AD&D Second Edition Board

4E

jadeddm

8/21/07 07:43 pm

So...I'm sure you've all heard by now about 4E. Anybody NOT see that coming? I told my players about it, and the general consensus was "Who cares?" and then we went back to playing 2E. ^_^

Any thoughts from the rest of you grognards?

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• istandcorrupted

  8/23/07 01:31 am (UTC)

  My husband has checked out Planewalker, but we've still done most of the conversions ourselves. Some 3.5ed supplements like "Hordes of the Abyss," are very useful because they give updated stats for extraplaners/outsiders. The new "Drow of the Underdark" has also been helpful because our campaign has a couple drow. That's what's nice about Planescape, you can integrate anything you want.
  
  The "Planar Handbook," on the other hand, was a horrifying disappointment.

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  • kassil

    8/23/07 01:33 am (UTC)

    

    It was, indeed, a disappointment. WotC has a gift for publishing materials of a self-contradictive nature, happily ignoring their own prior design work.

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    • istandcorrupted

      8/23/07 02:20 am (UTC)

      I hear that! I know of about five different contradicting treatments of the factions alone...the worst I've seen was in Dragon magazine (I *think*) and it involved turning the factions into prestige classes. You had to "qualify" and give up level advancement in your chosen class to join a faction. Total rip-off! The Planar Handbook's interpretations of the factions were similarly useless.
      
      However, there are a couple of very cool and logical conversion ideas out there (i.e. giving Ciphers "Improved Initiative" for free, giving members of the Fated x2 starting class skill slots), which, according to my husband, were ALSO published by Dragon. I've yet to see any satisfactory conversions for the Athar, however, which is a pain because my characters are both Athar...

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      • kassil

        8/23/07 05:52 am (UTC)

        

        They came up with the stunning idea of Affiliations in the PHB2. Based on your affiliation score with a given group, you gain ranks and special tricks. That right there would be an awesome mechanic for the factions of Planescape, if you ask me.

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        • istandcorrupted

          8/23/07 05:26 pm (UTC)

          I think we have PHB2 in PDF format - I'll pass on the tip, or look into it myself. Thanks!

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• kassil

  8/24/07 12:04 am (UTC)

  

  It can be handy - the recent Savage Tide Adventure Path had a number of affiliations with interesting properties all the way through it.

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• kassil

  8/28/07 09:43 am (UTC)

  

  And let me know how this works out for you, eh? It'll be interesting to see how the affiliations get developed...

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  • istandcorrupted

    8/28/07 10:10 am (UTC)

    Sure thing!

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    • kassil

      8/28/07 11:11 am (UTC)

      

      I a few weeks I'm going to be DMing a one-shot starring a party of hunters who've been hired to capture some Nessian Warhounds (Asmodeus's personal hellhounds...) alive, by some celestials who want to try to breed a holy version of the nasty beasts.
      
      Needless to say, the factions would likely be a very helpful thing in this; I can just picture a Cipher ranger as the tracker...

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      • istandcorrupted

        8/28/07 04:56 pm (UTC)

        Oooh that would be pretty awesome...and yeah, getting the factions in on it would give the whole thing a more Planescape-y feel. Plus more than a few factioneers would get involved in something like that. The Harmonium would be motivated just because helping celestials is the lawful good thing to do; a Sensate would get involved just to see what it's like; anyone from the Fated would do it for the money (and possibly try to keep back one of the hounds to sell to the highest bidder in Sigil).....
        
        Ciphers are a great class, but it gets a bit chaotic when you get more than one of them in a party. Some people I've played with have gone Cipher just to give them an excuse to act recklessly and impulsively.....a well-played Cipher, however, is a great addition to any party.

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