1
ICE News and Discussion / Re: Director's Briefing - May 2024
« Last post by EltonJ on Today at 11:44:11 AM »Thanks, this is awesome news for HARP. HARP Steampunk is possible, now. But not yet ready.
It's getting there. I got sidetracked (story of my life), but I do have all the index entries added for these newer publications:
- Eidolon, City in the Sky
- Emer Atlas III: The Southeast
- Haalkitaine and the Court of Rhakhaan
- Jaiman, Land of Twilight
- The Green Gryphon Inn
I need to add (at least):
- AALk VAALG: The Citadel of Osaran
- The Haunted Village
The 'problem' is pretty obvious. ICE isn't in a position to be paying higher end artists. Period.
There are plenty of books with smaller audiences and better art. Core Laws is a platinum seller. Assuming $2 from each copy went to art, that's an art budget of at least $2000. I've done more with less.
Show us what you've published, please?
The spell specifically states "inorganic." It could be like Terminator. Something about living material protects it during teleportation, non-living material doesn't make it through i.e.: Nude Arnold. This particular evil spell doesn't affect living material. If this spell user was in my group, I would have him learn another spell list that would disrupt organic/living material.Organic and living are two completely different things.
The fact that people tend to mix them tends to prove my point: this is a poorly worded spell if, by "inorganic", the authors meant "non-living".
The spell specifically states "inorganic." It could be like Terminator. Something about living material protects it during teleportation, non-living material doesn't make it through i.e.: Nude Arnold. This particular evil spell doesn't affect living material. If this spell user was in my group, I would have him learn another spell list that would disrupt organic/living material.Organic and living are two completely different things.
I agree. A book formatted that way may look pretty and have an initial appeal, but for me it's extremely hard to read and would be horrible as a reference. Accessibility for people with differing vision and perception issues is important.It's not (only) about paying more for art.
Look at the layout here.
https://imgur.com/a/14hOu4p
This is a random page, literally the first page I flipped to from the last pdf I had open.
See how the shape of the art has been incorporated into the column layout of the page? See how background textures have been used? See how there is a shadow from the dwarf which spills over into the page? This all gives it life and visual appeal. It's basic stuff at this point. Nothing to do with budget.
I don't love the background texture, it looks kind of cool at the expense of readability. Similarly with wrapping text around images. Text is full justified for readability. I don't think that adds anything. It's dynamic in the sense that it disrupts the text layout, but that's also its weakness.
I agree with the reply, but it's still odd. The list is matter disruption, and I can't see why the spell should be limited to inorganic matter just because no one wants it to be used on *living* matter. It is an evil Essence list, I have trouble finding a reason why stone and metal would be OK but wood would not. It would be OK if there was a "organic matter disruption" spell somewhere else, but there isn't.
I am squarely under the impression that the authors wanted to avoid the use of such spells on living matter (because it would essentially be a 'RR or die' kind of spell, and we all know that such spells are only found in the Black Channels list :-p). But excluding wood (what about petrified wood ?), cotton and all kinds of cloth, alcohol and basically all kinds of carbon compounds (coal, sugar, oil...), just because the spell is poorly worded seems being overly pedantic to me - having the spell work on water (inorganic) but not on oil, on air (mostly inorganic) but not on methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide and others, or on ruby but not on diamond, makes absolutely no sense to me.
I would house rule it into "inanimate" matter. Or "unliving" if you want to be even less restrictive (the difference being "inanimate" doesn't work on a stone golem or an undead, but "unliving" does).
Still, it's a F spell, not a U spell. Matter gets a RR. Wood, if affected, might have a lower level than iron