QtR 27 review thread

[tomokaicho]

Only now have I been able to commit to start reading the latest QtR, and boy am I glad I did. I have not yet finished it all. These are my impressions so far.

Friedliches Königreich: It could have used some more player hooks. As new domains go, it’s pretty good. It could have been longer.

Sithicus:The Land of the Prophetess: A domain rewrite. Frankly, this is better than the canon Sithicus under the canon Inza, but it suffers from the same problem as the canon Sithicus – that is, Sithicus is a lot less interesting than it was under Lord Soth. This could make a good Island of Terror. Remove all the Sithicus stuff and just make it a unique domain. It’s about 80% there anyway.

Conferences of Victor Gagné Part the Fourth: Out of One, Many and The Tale of Ivar Skytte - A Companion to the Conferences: Wow – what a ride. At first I saw the page count of these two articles and thought “are you kidding me, dawg? I’ll be here all day reading”. Then I remembered that I did enjoy the previous installments, so I got stuck into it.

One of the things that I didn’t like so much in 3E Ravenloft is that the supernatural seemed to take and backseat to mundane matters. This article, and the previous installments, restores the balance from the original Ravenloft Black Boxed Set. The article also gave voice to something that I had pondered for some time – why does no one seek to use Victor Mordenheim for his scientific abilities? It turns out that they do! I’ll not spoil it. Just read it. Kudos to the authors, which I understand to be a collaborative effort in this particular installment.

[brilliantlight]

Only now have I been able to commit to start reading the latest QtR, and boy am I glad I did. I have not yet finished it all. These are my impressions so far.

Friedliches Königreich: It could have used some more player hooks. As new domains go, it’s pretty good. It could have been longer.

Sithicus:The Land of the Prophetess: A domain rewrite. Frankly, this is better than the canon Sithicus under the canon Inza, but it suffers from the same problem as the canon Sithicus – that is, Sithicus is a lot less interesting than it was under Lord Soth. This could make a good Island of Terror. Remove all the Sithicus stuff and just make it a unique domain. It’s about 80% there anyway.

Conferences of Victor Gagné Part the Fourth: Out of One, Many and The Tale of Ivar Skytte - A Companion to the Conferences: Wow – what a ride. At first I saw the page count of these two articles and thought “are you kidding me, dawg? I’ll be here all day reading”. Then I remembered that I did enjoy the previous installments, so I got stuck into it.

One of the things that I didn’t like so much in 3E Ravenloft is that the supernatural seemed to take and backseat to mundane matters. This article, and the previous installments, restores the balance from the original Ravenloft Black Boxed Set. The article also gave voice to something that I had pondered for some time – why does no one seek to use Victor Mordenheim for his scientific abilities? It turns out that they do! I’ll not spoil it. Just read it. Kudos to the authors, which I understand to be a collaborative effort in this particular installment.

I will try to remember to add more plot hooks to any domain I make in the future. If you want more plot hooks for Friedliches Königreich the Cult of Maglubiyet could be much bigger and an ongoing thing. If I thought of it at the time I would have made the Cult the way Harron replaces his original hobgoblins. He always gets enough to replentish his ranks but it never grows it beyond maybe five hundred before the curse kicks in and it goes down again.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Conferences of Victor Gagné Part the Fourth: Out of One, Many and The Tale of Ivar Skytte - A Companion to the Conferences: Wow – what a ride. At first I saw the page count of these two articles and thought “are you kidding me, dawg? I’ll be here all day reading”. Then I remembered that I did enjoy the previous installments, so I got stuck into it.

I'm glad you did. ^_^

One of the things that I didn’t like so much in 3E Ravenloft is that the supernatural seemed to take and backseat to mundane matters. This article, and the previous installments, restores the balance from the original Ravenloft Black Boxed Set. The article also gave voice to something that I had pondered for some time – why does no one seek to use Victor Mordenheim for his scientific abilities? It turns out that they do! I’ll not spoil it. Just read it. Kudos to the authors, which I understand to be a collaborative effort in this particular installment.

Yup, there were two of us working on this article: Wolfglide and yours truly. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
And yeah, Victor is an underused resource. His genous, combined with his curse, can make him a true font of ... excitement, if only people are willing to give mad science a chance.

[tomokaicho]

Yup, there were two of us working on this article: Wolfglide and yours truly. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
And yeah, Victor is an underused resource. His genous, combined with his curse, can make him a true font of ... excitement, if only people are willing to give mad science a chance.

I know that Xavan has been sent off to the Wartorn Cluster, but I can't help but chuckle at the idea of the godling Xavan being on Dr Mordenheim's operating table for experimentation. The atheist cutting open a godling to see how it works.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Ah, but Victor would just want to find out how Xavan works.
The Centurions wouldn't mind knowing that as well. They also want to know... other things.

[tomokaicho]

The Centurions wouldn't mind knowing that as well. They also want to know... other things.

A Centurion is the word for 'commander', historically leading around 80 men within a Roman legion. The 'Centurions of the Night' sound a lot like the 'Legions of the Night' prophesized by Bastion Teodorus Raines. What Bastion Raines is warning of is not synonymous with evil, Bastion Raines being evil himself. Could the Centurions be the leadership class of the legions of the night?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

You'll have to keep reading. ^_^
I hope to have some more material ready for QtR 28.

In the meantime, there's a Mistipedia article.

[Baron Von Stanton]

You'll have to keep reading. ^_^
I hope to have some more material ready for QtR 28.

In the meantime, there's a Mistipedia article.

So what's QtR 28's theme going to be?

[onmyoji]

So what's QtR 28's theme going to be?

Piggybacking on this, is there anything new members should know about writing for QTR? What sort of stuff is or is not accepted? Doing a lot of narrative tweaking for the campaign I'm running now, so if QTR will have some of it, I'd happily contribute. One of the specific things I'm interested in is if there are any restrictions regarding rewrites of already published content (e.g. rewriting a well-known Ravenloft character or a narrative event, rather than creating something wholly new).

To be honest, I haven't delved too far into QTR yet with the exception of a couple specific articles I was looking for. The closest I got so far was recently adding Phil Boulanger's "Hags of Vallaki" (USS 2003) to my campaign agenda.

Anyway, anything on that would be greatly appreciated for a prospective contributor.

— onmyoji

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

There are some quick guidelines in the Submissions Open thread for QtR 27. There is also a link there to the full submission guidelines.

[onmyoji]

There are some quick guidelines in the Submissions Open thread for QtR 27. There is also a link there to the full submission guidelines.

Thanks. I'll give it a look!

— onmyoji

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

So what's QtR 28's theme going to be?

We don't usually pick a theme until May or June. We're always open to suggestions, though. (also, note that the theme is always a suggestion to spur ideas. We never turn anything away for being off-theme.)

[Baron Von Stanton]

So what's QtR 28's theme going to be?

We don't usually pick a theme until May or June. We're always open to suggestions, though. (also, note that the theme is always a suggestion to spur ideas. We never turn anything away for being off-theme.)

What about the time you vetoed my article about "The Curse Of The Welsh Werebit"?

[Joël of the FoS]

It had nudity and jello. You can have one, or the other, but not both.

[tomokaicho]

Xavan has a mere 8 ranks in Knowledge (religion)? I get it. Religion is not a class skill for Favored Souls. However, there is the Favored Soul 'dead levels' ACF which allows the Favored Soul to get Knowledge (religion) as a class skill and give up nothing.

Also, am I getting a Contemplative (the PrC) vibe from Xavan? I think I am. Much of the PrC abilities are immunities that Xavan already has by virtue of being Divine Rank 0, but the fluff is spot on. "Special: Must have had direct contact with one’s patron deity or a direct servant of that deity, or with an enlightened being embodying the highest principles of an alignment (a solar, for example)." He also gets new domains. With the dead levels ACF, Xavan can enter contemplative at his 11th level and have all 10 levels of the PrC by his 20th level.

EDIT: Then again, perhaps not. The Contemplative has terrible BAB and would be a pushover in combat.