Most boring cosm

[Catstacker]

There have been other polls asking folks what their favourite cosm is, but I want to know which cosm people think is the most boring. Vote for the reality that most needs an extreme makeover, or at least a new sourcebook.

I didn't include Terra/ The Nile Empire in the list because it routinely wins as the most favourite cosm, and I didn't include the cosms that weren't given sourcebooks, and so might have been interesting if they had a chance.

[Kansas Jim]

There have been other polls asking folks what their favourite cosm is, but I want to know which cosm people think is the most boring. Vote for the reality that most needs an extreme makeover, or at least a new sourcebook.
I'm not sure how I should vote...I have one answer that fits "most boring", a different answer that fits "needs an extreme makeover" and a couple possible answers for "new sourcebook"!

[skeloric]

Takta Ker, this book makes the vibrant Cosm seem very bland and homogeneous.
The book is also problematic in several instances as the Laws and the Land are about the nerfing of the non-native in a fashion that isn't very interesting.
Orrorsh examines the same basic 'heroes are powerless" angle with a lot more potential for story and excitement.

Only Tharkold comes as close to a disconnect (Ha!) among fans, due its overall differences in presentation between the original book trilogy and eventual sourcebook.
(Granted, I LIKE the actual direction of the Tharkold sourcebook...)

[Stormchild]

I have put this already into the High Lords Game Meta-Thread. But it fits here also. Btw, Skel, have you looked into the stories of the High Lords Game? I think you would find it interesting.


Ok, I should have put it more that way: Aysle is the realm with the most unused potential. The Living Land is probably the weakest but I don't see that much potential in it.

Aysle was presented with a map that practically had no markings. Even castle Ardinay was not marked. I resented the notion of Aysle going to England from the start. I think central Europe (France, Germany, Italy) is more suited for a fantasy background invading on Core Earth. Eastern Europe too is suited for a grittier approach. So I thought beginning in Prague was ideal, though I would have liked to expand into France too. The early middle ages are still very present in all of central Europe and can be used for a lot of background. Main problem though was to use that background without interfering into the Cyberpapacy background. So I chose to make Aysle a realm of conflicting myths.

But I would also love expanded background on Aysle cosm. I started a wee bit with a description of dwarven culture.

Aysle lacks an unique approach and I wanted to bring that approach with mixing Central Europe history with Aysle fantasy to distinguish it from the standard AD&Dish setting.

The world laws in my opinion needed a twist too. I tried, though I am not sure if I succeeded.

[Catstacker]

I'm not sure how I should vote...I have one answer that fits "most boring", a different answer that fits "needs an extreme makeover" and a couple possible answers for "new sourcebook"!
I thought that the most boring cosm would be the one that most needs an extreme makeover, leading to a new sourcebook. But if you have different answers for those three distinctions, do tell us what they are! If I were to split up the three, I'd vote:

Most Boring: I voted for the Star Sphere, because it isn't even described in its own sourcebook, only a half-dozen aliens are shown out of the thousands that are supposed to exist there, and they're ruled by psychic bureaucrats. They have the power to do anything they want, so the metagame featured them doing nothing. I was writing better sci-fi when I was seven.

Needs An Extreme Makeover: Star Sphere, but I'd also vote for the Cyberpapacy, which I don't find boring at all, but I don't think that I run it properly since I'm not Catholic and so have trouble faking the ritualism. An updated Cyberpapacy is needed to reconcile how we now use networks, as opposed to how they thought they'd work twenty years ago. And their tech should be so much more sophisticated, like how they could use it to keep the peasants in their place, and how the disenfranchised could use it to secretly operate under the noses of the church authorities. I also think an improved Cyberpapacy would be better at conquering the hearts and minds of the populace than they were credited for, which would make their invasion style different.

Needs A New Sourcebook: I think that they all need new sourcebooks after all this time. But if I had to vote for one, apart from the two cosms above, I'd vote for Living Land based on the art alone. Hire a professional, and include pictures to go with all the creatures described, which there should be more of. Many more miracles too, please, and a way to reconcile the high Spiritual axiom with different people's experiences and feelings about Lanala, and how her influence would be felt in realms with lower Spirit. People would like the Living Land better if only it was presented better.

[Kansas Jim]

I thought that the most boring cosm would be the one that most needs an extreme makeover, leading to a new sourcebook. But if you have different answers for those three distinctions, do tell us what they are! If I were to split up the three, I'd vote:

Most Boring: I voted for the Star Sphere, because it isn't even described in its own sourcebook, only a half-dozen aliens are shown out of the thousands that are supposed to exist there, and they're ruled by psychic bureaucrats. They have the power to do anything they want, so the metagame featured them doing nothing. I was writing better sci-fi when I was seven.
That's my vote for Most Boring, for pretty much the same reasons.


Needs A New Sourcebook: I think that they all need new sourcebooks after all this time. But if I had to vote for one, apart from the two cosms above, I'd vote for Living Land based on the art alone.
And same thing there.

But Extreme Makeover, I vote Tharkold. I loved Thratchen as a character and wanted to know more about Tharkold (and its supposed mirror image Kadandra) from the start and thought that the dystopian existential nightmare world we were given a glimpse of in the Orrorsh sourcebook showed a lot of promise. And then the sourcebook came out and it was all about big guns and ultraviolence, nothing like what anyone was expecting.

[monarch71]

That's my vote for Most Boring, for pretty much the same reasons.


And same thing there.

But Extreme Makeover, I vote Tharkold. I loved Thratchen as a character and wanted to know more about Tharkold (and its supposed mirror image Kadandra) from the start and thought that the dystopian existential nightmare world we were given a glimpse of in the Orrorsh sourcebook showed a lot of promise. And then the sourcebook came out and it was all about big guns and ultraviolence, nothing like what anyone was expecting.

Tharkold could certainly meet the description of a "dystopian existential nightmare world," if you looked at it from the point of view of a slave bred in a major Tharkoldu city-enclave. They may not even know about the existence of a remaining independent human civilization. They toil themselves to the point of death, hoping each day that the don't get killed on a whim or inducted into a shorter, nastier life as an experimental guinea pig.

Tharkold is my wife's favorite cosm, largely due to the philosophically fascinating Race culture, based on the concept of unity.

GT

[tymnCrem73]

K Im going to have to go with Necro and BD.

Some people may be able to play these classes but as for me boring.

Give me something with utilities.
Healer
Supp. Runie

[johntfs]

I went with the Living Land. Say you want about the Star Sphere, at least it was more than one terrain type. Hell, it even features the possibility of travelling into space. The Living Land, endless, foggy jungle in which you can starve to death. Unless you're killed by lizard hippies.

[pharaohmobius]

But Extreme Makeover, I vote Tharkold. I loved Thratchen as a character and wanted to know more about Tharkold (and its supposed mirror image Kadandra) from the start and thought that the dystopian existential nightmare world we were given a glimpse of in the Orrorsh sourcebook showed a lot of promise. And then the sourcebook came out and it was all about big guns and ultraviolence, nothing like what anyone was expecting.

Agreed. The only thing that's stopped me from finishing my rewrite of Tharkold is deciding what kind of world laws it would take to make a sci-fi dystopia. I've got one that emphasizes cruelty and brutality on both a personal and an institutional level, but from there I haven't found anything to make it all gel.

[copeab]

I wonder if enough time has passed that shifts in the popularity of certain genres should force cosms to not just be overhauled by scrapped. For example, Orrorsh split into moder urban/horror/fantasy and steampunk.

[Bradford C. Walker]

The cosms definitely would benefit from a whole redevelopment. As it is, it's far too easy to see some cosms as being one-trick ponies.