Recently, the rights to the setting were purchased by a group of fans and creators, and now the setting is being re-released for both Pathfinder and D&D 5 rules. No Savage Worlds version is a bummer, since that is what I want to play this with, but I will wing it and make due with the two source-books I bought used (but are in great condition). If I go for a new book, it will be likely Pathfinder's version, since I am bought-in there, though the D&D 5 version looks to be more popular.
Is there hunger for a new D&D 5 setting? I could honestly see interest picking up here for something like this.
The book is supposed to ship in August of this year (2016), so hopefully we will see something soon here. Pre-order via Kickstarter and you will get all sorts of cool PDFs, but if you wait you will just have to settle with the new book. I am on the fence here, but the new book looks cool. I am wondering if it is cool enough to replace my original two books, so I am going back and forth about diving in.
Now, Ghelspad is the "main" setting, while an add-on book for a tropical continent called Termana exists, but I want to focus on the main land of Ghelspad and adventure there. Still, there is something about this setting that screams Savage Worlds to me, the mix of cultures, the unique peoples, and the pulp swords and sorcery feeling of the setting just does not feel like D&D or Pathfinder to me at all. With a "dungeony" type game, this will likely focus on dungeon-ing and that slow grind of character power advancement.
With a more pulp and action-oriented rules set, such as Savage Worlds, I am going to get more of what I want from this, the mix of cultures, roleplaying, searching lost temples, and a more Indiana Jones style feeling than other games could provide. The cultures in the two original books do this for me, they have these wonderful pen-and-ink drawings of all the various peoples of the world, and I can imagine a wondrous sort of "age of adventure" in a Victorian-era "lost Africa meets Conan" style of feeling to this world, and I want a game that does that sort of intrigue plus adventure well.
With a D&D or Pathfinder, I feel the old standbys of "I roll a dwarf and talk like a Scot" or "I roll an Elf and act like Legolas" come into play, and the game becomes "the race to increase character power" over "living in the world." Pathfinder (at this point and for us) is very hard to remove from its base setting, and D&D just feels like Grayhawk or Faerun to us. It is hard to remove those rules from those settings, even though they are generic, I feel they still come with a lot of baggage of how things work and how the races interact.
With a Savage Worlds rules version of this world, all those assumptions get thrown out the window. You can't "play it safe" and just focus on "character power" like you can in dungeon and class/level style games. Your motivation is the story and who you are in the world. There is a motivation for "character improvement" but this motivation is guided by the story (and performing better in it), not a rules set which exists on a separate level.
Skills matter. Character development is the direction in which you choose. You can be a "fighting diplomat" or "royal archaeologist" in Savage Worlds without having to choose between rogue or bard or fighter. Your character fits in better with the mix of cultures, and your motivation becomes "become a better diplomat" or "become a renowned archaeologist" without surrendering yourself to a class an XP chart that does not describe your motivation or role in this world. Because you are not forcing players into strictly defined class roles (and progression paths), your players' characters can be closer to the peoples and stories of the world.
Character power in a world like this is not just combat ability, it is how good you are interacting with the world and which skills you choose to do that with. While that can be combat ability itself, combat ability is not the entire game.
I like this world. The peoples, lands, and cultures of this world are its strong suite - even moreso than Faerun IMHO, and even moreso than Grayhawk or even Golarion. Golarion does come close to this, but this does not have that carefully partitioned and sterile "theme park" feeling I get from Pathfinder's campaign setting.
Ghelspad is a mix. It is a wonderful mess. It is not designed with the goal of keeping a Gothic horror area intact and separate for future adventure paths, it is a messy and sloppy historical feeling wonderful mix of cultures and kingdoms all fighting and/or living together in a messy, crazy world. Cultures paint over each other's histories and borders. Peoples and cultures are lost to the world here. Ancient civilizations lie underneath the new ones, undiscovered and unknown. Lands are being incursion-ed upon or invaded. Tribes don't get along. Grand plans of expansion are underway for some lands; and other kingdoms are old, decrepit, and rotting from the core.
Corruption exists. Injustice flies a banner over entire swaths of land here, and this is not the simply-drawn cartoon-injustice of a demon-run land, this is the personal and heartless nature of mankind itself. Man is his own worst demon, and this wickedness is drawn across this world with dark hearts and savagery. It is personal. It feels real. It truly is a lost gem of a setting.
I would have loved to run this as-is, as a throwback and interesting retro-3E setting re-imagined through the pulp lens of Savage Worlds, but I am happy that Pathfinder and D&D 5 players will get a chance to take a fresh look at this interesting place. I will still run this as I had imagined it, but I may just pick up one of the new books because this is a worthy group of creators to support - and a world worthy of adventuring in.
Is there hunger for a new D&D 5 setting? I could honestly see interest picking up here for something like this.
The book is supposed to ship in August of this year (2016), so hopefully we will see something soon here. Pre-order via Kickstarter and you will get all sorts of cool PDFs, but if you wait you will just have to settle with the new book. I am on the fence here, but the new book looks cool. I am wondering if it is cool enough to replace my original two books, so I am going back and forth about diving in.
Now, Ghelspad is the "main" setting, while an add-on book for a tropical continent called Termana exists, but I want to focus on the main land of Ghelspad and adventure there. Still, there is something about this setting that screams Savage Worlds to me, the mix of cultures, the unique peoples, and the pulp swords and sorcery feeling of the setting just does not feel like D&D or Pathfinder to me at all. With a "dungeony" type game, this will likely focus on dungeon-ing and that slow grind of character power advancement.
With a more pulp and action-oriented rules set, such as Savage Worlds, I am going to get more of what I want from this, the mix of cultures, roleplaying, searching lost temples, and a more Indiana Jones style feeling than other games could provide. The cultures in the two original books do this for me, they have these wonderful pen-and-ink drawings of all the various peoples of the world, and I can imagine a wondrous sort of "age of adventure" in a Victorian-era "lost Africa meets Conan" style of feeling to this world, and I want a game that does that sort of intrigue plus adventure well.
With a D&D or Pathfinder, I feel the old standbys of "I roll a dwarf and talk like a Scot" or "I roll an Elf and act like Legolas" come into play, and the game becomes "the race to increase character power" over "living in the world." Pathfinder (at this point and for us) is very hard to remove from its base setting, and D&D just feels like Grayhawk or Faerun to us. It is hard to remove those rules from those settings, even though they are generic, I feel they still come with a lot of baggage of how things work and how the races interact.
With a Savage Worlds rules version of this world, all those assumptions get thrown out the window. You can't "play it safe" and just focus on "character power" like you can in dungeon and class/level style games. Your motivation is the story and who you are in the world. There is a motivation for "character improvement" but this motivation is guided by the story (and performing better in it), not a rules set which exists on a separate level.
Skills matter. Character development is the direction in which you choose. You can be a "fighting diplomat" or "royal archaeologist" in Savage Worlds without having to choose between rogue or bard or fighter. Your character fits in better with the mix of cultures, and your motivation becomes "become a better diplomat" or "become a renowned archaeologist" without surrendering yourself to a class an XP chart that does not describe your motivation or role in this world. Because you are not forcing players into strictly defined class roles (and progression paths), your players' characters can be closer to the peoples and stories of the world.
Character power in a world like this is not just combat ability, it is how good you are interacting with the world and which skills you choose to do that with. While that can be combat ability itself, combat ability is not the entire game.
I like this world. The peoples, lands, and cultures of this world are its strong suite - even moreso than Faerun IMHO, and even moreso than Grayhawk or even Golarion. Golarion does come close to this, but this does not have that carefully partitioned and sterile "theme park" feeling I get from Pathfinder's campaign setting.
Ghelspad is a mix. It is a wonderful mess. It is not designed with the goal of keeping a Gothic horror area intact and separate for future adventure paths, it is a messy and sloppy historical feeling wonderful mix of cultures and kingdoms all fighting and/or living together in a messy, crazy world. Cultures paint over each other's histories and borders. Peoples and cultures are lost to the world here. Ancient civilizations lie underneath the new ones, undiscovered and unknown. Lands are being incursion-ed upon or invaded. Tribes don't get along. Grand plans of expansion are underway for some lands; and other kingdoms are old, decrepit, and rotting from the core.
Corruption exists. Injustice flies a banner over entire swaths of land here, and this is not the simply-drawn cartoon-injustice of a demon-run land, this is the personal and heartless nature of mankind itself. Man is his own worst demon, and this wickedness is drawn across this world with dark hearts and savagery. It is personal. It feels real. It truly is a lost gem of a setting.
I would have loved to run this as-is, as a throwback and interesting retro-3E setting re-imagined through the pulp lens of Savage Worlds, but I am happy that Pathfinder and D&D 5 players will get a chance to take a fresh look at this interesting place. I will still run this as I had imagined it, but I may just pick up one of the new books because this is a worthy group of creators to support - and a world worthy of adventuring in.
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