Official ICE Forums
Systems & Settings => Shadow World => Topic started by: Elton Robb on July 15, 2007, 07:42:57 AM
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Okay, that's it. Give me a good sell on Shadow World. :laugh1:
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??? ??? ???
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I have some shadow world stuff and can answer some of your Q's from a very novice point of view. the setting has great depth and has the same feel to me as MERP stuff did. The setting is epic in scale [IMO] as thier are quite a few high level NCP's [50+] and magical effects. Mana storms rage the planet and a special type of mage is needed for most long travel. The storms reshape the landscape and bring strange and new things to the planet. It also has some higher tec than your fantasy seting with a race of elves having developed gun podwer and other tec devices.
MDC
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??? ??? ???
Over on RPG.Net, when somebody is interested in learning more about a product or on the fence about buying it, they normally start a "Sell me" thread. Unfortunately, Elton doesn't understand that the majority of folks here do not frequent that set of forums, and thus don't really recognize the concept.
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Enworld too.
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Okay, that's it. Give me a good sell on Shadow World. :laugh1:
I'm gonna try...
Shadow World is a very unique and inspired setting, always expanding and regularly updated by the author (god bless you Terry), although not very rapidly since it is not his main occupation.
The planet Kulthea is quite vast with many continents to explore. The setting is very High fantasy, with magic everywhere, and signs of an ancient technological civilization. The planet is described as one of the Spacemaster setting so you can even mix fantasy with scifi if you like, but you don't have to if you don't like the idea. The timeline of the world is extremely long and detailed, with a sense of a very old world with many adventures ideas everywhere.
There are many races to choose from, each with very detailed cultures. The two main continents (Jaiman and Emer) are described in details with many realms.
For those who like mysteries, there are a lot of secret cults and undercover organizations (both good and evil). The Loremasters try to stop the evil plans of the Jerak Arenreth, the Dragonlords stand in the middle to protect their own interest, while the Navigators try to maintain their monopol concerning long distance travels using magic. In addition, the divine aspect is very strong with large pantheons and many religious cults everywhere.
On Kulthea you can find almost everything you could dream of to run awesome adventures: large cosmopolitans city-states or desert wastelands, coastal realms and big oceans, high mountains or deep underearth complexes and caves, secret fortresses and hidden cities, both very advanced cultures like the Elves of Namar Tol or primitive people like the small Kuluku of the rain forest, parallel universes with fearsome demons, etc.
All of this bathed in the Essaence, the magic flows into which the mages tap to cast spells, but that can also create destructive storms, open random portals to other dimensions, and change reality.
The Shadow World setting allows you to use ALL professions, ALL spell list of ALL magic realms, almost all creatures, and ALL weapons of the RM/RMSS/RMFRP system without restriction.
It simply is one of the most detailed, impressive and challenging High Fantasy setting I know, and running adventures in it is a real pleasure.
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Another thing I can say is that IMO SW works better with RM2/RMC than RMSS. I am not saying that it cannot work with RMSS but IMO it is more geered to RM2 and possibly RMC than RMSS. So depending on what system you play to use it could have an impact.
I bought quite a few of the PDF's and I am happy with my purchase. Will I run a SW campain, probably not but some of the SW ideas will definatly and have made it into my game.
MDC
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There is a copy for the Shadow World Master Atlas up for sale right now one Ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170131799848&ssPageName=ADME:L:DSS:US:11 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170131799848&ssPageName=ADME:L:DSS:US:11)
It is currently on $7.50 plus shipping, might be a good way to get in for less $$$.
(Yes, I am the one selling it). ;)
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Starting in the early eighties with an impressiv freshness, the world changed gradually to a high-powered, high-fantasy setting where a little bit if everything is implemented.
So you rename the Orks in Lugokris, add some of GURPS Sience Fiction-Fantasy crossover and put a little bit of Moorcock Chaos vs Order alltogether with high-powered NPCs. The basic idea, a powerful society capable of space and time travel doing havoc with dimensional gates and time shifts etc is like in the Morgaine-Cyclus (in German: Tore ins Chaos).
But even if it lost some of the uniqness of the beginning, if you dig through to the roots, there are some absolute fantastic ideas!!! And all the stuff made afterwards by Terry Amthor is made with so much commitment that its worth to buy it only to own!!!
(or better, to get some ideas about running a nice campaign)
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Buy it, or Ondovaal will get mad and blow the world up.
Maybe Andraax will show up on your doorstep and start jabbering about how stones can speak and are trying to get inside his head.
Maybe the Sulthon Ni'Shang will come to your town, lay waste to everything in sight and make your neighbors slaves of the Dragonlords.
And last but not least, maybe armored warriors on winged horses will fly down out of the clouds and set your house on fire with sunrods.
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...always expanding and regularly updated by the author (god bless you Terry)..
Must disagree.. I've been following Shadow World from it's start, when it first appeared for Rolemaster, and progression has been quite slow, unfortunately.. Modules/adventures/page count/whatever per year is not that much, IMO... :(
...although not very rapidly since it is not his main occupation...
And this is the reason.. One man can not achieve much, assuming he has a real(profitable) job to do..
With the rest of the post, I can't but agree, Kulthea is my preferred setting for adventuring. It's suitable for low/middle/younameit/high powered gaming and does a wonderful job at it.. I only hope development was more active...
I'll buy anything that bears "Shadow World" on it, but it seems that my money sits in the bank for nothing :(
To Terry, thanks for the wonderful setting and I really hope you get an opportunity(financial freedom, and whatever it takes) to develop our shared fantasy! You have provided me and my friends countless hours of unequaled entertainment!
-Cursed
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Quote from: mathhatt on July 16, 2007, 05:50:22 am
...always expanding and regularly updated by the author (god bless you Terry)..
Must disagree.. I've been following Shadow World from it's start, when it first appeared for Rolemaster, and progression has been quite slow, unfortunately.. Modules/adventures/page count/whatever per year is not that much, IMO...
Quote from: mathhatt on July 16, 2007, 05:50:22 am
...although not very rapidly since it is not his main occupation...
And this is the reason.. One man can not achieve much, assuming he has a real(profitable) job to do..
With the rest of the post, I can't but agree, Kulthea is my preferred setting for adventuring. It's suitable for low/middle/younameit/high powered gaming and does a wonderful job at it.. I only hope development was more active...
I'll buy anything that bears "Shadow World" on it, but it seems that my money sits on the bank for nothing
To Terry, thanks for the wonderful setting and I really hope you get an opportunity(financial freedom, and whatever it takes) to develop our shared fantasy! You have provided me and my friends countless hours of unequaled entertainment!
Ditto.
lynn
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Maybe the Sulthon Ni'Shang will come to your town, lay waste to everything in sight and make your neighbors slaves of the Dragonlords.
Or worse: He and Oran Jataar will team up and subject you to their rendition of "Mr. Cold Shoulder" and "Mister Heat Blister"
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My personal sell blurp is here (http://gurpskulthea.wikidot.com/).
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+1 about Cursed post
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...always expanding and regularly updated by the author (god bless you Terry)..
Must disagree.. I've been following Shadow World from it's start, when it first appeared for Rolemaster, and progression has been quite slow, unfortunately.. Modules/adventures/page count/whatever per year is not that much, IMO... :(
I agree with you. I said regularly, I didn't say often (maybe regularly is a "false friend" from french language... I meant that the author did not abandon the universe and kept expanding it, even if it is not very often).
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Actually, I think you're OK with 'regularly', so long as the intervals between products are, in fact, relatively regular (the intervals can be long, though).
I was under the impression, myself, that updates were irregular AND infrequent, but I'm not following it closely enough.
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I apologize, it has been awhile. It's been a rough year or so (job changes, among other things). But Saralis is shaping up to be at least 48pp and is getting close to being done (really), and I'm finally well on the way to another Shadowstone chapter, and there is the big adventure in the Guild Adventurer 2 on the way.
Terry :-[
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But Saralis is shaping up to be at least 48pp and is getting close to being done (really)
What will be Saralis module? PDF? Book? Both?
And my last question, what can we hope for the future? Emer III?
Thanks!
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Buy it, or Ondovaal will get mad and blow the world up.
Maybe Andraax will show up on your doorstep and start jabbering about how stones can speak and are trying to get inside his head.
Maybe the Sulthon Ni'Shang will come to your town, lay waste to everything in sight and make your neighbors slaves of the Dragonlords.
And last but not least, maybe armored warriors on winged horses will fly down out of the clouds and set your house on fire with sunrods.
Oh my! Not Andraax! I can't stand people babbling on about how stones can speak! I can stand another walking Encyclopedia who talks about the same thing over and over again.
Maybe I should make him talk to my hand, or get a hand puppet and make him talk to that. "Here, talk to punch."
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All quotes aside I think from them you can see the breadth of the setting and some of the many concepts that are prevelent in Shadow World.
Have they convinced you?
MDC
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Someone's got to sit Andraax, A-Kesh, Tethior, and Lorgalis down in one big group therapy session to work out their issues about their fathers.
It's kind of a running theme...
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Someone's got to sit Andraax, A-Kesh, Tethior, and Lorgalis down in one big group therapy session to work out their issues about their fathers.
It's kind of a running theme...
Boy I'd hate to be the therapist trying to run that session! "Powerswords down! And if there is one more Mind Shout, everyone is getting a time-out!"
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:laugh1: ROFLMAO