Soullos: A World of Dragons and Change

[Hibou]

So far I've only been able to read Alcoholic Beverages, but I like what I see. I like the flavor you've got going with various kinds, especially the Holy Beer and Shadow Ale, which are great reasons to have alcohol on adventures :). A question, though: What purpose do they serve in your games? Have you actually had players participate in drinking contests or anything?

[ssvegeta555]

Sorry for the late reply. I've been very busy lately. I've only had time to read the replies and not make one myself. I'll start with Stargate525 first, and I'll get to the rest of you all at a later time. Anyway, thanks for the criticisms and comments, it is always useful.

The first thing that hit me is that you have a negative year count. That's just odd. Usually the years count downward or count upward, not negative. That's a bit jarring, although it's really your choice.

I got a lot of inspiration from the FR book and the negative year count is one of them. I might change it later using BCE (Before Closed Eye), but it's not that important at the moment.

'the people agreed with to seal psionics, which would later be known as the Sealing' sounds really bad. I would replace the first sealing with something else, as right now you're giving us a rather obvious truism (two is two, killing someone shall be known as killing, etc.) I like the thematics provided by a week-long battle, but unless the two sides agreed to pull back and sleep every night, which I don't see the illithids doing, this is terribly unrealistic. 'be it psionic items, people, creatures, and so on' Remove the so on, it's not neccesarry. Also, by sealing off, do you mean that the items lost their powers, or were literally sealed off, making them all simply vanish?

Good points, I'll make note of those. To answer your question, the Sealing made all things psionics lose their powers.

And either remove psyionics completely, or not at all. Having a few survive defeats the purpose, and seems to me to be a rather obvious gimmick to allow psyionics back in, as an excuse for DMs.

It's a bit hard to remove psionics when it's central to my world. I wanted to have a few beings that resisted the sealing, mainly because they're powerful. Gods and deity-like powers were not effected. Think of it as if they succeeded on their Will save. And yes it was an excuse for me to allow psionics in the game. When I first got the psionics handbook I wanted to introduce the new material in a cool way. I didn't want to cop out and say "it was always there, you just didn't notice until now." That's how psionics first got introduced into my campaign, and it grew from there into a whole world for me to design.

First question, does the total population include the undead or no?

the first paragraph is confusing. You seem to be flipflopping between 'they're servants' and 'they're full citizens.' Pick one, it'll go much cleaner.

So are these undead special, not being mindless? and do they ever get released from this? As it currently stands, unless you've got somehting killing off lots of undead, you'll soon run out of living space, not to mention the fertility of the land.

I like that you treat orcs as mildly intelligent, but why didn't the king simply finish the job when he had the chance, or simply raise up an army of undead from the presumably slaughtered citizens within their walls?

You've got a clan of vampires that raids entire CIVILIZATIONS? for SPORT? WHY are these guys not in control of at least a whole country?

The unread population is noted in the population entry. And servant doesn't mean slave, if that's what you're implying, so they could be citizens as well. The undead are mindless, a few note worthy ones are skilled craftsmen who have their skill and intelligence intact so they can continue their trade. The undead do get killed off. Each citizens must serve as an undead for the amount of time they lived as a citizen in life. Once their term is over they are put to rest.

The king is a very nice man, perhaps too nice. The orcs were cornered inside the city with the large army of undead that stands outside their walls. Even though the army would make quick work on the orcs, the king didn't want to slaughter them and that's why he gave them mercy.

The vampires are only a small group. They raid civilizations covertly in the same way as a spy infiltrates a country for intelligence.

My first question is why people are fighting over a desert, but I recon I'll get to that soon enough. My other question is why two nations that are so alike I will likely get confused would be fighting each other in the first place?

'The continent Rumai owns Kanea.' I'm confused. By continent, do you mean continent-stretching empire?

'Most of the land is inhabitable because of the lack of water and the frequent attacks from monsters.' I could be wrong, but I think you meant 'uninhabitable.'

All logic aside, if the peaks are as uninhabitable as the desert, which you seem to assert, HOW are extensive mining operations carried out there without massive supply lines?

'The Gnoll Stronghold lies within the Shardian Mountains. It was once a place controlled by gnolls.' The only thing I could think of when seeing this was literally 'no s**t Sherlock.' It seems to be a recurring pattern in your prose style, but if the name gives a clear indication of something, PLEASe don't restate it later on. It makes it sound like you're playing to an audience of idiots.

I don't see how there could be confusion with the two nations be similar. One is a group of slave refugees and the other is a highly trained army. Rags version Armor, essentially. With Rumai absorbing Kanea, the Kaneans are outfitted with 'Japanese' style weaponry and armor.

Yes, I meant empire, I will change that when I get the chance. And you're right about the inhabitable error, it should be uninhabitable. I'll change the Gnoll Stronghold error as well. Thanks for pointing that out.

The mining operations are carried out by the two nations because they have the necessary resources. Shelimbar lives relatively close the mountain and they have an abundance of water. Kanea is supported by the Empire Rumai with all the necessary supplies. I'll think more on the specifics later. Rumai hasn't been fleshed out as Cerbrai has and most of the stuff mentioning them are subject to change since nothing is set in stone just yet.

I've got to say, I really like your regions textblock. Gives some good information right away. One question, how did you calculate the population, or did you just put it in randomly?

I like the concept of the mist quite a lot. I'm eager to see what the cause of it is. How thick is it? A light mist? Pea soup? Why haven't the lycanthropes joined together, since the mist gives them complete control? Or are all lycanthropes in your setting evil?

Small note, then giving years, you always put 'about' in front of it. Just give the number and be certain about it.

I'm a bit concerned about the 'randomly chosen by Dm' thing for the mist. I'd suggest making it a low percentage per hour (10-15%), then the save.

Most of the population entries are random. I just pick a number that sounds good. The Lunar Mist is a light mist, I'll change the entry to make note of that. About the lycans, yes they have banded together. A whole city, Wraith Haven, is mentioned in the region entry. Most of the lycans are evil, a few, notably the werbears are good.

About the years thing, I'll change that when I get the chance. The random bit about the mist is what lycanthrope type the player gets if he fails his DC 20 save (it should be fortitude, I'll have to insert that).

I love the fluff text, tying dragons directly into the energies of magic. Just curious, does a dragon dying violently create a 'nova' of magical energy as all of his blood is poured out at once?

Your classes section seems a bit ho-hum. I would have liked to see more tie-in with the dragons, as you had a good thing going there. your divine magic seems exactly the same as standard PHB. Pity.

Psionics and Incarnum I have no experience with, but I need to say it here again. Was the Sealing a banishment of all psionic energy, or simply a repression? Make it more clear please, and don't say all psionics was lost and then a sentence later say how it affects the world today.

The dragons don't explode when they die. I think as the blood as radiation, it slowly alters things. Despite my world being heavily influenced by dragons, I didn't want every ascpet to be. I just wanted to change the classes source of power, not their typical archetype into something different. Psionics was never lost, just repressed. I'll make it more clear to avoid confusion in the future.

<Snip on the Beer comments>

in golden ale, what's the difference between edible gold and regular?

About the alcohol mistakes, I don't drink. So any mistakes are because of my lack of experience. Edible gold is not that much different from real gold. One is specially prepared for consumption. That's really the only difference.

[Xeviat]

A week ... a month ...

As I said before, I'm digesting the setting right now, going page by page through the original WotC thread. I like seeing the growth of the setting, from the earlier posts to the newer ones.

As of yet, I really like that Psionics is actually ancient, rather than being new. I was also intrigued by the idea of the Planar Clock/Calendar, especially the Demiplane collisions.

I noticed you once asked for help making your world unique, but I think focusing on uniqueness would be a disservice to the world. One of Soullos's greatest strengths is that it takes the familiar elements of D&D's history and creates new explanations. Any player could come into it and not be surprised. The world has organics to it, and I foresee players being able to plop in and explore the world as someone from a rural setting would, without needing to read an encyclopedia of information before starting the game.

I apologize for not having more to say at the moment, constructive or destructive. I hate to give "great job" reviews. I will come back with more of a review, and this time it won't take a month (knock on wood).

[Xeviat]

Another reply, and a bump for Vegeta.

I just finished reading the second page of the WotC thread. I am quite impressed with the level of small details, like the alcohols and plants/foods. The Guardia region was also quite fascinating; I especially like the unique form of monarchy it has.

Again, I want to reiterate my enjoyment of the setting's "lived in" feeling. Keep working on that Vegeta, as I'm sure your players greatly appreciate it.

[Endless_Helix]

First of all, I have to say that I really like the detail you put into the history of each nation. It really provides a solid foundation for the rest of the information. Now, I'm guessing this is a kind of "kitchen sink" world, so I would really focus on the things that differentiate your world from all the others, which leads to my first criticism: there seem to be a lot of "unsupported" ideas floating around, especially in terms of Incarnum. Granted, Incarnum is fairly difficult to pull off for a primary component in a campaign world, but It seems to be prevalent enough that there is a drink containing minute amounts of essentia.  I would love to see this fleshed out, if you decide to bring it into the fore. If not, then I would consider dropping it out entirely; Incarnum needs a fair amount of support to really sing, in my opinion.

The use of conflicts is very well delineated; there are definite problems that need to be addressed, and that is perfect for DnD. The scale of these problems allows for you to stick to one or two villains for the entire campaign without much issue, but there is still plenty of room for people to go on side-quests and to play with other plot strings. Also there are some really fun ideas in the Lunar mists. What's in those ruins that's spreading the mists?

I'm having a little trouble with dragons; I'd like to see a bit more with really crafting the dragons as characters. For such a defining point of the world, they don't have much that makes them any more interesting than the dragons in the MM1, which I've rather grown a little tired off. Right now they feel a bit flat compared to how well the rest of the world is rendered. If you really pull out the stops on the dragons and make them a bit more distinctive, the the more iconic bits of Soullos will act as a balance and create a really delicious contrast.


All in all, this is going to be a very, very fun world to adventure in; it's got a lot of powerful archetypes to play with. I can't wait to see more.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

So far, and I haven't read all the stuff on the WotC boards, I'm impressed. Certainly, I'd prefer to have everything brought over, just to keep it in one place.

My first impression, is that you're trying to incorporate all the familiar aspects of D&D, but in new fresh ways. I'll be the first to admit that D&D is not my favorite game, but I like what you've done with it. I cannot say I've seen many settings where gem dragons are important, much less central to the current plot, and you've worked psionics in nicely. Incarnum sounds more out of place, but perhaps I will see something later to change my mind.

Mind War
Wonderful explanation for why psionics have been uncommon, and are becoming more common.

Many knew that the illithids are a dangerous threat to all life and powerful foes. But few can fathom the threat they posed to all in Cerbria, and quite possibly the world.

Aberoth[/b]
The name makes me think "aboleth," but that's okay. The theme behind the nation is really cool. Reading other people's nations is not my favorite area so much as history and mythology, so I've only skimmed this.

When an aberothian citizen dies they are, by law, must relinquish their body to the Reapers of Life so they can animate the body as an undead servant. This is a sign of repaying their debts in life to their country.

The Ruins of Nark'zesh
Nark'zesh was once a proud city of an orc nation of Tarsh'Nok.[/quote]They will attack any orc army if ever a sight is seen.[/quote]Canathra Desert[/b]
Good a time as any to say I disapprove of giving nations an alignment, whether or not WotC likes to do so (do they? I don't read their CS's...).

Like the Shimmering Oasis. Sounds like the kind of place I'd remember as a player. Uh, that and the Oasis of Blood...yikes!

History: so fighting started 2 years ago?

Lunar
I have some qualms about naming a land "Lunar" if it's not on the moon, but I absolutely love the description. I've always found mist-covered lands wicked awesome, and I love lycanthropes (if not the D&D versions). I especially like that the source of the mist remains a mystery (no pun intended).

They try to live their lives as best they can, since many have the fear of getting afflicted, which is considered a worse fate than death.

'It's better it be them than us' Is a common saying.[/quote]Large walls to protect the citizens from the outside dangers surround all cities in Lunar. These walls are magically treated to strengthen them and also to produce light winds to prevent the lunar mist from seeping inside the city.[/quote]Magic[/b]
Cool that magic comes from dragon blood (though it kind of reminds me of that D&D movie). And as I said, neat work on psionics. I'm indifferent towards divine magic, and leery about incarnum.

Alcohol Beverages
As others mentioned, it's cute and clever. Kudos for putting thought into fine detail like this.

Time of Change
I like it on the whole, and it creates a lot of opportunity for adventure. The chest thing isn't my cup of tea, I might have gone with some other kind of seal, but the idea is okay. If Sardior is a god, why couldn't he break the seal, or at least direct his followers right to the chests?

Your intro says psionics came back 8 years ago, but in some places it seems to be 10 years ago. Clarify?

The World
Do you have a map? Did I miss it? If not, definitely make that a priority.

Afterlife
While the Fate of Soul thing sounded interesting at first, the afterlife in general seems to be the D&D standard. Can you highlight what's really unique about it four Soullous? (I find the D&D/FR standard kind of lame, especially because it forces mortals to be tied to a specific petty god).

Races
Nice work on the detail on all the races. I especially like breaking orcs into subraces (I mean if the game is doing so for elves, dwarves, and goblins, why are orcs left out).

Creation Myth
I like the emphasis on Time and Chrono. Also, the egg was the most unique part. Other than that, I might consider having different versions of the myth for different races/cultures.

The rumor that a primal dragon might still exist is great.

Dragon Dominion Era is interesting background; do common people still know about these times, or only stuffy historians?

Primal deities:
I might consider renaming Sati. Sati is the name of Shiva's first wife, and through her, the now-illegal practice of a widow immolating herself on her husband's pyre. This deity seems to have nothing to with yours, so I might lose the connection. (I've also heard Satis, the Egyptian goddess, is sometimes spelled Sati).


So I hope some of this is helpful. I'd play in your setting.

Oh, one last question, do you plan to update for 4e, considering the changes to some creatures/explanations for magic and so forth?