Lo and behold, no ESD!
I never bought it as a hard copy, so have only picked up the plot as I've read others comments.
I know we have the almanacs, but they are post-WotI, and what use are they if we can't get the source material?
This led me to thinking, how many actually use WotI in their Campaigns?
Do all you die-hard fanatics have hard copies, or do you just ignore the WotI and keep on going with your own campaign?
The lack of an ESD is annoying though, as I'd like to read the whole thing to know what everyone else is going on about.
Oh well, c'est la vie!
Do all you die-hard fanatics have hard copies, or do you just ignore the WotI and keep on going with your own campaign?
Don't know if I fit the label "die-hard fanatic" ;) but I am a fan and I never used the WotI. I hate it, primarily because of the destruction of Alfheim and Alphatia.
I never owned it or read it, but I have read lots of post here and at the Vaults about it and one of my players has a copy and has summarized it for me.
My current campaign started in 1000 AC and will go on to 1017 AC without using anything from WotI but using most of the B, X, C and M series modules. So far, we have played one group of characters up to level 10-11 and soon I plan to start out a group of parallel 1st level characters - played by the same players - to offer a change of scene from time to time and a chance to learn about the world from several different perspectives. It should be a lot of fun :D
I have been toying with creating a Mystara 3E website (as have lots of others in here, I know - see one of the old threads on the subject) and if I ever do, it will be an alternative Mystara timeline starting in 1000 AC and not using the WotI but instead incorporating lots of the Gaz material and the modules from the 80ies.
But, alas, right now I don't have the time for such projects.
:-) Jesper
This led me to thinking, how many actually use WotI in their Campaigns?
The players are going through WotI IMC. We started in the spring of 1003 AC and are currently in late spring / early summer of 1005 AC and at about level 6. They will learn of the outbreak of war any moment now. They've been in the Northern Reaches all winter and have just entered Ylaruam.
Do all you die-hard fanatics have hard copies, or do you just ignore the WotI and keep on going with your own campaign?
I bought the hard-copy when it came out (I bought everything I saw related to Mystara ;) ). This is only the second time going through it in a game, but as seems to be the standard for DMs, I alter the adventures in it considerably. I'm not even sure in this group is going to be involved in the climax adventure, but at least I'll give the characters a choice.
I don't think I'd play in WotI's time-frame and not have those events happen though. The PWAs are just too handy not to use. If I wanted to have a game without the drastic changes of WotI, I'd begin the campaign earlier, say 980 AC, or something along those lines.
WotI is a good product (IMHO of course) and it is a shame that there is no ESD. Perhaps a look on Ebay or a similar site might come up with a cheap WotI (hard-copies are the best anyhow).
It could have humorous side effects on my Red Steel campaign though, with the Players convinced that the curse and afflictions are the result of another Nucleus of the Spheres in the Baronies. They already consider Cinnabryl a radioactive substance (loses mass as it radiates strange energies).
I originally passed on WotI when it first came out because I too disliked the idea of destroying Alphatia at that time.
Later, I decided "Why not? I never use Alphatia except as a point-of-origin for PCs and NPCs!" So I bought a still-in-the-shrinkwrap copy on eBay. I've always wanted to run something with an epic story arc, and WotI fits the bill.
Who says the changes from WotI is the way things stay (with the notable exception of Alphatia however). Besides, PCs have a knack of changing the world anyways! Maybe they saved Alphatia, or Alfeim, or both (that stretches things a bit far though
).I think there's alot of options besides just ignoring WotI (not that it's not one of the options ;) ). And one thing WotI did do is give alot of options and things to think about; this thread goes to show that.
Besides, there's all that info on Immortals, to boot!
Besides, there's all that info on Immortals, to boot!
Now that's a BIG reason why not being able to get it is a pain!
I've just got the Immortals rules on ESD, to complete my set of books I used to have hard copies of. Does WotI change those rules, or just add extra information?
Personally I think WotI looks a LOT more playable, but I have used neither and people have posted that they had no problems with Gold Box. The Gold Box rules cover a lot more information (not surprisingly) but one thing they miss is the Clerics info which WotI has. Personally I would probably use the WOtI rules as the core, but use most of the stuff from Gold Box as specifics if the players need to do things differently on Power use.
For example:
In WotI immortals don't try to figure the cost to cast a given spell based on sphere dominance, they spend 50 power on cast any spell at will today (or less for a lesser range). If for some reason the 50power version won't do (or the player does not want to spend 50) then I would dig out the Gold Box rules to work out the power costs for individual spells...
I don't think I would ever run "The Immortals' Fury" as written, not because I dislike the changes it causes (I'm neutral on them) but because I don't think the detailed adventure bits are good enough. I'm not a big fan of the main NPC (Benekander), the various Immortal plots don't quite click for me (half of them are too abstract, the other half too blatant), and of the 4 (IIRC) detailed encounters they wrote up, I only liked one. Corran Keep wasn't bad, but it didn't seem suitably epic to start a campaign like this; Alphatian Neathar I liked a lot, but it would work as a great link to the Hollow World without all the Immortal manipulations, so it's easy to divorce from the rest of the adventure; and the other two I can barely remember. But the main thing I disliked about it was how they threw in the Master of the Desert Nomads, one of my favourite villains, as a minor part of this "more important" war, as if the war in X4-X5 were a distraction from the real conflict. Bah.
On the other hand, the details they gave in the politics section were pretty good for fleshing out the world, and giving an idea of the kind of interferance Immortals can make. So it was a good read even if you don't plan to actually run the adventure. (Kind of like Dawn of the Emperors - I couldn't picture myself using a fraction of the Thyatian and Alphatian territories in there in one campaign, but it was good to know to get an idea of the scope of the empires.)
The "Codex of the Immortals" was very good, though, since so many of the Gazeteers were so vague on what the Immortals were really like. I'd say the box set is worth getting for that alone.
I had the Gold Box briefly and it didn't impress me that much. I don't remember much about it except that it seemed way more complicated than it needed to be. After getting WotI I never got a serious urge to go back to it.