Religion in the game

[berreth]

Part of the problem is that in the past there was an unofficial policy to have players find everything out on the field. It was a sort of policy to prevent players from metagaming and using information that their PC wouldn't have about the world if that PC came from a very remote and isolated part of the world. The end result was players who knew nothing about the world making stuff up that didn't really fit in the game world, as well as different players "knowing" conflicting "facts" about the game world.

Another part of the problem is that there is so much to set up that it's easy to get lost in the details. At one point the birthdates of all the nobles in Narrdmyr were set down. That detail wasn't really needed. An outline to work from listing world details from large to tiny probably would have been a good idea.

Lastly, as Craig mentioned, with each change in staff stuff was lost or changed. I've heard Grace and Jason both say that they had a worldbook ready to go when Jeff was put back in as GM. I've heard that a player's worldbook has been close to publication for years. I know that a world history was approved by the IC back in '95-'96 or so. I know that player histories have changed what was written, as have plots.

Nobody is willing to work on deadlines for Kanar. The GM can say "I want racial history/culture packets ready by March, 2011," but he doesn't really have the authority to enforce it. If the packets aren't ready by March, then the GM could replace his staff and start over, or he can just say, "Oh well, get them done ASAP." In the meantime, the players still don't know what's up with the world around them. I realize it's a lot of work. I've done it before. I know that time is limited, especially with people working paying jobs.

It's something that really needs to be done, though.

[CraigJarvis]

Kylee, I can say some things with authority.  Modules were run in the past, and stories have been told about those modules on the field.  Thus, it might not be considered meta-gaming to learn "widely-known and bragged about" in-character details from an out-of-game source like this message board.  If I were to type this as an in-character story, I'd put it in one of the "in-character" forums, but I'm going to just throw out some OOC historical facts, on the off chance that someone might be writing a module with Planar Lore: Wyld in mind. 

People from Ilvaresh used to tromp across the Wyld plane every few years.  Myshalla's Gate was an extra-dimensional portal that could open into a single location on each plane... unless you had one of a handful of artifacts that would let you control its terminus.  The Gate used to stand down low trail, a few dozen yards away from the Tower in Aladine.  It was destroyed several years ago.

Part of the Wyld Plane is an idyllic forest, populated by normal and giant animals, some lesser Fey, and ruled over by Myrhanna, whom the humans call Mother Nature.  She reigns from a Garden, with tall hedge walls, and a gate guarded by a green drake, a griffon and a unicorn. 

Part of the Wyld Plane is governed by the Faries.  Humans often call it Arcadia or Underhill.  Wild speculation says the Sidhe are in charge, and something about a conflict between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts.  With Faries, anything is possible.  We don't see many Fey in Novashan because all of the Fey for hundreds of miles attacked the stronghold of a villain called "Roland of Lorax" in 995.  They asked for aid from their human and elven allies, but all of the heroes of Novashan were busy fighting Lareth and The Dark.  It is believed that all of the Fey perished in the attack, but rumors persist that they did not die, but were trapped on another Plane when Roland moved his Tower off the Central Plane.

Part of the Wyld Plane is a shifting, changing, chaotic wasteland, where the land washed up against the clouds, and the lakes sail by far above.  Anything is possible.  No one knows if the Realms of Chaos have a leader, or whom it might be.  BUT... from experience the PCs know that the Chaos Wastes are a quick way to get some one place to another, as the random paths of the Wyld Road touch many places in all of the Planes except the Neutral.

There is a strong argument that says the Elves of Ashan are close kin to the Fey, and to the beings of the Wyld Plane.  The Endless Forest, and to a lesser extent Arcadia, have an inherent and insidiously seductive quality to those of elven blood.  The Forest is peaceful, serene, harmonious, carefree, and eternal.  What some would consider perfect.  Many elves and half-elves are Very reluctant to leave the Wyld after even a short visit.

[berreth]

The Gate used to stand down low trail, a few dozen yards away from the Tower in Aladine.  It was destroyed several years ago.

I HATED that "module"/GM fiat crap that was run to make the Gate disappear. 

On another note, since when is "Wild" spelled with a "y"?

[CraigJarvis]

Artistic License.  I like 'y's.   

I like the Gate from an historical and continuity standpoint, but having it in Ilvaresh was a constant temptation to the GMs to be lazy and use it for future plots, and it's a huge high-fantasy crutch.  Two of the key elements of a low fantasy game (for me) are realistic travel times and realistic communications lag.  The Gate gets around one, sometimes both.

I like high-fantasy as much as, and possibly more than, the next guy, but people that *want* high-fantasy all the time have lots of LARP options.  Kanar is (partially) defined by its attempts to maintain a level of immersive low-fantasy.  It does not always succeed, but when it does Kanar can have biting, emotional, intensely personal roleplaying without needing 20th level draconian-mind flayers in Glitter Boy Armor, or magic swords that let you fly and kill all elves.

[Jesse.F]

This topic is very much off topic for religion in game. Locked, please start a new topic in general discussion if you wish to discuss the wild plane.