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Most of the articles require DDi sub so I won't link to the articles or downloads of the subscriber articles. For those who don't know Kara-Tur was the setting for Oriental Adventures (AD&D). The website has play test rules already up for Ninja (Executioner [Assassin Essentials] template). They also have the playtest rules for Hengeyokai.

Hengeyokai are a race of intelligent, shapeshifting animals native to Kara-Tur that can freely assume human form or a bipedal hybrid form; numerous subraces exist, each corresponding to a different species of common animal. They are the descendants of humans and shapeshifting animal spirits, and as such they have a strong connection to both the spirit and mortal worlds. Unlike the savage and bloodthirsty lycanthropes, hengeyokai are usually reclusive and do not become violent except when no other choice remains.

You can pick Badger, Crane, Sparrow, Carp, Rat, Tanuki, and Cat as your animal affinity and can choose to be either human, hybrid (Werecarp!), and fully animal.

Allow me to mark another book in my long list of books that don't need to be:

A: As expensive as they are

B: As small as they are, in page count


Though I'm glad for the installment. Just won't be buying.

There is a price and page count already announced? The only thing I have seen have been the preview articles.

Heh. I'm actually currently playing a Hegeyokai(Fox) Wujen in a 2nd ed campaign. And since the Campaign's taking place in Faerun, it makes sense(for those who don't know, Kara-Tur is canonically part of the Forgotten Realms world).

While it's nice to see a new rendition, I'm not touching 4th ed with a 40 foot pole.

Ahtman, any news as to whether Kara-Tur will be part of the FR campaign setting or treated as its own thing? After the publishing of Neverwinter, I'm uncertain as to what the future holds for Faerun. I wish WotC would give the settings a bit more attention. As things stand, they're treating the settings like Fox treated Futurama.

Eh, I officially replaced Kara-Tur with Rokugan in my version of the Realms. It fits surprisingly well, and there were even some d20 system books made for it.

Manchu wrote:Ahtman, any news as to whether Kara-Tur will be part of the FR campaign setting or treated as its own thing?

You know I am not really sure as that hasn't been stated as far as I know. I imagine it will be, but who knows these days? Heroes of the Feywild is the next book and isn't out yet so I imagine we will know more when it gets closer.

I recently found some FR books from early on in 3E and it's made me very nostalgic for the way WotC used to publish. Races of Faerun and Unapproachable East are fantastic books.

Manchu wrote:I recently found some FR books from early on in 3E and it's made me very nostalgic for the way WotC used to publish. Races of Faerun and Unapproachable East are fantastic books.

Are you looking for 2nd edition FR books, by chance? They're all over Colorado Springs, the vast majority ranging in the $12-20 USD range.

I even know where I may be able to find you a 1st ed Oriental Adventures book.

No, but thanks. I have little nostalgia for anything before 3E. I think a lot of it was pretty unimaginative.

Manchu wrote:No, but thanks. I have little nostalgia for anything before 3E. I think a lot of it was pretty unimaginative.

Honestly, the 2nd ed campaign we're in so far hasn't been any different(aside from the wider character type variety in 3rd/3.5) from any 3rd ed campaign I've had a part in, but that may be the groups more than the rules(although, the 2nd ed party is less combat oriented than 3rd ed parties tended to be).

It's hella fun, though. We're like The Comedy of Errors as a D&D party. Just as an example, I'll quote myself from the Wasteland:

'Human Cleric of Mask: those not familiar with Forgotten Realms, he's the thief god, so his specialty priests gain thief abilities. She's a better Rogue than our Rogue

Hengeyokai(Fox) Wu Jen: who knows Karate, which gives me 3 attacks and more damage with my fist than my actual back up weapon. At our level, I'm a better fighter than I am a caster

Elf Rogue: and by Rogue, I mean whore who used to be a sex slave at a temple. Did I mention she's played by a male 40 something year old former Army(now Air Force) Sergeant?

Dwarven Battle Rager: At least I think that's the class name, he gets better the madder he gets. Like a small Hulk. When we fought an ettin, he jumped off a moving horse to hit it in the face

Half-Elf Ranger: my partner in messing with the DM. Also, the few crimes we've committed. One of us always distracts the Pallie when the other is about to do something she'll be opposed to

Human Paladin: but for how much longer, we're not sure. The whore is so annoying, the paladin is this close to losing LG status by killing her herself. The rest of us aren't helping by forcing the Pallie to keep an eye on her and declaring them "BFFs 4 Life"'

Recently, we've added a Temple Guard Roman Legionnaire who works for the Paladin's Temple who's only in it for the money. The player is currently thinking of re-rolling as a 2nd Cleric because we're all constantly at 1 HP.

And the type of Shenanigans we cause:

"After buying a ship and learning how to sail it, we decide to go back to the mist that cost us our last ship to see if we could go through it, wasting 45 minutes(and 6 in game days, but I did roll a critical success of my seamanship roll), all because we didn't listen to the NPCs(we're PCs, why would you expect us to listen to NPC fishermen at a poor town?!). OOPS.

So, back at the town, the DM finally has us back on his railroad heading north, where we run into a modified backstory version of the Rahasia module. So now we have to find a way to clear the magic teleportation fog in the temple as well as deal with Rahib all while trying to not kill the mind controlled elves(we've so far been about 50/50 on that one). After webbing the first group and accidentally killing one while attempting to knock him out, another armed elf comes running at us while we're hiding this group. With the only things to hand, Strout the dwarven Battle Rager throws an unconscious elf at him and proceeds to critically hit and kill the tossed elf. Jamaniac(the Centurion) proceeds to run up and shield bash the armed elf in the face, at which point we learn he's from another group Rahasia sent after Rahib. OOPS. After some quick first aid, we send him on his way out of the temple.

Continuing to bumble our way through the Temple, we encounter a Gelatinous cube, which proceeds to paralyze half the party. I crit fumble a spell, which goes Wild Magic(last time it did that for our Priest, she mind controlled a Lizardman) and turns me into Wheelie(the 1986 version), meaning I can't cast. As we create a jury-rigged grappling hook(rope plus axe equals grappling hook, right?) to pull the paladin out of the now failing Cube, in pops a group of mind-controlled elves. I proceed to turn one into a bloody pulp because for some reason I choose to use Iron Fist style hits instead of regular style for my martial arts to knock them out. OOPS.

Shenanigans ensue, we avoid a 4-armed bone golem, we find two differently dress MC'd elves, 3 of our party take up all the doorway to fight them and everyone proceeds to crit whiff their attempts to knock them out until the paladin finally crit caves in a skull. OOPS."

Manchu wrote:No, but thanks. I have little nostalgia for anything before 3E. I think a lot of it was pretty unimaginative.

Wow. 2nd Edition had a ton of 'weird crazy stuff' thrown in... I would not describe it as unimaginative. Disorganized, primitive, and unconcerned with balance, sure, but definitely not unimaginitive. TSR published tons of neat settings, often linked in weird ways... I think there were at least four Box Sets for the Forgotten Realms alone! Not to mention Spelljammer, Planescape, etc...

The big minus to me is that the Kit system seemed to balance a lot of stuff with no-rules-attached social drawbacks to pay for nifty powers. If a GM didn't read the description of a kit and take into account that the Kit would make a character hated, feared, or unable to move in public without being mobbed by papparazi, the character would be completely overpowered. It kind of reminds me of some of GW's weird systems like the old Space Marine and IG Codex custom chapter/regiment rules where you could gain nifty bonuses by giving up access to a unit you probably didn't want anyway.

They also had a whole line of books that were kind of scholarly if you skipped the rules parts for pseudo-historical campaigns, adding more gear, spells, castles, etc. that the auuthors put a lot of work into.

2nd was a big swing towards making the game 'realistic' by trying to adjust gear prices and similar. It didn't work, but was fun.

Clutter is not evidence of imagination. There was a ton of ... well, stuff. It's like they would try anything rather than make some portion of it coherent. Honestly, I can think of 20 random fantasy tropes off the top of my head without any effort but that doesn't make me imaginative. Putting them into boxed sets wouldn't make me any more imaginative. I'll grant you Planescape, however.

I do agree that the 3rd Edition Realms books were some of the best things in the WOTC-era D&D line. The art was generally very good, and the quality of publishing seemed far above the rest of the books at the time strangely enough. It straddled the line between "information overkill" and "leaving room for the GM's imagination" very well, which I often took full advantage of in my games.

Since we are airing grievances about D&D.

I like essentials to some degree and I like 4E as well, but I don't like mixing the two. There, I said it.

Ahtman wrote:Since we are airing grievances about D&D.

I like essentials to some degree and I like 4E as well, but I don't like mixing the two. There, I said it.

I like 4e too, but I think Essentials may be too streamlined for me.

Manchu wrote:Clutter is not evidence of imagination. There was a ton of ... well, stuff. It's like they would try anything rather than make some portion of it coherent. Honestly, I can think of 20 random fantasy tropes off the top of my head without any effort but that doesn't make me imaginative. Putting them into boxed sets wouldn't make me any more imaginative. I'll grant you Planescape, however.

I guess this is just a difference of opinion. 3rd and 4th are better rulesets (in my opinion) than 2nd. 3rd was very open, 4th for a very specific path (Dungeon crawls with a relatively 'open' definition of 'Dungeon Crawl' ) but I haven't found the setting that interesting to me. I miss lots of deep setting stuff and 2nd edition, to me, had a better "Here's some tools, make something neat with them" for me. I've never run 4th, admittedly.

I agree about the "the story is up to you" approach being disappointing. In 4E, WotC seemed to decide that we'd have to read the FR novels to know what was up with the Spellplague because the campaign setting and player's guide really give no clear picture of it. Neither book gives any depth of insight into the Realms, for that matter.

I'll take the crazy fecundity of 2E over the relative sterility of 4E any day, even while preferring 4E's mechanical approach.

Manchu wrote:
I'll take the crazy fecundity of 2E over the relative sterility of 4E any day, even while preferring 4E's mechanical approach.

That's the difference in a nutshell, I think: 4e's books are much more useful in the sense that they're well organized, have lots of rules content, etc. Older books (2nd edition primarily, for me) are much more entertaining to read. I remember being able to buy a new D&D book and have a half-dozen campaign ideas come out of every one.

On the other hand, I must admit that I was a lot younger when I was reading 2nd edition books, and had a lot more free time to doodle dungeons on graph paper all afternoon.

Some of the 4E books are quite good in that respect: Open Grave and Underdark, for example, had lots of cool ideas. My complaint is more to do with the campaign setting books, which seem not to spend much time detailing the history and culture of their respective worlds as the 3E books did. This Kara-Tur release would have been huge news to me in 3E but I'm not so excited about another players' handbook-type campaign setting.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Let me just re-read this ...

Oh, this isn't a release at all, just some online articles? Nevermind then.

Manchu wrote:Some of the 4E books are quite good in that respect: Open Grave and Underdark, for example, had lots of cool ideas. My complaint is more to do with the campaign setting books, which seem not to spend much time detailing the history and culture of their respective worlds as the 3E books did. This Kara-Tur release would have been huge news to me in 3E but I'm not so excited about another players' handbook-type campaign setting.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Let me just re-read this ...

Oh, this isn't a release at all, just some online articles? Nevermind then.

Our group just made up our own lore.

Manchu wrote:Oh, this isn't a release at all, just some online articles? Nevermind then.

It is a bit of a tease to release it like they do their previews then it turns out that this is all that it is.

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium actually has a lot of good stuff in it, as far as recent releases go.

Manchu wrote:
Oh, this isn't a release at all, just some online articles?

Lame.

Balance wrote:That's the difference in a nutshell, I think: 4e's books are much more useful in the sense that they're well organized, have lots of rules content, etc. Older books (2nd edition primarily, for me) are much more entertaining to read. I remember being able to buy a new D&D book and have a half-dozen campaign ideas come out of every one.

On the other hand, I must admit that I was a lot younger when I was reading 2nd edition books, and had a lot more free time to doodle dungeons on graph paper all afternoon.

That is my primary complaint with 4th edition. They just seem to be going through the motions now. Used to be I'd buy a new D&D or AD&D book/module and I could pore over it for days on end finding cool stuff in it. Nowadays I get a new 4th edition book and read through it in an hour or two and have fully digested it. :(

I am starting up a 4th edition campaign right now, just for the ease or availability for my players and will primarily use the rules for combat and the rest of it will be as it always in my campaigns: deeply story driven with the characters strongly anchored in the world. I just don't buy into the "have to finish 3 combat encounters a night" mentality that has turned the game back into the hack and slash nightmare it was when we were all young and didn't know any better.

Skriker

The thing is, there's nothing wrong with a rules system that makes the encounters a breeze to run, and 4th does that. You just don't have to worry about it, and I find that it frees me up creatively a lot.

About settings or background books, I think they've got hits and misses the same as they used to. I was glad to see a fairly realised starting point with the Nentir Vale in the 4th DMG which is far superior to the 3.5 one in my view. Underdark is a great little book that I kept going back to for bits and pieces of information and inspiration.
Darksun likewise, has lots of stuff in it for a GM to chew on and some great adventure hooks and personalities.
I'm curious to see if Neverwinter is any good, as I would like a "generic fantasy" setting to use if the mood takes me. I was disappointed with 4E Eberron and the planes stuff- it had some decent ideas but was poorly executed and lacked imagination I thought. It was also not "GM" focused enough, I felt.