Re: Unhuman War

> 	That makes more since than anything TSR ever wrote.  In WCC, it says
> that the elves have so many ships that to list them all "would take a
> book the size of the Spelljammer itself."  Yet it also lists 3 major
> fleets of Known Space, each with less than 50 ships.  Given that there
> are only 2000 crystal spheres total, and what, 100 known, exactly where

Um, just *where* do you get those figures from? I don't recall seeing
such absolute limits on numbers of Crystal Spheres *anywhere*.

> do the elves get those countless ships??  None of the other spheres that
> TSR developed had established elvish fleets, which makes the listed 3
> much more important.

Possibly, no one has got round to detailing them. So far, in
Spelljammer, TSR concentrated on the three 'main', 'established' worlds
- Oerth, Toril and Krynn, and didn't go into details of the others,. Use
those three fleets as an example, not the only main fleets. After all,
the various materials say that the elves are widespread all across
space, not just those three crystal spheres.

> 	As far as the bioweapons the elves developed, I believe that they were
> well in the works long before the war began.  There's no way the elves
> could have developed them in the decade that the war took.  It takes
> years for hasty mages to research and create even simple magic items.
> The elves, being more patient, would have taken centuries to prefect
> something as complex as the zwarth's spell projector.
>
> >
> > >*Goblin-kin are poor.  Spelljamming costs money.  Big money.  I once
> > >calculated a good hammership out to 1 million gp, w/out magic weapons.

Helms are massively overpriced, and whatever happened to the Create
Minor and Major helm spells? Personally, I think that the helms are *so*
expensive, noone could afford them! Look at real life...trade happens
with wooden ships with no cost for propulsion - the wind! if you had to
pay as much in a similar setting, there would only be small groups with
enough money, probably monopolising trade. The costs given for helms
seem to reflect the overpriced nature of many TSR costs, based on too
much money being available to characters.

> >         1 million gp!?!?  That's quite a bit.  Most ships in my
> > campaign are less than 100,000 gp, with helms.
>
> 	Mine too.  I used the old rule books for that.  Note that doesn't
> include a passage device, perhaps the most expensive, single,
> non-artifact item in history.
>
> 	Again, thanks for the reply and opinion.
>
> 	BTW, while it was not my intention at first, I've started writing a
> sort-of reference book on the 1st unhuman war.  I'm trying to make it as
> generic as possible, but ideas are always welcomed.  If anyone is
> intersted, I'll post it.  As of this moment, it is nearly 3 pages long.
>
> Night Druid


There is some stuff by Roger Moore (I think) in Dragon Annual #1 that
gives a sort of canon reference to the Unhuman war, including when it
was, and how long, etc...check it out!


--
Niall Hosking
884744ho@????.???.??.uk
http://www.gla.ac.uk/~websoc/~884744ho/
http://www.gla.ac.uk/Clubs/Astro
http://www.gla.ac.uk/Clubs/Guards
aka
Kserokhs Vaene: 'Practise random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.'