Official ICE Forums
Systems & Settings => Shadow World => Topic started by: Mercenary30 on April 28, 2023, 06:23:25 AM
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World Atlas IV mentions all RM2 classes are Canon. It seems that it literally means the classes found in the core system, and does not include any expanded classes from the Companion books. I have not found anything in books written by Terry that could lead me to any other conclusion. Thoughts?
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I do believe that in some of the supplements Terry has NPCs with professions out of some of the Companions, though I don't know which ones off the top of my head.
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The 2nd edition of the Shadow World Master Atlas suggests professions from the companions in parenthesis, e.g. Scalu on page 116 has the profession: Mystic (Moon Mage/Dream Lord).
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The SWMA4 uses the same format - for instance, the Heralds of Night are listed as Fighter (Warrior, Evil Paladin). Terry provided the profession for those who used RM2 without the companions (core only), and (optional) professions for those who used them.
Personal opinion : I think RoCo 1 and 2 are OK (even if the Warrior Mage from RoCo 2 might require a slight nerf). Starting from RoCo 3, there are some professions that fit the world, and others that do not, or less obviously so. But Shadow World is so varied that you could conceivably include them anyway and no one would bat an eye.
The more questionable are those that assume a different magical framework. I've always had trouble with the Elemental Companion, for instance, even though I did not have a problem with some of the lists (and in fact do use some of the lists from Fire&Ice).
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Further research, I found Alchemist, Druid, Assassin, and references suggesting Archmage.
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Generally you ban professions for balance or flavour.
SW and balance are like ice cream and gravel - rarely found together. And flavour wise has a lot of variety and weirdness.
So you'd be hard to find a profession that doesn't fit.
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The Shadow World is diverse enough that just about anything can be found there, but that doesn't mean everything is common. I would agree that the most problematic professions would be ones that assume a different magic or planar structure than the Shadow World universe. But what the NPC believes doesn't have to be true or it could be that a particular isolated group have managed to contact yet another plane that no one else has yet.