I started running MERP back in 1987. Moved on to RM2 and RMSS, which I ran pretty much exclusively for 10+ years, returning to visit it again every now and again. I've been running a slightly modified RMSS for the last 18 months.
Yet somehow, in all that time, I had never even looked at a Shadow World product prior to this week. Somehow, I had reached the conclusion it seemed like a pretty bland, generic setting, and never bothered to find out if that was actually true.
The up side of all this is, having decided to give it a shot and being quickly won over, I now get to experience it all for the first time. I'm thoroughly impressed with what I've seen so far. I've had a skim through Atlas 4 and Light and Darkness and I'm in the process of a semi-thorough reading of Eidolon. Things are quiet at work, so I've also had lots of time to go back through old threads here.
Highlights so far:
* I like the high fantasy Renaissance feel in Eidolon. The Renaissance isn't a period I've ever done anything with in the past.
* I like the elements of steam punk and sci fi, which are integral to the background without necessarily being a dominant foreground feature.
* I'm learning about the intended background/use of various RM features that I've used or known about for years without realising they were actually tied to SW.
* It is built to support RM, but it's clearly also based on a personal, houseruled version of RM, so decisions need to be made about how I'm going to integrate my own RM. IE, it's an excuse for me to mess around with professions and Realms and other mechanics.
Lowlights:
* I suspect there is a lot of cool stuff I'll never get to use, because there's just so much.
* It won't take all that long to gather up and check out all the currently available material, and then I'll be stuck with everyone else waiting for new and updated material to be released.
Great work, Terry.
