It is not what the athas.org team will do, but it’s what you would like to see. Because you know, it might give ideas to the darksun fan base. This may not become a official project, but this doesnt mean it’s can’t become one, or at least this doesnt mean it will not be used. CREATE things!
Do not think about what athas.org can DO for you, but what you can DO for athas.org ! :D
- [General accessory] The Ruins of Athas
- [Adventure/Detailed accessory] The ruins of X (X could be the Mud palace or else)
- [DS2 product] A ds3e product where all NPCs in all DS product would be converted.
- [DS2 product] VotW Villages of the Waste in 3ed.
- [General accessory] Small adventures or adventures plots. Each about two or 3 pages maximum.
- [Accessories] Athasian Maps. Regionals maps, building maps and dongeons maps (athasian of course).
- [General accessory] The Crimson savannah
- [Campaign] The Thri-Kreen invasion
- [Campaign] Dregoth ascending
-An accessory on the silt skimmers and the silt sea
-Maps of all the majors cities currently without maps.
- Converting the 2nd edition monsters to 3rd edition
- Guide to the deadlands
- Guide books for races.
- Complete books of Athasian classes.
- Development of the undeveloped city-states.
- Conversion of Windriders (specifically, lifeshaping)
- Traversing the Sands expanded on and made into a whole book, fitting in with Grum's expansion on the Sea of Silt
- Details of the Order.
- Expanding the Black.
- Guide for the Green and Blue Age.
- Expanding specific monsters aka Slayers Guides or Complete book of X monster.
- Redo the adventure detailing the return of Sielba, the SQ of Yaramuke, into 3e.
- A supplement on the Ringing mountains, detailing halfling more
- Magic Items and Magic Item Tables.
- Random Monster Encounter Tables.
- A book of PrCs, Spells, Feats, Powers and misc. rules stuff.
- A background book that gives the info on the history of Athas. Who's who of champions, Cleansing wars info, Sorcerer King Stats etc... I know the info is out there but it is scattered all over the place and one source that gives all the available info would be nice.
- ...the merry bandit states and the troll grave chasm in the middle.
- A guide to epic level campaigns, including advanced beings and epic treatments for the dark sun classes.
- More adventures or adventure ideas.
- Psionic artifacts of athas.
- Information on the blue shrine. Maybe an adventure set in that area of the world.
- Stuff about the Pristine Tower. Its mentioned so often but with so little detail that it could not really be used for adventuring.
And of course !
- A non comical version of Saragar (if its possible). Ahh, just kill off the dolphin loving surfboard riding druids and all is well that ends well.
-Lastly, a book called The Idiots to Giant Space Hamster Riding Laser Pistol Wielding Killer Halflings From Outer Space or How to Ruin Everything You Ever Loved About Athas But Were Afraid to Try.
Ah! Now you can go on my web site on the Project page and have a look there. Maybe peoples would like to have help on their project!
CC2 Athasian Known Region Map (help would be wonderful)
My own little setting expansion (still lots of work to do here)
Kicking around the idea of Pristine Tower details, but my ideas may end up stratching too far from canon though
May start tinkering with the idea of expanding specific monsters to better fit them logically into Athasian ecology (so many large carnivores and so little to feed them all . . . ). It never really occured to me to do this, I like it though.
)Great Ideas.. Might take one to develop as house rule or some like that.
Mach, I would like to help you on these maps, but I don't have the CC2 program... and ain't myself an expert on Athas geografy..
Originally posted by Fabrício Madruga Lopes
All these ideas... It kinda make want to DO something, to start writting on about some of then.... but.. after all were done.. it would not be official... (this makes me sad
Maybe if you work very hard on it and if you get help from peoples and from athas.org, everything is possible my friend
Originally posted by Fabrício Madruga Lopes
but.. after all were done.. it would not be official... (this makes me sad
Well, the athas.org team produces the official material. If they used your ideas in what they are publishing, it would be official. Personally, I only hope that some of my ramblings and rantings about this and that on these forums sticks in one or two of their little heads and possibly helps the creative process a little.
It's being published as "Official" by Athas.org that makes a product (or article) official, not being written by someone with an @athas.org appended to their email ...
personaly I find it would be great if all the city-states were described... especially before and after the events of the prism pentad! In my campaigns, it hasn't happened yet...
I find also that the people of athas (I mean the commoners), generally, have no beliefs (except in SK) and just a little bit of deepness. I find people described in official tsr material 1) Don't like wizards 2) Don't like strangers 3) Don't like templars 4)Don't have any choice in their life... and don't like wizards too. Do they have tales, rituals, myths, beliefs, particularities... real cultural features! So why not "People of Athas" without rules...? only background! I'm personaly working on that with a few City-States and Losthome.
Ok guys, yes, I must admit: I'm studying anthropology... and what? Don't we say in french: "déformation professionnelle". ;)
A another idea would be "Music of Athas"... what kind of music to use with your favorite campaign setting. Do you have already chat about it? Atmosphere, atmosphere...
Last but not least, I'm also working on a new character sheet DS 3.5 compatible... maybe you used the last version which was on athas.org unofficial material (I'm Etienne in my real life...) If it is the case I would really like some comments about!
That's all for today... see you!
Nefal
A another idea would be "Music of Athas"... what kind of music to use with your favorite campaign setting. Do you have already chat about it? Atmosphere, atmosphere
Couple pages back there were some good threads with great music links . . . I'll see if I can find it and give it a bump.
Apart from that, a Humanoids Handbook could be cool. I reckon there are quite a few more Athasian PC races than we ever give credit for. If you can have half-giants and thri-kreen why not baazrags, dray, nikaal, ssurrans, tari, tareks or villichi. Cultural notes, feats, prestige classes and the like would be cool. And all the extinct Green Age races. I know they're dead but there are still plenty of undead templates for them.
Finally, something on the Order could be very cool.
On a side note in another thread someone said that City by the SIlt Sea could not and would not be reprinted. What was the reason for that?
It'll be about DS Cities. I intend to:
- make the maps that are missing;
- develop the undeveloped city-states;
- create local gossips, myths and alike;
- come out with each one's culture;
- detail the most important trade routes;
- detail the most important people;
- provide a "what the people of the city thinks about" (even about nosy adventurers);
Any ideas?? Suggestions?? Comments???
Does anyone know where should I look/read first?
Any bibliography sugested?
Originally posted by Fabrício Madruga Lopes
Guess what... I decided to start a project!
It'll be about DS Cities. I intend to:
- make the maps that are missing;
- develop the undeveloped city-states;
- create local gossips, myths and alike;
- come out with each one's culture;
- detail the most important trade routes;
- detail the most important people;
- provide a "what the people of the city thinks about" (even about nosy adventurers);
Any ideas?? Suggestions?? Comments???
Does anyone know where should I look/read first?
Any bibliography sugested?
My advice would be... it's going to be a big lot of work for one person to produce anything for all the cities than you already get in the Wanderer's Chronicle. Moreover, you'd probably end up duplicating a lot of the stuff athas.org put out on Draj.
So... pick one city and give it the full treatment. Balic is probably a good one to go for as a campaign setting.
Originally posted by Darknell
On a side note in another thread someone said that City by the SIlt Sea could not and would not be reprinted. What was the reason for that?
Because all ad&d can still be purchased via web sites as pdfs(they cost $$ though)
So... pick one city and give it the full treatment. Balic is probably a good one to go for as a campaign setting
There is someone (Scott something, forgive my poor addled memory) doing a fairly decent treatment of Balic. Grum's Silt Skimmer page o' mighty links has it. Not too shabby so far and updated with some consistancy.
That would leave only Gulg, Urik, and Nibenay that are being passed over (since the Athas.org team has had rumors of a Lost City guide to cover Kurn and Eldaarich).
Of course, don't let that stop you if you wish to recreate one of the cities in your own vision.
That leave Raam (but it will probably be explained some in the Dregoth return adventure), Balic and something fun to work on, CELIK.
Originally posted by Jon, Oracle of Athas
Celik will be detailed in Secrets of the Deadlands.
Then master, it would be a good idea to tell us what's the current state of athas.org projects. SotDL is one among others : ToA, DA, tE and the Imagefull 3.5e core rule.
What are you working on, right now?
Now that 3.5e is done, I would really like to know what will be your next projects and their status. I know that the Emissary is in playtesting (or was?). I dont want any date, just to know what your are working on. It's easier for the fan base to give ideas when they know where to put their energy.
Originally posted by Mach2.5
Couple pages back there were some good threads with great music links . . . I'll see if I can find it and give it a bump.
Yeah, that was a very funny thread, especially when we came to the point that somebody uses 'King of my castle' from 'Wamdue project' as background music for Athas. There was also some other idiot who listened to Ace of Base during DS sessions, totally crazy, wait, that was me... :D
Then master, it would be a good idea to tell us what's the current state of athas.org projects. SotDL is one among others : ToA, DA, tE and the Imagefull 3.5e core rule.
Secrets of the Deadlands: I'm not involved on this one. Will Kendrick is the driving force behind it.
Terrors of Athas (monster manual): Progressing nicely. An imageless preview version will be released prior to a full release. Gab is leading this project. He can give you a better estimate and status report than I can.
Dregoth Ascending: Conversion not started. Requires epic rules.
The Emissary: Needs a lot of reworking and polishing. I *might* give this a go around Christmas. Forget about the playtesting phase, it has been frozen on the development table for the rules to stabilize.
Originally posted by Grummore
Then master, it would be a good idea to tell us what's the current state of athas.org projects. SotDL is one among others : ToA, DA, tE and the Imagefull 3.5e core rule.
What are you working on, right now?
Jon's already answered for a bunch of these.
Image-ful document. I'm working on it. The errata should go out at the end of the weekend. From that point, I'm going to be working on the rough layout of the images -- it's without regard to file size, so don't expect anything to get posted. After that, I work on cleaning the things up ... get rid of scanning artificats and the like. Kalak only knows how long that will take me.
Outside of that, I'm helping Jon with a medium size PrC doc (about 15 of the "essentials", such as Veiled One, Grove Master and Arch Defiler)
I've started up my notebook on conversions of various non-epic NPCs. The fact that I'm seriously considering presenting them in several timeframes may complicate things there. Don't expect anything there quite yet, as there are still a few kinks to work out.
And the site reworking goes on in the background, as always. ;)
Originally posted by Fabrício Madruga Lopes
I'm little confused.... you all mean that I should start on Balic or not?
Fabricio, please dont be confused. Build things you would like. Dont create things peoples wish you to create. The less you will like what you do and the less are the chance that it ever come out as a fan product (since you will get bored fast).
Within EACH city-state, not everything as been explained or created. A bar, a inn, a tavern, a noble mansion, a templar barrack, a abandonned city sector, etc. etc. etc. Put your creativity at work, that's all
Or, what about information on the medium or small village of the waste? Altaruk, Ledopolus north and south, Ablah... etc. I have maps of Ledo s and n, maybe start there? or start something entirely new!
Just have fun friend, while creating. ;)
AND for Jon and Flip, thanks for this little insight. I like to know what's going on. Btw, do you need anyone to help you with these projects of yours?
I have started a few, and am organizing the first as follows:
1 Player's Guidebooks
a Gladiator's Handbook
b Sword and Fist (DS name needed)
c Defiler's and Preserver's (supplement for Tome & Blood)
d Earth, Air, Fire, Water (for Defender's of the Faith)
e Master's of the Wild (DS name needed)
f Song and Silence (DS name required)
e The Will and the Way (supplement for PsiHB)
Each supplement's organization will resemble WotC format, as follows:
1 An organization (I really like how they do factions in StarWars)
2 Feats and new skills uses
3 Presitige classes
Plus addressing any interesting stuff in the relevant 2e accessory (well, as much as I can bare to keep in my game, given the sometimes low quality of the material)
Each section will list acceptible material from the official guidebook, along with a few new tidbits modelled on 2e stuff.
Following these would be supplements for other wizards books (Book of Vile Darkness, Manual of the Planes, Epic Handbook [call it Dragon Kings], etc.) and for old 2e DS stuff (an Elves of Athas supplement, Veiled Alliance supplement, all with the same format as above)
Of course, this is a tremendous undertaking.
If we appreciate the assthetics of 3e, however, well worth it to keep everything in line with the published material.
Suggestions for names and materials would be welcome.
I have started a few, and am organizing the first as follows:
1 Player's Guidebooks
a Gladiator's Handbook
b Sword and Fist (DS name needed)
c Defiler's and Preserver's (supplement for Tome & Blood)
d Earth, Air, Fire, Water (for Defender's of the Faith)
e Master's of the Wild (DS name needed)
f Song and Silence (DS name required)
e The Will and the Way (supplement for PsiHB)
Each supplement's organization will resemble WotC format, as follows:
1 An organization (I really like how they do factions in StarWars)
2 Feats and new skills uses
3 Presitige classes
Plus addressing any interesting stuff in the relevant 2e accessory (well, as much as I can bare to keep in my game, given the sometimes low quality of the material)
Each section will list acceptible material from the official guidebook, along with a few new tidbits modelled on 2e stuff.
Following these would be supplements for other wizards books (Book of Vile Darkness, Manual of the Planes, Epic Handbook [call it Dragon Kings], etc.) and for old 2e DS stuff (an Elves of Athas supplement, Veiled Alliance supplement, all with the same format as above)
I would also like to see supplements for Dwarves, Halflings, and (my personal favorite) the so-called New Races.
Of course, this is a tremendous undertaking.
If we appreciate the assthetics of 3e, however, well worth it to keep everything in line with the published material.
Suggestions for names and materials would be welcome.
After reading some posts about the Dragon article, I get the feeling that Athas.org isn't getting the respect it deserves. The work done by you guys is really good.
In this light, something along the lines of my previous suggestion might help get some respect. The more integrated your stuff is with the WotC stuff, the more they might see us as an active gaming community, not just cult-like supporters of a dying campaign world.
Or get help from peoples on one project at the time, maybe two or you will have your brain explode! :headexplo
Does anyone want to add anything, here, about things he would like to see in Darksun developped?
Or maybe you want to talk about things you ARE working on?
Tribe of One Template
Galdra writeup once I finish with all four books dealing with it.
Villichi project I'm still working on in the background, i.e. I'm reading the ToO series and thinking about it in my head while writing down anything I like.
Epic progressions of athas.org classes (going to take a shot at this, maybe it will help speed the official epic rules along).
That's about it for now, that should be enough, heh.
P.S. I will be starting on Black Spine when I start the NPCs at full throttle. Forgot to add that, heh.
I'm still working on the Scorched Plateau stuff, but it went on the back burner for ToA. I'll be focusing on the elven tribes first as that seems most useable, but I'll 3.5-ize my PHB-style ssurran race write-up and get that out soon too.
And I'm editing various articles for various folks who variously send me them for review. Just an excuse to be a picky little grammar fascist, really. Which is nice.
I don't know if someone might be interested, as there will be no new "fluff" in there, it is just a set rules options. But by doing it that way, I'll have finished it faster. Just to let you know.
Originally posted by Elonarc
I intend it to be used like the new "Unearthed Arcana" supplement and am working my way from the Original Setting on to the supplements.
That will be cool, can't wait to see that.
I also posted some rules about silt skimmers. It's all there, together with my campaign log.
I still intend to place a lot of other things, but work is keeping my pace slow.
If anyone wants to take a peek, the url is Library of Urik
For suggestions and comments, you can reach me at [email]darksun@cyberdark.com.br[/email]
Thanx
Originally posted by xlorepdarkhelm
Interesting take on the advanced beings.
Thanks DarkHelm. I still didn't have the time to see your take on the dragon and the avangion, but I heard some good things about them. Maybe we could exchange some ideas?
I based my advanced beings on the epic prestige classes. They usually have one or two special characteristics that appear at first level. After that, you must place abilities/powers/whatever that will be repeated at a given ratio. Because of this, I turned some of the AB's characteristics into Epic feats that would be accessible to them at preordained levels.
I also made this to give some more flexibility (while still following the KISS philosophy), so one character may design his AB differently from another. As soon I get more time, I'll be posting new "Advanced Beings Epic Feats" to customize each of these critters.
Does someone have good suggestions to customize clerical elementals? I'm a little short of ideas on these...;)
Thanx
Amarok
Originally posted by Amarok
Thanks DarkHelm. I still didn't have the time to see your take on the dragon and the avangion, but I heard some good things about them. Maybe we could exchange some ideas?
Well, our takes are a bit different, but I intentionally made mine a little longer, and a bit more in-depth, as I feel that the advanced beings for Dark sun should be... well.... epic. And I don't mean "epic" as in the ELH, I mean "epic" as in the basis for some great long undertaking that would be done over a massive campaign.
I based my advanced beings on the epic prestige classes. They usually have one or two special characteristics that appear at first level. After that, you must place abilities/powers/whatever that will be repeated at a given ratio. Because of this, I turned some of the AB's characteristics into Epic feats that would be accessible to them at preordained levels.
Yea, you made them 21 levels, I noticed. I actually broke them up into 3 10-level prestige classes (dragons & avangions each), along with 4 epic spells and 4 templates, which all come together as a four-stage metamorphosis process in total.
I also made this to give some more flexibility (while still following the KISS philosophy), so one character may design his AB differently from another. As soon I get more time, I'll be posting new "Advanced Beings Epic Feats" to customize each of these critters.
I stayed away from feats, and focused on the changes that were presented in the 2e rules, however I rewrote them to be available to *any* living race, not just humans, in the spirit of 3e's policy of "any race can be any class"... I couldn't justify to myself whyn elf, half-elf, mul, etc. wizard couldn't attempt the metamorphosis.
Does someone have good suggestions to customize clerical elementals? I'm a little short of ideas on these...;)
Thanx
Amarok
Actually, I think, after I get the dragons & avangions completed, I'm going to try to tackle the cleric elementals a bit. I am deciding if I want to make 8 different metamorphosis processes (one for each element/paraelement) or some sort of unified and generic process that covers all of them.
Originally posted by Cyrian
Trudging along on my Smoking Crown project. Now that long-ass spring break is here I should be sending something for Grummore to put up in the near future. :D
Aaah, you make me feel better.
GREAT ! Excellent! I can't wait to see this. Do you have maps btw? Or it's text?I was reading and translating "City State of Draj" when I came up wiht somethin unknown to me..
What "Tainted Aura" means? Is it a new feat/skill/ability from darksun?
Or this is generic and can be found on one of the Wotc Books? I searched for it and found nothing....
Someone from Athas care to answer? Jon, Gab? anyone else?
I had a look at your Dragon progression, and it is very, very similar to mine. I think your system is very, very close to the original darksun falvour and system. I would suggest to the darksun community that ATHAS.ORG seriously consider using this sytem in any up-coming releases, as it accuratley reflects the 2e material on dragons, retains the flavour, whilst, as xlorepdarkhelm is in favour of - extends the transformation process somewhat.
My pickings on it:
Should require knowledge psionics and psi craft 24 ranks.
Have a careful look as strengt increases etc related to size - does the final creature physcially match a wyrm / great wyrm dragon (say red or gold?) if so, then you have hit the mark.
My suggestions:
xlorepdarkhelm has some interesting idea's on the whole SM / Champion thing: we need to nut down the specific feats that give the ability to give spells to templars, and other Darksun-SM-Epic-Feats. The grant spells feat would have Circumstantially based component, ie use of dark lens to create SM is required etc etc.
Great work!
Originally posted by xlorepdarkhelm
Well, our takes are a bit different, but I intentionally made mine a little longer, and a bit more in-depth, as I feel that the advanced beings for Dark sun should be... well.... epic. And I don't mean "epic" as in the ELH, I mean "epic" as in the basis for some great long undertaking that would be done over a massive campaign.
Yea, you made them 21 levels, I noticed. I actually broke them up into 3 10-level prestige classes (dragons & avangions each), along with 4 epic spells and 4 templates, which all come together as a four-stage metamorphosis process in total.
I stayed away from feats, and focused on the changes that were presented in the 2e rules, however I rewrote them to be available to *any* living race, not just humans, in the spirit of 3e's policy of "any race can be any class"... I couldn't justify to myself whyn elf, half-elf, mul, etc. wizard couldn't attempt the metamorphosis.
Actually, I think, after I get the dragons & avangions completed, I'm going to try to tackle the cleric elementals a bit. I am deciding if I want to make 8 different metamorphosis processes (one for each element/paraelement) or some sort of unified and generic process that covers all of them.
Originally posted by Jaanos
My pickings on it:
Should require knowledge psionics and psi craft 24 ranks.
Have a careful look as strengt increases etc related to size - does the final creature physcially match a wyrm / great wyrm dragon (say red or gold?) if so, then you have hit the mark.
Yeah, I still need to check this. I was out on vacations and I'll probably take a look at this as soon as possible.
Concerning the requirements, I want that Psychic Warriors may also be able to become Advanced Beings. And since the epic progression is infinite, he may choose to become a more powerful psychic warrior (or psion even) or to progress in his "dragon levels". One of the next things I'm going to do is to flash out the sorcerer monarchs levels using these AB classes.
Originally posted by Jaanos
xlorepdarkhelm has some interesting idea's on the whole SM / Champion thing: we need to nut down the specific feats that give the ability to give spells to templars, and other Darksun-SM-Epic-Feats. The grant spells feat would have Circumstantially based component, ie use of dark lens to create SM is required etc etc.
Great work!
Yeah, I took a look at it. There are some very interesting things, some of it that are close to what I was designing. But I'm taking a different view of how Sorcerer Kings have their powers, and I'm adding in the future a template that delineates the different powers that Hamanu has.
That's it for now.
All I want is a detailed statistical breakdown of every single citizen in every one of the city-states, all of the members of various villages in the wastes, all hermits, vagabonds and roaming nere-do-wells, every possilble story idea that can be applied to DS along with a complete outline and crunchy bits, a detailed breakdown of all flora and fauna found in the Tyr Region and surrounding areas, a detailed account of the dietary habits of Beasthead Giants, and a list of the SKs favorite colors...
Ok, well, I've two things I'd like to see right now, one is small, the other, not so much.
The first, simple (so to speak) one is a list of names of the houses of nobility in the various city-states. Those that have been published. I can only think of two off the top of my head, but I'm not steeped in Athas Lore.
Next I would like to see a suppliment like Nefal has broached. Its my humble opinion that Athas lacks any developed myth cycles, superstitions, or other various cultural fluff that could enhance its vibrancy. So many possibilities, and not much yet written on it.
Brax's work in 'Wisdom of the Drylanders' and Micheal Cugley's 'What my Father Told Me' makes me want to buy out the Ramen noodle supply at the local grocery, buy a few liters of whiskey, lock my door and start pounding on the keyboard.
But that's just me...
Originally posted by Amarok
Yeah, I took a look at it. There are some very interesting things, some of it that are close to what I was designing. But I'm taking a different view of how Sorcerer Kings have their powers, and I'm adding in the future a template that delineates the different powers that Hamanu has.
I've been wanting to make a template specific to Hamanu, but at the same time, I keep asking myself.... why? He's unique. it could just be defined in his writeup.
Besides, I like to keep everything tidy and clear. I'm kinda just a control freak!
If I ever had time, thats what I would tackle at least
Jim