Old Man Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Now we just need for The Western Shores to become part of a larger setting. And for Ambrethel to become part of a larger setting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting I've always liked Kulthea. I've always had a soft spot for Fantasy settings that are actually Post-Apoc Sci Fi settings, and Shadow World is an epic example of the genre. Nice to hear about the new edition, I may have to hunt that up. As far as original settings, I'd say it's one of my 5 top favorite. My only real complaint was actually a lack of background. It was such a DEEP setting that it was obvious that what was being published only represented a slight fraction of the already huge setting and back-story that the creator had in notes and his head. When what a setting REALLY needs is a good encyclopedia... you've made a deep setting. Oh, and I never got my players to a point where I ever got to actually use Shards in combat rather than as a Plot Menace. *shudder* Does anyone know if they were inspired by the critters from Beastmaster? (Possibly from the book, which I haven't yet read) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting I've always liked Kulthea. I've always had a soft spot for Fantasy settings that are actually Post-Apoc Sci Fi settings' date=' and Shadow World is an epic example of the genre. Nice to hear about the new edition, I may have to hunt that up. As far as original settings, I'd say it's one of my 5 top favorite. My only real complaint was actually a lack of background. It was such a DEEP setting that it was obvious that what was being published only represented a slight fraction of the already huge setting and back-story that the creator had in notes and his head. When what a setting REALLY needs is a good encyclopedia... you've made a deep setting.[/quote'] I've always downplayed the Sci-fi elements of the campaign setting, but they are there, ever-present. I oftentimes describe the technology in terms where they seem supremely magical (Doors that slide open on their own with nary a whisper, Crystals that talk with an emotionless voice, Smooth silvery rods that fire a magical beam of Death, such magic the Lords of Essaence commanded!) I really don't know what you mean about the "lack of background" in Kulthea. This game has a timeline that is absolutely FIERCE, and rife with adventure seeds to keep imaginative GM's busy for decades. And the newer versions of the campaign settings have been significantly expanded, adding quite a bit of detail to the timeline in addition to expanding and detailing specific regions down to the various fashions of each nation and culture. It really is one of the best Fantasy campaign settings ever devised. Oh, and I never got my players to a point where I ever got to actually use Shards in combat rather than as a Plot Menace. *shudder* Does anyone know if they were inspired by the critters from Beastmaster? (Possibly from the book, which I haven't yet read) I unleashed Shards on some P.C.'s back when we played Rolemaster. They were very difficult to defeat. The group killed maybe 2 out of 5 and ended up doing a tactical retreat. They are incredibly difficult to hit solidly because they move so fast. Considering they would be at least Speed 6 and DCV 12 or better in HERO terms, they would be a hell of a challenge for all but the most powerful of P.C. groups unless everyone could bring some serious magical enhancement to the table to compete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phookz Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Here's some links it seems it was actually called the Loremaster Series the first book was The Iron Wind. If I remember correctly it was somewhat dark and gritty without sinking to the Warhammer level. http://www.icewebring.com/ice-products/loremaster/ http://www.icewebring.com/ICE_Products/SW/SW_5020_Iron_Wind_1.php http://www.icewebring.com/ICE_Products/SW/SW_5020_Iron_Wind_2.php Am I the only one who gets nostalgic over the crappy art in old fantasy rpg supplements? Not so much ShadowWorld - some of that was actually pretty good, but like the first the Iron Wind link above, and the first edition D&D stuff. Seriously, I never thought it was good art, even back in 1980, but something about it now resonates with me. I guess it's just bringing up fond memories of discovering a whole new world of "play". I guess you can't go back, regardless of what some hobbit said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Am I the only one who gets nostalgic over the crappy art in old fantasy rpg supplements? Not so much ShadowWorld - some of that was actually pretty good, but like the first the Iron Wind link above, and the first edition D&D stuff. Seriously, I never thought it was good art, even back in 1980, but something about it now resonates with me. I guess it's just bringing up fond memories of discovering a whole new world of "play". I guess you can't go back, regardless of what some hobbit said. No, you're not the only one. There are quite a few people who feel the same way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting I believe ICE also used Kulthea for a miniatures-based wargame whose name escapes me at the moment. It came in a boxed set and was placed on a single island continent separated from the rest of Kulthea by Essence Flows and pounded by storms of discarded weaponry on occasion when battle occurred. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting I believe ICE also used Kulthea for a miniatures-based wargame whose name escapes me at the moment. It came in a boxed set and was placed on a single island continent separated from the rest of Kulthea by Essence Flows and pounded by storms of discarded weaponry on occasion when battle occurred. That's probably the Bladestorm game. I didn't know the setting was in Kulthea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting I really don't know what you mean about the "lack of background" in Kulthea. This game has a timeline that is absolutely FIERCE, and rife with adventure seeds to keep imaginative GM's busy for decades. And the newer versions of the campaign settings have been significantly expanded, adding quite a bit of detail to the timeline in addition to expanding and detailing specific regions down to the various fashions of each nation and culture. It really is one of the best Fantasy campaign settings ever devised. I haven't checked out any of the newer releases, all my SW stuff is all first run from back in the ICE-bought-Hero days. Checking out the link to the new PDF makes me suspect they've filled in a LOT of the gaps that used to bug me. In any case my complaint waqs never that the setting wasn't detailed enough, it was that there were SOOOOOO many throwaway references in the various books that getting a solid picture of how they intended the world to play required a lot of sifting and inference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting What are these Shard creatures people are referring to? I've searched, but my Google-fu isn't strong enough I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting I haven't checked out any of the newer releases, all my SW stuff is all first run from back in the ICE-bought-Hero days. Checking out the link to the new PDF makes me suspect they've filled in a LOT of the gaps that used to bug me. In any case my complaint waqs never that the setting wasn't detailed enough, it was that there were SOOOOOO many throwaway references in the various books that getting a solid picture of how they intended the world to play required a lot of sifting and inference. I think that's what I liked about the books; They were very detailed, but not so specific in HOW it was supposed to be played, that I felt free and unfettered in the types of scenarios I could run in the setting. That's my problem with many published campaign settings; the author's idea of what constitutes Fantasy (or Sci-fi or whatever) is so pervasive throughout the setting itself that it makes it very difficult to run many scenarios without violating the "feel" of the campaign. With Kulthea, adventure seeds abound, the historical timeline is omni-present, but what the campaign consists of is completely and totally up to you and your players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting I'm right there with you on the excellent presentation of plot seeds. It's my preferred form of pre-made setting. However, when a setting has a deep enough back story and internal consistency it can ignite my historian gene, and then I want MORE! Doesn't happen all that often for me with purely game settings. Kulthea and Glorantha are the only examples I can come up with off the top of my head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting What are these Shard creatures people are referring to? I've searched' date=' but my Google-fu isn't strong enough I suppose.[/quote'] Shards are artificial beings. They look like tall, featureless men with a thick greenish hide and a secondary layer of skin covering the face. They never move less than 1000 feet per round (!) and can move up to five times that speed. They attack by pulling out bone disks from their chests and can use them as projectiles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting What are these Shard creatures people are referring to? I've searched' date=' but my Google-fu isn't strong enough I suppose.[/quote'] Speedster Golems that fire blasts from their gemstone eyes and fling swarms of shuriken-like disks, in a very inadequate nutshell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Shards are artificial beings. They look like tall' date=' featureless men with a thick greenish hide and a secondary layer of skin covering the face. They never move less than 1000 feet per round (!) and can move up to five times that speed. They attack by pulling out bone disks from their chests and can use them as projectiles.[/quote'] Jinx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Sorry, did I break a taboo? I couldn't find an image, but there was a picture drawn by Paul Jaquays. But a found this review. Scroll down to Chapter 13 to see a brief description of the Shards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Naw, just amused that we were typing our replies at about the same time, and they say roughly the same thing. Your description explains better why I see a link with the Beastmaster things... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Shards were interesting from a difficulty standpoint, but they never really grabbed me -- they had no cool back story that I ever heard, and aside from the difficulty of hitting them, seemed not to have a lot of combat options. I like my monsters with a little more meat. They need a great origin. Any takers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Naw, just amused that we were typing our replies at about the same time, and they say roughly the same thing. Your description explains better why I see a link with the Beastmaster things... Thanks, but I cheated. I copied a bit from the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Shards were interesting from a difficulty standpoint, but they never really grabbed me -- they had no cool back story that I ever heard, and aside from the difficulty of hitting them, seemed not to have a lot of combat options. I like my monsters with a little more meat. They need a great origin. Any takers? They actually do have an interesting background on Kulthea. They have quite a detailed account of them in some of the supplements. I'll have to see if I can locate which one it can be found in. [edit] I found more information in the Atlas Addendum which came with the Emer boxed set. It has detail on the "Lord Shards" which are the rulers of each of the 6 I-Lats. Shar-Bu is apparently the highest among the Shards with the ability to instantly kill anyone who simply looks at him! Supposedly he killed Ilmaris Terisonen during the Wars of Dominion and stopped to devour his brain right then and there on the field of battle. Apparently, the Shards were a favored creation of Kadaena (of course) and she used them as her assasins and shock troops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escafarc Posted January 27, 2011 Report Share Posted January 27, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Shards are artificial beings. They look like tall' date=' featureless men with a thick greenish hide and a secondary layer of skin covering the face. They never move less than 1000 feet per round (!) and can move up to five times that speed. They attack by pulling out bone disks from their chests and can use them as projectiles.[/quote'] Don't for get that those disk are covered in "diluted" shard blood which acts a nerve poison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bismark Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting That's probably the Bladestorm game. I didn't know the setting was in Kulthea. Bladestorm it is - set on the continent of Folenn. I used that location and the maps for my HERO Shadow World campaign of 2007-2008. The current SW situation has modified conditions on that continent a lot (according to the game world author in the ICE forums). Bladestorm was not originally going to be in any previously-published campaign world, but it got dropped into Kulthea in the hope of boosting sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting Don't for get that those disk are covered in "diluted" shard blood which acts a nerve poison. What does concentrated shard blood do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escafarc Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting What does concentrated shard blood do? I don't believe they ever said what it did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowsoul Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting If it follows the usual rules of chemistry then it also acts as a nerve poison but you get to roll more dice for the damage/drain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 Re: Shadow World setting The current SW situation has modified conditions on that continent a lot (according to the game world author in the ICE forums). Bladestorm was not originally going to be in any previously-published campaign world' date=' but it got dropped into Kulthea in the hope of boosting sales.[/quote']Interesting! What are the current conditions if you don't mind my asking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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