Souragne Gazetteer review

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ScS of the Fraternity
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Post by ScS of the Fraternity »

Desdichado wrote:I'll print and bind this one next week. :) Be sure that I'll drop by a review as soon as I am through it.
If you do that, then set the printing to "scale to page".
For the readability of the pdf, there are no "bleeds" - the white space 1/4 inch around the paper. However, to get the whole page in frame, and see all of that lovely decoration, go to print options and select scale to fit page.
The text is big enough that it should still be readable.
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Post by Undead Cabbage »

You guys also managed to fit in my blurbs on the Coup Padre (idea originally put forth by Jasper) and the Mardi Finale, despite how late I submitted them...he..he..he...
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Post by Le Noir Faineant »

ScS of the Fraternity wrote:
Desdichado wrote:I'll print and bind this one next week. :) Be sure that I'll drop by a review as soon as I am through it.
If you do that, then set the printing to "scale to page".
For the readability of the pdf, there are no "bleeds" - the white space 1/4 inch around the paper. However, to get the whole page in frame, and see all of that lovely decoration, go to print options and select scale to fit page.
The text is big enough that it should still be readable.
Thank you for the info! :) I know already that this *expedition to Souragne* will ruin my working schedule for the next week, but I just have to get it!
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Post by alhoon »

I Liked it. It was professional work. :) 100 pages covering one so small patch of Ravenloft :) We really have enough now.

I thought at first "Wow, it is big, how will I find what I need?" It was my only gripe until the end... Index :D I really liked this Gaz guys.

More I liked (in order):
- The dread possibilities
- The magic items, the feaths and the depth in the Voodan class. (Note the spells were mine :)
- The diseases and the other natural swamp hazards.
- The Misroi legacy.

I like least (meaning that I'll change a bit):
- Anton Misroi (Sorry guys, I prefer him a rotting zombie all the time :) )
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Post by The Giamarga »

Great work guys!

Shall we post technical comments too? Errata? How about questions? Will there be a revision anytime in the future? Or a web enhancement ?

Ah well here goes:

-Why is there no Native PCs sidebar !?!? I mean we get a LotB Entry for the Misrois but no sidebar for normal Souragnean PCs? :(

-Why are there no notable personalities after the city stats blocks? As in the other gazetteers. I really like those. Yes I'm a crunch person sometimes...

-Why are there (often) no alignments mentioned for the NPCs? For example the Ghosts of Old Cypress or Anton's wife and children. In fact many have no classe listed either. Standard formatting for short NPC notes is (gender race class(es) level(s), alignment).

-Why not have some more stats for Chicken Bone? At least which loa, which domain, school etc. Or even a full statblock?
-the same for Mr Mensonge, the Maiden etc...

Speaking of the Maiden of the Swamp: Why is she not a hama dryad ??? Also why is she only Drd8 and not 9th level? And why not multiclassed with some Sorcerer or simply a Voodan? Is there a canon source for her stats? If not why not stick with the stats from the Boccoru article from the Book of Sorrows (a hamadryad with spellcasting as 9th lvl boccoru/9th lvl mage) or rather a 3E conversion of those?
The Giamarga wrote:So for 3E I'd say (perhaps advanced) hamadryad Sor/Druid or perhaps Voodan? (They do get sorcerer and druid spells after all)
from this thread


Some minor layout/formatting comments:
- "Exp/Ari" this should read "Ari/Exp" (i.e you need to be Ari first!)
- Mr. Mensonge is a "Voodan* 16th". Make it either "Voodan 16" or "16th level Voodan".
- The footnotes numbers in the fauna section are not really footnotes (i.e.higher).
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Post by Jester of the FoS »

The native PC sidebar. Yeah, we...um... excluded it on purpose because we thought it was too similar to the Kargatane gaz. And we thought it extraneous as people will make whatever characters they want and squeeze them into the domain, who are we to tell people what they're allowed to play.

It was also something I noticed was absent late in the editing process and couldn't find the time to squeeze in. So sorry.
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Post by Corrupted_Loremaster »

Not that big of a problem I suppose. Only thing I really ever used the Native PC sections for was to find the most common weapons used in the Domain.
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Post by Joël of the FoS »

The Giamarga wrote:Or a web enhancement ?
Maybe? :) But depending on length of these eventual addendums, there might be a WE indeed.
Jester wrote:The native PC sidebar.
Heh, if someone wants to write one, here’s the first part of our WE :)
-Why are there no notable personalities after the city stats blocks? As in the other gazetteers. I really like those. Yes I'm a crunch person sometimes...
Well they are disseminated through the entry, instead of an end box like the “other” ;) Gaz we heard so often about.
-Why are there (often) no alignments mentioned for the NPCs? For example the Ghosts of Old Cypress or Anton's wife and children. In fact many have no class listed either. Standard formatting for short NPC notes is (gender race class(es) level(s), alignment).
Comment noted, this might be a feature of future Gaz. This said, there should be room for DMs to insert their own ideas and views …
-Why not have some more stats for Chicken Bone? At least which loa, which domain, school etc. Or even a full statblock?
-the same for Mr Mensonge, the Maiden etc...
These are 2e NPC, with copyrights on them. So we decided to circumvent as much as we can on the grey zone between “no stat” and the forbidden “fully 3e stats block”. Unless we have a go from WotC, do not expect more on copyrighted stuff :) And I would add the same comment as the previous comment.
Speaking of the Maiden of the Swamp: Why is she not a hama dryad ??? Also why is she only Drd8 and not 9th level? And why not multiclassed with some Sorcerer or simply a Voodan? Is there a canon source for her stats? If not why not stick with the stats from the Boccoru article from the Book of Sorrows (a hamadryad with spellcasting as 9th lvl boccoru/9th lvl mage) or rather a 3E conversion of those?
Matter of taste I guess :) She was never officially “stated”, so then anything goes. If you want to write an option for this NPC, the QtR would welcome it :) Also, I chose to keep this NPC far from epic proportions, since canon history (Dance of the Dead, etc.) makes her more on the loser side ;)

Joël
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Post by The Giamarga »

Thanks Joel. A WE with native PCs and some errata would be great!
Maybe I can contribute some NPC statblocks for it...
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Post by Rotipher of the FoS »

I'd also like to see a native PC statblock ... and not just for guidelines to creating Souragnien PCs, either. Personally, I find those sidebars very useful for the way they clarify various classes' status and prevalence within each domain, which is one of the (very few) things that the survey doesn't make particularly clear (e.g. are rangers common in the swamps as one would expect for a wilderness-area, or is the bayou too dangerous even for them? how do druids fit into the animistic beliefs of the loists? does Misroi's anti-arcane ban extend to bards, given that there seem to be a few NPCs of that class in the domain? what about NPC classes?). Outcast ratings are also very useful, and might be hard to judge for this domain in particular, given most natives' casual attitude about ethnicity. Sure, it's something that DMs can and will alter to taste, but the same goes for everything else in a gazetteer; a baseline standard would still be welcome.

But other than that easily-correctable omission, fantastic job, guys! :D :D :D
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Post by Tobias Blackburn »

Excellent job everyone!

I've only had a chance to skim it thus far (damn you exams!) and the only real problems I have are... um.... editing.

There are areas with awkward grammar, spelling mistakes (Oftyen?), and inconsistancies with edition usage (ie references to the Wilderness Lore skill instead of survival).

I'll have more comments when I have more time to look it over more, but it is a nice piece of work.
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Post by The Giamarga »

Rotipher wrote:Personally, I find those sidebars very useful for the way they clarify various classes' status and prevalence within each domain, which is one of the (very few) things that the survey doesn't make particularly clear (e.g. are rangers common in the swamps as one would expect for a wilderness-area, or is the bayou too dangerous even for them? how do druids fit into the animistic beliefs of the loists? does Misroi's anti-arcane ban extend to bards, given that there seem to be a few NPCs of that class in the domain? what about NPC classes?). Outcast ratings are also very useful, and might be hard to judge for this domain in particular, given most natives' casual attitude about ethnicity. Sure, it's something that DMs can and will alter to taste, but the same goes for everything else in a gazetteer; a baseline standard would still be welcome.
Exactly my thoughts, Rotipher.
But other than that easily-correctable omission, fantastic job, guys! :D :D :D
... and these too. :)
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Post by Brandi »

Tobias Blackburn wrote:Excellent job everyone!

I've only had a chance to skim it thus far (damn you exams!) and the only real problems I have are... um.... editing.

There are areas with awkward grammar, spelling mistakes (Oftyen?), and inconsistancies with edition usage (ie references to the Wilderness Lore skill instead of survival).

I'll have more comments when I have more time to look it over more, but it is a nice piece of work.
I noticed that as well; in a couple spots it looks like a sentence got partly revised so there are missing (or in some cases, extra) words, like "His father’s death forced his mother and two sons into deeper poverty, and many around them abused of this situation." (p. 94) There's also the occasional inconsistency of British vs. American spelling use (both color and colour are used) or a spelled-correctly but incorrect word ("pallet" for "palate").

It doesn't hamper my enjoyment of the work or the appreciation of the effort you put into it, but if you think you would like to release a revised edition I would be more than happy to proofread for you (I'm no professional but I've done it for my father's master's thesis and for papers and stories my husband has worked on).

Now I just hope I don't sound like a killjoy. :(
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Post by Pamela »

Proof-reading is important, but I would argue against interfering with American vs British spelling myself. Neither is wrong, and since this was a community- and international- project, I myself am happy to have my own preference (British) left alone, without requiring anyone else to change theirs either. :)

When I get paid for it, then I'll worry about it. :P
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Post by Tobias Blackburn »

I say we go for the Canadian methods of grammar and spelling. Consistency in grammar and spelling gives the project a more professional look, and the Canadian way of doing things is a cross between both the American and British system, making it more familiar to both parties.

Then there's the fact that the majority of the Fraternity are Canadian and probably don't want to have to learn two other systems in order to make sure that there are no spelling or grammatical errors when editing a piece.

Of course, this is something to take up with the editing staff of the Zherasia Gazetteer. :wink:
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