Re: Bluffside: City on the Edge - Was: Ptolus

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:30:57 -0000, David Shepheard 
<david_shepheard@???????.com> wrote:

>IMHO, I think it is better to keep published RPG settings within their own
>crystal sphere.
>
>Campaign settings often have special rules about magic, races or gods. I
>would personally prefer to see all of those sorts of rules pushed out to 
the
>edges of the crystal sphere. If you mix and match different campaign
>settings, it isn't so easy to do this. (Imagine for example, trying to put
>Krynn, Oerth and Toril in the same crystal sphere. It just wouldn't feel
>right.)

I agree, mixing different sets of rules is not always a good thing in a 
campaign, and almost always a bad thing when writing a new setting.

However since I'll use the writeup of Mirrorspace mainly for my own 
campaign, this is of no concern to me. We have an extensive set of 
houserules, so a few new rules are not going to wreak havoc in our game. 


>So I'd probably want to create a crystal sphere (called Bluffspace) to go
>around this product. I'd probably also want to put it well outside The 
Known
>Spheres. (Once The Known Spheres was sorted out, I'd probably want to see
>regions of unexplored space built up during d20 System campaign settings
>and/or out of print TSR campaign settings. If all the d20 System settings
>were kept to one area, it might help AD&D DMs as they could ignore the
>entire sector.)

I said I do the write-up of Mirrorspace mainly for my own game, but as I 
want the sphere eventually to make it onto BtM, I'll find a way around the 
problem: I'll use the original Bluffside as inspiration for one of the 
cities in the section "Ports of Mirrorspace". I'll rename it and give only 
a brief overview over the city with all the main attributes staying 
roughly the same (being located on the edge of a cliff, deposits of 
adamantium being mined, smelted and traded with, ruins of an ancient 
race...). 

I'll add a small paragraph mentioning that there is (or _was_ as it seems 
to be out of print to me) a gaming product called "Bluffside" out there 
that can be used, but the overview will be large enough to give the DM the 
general idea for creating his own city without having to use the original 
accessory. 

You wrote "Once The Known Spheres was sorted out..." - I think it will 
take YEARS until we have described the Known Spheres in enough detail to 
feel confident turning towards the frontier spheres. 

Besides: Frontier places are always exciting places for adventures, and 
spelljammer is no exception here. I don't think we should wait until we 
have done the Known Spheres. 

While I see the sphere of Mirrorspace among the Known Spheres and easily 
reachable for spelljammers, it has a distinct "frontier-flavour" due to 
it's history (the fall of Mirror Prime) and other properties (like being a 
high-psi-sphere). It's location is still well-known but nobody in his 
right mind would go there without good reasons (buying adamantium from 
Bluffside, treasure-hunting, being brainwashed by the Aboleth of Melodya 
or the Mindflayers of Thoon, being a Wonderseeker with ties to the sphere, 
etc).


(I just realised I am mixing the discussion about world-building in 
general with specific points about Mirrorspace and Bluffside. Sorry for 
that bad style!)


>I think it would normally be possible to take an entire line of products 
and
>infer that they are set on the same planet. And I think that it might be
>possble to take several different product lines from the same publisher 
and
>infer that each product line is set on a different planet within the same
>crystal sphere.



In general, you're right, but I see a few obstacles in that way:

1) Not every good product worth including has follow-ups (and not all 
follow-ups have the same good quality). Companies going belly-up like 
thunderheadgames seemingly did show that.

2) Not every DM wants to use the whole product line only because he likes 
_one_ product. and those who want to do so often don't have the money 
(myself included).

3) Another reason for not giving _every_ product (-line) it's own sphere 
is that this would be far too time-consuming. So much work goes into a 
write-up of a sphere...  If I'd start writing up a sphere for every city I 
want to use in my game, there wouldn't be time for the game itself anymore.

Again: I agree that what you suggest would be the best way to deal with 
3rd party products, but I think it is not the most workable way.

Spelljammer was partially created to provide a way to integrate and link 
different game worlds (apart from planescape). If that means that I have 
to adapt those worlds a bit to fit in "my" gaming universe, so be it. ;o)




>Have you got anything else from Thunderhead Games?

No, only "Bluffside, City on the Edge". It was a bargain buy on ebay and I 
was positively surprised about the great quality. Amazon lists one other 
Bluffside product: "Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Bluffside" but I have 
yet to get this one. Its written by one of the authors of the original 
accessory so I hope the quality is the same.

Tauster
}:o)

>David "Big Mac" Shepheard
>Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
>http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/links/d20_system_001071
937434/Spelljammer_001071430476
>http://spelljammer.wikia.com/
>http://www32.brinkster.com/virtualeclipse/
>
>From: "Tauster" <chefseehund@???.de>
>Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 1:19 PM
>Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Ptolus
>
>
>> [hijack]
>> Btw: Has anybody used Thunderhead Games' "Bluffside: City on the edge" 
in
>> a campaign? It seems the company doesn't exist anymore, at least thats 
my
>> impression after not finding any recent activity on their homepage. The
>> latest update was in 2003:
>> http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://thunderheadgames.com
>>
>> I plan to use Bluffside on a planet in Mirrorspace, so any experiences
>> from gaming would be welcome.
>> [/hijack]
>
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