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Call of the Horn |
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Quillion |
Posted: Jan 6 2004, 01:20 AM
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Elder Scholar Group: Moderators Posts: 170 Member No.: 11 Joined: 6-January 04 |
Hail here is a little backgrond and an update on TotP, This is my Design Log for the Threads of the Pattern Quarterly Netbook project. (or as I like to call it: The check my ego wrote, that I now have to cash.) What is Threads of the Pattern? It is an attempt to do a microcosom setting for the Wheel of Time Rpg, currently that setting is a small villiage (Shadoweves) near the southern eves of the shadow forest in northern Ghealden. Unlike most settings this will highly detailed and have crunch to go along with its flavor, each piece will carry new gaming mechanics and material to satisfy players and GM's alike. I am hoping Threads of the Pattern Quarterly will be released on or before March 2004. Hopefully following the next quarter with our second release. Who is doing all this? HotH press (Blame Eosin for the name.) The Heroes of the Horn (as they have chosen to shamelessly call themselves) are currently. Steve Russell: Project Lead (This is who you yell at if something sucks) Aleshandre: Editor in Chief (This is who I yell at if something sucks. Al is a die hard no matter how hard it is to keep age of discovery alive he keeps going, he just keeps going like the energizer bunny, an his don't MiNd edditting my Inglesh sckillls.) Eosin the Red: Cartography (We don't yell at him he has a heart condition. I can't tell you how happy I was to have Eosin helping me on the project, I consider him my administrative advisor not just my cartographer.) Designer: Xythlord ( He just listens to me yell about everyone else. He wrote half the material of Under the Dragon's Banner and the forth coming Age of Illusions, He is the first guy I thought of when I thought about getting a designer for the project) Designer: Sharn (The butt of all my jokes, but sharn is one of the most dedicated and consistent fans of the WoT Rpg he was my second choice, but we can't be great all the time.) Lead Artist: Kathleen Hardy (Who I yell at when the pic does not look exactly like the description. The most recent addition to the heroes, Kathy answered my querry over at ENWORLD.ORG she showed me her work and right away did a sketch of the Sword of the Fisher King, all that and she is WoT fan, sometimes you don't have to be great just lucky.) So How can you contribute? At this time we are not taking open submissions though Sharn will be running a contest later for the Threads of the Pattern so that we will have a forum that is open to the public. I will be contacting people slowly about contributing to the project on an assignment basis as we are trying to create a fan based product but want to maintain an overall feel and the highest possible quality. I thought this was a Design Log? (or What the hell gives you the right to spout your personal agenda?) I are trying to keep all discussions about Threads of the Pattern on the WoT message board to encourage this completely fan based RPG. I always want people just to be able to look and see where Threads of the Pattern stands. Here are some previews of our work. Sword of the Fisher King (Tap House) here is a some work in progress House Cordell & The Defender of Garen's Wall, Noble Manor House & Prestige Class The Hunters of Eav
Eves of the Shadow Forest Map. Log #1 Ok got some of the background out of the way so on to what I am doing today, Well I have four side projects going Homebrew, Age of Illusions, Age of Discovery and additional d20 submissions pieces that will probably continue to get in the way of my work on this but I have decided that I will be finishing half of that stuff this week and I can then fully focus on Threads. I am looking at the overview of "Shadoweves" (the working title for the villiage) to see what pieces I will have there . Tavern, Inn, blacksmith, Wisdom, Cartwright, Seamstress, Bower/Fletcher, Trader/Merchent, Cobbler, Cooper, Leather wroker, Mason, Miller, potter, Tanner, Weaver, Woodworker I expect each pieces will be 3-4 pages, I think I may leave the Inn and tavern for Sharn's contest. So the rest will be up to wor assignments and what Sharn, Xyth and I have in the works. I have decided the main source of income in the area is probably going to be lumber from the Shadow Forest and that the lumbermill will be a great launching point for adventures into the forest and the Ruins of Manetheren. I think this will work out nicely with the independent nature and factions of Ghealden (probably mispelled that) society, with it being far enough north as to have avoided the worst of the Prophets dragonsworn. I plan on staying with the current timeline of Crossroads of Twilight yet to give history with each piece so that they can be used in any timeline, I also will probably take a page from Elminster's Guide to the Realms and make it so you can even pull these pieces out into a standard d20 game. This should work well for low-magic settings like Midnight or Middle-Earth. I hate working with out a sense of humor so I will probably add a inside joke to every piece, I still don't know if anyone gets the joke about the flag. Well if you think of anyone you want to see do some work on this project let me know. (NO you cannot suggest yourself!) Right now I think I will go and email a few people from the HotH Wish List and give them a crack at a particuar piece. Thank you for your time. Tai'Shar Manetheren Sword of the Fisherking trivia: Nope, Nope, Nope Hint: the answer is not in the books. It has to do with flag. I will give another hint on my next design log. Hoth press is not accepting submissions at this time. I am picking people from my wish list who I know will submit high quality material and giving them a crack at the project on a case by case basis, I will not tell you who is on the list only that I sent out a few yesterday and I already have some response I expect by this weekend to have contacted all the people we want on the project. quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ......how does this work? I make something and submit it and you'll have a look if it fits, and then you might give me further instructions how to improve it and make a new piece or smthn???. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once I have contacted someone, I work closely with them, they have the example of the Sword of the Fisherking for a format, I will be doing all the introductory quotes so that it retains an overall sytle and feel, I am online alot so contacting me through MSN messenger is quite easy, via email, the private messenger, or just on the board. I even have free long distance after 10pm and on weekends (cellphones are cool) so expect me to be involved, think of me as a benevolent tyrant. I am contacting people to do work based on previous design work and what they have done. I have a base outline for what material must be presented and once someone lets me know that they recieve an assignment they will know my requirements. I don't plan on doing rewrites of someones work, I am trying to work with quality people and expect them to give me quality work. Each person I work with I expect they will give me a wishlist of people they want to see work on the project. To those wanting to submit (like Chel'adar who can't understand I will not look at shameless self promotion), If I have seen your work on the board, Eosin and Xyth were both editors for UtDB so they know who did good work and bad, I am an editor for AoI, aleshandre is the project lead for AoD, so I know who does good work, who does bad, and who has never done anything. If for some reason I have missed you feel free to contact me (don't send me a submission), but remember that I am contacting people this week. Open Submissions will come via the contest. design Log #3 well I have sent out messages to the first round of people I wanted to work with on threads of the pattern, I have gotten one response back almost immediately and one telling me they were quite busy but he wanted to hear more about it before a decision was made. So with that under way I am feeling preety good about TotP, so I have three pieces to write yet (one for AoD) which I will sit down and do tomorrow, then I will check in with all designers about what they want to do. I am thinking about a chat session for WoTers that would be cool where we could all toss out ideas. I will compile my mechanics guidelines for Aleshandre's approval some time in the next few weeks ( i don't want to put too much on my plate). About those guidelines, I thought maybe a rundown of relevant works that I like. Monte Cook from the DMG, his Dragon magaizine article #274, Prestige Class design workshop #1 and Prestige Class Design Workshop #2 guidelines for feats by Jonathan Tweet and Sean K Reynolds dragon # 275 (though I generaly hate SKR's stuff), a few other honorable mentions should also be mentioned. Alejando Melchor had some nice stuff in his Ultimate guide series for mongoose.(though I don't think he followed his own guidelines very well.) James Garr of Chainmail bikini Games has some nice comments of balancing game mechanics vs. flavor that I like in his Beyond Monks Art of the Fight. Duane Nutley's Class rating process from the Netbook of Classes is very good and I like the idea of something a GM can look at and have an idea of how it is going to affect his game in quanitifiable terms. Prestige Class (PrC) Construction Guidelines (montecook.com message board) Prc Construction and Balance (and finding one for your character) by Isida Kep'Tukari If someone knows of another good set of guidelines or commentary on prestige class creation let me know. DEsign Log #4 I was going to wait till next week to do another design log so this one will be very brief I complied the guidlines I will use on threads fo the pattern and were I come from when I talk about them. Aleshandre editied my Inglesh sckils so you can read it without going blind. please review them and tell me what you disagree with or even agree with or if you have something else you think I should add to it. Take special note about the balance coments at the bottom. you can find the guidelines here Prestige Class Guidelines and Balance Thread I have got good response on my submission querries and I am thinking we might open up the forum to a submission querry format but I am not sure about that yet. looks like tanner, woodworker and lumbermill will be covered. A few people will be getting back to me later as they are busy right now, only two disappointing Nay says so far. I am thinking of a Chat session after the holidays, Eosin offered to host it but I am thinking it might be good to say with Wizards to keep the Wiz.community involved. What do you folks think. Hell what do the HotHers think. Oops almost for got the SotFK clue is jab at Xythlord who made a shadow into flesh. Design Log #4 I was going to wait till next week to do another design log so this one will be very brief I complied the guidlines I will use on threads fo the pattern and were I come from when I talk about them. Aleshandre editied my Inglesh sckils so you can read it without going blind. please review them and tell me what you disagree with or even agree with or if you have something else you think I should add to it. Take special note about the balance coments at the bottom. you can find the guidelines here Prestige Class Guidelines and Balance Thread I have got good response on my submission querries and I am thinking we might open up the forum to a submission querry format but I am not sure about that yet. looks like tanner, woodworker and lumbermill will be covered. A few people will be getting back to me later as they are busy right now, only two disappointing Nay says so far. I am thinking of a Chat session after the holidays, Eosin offered to host it but I am thinking it might be good to say with Wizards to keep the Wiz.community involved. What do you folks think. Hell what do the HotHers think. Oops almost for got the SotFK clue is jab at Xythlord who made a shadow into flesh. I had not planned on doing a log today but I hit upon this as I was working on an Idea for a WoT prestige Class for TotP I know that this land is a place in utter turmoil. I hit on the idea of Adventrue Hooks and Threads. It just struck me that this place really has tremendous potential. Logain really affected the history so much that he destoryed the national army. Masema and his Dragonsworn have ravaged the country side turning every town into an armed camp. Whitecloks seem to ride about with no one to stop them Rand just runs through a town causing every one to get married or whitecloaks to quit. The Flag of Manatheren being raised here and it being part of Manenthran, . I am also thinking about trollocs fleeing the two rivers, and how we always here people talk about the Forest of Shadows as an Abode of Monsters. The Ruined city from my least favorite adventure Prophecies of the Dragon. The Seanchan on Two Borders. The Random Shaido Aeil and the Sevenna's Aiel Army. I am sure I missed some so let me know? What other Adventure seeds are out there. OK vacation is over. As usual I have been side tracked by my inability to do only one thing at a time. I have started work on a Noble's retreat and a prestige class for "shadoweve". A number of people working on the project have been taken off track by the holidays so I will be getting in touch with them and have an update for you on progress at the beginning of next week. Today I was thinking about the introduction to "Shadoweve" I thought I'd start by introducing the themes and feel of the place. While there are many themes in WoT, I suppose the overall idea is that there are no easy answers. wheel of time is set up for non traditional, low-fantasy play, there are no alignments. You can't channel a weave and say, "That man is Evil, therefore it is all right for me to slay him. In fact, it is Good to do so." The people do not necessarily all like each other or get along. Many of the backgrounds in the game are enemies, one of the largest are those who would follow the prophet, followed Logain and now want to follow The Dragon Reborn. The setting of shadoweve is a place meant to appeal to roleplayers as well as to monster slayers. I have sighted before all the bad things that could have found thier way south from the two rivers, monsters of the forest of shadows and even the ancient ruins of manathereen. Another theme is that of destiny over choice. Many things in the Wheel of Time setting are ment to happen. You as a player have some manifest destiny that will lend itself to the pattern. Yet there is often little in shadow eve to lend itself to the fantastic, so I am cosidering placing ter'angreal doorways, a waygate, a portal stone, and ruins from the age of legends. The setting is not necessarily low magic -- there are many potential channelers and those in hiding -- but it does assume there are and were characters out there channeling lost weaves. Well-guarded merchant caravans carrying treasure cross the wilderness to sell in many markets accross the westlands. Senachan raiders and Fists of Heaven mounted on raken swoop down to attack them and raid their valuable wares. Hired mercenaries repel the attacks with sword and bow. This is the setting of Shadoweve. The feel then, is less traditional high-fantasy world, stressing the realistic over the fantastic and the black-and-white distinctions between good and evil prevalent in much of the genre. If I am lucky maybe someone will write an adventure, critical threats adventure seeds or even a side trek. Yet before march you will have the first part of Shadoweve which I'm writing and working on right now. This post has been edited by Quillion on Jan 23 2004, 11:56 PM |
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Sharn Penndroen |
Posted: Jan 16 2004, 03:20 AM
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Lemming Extraordinare Group: Members Posts: 380 Member No.: 15 Joined: 15-January 04 |
Steve, don't you think this would be better in the Wheel of Time RPG
Dissucussion forum. I need to update my links to in my Open Submission
as well, I guess.
Also you may want to copy over the Sword of the Fisher King post to the WoT RPG forum. EDIT: Okay you moved it. Let me update my links as much as possible. Be sure to get the Sword of the Fisher King over here ASAP. |
Quillion |
Posted: Jan 19 2004, 03:27 PM
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Elder Scholar Group: Moderators Posts: 170 Member No.: 11 Joined: 6-January 04 |
As the Heroes of the Horn answer the Call.
Well Sociotard just sent us the first rough draft of the lumbermill. Though I still need to do a close examination of the product. I must say the submission is timely. Kathy is still working on the next art piece. The open submission contest is going slow hampered by the death throws of the old board. At first I was worried if Threads of the Pattern would die out, with the death of the boards but this community just won't go quietly into that good night. Sharn's Submission the Companion's Forge is being editied by my would-be-slave driver Aleshandre. Xythlord is of course off in the blight (ala the real world of work) Eosin is busy doing updates to call of the horn, and getting the forum together so forgive him if we don't have a overview map of the surrounding area yet. I still have three intrepid Wheel of Timers who are working on thier submissions for threads of the pattern. Me? well I just sent out a very rough outline of the Housse Cordall a noble manor/fort/asylum. That has generated some good responses from the Heros of the Horn. Oh and I settled on How I am probably going to be doing names. I will place that here and on the same boards. Names in a Hat By Dawn Ibach DM: "You're traveling the dark streets of the fabled city of Shemmith. The moonlight reveals a lone beggar curled up in the doorway across the road, other- wise the road is empty." Player: "I go over and put a few silvers in the beggar's hand and ask his name." DM: "He's just a beggar." Player: "He may know useful information and you never know - he might come in handy as eyes on the street. Nobody notices beggars." DM: (sighs) "His name is Bob." Coming up with memorable and interesting names on the fly can be difficult, even for the most experienced DM. This is especially true if the players regularly take an interest in the most obscure NPCs. A quick fill in the blank name can haunt a DM for the rest of the campaign, not to mention the rest of his DMing career. Here are a few simple tricks that will help any DM come up with a name for a NPC that he won't be ashamed of. 1. Change a vowel or consonant in an already exsisting name. Jonathan becomes Jorathan, Micheal becomes Macheal, etc. 2. Use consonants or vowels followed by a ' and then a name. Arron becomes J'Arron, Ethan becomes D'Ethan, Micheal becomes A'Micheal. 3. Female names are fairly easy. Any syllable or consonant followed by an -elle, -ana, -issa, or -y can become one. Or, in a pinch, a name of a flower will do. 4. Names from history can be used (if they're not too obvious) or modified if they are. Napoleon becomes Naleon, Mao Tse Tung becomes Mateun, etc. 5. For male names, use short two consonant with a vowel in between combinations, such as Mat, Gar or Dor, followed by one of these; -eus, -ian, -ior, -len, or -rim. That’s it! ã1999 Dawn Ibach |
Aleshandre |
Posted: Jan 19 2004, 09:12 PM
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Wielder of Callandor, Master and Commander of the Ashaman Group: Moderators Posts: 266 Member No.: 18 Joined: 15-January 04 |
A note on names:
For female names, another method is to modify the name of a bird so that it is phonetically the same, but the spelling differs (like swan becomes Siuan) Male names can also be created by simple phonetic substitutions as well (Marqus for Markus) Remember that even complex names in the WoT are variations on other names (Avienda for example is a variation on Avendesora). consonant combinations are changed as frequently as vowel combinations Oscar becomes Otar. The "in" is then added to give it a more foriegn feel. Patrick is modified by replacing the "t" with "e" Paerik and dropping the "c". I have noticed that most of the time, common names were altered by either using a Roman or Greek spelling or sluring multiple syllables into a single one or adding a syllable between the original syllables. |
Quillion |
Posted: Feb 2 2004, 03:01 PM
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Elder Scholar Group: Moderators Posts: 170 Member No.: 11 Joined: 6-January 04 |
Design Log Update FEB 02, 2004
Sorry my log is bit behind I have been busy with submissions to silven.com, bastion press, Realms of Evil publishing and Vanishing Goblin. Real life has also sidelined me with stuff I should have taken care off a while ago but I could not work up the motivation to care about. On to the Netbook. Well work goes apace as we now have a number of different submissions. Sociotard enen gave us a nice map, Chel'adar Tamero who is working on a bit of history between the current age and the fall of manatheren, Kathy is off working on a picture for The House Cordall and Sharn's Companion's Forge, Sharn is off-course trying to get you lazy woolheads to put in for our open submission and working on his next piece. Jacob of course continues to say he is close to being done with his piece :P I have two pieces in the back of my head that are almost done. A sanitarium and a wagonmaster. Special thanks too MagusRogue and Cisco Lii for thier submissions and thier continued work on the project. Eosin and Xythlord have both been sidelined by the real world but we still hope to have controbuitions from them. |
MagusRogue |
Posted: Feb 2 2004, 03:21 PM
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Village fool. Paid well. Group: Members Posts: 991 Member No.: 26 Joined: 16-January 04 |
just doing my civic duty to make this game all it can be. :D expect more submissions from me. working on a channeler duel (You know, the ones where they fight over shielding each other for like minutes on end). |
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Jacob_Stroh |
Posted: Feb 4 2004, 05:05 PM
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Learned Master Group: Members Posts: 10 Member No.: 24 Joined: 15-January 04 |
I get the hint |
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Quillion |
Posted: Mar 4 2004, 01:49 AM
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Elder Scholar Group: Moderators Posts: 170 Member No.: 11 Joined: 6-January 04 |
Well to let the world know what the heck is going on, Its a new month and I have been hard at work
On other projects.......I have been breaking into the industry all over the place, dealing with a new job and to top it all off I got streep throat. So after loosing the ability to swallow I finally went to the doctor and got antibiotics and I am much better now I have decided to do a massive piece about Shadoweve and everything else (except my game) is on the side until I get it done. I will get together with my editor in a day or two after I give him what I will write tonight. |
Axel |
Posted: Mar 4 2004, 10:43 PM
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Freelance HTML coder (hint Aleshandre) Group: Members Posts: 328 Member No.: 54 Joined: 22-January 04 |
okay, so I take my favorite name, Julian, and do some work. okay change the last letters... Julius! um... I have a problem...
alright lets try again, Charles... change the letters... Charlemagne!! damn... One more try, William. change it to... Wilhelm!!! what am I doing wrong? :D |
Aleshandre |
Posted: Mar 4 2004, 11:09 PM
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Wielder of Callandor, Master and Commander of the Ashaman Group: Moderators Posts: 266 Member No.: 18 Joined: 15-January 04 |
For you Axel, you may want to simply omit one vowel til you get the
hang of it. Julian becomes Julan, Julius becomes Julis, Charles becomes
Charls. Charlemagne becomes CharlMagn.
Since Sa'Sara is working so hard on Backgrounds, I think that she should do a SHadoweve Background. That would force her to contribute...MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! This post has been edited by Aleshandre on Mar 5 2004, 03:33 PM |
Quillion |
Posted: Mar 11 2004, 05:33 AM
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Elder Scholar Group: Moderators Posts: 170 Member No.: 11 Joined: 6-January 04 |
A background for Shadoweve by Sa'sara would be welcome (send any questions you have my way)
I really feel way to busy to be doing so little work of Shadoweve but I am going to be doing another piece this week as I plan to be finished with all I want in the first piece by april 1st I did finish a nice introduction to Shadoweve last week and I am going to be working on a break down of the city also. If anyone can think of something they would like to see before I put away my design log and go back to trying to break into the publishing industry ( though come to think of it I am being published by Bastion Press in Arms and Armor 3.5) |
Aleshandre |
Posted: Jun 18 2004, 08:08 PM
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Wielder of Callandor, Master and Commander of the Ashaman Group: Moderators Posts: 266 Member No.: 18 Joined: 15-January 04 |
Okay, some of you may not want to read the whole thread, but you need to atleast read the first post by Quillion (Steve).
Lets get Cracking folks. |
Sa_sara |
Posted: Jun 19 2004, 10:06 PM
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Gaming Geek Princess Group: Moderators Posts: 198 Member No.: 44 Joined: 21-January 04 |
*grins*
er...so long ago...far away... I do remember making a very nifty background feat though ;) hmm... |
Quillion |
Posted: Jul 24 2004, 01:32 AM
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Elder Scholar Group: Moderators Posts: 170 Member No.: 11 Joined: 6-January 04 |
yes it is sad that Eosin seduced me away to the shadow of working for coin.
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