Re: Re: Hi, I see there is an upcoming WW book

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:19:22 +0000 (GMT)

> Look for example at the fact that the new Sartar:Kingdom of Heroes book contains a playable campaign
> arc set among the Orlmarthi clan of the Colymar. In the II days that book would have been spread over
> several volumes and several years.

And would have railroaded the players far more, too, and relegated them to the boring, cannon-fodder, bits of the story. I got a quick skim through Gregory Privat's copy of the Sartar book, and that looked like a very playable campaign arc to me, if you want to start something new. Shame the rest of the book is just reprints of the background material from Thunder Rebels etc, but that was always what it said on the tin. Personally I won't be paying 50e for material I've already got plus a campaign arc I'd never use, but it seems others will.

>> As someone who has devoted a lot of time in the past to developing
>> the Whitewall story, both in game background, scenario seeds and
>> fiction (Kallyrkala), I will make an effort to have this >information available to the tribe

>And that is great news and I look forward to seeing it.

A lot of it is already available, of course: in this group, on the Wiki, on John's site, in various other magazines like Tradetalk. But, like the difference between the Sartar Book and the previous background material, getting it all organised in one place would be a good idea.

I'll try to organise my unfinished and (therefore) unpublished fiction so as to make at least the generally useful background there in available, and of course the finished stuff can go out as it is. Come to think of it, that includes that story I did for John for a Tentacles con book, that never got used by that or any later hard-copy publication. I was going to offer it to Tradetalk, but it's big enough that it might be better as a stand-alone.

The WW aspects of the Penny Love work Donald and I and Andre did for last Tradetalk might be useful, too: timelines of events before 1619, and in the early part of that year, working out how to get Penny Love's novels to fit known background. We'll need Andre's permission for that, but I doubt if there'll be a problem.

> Of course MD has been fairly clear that it feels the business opportunity is in publishing for Dragon Pass,
> Prax and the Holy Country (essentially the RQ2 map area).
> So folks who want to be creative without risk of conflict might be better spreading their wings further afield.

Or learn from the last time we paused out of courtesy: it'll be so long before any tangible results appear that we just carry on anyway. Assuming the previous total lack of cooperation or collaboration, the MD high-priced hard-copy will then be perhaps three years behind what will by then be accepted background, but that's up to them.

> Lord knows that despite ILH-1 and ILH-2 I still don't see many Lunar campaigns.

Yes, and that's a great shame. I believe Newt had things in mind though (well, I've played in one scenario he's produced and I gather that was intended as the first of a series). Still, again, this is the WW list. Rather than diluting things here, once we've got the WW background straight, could some of our number produce a WW campaign arc for a Lunar party, rather than an Orlanthi one? I think we've got the starting material: some interesting NPCs, especially the characters from Donald's stories.       

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