for the daily happenings in the City of Towers -- referring exclusively to places and events within the city itself. However, some of the more recent articles have been playing on ideas and news reports that could happen in any significantly large fantasy city -- Waterdeep and Greyhawk being my first choices.
It remains to be seen what will become of these EB articles in the future, and whether such trends that are already in place in some of the online published material for FR will take greater hold in the EB material as well.
quote:Originally posted by The Sage However, in some of the articles I've read over the past few months, I've been noticing that some of the details are becoming less "setting-specific" and more generalised in scope, to refer to fantasy campaigns as a whole.
The Sharn Inquisitive series is an example. It was, at the beginning, a reference/news resource for the daily happenings in the City of Towers -- referring exclusively to places and events within the city itself. However, some of the more recent articles have been playing on ideas and news reports that could happen in any significantly large fantasy city -- Waterdeep and Greyhawk being my first choices.
I don't know whether to feel sorry for the Eberron fans or simply to quote a line from a movie..."Welcome to the party pal!" I imagine the push towards generic articles and excerpts is frustrating to fans who enjoy that setting as much as it is towards Realms fans.
I'll also add while I dislike this trend, obviously the marketing people for WOTC know something I don't. Which is why they get paid the big $$$$$ and I drive a Saturn.
No disrespect to anyone here who was disappointed with the excerpts, but WOTC knows they have your $. You are hardcore Realms fans. Thus, they know you will purchase the product no matter what excerpts are up. I mean based on what you have seen, is anyone now not going to purchase the product?
SB
So what you are saying is that I'm a mindless thrall to an illithid named Hasbro, who has its evil way with me and doesn't let me control my own actions? Well, it all makes perfect sense now. Thanks SB!
-- George Krashos
"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus
quote:Originally posted by SiriusBlack I'll also add while I dislike this trend, obviously the marketing people for WOTC know something I don't. Which is why they get paid the big $$$$$ and I drive a Saturn.
My brothers convinced that WOTC head office has Temple to Waukeen somewhere on the Premsise
quote:Originally posted by SiriusBlack I'll also add while I dislike this trend, obviously the marketing people for WOTC know something I don't. Which is why they get paid the big $$$$$ and I drive a Saturn.
My brothers convinced that WOTC head office has Temple to Waukeen somewhere on the Premises
So what you are saying is that I'm a mindless thrall to an illithid named Hasbro, who has its evil way with me and doesn't let me control my own actions? Well, it all makes perfect sense now. Thanks SB!
-- George Krashos
No. WotC is the illithid you're thralled to. Hasbro is the Elder Brain... .
There's people on eBay saying they have copies in hand.
I called my FLGS a few minutes ago. Kent doesn't have the book in yet, but he says it'll either be in this afternoon or tomorrow. So I'll be reading this one mañana eve, at the latest.
If it's there when I swing by there this afternoon, I'll be sure to tease y'all let y'all know.
My comic guy also think's he'll get a copy in tomorrow. :)
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird