Hullo, Nestor,



Yep, I remember seeing this a day or two ago, and thinking "Excellent!"

I'm really looking forward to this game book, to be honest, and think the eight connected scenarios will be a blast to run and all that good stuff.

Hullo, Jamie,



Hey, Jamie, we all have 4 to 5 dice for our Perceptions, you know!

That said, I *love* the look of the cover of the book, mate, and think it's very attractive and quite...Journey inspiring.

I assume that this is the GenCon release, yes? So, how do those of us not going to GenCon, and with almost no money to our name due to floods and the like (I even had to buy myself a new copy of DESOLATION as the original that I had got flood damaged back in October, but thank Goddess the in-sewer-ance company paid for it!), get a copy of this when it comes out, hmm?

Awesome looking cover art actually, elegant and reminds me of a journal. I have always started my players in the Before, moved through the Night of Fire, the Long Winter, the Thaw and finally the After. It will be fantastic to have some official settings and rules to accompany my hodgepodge vignettes of the characters during that time and instead play with those settings instead of moving through them quickly.

Wow I love the cover!

Glad you all like the cover! We wanted it to be a distinct departure from the After cover of Survivors, so we went with the "owned by a noble in the Before" look.

Yes, we'll be releasing it at Gen Con and then via the usual routes -- Studio 2 and the GMD store.

I too am a big fan of the cover. Very nice, guys.

I would like to see something from the Long Winter. There isn't really a whole lot mentioned in the book. I know, it's pretty scarce and what not, but it might be nice. Also, so lay outs of the more prominent citites would be nice. I have an idea of what they look like, but it might be nice to see what others see. Especially when it comes to some of the archetecture, for some reason I imagine Ascondea having a lot of almost a midevil space age look. just based on the idea that the e buildings are said to defy phisics.

I could see an extended quick start guide for those who want to run sandbox style games. Sample quests (could even slap die rolls to allow for random quest selection) - things like that.

just my thoughts.

I just had another thought as I was rereading Kesh'har Banthum... Languages. There are some translations and examples, specifically for the oruskan cities, but it would be cool to see more. Even for the other races. It's not necessary, but it would add some flavor to the game.

Say you have a character who refuses to use the Ascondean language as a form of resistance to the enlightening, for example. He will only speak to the party in his native warlander tongue, though he understands and can speak Ascondean.

I personally would love to torture my cousins by speaking Cashulian to them and forcing them to look the language up and translate, hehehe.

Plus, I have a player who wants to play a linguist. Probably the only one who will not have much for fighting capability, I really want to reward him for going outside the norm.

This brings to mind a Boot Hill game I played way back in college. The GM and the player playing a trapper fluent in Indian languages both knew Russian, while the rest of us did not. So, in our game, the Indians spoke in Russian.

Being bilingual myself, I've used that fact a couple of times to emulate a language barrier in games.

In general, it may be a risky proposition, since while having to deal with translation can enhance the roleplaying, it can also slow the game down and unnecessarily frustrate your players. I'd suggest checking with your players first, to make sure there are no objections.

Hullo, Scrumptilescent,

Welcome to the DESOLATION forums. Always good to see a new face here, and you're obviously pleased and excited to have found the game. Good stuff!



Umm...err, what did I miss here? Kesh'har Banthum? Where is that? Or am I just being stupid at the moment?

Languages in roleplaying games are always a complicated issue and matter. While I think that it would be interesting and neat to see more translations and language examples, I think it would depend on the context for said material. That said, bear in mind this isn't a roleplaying game based on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings with complex and devised language materials (unless the folks at GMD designed stuff with that in mind), and so it may be more important to put out material that paints a better picture of the game world at this point, rather than concern itsef with languages and the like.



While this is all well and good, making the players look stuff up in play can be a hazard, as it can slow the game down somewhat.

In the example of the situation you cite, where the Warlander refuses to speak Ascondean, it's going to be more of a roleplaying thing, rather than dice rolling, but it depends on how far you, as GM, want to go with it. It's also important to note that it not only hinders communication between the player characters, but it can be a Very Bad Thing(tm) in terms of doing stuff in combat and communicating stuff. And there is the possibility of player frustration. Of course, it can also lead to humourous situations, over misunderstandings and the like, but I would talk to my players first and ask them whether they really want to deal with this stuff.



In that case, I would argue that rather than introducing this whole languages aspect to the game, set up a plot or sub-plot, short- or long-term, that the Linguist character can get his teeth into. I think that when it comes down to it, playing a linguist should be more roleplaying than it is dice rolling, simply because players aren't necessarily as smart or language oriented as the GM might be. Your player might be an exception to this, but when push comes to shove, one has to make the game enjoyable for everyone concerned.

Hullo, Nestor,



That is definitey one of the better ways of handling language barriers in a game, heck, I've done that myself in various games, notably Skyrealms of Jorune and a couple of other games that had lots of linguistics aspects to it. (Language glossaries, ah, brings back memories... *sigh*) Of course, this only works if the players and/or the GM in question can converse in another tongue and all.



What you said, mate!

Kesh'Har Baranthum - "For the glory of Baranthum" Pg 76 of survivors.

Hullo, Scrumptrilescent,



Ah, you are quite right. Thanks for clearing up this for me, and for making me realize that I have a definite case of Mind Like A Sieve (MLAS(tm)). Or perhaps a colander...

No problem, sorry for the short reply early, had to get out the door.

I know languague would be hard to create, its a lot of work. I just thought it would be neat, and add some flavor to the game. I've been gaming with the same group for almost 10 years now, and I've been related to most of them for the majority of their lives. I know them pretty well, and that this would only fly with certain ones. And the ones I haven't been playing with for as long; I'm sure it wouldn't work with them either. It's not for everyone, and I could just as easily assign languages that exist in our world. I was just excited because you don't really see that in other games.

It seems as though I'm in the minority here, which is fine, but I don't really want to see more campaigns and modules. I want tools to add depth and customazation to an already great world. I want to know a little more about the cultures from before. Not necessarily people alive at the time of the Night of Fire, but heroes of legend, Folk tales, Holidays, favored colors even. I really enjoyed the Oruskan chapter in Survivors.

My understanding when I read through the material was that is was supposed to be roleplaying dense. Now, I understand also that I'm talking about more specialized information, but that is why it would go in a later book rather than the first one off the press (or the second, or even fifth). I know my suggestions will probably never be met, as I am in the minority (and let's face it, it's gotta sell to be worth writing). But the stories between the chapters and on this website are so enthralling, that it makes me yearn for more.

Your ideas have credit, Scrum; I'm certainly not dismissing them.

You're right in that expanding the tapestry of the world of Scondera would go a long way in enhancing the roleplaying experience. The catch is that one person's enrichment is another person's entrapment. I've come across game books that have turned me off by the sheer amount of campaign-specific information they ladle out. The more you have to memorize, the less you can improvise.

One of the themes that I've perceived in Desolation is a desire for the GM to "own" the setting, to imprint into it his or her own ideas, desires, and preferences. This can be seen, for example, in the fact that a map of the After is explicitly not provided. You, as the GM, get to decide how the Night of Fire has bent and warped the world to suit your own tastes. There's a discussion in another thread, as another example, where folks have been talking about what kind of names each ethnic group uses (e.g., Roman/Latin for the Empire, Germanic/Norse for Warlanders, etc.)

Game elements such as the settlement descriptions are useful because they give the GM self-contained bits that he can drop wherever he pleases if he decides to use them. So I'm all about getting more stuff like that. Some more information about aspects of the different languages would also be welcome, as long as I'm not forced to have to learn a whole new dictionary just to play the game.

Thanks for bringing your input and energy into the game. I'm looking forward to hearing about how your group handles Scondera and its mysteries.