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Meek
2008-09-25, 08:45 AM
Just thought I'd share this and see what people think about it. It's received a lot of praise so far, and better yet, no cease and desists. (I expect cease and desists will come shortly after this post – that's just my karma!)

"The main idea of the Eden setting is a high magic fantasy world where the spiritual is tangible, but wherein many sinister things also lie. Eden is a world with an interesting dichotomy – it is a beautiful portrait that is composed of the ruins of an unknown number of horrible tragedies, a collage of many eras come and gone, not altogether understood by its new inhabitants. Eden has gone through a number of Cataclysms, veritable “ends of the world” after which the landscape and creatures in the world have been killed off or changed. In a sense, the remnants of an unknown number of ancient pasts remain on Eden’s surface to this day, composing a whole new world, a massive jigsaw puzzle of the mystical, the aberrant, and the unwritten rules of a world that seems almost alive. Each individual piece has its own sinister secrets to be uncovered. It is a land of beauty, high adventure and magic, incredible mysticism, with a terrifying past – and uncertain future."



The Map, Courtesy of Zetai Kai! (warning, LARGE!):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3268/2927037547_f855db1bf6_o.jpg


The main setting:
http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/spirits-of-eden-campaign-setting/


The "Concepts Of Eden" Series:

Spirits In Eden: http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/those-who-are-worshiped/

Aberrations In Eden: http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/children-of-the-crawling-chaos/

Undead In Eden: http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/death-made-animate/



The "Monsters of Eden" Series:
Monsters of Eden (Heroic Tier): http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/monsters-of-eden-heroic-tier/



The "Places of Eden" Series:
The Republic of Andaliel: http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/the-republic-of-andaliel/



Additional Materials:
Races of Eden: http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/those-who-inherited-the-land/



Legal Crap:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/welcome

http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/disclaimer-legal-stuff-read-me/


All comments welcome!

AstralFire
2008-09-25, 08:47 AM
Oh SIMP, your avatar unsurprises me so.

I'll go take a look, not much else to do at the moment.

Meek
2008-09-25, 08:49 AM
Shirley is made of love and mach speeds. :smallsmile:

AstralFire
2008-09-25, 08:51 AM
Shirley is made of love and mach speeds. :smallsmile:

...Ye gods, I was just commenting on it being a cute bishoujo-style girl. It's actually from that...

:eek:

Meek
2008-09-25, 08:53 AM
Strike Witches is better than most people give it credit for. And this is coming from a guy who hates...everything. But that's neither here nor there >_>

AstralFire
2008-09-25, 09:12 AM
Strike Witches is better than most people give it credit for. And this is coming from a guy who hates...everything. But that's neither here nor there >_>

That may well be possible. But I find the concept so ludicrous that I don't really have inclination to watch it, especially since I always skimp on hard drive space, so I have limited ways to watch television shows.

You get points for shifting off the common D&D races as standard. Otherwise, it gets very hard to encourage variety of player race...

Yours have a lot of feminine characteristics, which isn't a bad thing, but I object on general principle to any race which has seduction as a power. In general, I can tell you made 'em. =p That is personal taste more than an attempt at objective criticism, though.

Your world and nations aren't particularly original or grabbing, but it's clear you've put a lot of work into it, which counts for a lot. Including an easy to find list of mannerisms for followers of certain spirits was a nice touch, and adding class powers that are very inherently tied to the theme of the world will go a long way towards making even an all PHB race party in the setting feel different from being in FR or Eberron.

Your strongest aspect, flavor-wise, is the spirit - unlike many settings, you provide a reason for their existence, one which is fairly practical and self-sustaining.

Writing some selections in the day of the life of a commoner in each nation, or something like that, would help shift your civilizations away from feeling like they came out of JRPG #8314. You selected 15th to 16th century, which seems to be broadly the favored time period for those too. Now, that does set you apart from the 11th to 14th century-ish that D&D usually reaches for, but you should try to emphasize that more (and in detailed ways) so that people really 'feel' it and don't forget where they are.

Zeta Kai
2008-09-25, 09:29 AM
Nice looking setting, so far. My only question is: do you need a map?

Meek
2008-09-25, 09:38 AM
I could definitely use a map, yes. Even a really rough one of the continent, without detailed geographical features, would be so, so appreciated.

@Astral

Thanks for the reply! I realize a lot of matriarchal/feminine things are going around, and I hope that doesn't turn away people. Damakran, Setah and Iomadi can be used if you want strong men...or a really buff Cuporo >_>. Mostly the others are to spice things up. A lot of people say my writing in general is very matriarchal and feminist (like, all of it, not just this) and I'm unsure personally...it's just my style.

The nations are very generic, I realize. I'll work on articles to flesh them out in the future, including background bonuses, short fiction and so on. I just wanted the most important aspects (to me) like Spirits to be worked on first. I can't claim that my vision for them will be anything earth-shatteringly original, but it can't get any worse, I guess?

AstralFire
2008-09-25, 09:45 AM
Thanks for the reply! I realize a lot of matriarchal/feminine things are going around, and I hope that doesn't turn away people. Damakran, Setah and Iomadi can be used if you want strong men...or a really buff Cuporo >_>. Mostly the others are to spice things up. A lot of people say my writing in general is very matriarchal and feminist (like, all of it, not just this) and I'm unsure personally...it's just my style.

I wouldn't call it matriarchal, though I can see why people say that. Feminist, maybe, but I don't think so. (I am actually feminist.) That's not my issue so much as one of balance, really. Less game balance, more that most of your races feel like they have the same or similar core in one trick. That's a double-edged sword because it lends a strong sense of flavor to the races and the world, but on the other hand it can smell of 'one-trick pony' even though that's not actually the case here. Tareea got me accused of being a furvert because about half of the races I added were anthroanimals, and that turned people off.

Explaining more on the dwarves in the setting might help, and also provide some familiarity to people who are lost without their precious Tolkien-inspiration. :)


The nations are very generic, I realize. I'll work on articles to flesh them out in the future, including background bonuses, short fiction and so on. I just wanted the most important aspects (to me) like Spirits to be worked on first. I can't claim that my vision for them will be anything earth-shatteringly original, but it can't get any worse, I guess?

Oh, it's hardly bad. I think it's pretty good, in fact, but I try to be constructively critical. If I'm not, it usually means I have no actual interest (bland praise) so much as an obligation or I'm looking for an excuse to harangue you (just being critical.)

Meek
2008-09-25, 10:04 AM
That's a good idea. I'll try to get my juices flowing for the dwarves and put them into the races section of the main article.

Zeta Kai
2008-09-25, 10:28 AM
I could definitely use a map, yes. Even a really rough one of the continent, without detailed geographical features, would be so, so appreciated.

PM me any notes that you may have on your envisioned geography, & I'll see what I can do for you.

Meek
2008-09-25, 11:28 AM
PM me any notes that you may have on your envisioned geography, & I'll see what I can do for you.

Alright. I'll try to put something together but please bear with me as it might be a bit jumbled :smallredface:

Meek
2008-09-25, 01:55 PM
Updated the main article with information on the Core Races...except for Dragonborn and Tiefling. Mostly because I'm a little sketchy on whether or not the new, 4e iteration of Tiefling and Dragonborn are really fair game to talk about in detail, unlike the elves and such that have been a) done to death and b) in the OGL and c) haven't changed at all since.

AstralFire
2008-09-25, 02:01 PM
Tieflings in general should be OGL since they were in 3/3.5, so the name can't really be trademarked the way Mind Flayer is. If you refer to them as 'demon people' and don't provide stats, then you really circumvent any issues.

I personally think Dragonborn kind of detract from the feel presented, but I'm also hostile towards draconids, so take that with a handful of salt.

I like the tie you used to the spirits to explain the Dwarves' survival. How do they feel about lesser spirits, then?

Meek
2008-09-25, 02:13 PM
Usually the same as everyone else does. They can be helpful or severely annoying. I should have put there though (and will do so now) that Dwarves are very religious as well, since the entire race was saved by a spirit god.

AstralFire
2008-09-25, 02:16 PM
Usually the same as everyone else does. They can be helpful or severely annoying. I should have put there though (and will do so now) that Dwarves are very religious as well, since the entire race was saved by a spirit god.

Stuff like that is cool. I'd try to focus on what makes them different. You don't have to make them more different, mind, just highlight how they have changed from their PHB version more than how they are the same. Brevity (in this respect) allows a lazy player to quickly figure out how they have to modify.

One of the biggest problems I've noted with Eberron is that when someone new plays one of the classic races they paid more attention to how they were the same as usually conceived than how they were different. When I spent time highlighting the differences, they were more likely to modify appropriately.

EDIT: Also, I keep reading 'Pekor swarms' as 'Pelor swarms', which makes me laugh.

Meek
2008-09-25, 04:20 PM
I try to go for a bit of both, just so you can see the similarities from the context of the setting, as well as the differences.

I laughed harder than I should have at Pelor swarms.

Edit: I share the sentiment on dragon-races. I sorely dislike all of them. Even the ones that were just Tiamat fiddling with genetics or something, those were stupid. All the ones that were "dragon polymorphs into human, gets X pregnant" were ungodly stupid. All the ones where the dragons stays a Dragon to commit the act were grotesque AND stupid.

That I have a general dislike for races that are too removed from human (personal thing, I just can't get into it when I realize I'm playing a dude with a hyena face) so I try to keep the monstrous appearance within a human framework.

AstralFire
2008-09-25, 05:02 PM
I just don't care for how dragons are the 'in' thing in fantasy. Dragons are possibly more common than swords (in terms of what settings prominently feature them). I don't dislike them, I just don't really like them and I'm a little sick of their prominence.

I like some anthroanimals, if only to get away from the 'funny looking humans' core, I was just appalled when it turned out to be more dragons.

But that's neither here nor there, so I'll stop derailing the thread.

Meek
2008-09-25, 05:08 PM
Given this is the only discussion going on about the setting right now, it's fine.

Dragons are far less prominent in Eden, at least so far (I haven't written explicitly about them yet, this is just what I have in mind). You could say their place as spookybad treasure guardians has been taken by Aberrations (or particularly big spirits). Though they exist, it's only in very diminished numbers (like, dragons that do exist are either legendary and you don't piss them off, or their kids, which you can count in one hand for each color) .

Meek
2008-09-25, 09:33 PM
Leaving for the night...did some work on the Undead In Eden article though. There's only so much you can really say about undead anymore, but hopefully it'll be decently interesting. I've received a lot of clamor for it too.

AstralFire
2008-09-25, 09:35 PM
I'll take a look tomorrah. I should be heading to bed myself.

Undead, though, really are subject to how well the DM handles them in order to be cool, much more the setting. Possibly moreso than any other creature.

Meek
2008-09-26, 11:19 AM
Back for the day. Still working on undead, also started on the "Life in Eden" bit. It's a little weird choosing background benefits. I think I'll look at 4e Forgotten Realms for inspiration on that. I'm also having a weird time figuring out what to SAY about the countries...I know them from top to bottom, but I don't want to give out an encyclopedia. I like things to have enough holes in there to give DMs wiggle room, but there are things I have to say, obviously. I just don't know if I'm missing any.

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 11:21 AM
Hmm, is Undead in Eden not up for reading yet?


Undead In Eden: Coming Soon

Life In Eden: Coming Soon

Meek
2008-09-26, 12:14 PM
Oh no, it isn't. Still working on it, like I said in my last post.

Edit: Want to clear up a point about Eden, as asked in this email.

How do the Shadar-Kai, Warforged and Shifters fit into Eden? The Setah seem to preclude Shifters, and there's no area of shadow mentioned for the Shadar-Kai to originate from. Warforged is probably easy to add.

None of that will be added by me, nor even mentioned, probably. In fact it's not part of the Eden setting, though you're welcome to add it if you want.

You see, I base Eden mostly on core assumptions, with a bit of outside material to be sure, but I don't mean for it to include everything from every book. The closest thing to the warforged in the setting are the Inaw which will show in Undead In Eden. For one thing, I'm sketchy as to how much I can say/re-imagine all these things that are not OGL (and much less GSL) compliant. For another, is that I feel it'd dillute the setting if I had to cram in all these things.

Iron Mongler
2008-09-27, 07:20 PM
Good content, hoping to see more about Eden in the future.

Meek
2008-09-27, 11:56 PM
@Iron: Thanks! You will. :smallwink:

Anyway, nothing more? Oh well. I don't know why but I never seem to get the feedback I want. Maybe I'm just intimidating. Maybe nobody cares. Perhaps its karma.

Anyway I love talking to myself, so. Undead article is finished. Working on the very ambitious article about the seven nations, complete with eight short pieces of fiction, an abridged historical timeline of the current Adel, information (I'm reading settings books right now for a format, but I'm still stumped as to which sections to include for each nation and such) on each nation, and background bonuses for the nation.

Edit: It'll also be, I think, the one article without any illustrations. Anyway, time for bed.

AstralFire
2008-09-28, 06:05 AM
Hey, I've been looking and commenting when I get a chance!

Undead in Eden is probably your strongest article so far. The legal considerations towards undead are... interesting. I'm kind of reminded of Karrnath, only without the ancestory-worship and gothic vibes.

Note that I am only commenting on flavor aspects so far, as I really don't feel comfortable enough with 4E mechanically to say any more than "DAT LOOKS GUD."

Meek
2008-09-28, 09:29 AM
I didn't mean you Astral, I meant my many lurking friends. I don't bite. But thanks :smallsmile:

I'm also very thankful to Zeta for the map he's making. I'm still really awed by it. Adel, with such a cool map! That should help out a lot.

However, having to come up with population numbers and area in miles for these places that are geographically and thematically sound is weird to say the least. Especially since the land-masses that most closely resemble Adel have very low population densities.

Meek
2008-10-01, 02:15 PM
Added a GSL logo to the main article (for no reason really since it's not a published product), and still working on the Andaliel article. I promise I'll try to make it good!

Edit: Also added a bit about Eden's economy. This part will certainly see tweaks, as I'm still trying to figure out a 4e economy. I based it on a bare minimum 30 gp (enough to have a decent meal and lodging at an inn for a whole month – and not much else).

AstralFire
2008-10-01, 05:46 PM
Is there a specific section in the main doc with the new stuff?

Meek
2008-10-01, 05:50 PM
"The Setting In Short" is the one with all the changes. Sorry about that.

AstralFire
2008-10-01, 06:14 PM
Though you say it's not anachronistic, I'm starting to get images of say, 1900s to 1930s-ish stuff in my head, with how large voice boxes and prism engines are as well as the general state of politics. What else did you have in mind?

Meek
2008-10-01, 06:37 PM
The items are not aesthetically anachronistic, is what I meant with that. A voice box isn't a radio, it has no knobs or anything. It's a box. And you tell it to do stuff with arcane words. And it does it. Prism-based things are basically constructs that don't look like buff dudes or animals and don't need a Wizard around all the time telling them what to do.

The setting itself is decently anachronistic, as I find it more interesting that way. It will probably seem even more so once the Andaliel article is up.

AstralFire
2008-10-01, 06:43 PM
I wasn't complaining as much as making an observation. Are you looking to recreate a specific era feel, or are you just interested in making a cohesive conglomeration?

Curiosity - styles of dress?

Meek
2008-10-01, 06:53 PM
I didn't mean to imply that you were complaining. I just wanted to clear up that I did mess up that paragraph – it's the aesthetic feel of the items that is not anachronistic.

Styles of dress...vary. Among social class, among climates, among nations. Most normal people wear tunics and pants, or summer robes (think of the asian-y sort). Big poofy victorian works for some wealthy people, especially in Andaliel's cities of Oomash and Lilicor, which are very cold. In the tropics, fashion is very Athirua-inspired, and getting an eyeful when staring at somebody is expected. You also have shady characters in cloaks and the like.

I'm not exactly trying to capture an era, nor much of an aesthetic. Eden is very varied. I may be erroneous in doing so, but I am basing it heavily in more modern sort of cultures, where this kind of stuff is very diverse. Like pointing at Europe and saying "What do they wear?" That's sort of the reaction I got, because, while I can write down for each nation what people wear, the world itself is very varied and doesn't really conform to one style.

But it's still very fantasy-inspired. Just not of the norm, I would suppose.

Like I said, I'm not sure if this screws up anything or breaks suspension of disbelief. I thought it made things interesting, so that's why I did it.

AstralFire
2008-10-01, 06:59 PM
No, no, 'varying by nation and social role' is a perfectly acceptable answer, it helps prevent a sameness syndrome. I think getting more details on dress, especially if you know someone with arty skills, would be really cool in assisting in the flavor and differentiation. Mostly just trying to ask about things you've not expounded upon to maybe help you with article ideas.

On the whole, I'm more interested in SoE than I am in 97.6142% of campaign settings. This percentile may drop if you do something like start naming people with anagrams or straight reverse-spellings of you and your friends' RL names. Not that I'm naming any names here...

http://www.directcellars.ca/sites/directcellars/images/greyhawk_logo.jpg

Meek
2008-10-01, 07:27 PM
I tend to use a combination of normal and fantasy names (and sometimes names that sound "too silly or whimsical") which I've been criticized for before. I don't know what an apostrophe is at all when naming anything, so maybe that's why I get so much flak... >_>

Meek
2008-10-01, 09:29 PM
Hey Astral, I have a question for you, since you've hung out here more than me. Do people here just hate 4e? Because that might explain a few things. Many of which are in my inbox.

AstralFire
2008-10-01, 09:33 PM
Hey Astral, I have a question for you, since you've hung out here more than me. Do people here just hate 4e? Because that might explain a few things. Many of which are in my inbox.

The GameFAQs board is, on the whole, much more inclined towards 4E than this place is. And there are more than a few people who don't like it. And a few who are, er, really violent about not liking it, though those aren't too many.

I like the idea of it myself, I just haven't gotten a chance to play it yet, so I can't even comment on mechanics.

So it not being 3E lowers likelihood of being read, though not to an abysmal level - the CUTE III project is 4E and it's been bustling with a very short time alive.

I think a lot of it is simply that it's a lot of reading and that you don't have a name here, though. Frex, most of The Anteheroes threads are me posting away oblivious to the complete apathy, save for a few kind souls like Zeta Kai, streakster, phoenixcire, my girlfriend, etc. Lots of stuff falls by the wayside here, and I make an effort to post in shorter threads by unknowns to try and get them going.

Meek
2008-10-01, 10:03 PM
Thankfully I make a habit of talking to myself to keep my threads alive.

Isn't that right self?

Yeah, I thought so. Whore.

Zeta Kai
2008-10-01, 10:45 PM
Yeah, I thought so. Whore.

Don't be so hard on yourself. :smallwink:

For the record, your project is looking really nice so far. I'm still working on that thar map.

Meek
2008-10-02, 11:25 AM
Thanks. I'm definitely very lucky to have come across such a good mapmaker!

As for work today...like, nothing's going to get done for the moment. Two essays, and have to study for my Entomology class. Yes, I'm a journalism student who takes insect classes. They're the only science taught in this university that doesn't bore me to sleep.

Buggies!

Meek
2008-10-03, 11:18 AM
Andaliel article is complete (hopefully!) and now published on the blog!

As well, I added a small bit to the Professions thingy in the main article, under "The Setting In Short", as well as a Handy Links section at the bottom of the Expansions bit.

Also, sorry for teasing you with the Fern Isles, but they'll have their own portion later :smallwink: However, you can definitely set games there now anyway.

Edit: Several goofs and typos now fixed by my master Editor. ¬_¬;;

AstralFire
2008-10-03, 12:13 PM
The journal entries are funny and useful, though 27x2 is 54.

What is the Eternal State of Man? I don't recall seeing that before.

Meek
2008-10-03, 12:24 PM
The journal entries are funny and useful, though 27x2 is 54.

What is the Eternal State of Man? I don't recall seeing that before.

*shakes fist at Faury for not catching simple math mistake*

It's basically Andaliel's constitution. It is mentioned in the Eden Timeline. If I ever do a "comprehensive history of Eden" article, it'll be there too.

Meek
2008-10-03, 04:36 PM
I've received some emails about the NPCs, and I thought I'd clear up that, you don't have to use anything unless you want to. I did a lot for Oomash because it's the capital, and I thought since it's such a defining city, I should write up lots of stuff to show examples for DMs. So you can change the Prime Minister or whatever in your game, it's not like I can find you and beat you with cudgels for it. Also, a lot of things are deliberately ambiguous, like what the PM's contract power is (I usually have it as a form of mind control in my dox, but you can give him anything you feel like), and what role Andaliel had in the Fern Isles mess, so people can do what they will with that.

So, was the article detailed enough? Anything I missed, or that's not understood well?

AstralFire
2008-10-05, 02:07 PM
I've received some emails about the NPCs, and I thought I'd clear up that, you don't have to use anything unless you want to.

Did people really ask about that? I thought that was kind of an unspoken part of using a campaign setting's fluff.

I'll catch up on my reading in a bit, I was gone the last day and I have a lot of other stuff to catch up on too.

Meek
2008-10-05, 02:55 PM
Did people really ask about that? I thought that was kind of an unspoken part of using a campaign setting's fluff.

I'll catch up on my reading in a bit, I was gone the last day and I have a lot of other stuff to catch up on too.

Some people seemed to think these are really, really essential parts of the setting that might throw everything out of whack if removed. They really aren't. I didn't even include stat blocks for them for this particular reason.

AstralFire
2008-10-05, 10:41 PM
The aberration article is one of your stronger ones so far, and I must agree strongly with your decision not to make aberrant PCs abide by some sort of mechanic to make them more insane; I've found they usually become either tediously complex or simply tedious in a tabletop setting, where all the calculations aren't done for you.

I personally favor the Esoteric Agenda, simply because making them work requires little DM work and a lot of imaginative PCs. :smallamused:

Meek
2008-10-06, 10:13 AM
Esoteric Agenda is certainly my favorite as well.

Meek
2008-10-06, 08:29 PM
Added the Races of Eden article, which talks about how players can use the 10 new Eden races for a broad array of characters. Includes a small bit of supplemental fluff about each race, including pronounciation of their names, rare physical traits that can be used to differentiate special members and players, common professions, and lifespan. What there is a lot of there is crunch, including racial benefits when Paragon Multiclassing and 2-3 new racial feats for every race.

The ten core Eden races are the following, for those wondering:

Iomadi
Athirua
Cuporo
Damakran
Dromidae
Ainyu
Setah
Rhonnu
Anpe
Inaw (Blood Servant and Adept Vassal, counted as one race)

Meek
2008-10-09, 04:22 PM
Aaaaand Eden has a map now! Thanks to Zeta Kai for it! It's gorgeous and really helps to better visualize where everything is in Adel!

Zeta Kai
2008-10-09, 08:22 PM
Aaaaand Eden has a map now! Thanks to Zeta Kai for it! It's gorgeous and really helps to better visualize where everything is in Adel!

I'm glad that you like it. You gave me much more detail than I'm accustomed to working with, but I think the final product speaks for itself. If you need an unmarked map, just let me know. I still have the PSD source file.

Meek
2008-10-10, 02:12 PM
Alright :smallsmile:

In other news, I was rejected by RPGBloggers, but I knew it would happen so it doesn't bother me. I can exist pleasantly through my own advertising. Plus those people are way too nice for me. If they expected me to be that nice, I'd have to stab myself in the foot every day to blow off the extra aggression.

>_>

Meek
2008-10-12, 12:40 PM
http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/celebrating-5-months-10000-hits/

Here's to 10,000 hits!

AstralFire
2008-10-12, 12:46 PM
Congrats on 10k... even if I don't favor vitriol or... semi-disrobed children in penguin costuyou know what I'm just going to drop this line of thought.

Meek
2008-10-12, 01:16 PM
Penguin-tan is made of love.

And ability to withstand freezing temperatures while in her underwear and a penguin costume.

Meek
2008-10-13, 11:01 AM
I wonder, is there something I did wrong at some point? You'd think I'd at least get people telling me my mistakes. Perhaps I really do need to stick everything in the first post? Though that would be terribly time-consuming.

Zeta Kai
2008-10-13, 02:55 PM
I wonder, is there something I did wrong at some point? You'd think I'd at least get people telling me my mistakes. Perhaps I really do need to stick everything in the first post? Though that would be terribly time-consuming.

I'll give you the same advice that I gave this guy: be patient, post slowly, & when you're ahead of your time, you have to wait for the world to catch up.

Meek
2008-10-13, 05:42 PM
You're right. :smallsmile: Thanks for that post, it really is good advice.

Meek
2008-10-18, 01:40 PM
Bump from the second page.

Today, I updated some stuff that isn't Eden, but is 4e homebrew.

http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/10/18/im-doing-stuff-you-just-cant-see-it/

I'm still working on Eden stuff obviously. Just, I'm so busy with other stuff, that at times I really feel like doing small updates elsewhere on the site until my spirits are up for writing Eden stuff.

Lappy9000
2008-10-24, 08:50 PM
Garr...there's a whole lot of work done here. Wow. You've been brewing up quite the world here!

Oh, and the Damakran? Ohmygoodnesssharkpeoplewhattheheckawesome!

This could be mid, but I'm having a hard time navigating through the Turbulent Thoughts website. Unfortunatly, I will be almost no help if you wish to discuss crunch. I only know enough 4e to play it (sorta).

Meek
2008-10-25, 01:52 PM
Garr...there's a whole lot of work done here. Wow. You've been brewing up quite the world here!

Oh, and the Damakran? Ohmygoodnesssharkpeoplewhattheheckawesome!

This could be mid, but I'm having a hard time navigating through the Turbulent Thoughts website. Unfortunatly, I will be almost no help if you wish to discuss crunch. I only know enough 4e to play it (sorta).

Thanks!

I suggest you go to the main Eden link, and click on the links at the bottom, which will open the expansion articles in new windows (or tabs, depending on your browser's settings). All the Eden stuff is there, and there's not a lot of need to look beyond that. Just browse up and down using your arrow keys or scroll wheel. The website is very vertical.

As for discussing, I'm happy to discuss anything! Don't worry about what you can discuss or not, any feedback is welcome.

Reverent-One
2008-10-28, 10:42 PM
Wow, I must say, I'm really impressed with this, and I like the world and the critters. I may use this for a 4e campaign.

Meek
2008-10-29, 08:38 PM
Wow, I must say, I'm really impressed with this, and I like the world and the critters. I may use this for a 4e campaign.

Wow, that's great! I hope you enjoy it. Keep us up to date on anything cool! When I have time, I want to see about running a few short REAL games (1-3 level adventures) on the setting myself. Right now all I've been running are dry mechanic playtests because I can't find the time to commit to a real game.

Progress On Monsters of Eden part 2: 21/32 monsters completed, yay! I'm especially fond of some of the throwbacks I've made. If you liked the old D&D monsters that had some ability the PCs sought them out for, (like how Pixies were the only things able to detect alignment before), the "Boon" keyword abilities will probably make you smile.

Reverent-One
2008-10-29, 09:10 PM
Wow, that's great! I hope you enjoy it. Keep us up to date on anything cool! When I have time, I want to see about running a few short REAL games (1-3 level adventures) on the setting myself. Right now all I've been running are dry mechanic playtests because I can't find the time to commit to a real game.

Given my schedule, I can't say I'd be doing it anytime too soon, but I definately want to at some point and whenever I do, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Meek
2008-10-30, 09:59 AM
Given my schedule, I can't say I'd be doing it anytime too soon, but I definately want to at some point and whenever I do, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Alright. If I might make a suggestion, run it heroic tier to start with. I've gotten some emails from people who want to run paragon tier games but lack special Eden monsters and support for it because I haven't really gotten there yet (I'm working my way up).

Meek
2008-10-31, 06:32 PM
Wow...30/32 critters right now for the Monsters article. And I'm thinking I might add more...how do you know when you've covered all the critters you want? I've been digging up local native american, aborigine and ainu mythologies for my spirits lately.

...

I decided 32 critters wasn't enough for me, so expect like 35-40 new critters for World of Warcash Antagonism Edition D&D. (Har dee har har.)

...


While you wait diligently on those monsters, you can check out some more of my work:

http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/wyatt-brand-4e-house-rules/

Including some that is up for consideration on the RPG Blog Anthology:

http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/backrow-commander-warlord/

Meek
2008-11-01, 07:55 PM
Still working. Also, still considering whether to set up shop on some other boards. Myth-Weavers seems very nice and friendly and I'm familiar with many people there. ENWorld I'm more apprehensive about. RPG-Net I would consider when Ragnarok is nigh. Gleemax is a little too close to Wizard's for my comfort, but then again, they've done things I feel have broken the GSL in half many times over, on Gleemax itself, and with ADMIN contributions... (Like that monster-making program they made).

Beyond that I don't know of many RPG boards though.

I received an email a little...offended? By the above comment. I don't know HOW I manage to offend so many people...I must be a credit to my species. Anyway, I'm not saying "GITP SUX, TIEM TO GO" when I say that. If it even gets the blog 2 hits a day it's already decent enough. And it's gotten it far, far more hits than that. So people are reading this – they're just not commenting. So I'm not going to pack up shop and leave, and I'm not saying anything bad about this board.

But you can't deny that there hasn't really been much discussion here about my setting since AstralFire. And at this stage, what I want to do besides just writing, is talking to people (preferably not in reply to their hatemail). That's not happened a lot.

But I'm not leaving. I intend to stick around and keep everyone informed as usual.

I also want to address some other concerns about the 3.5 version of Eden. No, you can't "take it over" for me, and yes, most of it is down now. I took down the content because I am done migrating it into workable notes for my 4e work. Here are some highlights into what will be done with them:

Monsters – the Gefuhlloss undead do not fit into my vision of Eden anymore, and with the expansion of Spirits into a larger role in the setting, and with the creation of Inaw as the "undead player race", they won't be included in the 4th Edition version of the setting. However, Hollow Claw, the Aspect of Kaehma and some of the Gefuhlloss monsters will be in the 4th Edition version as Monsters of Eden, with the Hollow Claw being a Level 3 elite lurker in the coming article and the Aspect of Kaehma receiving a major upgrade to a paragon tier solo controller, and a name change to better suit its new role in the setting – having random people becoming Aspects of a God is something extremely weird back then (I don't know WHAT I was thinking) so players can no longer become Aspects, and Aspects will be changed so rather than being self-made pieces of Kaehma, they're just spirit-infused high priestesses. Since "The Cult of Kaehma" is no longer a piece of Eden lore (she's got a real religion now), there's no need for the Gefuhlloss much anymore. Their special plane was joined up with Septinum, and so it no longer exists – Septinum is both hell and the eternal graveyard of shadow creatures, now. Simulants, as you saw, have been upgraded to one of the main races of Eden. Dragonkits were killed off...I never really liked them all that much and you have Dragonborn now.

Prestige Classes: Imitarimancer and Dragonheart are special multiclasses with powers you take using swap feats, much like the Spell-plague people in Forgotten Realms. Imitarimancer is changed – rather than being somebody who mimics every other class in the game somewhat, they are now people who take on spirit facets. A sort of Druid redux, if you will. They will likely get a name change by the end of it, as the spirit names have a sort of indian, aboriginal, ainu flavor. Dragonheart is being changed as well – rather than being a Druid prestige class to polymorph into dragons, they are people who take on facets of dragonkind, allowing them to shape their hands into claws for attacks, to shoot limited breath weapons, to fly for period of time, and to call up draconic resistance to damage, and so on.

Pain Gauntlet, Faith Healer, Thousand Magi will be Paragon Paths. I'm trying for at least one new paragon path for every one of the first eight classes, except for Warlord, who already has a lot of new stuff due to my Backrow Commander Warlord, and will not be receiving new paths (though he will receive Spirit-Touched powers as the other classes have). Arcanist Prodigy is way too flavorless for me now, and I'm reworking it into something with more Eden flavor, but still a gishy option for Wizards. It will be a Paragon Path.

The Eden Sections I never finished, like Equipment, will be done in the Treasures of Eden article.

Zeta Kai
2008-11-01, 08:21 PM
So, are you saying that you're ending your project? Please don't. This is a great setting. Even though I don't play 4E (which is mostly why I don't comment), I really like the fluff that you've created for this project. I know it's the slow season here on the homebrew fora, what with midterms & holidays & whatnot, but it would be a shame to lose your strong creative input.

Stick around, & I promise that I'll post once a day, just to tell you how much your stuff sucks. :smallbiggrin:

Meek
2008-11-01, 08:24 PM
Oh no! I'm saying quite the opposite! :smalleek: My earlier post was misinterpreted as me leaving. This one is my clarification that I'm not. And it was misinterpreted too! I'm cursed! >_>

Zeta Kai
2008-11-01, 11:18 PM
Whew! Well, that's good. I like this project, & I didn't want to see it die.

And as for being misinterpreted, I know the feeling. I was agreeing with your sentiment on the "OGL vs. 4e vs. 3e" thread, & it was viewed as slamming you. Sorry, that was by far not my intent.

Meek
2008-11-02, 11:33 AM
It's alright. Personally I try to steer clear of edition debates except on the RPG blogosphere, but that's because my persona on the blogosphere is that of a confrontational jerk, therefore getting into that stuff is good for my site's growth.

What I feel about 4e is that it's an attempt at very abstract roleplaying game in the vein of Gygax's OD&D (where a Fighting Man just had to ask the DM nicely if he could do a spin kick, but there were no rules for a spin kick), but that still has to cater to the legacy of 3.x crunchtasticness. I think it's confused and should have gotten rid of far more of its legacy rather than trying to retain it to please people that are more or less unpleasable, but that's just my belief. It should have been even less simulationist than what little it is now.

I work on it because I enjoy it more and have had good experiences with it. I ran some very extensive playtesting of all its aspects before and during the release and got to like it for what many other people hate it for. But that's neither here nor there, and I'd rather not talk more about it than that.

On to Eden news, the more or less final number of monsters has been decided and I'm going through now and working on them, I hope to be finished either today or tomorrow... nope, maybe by the end of the week, oh god I have an exam...

20 Aberrations
28 Spirits
3 Oozes
5 Undead

For 55 new monsters.

These include options for all sorts of environments, including the rather neglected by the monster manual aquatic environment. They'll also include a decent amount of fluff to place them into the setting – not huge amounts, but what I think is a healthy medium between AD&D Monster Manual "Too Much Info" and Monster Manual 4e "Make up your own info."

As usual with my writing, I won't break up my fluff into "Lore" sections for knowledge checks. As a DM I don't follow those, so I think people can adjudicate for themselves how much or how little of a monster a PC knows by his roll, and the DC tables in the DMG.

Meek
2008-11-03, 11:18 PM
Before going to bed I thought I'd plug this:

http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/toradora-in-my-turbulent-thoughts-rpg-anthology/

You all might not be completely aware, or you might, but the RPG blogosphere is incredibly rich in good material, and my good friend Jonathan there is trying to compile that into a real book for you to get, so maybe check that out. And wrap your head around my abrasive humor.

Meek
2008-11-05, 10:57 PM
Alright! It's done!

http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/monsters-of-eden-heroic-tier/

70 new monsters, including fixes to my old monsters and all the needed material for running the heroic tier monsters of Eden, all in one gigantic article. Loads, loads of stuff there, that I worked so hard on, so please check it out. And special thanks to the American Indian, Australian Aborigine and Japanese Ainu cultures for being so damn interesting.

Reverent-One
2008-11-05, 11:08 PM
Alright! It's done!

http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/monsters-of-eden-heroic-tier/

70 new monsters, including fixes to my old monsters and all the needed material for running the heroic tier monsters of Eden, all in one gigantic article. Loads, loads of stuff there, that I worked so hard on, so please check it out. And special thanks to the American Indian, Australian Aborigine and Japanese Ainu cultures for being so damn interesting.

Oh no, just what I needed, another 70 monsters to look over instead of studying for a test. Curse D&D for being more interesting than classes!

Meek
2008-11-06, 07:20 AM
Oh no, just what I needed, another 70 monsters to look over instead of studying for a test. Curse D&D for being more interesting than classes!

I always seem to time these things so they mess with somebody academically. I am unwittingly contributing to the decline in education! :smallconfused:

Meek
2008-11-06, 07:22 PM
I wrote a piece for this month's RPG blog carnival on Eden's religious nature and inspirations:

http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/religion-in-eden-rpg-blog-carnival/

No crunch or anything gamey there, just talk, but still, if you're interested in Eden and myself, I suppose it's worth a read.

Meek
2008-11-08, 03:00 PM
I deleted a lot of my "Bumping" posts to make the thread friendlier to read.

For today's news update, a very special one! Here's a peek at my notes and outline for Might of Eden, the Eden powers/paths/destinies article. Keep in mind I'm mostly writing for myself here, though also for a "ghost audience" as I call it.

NEW POWERS

A lot of these will be "reprints" from the "Concepts of Eden" articles, but tightened up in flavor and with better mechanics (IE, the dropping of the "Spirit-Touched" mechanic which is somewhat restricting and many people have complained about – personally I stopped liking it as well, because Spirit Pacts aren't easy to get and they are already a powerful enough reward WITHOUT triggering random boosts to powers you took beforehand; thanks to everyone who pointed out how terrible the idea was). If this goes well, I'll remove the powers from the Concepts of Eden articles, and Might of Eden will be the only source for Eden's Powers. This makes things a lot cleaner and tighter. The Concepts articles will point to Might instead of having their own powers there, and people building characters will just have to look at the core setting, the races article and the powers article.

If a class is getting 19 powers, that means it'll have a whole new build to work with, because that is 1 power per type of power per level. Otherwise, it's just getting some flavorful powers at random levels of each tier that you can mesh with normal powers from other sources. I held off on writing more powers for the martial classes, because Martial Power is coming out and I don't want to offer crappy versions of something that might already exist. Instead, the Spiritual Powers will be pseudo-magical attacks or spirit-empowered attacks for the faithful of even non-magical classes.

•Spirit Pact Warlock Powers (19 of them)

•Floran Pact Warlock Powers (19 of them)

•Aberrant Wizard Powers (19 of them)

•Necromancer Wizard Powers (19 of them)

•Faithful Essence Cleric Powers (19 of them)

•Necrotic Essence Cleric Powers (19 of them)

•Spiritual Fighter Powers (10 of them)

•Spiritual Ranger Powers (10 of them)

•Spiritual Warlord Powers (10 of them)

•Spiritual Rogue Powers (10 of them)

•Spiritual Paladin Powers (10 of them)

MULTICLASS OPTIONS

The following are three multiclass options for Spirits of Eden, using a system introduced in Player's Guide to Faerun (an excellent book in my opinion). In a nutshell, the player multiclasses into this pseudoclass, which has a weak paragon path and precludes other multiclassing, but in turn offers flavorful and diverse powers. They are oft weaker than normal powers of their level, but make up for it by being very diverse, allowing any character with at least one good physical and one good mental ability score to take them and use them. They are very diverse powers, as they have no basis on role, and are extremely adaptable. The versatility and ease of use makes up for power.

•Dragonheart: Draconic abilities, tooth and nail, breaths, etc. (19 powers)

•Kamuyno: Spirit abilities that transform your body for a time. (19 powers)

•Soulbond: Swordfighting that mixes arcane, divine and martial. (19 powers)

PARAGON PATHS

The following are adaptations of the Prestige Classes in 3.5 Eden.

•Faith Healer

Notes: Cleric Paragon Path, Healing-focused burst attacks

Power Ideas:

Attack 11 – Cascade of Warmth, burst 2 or 3 damage + heal, uses up healing word
Utility 12 – Regain a healing surge or use of healing word
Attack 20 – Lyric of Creation, close burst 5 damage + heal, uses up healing word

•Pain Gauntlet

Notes: Cleric Paragon Path, melee touch attacking

•Thousand Mage

Notes: Wizard paragon path, focusing on spending action points to deal more powerful blows and gaining limited action points within an encounter

•Pentacle Wizard

Notes: Wizard paragon path, focus on Zones beneficial to allies, harmful to enemy

•Sinen

Notes: Fighter Paragon Path, for unarmed fighting

•Roumpe

Notes: Fighter Paragon Path, ronin-style guy with one-handed shield-less attacks

•Fey Traveller

Notes: Ranger Paragon Path, movement-focused

•Game Hunter

Notes: Ranger Paragon Path, focused on taking creatures alive and crippling them

•Rooftop Bandit

Notes: Rogue Paragon Path, focuses on Acrobatics, Artful Dodger

•Backstreet Thug

Notes: Rogue Paragon Path, focuses on Athletics, Brutal Scoundrel

•Inspired Soul

Notes: Spirit Pact Warlock Path

•Petal Wind

Notes: Floran Pact Warlock Path

•Paskuma

Notes: Kamuyno Paragon Path

•Dragon Seeker

Notes: Dragonheart Paragon Path

•Battle Incarnate

Notes: Soulbound Paragon Path

EPIC DESTINIES

•Spirit Ascendant

Notes: You are destined to ascend into spiritual existence upon Eden, slowly shedding most of your old identity after your final and greatest deed is accomplished. Immortality based on becoming a spirit and giving up your earthen life and abilities, becoming a legendary, unique spirit.

•Sanctified Martyr

Notes: You are destined to sacrifice yourself for the good of the world, of your people or country, or of a cause. Whether the sacrifice comes from you, or you fall to an agonizing death at the outset of your quest, the fact is that while you may not know it, death is your destiny. While your allies and loved ones mourn you, your name will become immortalized across Eden and your sacrifice revered.

•Cataclysm Caller

Notes: You are destined to cause catastrophic (though not really cataclysmic) change to the world. Whether or not you intended it, your abilities and your goals will cause horrible events to unfold. Government collapse, dreadful war, mass extinction. You will be metaphorically immortalized by the world's hatred of you, and nobody will know the true story behind you (if there ever was one).

•Foul Fated

Notes: You are destined to bring about the coming of an Aberrant God, either deliberately or accidentally by your own human folly and flaws. As you progress towards your destiny you become less and less sane and more volatile. Whether or not you bring destruction, your tale will become a reviled legend or a moral lesson.

Zeta Kai
2008-11-08, 03:10 PM
This all looks very good. I'm no expert on 4E mechanics, but I like what I see. Great job on this project. I'm impressed with your dedication to it.

A question, though: why do the cleric, the warlock, & the wizard get 19 new powers each, while the other classes only get 10 new powers each? A lot of people like 4E because it doesn't favor necessarily spellcasters, & I'd hate to think that this pro-caster bias is returning.

Meek
2008-11-08, 03:21 PM
Because Martial Power comes out this month, and it includes 2 new builds for every martial class. That's 38 (approximately, theoretically) powers per build, and 2 builds for 4 classes, so it is estimated that there'll be 304 new martial powers, give or take. At worst, there should at least be 152 new powers. That's A LOT of possible redundancy. So rather than make a bunch of things that might be coming out from the professional guys, I'm biding my time and doing only spiritual powers for the martial guys for now to tie them into the Eden Setting and give them some flavorful options.

Comparatively, Arcane Power comes out in April, and Divine Power isn't really on the radar yet.

So I'm offering options for the classes that don't yet have that kind of volume and won't have it for a while. Also, it's somewhat more difficult to design for the martial classes than for the casters in Eden. Already some of the things I'm doing add caster flavor to martial classes, which is a bit of a cheat...(Eden is very high magic though, which justifies things – even a Fighter can channel his faith that his sword bursts into flames when he smashes a guy).

If popular demand wants it though, I can expand the Spiritual powers to 19. However, these powers are basically "giving magic" to the martial guys, in a way, which is why I kept them to a minimum. I'm also, as you see, not doing much for the Warlord. This is because I already did around 38ish new powers for the Warlord and 2 Paragon Paths, with my Backrow Commander Warlord (http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/backrow-commander-warlord/) build.

Meek
2008-11-09, 01:05 AM
I decided to just expand everything given to 19 for equality. If the pseudomagic powers rub off on people the wrong way...they can just not use 'em. Besides, this is Eden (THIS. IS. EDEEEEEN.) and if you can talk to a minor crow god over lunch, you should be able to smash someone with such amazing inner strength he catches fire.

Also, I received an email to the effect that the Florian Path Warlock sounds too "Neutral Good" for Warlocks. Trust me, it will be creepy.

Nourish Another Warlock (Florian) Utility 2
Plants grow about your body, restraining and draining you for another to feed upon you.
Daily @ Arcane, Implement, Healing
Special: You regain use of this power after a milestone.
Standard Action
Target: One willing adjacent creature
Effect: You take 5 damage and the target regains hit points equal to 5 + your constitution modifier. If you spend a healing surge without regaining any hit points, you can take 10 damage and the target regains hit points equal to its surge value, and counts as being fed one good meal for that day.

It will be very creepy. This isn't a flowers and sunshine Warlock, it's a pollen, poison and chestbursting plants Warlock who can have people and its own attack plants eat bits of her (that grow back in likely horrid ways). So no, I don't think it's going to be anything too "wimpy" for the Warlock's flavor.

(Note that this is a very rough playtest version of the power, and that the ability of the Florian Warlock to heal is still in the works. Early playtests show that for it's level is good but not too good...everyone still wants Ethereal Stride.)

Meek
2008-11-16, 08:52 PM
In keeping with not using this topic for what it's for, here's a link to the Fleurian pact warlock...I decided that there really wasn't a lot of point in having something so general purpose be tied into Eden, so I made it more general. Spirit Pact Warlock will be the lone Warlock build tied into Eden. Some other things that I decided to make general purpose include the Necromancer Warlock, Unholy Cleric, Fallen Paladin, Swift Sword Fighter, Blade And Bow Rogue. They'll instead be included in a series of class articles following the lieu of my backrow commander warlord. Generally they've all received positive reviews so far from the people that have seen them.

http://wyattsalazar.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/fleurian-pact-warlock/

Playtesting these was oodles of fun. Having my character feed the party by letting them pluck fruits out of her hair that tasted like flesh, was so amazingly awesome.

Meek
2008-11-18, 08:15 PM
Bump. I decided to put off Might for a while and instead work on the Eden Campaign Guide so I can actually give prospective DMs a resource to run games before I actually go down and codify every nation and nook and cranny in the setting in-depth.

Meek
2008-11-22, 12:50 AM
As you know, I've started writing an Eden Campaign Guide with the hopes to run a big playtest sometime, and am taking suggestions on topics to be covered. I'm already planning on doing some small write ups of the different nations so that they can actually be run somewhat before they get more thorough articles. So suggest any specific and Eden-related topics you want to see covered, basically any questions or concerns you as a DM would have running Eden that I can help you with. I'll take this into consideration when writing.

Things I will NOT do:

–Write mini-adventures. I'm not good at that and I don't like those. Plus there's nary enough space in a wordpress article.
–Items, Rituals, crunch of any sort. That's for other articles.

Meek
2008-11-23, 12:19 PM
I'm wondering if I should make the Eden Guide thread a separate thread just to get it attention...

Zeta Kai
2008-11-23, 12:52 PM
I'm wondering if I should make the Eden Guide thread a separate thread just to get it attention...

It couldn't hurt, I suppose. I think people would like to see an overview of your campaign setting posted on this forum, rather than just links to your site. It would be easier to see what's being added, if nothing else.

Meek
2008-11-23, 02:01 PM
The problem is, how big should the overview be? I mean, the articles on the blog are really huge! Could all that fit into a post? I'm thinking of making a new thread then, just to have less baggage. With the whole PEACH thing on it and all. And if they actually fit, then I can put the content into the front post.

Meek
2008-11-23, 02:22 PM
Actually, I guess I can just transcribe everything from the website over here in a bunch of posts, then just post the links.