Darklords of the New Age: Comments thread

[Checco]

The primary characteristics associated with Sorti are "Odiaran" as the domain's primary language, the use of evocative questions and lively storytelling exposition in the original pitch and outfitting the darklord with a gazetteer-style parantesis stats in the 3rd round... besides using elaborate italian names.

I certainly can't pinpoint the author of most domains that haven't made it into the third round. That means I have no idea what your own ideas were, Checco. Care to share?

Since it was unnecessary for the contest to be told, we never wrote that we basically decided together more than 90% of the content, from round 2.

I also prefer Sorti to be considered my henchman, instead of the other way around ! (but don't tell him!).

Unfortunately for my ego , none of the submissions I sent (which were just mine, without co-authors) made it to round 2, when I started to use ideas from them in Sorti's entries which got there.

Now it's a little late, but tomorrow I will look back and post what was just mine.

However, since this thread is to discuss the entries who made it to round 3, I will just post a list of names, and will answer all your eventual questions with PMs.

[Igor the Henchman]

Awright, WolfKook gave me permission to post Vesty, so here goes. Get him while he's hot

[Checco]

Awright, WolfKook gave me permission to post Vesty, so here goes. Get him while he's hot

Nice pun .

The entries which were mine alone were Arkadia, Damathor, Bliss and Nostalgia.

Feel free to ask me with PMs everything you are curious about, though if you track back them you'll see that some things of them were used in entries who later survived .

Edit: Forgot to add Nostalgia

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

You know, I like Vestiver. The creepy aspect of fire "calling out to him", the expansion on his curse and that he really does deserve his DL mantle.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Seems like a pretty traditional darklord, that might easily have rated a place in Darklords or Islands of Terror, back when the canon setting was still taking shape. (Too bad they didn't think to include an arsonist in the original Black Box, instead of doubling up on the poisoner-themed domains!) Not likely to be my top choice, as his personality feels kinda bland as written, but I'd give Vestiver a place on my short list.

[Sorti]

I don't like the train master, too much technology & horror close to the ignorant masses.

Vestiver is a little fiery gem, and dug a burning hole in my heart

[NykylaiHellray]

I don't like the train master, too much technology & horror close to the ignorant masses.

Ignorant masses?

Also Igor was the stuff I added in your view an improvement?

[Igor the Henchman]

Yes, indeed it is.

It pays to remember that each darklord, no matter how convoluted, is, when all is said and done, just one NPC. I would urge to decide whether you want the darklord to be Marcus (in which case, he would need an individual personality and a way to interact with the PCs) or a conglomerate of corrupt NPCs (in which case, you'd treat each one of them as a separate lord, each with his own separate entry).

Please keep in mind that my views on what constitutes a good darklord aren't representative of every fan's. To me, the bottom line is playability at the game table. I enjoy darklords who are sweet and to the point. I look at a lord in terms of what my players will experience during the half-hour they'll interact with him. Fancy background details are optional. When I DM, I'm not trying to create an intelligent literary masterpiece; I just want a cool villain that my friends at the table can defeat in a climatic and satisfying way.

So don't take my criticism of your ideas too seriously. I'm just a guy with some personal preferences and a personal bias.

[Manofevil]

Are there no more?

[NykylaiHellray]

I think there is one more...



Also yes it might of made more sense to do an entry for each darklord-esque npc....but the wordcount would of been silly.

The idea is, each of these charecters personify an aspect of the Train Master. By killing each of these aspects you unravel the truth, and only then face the entity that it is the city.

The city is more designed for a long campaign.

[Sorti]

I don't like the train master, too much technology & horror close to the ignorant masses.

Ignorant masses?

Exactly. I can't see people like the Barovians, who do not go out at night because they are afraid of the beasts lurking around, commonly use a train with

Conductors who are beings bound into the train (think a human with nothing below the waist except a mechanical arm which connects to the roof). Who move up down on a selection of cogs and gears.

I also would have problems explaining my players why zombies are scary and ghouls spooky after their characters commonly give tickets to validate to abominations kept arguably alive by gears and cogs.

I think I already used the Planescape example; zombies are used in the Mortuary as workers and there's even one in the street you can use as a message board; it would be very, very hard to prompt a Planescape character a Horror check when he sees a dead body moving.

Scary is scary and magic is magic because you don't see them every day; technology is supposed to be available in everyday life, so it becomes not magical and not scary. (avoid me all the examples with technological horror like Christine, we are closer to Bram Stoker than to Stephen King)

[NykylaiHellray]

Ah thats what you meant.

Well one idea I have been considering is how the city and its denizens appear to others.

For example the faceless soildiers are hinted in rumours though no one ever sees them. Or maybe they dont want to see them. Maybe there always in sight but people believe there not there.

So maybe the conductors work the same way. The truth is they are monsters, abominations, people who became so reliant on the system to survive that they are now bound to that system.

But to others they appear like normal men and woman. Ignorance is bliss they say. So maybe peoples ideas of what they look like is what manifests instead. A way for them to not have to deal with the truth.

As I think more about the city, is starting to manifest into a personifcation of the mind of one man. Also a parody of capatalism, run in reality by a facist entity that sees life as mearly a means of fuel.

Even the main enemies are sarting to become aspects of him. Versions of his life and personality pushed into the extreme. But they remain ignorant that anything is controlling them.

The real horror I am trying to create is the depravity of man. Of purely human evil.

Of systems that erase those who are not needed, to turn them into products. In a way taking aspects of the sweeny todd idea to extremes.

Where people remain ignorant of what goes into the product, as long as they enjoy it.

A sytstem that operates on the suffering of man. That grows as misery manifests. A cancer on the land one might say.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Do you think we should just go on to voting for what is up since there have been no new entries in about a month?

[Checco]

Do you think we should just go on to voting for what is up since there have been no new entries in about a month?

I would surely like to see this project to get out of the mud which is blocking it, as I'm sure everyone else who is partecipating is (and many more).

Fact is, Wolfkook is the organizer. Whatever the reason he's away from the board, he remains as such unless someone else steps in.

Speaking for myself, I think that if the majority of the ppl involved in the project wrote in this thread they would like someone else (someone who never entered the project, if possible) to bring ahead things while Wolf is probably unable to do so, I would say it would be good.

Let's see what the others think.

[Leliel]

Uh, could somone give me a link the writeups?

Trying to read the reviews without the actual backgrounds is like building a map of Hawaii with a dozen or so photos.