| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 03 Apr 2016 : 17:12:23
The Saurials of the Lost Vale - a Brainstorming Session
The reopening of the D.M.s guild to allow others to publish and sell forgotten realms material has gotten me thinking.
It lit a fire based on an old passion.
Namely the Saurials
I remembered reading the Finder Stone's trilogy a long time ago in a world far far away (called Faerun).
I always loved the idea of an alien dinosaur humanoid species that communicated with scents, had unlimited class levels in 2e, and dinosaur paladins.
I played a Hornhead Saurial wizard in 2e and he was one of my legacy characters.
So I did some followups to see what had been done.
I was disappointed with the results. One Dragon Article, one web expansion in 3rd edition and that was pretty much it.
4e was worse. Thanks to Netheril, it looked like they had pretty much been written out of the world (driven underground is pretty much the canon equivalent of "being put on a bus.")
So I sat down and decided, what could I do with the concept?
The Saurials have been on Faerun for about 200 years. I wanted to connect them to the Forgotten Realms so they would be not easily written out in the future as well as explain what had happened during this time.
Additionally Paleotology has been a passion of mine and concepts have changed so much since the finder stones trilogy was written.
I want to give it that 2e sourcebook feel, and will try to keep it to public domain pics for the artwork (because quite frankly, I can't draw worth a darm).
I've done some stewing, but would love to set this thread for a bunch of crazy ideas as well as any crazy dinosaur facts to see where it leads?
Any interest? |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 04 Oct 2016 : 11:39:14
Just added commissioned art to it and it looks fantastic
Artist is Khairul Hisham and here's his web page.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/4vl9b
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| shades of eternity |
Posted - 30 Sep 2016 : 01:32:31
I stuck with the four core races mainly to ensure I would get my bearings with the material.
Now that it's done, it becomes a base for future projects.
I opened to future ideas on where to proceed with this.
I also have this crazy idea for an adventure path dubbed "scales and sails." :D |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 29 Sep 2016 : 17:30:42
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Oh, and on the idea of dinosaur people. What were the spitting dinosaurs that were in the original Jurassic Park movie (the little one with the fins that fanned on the side of its head and ate Newman in his car)? Trying to think of other types of dinosaur people that could be created that don't fit the 4 that are already there (for instance, a raptor-folk maybe). Currently there's the finheads, bladebacks,hornheads, and flyers (which are like pterafolk). I'm thinking of a more carnivorous breed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilophosaurus |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 29 Sep 2016 : 16:23:31
Oh, and on the idea of dinosaur people. What were the spitting dinosaurs that were in the original Jurassic Park movie (the little one with the fins that fanned on the side of its head and ate Newman in his car)? Trying to think of other types of dinosaur people that could be created that don't fit the 4 that are already there (for instance, a raptor-folk maybe). Currently there's the finheads, bladebacks,hornheads, and flyers (which are like pterafolk). I'm thinking of a more carnivorous breed. |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 29 Sep 2016 : 16:08:36
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
hey, the saurials in Malatra, where'd they come from?
https://www.facebook.com/Malatran.Spirit/
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?254141-Malatra-(the-Living-Jungle-RPGA-campaign-setting)
best I can figure it out, it was an official RPGA campaign setting back in the day.
Didn't want to contradict it so put it in the book more or less as is. |
| The Sage |
Posted - 29 Sep 2016 : 14:03:06
Impressive stuff! I've long been a fan of scalyfolk, so you can be sure I'll be making use of this. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 29 Sep 2016 : 13:32:08
hey, the saurials in Malatra, where'd they come from? |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 29 Sep 2016 : 05:17:07
Man, seriously glad I didn't go with that.
Felt like I just dodged a bullet. :) |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 29 Sep 2016 : 02:31:23
I just realized we have pretty definite proof that the saurials are not from Abeir...
They had and worshipped gods. |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 28 Sep 2016 : 22:38:28
http://www.dmsguild.com/product/194578/The-Saurials-of-the-Lost-Vale
still working the bugs out (never done dmsguild before), but it's live.
Thanks everyone. :) |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 26 Sep 2016 : 12:28:21
I converted all 4 of the subraces of the Saurials.
|
| sleyvas |
Posted - 23 Sep 2016 : 00:10:44
cool. I was actually looking to use Saurials in something I'm writing for Katashaka. How many of the races did you convert? I don't think I've seen anyone do a conversion yet except for the pterafolk |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 22 Sep 2016 : 14:41:59
http://breadthofpopsanity.blogspot.ca/2016/09/the-saurials-of-lost-vale-coming-out.html
Finally comfortable enough with the final results to announce it's release next week.
As for narrative themes for Saurials, the big one's I found are loss, survival, fish out of water stories, but hopeful.
|
| Entromancer |
Posted - 17 Aug 2016 : 21:44:14
What kind of narrative would you attach to the Saurials? |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 02 Aug 2016 : 19:51:54
An update
We bounced it off a few people and are doing another edit due to issues found.
I'm aiming for a September release as we asked a friend whose a professional to proof read.
I'm of the belief I'd rather have the issues fixed before then after it is released.
I'll keep you guys posted once I get an update myself. :) |
| apotheot |
Posted - 16 Jun 2016 : 23:44:20
Please keep in mind the Malatran Saurials (Lacerials) arrived on Toril in 1367 DR. It was covered in the Living Jungle adventure Death from the Mists. An Abier connection still works, but they could not be associated with having come during the first Sundering.
-Apotheot |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 10 Jun 2016 : 18:01:57
okay an update.
I'm just finishing up a few delves, doing a walk through and it's ready to go.
Lost Vale and Homeworld (aka Saurial Home Realm) are now fleshed out and properly mapped, as are the monsters I wanted are now statted out.
Thanks everyone for your info. :)
I'll start the actual process of the dm's guild at the end of the month. I just want to polish it a bit and switch hats.
but I do have a few questions.
1. I can't draw, but was able to fiddle with pics thanks to heromachine I can try to do something.
I've confirmed it's acceptable to use it in commercial.
here's a rough attempt.
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t29/sleepingdragon_photo/heromachine%20finhead%20take%202_zpstxmazwwh.png
Just seeing if this is acceptable, or is this a turn off?
2. Any hurdles to aware of with concern to the dm's guild. I'm canadian and wondering what business type stuff I should do before I approach them.
against if those want to give their 2 cents, feel free to contact me and I'll show you what's done.
thanks all. :)
|
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 11 May 2016 : 18:28:47
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
WotC's legal department would likely come down on you like a falling Netherese enclave, if you did a Kickstarter with material based on a WotC intellectual property.
Well that certainly makes that decision easier. :p
It was going to go to dm's guild either way, but not rocking the boat. :) |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 11 May 2016 : 16:16:22
WotC's legal department would likely come down on you like a falling Netherese enclave, if you did a Kickstarter with material based on a WotC intellectual property. |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 11 May 2016 : 13:13:24
An update.
I'm completing monsters, doing editing, and getting up standards to Dm's Guild formating.
I do have a question though.
I had to create the Saurial Homeworld pretty much in it's entirety and it took up a sizable chunk of the book.
How much room can it take before it no longer becomes acceptable to the dm's guild?
also, is it wrong to release a "beer and pretzels version that just has what we were able to cobble together using public domain material for a pay as you want version and then run a kickstarter to get professional level art and editing for a more commercial version? |
| Drustan Dwnhaedan |
Posted - 11 May 2016 : 00:01:15
quote:
Originally posted by Rhaine
quote:
Originally posted by shades of eternity
it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Tartarus in legend is known as the prison of the titans.
What is the Saurial equivelent?
Kaiju 
Saurial Kaiju vs Faerunian piloted giant golems.
Just saying.
This reminds me of an idea I had for a campaign a few years ago... |
| froglegg |
Posted - 08 May 2016 : 04:41:16
quote:
Originally posted by shades of eternity
it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Tartarus in legend is known as the prison of the titans.
What is the Saurial equivelent?
Kaiju
GODZILLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 13 Apr 2016 : 22:37:26
In that case, I'm seriously glad you did and thank you immensely. :) |
| Brian R. James |
Posted - 13 Apr 2016 : 22:30:03
quote:
Originally posted by shades of eternity
The Saurials of the Lost Vale - a Brainstorming Session
4e was worse. Thanks to Netheril, it looked like they had pretty much been written out of the world (driven underground is pretty much the canon equivalent of "being put on a bus.")
Believe it or not, I added that sentence to the 4E FRCG to "save" the saurials. I didn't want another designer to come along and say they were wiped out by the spellplague or that the Netherese enslaved them or other such nonsense. I'm still holding out a glimmer of hope that Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb will write a future Alias novel and perhaps see the saurials return from their safe haven in underdark. |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 13 Apr 2016 : 13:05:05
meh no worries, it keeps this post alive
(hell, if I knew where I could on this forum, I'd throw my own brainstorms on spelljammer for people to use).
A progress report.
I'm almost done the fluff, and getting ready to do the crunch (although the 4 core saurial races are done) and formatting.
however, I do have a question.
Anybody use cityographer?
Trying to use it for the lost vale and hit a few bottlenecks.
Additionally if anybody can point me at a public domain texture and/or public domain pics that would be dinosaur related, that would be seriously appreciated.
This also includes anything on the dm's guild that would be appropriate.
to give you an idea, this is the cover I'm trying to emulate
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/5/5e/Giantcraft_cover.jpg
aka texture with a cool pic. It's a means of giving it the 2e feel.
At times like this I wish we could use the forgotten realms logo. If I'm reading it right, we can use the dm's guild logo and that is pretty much it.
Is their a public domain equivalent we can use?
How about font's to use. I usually fall back on times new roman for the body and bookman's for the header's, but wondering if there is a more fr equivalent font's that is available freely.
Thanks guys, this has really acted as a serious stimulus to have a place to ask such questions. :)
edit: I was going through the dm's guild's art and found a pic of a scaled stalker (heck it's the poster child of the humanoid stock art). I know absolutely nothing beyond a quick write up, and wondering if they could be the equivalent of a saurial related species. Your guys thoughts? |
| Seethyr |
Posted - 12 Apr 2016 : 23:20:06
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Big Mac
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
By the time they thought of Abeir as a separate world, Spelljammer had long since been kicked to the curb.
Not so. The 4th Edition Era Blades of the Moonsea novel trilogy features a trip up into Realmspace. (So the existence of spelljamming ships has been "re-canonised" in both the 4th Edition Realms and 3rd Edition Realms.)
No, I am correct. The Spelljammer setting was published during 2E, and only during 2E. In 3E, there were only passing references to space travel (generally in vague terms, and described more as tales and legends), and none at all to actual spelljammers. In one notable case, a core supplement described neogi as a seaborne menace. The book mentioned they were known to have flying ships, and then brushed that aside to focus on the neogi as a purely groundling race.
So Spelljammer, like so many other settings, had been unceremoniously dumped.
And references to space travel don't necessarily mean Spelljammer, anyway -- before the setting was published, there was a Dragonlance book that had Sturm and Kitiara riding a gnomish ship to one of Krynn's moons.
Also, the Mulhorandi deities traveled thru space to get to the Realms, but it's not said that they used spelljamming to do that.
I don't necessarily characterize that as a kicking to the curb, however. It seems almost as if they don't (officially) know what exactly to make of it, so they just won't touch the concept without fully fleshing out the specifics. I for one hope SJ comes back rip raring to go, minus some of the old wonkiness.
Wasn't there a series of Dragon articles for 3e as well...Spider Moon or some such?
Edit: Yikes, I'm sorry for my temporary derailment of this thread. Considering once again my original thought, yeah it is certainly unlikely that Abeir and the saurials are out there in Realmspace. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 12 Apr 2016 : 21:16:55
quote:
Originally posted by Big Mac
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
By the time they thought of Abeir as a separate world, Spelljammer had long since been kicked to the curb.
Not so. The 4th Edition Era Blades of the Moonsea novel trilogy features a trip up into Realmspace. (So the existence of spelljamming ships has been "re-canonised" in both the 4th Edition Realms and 3rd Edition Realms.)
No, I am correct. The Spelljammer setting was published during 2E, and only during 2E. In 3E, there were only passing references to space travel (generally in vague terms, and described more as tales and legends), and none at all to actual spelljammers. In one notable case, a core supplement described neogi as a seaborne menace. The book mentioned they were known to have flying ships, and then brushed that aside to focus on the neogi as a purely groundling race.
So Spelljammer, like so many other settings, had been unceremoniously dumped.
And references to space travel don't necessarily mean Spelljammer, anyway -- before the setting was published, there was a Dragonlance book that had Sturm and Kitiara riding a gnomish ship to one of Krynn's moons.
Also, the Mulhorandi deities traveled thru space to get to the Realms, but it's not said that they used spelljamming to do that. |
| Big Mac |
Posted - 12 Apr 2016 : 19:58:50
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Seethyr
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
But also part of it is that having the saurials from there makes it seem like it's not much harder to get from Toril to Abeir than it is to get from Toril to Sigil, or from Toril to Earth. And my thinking is that if Ao separated the two worlds so that one was someplace else entirely, leaving no one (aside from the gods) aware of its existence, than it shouldn't be just a hop, skip, and jump from one to the other. If it was that simple, why wasn't there more traffic between the worlds before? Why didn't the primordials and gods continue their ancient conflict?
I don't want to derail the thread, but related to this discussion, where in the universe IS Abeir supposed to be anyway? I know Spelljammer hasn't exactly been supported in a number of editions, but can you take your commandeered illithid nautilus for a little ride on over (my guess is no)?
By the time they thought of Abeir as a separate world, Spelljammer had long since been kicked to the curb.
Not so. The 4th Edition Era Blades of the Moonsea novel trilogy features a trip up into Realmspace. (So the existence of spelljamming ships has been "re-canonised" in both the 4th Edition Realms and 3rd Edition Realms.)
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
However, we do have the Realmspace supplement and its failure to mention Abeir. Plus, I believe it's stated somewhere that Abeir is in another dimension (which is, to me, another very weak explanation, given all our prior info about planes and such).
Abeir and Toril were split off into alternate dimensions. If nobody could get to Abeir from Toril, you wouldn't expect to be able to fly there in a spelljamming ship either.
Before the 5th Edition Era products came out, I was thinking about putting "Abeirspace*" "above" or "below" Realmspace, which would make it "impossible" to locate, if people left the sphere via portals on the "zodiac" of the sphere, but easy to find if people flew up to the zenith or down the the nadir. (And if the phlogiston rivers from other spheres all connected to Realmspace and not Abeirspace, you could have a "mirror" crystal sphere without Abeir affecting the Spelljammer universe (and without travel via the phlogiston allowing an early discovery of Abeir).
However, the fact that both planets seemed to remerge, would seem to suggest that a "Plane of Abeir" might be a better way to go.
* = Presumably, if you split the primordials off from Toril by splitting the world into two, you would also split them off from every other celestial body in Realmspace, creating a "mirror" version of the entire crystal sphere...although it might have some things, like the Tears of Selune, missing.
Now, if you did clone Realmspace to create Abeirspace, rather than just clone Toril, itself, to create a demi-plane that moves around within Realmspace, it would be relatively easy to put the Saurials somewhere else within the same "mirror" crystal sphere.
However, I don't think the 2e designers were thinking of Abeir, when they created the Saurial material, so I would probably be tempted to go with "Forgotten Realms" backstory (of the Realms originally being connected to countless other planets) and knock up a "Saurialspace" crystal sphere instead.
But I think that both options are workable.  |
| Rhaine |
Posted - 10 Apr 2016 : 12:08:11
quote:
Originally posted by shades of eternity
and the faerunian piloted golems require both an elf and a dwarf to work together...so we can have shenanigans :D
Heh! Or 5 people with colourful mage armour or perhaps the golems are armoured flesh golems possessed by the souls of the pilots' mothers.
But, I digress. |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 09 Apr 2016 : 21:16:16
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t29/sleepingdragon_photo/mymap_zpsy0ll4l0c.png
A rough draft of the Saurial's Home World. |
