http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2010/10/lotfp-to-release-geoffrey-mckinneys.html?zx=95469cc8093c5c8e (http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2010/10/lotfp-to-release-geoffrey-mckinneys.html?zx=95469cc8093c5c8e)
Wondering if there's anyone that has been using Isle Of The Unknown as their campaign setting.
I'm editing the player's map with my own roads, names...etc on computer to soon introduce some Pathfinder/Tolkienesque players to old school gaming and good ol' hex crawling via S&W WhiteBox and Isle of the Unknown as the setting. I'm also planning limit players to Fighter/Sorcerer human PCs much like Carcosa but without the skin differentiation.
My favorite hex right now is 1806 a.k.a. "The City Of Singing Flame" by Clark Ashton Smith
There's been much talk about Carcosa and for good reason. I'm hoping to see the same efforts for Geoffrey McKinney's Isle of the Unknown. I think the silent brilliance of the setting comes from what is NOT added. To me, it instructs to get out their creative caps and build instead of expecting a full thought out setting to memorize and/or dissect, much like building from FFC or Wilderlands possibly.
Has there been anyone else who has or is using Isle of the Unknown as their setting?
Haven't read it. What's the elevator pitch?
Hexmap island, with one special encounter per 86 square mile hex. It's in the lotfp line, so it's big on weird. Lots of reclusive magic users, crazy magical beasts, magical statues, and scattered human towns and cities.
I've been reading it and I'm going to try and run a hexcrawl it in a few months - I'd have done it already, but the holidays always manage to kill game time for me :(
I have the hardback and it's excellent in terms of production quality. Haven't used it in-game yet though. I doubt I will ever put it in my current campaign, but it would be cool to do campaign on the island sometime.
It's just been a great revelation with this book. I, like some others, balked at the monsters and the fact that nothing mundane was written, or hardly.
Then it dawned on me while looking at the "players" map in the front of the book. I was to make a world up completely on my own. What was done for me were things/situations extraordinary. All i had to add or wrap around was my various planned situations for players to experience. And then I saw what Geoffrey was talking about when saying that it was an old school hex crawl like Wilderlands. And so i now find this book to be priceless. Thank you, Geoffrey.
My players spent about nine sessions of the current campaign on the island, having reached it through a magical door. I incorporated the island into my milieu by having it be the isolated island-prison of Merlin- yes, that Merlin. The great wizard had been imprisoned on the island by his jealous lover after indiscreet dalliances with a mermaid. The "great sea worms" mentioned here and there in the book were conjured by said jilted lady and destroyed any ships coming to or from the island.
I used very few of the monsters from the book- I consider them largely uninteresting compared to creatures from AD&D's monster books.
I used plenty of the magic-users- the Ice Wizard, the Chromatic Master of Hues, the Loremaster, and a number of the zodiacal magic users whose demesnes ring the island were consulted for knowledge or fought for gain.
Several of the clerics made appearances, as allies or enemies. The gardener, the herbalist, the fellow who never misses with a weapon, and the Bishop (mentioned but undetailed in the book), all featured as allies. One session revolved around foiling a double assassination plot against the island's king, in which the scheming vizier and the diabolist from hex 2411 were at cross purposes.
Relatively few of the statues or other weird locations of the island ended up being used despite very liberal encounter rolls on my part- the island is just so small that moving through a given hex happens quickly rating only one check if using the rules from the DMG. Then again I am rather handwavey with such rules.
I provided my own names for the zodiacal mages and for the island's rulers and important NPCs.
My players did eventually find and free Merlin, who got them off the island and enlisted their help in resurrecting and restoring King Arthur to greatness. In truth they could have left the island at any time by using the key that got them there in the first place. It just never occurred to them.
I found it way too random and pointless. It made no particular sense.
I liked it as an idea mine or a "weird" overlay onto something more mundane. it's sparse enough that the players are actually really unlikely to encounter much of the weird stuff unless they seek it out.
Every encounter aside from the villages and towns will show up only as a *special* result on the encounter table. I'll fix the location of any landmarks, caves, dwellings, statues and such at the point they are rolled. To do otherwise imo would be a giant grab bag and kind of silly - oh we've traveled 10 miles, time to find another statue or reclusive magic user.
This is the second most disappointing RPG product I've purchased in the last 5 years.
My elevator pitch would be: "If you like giant, flaming parrots with four legs then you'll love the Isle of the Unknown!"
Full review over here. (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13370/roleplaying-games/review-isle-of-the-unknown)
Quote from: Justin Alexander;709714This is the second most disappointing RPG product I've purchased in the last 5 years.
My elevator pitch would be: "If you like giant, flaming parrots with four legs then you'll love the Isle of the Unknown!"
Full review over here. (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13370/roleplaying-games/review-isle-of-the-unknown)
I will not deny that the monsters can use some lessening...that I can generate some on my own. I wonder if it was done to promote the fact that one should spawn their own? i have no idea. But the rest of the setup has become quite useful to me. Gimmie half of the monsters and i would be in awe.
Since this has degenerated a bit in to a general Iso of the Unknown thread, I'll point you towards my review of the various major hex crawls: Geoff (Isle, Carcosa), Stater (NOD) and Bledsoe (Wilderlands.) [Sorry Conley! Maybe next time!]
Isle felt very static compared to Stater and Wilderlands. Just THINGS doing nothing. "There is 12' tall bird in this hex." The other did more. "There is a 12' bird in this hex terrorizing a village of 3' tall orange vikings who are desperate to trade with the dwarves in the next hex."
I think "weird new world" is a much better LotFP product for this sort of thing.
Quote from: bryce0lynch;709981Since this has degenerated a bit in to a general Iso of the Unknown thread, I'll point you towards my review of the various major hex crawls: Geoff (Isle, Carcosa), Stater (NOD) and Bledsoe (Wilderlands.) [Sorry Conley! Maybe next time!]
Isle felt very static compared to Stater and Wilderlands. Just THINGS doing nothing. "There is 12' tall bird in this hex." The other did more. "There is a 12' bird in this hex terrorizing a village of 3' tall orange vikings who are desperate to trade with the dwarves in the next hex."
There are some connected hexes in the Isle of the Unknown like your example.
But other than the challenge from the cartoony monsters (which for me has started to spark some great creativity for how to use them), The isle to me is just a skeleton hex crawl that you build from.
Let's say i don't use the Isle but want to create my own setting, with this book, much is already done. So i can now take my story/situations/mundane stats and fill the isle up. What i'm getting from the book is exactly what is explained in the intro:
"To aid the Referee, only the weird, fantastical, and magical is described herein. The mundane is left to the discretion of the campaign Referee, to be supplied according to the characteristics of his own conceptions or campaign world."
I don't understand why some across forums deny the use of this book unless it's proof that we are still in the epoch of having everything laid out for the ref to memorize. If i just wanted the spontaneous creativity of a published RPG writer, i'd have to take on a bloated setting and use 10% of the publication...e.g. Erde, Greyhawk, Valus, d20 Blackmoor...etc. I'd rather have the "meat" of the creativity and so fill it up fill in my proposed campaign.
Quote from: mannclay;710697I don't understand why some across forums deny the use of this book unless it's proof that we are still in the epoch of having everything laid out for the ref to memorize. If i just wanted the spontaneous creativity of a published RPG writer, i'd have to take on a bloated setting and use 10% of the publication...e.g. Erde, Greyhawk, Valus, d20 Blackmoor...etc. I'd rather have the "meat" of the creativity and so fill it up fill in my proposed campaign.
Some of the folks who don't like it are people who have posted plenty of things that show they are willing to write their own content. So it's more likely that it is not clearly differentiated from products like Majestic Wilderlands or Weird New World.
I am going to use the book to run a campaign based on the Murthe story by Vance - a cabal of magicians from the last days of earth flee back in time. The decayed and chaotic nature of the dying earth brought through has infected the local world, causing it to begin to rot.
Quote from: RPGPundit;710694I think "weird new world" is a much better LotFP product for this sort of thing.
I'm into it, but the map is not numbered and there are only small write-ups to various regions of the world. Still useable but not the same as the Isle. True thought that i have not read the "weird new world" completely yet.
UPDATE: wait... i see what you mean. Yes, "weird new world" can also be conceived as i'm explaining the Isle. But, i do enjoy keyed entries being as much as i need from a setting.
Another factor also drew me to this book. No, Tolkienesque elements. That's a big one for me, I'm bored with what some called vanilla fantasy.
Quote from: mannclay;710711I'm into it, but the map is not numbered and there are only small write-ups to various regions of the world. Still useable but not the same as the Isle. True thought that i have not read the "weird new world" completely yet.
UPDATE: wait... i see what you mean. Yes, "weird new world" can also be conceived as i'm explaining the Isle. But, i do enjoy keyed entries being as much as i need from a setting.
WNW is still "weird fantasy" only much less goofy. That's the main point.
Quote from: RPGPundit;711359WNW is still "weird fantasy" only much less goofy. That's the main point.
no, i'm sorry. i don't think that's the main point of my thread. the main point is that i have found some real good use from Isle Of The Unknown and noticed how open it leaves me to create what i want out of it.
I hope other products are made this way in the vein of good ol' hex crawls and some awesome pure creativeness. how much can one handle of the same fantasy tropes any longer? We need more products like Isle Of The Unknown, a book or pure originality and creativeness.
Here's a great review explaining further what i mean: http://in-the-cities.com/2012/03/12/isle-of-the-unknown/
It's great that you've got good use and milage outta Isle of the Unknown, really.
Myself, I'm thorougly in the too-stupid-silly-weird camp.
One thing is being original, but I'm not sure if slapping claws og suction cups on a bouncy koala really counts as original.
(http://reservoirelves.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/isle1.jpg)
my biggest grief is, that all the monsters more or less just sits around, waiting for adventurers to turn up and fight them. 95% of them are f*cking hostile, and the same goes for the clerics and wizards. The book pretty much assumes, that the players will be murderhobos and just fight around the Island. Anything else will have to made up from scratch by the gm -and what's the point of the book then - other than being a monster freakshow?
Pretty book though.
Quote from: mannclay;723076We need more products like Isle Of The Unknown, a book or pure originality and creativeness.
Well, no, but your heart is in the right place. Isle is one of the weakest crawls there is. Stater and Wilderlands provide a nice dynamic environment.
I'm happy you're getting some use out of it, and it IS a pretty book/map. But maybe a Time/Life book series or Thesaurus would serve the same purpose?
Quote from: Justin Alexander;709714This is the second most disappointing RPG product I've purchased in the last 5 years.
My elevator pitch would be: "If you like giant, flaming parrots with four legs then you'll love the Isle of the Unknown!"
Full review over here. (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13370/roleplaying-games/review-isle-of-the-unknown)
OT, but that's a
damn fine blog you keep, there, man.
Especially the Tekumel review.
Keep on rockin'. :)
Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;723371It's great that you've got good use and milage outta Isle of the Unknown, really.
Myself, I'm thorougly in the too-stupid-silly-weird camp.
One thing is being original, but I'm not sure if slapping claws og suction cups on a bouncy koala really counts as original.
(http://reservoirelves.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/isle1.jpg)
my biggest grief is, that all the monsters more or less just sits around, waiting for adventurers to turn up and fight them. 95% of them are f*cking hostile, and the same goes for the clerics and wizards. The book pretty much assumes, that the players will be murderhobos and just fight around the Island. Anything else will have to made up from scratch by the gm -and what's the point of the book then - other than being a monster freakshow?
Pretty book though.
I will not deny that the monster thing was overkill for me and so i find it necessary to use them in various ways where PCs won't be just fighting them.
Someone mentioned that if the monsters were just within monster tables, things would be all the better. i agree.
Quote from: bryce0lynch;723387Well, no, but your heart is in the right place. Isle is one of the weakest crawls there is. Stater and Wilderlands provide a nice dynamic environment.
I'm happy you're getting some use out of it, and it IS a pretty book/map. But maybe a Time/Life book series or Thesaurus would serve the same purpose?
The Stater crawls are great, i just am tired of the vanilla fantasy trope reused in those crawls. I feel i have to take out lots more than i wish in those products, or maybe i'm attacking them in the wrong way. That's why i enjoy the Isle. But, i would like to have seen the Isle monsters setup in monster creation tables instead of so many within the hexes. But the weirdness encounter descriptions are some of my favorite.
Here's an example of how i'm using it. Pardon the rendition if its too big:
(http://say23.com/isle.jpg)