Bloodline Powers Expansion

[Osprey]

I`d like to see an "archive web page in e-zine style" if you will. At
least, that`s what I was trying to suggest earlier. If a web page looked
like the Table of Contents for a e-zine then it would satisfy both the urge
to have a constantly updated resource for materials and the desire to keep
those resources in a single place for those who don`t want to leaf through
gobs of magazines/files to find a particular bit of information. Such a
page could be broken up into various sections, and when those sections grew
large enough to merit conversion into a separate ebook they could be
compiled into such a document which would be put up on the "regular
download" page along with the BRCS and whatever other supplements get
written up.

I think Gary's idea is a good solution that satisfies all interested parties. Good thinking, mate.

I do think quality control is an important (and controversial) issue. I've seen far too many "official" D20 supplements that are unbalanced and smack of favoritism (some Forgotten Realms prestige classes, for example). I would prefer that any published material be carefully reviewed for such factors, especially things like Blood Abilities, feats, and prestige classes, without underpowering them, either.

Osprey

[Birthright-L]

> I can think of several things I`ve seen in posts that would only take a

> little editing to turn into an article suitable for such an e-zine

> page. Off the top of my head there`s at least a dozen such posts that

> would work. In fact, several would seem to require only formatting into

> whatever standards the "e-zine page" adopted in order to be posted as

> articles. I can`t speak for anyone else, but I have at least three things

> in the works right now that would be appropriate for such page. All four

> of the bloodline proposals would be apropos as articles for such a page.



Yeah, I`m working on organizing some of the information in the Wotc list

archives right now for re-hashing. Generally speaking, most of it should be

sent to the list/boards for brainstorming and suggestions (which was the

original spirit in which those original messages were sent), but a few might

make good articles. I`m checking on it now. I`m already making progress

with a few of the old threads.



But yeah, old messages might be useful as e-zine articles, at least to start

out. I`ll post a couple of examples later in the week (or early next week)

so we have a better idea of what we`re talking about. Some of the ideas are

very old and might be seen differently in light of 3e, recent changes in

gaming trends, and the fact that many of the old users are gone and the

amount of people reading these messages would be at least twice as many as

before.



Gary, Ryan, and Kenneth probably won`t get much out of those articles, since

they were as active on the list then as they are now, and many of the

articles will have already be written or critiqued by them. Everyone else

should find it interesting though.



Let`s see... we should probably skip over the "effect/affect" debate,

huh...?



-Lord Rahvin

[geeman]

At 06:14 PM 8/20/2003 +0200, Osprey wrote:



>I do think quality control is an important (and controversial)

>issue. I`ve seen far too many "official" D20 supplements that

>are unbalanced and smack of favoritism (some Forgotten Realms prestige

>classes, for example). I would prefer that any published material be

>carefully reviewed for such factors, especially things like Blood

>Abilities, feats, and prestige classes, without underpowering them, either.



I suppose from a rather cynical standpoint a "e-zine page" might operate as

a sort of additional stopgap between the publishing of some not-so-good fan

produced material and such material getting into a supplemental

ebook. That is, someone might submit a badly written, ill-conceived

awnsheghlien like... oh, let`s see... the Horrible Radioactive Purple

Hipposaurus Man! Beware his mutative maw and crushing wild charge! If

such a thing were submitted to the "e-zine page" then its fairly disposable

where if it appeared in a later ebook it would be more permanent. It might

not make a later compilation of an ebook "because of a lack of space" or

something.... That could prevent occurrences of things as pointless as the

flumph from appearing in later supplements, or every little thing that

flits in and out of the netforce`s transom....



Gary

[ryancaveney]

> Gary, Ryan, and Kenneth probably won`t get much out of those articles,

> since they were as active on the list then as they are now, and many

> of the articles will have already be written or critiqued by them.

> Everyone else should find it interesting though.



Actually, though over the years I`ve saved thousands of messages I`ve

particularly liked, always meaning to organize them in some fashion, I

have never actually done so. If you managed to produce a decent index to

the archives, even I would find it useful. =) I`m also quite honored to

be pointed out as an old fogey. Oh, and I`d be amused if you happened to

compile statistics on numbers of posts back to the dawn of time -- it`d be

amusing to see whether Gary`s 768 would expand to 7,682 or 76,824. ;)



> Let`s see... we should probably skip over the "effect/affect" debate,

> huh...?



*grin* I see I will live on in infamy, at least.



OTOH, the particular game rule issue which led us into that, namely

exactly which regents could spend RP or apply holding levels to alter the

success chance of a domain action, is not a bad topic for discussion.



The BRCS draft`s version (page 103) says only holding levels of that type

may be applied as a modifier, but any regent with holdings may spend RP.

This seems like a compromise, and I suppose it`s not a bad plan to limit

freebies but leave spending untrammeled, but still I find this method

rather restrictive, and would prefer to open things up. In particular,

I can definitely see using law holding levels directly to modify

guild-holding-related rolls.



Oh, and while I`m on that page, I`d like to say that the rules for the

"virtual guild holding" level equivalent of a source holding are really

very well done. It rather neatly fixes the wizard`s eternal money problem.



Ryan Caveney

[Mark_Aurel]

In particular,
I can definitely see using law holding levels directly to modify
guild-holding-related rolls.

Odd. I just took a look; it's supposed to read something to the effect that law holdings can always oppose/support guilds and temples anyway.

[Cinder]

This thread started with "are there enough blood powers" and has ended up with Birthright E-zine! I like it. Nice to see a thread develop into something worthwhile!

I really like the idea of a BR E-zine but I really DON'T like the idea of that being the means of distributing new/additional powers/rules/whatever. I absolutely HATE the idea of having to dig through multiple supplements to find what I'm looking for. Even having an "Index" is still a pain as it would still require file hopping. I would like something I can print with all the relevant material compiled together. What I would suggest is compiling the information in seperate releases. For example (these numbers are arbitrary mind you), say there is a complilation for every 6 E-zines. These complilations would have each respective element (powers, rules, npcs, etc) in its own section, making reference VERY easy. All the new stuff together in one file. Effectively these complilations would be "supplements" that have all the "crunchy" bits and none of the articles (the rule stuff tends to be more useful in a game than an opinionated article, or atleast I think they would). I would think that these supplements would be easy to make since most of it would be "cut and paste." Thoughts?

As far as adding ANYTHING new, official or supplemental, I agree with the "quality" mindset. There should be a group or team that carefully reviews each proposal to ensure that the addition has good play integrity. I would think that the "editors" of the E-zine would see to most of this, but if not them then someone else. I would hope that whoever does it would check in with the BRCS team to make sure that everything matches. I know that my suggestion might be too idealistic, but hey, here it is. Any thoughts on this as well?

[Eosin the Red]

> I would personally prefer to see an archive type setup, rather than a

e-zine or netbook. It is easier to access the articles and sort through

them to find what you are looking for. If you like I can set something up.

I`ve a couple of old webpages I used to run that I can fix up, but the

question is, is anyone going to submit anything?



I could probably put some stuff together. I run a d20, not D&D, BR game so

there are variants in effect that will not apply except in the small

minority of cases.



I also use some non-standard setups. FREX: I run the Bardic College of the

White Hall as a PBeM "Newspaper" and spy organization. This might be

interesting to finish writing up?





Randy~Eosin the Red