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Okay, this has been coming up all over the place, so Im going to try to have a thread with serious discussion on the things we would like to see in a new product concerning this region. I say 'new', because the old version obviously didn't sell well. Please no wines about cr@ppy sourcebooks, or discussions about OTHER regions of Abeir-Toril. If you would like to discuss those other areas please start a different thread.

Current Table of Contents:
The following color coding indicates who is work on what.
RED = by Lavekkia, Blue = by Lord Karsus, Purple = by MarkusTay, Green = Other
Lighter color indicates 'in progress'

Volume I: Player's Guide to the EastSpoiler: Show Volume II: Kara-Tur Campaign SettingSpoiler: Show Volume III: Monster ManualSpoiler: Show

So I'm saying we now have FREE REIGN to do what we please. Lot's of MAJOR stuff has occurred since the last presentation, so I'd say everything goes at this point. Maybe there was a major cataclysm/war that change the political make-up, or even the shape of the geography. Maybe, during the ToT, the various spirits (nature spirits, elementals. etc) came into prominence and didn't 'go dormant' again after it was over. Hopefully, someone in charge will take a look at this and say "hey! That sounds cool, lets do that!" I doubt it, but you never know.

I'll go first -

1) A cool NEW magic system, based around the FIVE elaments. Spells should progress along PATHS, instead of just picking spells 'willy-nilly'. For those of you who don't know what that means, it's basically a system where you need to progress along natural paths and each spell along a certain path is the prerequisite for the next one. This would make mages (Wu-Jen) far more specialized, but that could possibly be balanced with a greater spell use capacity. Also, a strict set of rules must be in place, like those in Full Metal Alchemist, so that the system isn't only new, but makes sense the same way any real science does.

2) Martial arts - At least five seperate Ninja schools, along with at least five different Monastic diciplines. Then, within each their could be individual kata (both weapon and movement), along with kata for Samurai as well. Also, I wouldn't want to see the syles named after the real-world styles - to keep it fresh they could give them fantasy names like 'raging minotaur' or 'fist of the Ogre-Magi' or 'flying dragon' (I know, but it still sounds cool).

Gray had some wonderful suggestions in another thread, so I hope he joins in. With all of the anime that is currently popular and martial art movies making a comeback, it's only natural to roll a lot of that into our 'new' kara-Tur.

So let's hear your ideas. :D

Giant Monsters!

They periodically rise from the deep oceans and march on to land, leaving chaos and destruction in their wake. They also smashed up some of the least-inspired KT lands, making way for a rebuild.

But some nations of Kara-Tur have captured and tamed a few, and use them in their armies, or to stop the rampages of other giant monsters.

And not complete clones of Godzilla/Gujira, Gamera, and others. Different monsters They should recycle the Tarrasque and others. (I dislike it when new campaign settings invent a whole pile of new creatures to focus on, instead of using and expanding upon the existing ones that keep getting churned out. One of the things that bugs me about Eberron.)

I'm thinking of the giant monster movies I love so much. There's also room here for monsters and themes of the giant mecha sub-genre of various animes.

Or did Kara-Tur already do this? I don't know much about KT.

Soltares wrote:

If you plan on going with the 'five' motif for the elemental paths of magic *and* the martial arts styles, you could go all the way and assign each of the five elements with a particular color, number, mythical beastie, weapon style, etc.

You know... I didn't even think about a five motif, I was just thinking of the five elements from traditional Oriental folklore. The majic system would include sorceror types, like in Avatar, and the more heavely diciplined wizard-type structure we see in Full Metal Alchemist. I only suggested 'at least' five paths for some diversity, but I think your idea sounds really cool.

Benders and Wu-Jen?

I like you're concept of sticking everything in a specific 'orientation', depending on which aspect you chose to go with.

We could have a brand new system of 'portents and signs', to determine how certain abilities are affected for the duration of the session. Roll some dice - you see a badger cross your parties path, +1 to all fire magic, -1 to all water magic, something like that. I'd like to see the whole 'mysticism' thing get played up big time, involving consulting spirits, and maybe even taking one along on an adventure. The spirit world and superstition should play a major role, I think.

And, of course, the occasional giant monster would be a must.

I'd also like to see at least a little of the sarlona book make its way over, with a region that has something akin to Tibetan Monks that have 'crazy mind' powers.

MarkusTay63 wrote:

So let's hear your ideas. :D

I dunno. Is this still part of Forgotten Realms Toril, or a completely isolated standalone settting?

Er, a theme of five?

You see, I know the White Wolf game Exalted. It's got five elements, the Five Maidens, five types of Exalted, five subtypes of each type of Exalted (except the Lunars, who merely used to have five before being consolidated to three), five seasons, five magical materials, five poles . . .

And then I look over to Legend of the Five Rings. Ahem.

Let's just say that I'm of the opinion that five has been rather worked to death in East Asian-flavored gaming.

You want a number for an Asian-inspired game? How about eight, the number of good fortune? There's a reason the Summer Olympics in Beijing are going to start at 8:08:08 PM on 08/08/08, and it's not because the Chinese are big fans of the number 5.