Topic: Questions about SW

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

I have yet to buy any Shadow World supplements but plan to eventually but I have a few questions. My friend & RM2 GM dislikes SW . He has mentioned some things about the setting he dislikes & if he's interpitating them right , would make me shy away from buying SW products.

1) Travel: I know that using airships people need to hire a Navigater to help pilot the ship. But can people take other modes of transport between the continents , such as water born ships ? He believes that you can't.It's not a deal breaker for me.

2) Elves: He said that if a Elf leaves his forest , even just to adventure/travel . That the Elf will lose his bonuses/abilities & immortality (agelessness) ? If this , is so why play a Elf in SW ? This would be a deal breaker as I love Elves.

[fac]

I think your friend has no idea about SW. 

1) Travel, the most common way to travel is using ships that cross the oceans and seas, the flying ships are almost exclusive from Sel-Kai, one of the biggest trading hubs in the planet. Also the elves of Namar-Tol have airships, like zeppelins. Navigators are members of guilds that act as guides and provide safe travel between two points, that means that sometimes they will teleport you and sometimes they will deviate a storm so your water ship is not caught by the gale.

2) Elves travel a lot, believe me. Most of the navigators are elves, and they do not look older. I only remember one elf that aged (Cloudlords of Tanara), but this was because he was tainted with Unlife, not because he had left the happy forest.

Hope that helps.

[craggles]

I'd just like to say this before I comment - Shadow World ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :O

I can't really stress that enough - but I'll leave it as one line above so as to not bore you.

1) Due to the Essænce flows around the planet, causing random Essænce Storms and actual storms, travel can be a bit hit or miss at times. It's great for a GM to sweep them off to a strange land for a sub-campaign if needed. Hiring a Navigator (which is a member of a magical guild devoted solely in getting people from A to B) is needed to guarantee safe passage (which is on top of hiring a ship and crew) as he'll circumnavigate any potential problems - or even teleport a party instantly (but that's a lot more expensive).

Travelling without a Navigator is mostly fine if you're booking passage on a ship that normally travels in those directions and from Sel-Kai or Katine, the two major trade centres in Emer, there's normally a means of getting from A to B between most places in Emer and Jaiman.

Although there have been other Adventure Modules for Shadow World that focus on locations other than the 2 main continents of Emer and Jaiman, these aren't considered as cannon material anymore so until Terry creates more stuff for elsewhere, Emer and Jaiman are all you really need to get to currently. Baring in mind that Emer is roughly the size of the USA, there's plenty of adventure possibilities and plenty of Adventure modules already available if you're like me, and can't manage to create adventures myself.

So to recap, travel is possible and can be an adventure in itself as it used to be many years ago here. There is the added twist of actual sea monsters as well as the potentially dangerous Essænce storms but this only makes it marginally more dangerous.

You can travel by land, sea, air and even instant teleport but there are other ways to get from A to B on top of that which you'll find in the adventures (and I don;t want to give anything away now).

2) Elves are very much like any other fantasy setting of Elves - and you have the High Elves, Wood Elves and Aqua Elves as well as many different distinct Half Elves due to the combination of different Elven and Manish stock.

High Elves are actually broken down into two different groups as well - the tech hungry guys (who have the zeplin type aircraft) and the more arty-farty type.

So travel is fine for Elves - no bonus dropping.

There's also loads of distinct races other than the standard common man and high man. One thing that's missing are halflings - which is not a bad thing!

Shadow World has a VERY rich history and the adventure possibilities are endless!!! A Shadow World Master Atlas (either versions 1 to 4) is needed on top of any adventure modules to get the greatest benefit out of it as it outlines the world state and the specific groups common to all of Kulthea - it also includes the entire timeline as well.

[arnecooper]

It doesn't sound like your friend has even read any of the Shadow World material as both of those points are false. I have played and GM'd in a lot of settings in a lot of RPG's, and IMO the Shadow World setting is the most richly detailed and interesting world I have seen.

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

LOL though I like my GM alot I wouldn't be suprised if he misread about these things as he uses his own setting & only uses a few races from SW in his setting. He owns one of the Atlases but it doesn't mean he read it all or did so comprehensively. He also believes Monte Cook ruined the original ICE & that RMSS was published after RMFRPG. Since he's a big RM2 & Elf fan I'd figured he'd know what's up concerning the Elf issue at least. He's only human so he can't be faulted too much over this. My only introduction to SW so far is Terry's Shadowstone Chronicles story.
I might have to get around to saving up for one of the Master Atlases.