Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 gab Aug 21, 2003 12:19:45	City-State of Draj is now available at athas.org. City State of Draj details the warrior-city of Draj in the years following the Prism Pentad. You'll find included: Details on the city-state of Draj, its culture, its people and locations. A "What your Father Told You" entry, to help players understand Draji culture. Five new prestige classes. Five new regional feats. Full stats for 18 important Draji NPCs. Feel free to comment in this thread, or send comments to [email]Gab@athas.org[/email]. Also available is Whispers of the Storm, an adventure by Jon Sederqvist set around Draj, for 3rd-5th level characters.
#2 jon_oracle_of_athas Aug 21, 2003 12:25:41	This is interesting. We posted almost simultanously.
#3 Shei-Nad Aug 21, 2003 18:08:30	Just skimmed through it and it looks very nice. Good job. I assume you've researched ancient Aztec, Inca and Maya societies... Looks really good. I have two questions: 1- The map of draj shows it is surrounded by green squares... I assume those are fields. Are they? Is there a legend somewhere I missed? 2- You describe the sacrifice (which is really well done) in which Atzetuk rips out the heart of the sacrificee by plunging his hand in his chest. You afterwards describe King Tek doing it, using his great strength to accomplish the feat, and also state that the sacrefice was that much simpler at the time. I'm not sure I follow. What's the difference between the two sacrifices and if there isn't, how does Atzetuk punch through the man's sternum without "champion strength"?
#4 gab Aug 21, 2003 19:35:32	1- The map of draj shows it is surrounded by green squares... I assume those are fields. Are they? Is there a legend somewhere I missed? Yes, they are fields. 2- You describe the sacrifice (which is really well done) in which Atzetuk rips out the heart of the sacrificee by plunging his hand in his chest. You afterwards describe King Tek doing it, using his great strength to accomplish the feat, and also state that the sacrefice was that much simpler at the time. I'm not sure I follow. What's the difference between the two sacrifices and if there isn't, how does Atzetuk punch through the man's sternum without "champion strength"? It's explained that the templars use the venom of the raakle to soften the victim's chest cavity so Atzetuk can perform the ceremony as Tectuktitlay did. See p.8, 1st paragraph of 2nd column.
#5 zombiegleemax Aug 22, 2003 7:41:20	Related to the previous map question. What is the scale of the two maps?
#6 zombiegleemax Aug 22, 2003 20:33:50	Pssst. . . . You broke the server again guys.
#7 Cyrian Aug 25, 2003 1:12:13	Speaking as a geology major, who's had to make several maps, three things that were absolutely uncomproimisable no way around it required were a legend that described everything on the map, symbols, colors, structures, what have you; a scale, both numeric and graphic, and usually in both English and metric; and a north arrow. Of course, I'm just nitpicking, being in this major does that to you. ;)
#8 gforce99 Aug 28, 2003 1:19:03	being a geography major, I wouldn't think geology majors would worry about proper cartography and legends.... :D j/k where are/did you going to school?
#9 Cyrian Aug 28, 2003 9:39:28	I went to UC Davis, which actually has one of the top 25 geology programs in the country. And I'm finishing up my degree at Tohoku University in Japan. At UCD we had two field courses, one in spring and the other in summer, which was six weeks straight of pretty much all mapping, so I got very familiar with the procedure. :D
#10 heretic_apostate Aug 28, 2003 23:32:21	Originally posted by Cyrian I went to UC Davis Wow, a fellow Aggie alumnus... What year did you graduate? Or are you just doing the whole "spend a year at another university" thing?
#11 jon_oracle_of_athas Aug 29, 2003 2:26:10	Get a room, guys. ;)
#12 jon_oracle_of_athas Sep 01, 2003 5:46:02	Found a small oversight: The Amulet of Arcane Insight is not listed in the Appendix index.
#13 jon_oracle_of_athas Sep 06, 2003 6:28:04	So, any other feedback concerning either product?
#14 roman Sep 07, 2003 12:46:03	Wow! I used to be somewhat apprehensive about the community, rather than WotC, working on Dark Sun, due to fears about the quality of the work. That is why I so desperately wanted Dark Sun to be in print instead of merely in PDF format. Now, however, my fears have been dispelled. The quality of the module on Draj is exquisite and while I have not yet read through the other modules, I no longer doubt that their quality will be top notch too.
#15 jon_oracle_of_athas Sep 07, 2003 15:42:45	Thanks, Roman. Btw: Errata: Encounter 9 should be labeled "Eladji", not "Information.
#16 jon_oracle_of_athas Sep 25, 2003 12:56:36	So, any more feedback on either product?
#17 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 03, 2003 6:44:14	*taps microphone.* Testing. Is this thing on?
#18 overelemental Oct 03, 2003 11:19:06	I actually haven't gotten around to read it yet, but it looked very nice :p I'll do it this weekend and write up feedback sunday or something
#19 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 08, 2003 12:33:59
#20 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 11, 2003 9:11:12	*tries firing a random lightning bolt into the crowd*
#21 zombiegleemax Oct 12, 2003 10:30:46	*Enters the room rubbing his sore backside* Sorry, not much to say. Its really a good piece of work. If I have a complaint though, you bet your boxers I'll let you know.
#22 overelemental Oct 12, 2003 20:38:55	*cough* got stuck roleplaying instead of reading the pdf. I'll do it.. some other time :D soon, yeah.. soon ;)
#23 Kamelion Oct 13, 2003 1:51:47	Took a look over Whispers of the Storm over the weekend and could only spot two tiny typos (am at work now but will forward them tomorrow). It was a really smooth read, overall. Started on Draj yesterday but not seeing much odd so far. A general comment on formatting struck me, though. Would it not make the documents look smarter if full justification was used, as opposed to the left-justification that is currently being used? It just looks a bit messy with the right-hand side of each column being all straggly and not in a nice straight line (picky enough for ya?)
#24 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 13, 2003 3:04:33	Brax would rip my head off and feed it to a jhakar if I used full-justification - and he is a tech writer. He once wrote a *long* e-mail advocating not using it in electronic documents with our level of resources.
#25 Kamelion Oct 13, 2003 4:09:33	Heh - OK. Sounds sensible enough now you mention the resources. Always best to bow before the wisdom of the techies - especially the head-ripping variety
#26 zombiegleemax Oct 13, 2003 8:40:08	I read through "Whispers.." on the weekend, but when I got to the NPCs section, the pdf was not readable. I try again today. Regarding the module itself: Very positive: after having the 'read out loud' description in the box, you wrote the game effect (i.e. this spell was a Lightning Bolt). There are always curious players with a lot of ranks in spellcraft/psycraft... :D Slightly negative: the cerulean wizard guy was a lot of Gandalf-ish to me. The stereotypical secretive wizard, shows up to liberate the party from the templar prison cages... Deus ex machina... And it seems that he could handle the problem in himself, and not really need the party.
#27 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 13, 2003 11:58:52	Slightly negative: the cerulean wizard guy was a lot of Gandalf-ish to me. . Tec'tezeran doesn't even have a beard. The stereotypical secretive wizard, shows up to liberate the party from the templar prison cages... Deus ex machina... And it seems that he could handle the problem in himself, and not really need the party. He is resourceful, but he is not powerful enough to take on the Stormbringer and his assistant alone.
#28 zombiegleemax Oct 14, 2003 4:31:21	Originally posted by Jon, Oracle of Athas Tec'tezeran doesn't even have a beard. It is no problem for a wizard.... He is resourceful, but he is not powerful enough to take on the Stormbringer and his assistant alone. As I wrote I couldn't read the NPC stats. But the players also won't! So they will base their judgement solely on the events and actions descripted, as I did. Maybe it's just me, but I upkeep my opinion about it. You wanted feedback, after all...
#29 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 14, 2003 7:13:07	Hey, freedom of speech, right?
#30 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 15, 2003 15:13:46	The stereotypical secretive wizard, shows up to liberate the party from the templar prison cages... Deus ex machina... And it seems that he could handle the problem in himself, and not really need the party. *What* do you perceive he does that makes it appear that he does not need the party?
#31 zombiegleemax Oct 15, 2003 16:38:49	Will these documents be updated to 3.5? Or will they remain 3E? Not a big difference to me really, but it would save some conversion time when I eventually get around to playing dark sun again.
#32 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 16, 2003 4:15:13	They will be updated. When is another matter.