Friday 2 October 2009

Epic Proportions

In a pivotal act of accident I may have caused the explosivo spell to break. Whoops. I feel MacAllan's ruling to be somewhat... well, wrong as now we're getting all sorts of stupid things going on, particularly with Cygnar, with various interactions with explosivo. I'd love for effects like Powerful Shot and Madhammer's feat to work with explosivo as I feel that's how it was intended to work; however, moving into the realm of poisoned blasts or blasts with Arcane Tempest Gun Mage shots is just weird. Poor Macallan's still checking with Privateer Press to find the official ruling. Let's hope the issue is cleared up before January.

My adventure writing for my possibly impending Iron Kingdoms game is going well. Once again it's set in Five Fingers so that characters of every nationality and creed could participate without obvious interference based on sex, race, or species. Or at least any more than normal. I do find the lack of history in Five Fingers somewhat disappointing, there's a very blank slate once you get past the Orgoth Occupation and Sc. Bolis. Who were other (in)famous High Captains, what about tales of buried treasure, who were the peoples' heroes? Rather unfortunately the Iron Kingdoms isn't a setting that venerates the idea of the adventurer.

"But Andy, you Scasian stick-man, it's such an awesome setting!" you may say. Yes, it is, for a wargame. Wars do not support adventurers. How can you do any adventuring when you're off to fight on the front? That's not adventuring, that's warfare. More than a few Games Masters have run successful RPG games based on characters being in the military. Still not adventuring. Adventurers are the Edmund Hillarys, the Captain Nemos, the James Bonds of the age. Adventurers are driven individuals, there is always something more to be done, something more to be achieved. These are people who shape history with their passing. This type of person deserves more than a tawdry trip to the local hole in the ground; they deserve things of epic proportions, they deserve villains and rivals with flair. It's an adventure worthy of these individuals that I aspire to create.

In writing the Corpse Trade (my first Pathfinder adventure) I've come to approach writing events and encounters with the idea of 'would this look awesome in a movie?' Events in the Corpse Trade include a tussle with a trollkin with spikes for knuckles and his pirate cronies, the treasure of a forgotten High Captain, and the plots of a Greylord whose ambition knows no bounds. Something I could use is a Pathfinder monster stat block for a DM to quick-reference, these things are a nightmare.

Sinister Adventures is publishing a very interesting product for those of us with the Dungeon Master species subtype. Some might mistake me for a sycophant of Nicolas Logue, perhaps I may stray into that region as I have so far found no fault with the man; he is a genius in the realm of adventure writing. Do you really want to crawl around in a dungeon for days on end killing groups of monsters or have an action packed adventure worthy of being made into a Spielberg movie? If it's the latter, then Logue is the man for you.

No comments:

Post a Comment