Red Steel? What's That?

[Hell_Born]

I first read about this in one of the old Books of S_ from the Kargatane, it mentions that Azalin has a game board (drotche, I think it was) made from it. Other than the fact its native to Mystara, I haven't the foggiest what it is. Can anyone explain it to me? Also, I read mentions of things called Lupins, Rakastas and Tortles- can anyone tell me what those are?

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Red Steel was a d&d campaign world. The world was set in a time period of swashbuckling adventure, similar to the 16-17 hundreds.

Red Steel was characterized by the Red Steel, a magical metal that granted powers and curses. I believe that the Red Steel was made of fragments of a dead god. Many characters in Red Steel suffered from a mutative curse, which I believe was called the Red Curse - I believed was caused by the presence of Red Steel in the soil. The Red Curse caused really strange things, such as people to have eye-stalks growing out of their sockets.
Red Steel characters also had legacies, which were inborn magic powers. I believe these worked kind of like 2nd edition psionic wild talents.

[Socko:] Gee, I wonder if there's a link to Eberron's dragon marks? Cough!Rip-offCough!

Tortles and lupins were character races, turtle people and dog people, respectivly. I suspect that Rakastas were cat like people.

[Hell_Born]

Is there any 3rd/3.5 ed info on the setting? 'Cus I'm sure I saw a PC thing for Lupins in some Dragon magazine. On a different topic, I recently picked up a copy of Dungeon #84, and there's a comic in it called Downer- what's it about?

[Corrupted_Loremaster]

Hmm...I think Dragon did something on Red Steel in that "Old Settings Remembered" issue. Just let me find it...ah! "Red Steel", set on the Savage coast, approx. 1600 of coastline along the Western Sea in Mystra, swashbuckling setting, firearms existing but not a major factor. The Red Curse is the legacy of three major events, too long for me to really talk about, and can be warding off by a substance called cinnabyrl, which when it power is fully depleted become red steel, a subtance possessed of two major properties; 1. All items made out of it are masterwork, and 2. It cost less xp to make magical weapons out of it.

Dragon #315, January 2004 if you're interested.

[Hell_Born]

Thanks, I've found it. The article has the PC profile for Tortle characters, and Dragon #345 has Lupins (though technically Red Steel Lupins are Renardie[sp?] Lupins, the article covers them too so no problem), but is there a Dragon somewhere that covers Rakastas? Would the 3rd ed Red Steel (the material) be usable in Ravenloft?

[Le Noir Faineant]

Are you aware that you can download the entire setting books legally and for free at WotC's download section?



Just check it out.

[Catman Jim]

Rakastas have a long history with D&D, going back to their introduction in the classic game module X1 The Isle of Dread. They have appeared occasionally in various products over the years, but I don't recall ever seeing them in Third Edition. A 'Return to the Isle of Dread'-type adventure was printed in Dungeon magazine 118 in Sept 04, but no mention was made of the rakastas.
The download for the Mystaran setting 'Savage Coast' details (in 2E) the three races you mentioned. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads