Minion Wars and Thundercloud Galaxy.

[anarchclown]

Since i run an extensive campaign in a mostly unexplored part of the Thundercloud galaxy, called Godspace, myself i was wondering how much the designers of the Minion Wars and Thundercloud Galaxy supplements have been talking to each other. Will TG be described before or after the Minion Wars or will MW not have any real impact on TG?

[Braden Campbell]

I was wondering how much the designers of the Minion Wars and Thundercloud Galaxy supplements have been talking to each other.

Carl Gleba hates me, and for some reason, won't return my phone calls. Also, he had a restraining order placed on me just this past weekend.

Will TG be described before or after the Minion Wars or will MW not have any real impact on TG?

After. However, I'm fairly confident that Carl has not destroyed the setting with Dimensional Outbreak, so there should still be a Consortium, and a TGE.

Also, unless the Thundercloud is specifically mentioned in said book, things there will continue on as they are (read: no changes needed to my work)... because everyone involved in the Scramble pretty much has their heads up their asses. They are totally focused on exploiting and claiming the Thundercloud Galaxy, and events in Center, unless, as I said, show up right in front of their faces, are going to go largely unnoticed by them. Perhaps to their detriment.

Carl?

[anarchclown]

I was hoping it would have a more large scale impact on the Three Galaxies and not just Phase World in general. Though i totally understand that it probably only registers as a blip on the radar for most of the explorers in the New Frontier there are still some old worlds in Thundercloud that might get involved aren't there?

[Braden Campbell]

I honestly have no idea just how big an event the Minion War is. There is this quote from Carl, given in an interview, which gives me pause:

"...If the Three Galaxies were an ant hill, then I just kicked it over with a bulldozer."

So, I might have some serious revisions to make this summer.

[anarchclown]

Yeah he mentioned something about Megaversal Armageddon too. Sounds loads of fun. Thats one of the things i like about Palladium Books. They actually let stuff change in their world instead of always maintaining the status quo. I mean Tolkeen was totally destroyed and not just diminished in power and left there until the next writer felt like writing about it. That is the way to do things. Not that I particularly like destroying the entire setting. Just that sometimes stuff has to happen, especially bad stuff, to make people realize that they have to keep fighting and that the bad guys aren't just gonna sit around and do nothing until the PCs come in to the story just in time to stop their evil master plan.

And the fact that he said those things were the reason for me asking if you had talked. Because if you didn't, then might i suggest that you do?

[Greyaxe]

Carl has mentioned in previous posts it will ultimately be the GM who decided how deep the Minion Wars impacts his or her game. As with anything else.

[Carl Gleba]

I was wondering how much the designers of the Minion Wars and Thundercloud Galaxy supplements have been talking to each other.

Carl Gleba hates me, and for some reason, won't return my phone calls. Also, he had a restraining order placed on me just this past weekend.

Hey the restraining order was the last straw. I only got that when you started showing up at my house disguised as the UPS guy.

As for the Thundercloud Galaxy, I don't think Braden will need to make any changes, although he is always free to contact me Restraining order aside

Since i run an extensive campaign in a mostly unexplored part of the Thundercloud galaxy, called Godspace, myself i was wondering how much the designers of the Minion Wars and Thundercloud Galaxy supplements have been talking to each other. Will TG be described before or after the Minion Wars or will MW not have any real impact on TG?

Things can and do change. I'm not looking to give the Three Galaxies a face lift. Its fine as it. I did want to shake things up a bit. I didn't destroy any governments, or blow up any galaxies. A few locations are described in the Thundercloud that are pertinent to the Minion War, but I don't think I made any generalized statements about the Thundercloud Galaxy that would invalidate Braden's manuscript. I think we each did a timeline where there could be problems, maybe? Who knows Kevin may just toss my timeline out. I'm sure Braden and I will compare notes at the Open House. The restraining excludes the Palladium offices

Carl

[Braden Campbell]

Yes, we will be spending a fair amount of time together at Open House, for certain.

As for our time lines, my only possible beef is that the Three Galaxies needs some kind of universal dating system, so that we can say "the Great War began in 9514 of the Third Era", rather than just "500 years ago." The lack of star dates (or whatever) is a sloppy loose end on an otherwise tidy space opera setting.

Anyway, don't worry folks. Both Carl and I are committed to a coherent Phase World setting that doesn't retcon itself with every new book.

[Carl Gleba]

Yes, we will be spending a fair amount of time together at Open House, for certain.

As for our time lines, my only possible beef is that the Three Galaxies needs some kind of universal dating system, so that we can say "the Great War began in 9514 of the Third Era", rather than just "500 years ago." The lack of star dates (or whatever) is a sloppy loose end on an otherwise tidy space opera setting.

I'll leave that to your genius.

Anyway, don't worry folks. Both Carl and I are committed to a coherent Phase World setting that doesn't retcon itself with every new book.

[anarchclown]

Yay i got both of you to write in my topic. I win!

How about the space calendar starting at the time of Centers founding since that is something that has affected everyone in the Three Galaxies and something that probably happened a long time ago. Also the Prometheans have been around for ever so they wouldn't enter some dark age era, like the rest of the setting has done, and forget what year it was.

And I am but one guy but personally I would like it very much if there had been some changes due to the Minion Wars in Thundercloud Galaxy since this would show the scope of it a bit. I mean the three galaxies is huge so even though the MW would possibly be a huge event it probably wouldn't spell the end for any of the major factions. However the occasional charred world and possibly a TGE prison planet that has turned to the worship of Demons or Deevils would be cool to mention just so you get a feeling of the war having affected places all over.

Starts getting ideas thinking about a prison world that starts turning to cannibalism and demon worship then starts conquering the nearby systems when wars have destroyed the sentinels that usually keep the prisoners in.

[Greyaxe]

There would definatly multiple calender's active in the 3G. One for each of the powers and probably another calender for each planet. After all everybody records time in their own way based on the annum of their own worlds.

Carl, giving this task to Bray was a good idea...



...way to dodge that bullet!

[Carl Gleba]

Carl, giving this task to Bray was a good idea...



...way to dodge that bullet!

[anarchclown]

Why not have three. Cosmo Knights, Altess and Prometheans. Of course their years and dates are all different since they are based on different plannets but they have all been around for ages and have probably all kept track of the time. Though it's probable that one of the calendars is the one commonly used.

Or the one commonly used could just be the Human one since that is the most numerous and prolific race in the Three Galaxies. Even though that means it starts a gazillion years before the calendar got invented.

[anarchclown]

Oh yeah ok. I thought you were talking about calendars. Yes an official time line to follow would be very nifty.

[anarchclown]

Yes except some that were planted there by an unknown force. Humans and Star Elves possibly came from other dimensions etc.

[anarchclown]

Yeah. Not starting an argument just commenting.

[Aramanthus]

I'm looking forward to both of your books! I know I'll pick up both Carl's and Braden's books. I'm glad to hear you're working on a coherent view. That makes it easier on GMs like myself.

[anarchclown]

Hehe. Supposedly the two by CJ Carella are coherent too. Though I get slightly nauseous and incoherent myself when i see the illustrations for the Invaders.

[Aramanthus]

They are great books!

[Aramanthus]

That really doesn't bother me.

[anarchclown]

Going back to the subject i just figure that if the Demons and Deevils are the embodiment of evil than they should be pretty widely known. Thus there can be planets even in civilized parts of the TG that suddenly start gearing up for all out war as the infernal masters of their rulers order them to join the coming apocalypse. Possibly the Trans Galactic Empire already being evil and powermad as a collective are actually more resistant to this than the CCW. Although the obvious choice for minions of the forces of darkness would of course be the Dark Cabals of the UUW.

If war is spread out across the Three Galaxies I would say it is more likely to have a bigger effect if it spreads to the less inhabited parts because there aren't a gazillion Quatoria, Cosmo Knights and others around to stop the minions of evil from taking over whole worlds and waging wars on others.

Which brings me back to what we have heard so far from Braden in other posts about the Thundercloud Galaxy. It seems to be full of people who would sell their soul to get ahead. Full of business tycoons and colonial masters oppressing the natives which might make said natives to turn to the dark forces for help. So this is why I am hoping that it will be established if the Minion Wars are taking place at the time of writing of the Thundercloud book or if it has already taken place and in that case if there were any major changes that took place because of it.

I know you want it to be fairly open ended but I personally like to buy books to read someone else's vision of the setting. If i want to change things I can do that later.

I don't know if any of you have read the new Vampire stuff from another company. They have a tendency to make everything very open and interpretable. This basically amounts to them second guessing themselves and spending whole books on giving me 3 different stories for the same thing which i really can't use if I only run one campaign so then i end up spending money to buy a book that i can only use a third of.

That is why i like Palladium Books because people generally care about the stuff that has happened before and continuity when writing new books for it. I know that the Three Galaxies setting is so vast you could publish a thousand books for it and still not have to write about the same thing twice. But I am still hoping that you will.

[Braden Campbell]

I see what you're getting at.

But after thinking about it, I am going to write Thundercloud with no mention of Minion War, as if it hasn't happened yet.

Eventually, I would like to see each of the Three Galaxies get its own book (we already have one for Anvil, and Thundercloud is following the exact same format). This would mean that there would be some "core" books that fill in the setting details.

Minion War is more like a "special event" book. You take it and apply as you see fit to the setting books.

BTW... unless someone begs me, I'm not writing Corkscrew Galaxy, which, if I did, would be a Cold War Ninjas and Superspies book (in space).

[anarchclown]

While I might be a bit disappointed this is still the second best alternative. To just say it hasn't happened yet. And i fully respect your decision to want to write up your own stuff.

[anarchclown]

Yes exactly. I hope that it is obvious that i like Bradens basic vision, as i understand it, as far and Thundercloud Galaxy is concerned and that I can't wait to get my hands on it.

[Aramanthus]

I'm glad there are at least two supplements coming out!

[anarchclown]

Yeah three if you count a possible spaceship supplement

[Kesslan]

I see what you're getting at.

But after thinking about it, I am going to write Thundercloud with no mention of Minion War, as if it hasn't happened yet.

Eventually, I would like to see each of the Three Galaxies get its own book (we already have one for Anvil, and Thundercloud is following the exact same format). This would mean that there would be some "core" books that fill in the setting details.

Minion War is more like a "special event" book. You take it and apply as you see fit to the setting books.

BTW... unless someone begs me, I'm not writing Corkscrew Galaxy, which, if I did, would be a Cold War Ninjas and Superspies book (in space).

Please, pretty please with a cherry ontop?

[Greyaxe]

I see what you're getting at.

But after thinking about it, I am going to write Thundercloud with no mention of Minion War, as if it hasn't happened yet.

Eventually, I would like to see each of the Three Galaxies get its own book (we already have one for Anvil, and Thundercloud is following the exact same format). This would mean that there would be some "core" books that fill in the setting details.

Minion War is more like a "special event" book. You take it and apply as you see fit to the setting books.

BTW... unless someone begs me, I'm not writing Corkscrew Galaxy, which, if I did, would be a Cold War Ninjas and Superspies book (in space).

Please, pretty please with a cherry ontop?

With two cherries and maple syrup. I know you are Canadian and cant resist the powers of maple syrup.

[Aramanthus]

I'm looking forward to seeing all three of those books. I ammended my previous statement. Thanks for reminding me!

[anarchclown]

While we are at it Braden. Are you going to map out the entire galaxy or leave a lot of it untouched?

[Braden Campbell]

While we are at it Braden. Are you going to map out the entire galaxy or leave a lot of it untouched?

My hope is to have a very general map, so that when I talk about the Hollan Gulf, the Creche Clouds, or Oswoe's Arm, the reader has some idea of what it means.

[Aramanthus]

That sounds very cool Braden!

[Aramanthus]

That is an interesting thought Darkmax. You could always give a lay out of any system and put it's distance from the center of the galaxy and the arm within it is located.