good ol' SONY :)

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Campaign Wolrd Ideas #2

Cosmology (and a bit of racial history)

This is the easy one.  I decided to utilize the 4e core model of the Outer Planes.  This leg work is already done.   There will be the Shadowfell and the Feywild, as well as the Elemental Chaos and the Astral Sea.  I am also planning on using the Far Realms, in theory.  I think its an interesting cosmological plan, yet remains simple (especially compared to the 3.5 notion of the Outer Plane).

The only thing I need to decide is "how thick the walls are".  I am actually not very fond of the idea that the Eladrin dwell in the Feywild, and live in cities that are wholly in the Feywild, crossing over to go adventuring in the normal world when they wish.  In my world passage between these ralms is closed off.  The elves were the original inhabitants of the 3 worlds... the Eladrin living in the Feywild, the Eladrow (later changing their names to just Drow) in the Shadowfell, and the Eladurin (elves) on the normal world.  But over time, the echo realms expelled their inhabitants... trapping them on the normal world.  The eladrin sought out their brothers, the elves and the two races formed a community together.  The drow however, sought refuge from the world and hid in the shadows, and formed their own secret empire underground.

While the elves were sorintg themselves out, the other races began to establish themselves on the normal world (I need a cooler name than "normal world", but for now it'll do)... 

Theology

So I am not using any of the core D&D pantheon, except for Tiamat.  Instead I am looking to a create a simpler, and more straightforward pantheon of gods.  But one that still has a lot of versatility.  I am using alot of filler terms and adjectives for now, for I don't have specific names for alot of these ideas yet... just bear with me.

First we have the "common" gods.  These are the core pantheon of the majority of the denizens of this world.  The only other gods beyond this pantheon are the Elven god(s), the Dwarven god(s), and Tiamat.  There are 4 gods within this "common" pantheon.  Each god a representation of one of the four cardinal alignment directions.  God of Good, God of Evil, God of Chaos, God of Law.  No one disputes the existence of these gods; however, their purpose/appearance/ideology differ among the races.  Each race sees the gods in their own image... humans look at the God of Law, and see a man with a dark beard, middle aged, wearing gold robes.  But that same god, in halfling texts, may appear as a ancient wizened old halfling carrying a twisted cane..or something.  The god is still the same... and the only unifying features will be the alignment, the name (though each race may have a title, or alternate name, to accompany the true name) and the gender.  Humans may see the God of Chaos as a woman, her hair wild and full of colors, they may believe she encompasses deceit, treachery.... while at the same time, the Orcs may see this same Goddess, but to them she is an amalgam of beasts constantly shifting out of form, a mutant creature encompassing their own racial rage, representing destruction and power.  The important thing: it is still the same god... just perceived differently by the different races.

I am not sure what I am gonna do with the Dwarves yet.. still working on them...I am thinking they are the only ones whose gods are actual ascended being, dwarves thought to have achieved god-hood through their own hard work.  I also thought that maybe the dwarves were more closely tied to the elements, so maybe each of their gods are elemental based?

The elves... I was thinking that maybe the elven god was... damaged... maybe split by some catastrophe... or maybe he/she divided himself willingly when he created the three elven races... and the three parts have gone at odds with one another... one that embraces magic... one embracing nature, one embracing darkness.. something like that.  Still working on these too..actually, as I type this, more concrete ideas are forming... maybe there was one race of elves created on the normal world before it was split into the Normal, Shadowfell, Feywild.. and when the world split, so did the god and his people...

so many ideas... head gonna asplode...

AND Tiamat... she is the god of all dragonkind... kobolds, dragonborn, dragons of all kinds.. but she is Nuetral... and somewhat of a metaphor.. you see, she has multiple heads... and these heads, often refered to as aspects, represent very different things... when one worships Tiamat, you generally worship an apect (head) of Tiamat.. so maybe you worship the "good" head of Tiamat, or perhaps the Chaotic head... but the point is, good/evil/whatever.. dragonkind all worship her.  She has no realm.. by is constanly flying between all the realms... theologians often discuss whether her heads are real or metaphorical.. but her image is always that of a great dragon... she is mentioned (if only in passing) in every theological text.. regardless of the god.  Often she is thought to be the most powerful and feared of all the gods...often unjustly blamed for the actions of some of her "children..."

I feel better having these ideas.. "on paper"...

WARMACHINE mkII

FULL METAL COMBAT, MK II

PRIVATEER PRESS ANNOUNCES NEW EDITIONS OF WARMACHINE AND HORDES

Seattle WA. February 9, 2009—Privateer Press, Inc. is proud to announce the new Mk II edition rules for its WARMACHINE and HORDES tabletop games.

“In the past six years of WARMACHINE, the game has grown rapidly, and we feel the time has come to reevaluate and retool in preparation for the upcoming years of full metal combat. We have chosen to tighten the bolts on both the general game rules and the individual model rules to make every model as compelling as possible and to perfect the WARMACHINE experience,” stated Jason Soles, Privateer Press lead developer.

The public will get their first look at the WARMACHINE Mk II rules in April through an open field test, allowing players to become familiar with the changes while providing feedback that will assist Privateer Press in making final adjustments to WARMACHINE Mk II before going to press.

The WARMACHINE: Prime Mk II rulebook will be released to the public in early 2010. The new edition of HORDES will follow later in the year. All tournaments, leagues, and release events that make up Privateer Press organized play will adopt the new edition on its release.

More information regarding the WARMACHINE Mk II rules will be announced as it becomes available. This and other news items can be found at www.privateerpress.com and in the pages of No Quarter Magazine.

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Exciting news!  The game is in need of  big redux to the rules.  They are pretty sound, but the sheer number of models has caused it to get quite complicated.  A streamlined version of the rules.. consolidating a few things, and re-balancing things from the ground up would be great.  I am looking forward to seeing what transpires.  It is also very cool that they are doing a public trial of the new rules before they run them in print.  Its a great idea to make sure they don't miss anything.. the folks in the Privateer Press Forum are quite thourough when it comes to disecting the rules...

Good to know...

Street Fighter 4 'How to Unlock All the Characters' clip

Basically, you have to beat the game with every character in order to unlock every character... kind of anoying... It be nicer if you started with them all... I can see having to unlock Akuma, Seth, and Gouken (they are all sort of "boss" characters)... but Dan? Rose?

Akuma - Complete Arcade mode with all other unlockable characters

Cammy - Complete Arcade mode with C. Viper

Dan -  Complete Arcade mode with Ryu and Sakura

Fei-Long - Complete Arcade mode with Abel

Gen - Complete Arcade mode with Chun-Li

Gouken - Complete Arcade mode with Akuma

Rose - Complete Arcade mode with M. Bison

Sakura - Complete Arcade mode with Ryu

Seth - Complete Arcade mode with all default characters

Looks like Phil B. will be playing a couple rounds as Chun Li  :)

-- I also read some rumors that you need a certain ammount of perfects rounds and/or ultra combo finishes to unlock Gouken and Akuma... no confirmation on that yet.--

HORDES:Metamorphosis - Feb. 25th

Change of an epic scale is sweeping the land. Makeda leads the Army of the Western Reaches to the Abyssal Fortress. Thagrosh undergoes a terrifying transformation as the power of Everblight increases. Krueger pursues a path of glory and stirs an ancient enmity. Madrak struggles with the curse of Rathrok even as he relies on the axe's strength to defend his people. And above all, the dragon threat grows ever stronger.

HORDES: Metamorphosis is the second expansion for the award-winning miniatures battle game set in the untamed lands of the Iron Kingdoms. Evolve your Monstrous Miniatures Combat with:

Three commanding new warlocks for each faction, including new EPIC characters.

Powerful new warbeasts for each faction, ready to rile.

Dragoon rules introduced into HORDES for the first time.

New painting and modeling guides for each faction.

Limited edition hardcover available while supplies last.

Adapt and Annihilate! Be sure to reserve your copy today wherever Privateer Press products are sold!

Chun Li Evolution

Street Fighter 'Chun-Li Evolution' video

So far I'd have to say the Alpha 3 version is my favorite.  Hopefully, SF4 will change that.

Campaign World Ideas #1

Initial Random Ideas

So I have been brainstorming a good bit for my world.. I am far from the stage where I will assign name to things.. so everything will still be kind of vague right now.  I decided to build my ideas from the top down (at least in general terms).  Or, in another way, take a look at it from far away, and then zoom in.  I will be breaking down these first few ideas posts into:

• Cosmology (realms, planes, etc)
  
• Theology (gods and religions)
  
• Geography (landscape, continents, etc)
  
• Sociology (the races and people)
  

and besides... when I use big words, it makes me sound smart. :)

This is meant to be a "classic" Dungeons and Dragons world, full of all the normal D&D paraphernalia.  I will be using all of the classes and races from the Player's Handbook and the upcoming Player's Handbook II.  (However, I am not using the background material on those races) I am not using the Forgotten Realms stuff, and I probably won't incorporate the Power books until all of them are out.  So pretty much this is a "core book" campaign world.   Lucky for me, the "core" 4e is pretty diverse.

I will be building off of the "points of light" ideas put forth in the DMG... and a world that was once grandiose.. but now has been lost.  Having ruins everywhere of a once great society is a device used by lots of worlds.. Pathfinder, Iron Kingdoms, and they are very cool.   My goal I think, is to figure out what the ancient society was... so these ruins can carry a similar idea or style amongst them as they are discovered by the players...that's not to say there aren't dwarven or elven ruins scattered out there as well...I am sure there are.

I am actually kind of excited to use the Drow.  They have never been really big in my previous campaigns, but I am starting to develop some cool ideas for them.. possibly even making these dark elves into the aforementioned "great civilization" that is now lost.. what drove them into the Underdark to abandon the great cities and castles they had on the surface?  Not sure if this is the way I am headed.. just an idea.  Another idea is to make the lost society a combination fo the Tieflings and the Devas.  Basically, the Tieflings and Devas were the chosen people of the gods (some dark, some light) and their civilization was a grand thing to behold.. but then fell into utter ruin as they warred with each other.  the other races rose out of this and now the Devas and Tieflings are rare and few.  Actually.. I think I am liking that one better...

When it comes to gods... I am not using the D&D pantheon.  The great demon and devil lords I will be using...Orkus, etc.. but they are just that, demon lords, not gods.  The only god from the pantheon I am using is Tiamat. (and I have some ideas for her.. but that's for the Theology post) My plan is to simplify the gods down to a manageable number, while still remaining interesting and diverse.

The cosmology is actually seeming to be the easiest part.  I am going to be utilizing the 4e model of the planes.  I have yet to purchase the Manual of the Planes (worth buying?) but right now the model in the 4e DMG serves my purpose.  I don't think my players will be partaking in any extraplanar travel within the first 10 levels or so... there is plenty of time for this to take shape.

Shouldn't be long before I have the Cosmology/Threology posts up..

ONLY 6 EPISODES LEFT!!!!