Netbooks, supplements, and all types of lovely stuff

[kenjib]

I'm also for setting-independent stuff.  Weyrth is really cool and has lots of stuff to rip out, but I prefer homebrew.  However, I think at the same time some setting specific examples help to bring the mechanics to life and spark the imagination, so I think a kind of hybrid is nice.

What other kinds of supplements might work well beyond the OBaM, FoB, SatF, and LoG?

One on nobles and intrigue?  New skill packets for courtiers, spies, diplomats, etc.  New advantages/disadvantages most applicable to court campaigns.  Ruler hierarchies and chain of command using examples from Weyrth.  Ideas for taxation schemes and codes of law.

Seafaring (and other vehicles perhaps) adventures?  Skill packets for marines, pirates, surgeons, and merchants.  Ship combat - perhaps a two level system that can be run at the quick/loose narrative level or broken out with additional complexity for more tactical sim style play.  Guidelines for trade pitfalls and profits, including some commodity trade lanes and goods from Weyrth as examples.  Dread sea monsters.  Examples of famous ships & captains of Weyrth (including some infamous pirates/privateers, of course).  Prominent merchant houses of some of the larger cities.

I think that these kinds of things continue to flesh out Weyrth, but do so in a fashion that makes the material still highly useful to people who don't play in the setting.

[arxhon]

Conceptually, i think setting books are great. In practice, they can be wicked awesome, or mediocre.

On one hand, they can spur a game, and on the oher, they can limit it, if they get too far into the "monster lair here, bandit over there".

I used several of the old Gazeteer series supps for my long dead D&D game, and found most of that line to be excellent, for example (there were some uneven ones, like the one for Ylaruam was only average, and the one for Glantri introduced a lot of kewl powerz that could wreck a game).

For my WFRP game, i used a lot of the Warhammer Armies books, because these tended to be full of 'fluff' and neat bits (not to mention i could easily convert a stormvermin to the WFRP game, for example) without pigeonholing a lot of stuff.

I agree with Nick, Mike, et al. in that a setting supp should include more than a map with every little village placed onto it (really, the only thing that bothered me about Harn, which is otherwise excellent).

The 'duchy' book idea put forth by Poenz sounds like a great idea to me. I also agree that they should be more general purpose, like OBaM or LoG.

Perhaps we should compile a master list of what we would like to see in a supplement?

[Mike Holmes]

Hmmm. I'm mostly agreeing with what I'm hearing. What if we featured certain zoom in elements, in detail, and then discussed how to apply the design principles to other similar elements. Like we look at a village in detail, and then tell how we came up with the details, such that making new ones would be simple. Then you can use that village (often moving such elements involves very little, especially if we try for that), or you can make your own.

Would that be desirable? Am I getting at the sort of thing we're talking about?

Mike