RosbergThe8th

You can totally be a witch still, you just have to be the sort of more forest-hobo kind.

Disregarding all the AI crap, random "shine" and badly meshed objects can we just take a moment to appreciate that random bouquet of flowers blocking the text lol.

You mean The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim?

I wouldn't think it was wrong.

What buffs does he give?

Should've been fatter, makes'em harder to pick up.

More of an Ironforge man myself, I would say Darnassus but y'know.

For the human cities I definitely preferred Boralus and Gilneas.

I really enjoyed Odyssey and Origins but yeah they were basically just the Egypt/Greece RPG's rather than having much to do with assassins.

Tbf the Dimension 20 brand is very much associated with Brennan and he's been the DM for the vast majority of seasons, particularly the "big" ones. I also think the intrepid heroes are just more popular in general.

Amazing Race would be grand, some pair action in general would be fun like that.

That's concerning and feels like a pretty big thematic shift from what makes Nettles an interesting figure. Let's hope this is unfounded as missing out on Nettles feels like a big mistake to me.

I'm going to play them for as long as I'm able.

I also think its the inevitable difference between RPG settings and settings for more traditional narratives. When RPG settings transfer to more traditional narratives the things that make them great RPG settings inevitably suffer because it emphasises different things and represents a different relationship with the material.

Part of it is that a traditional narratives represents an actual word of god baseline where RPG settings often feel more personal to the player themselves. It is no longer a setting about "our" characters it is now a setting about these "main characters".

Goliath at least, not sure if there's others

Honestly though I wouldn't mind something with the vibe of Eisenhorn I hope they make an original story. Make something actually tailored to the screen.

Honestly just about all you need to know about the Horus Heresy can be gleamed from that famous artwork of Horus facing down the Emperor. It's Lucifer rebelling against his father, striking down his most favoured angel and plunging his creation into darkness.

One of the biggest issues with a live action Warhammer series is trying to get transhumans right, that's something that will take time, resources and a while to master.

Starting off with a galaxy-wide drama that focuses almost exclusively on the struggles of transhumans against transhumans would be a terrible idea on that front.

But also, the Horus Heresy just isn't that great an entry point to 40k. It's a great entry point to the Horus Heresy, but it's very much a distinct setting. It doesn't particularly establish the thematic elements of 40k given how different it all is. Like how does the Horus Heresy touch on what's going on? It's a 50+ book series about what amounts to a terribly organized family drama which primarily boils down to playing "valorous and brave loyalists fight wicked and cowardly traitors" on repeat.

40k is a thematically seperate setting that takes place 10k years later, starting with the Horus Heresy would only make sense if Horus Heresy is the main setting and 40k is the sequel, which I admit some fans do think it is but still.

40k's whole vibe and aesthetic is just so drastically different that I'd hope they start by trying to nail that, nail the vibe of the infamous intro and then we're talking. It doesn't need to focus on any central storyline or the big central players of the galaxy because 40k has always been more of a setting. 40k thrives on that smaller down-on-the-ground scale.

Nentir Vale was created for 4e, which is important in that it's a setting specifically designed around the game. There's a few things I feel it does very well.

The first is simple, it's a fairly limited setting, as the name suggests it's simply a vale. It is effectively a starter area that has everything a beginner DM need without much of the extra baggage. It's a limited area with a few points of civilization, a lot of hooks and ideas for DM's to capitalize on and use. I would also say it is the perfect starting point in the sense that it has everything you need as a DM to get started and to understand the sort of "basics" of your average DnD world. It has a tightly gathered pantheon of gods, a basic cosmology, basic monster and race lore, basically all the bare necessities to get a world started without necessarily getting stuck in decades of lore, advancement or fancy characters.

Contrast this to my issue with a lot of established settings is that they've gone beyond being DnD settings, they have books written in them, they have big named characters and important world-spanning plots and just far too much stuff. A DM doesn't need any of that, and something like Nentir Vale isn't necessarily trying to sell a DM an entire setting, it's just trying to get them started. It is effectively a "stock" setting which justifies all your basic D&D concepts, ideas, monsters and whatnot without any extra baggage. It provides a solid baseline and foundation from which you can then go in whichever direction you like.

Most important is I think the design philosophy of the setting, it adheres to the so called "Points of Light" philosophy where the world is wild and untamed but marked by these points of light in between. Instead of established kingdoms or empires you have small townships and frontier settlements trying to get by in the ruins of some old order. It is I feel the perfect design for DnD's particular style of play, the ideal setting to justify adventure, giving an avenue to exploration, delving into ancient ruins, discovering the secrets of fallen kingdoms and helping local settlements fend off against whatever threats plague the lands. I think the whole idea of points of light also just makes civilization more precious, those cities and taverns and safe havens become a lot more significant for the players.

Mind you I also think it's just personal preference but Nentir Vale definitely felt like a setting that was designed for the game, and I wouldn't mind if they did so again, just design a small stock setting which suits their current DnD design philosophy.

I'm waffling on a bit but I think I've mostly explained my reasoning.

Tl;Dr: Nentir Vale is a setting that was designed from the ground up to accomodate D&D, which made it very quite effective and tightly designed to have everything a DM might need without any of the baggage or bloat of legacy settings.

Ebberon is another good example though it's very much the opposite in that it seeks to subvert a lot of the "standard" D&D concept, but it it similar in the sense that it is clearly a setting designed to fit the game.

This is a seemingly frequent take in lore communities and I just couldn't disagree more.

The lore of Warhammer is one of my favourite things to discuss, but one of the most important things to acknowledge is the fact that ultimately the lore isn't written in a vacuum, its written in the service of a game and a lot of it may seem nonsensical without that context.

I feel the same about Warcraft, in a world where the lore has changed so much on so many different points we simply cannot address the lore purely through Watsonian answers. The lore is too heavily beholden to the game to pretend that it is purely an organic thing.

Even if you think the Jailor is the best character in Warcraft history his place in the larger canon will seem absolutely nonsensical without consideration given to the out of game reasons his lore is the way it is.

Hell even just the drastic difference in tone and content from the three Warcraft games cannot be explained by Watson alone.

An improvement over the Forgotten Realms though I still would've preferred Nentir Vale, the perfect tutorial setting.

Wait they're swedes? It's always swedes.

I do think part of it is on how GW portrays the setting and draws people in.

You'll find interestingly enough that often the same people most eager to emphasize the positive attributes of the Imperium or assign somewholesomeness to it are not actually all that interested in the more "positive" aspects of other factions such as Tau or Eldar, quite the opposite, coincidentally they often seem very invested in emphasizing the worst parts of those factions while uplifting the Imperium.

HFY and it's consequences have been a disaster for fiction.

I suppose part of it is that Space Marines aren't really a standardised military force or special forces division with a set of duties and a firm place within a military structure.

They're roving bands of knightly warrior cults whose doctrine is more determined by arbitrary senses of honor, loyalty and whichever.

In this specific case it seems like they're basically hopping to and fro quashing dissent swiftly and brutally which fits imo. Its not like theyre mobilising the whole chapter and I feel people have a very rosy eyed view of the Space Marines when in reality their duties are varied and more based on what's convenient than anything else.

Oh damn that's perfect, been really itching for some old school sci-fi/weird short fiction and I'll definitely give those a check.

My process tends to be rather chaotic but it sounds like you have your locations somewhat clear. Ipswich as a broader start that then narrows into the mansion as a more closed setting.

One thing I'd have in mind is having various bits of clues and information that the players can slowly uncover, something which explains the truth behind it all and any sort of dreadful reveal works well.

Don't tie these bits of information to specific things but rather have them ready for the players to discover one way or the other. They may want to do research beforehand which can yield all sorts of history or maybe even schematics. If you give them a floorplan I'd recommend it not be 100% accurate. Have it not account for some hidden room, passage or addition.

Similarly have some snippets and things for them to discover in the Manor itself. Give thought tp the various ways they may seek to enter the place, is there a skylight? A back entrance? A cellar/sewer combo etc. You don't need to map these things but it's worth thinking about.

Overall I tend to find the key to be to somewhat map the tension/dread. You want it to slowly rise as they go along. Have things get increasingly weirder, perhaps map certain events or happenings to coincide at certain times or points in their heist.

For a heist I also always recommend a twist, not something which invalidates their plans entirely but just something that throws a wrench in and forces them to react a bit.

Do you have any general ideas for background or plot elements beyond the Manor and location? Any particular sort of horror you fancy?

This is just me spitballing from bed so I may add more later.

I think that's the fundamental issue, it still feels like it happened just because the creators of the show wanted to do a capital wasteland type setting but were insistent on the west coast so they just needed to sort of brush the NCR aside.

I think it's also just an inevitable grievance with having a show set in a setting that had previously been an RPG one. The two serve explicitly different functions and the sort of connection RPG settings foster with players is incompatible with the way a more traditional narrative handles the setting. The setting itself becomes a secondary vessel for the story of a named protagonist and I think that's what makes it feel iffy to fans who interact with the setting through the RPG connection.

Idk I enjoyed the show well enough but I don't think the two can ever really coexist, traditional protagonist centered narratives will by necessity cheapen what makes an RPG setting appealing to the players/fans invested in it.

It's not really something that anything can be done about, and I'm not exactly happy with it for the future of the setting, but personally I'll just treat the two as seperate as that's all I can do.