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Steve Long

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Posts posted by Steve Long

  1. Darren Watts In Hospital

    in Company Questions

    Posted

    21 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

    EDIT: BTW I posted news of Darren's passing on the forums for Champions Online. I thought they should know about one of the major creators of the world they play in.

     

    Thank you very much for doing that, LL. It hadn't even occurred to me, and in any event it's been maaaany years since CO recognized any of my log-in information.

  2. Darren Watts In Hospital

    in Company Questions

    Posted

    Unfortunately we have some terrible news to report. Darren Watts, who used to be one of our business partners in DOJ Inc./Hero Games and has also worked for many other companies in the RPG industry, suffered a very serious heart attack last Thursday (December 22, 2022). It appears that his brain was without oxygen for an as yet unknown period.

    Darren's currently under sedation at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. While he isn't conscious, his wife Diane tells me he can receive visitors.

    We'll keep the forum posted as the situation warrants. In the meantime, please keep Darren in your thoughts and prayers.

  8. RIP Scott Bennie

    in Company Questions

    Posted

    We here at Hero Games are deeply saddened to announce that our long-time friend, and frequent Hero Games author, Scott Bennie passed away earlier this week from complications due to pneumonia. As many of you already know, Scott suffered from extensive health problems for most of his life, and unfortunately this was one last struggle he simply couldn't win.

     

    I personally met Scott in the early Nineties -- probably at one of the first DunDraCons I attended -- after I began writing for Hero myself and hitting the con circuit. In addition to being a talented writer and game designer -- perhaps best known to Hero gamers for his superb work on Classic Enemies and two VIPER sourcebooks -- Scott was quite simply one of the kindest, gentlest people I've ever had the privilege to know. I'm so glad I had the chance to work with him on several projects, including the VIPER and Villainy Amok sourcebooks for HERO System 5th Edition.

     

    The world is a darker place without Scott's light in it, and all of us here at Hero Games shall miss him terribly.

  9. What’s Going On With Steve Long?

    in Company Questions

    Posted

    On 10/6/2020 at 7:49 PM, megaplayboy said:

    Hope you feel better soon, Steve.  Hey, what happened to the Mythic Hero thread?  It was pinned to one of the forums for quite a while but I don't see it anymore.

     

    I'm not sure -- perhaps Dan S. or someone else removed it (or changed its "pinned" status) during a clean-up session. I'm still working hard on MH, trying to get at least a little work done on it every day, and more than a little whenever possible.

  11. Turakian Age Cities Poll -- What Would You Most Like Steve To Consider Working On?

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    17 hours ago, DShomshak said:

    \So, my vote goes to Eltirian. Here's why.

     

    A TA city guide should, first, encourage people who read it to want to see more of the TA setting; and in doing so, it should show what gamers can get from TA that they won't get anywhere else.

     

    For me, that rules out Aarn. The Great Trade Metropolis is a familiar Fantasy trope, and the text in TA gives nothing to distinguish Aarn from, say, Waterdeep in Forgotten Realms or Nexus in Exalted. Hey, Waterdeep has a big dungeon underneath it, and an eccentric beholder crime lord! Okay, so those are ideas that seem clever to people who aren't, so such lack is a point in Aarn's favor. But unless Steve can think of a way to make Aarn the best damn Fantasy trade metropolis ever, I don't think it's worth his time.

     

    Same goes for a hypothetical Sunless Realms city. Buy Menzoberranzan, cross out some names and write in others. Also, it's not a great way to showcase the wider world.

     

    Tavrosel, with its mix of peoples and cultures, has a strong case as "Ambrethel in Miniature," but it's still a bit bland.

     

    Vornakkia, though, is the part of Ambrethel that I like most, and it seems the most distinctively itself. Maybe it's my imagination, but I think Steve also had a lot of fun writing it and devising all its quirky cults. The cities are all pretty good, but I think Eltirian would work best. It's got the trade city/adventurer's base utility. It has abundant internal instabilities that can drive plots. It has distinctive religion, which is one thing Turakian Age does better than most Fantasy settings I've seen. And it has a strong external conflict -- political, military and religious -- with Talarshand, which is ready to erupt again.

     

    In fact, these two cities are so entangled with each other that I'd even suggest a double citybook, detailing them both.

     

    Halathaloorm is very good too. I wouldn't complain if Steve chose it. But Eltirian and Talarshand, locked together by long enmity, is just irresistible to me.

     

    Those are some excellent points, Dean! While I wouldn't mind delving into Aarn at all, I agree that it's similar to a lot of other major Fantasy cities (all of them ultimately inspired by Lankhmar, I imagine ;) ) -- that's part of why it's there, some gamers want/need a place like that. But really setting Aarn apart in that department would be tricky.

     

    As much as I would like to someday describe the Sunless Realms in more detail, I agree that for the time being at least there are plenty of products out there that a GM can shoehorn in if need be. I've been intrigued by the idea of campaigning in an all-underground setting -- have been ever since Modules D1-D3. ;)

     

    Vornakkia is definitely one of my favorite parts of Ambrethel, if not the favorite -- and you're right, I really enjoyed creating it. Eltirian, in fact, predates the creation of the TA book; it was the setting of one of the earliest short stories I wrote (well, tried to write). Your suggestion of a double city book intrigues me. While I know that would inevitably lead to some GMs complaining that I gave both cities short shrift, the more I think about it the more appealing it becomes to me. Doing it that way would definitely keep the creative juices flowing -- if I get tired of one city, I write about the other for awhile. Heck, maybe we could even publish it like the old SF two-story paperbacks where the front and back covers both have illos but the back cover and second story are "upside down." (Kidding! Just kidding!)

     

    Thanx!

     

     

  13. The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    On 3/27/2021 at 6:24 PM, Lord Liaden said:

     

    But again, as per the map, one end of the Ordring is at Lake Beralka, while the other end is at the Thurisian Mountains. Unless you intended the Loskell River to start at the Thurisians. In which case, since the Loskell and the Ordring would merge at the Ettinstone, the Loskell south of the Ettinstone should be even deeper than the Ordring as it flows to Aarn. Meaning large ships could ply the rivers from the Sea of Storms to Lake Beralka... except for the Ettinstone being in the way.

     

    If we instead decreed that the Ordring started at the Thurisians, then the deeper part of the river east of the Ettinstone could be because of many smaller rivers, too small to show on the map, flowing off the Nagyrian Mountains (a suggestion that was raised on this thread).

     

    I was operating on the assumption that no city has developed around the Ettinstone because the site is considered sacred to the Druids. But I would have Aarn establish a trading post near the Ettinstone to offload and onload cargo for ships going up- or downriver. That would be particularly important if there's a depth difference between the Loskell and the Ordring.

     

    First off -- your speculation is correct in that it is the Loskell River that starts in the Thurisian Mountains. My bad for not watching the labeling more closely.

     

    The question of how far large ships can go up that river chain is a good one. Given that the land around where the Ordring flows out of Lake Beralka is described as "marshy," I don't believe large ships could make it all the way through -- and there might be other obstacles (heavily churning water at the Ettinstone, narrows, rapids, etc.) that would get in the way even further down. (Personally I kind of think that the waters at the Ettinstone would preclude further navigation by seafaring-size ships, but I can also see some story value in letting them go further -- a town might spring up at the highest navigable point that depends largely on using smaller ships to get goods further upriver and to the lake, and that could be a good starting point for adventures.

     

    I definitely assume that there are some smaller rivers/large streams flowing out of the Nagyrians (and for that matter, most other mountain ranges) that are too small to get on a world-sized map. If I ever get to explore specific parts of the setting in detail, we can do smaller scale maps that show those bodies of water.

     

    TA references a merchants' semi-permanent meeting place at the Ettinstone. I could certainly see Aarn establishing an outpost there, or a would-be king seizing land and setting up his own city. Or possibly Aarn (or some other government) could establish some (massive and probably at least partly built by magic) bridges so that caravans can easily cross the Loskell and Ordring at nearby convenient points.

     

    Thanks again for all the input and suggestions, folx!

     

     

    18 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

    A classic of brainstorming on RPGnet forums: The city built around the tarrasque.

     

    That's definitely a cool idea -- one that could only exist in a High Fantasy setting, and that's why I love TA, and the main D&D settings, and other such worlds. ;) It's always fascinating to see gamers' imaginations at play!

  15. Turakian Age Cities Poll -- What Would You Most Like Steve To Consider Working On?

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    I've been reading a long thread about the Turakian Age setting recently, which naturally has inspired me to think about the setting and ways to add to it -- specifically, the possibility of a city book, since I don't think I've written a detailed Fantasy city book. So I thought I'd find out which cities would most interest y'all, and why. I make no promises, but knowing what y'all suggest will help me guide my imagination. ;)

     

    My own personal most-likely candidates would include Aarn, Eltirian, Talarshand, Tatha Gorel, Tor Vilos, and Trisadion, though any of them would be interesting to work on. ;)

  16. The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

     

    Hmm... That seems rather problematic, as per the map on p. 60 it leaves Beralka without any outflows. It would make more sense topographically for the Shaanda to flow east from Beralka into Mhorec, which in turn empties south into the Gulf of Velkara via the Larnaca River.

     

    I've always thought that the Ordring River was the outflow for Lake Beralka -- though I do see that I confused the issue by describing it as having a "delta." I should have just described it as a large patch of swampy ground. That way the Ordring can flow south, merge with the Loskell River at the Ettinstone, and thus eventually join the sea. Assuming everyone accepts that logic, the reference to the Ordring widening and deepening should instead say something like, "With the input of so much water from the Ordring, the Loskell becomes much wider and deeper at that point, allowing larger vessels to reach the Ettinstone and the merchants' meeting-point there." Do y'all think that resolves the situation satisfactorily?

    (P.S.:  I can definitely see LL's point that the Ettinstone would be a good site for a city. But for whatever reason, my mind has always rebelled against the idea and preferred to see the place as more of an almost-permanently settled camp, perhaps even with taverns and inns springing up during trading season and then being destroyed or allowed to stand empty during times when medieval-level travel is virtually impossible and trading ends. But I have no objection against GMs adding a city there if they so choose. A mix of Szarvasia's "Fantasy Hungary" culture with Verlichten's "Fantasy Germany," plus influences from Aarn, and the presence of threats/problems like the Tower of Bone and the Bandit Lands nearby to add spice to the mix, could make for a great city setting!)

     

     

    Since all this talk has gotten me thinking about the Turakian Age setting and the possibility of a city book or something similar, I've posted a poll in the Fantasy Hero forums where y'all can weigh in with your opinions and ideas. I promise nothing, but at least your input will give me suggestions on which way to point my imagination. ;)

  17. The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    On 2/7/2020 at 12:41 PM, Brian Stanfield said:

    I’ve been skulking this thread, and am coming late to it, so forgive my tardiness for this comment. Thomas Carlyle wrote a book called Heroes and Hero Worship discussing how fame can lead to this sort of level of “worship.” The first chapter is a discussion of how Odin rose from a historical figure to actually become a god, and it is fascinating.  

     

    Good call-out! The technical term for this, which I suspect Carlyle uses at some point(s), is euhemerization -- derived from the ancient Greek mythographer Euhemerus, who first developed the theory that gods must have started out as ancient kings and heroes who gradually got turned into divine figures over time.

  19. The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    On 1/16/2020 at 9:11 AM, Lord Liaden said:

    The entire Beralka-Shaanda-Mhorec water system appears in function comparable to the Mediterranean Sea, in that its facilitation of travel and trade has created a vast economically and culturally integrated region. It also strongly reminds me of the Nyr Dyv in the world of Greyhawk, albeit both inland seas are much larger.

     

    I will take the hit re: PhilF's criticism about which direction rivers flow in the TA setting. To answer his specific question, the Shaanda River flows west out of the Sea of Mhorec into Lake Beralka. I should've made that clear in the text. And if there is a major body of water with two or more outflows, I plead relative ignorance and plain ol' stupidity -- believe me, my knowledge of geography and how it affects worldbuilding is light-years beyond what it was in 2004.

     

    For other rivers, generally speaking they flow from their point of origin to the nearest larger river, body of water, or the sea. If anyone has specific questions about specific rivers/river systems, you're welcome to post them here or DM me (the latter message ensures I won't overlook a question; the former allows everyone else to benefit from the information, so choose your poison), I'll be glad to answer 'em. :hex:

     

     

    On 1/17/2020 at 11:35 PM, Lord Liaden said:

     

    AFAICT there are no roads on the maps of Ambrethel -- all those labeled lines are rivers.

     

    LL's guess on this is quite true. With maybe one or two exceptions, I didn't include any roads on the maps of Ambrethel for various reasons:  keeps the maps from getting crowded; gives the GM some freedom to adapt the setting to his/her preferences; saves me time; plaid. ;)

  20. The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    On 1/16/2020 at 12:35 AM, Lord Liaden said:

    (BTW mad props to Steve Long for coming up with the dizzyingly vast array of names for places on these maps.) :hail:

     

    Coming up with names that I like, and which I feel will have sufficiently broad appeal to the reader, is sometimes one of the toughest things about writing a Fantasy setting. ;)

  21. The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    On 1/10/2020 at 3:28 AM, Lord Liaden said:

    I know you appreciate that art is among the most costly components of a game book. I don't know whether commissioning a lot of art illustrating specific things would cost more than generic, but it would certainly require more intensive logistics in layout. And as the kind of artist/draftsman who draws a straight line when he's trying for a crooked one, I sympathize over your longing for more such talent. ;)

     

    PhilF and LL both make good points about the expense of art, but there's one factor I'd like to add that plays into the reality that the art in TA (and other books, from many publishers, for that matter) doesn't always match the text as well as we would like, and that factor is:  the Production Cycle. When I set out to write a book like TA, the first thing I have to do for it, after outlining of course, is to prepare the art list. I try to make it as specific to the setting as I can, but the plain fact is that the setting hasn't been fully created yet -- all I have are an outline and lots of ideas rumbling around in my head. We have to do it that way because artists need plenty of time to work. If the Art Director is going to have the art in hand when I'm done with the text, the artists have to be working while I'm writing. And that means I develop a lot of details that the artists don't know about, sometimes change ideas halfway through when the art's already been done, and so on and so forth.

     

    To give a TA-specific example:  PhilF mentioned the illustration that shows a caravan, with some people in it wearing a sort of goggles-like thing on their head. Had I known the artist had that in mind, I would have stopped him -- I don't envision anyone in Ambrethel wearing anything like goggles (except, perhaps, alchemists and suchlike folk, but that's it -- I generally dislike having steampunk-y like things mixed into my more traditional Fantasy settings). But since the art was finished by the time I saw it, I couldn't do anything about it. (Sometimes artists are able to send half-finished work for approval, and we make use of that when we can, but my general preference is to leave them alone while they work rather than bugging them for lots of updates -- we hire artists for their talent and skill, so my feeling is we should let them exercise those abilities. If I want things exactly as I envision, I should learn to draw myself. ;) )

     

    Ideally the best thing would be to not commission art until the book has gone through layout. That way the text and illustration would line up extremely well, and we could commission each illo to be the exact size we want it to be. But unfortunately that means sitting on a product we could otherwise make money from for months -- and Hero Games in the DOJ era, at least, has never really been in a position to take that sort of financial hit. When it's possible to do -- as it will be with Mythic Hero, for example -- I fully intend to do things that way. :)

  22. The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    On 12/13/2019 at 9:42 AM, Lord Liaden said:

     

    Ah, you may find that to your liking, then. [Vornakkia is] one of the least Tolkien-like parts of Ambrethel -- reminds me more of Fritz Leiber's fantasy. Much quirky weirdness to be found in Vornakkia.

     

    Leiber is definitely one source of inspiration for that part of the setting. Even moreso are the works of Jack Vance, whose ability to create unusual, fascinating cultures for his SF and Fantasy is second to none. (Read his oft-anthologized story "The Moon Moth" for one great example.) There are probably some bits and pieces of influence from R. E. Howard's Hyboria as well. The creative mind, she drags in all sorts of stuff and mixes it together into a new stew.... ;)

     

     

    On 12/21/2019 at 9:48 PM, Lord Liaden said:

    dragons aren't true

     

    Say what now?

  23. The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    On 12/1/2019 at 11:35 PM, sentry0 said:

     

    I was very fond of the unpronounceable dog men of that setting myself.

     

    I gotta take the hit for that one. I am a fan of authenticity, but sometimes a word in a language most of us aren't used to (Inuit, in this case) seem "bizarre." I've run across that repeatedly in working on my Encyclopedia Of Mages, Magic, And The Arcane, where it's sometimes given me nightmares trying to figure out proper alphabetization. Even though such words can be a lot of fun and emphasize the "unusual" aspects of the story, you can run into trouble when no one can figure out how to pronounce things. In this case I should've shortened it to Adlit or Edlit and given the full name in the text. Mea culpa. ;)

     

    On 12/3/2019 at 2:08 PM, DShomshak said:

     

    Incidentally, dog/wolf-people have a surprisingly wide presence in Eurasian myth and folklore. At least I was surprised when I found Myths of the Dog-Man in the University library. If someone wants to e the next Tolkien, this might be a place to start.

     

    While researching Mythic Hero, I, too, have been intrigued by the presence of dog-headed (cynocephalic) or man-dog beings in many mythoi from all over the world -- testament to man's relationship with his best friend, no doubt! Thanks for mentioning this book; I wasn't aware of it and will now add it to my mythology library post-haste. :)

  24. The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    On 11/29/2019 at 4:49 PM, Scott Ruggels said:

    I have little issue with multiple races.  I have to wonder why it's always the _same_ multiple races. 

     

    I'm a couple years late to this part of the party, so forgive me if I'm stating something everyone knows already, but I thought I'd try to offer a little perspective on this issue.

     

    The blunt truth about it is this:  most readers/gamers expect the same ol' races (species) in their Fantasy settings, and often become upset (and more importantly from a publisher's perspective, less likely to buy a product) if they're absent. Not all gamers think that way, but enough of them do that many, many Fantasy settings -- including some of my own, like TA -- include them.

     

    Conversely, settings that try to diverge significantly from that model often fail to attract enough attention to be commercially viable. Multiple publishers have published books/games about M.A.R. Barker's fascinating world of Tekumel (the Empire of the Petal Throne, as it's sometimes called), but none have had any true commercial success. There's nary an elf or dwarf in sight, and the races are truly bizarre by human standards (many of them have three or four legs, multiple arms and eyes, and so on). The cultures derive from India, Babylonia, China, and Mesoamerica rather than medieval Europe. But despite the intense love of the setting that a small group of gamers has for it (check out Tekumel:  The World Of The Petal Throne to see just how detailed and complex this world is), most gamers can't wrap their heads around something so divergent, and thus the setting has never sold particularly well (at least not compared to the likes of Greyhawk. the Forgotten Realms, and other such settings).

     

    The same goes for most other significantly "divergent" settings, such as Jorune.

     

    So in a lot of ways, the similarity you see from world to world is just a matter of (a) publishers sticking with what seems to sell best, and (b) gamers sticking with what they're most comfortable with).

     

    The solution I've found (more or less) is to try to introduce some divergent elements into an otherwise "standard" setting. Thus you get things like the Drakine, the relatively weird cultures of Vornakkia, and so forth in the TA setting. That seems to balance out the desire to be unusual with the desire for broader commercial success. I would love to design a highly divergent setting, such as Tekumel or Jorune -- I have quite a few ideas, some jotted down in a file, others bouncing around in my tiny brain. But even if I ever do decide to write it up and publish it, the odds are it wouldn't sell as well as a more "standard" world, and that my time would be better spent (financially speaking) by creating more material for Ambrethel, or creating a more standard world with just some minor variations. But even if I never publish a divergent setting, they're fun to think about. ;)

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