starting a game
Moderators: Immortals, Supreme Beings, Old Ones
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debbin
starting a game
i am thinking about starting up a game. i currently only have the main book, what would be some other good ones to pick up?
TOP MUST-HAVES
(beside the rulesbook, M&A and D&G which are all ABSOLUTELY essential!)
The Western Empire: one of the best...well written...including descriptions of the realm, very nice history-section, interesting NPCs, real (!) adventures as well as tons of adventure-ideas.
The Northern Hinterlands: undervalued by many, this is probably Bill Coffin at his best...not a particulary "spectacular" or "interesting" part of the world, still the author gets a 100% out of it...intriguing, exciting and filled with useful stuff!
The Eastern Territory: very well written, nice descriptions...we had to wait for this a mighty long time and it was worth it!!
MORE MUST HAVES
Adventures on the High Seas: a bunch of very interesting OCCs, data on a lot of interesting places and adventures galore - not only for sea-based campaigns. still its not in the TOP MUST HAVES because you would need quite a lot of other worldbooks to make full use of this if you dont play a "island-hopping"-campaign.
Old Ones: the Timiro-Kingdom described, some info on the Old Ones (wished it was more!) and two very interesting OCC/PCC, among them the Monk Scholar, one of my favorites of all! adventures that kept us busy for years, highly recommended as a place to start! still, the first edition had some more info in it, like the timeline of Timiro which was ommitted for unknown reasons when they did the second edition.
THE REST OF THE BEST
Yin-Sloth Jungles: very nice first edition sourcebook, lots of new OCCs, a few nice adventures and a very unique corner of the world.
Library of Bletherad: could have been better and also includes some (revised) stuff from High Seas....still a nice book with lots of useful material...great ideas about a "secret war" (cant say too much here...).
Island at the Edge of the World: similiar to Yin-Sloth in a way cause it contains a lot of adventures, something Palladium Books stopped with the later books in the series...Crystal Magic and a lot of very strange ideas! some great stuff here! more of a mini-campaign than a worldbook.
Land of the Damned, Eternal Torment: the better of the LoD-Series (part 3 is not released so far)...very interesting tie-ins, NPCs and loads about undead...very useful, even if the characters never actually go to the LoD!
QUITE GOOD
Mount Nimro: a bit short, like Library of Bletherad, still some nice ideas...not so useful for your average campaign...but could be used in conjunction with Western Empire and Baalgor...its all about Giants, but you get some non-Giants adventures too...among the OCCs presented here-in, the Conjurer is worth to be mentioned.
Baalgor Wastelands: not a favorite of mine, too many tables and random stuff...best part is the Free City of Troker...
Adventures in the Northern Wilderness: Palladium old style...not much background-info, but lots of adventures of mixed quality...
JUST TO COMPLETE THE COLLECTION
Land of the Damned, Chaos Lands: in my opinion not the finest work of Bill Coffin, who is my favorite Palladium Fantasy-writer...frankly, I was quite disappointed with that one. many random tables, way too many monsters, no really good ideas...and still I dont get the idea why they did a 3 part series on the LoD with parts of the world not described so far in worldbooks (Land of South Winds, Old Kingdom!! to name the prominent two).
"Further" Adventures in the Northern Wilderness: another book with a comparatively small page count...no background-info, just scenarios (and not so good ones IMO). old style.
Wolfen Empire: this COULD have been great! for years Palladium books told us that a combined version of the two old Northern Wilderness-books can not be done for copyright reasons. then they did what I always hoped for (despite of the fact that I bought the two first ed. books) - announcing a new edition which would include all of the Northern Wilderness-books as well as some new, updated material. alas, they changed their mind again (or had to change their mind, I never read an explanation) and the result was the Wolfen Empire: in here you get some, but not all, out of the two old books as well as some - nice - new material. basically, you now need 3 books on the Wolfen Empire if you want to have it all (which I do)! if Wolfen Wars ever comes out, add another one...so, I was disappointed with that one.
Besides that, if you can spend some more money, certain packages make sense. this could go like this:
["plus" indicating nice combinations]
BASIC PACKAGE
Rulesbook
M&A
D&G
plus: Adventures on the High Seas and Library of Bletherad
NORTHERN CAMPAIGN
Northern Hinterlands
Adventures in the Northern Wilderness + Further Adventures + Wolfen Empire (or just the latter)
plus: Land of the Damned (part 3 not yet released)
plus: Eastern Territories
EASTERN CAMPAIGN
Eastern Territories
Old Ones (Timiro Kingdom)
plus: Island at the edge of the world
WESTERN CAMPAIGN
Western Empire
Yin-Sloth Jungles
Baalgor Wastelands
plus: Island at the edge of the world, Nimro Kingdom, Northern Hinterlands
SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN
Yin-Sloth Jungles
Baalgor Wastelands
plus: Mount Nimro
(would be great if they did Land of South Winds to close another white spot on the map)
OLD KINGDOM CAMPAIGN (as starting place)
Island at the edge of the World
Mount Nimro
Old Ones
(here the often annonced Old Kingdom Mountains and Old Kingdom Lowlands are really missing...).
(beside the rulesbook, M&A and D&G which are all ABSOLUTELY essential!)
The Western Empire: one of the best...well written...including descriptions of the realm, very nice history-section, interesting NPCs, real (!) adventures as well as tons of adventure-ideas.
The Northern Hinterlands: undervalued by many, this is probably Bill Coffin at his best...not a particulary "spectacular" or "interesting" part of the world, still the author gets a 100% out of it...intriguing, exciting and filled with useful stuff!
The Eastern Territory: very well written, nice descriptions...we had to wait for this a mighty long time and it was worth it!!
MORE MUST HAVES
Adventures on the High Seas: a bunch of very interesting OCCs, data on a lot of interesting places and adventures galore - not only for sea-based campaigns. still its not in the TOP MUST HAVES because you would need quite a lot of other worldbooks to make full use of this if you dont play a "island-hopping"-campaign.
Old Ones: the Timiro-Kingdom described, some info on the Old Ones (wished it was more!) and two very interesting OCC/PCC, among them the Monk Scholar, one of my favorites of all! adventures that kept us busy for years, highly recommended as a place to start! still, the first edition had some more info in it, like the timeline of Timiro which was ommitted for unknown reasons when they did the second edition.
THE REST OF THE BEST
Yin-Sloth Jungles: very nice first edition sourcebook, lots of new OCCs, a few nice adventures and a very unique corner of the world.
Library of Bletherad: could have been better and also includes some (revised) stuff from High Seas....still a nice book with lots of useful material...great ideas about a "secret war" (cant say too much here...).
Island at the Edge of the World: similiar to Yin-Sloth in a way cause it contains a lot of adventures, something Palladium Books stopped with the later books in the series...Crystal Magic and a lot of very strange ideas! some great stuff here! more of a mini-campaign than a worldbook.
Land of the Damned, Eternal Torment: the better of the LoD-Series (part 3 is not released so far)...very interesting tie-ins, NPCs and loads about undead...very useful, even if the characters never actually go to the LoD!
QUITE GOOD
Mount Nimro: a bit short, like Library of Bletherad, still some nice ideas...not so useful for your average campaign...but could be used in conjunction with Western Empire and Baalgor...its all about Giants, but you get some non-Giants adventures too...among the OCCs presented here-in, the Conjurer is worth to be mentioned.
Baalgor Wastelands: not a favorite of mine, too many tables and random stuff...best part is the Free City of Troker...
Adventures in the Northern Wilderness: Palladium old style...not much background-info, but lots of adventures of mixed quality...
JUST TO COMPLETE THE COLLECTION
Land of the Damned, Chaos Lands: in my opinion not the finest work of Bill Coffin, who is my favorite Palladium Fantasy-writer...frankly, I was quite disappointed with that one. many random tables, way too many monsters, no really good ideas...and still I dont get the idea why they did a 3 part series on the LoD with parts of the world not described so far in worldbooks (Land of South Winds, Old Kingdom!! to name the prominent two).
"Further" Adventures in the Northern Wilderness: another book with a comparatively small page count...no background-info, just scenarios (and not so good ones IMO). old style.
Wolfen Empire: this COULD have been great! for years Palladium books told us that a combined version of the two old Northern Wilderness-books can not be done for copyright reasons. then they did what I always hoped for (despite of the fact that I bought the two first ed. books) - announcing a new edition which would include all of the Northern Wilderness-books as well as some new, updated material. alas, they changed their mind again (or had to change their mind, I never read an explanation) and the result was the Wolfen Empire: in here you get some, but not all, out of the two old books as well as some - nice - new material. basically, you now need 3 books on the Wolfen Empire if you want to have it all (which I do)! if Wolfen Wars ever comes out, add another one...so, I was disappointed with that one.
Besides that, if you can spend some more money, certain packages make sense. this could go like this:
["plus" indicating nice combinations]
BASIC PACKAGE
Rulesbook
M&A
D&G
plus: Adventures on the High Seas and Library of Bletherad
NORTHERN CAMPAIGN
Northern Hinterlands
Adventures in the Northern Wilderness + Further Adventures + Wolfen Empire (or just the latter)
plus: Land of the Damned (part 3 not yet released)
plus: Eastern Territories
EASTERN CAMPAIGN
Eastern Territories
Old Ones (Timiro Kingdom)
plus: Island at the edge of the world
WESTERN CAMPAIGN
Western Empire
Yin-Sloth Jungles
Baalgor Wastelands
plus: Island at the edge of the world, Nimro Kingdom, Northern Hinterlands
SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN
Yin-Sloth Jungles
Baalgor Wastelands
plus: Mount Nimro
(would be great if they did Land of South Winds to close another white spot on the map)
OLD KINGDOM CAMPAIGN (as starting place)
Island at the edge of the World
Mount Nimro
Old Ones
(here the often annonced Old Kingdom Mountains and Old Kingdom Lowlands are really missing...).
"My own big mouth causes me trouble too. You see, people are always asking me what 'I want' to do next or have planned for the future. Like an idiot, I blather on about some idea I've been kicking around or I'm dying to do."
- From the desk of Kevin Siembieda, The Rifter 12.
- From the desk of Kevin Siembieda, The Rifter 12.