I'm working on a scene that is much like this one:
This is the High Queen Alicia, the Queen Mother and High Druid Robyn, and a man representing the Northmen meeting with High Lady Ordalf of Karandor after the palace rose from the sea in 1375 D.R. (the Year of Risen Elfkin) in the Moonshae Isles. I took a different approach.
Here, the High Lady Ordalf abandoned her palace for a more sylvan setting until her new subjects, the Llewyrr Elves, can build her a city. The meeting is taking place in the High Lady's makeshift throne room. I used a lot of props here I can't possibly name all the creators. Except that Nora was made by Thorne and Sarsa.
This is a barbarian woman I rendered on my computer. Ambience provided by Uberenvironment 2, Sunlight and radiosity light are distant lights and one spotlight.
INthe most ambitious science fiction campaign ever conceived, and it must stay an OFFICIAL ghost work! I hate Wizards of the Coast.
During the beginning stages of World War II, where Hitler of Germany started to take over portions of Europe, the Illithids started to expand their empire to the Orion Spur. The Illithids find Sol and the blue green planet known as Earth.
- FIRST INVASION -
During the first air strikes in Britain, the Mind Flayers made landfall in the Orkneys and started killing people. They then invade Edinburgh and Leeds, and started killing men, women, and children; for food. They also extradited what was left of the two populations into space. The next day, they touch down in France and Germany and wiped out most of the population of the Rhineland. It was on this day that the Axis Powers and the Allies became allies for it would be clear that the Illithids will destroy the population of the Earth.
Hitler, Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and Hirohito all combined their forces together to repel the Illithid threat. Using just planet based forces, they stopped the first invasion of the Illithids. The Mind Flayers fled, however the fleet was just a small task force. It wasn't the true Invasion fleet of the Mind Flayers. Faced with unimaginable foes, the leaders of the Major Powers worried. What would happen now, and how they would repel the threat? The answer came just three years later . . .
- THE ELADRIN -
Earth's mightiest hope came in the form of the Eladrin. The Eladrin came in their ships made of plants to offer their assistance. The Eladrin taught the people of Earth how to construct Einstein-Rosen Bridges. With this technology, the Earthers had a chance to strike against the main invasion fleet. The Earthers built four ships to head their invasion fleet:
* The U.S.S. Enterprise -- the first Space Carrier.
* The H.M.S. Hood -- Britain's Space Battleship.
* The D.R.S. Bismark -- Germany's Space Battleship.
* The J.I.S. Yamato -- Japan's Space Battleship.
With these four ships, and with several smaller cruisers, the Earthlings met the Illithid Invasion Force at the Planet Jupiter and managed to destroy them. But that was only the beginning of the Terran-Illithid War. . . .
For Earth's mightiest Campaign has begun. Not a campaign for conquest, a campaign for Survival. It's forty years later, and new technologies have been developed - especially with Space Travel. The Warp Drive had been perfected and Gate Travel allows the navies of the Earth to marshal their forces against the Entire Interstellar Illithid Empire.
The story of this war will be documented in pictures and I invite any and all artists to participate in the greatest Space Campaign in the Milky Way. Render Illithid fleets, the Eladrin, the Humans, the Drow, and the Orcs and other aliens who participate in a battle royal against an evil so insidious it's hard to imagine.
Dungeon Master: Fear Not. Ranger, Barbarian, Magician, Thief, Cavalier, and Acrobat!
Shelia: Who was that?
Dungeon Master: Venger, the force of Evil. I am Dungeon Master, your guide through the Realm of Dungeons and Dragons!
WANTED!:
One Creative person who is willing to spend countless hours designing a campaign, preparing player guides, and showing one to five other people a good time. Must be social, must be enthusiastic, must be willing to be able to give such a group some free nights of Entertainment. Storytelling talents are a must!
So, are you ready to take on a thankless job or a rewarding role of play? Are you ready to spend countless hours running possibly one to five people through dungeons and realms of adventure? Are you ready to teach people effective teamwork in an activity of creative, co-operative storytelling? Can you adjudicate rules? Can you yell at and stand up to Rules Lawyers? Are you enthusiastic about creating a moving setting to move your players through?
Are you ready to be the Dungeon Master(tm)?
If so, you might want to take a look at Gamemaster Law, Gamemastery, Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering, or the various Dungeon Master's Guides, which this review focuses on one -- the 4th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide. With this book, James Wyatt hopes to stand with the writers and other sages of Game Mastering. Well, lets take a look at this guide.
CHAPTER 1. HOW TO BE A DM.
Here, James Wyatt explains what the Dungeons and Dragons game (any edition, or really any roleplaying game) really is: a fundamentally cooperative game between two or more players. He also explains the job, or joy, of what a Dungeon Master is. He goes into what you need to play, although the DM really needs is
* His imagination and the players' imaginations.
* Dice.
* Paper and Pencils.
The rest are all useful additions to the craft and truly superfluous. Oh yeah, you need fun. But then, all of you supply that.
So, the next section is on the Players.
James Wyatt goes into a zodiac of players. He explains that players tend to fall into certain types: Actors, Explorers, Instigators, Power Gamers (which the 4th Edition PHB is written for), Slayers, Storytellers, Thinkers, and the people who just sit on the sidelines watching and getting entertained by the active players and you.
Each player type is discussed in detail, and what their habits are according to James Wyatt's experience at Dungeon Mastering. Now each player type represents a stereotype, and it's my experience that each player has a little bit of every type inside them. But certain personality types can heavily gravitate to one type one day, and be another type another day. So, I stress that these are just based on observations and no one player is exclusively one type consistently.
He then goes into party building. He does tell you what happens if a certain type is missing. But that is for your information only, and as a DM, it is your job to be flexible. If the party doesn't cover all the roles, then change the adventure to accommodate the party. Either alter your adventure, or use a different adventure, or change the story.
The chapter also goes into party background and campaign details, when to use character backgrounds (and if they are extremely detailed, you have a lot of material to use), and what kind of style you are looking for.
My current campaign, For Queen and Country! is set in the Forgotten Realms in the United Kingdom of the Moonshaes and borrows it's tone and feel from King Arthur and Ivanhoe. Which means, I'm running Medieval Fantasy with some Anachronisms. I am also using Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying. But the whole game is run like a T.V. Show. So you could say that my campaign is a gritty, Anachronistic, Medieval fantasy that is quite serious.
He then goes into several types of games. He then lays down some rules he uses at the table. That doesn't mean you have to adopt them all, or throw them all out, or you don't have your own rules. This last part of this chapter is necessarily subjective.
CHAPTER 2. Running the Game
In Chapter 2, James Wyatt explains what it takes to run the game. Specifically Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, generally the rules apply to any game. The advice on Preparing and Getting Started is definitely from James Wyatt's experience. These two sections apply to any game. So does the discussion of the modes of the game. There are points on narration and storytelling: including leading by example, brevity, atmosphere, and style. Even pacing and props are given consideration. In fact, the whole chapter is useful for GMs of any game, or any edition of Dungeons and Dragons. It's all general advice and very good advice.
Chapter 3. Combat Encounters
The real mechanics of the game, save the PHB only, is in chapter 3, combat encounters. Still, some of the advice here can be used by GMs of all games. Strangely enough, you could almost call this chapter "CHARTMONSTER" since this chapter has all the charts needed to adjudicate the game and combat encounters and special situations. Everything from listening to a door to flying to disease has a chart that accompanies it. I don't know about you, but Rolemaster might have a run for it's money as to which game has the most charts.
Chapter 4. Building Encounters.
Okay, this chapter is 4th Edition specific, but also useful for other games. It has advice on monster roles, artillery, how controlers work, brutes, minions and most everything else. Stuff that is 4e specific are XP rewards, how they work, and several encounter templates. Although the information in the encounter templates can be used by any GM for any game, the game mechanics aspect are all 4th Edition.
James also gives you a lot of encounter settings. From the most interesting areas to terrain features, to the most difficult terrain. Also, something called an encounter script is included. This chapter shows the Dungeon Master how to build an encounter and it does it brilliantly.
Chapter 5. Non Combat Encounters
These rules deal with 4th Edition as far as skill challenges go and gives general advice about puzzles and and traps. Chapter 5 isn't particularly useful to GMs of other games, however the advice is still sound. The chapter teaches the DM how to deal with Skill Challenges, Puzzles, and Traps and Hazards. In fact, examples how skill challenges work and how the DM works with them is provided. There is even an example of play (although the players participating in it aren't actors. *smiles* )
James draws on his experience with using puzzles in his games. Although not all adventures should have them. A puzzle is a device that isn't as important as the skill change. Or should I say that overuse of puzzles in your adventures -- unless you are playing an espionage game -- will lead to them losing their savor.
Traps and Hazards are important in gaming, and James talks about this at length. They break up the action and provide danger of a different kind instead of the monstrous or the villainous. Traps may be natural, the result of deteriorating architecture, or deliberately set by your villain to catch your PCs. However, in the case of Benedict and Beatrice, the women and menfolk lay a different kind of trap than what you would design for the PCs.
Several traps exist: blasters, lurkers, obstacles, warders, and elite and solo traps. Then James goes into length about how to use them.
Chapter 6. Adventures
This is the chapter that teaches you how to build and modify your adventures. There are several books that go indepth on this very subject. Some are esoteric, some are straight forward. But this chapter provides the Dungeon Master with indepth information about them, especially if you are starting out. With this chapter, unless you are looking into storycrafting or going into the subject indepth; it's pretty much contains everything you need.
James goes into published adventures, fixing certain problems, and building them. He even talks about quests, encounter mixes, and world building. All of this is great information for the DM and the GM of a Non-D&D RPG.
Chapter 7. Rewards.
This chapter is all about awarding experience points. This is 4th Edition specific so if you use another system, your mileage may vary.
Chapter 8. Campaigns
One word. WORLD BUILDING. This one chapter is all about world building. Published Campaigns, Campaign themes, Super-Adventures (or Adventure Paths), campaign stories, beginning a campaign, running one, and ending one. Very good advice is in this book, but again, to really get into the craft of building and running campaigns there are many books on world building and you can ask the advice of other Gamemasters on how to run campaigns. This chapter is useful to the novice and can point you in the right direction on honing your craft.
Chapter 9. The World.
This chapter deals with a default world. Like the Known Realm of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon as an example. The default world makes certain assumptions. However, you don't have to use the Default world at all. Chapter 8, Campaigns; is written before this one for a reason. Chapter 9 only gives you an example of such a world for use in D&D or any Fantasy RPG. This part of the book also talks about artifacts specific to that world.
Chapter 10. The DM's Toolbox
This is your chapter about using everything you know to customize your adventure. Customizing monsters, creating monsters, creating NPCs, Creating House Rules, Random Dungeons, and Random Encounters. This chapter is about customizing D&D 4e within its framework. Of course, remember rule 0, the DM trumps all rules. You can take away framework, change the scaffolding, and make additions. This chapter shows you how.
Chapter 11. Fallcrest.
This chapter offers a sample adventure to get you started. I've never run it, although don't trust me to run it with 4e. The DM's guide ends, thankfully, with an index, something for your miniatures, some other things you may find useful, and the obligatory advert for D&D Insider.
I never used D&D Insider myself and I don't feel it's worth my time as a DM to use.
MY JUDGEMENT
The DM's Guide, 4th edition, is the strongest of the 3 core books for 4th Edition roleplaying. I wholly recommend that you add it to your library as a good reference for the craft. There is a lot for you to use, even if you play GURPS, Rolemaster, King Arthur Pendragon, or countless other games. James Wyatt has done a good job sharing his experience.
The substance is excellent, since this is one book I would buy for my private collection. The book I am reviewing is my cousin's copy. Secondly, the style is only average. I'd dare say that Wizards of the Coast could have used a multiplicity of art styles to dress their book in. Photographs from the D&D movie, Computer Generated 3D illustrations, Paintings from DMG 2nd Edition, and the like along with the current cartoony illustrations would have made for an excellent styled book.
It's a book on Gamemastery as a whole, I say, make it look like such.
THIS REVIEW is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License, except for the Videos and two photos, which are used under the doctrine of Fair Use and for the purpose of Review.
Videos used for the purposes of this review, and thus under the doctrine of Fair Use:
1. [i]Dungeons and Dragons: The Last Illusion, pt. 1. Marvel Productions, overseen by E. Gary Gygax.
2. Kenneth Branagh's Henry V ; The Battle of Agincourt, part 1.
3. Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing; Beatrice and Benedict entrapped.
Photos used are for the purposes of this review, and thus under the doctrine of Fair Use:
1. The Dungeon Master (Source: Dungeons and Dragons cartoon).
2. The Chinese Zodiac (source: Wikipedia)
3. Charles, the Duke of Orleans (Source: Henry V).
I dreamed a dream last night. I was living in the mountains to the east of Salt Lake City. It was summer, and a nice breeze. I was along the lake with a friend of mine. However, later in the day a powerful hot wind blew in from the west, bring with it a powerful wild fire. Then thick, dark smoke covered the Sun and sky. From the smoke floated tiny particles of poison as the fire ravaged the land. The particles were fallout, and they killed most every living thing that the fire could not kill.
An image for the Forgotten Realms setting. The Sun Elf/Eladrin is standing to greet the dawn in Evereska. The image was done with UberEnvironment 2 for ambient lighting. I then had two distant lights: one for radiosity, another for the Sun. I then added a spotlight to bring out the elf a bit more.
The Eladrin was made with VAMP's Syndori morphs except: Utopia was set to .4 and Voluptuous set to .6. certain muscles were set to .20 to .37. I then Steph 4's petite morph set to 1. I then used Aiko's pigtail with the color set to Auburn. :) Rendered in DS3A. The background is from Fantasy Stock, and it's Misty Morning 4.
Remember:
In Roleplaying Games, not all changes are for the better, and not all changes are for the bad. Be critical of any new Roleplaying Game you buy.
Despite how I feel about the PHB1, the whole of D&D 4th Edition gives me this feeling, illustrated by Danny Kaye and who is supposed to be Basil Rathbone.
In other words, I can't take 4e seriously for serious Roleplaying in certain genres. 4e is light hearted. It's built for comedic roleplaying. And they happily lived ever after! Although the Court Jester is still epic, it's epic comedy. In other words, you can take it seriously for family entertainment. So, this makes D&D 4e family friendly. It's great for a light hearted romp in adventuring. That's why it's so deceptively simple.
To compare it to Rolemaster is to compare Danny Kaye's The Court Jester with Shakespeare's Henry V. Shakespeare, when he writes a comedy, its light hearted. D&D like. But when he writes a history, like Henry V, he doesn't hold back. And neither does Kenneth.
When you play Rolemaster with the right GM, you're possibly going to be in for a treat. Rolemaster is built for Epic Roleplaying. Both tragedy and comedy in built into Rolemaster's framework. Although the comedy might come after a lot of pain and hurt. Although D&D 4e can go that far, it wasn't initially built for the possibility of Tragedy unless your DM is out for a Total Player Kill. Danny Kaye was transformed into the best swordsman in England due to hypnotism: a level 20th bard under the D&D 4e rules.
For this representation of Agincourt, however, King Henry the Fifth is young, so he can't be more than a 7th level fighter. He faces fighters on the French side with more experience (8 through 10) and slays many of them. However, if you look around, there are fighters on the English Side more experienced than he -- and they are slain.
The Moonshaes. For years, High Queen Alicia Kendrick rules over a United Moonshae Isles. The Moonshaes are at peace and at balance. Still this has attracted the attentions of malefic gods. One such God, Bane, looked over the Moonshaes and their Unitedness and began to hatch a plan in which freedom will be severely restricted.
Malar, however, senses the thoughts of the people of the Moonshaes, and Correllon Larethian is constantly being petitioned to raise the city of Kandor from it's watery grave. But, when Kazgoroth stalks the Moonshaes, is anyone truly safe?
For Queen and Country!
For Queen and Country is a campaign set in the United Moonshae Isles. Player characters are encouraged to fight for the Moonshaes and their actions to keep the people safe from all threats: Internal and external, mundane and supernatural. Fight for Honor, Glory, and of course the Queen and your Country!
The Campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms kingdom of the Moonshae Isles!
* Play a Knight or a Housecarl and do battle with Sword and Shield.
* Be a mighty Magician and fight the Moonshae's enemies with magic.
* Take the role of a Druid and protect and preserve the Balance.
* Or take any number of roles!
* Be a Llewyrr elf and see what life is like outside of Myrloch Vale.
* Take the role of a gruff dwarf, a noble savage orc, or a rural halfling.
The Campaign is ran like a T.V. series. If it were actually shown on T.V. (and everything got past the *insert expletive here* censors in Renton) it would be an Ensemble Show with an open-oriented format. You play characters who defend the Moonshaes against any threat.
The theme of the show has to do with bravery and honor against dishonor and cowardice. The tone of the show is that it takes on the tone of Ivanhoe (by Sir Walter Scott) and the Arthurian Saga (various authors).
The year is 1372 DR, the Year of Wild Magic.
* The game is played on OpenRPG (Server: RPG Refugees).
Game System Used
This is a game of Intrigue, Excitement, and Roleplaying. It has an undertone of Epic Medieval Movies like The Adventures of Robin Hood,Excalibur, and of course, Ivanhoe (1952, 1980, and 1997).
A style that can be replicated with D&D 4e but with great difficulty [its very difficult, if you know anything about 4e and the Medieval Romance genre -- the two are incompatible in certain ways]. And since King Arthur Pendragon (4th Edition, ironically) is a rather complex game to set up the FR for, the game system that is most appropriate is Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying (RMFRP) or Rolemaster Classic (RMC or RM2).
Rolemaster has a few things going for it:
* Its the most realistic FRPG still in print.
* A first level Rolemaster Character can conceivably slay a 20th level Rolemaster Character dead.
* Character generation allows you to create truly unique characters: in knowledge and ability.
* Dozens of character concepts can be created and supported by the rules. Including: timid nobles, Ladies who's only ambition is to marry a good man, and ESSENCE spellcasters who can train to strike at enemies, defend and lead others, instead of just to control enemies.
* Slower leveling. Rolemaster uses an easier way to level so as the characters don't get too big for the series' britches too fast (in D&D 4e and 3e, leveling is a bit too quick).
* Core Professions to choose from including:
- Fighter
- Thief
- Rogue
- Warrior Monk
- Everyman
What are you waiting for? Join the campaign and gain glory for yourself and For Queen and Country today!
What do I need?
* If you are planning to play in this campaign, and you want to play a fighter, magician, mentalist, thief or cleric; then you will need just Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying (RMFRP) to start with.
* If you are planning on playing a Druid or Paladin, then in Addition you will need:
-- Character Law
-- Spell Law of Channeling
* If you want to play an exotic race (Fey'ri, Avariel, Drow, Tiefling, or Dragonborn) you will also need:
-- Races and Cultures
* Other recommended products:
-- Arms Law (2003)
-- The Armory
*little hint, this book has a table that allows you to throw around your favorite hench gnome!*
-- Spell Law of Essence
-- Spell Law of Mentalism
And there are Starter Packs out!
-- Starter Pack One (RMFRP, Character Law, Arms Law {2003}).
-- Starter Pack Two (Spell Law of Channeling, of Essence, of Mentalism)
If I use Rolemaster: The Standard System?
You may use the Channeling Companion and the Martial Arts Companion. The Arcane Companion is off limits: there are enough Elminsters and Simbuls in the Realms.
Nina Paley has reiterated the four basic freedoms of Culture. They are basically:
the freedom to use the work and enjoy the benefits of using it
the freedom to study the work and to apply knowledge acquired from it
the freedom to make and redistribute copies, in whole or in part, of the information or expression
the freedom to make changes and improvements, and to distribute derivative works
Well, doesn't that sound good to your ears? The problem with creating good works for the use of others is that it is automatically put under copyright. While that is a good thing, the terrible thing about it is that you are forced to police your copyright yourself, or face the danger of selling printer rights or all your rights to a publishing company (like Wizards of the Coast or Disney, to name two).
As liberal as the Wizards of the Coast were, it was a good thing that they made the Open Game License. However, the flaw was that people weren't able to fully exercise their rights above. This is important, because imagine what it would be like if you could comment and have the freedom to use the work. Or to make and redistribute copies, or even to make changes and improvements and to distribute derivative works.
After all, culture is important to us as Gamers. We as DMs buy a piece of work from Wizards of the Coast or some other Roleplaying production company and use it to provide free entertainment to a couple of others. Also as DMs, we create our characters and adventures and tell wonderful interactive stories. And if we aren't free to do that with the games we bought, how can we advance our own culture as gamers?
Everyone needs to know that a Roleplaying Game Setting, once published, is culture. And Culture should be free. Oh, by the way, the cartoons were made by Nina Paley.
First in a return to 2nd Edition, the Religions of Aerthas.
Templum Lux luci
The Church of Light. Basically a church based on the philosophy of following the Light and being Good to all men. The Church denies the existence of the Divine Creator, and says all people who believe in a Creator to be following the vain imagination of their fathers. The Leaders of the Church are extremely narcissistic and believe that they know everything.
Templum Lux luci is the most popular religion among humans, elves, and dwarves in the Caithness Isles. It's a unifying religion, that teaches Rebirth after death. And if a man does good in this life, he will be rewarded with a better life in the next reincarnation. There is no message of salvation the church teaches, and Man is in a permanent cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. All that Man may hope for is a better life in his next reincarnation. The Church, however, is a force for good and strives to help its people attain perfection. Worship of the Light is important to all and the Church zealously and jealously guards against heretics (those that would profess in a Creator and a Savior and preach a message of Salvation and Resurrection are especially persecuted). The Church also persecutes Wizards, but have been unsuccessful in doing so. The Church also considers literacy a threat to it's power and works excessively to suppress reading and writing among most of the masses.
Organization
At the upper level is the Pontiff, then there are Cardinals, archbishops, bishops, archprelates, prelates, and the parish priest. The church also encourages monasticism and aestheticism. However, the monks of the church are mendicant and are also literate since they study literacy. But since they are insular, the monks are allowed to be literate.
The Paladins represent the militant arm of the Church, and they are a recent organization. Paladins of Templum Lux luci or the Light, were priests trained in Chivalry, Arms, and Knighthood. Combining the best of Religion and Force of Arms, the Paladins were created in response to the Orc Invasions of Caithness and other lands. A paladin is meant to be a paragon of virtue and the defender of the people. A person who becomes a paladin takes an oath of Celibacy and the Oath of Virtue and Truth. Something that may cause the Church trouble down the line.
The Parish Priest and the Missionary Priest (Adventurer) represent the faith to the common people. While the Bishops of various important towns may give arousing sermons to the people on the Light; the parish priest and the missionary priest represents the people in the country. These men and women of the Light preach sermons to help the faithful stay in the path and represent the wishes of the Light. Missionary Priests work to provide hope and good for the people. They represent the active arm of the Church. Acolytes in the Missionary Arm are typically ordained with the priesthood after they proved themselves.
Priest Alignments: LG, NG, LN, LE (Note that the evil Priests will rise quicker in the Church)
Spheres of Magic:Major All, Creation, Divination, Healing, and Sun; Minor: Elemental, Necromantic, Protection, and Thought.
Armor Allowed: Leather jerkin, Studded Leather Coat, and Chain Mail Shirt only.
Weapons Allowed: Dagger, mace, quarterstaff, short sword.
Paladins
Paladins of Templum Lux luci often belong to many different orders. The best known are the Knights of Light. They have their matches among the Saurials and the Massalian Elves. They are Lawful Good. Paladins of Templum Lux luci receives their spells once they reach 9th Level and can only cast spells of the Combat, divination, healing, and protection spheres.
The C-String is an epic fail for you. The panty is so small that it makes your bra look big. I'm not showing the C-String on my blog, by the way. It makes me blush in embarrassment. I'm a nudist, and it makes me blush!
Girls, you don't need that to look attractive and to get hot . . .you know. But it's far healthier for you to be nude and/or to free bag. Naturism/nudism is healthy. And here are a couple of reasons:
There are times when clothing is physically uncomfortable. Nudity, on the other hand, is often much more comfortable.
For many activities, nudity is often far more practical than clothing. Bernard Rudofsky writes: “The custom of wearing a bathing suit, a desperate attempt to recapture some of our lost innocence, represents a graphic expression of white man’s hypocrisy. For, obviously, the bathing suit is irrelevant to any activity in and under water. It neither keeps us dry or warm, nor is it an aid to swimming. If the purpose of bathing is to get wet, the bathing suit does not make us wetter. At best, it is a social dress, like the dinner jacket.”[1] Yet Americans spend $900,000,000 each year on bathing costumes. [2]
Clothing also restricts movement, and encumbers the athlete. Studies done by the West German Olympic swim team showed that even swimsuits slow down a swimmer. [3]
A nudist is not a body lacking something (that is, clothing). Rather, a clothed person is a whole and complete naked body, plus clothes
Many psychologists say that clothing is an extension of ourselves. The clothes we wear are an expression of who we are. [4]The Naturist’s comfort with casual nudity, therefore, represents an attitude which is comfortable with the self as it is in its most basic state, without modification or deceit.
Clothes-compulsiveness creates insecurity about one’s body. Studies show that nudism, on the other hand, promotes a positive body self-concept[5] These effects are especially significant for women. Studies by Daniel DeGoede in 1984 confirmed research done 16 years earlier [6], which established that “of all the groups measured (nudist males, non-nudist males, nudist females, and non-nudist females), the nudist females scored highest on body concept, and the non-nudist females scored lowest.” [7]
Nudism promotes wholeness of body, rather than setting aside parts of the body as unwholesome and shameful. [8]
Clothes-compulsiveness locks us into a constant battle between individuality and conformity of dress. Nudity frees us from this anxiety, by fostering a climate of comfortable individuality without pretense
The practice of nudism is, for nudists, an immensely freeing experience. In freeing oneself to be nude in the presence of others, including members of the other sex, the nudist also gives up all the social baggage that goes along with the nudity taboo. The North American Guide to Nude Recreation notes that “one reason why a nude lifestyle is so refreshing is that it delivers us temporarily from the game of clothes. It’s hard to imagine how much clothing contributes to the grip of daily tensions until we see what it’s like to socialize without them. Clothing locks us into a collective unreality that prescribes complex responses to social status, roles and expected behaviors. In shedding our daily ‘uniforms,’ we also shed a weighty burden of anxieties. For a while, at least, we don’t have to play the endless charade of projected images we call ‘daily life.’ . . . For once in your life you are part of a situation where age, occupation and social status don’t really count for much. You’ll find yourself relating more on the basis of who you really are instead of who your clothes say you are.” [9] This analysis is borne out by experience.
The sense of “freedom” that comes from the nudist experience is consistently rated by nudists as one of the main reasons they stay in it. [10]
Nudism, by freeing the body, helps free the mind and spirit. An irrational clothes-compulsiveness may inhibit psychological growth and health. Dr. Robert Henley Woody writes, “fear of revealing one’s body is a defense. To keep clothing on at all times when it is unnecessary for social protocol or physical comfort is to armour oneself in a manner that will block new behaviors that could introduce more healthful and rewarding alternatives; and promote psychological growth.” [11]
The nudist, literally, has nothing to hide. He or she therefore has less stress, a fact supported by research. In the words of Paul Ableman: “Removing your clothes symbolizes ‘taking off’ civilization and its cares. The nudist is stripped not only of garments but of the need to ‘dress a part,’ of form and display, of ceremony and all the constraints of a complex etiquette. . . . Further than this, the nudist symbolically takes off a great burden of responsibility. By taking off his clothes, he takes off the pressing issues of his day. For the time being, he is no longer committed to causes, opposed to this or that trend, in short a citizen. He becomes . . . a free being once more.” [12][13]
Clothing hides the natural diversity of human body shapes and sizes. When people are never exposed to nudity, they grow up with misunderstandings and unrealistic expectations about the body based on biased or misinformed sources–for instance, from advertising or mass media. As a result, breast augmentation has long been the leading form of cosmetic surgery in the U.S. In the 1980s, American women had more than 100,000 operations per year to alter their breasts. [14] Helen Gurley Brown, past editor of Cosmopolitan, says, “I don’t think 80 percent of the women in this country have any idea what other women’s bosoms look like. They have this idealized idea of how other people’s bosoms are. . . . My God, isn’t it ridiculous to be an emancipated woman and not really know what a woman’s body looks like except your own?” [15] Paul Fussell notes, by contrast, that “a little time spent on Naturist beaches will persuade most women that their breasts and hips are not, as they may think when alone, appalled by their mirrors, ‘abnormal,’ but quite natural, ‘abnormal’ ones belonging entirely to the nonexistent creatures depicted in ideal painting and sculpture. The same with men: if you think nature has been unfair to you in the sexual anatomy sweepstakes, spend some time among the Naturists. You will learn that every man looks roughly the same–quite small, that is, and that heroic fixtures are not just extremely rare, they are deformities.” [16]
Clothing hides and therefore creates mystery and ignorance about natural body processes, such as pregnancy, adolescence, and aging. Children (and even adults) who grow up in a nudist environment have far less anxiety about these natural processes than those who are never exposed to them. Margaret Mead writes, “clothes separate us from our own bodies as well as from the bodies of others. The more society . . . muffles the human body in clothes . . . camouflages pregnancy . . . and hides breastfeeding, the more individual and bizarre will be the child’s attempts to understand, to piece together a very imperfect knowledge of the life-cycle of the two sexes and an understanding of the particular state of maturity of his or her body.” [17]
Nudity is not, by itself, erotic, and nudity in mixed groups is not inherently sexual. These are myths propagated by a clothes-obsessed society. Sexuality is a matter of intent rather than state of dress. In our culture, a person who exposes their sexual parts for any reason is considered to be an exhibitionist. It is assumed that they stripped to attract attention and cause a sexual reaction in others. This is seen as a perversion. Hypocritically, if someone dresses specifically to arouse sexual interest, they are considered to have pride in their appearance. Even if they get great sexual gratification out of the attention others give, there is no suggestion of perversion or sexual fixation.
Nudists, as a group, are healthier sexually than the general population. Nudists are, as a rule, far more comfortable with their bodies than the general public, and this contributes to a more relaxed and comfortable attitude toward sexuality in general.
Sexual satisfaction in married couples shows a correlation to their degree of comfort with nudity. [45]
Studies show significantly less incidence of casual premarital and extramarital sex, group sex, incest, and rape among nudists than among non-nudists. [46]
Studies have demonstrated that countries with fewer hangups about nudity have lower teen pregnancy and abortion rates. [47]
Clothes enhance sexual mystery and the potential for unhealthy sexual fantasies. Photographer Jock Sturges says, “our arbitrary demarcations [between clothing and nudity, sexual and asexual] serve more to confound our collective sexual identity than to further our social progress. America sells everything with sex and then recoils when presented with the realities of natural process.” [48] C. Willet Cunnington writes: “We have to thank the Early Fathers for having, albeit unwillingly, established a mode of thinking from which men and women have developed an art which has supplied . . . so many novel means of exciting the sexual appetite. Prudery, it seems, provides mankind with endless aphrodisiacs, hence, no doubt, the reluctance to abandon it.” [49]
Clothing focuses attention on sexuality, not away from it; and in fact often enhances immature forms of sexuality, rather than promoting healthy body acceptance. [50]
Complete nudity is antithetic to the elaborate semi-pornography of the fashion industry. Julian Robinson observes, “modesty is so intertwined with sexual desire and the need for sexual display–fighting but at the same time re kindling this desire–that a self-perpetuating process is inevitably set in motion. In fact modesty can never really attain its ultimate end except through its disappearance. Hiding under the cloak of modesty there are to be found many essential components of the sexual urge itself.” [51]
Clothing often focuses attention on the genitals and sexual arousal, rather than away from them. [52] At various times in Western history different parts of female anatomy have been eroticized: bellies and thighs in the Renaissance; buttocks, breasts, and thighs by the late 1800s (and relatively diminutive waists and bellies). Underwear design has historically emphasized these erogenous body parts: corsets in the 1800s de-emphasized the midriff and emphasized the breasts–using materials including whalebone and steel; the crinoline in the mid 1800s emphasized the waist; and the bustle, appearing in 1868, emphasized the buttocks.[53] Bathing suit design today focuses attention on the breasts and pubic region. E.B. Hurlock writes: “When primitive peoples are unaccustomed to wearing clothing, putting it on for the first time does not decrease their immorality, as the ladies of missionary societies think it will. It has just the opposite effect. It draws attention to the body, especially for those parts of it which are covered for the first time.”[54] Rob Boyte notes wryly that “textile people, when they do strip in front of others, usually do it for passion, and find the bikini pattern tan-lines attractive. This is reminiscent of the scarification practiced by primitive societies, and shows how clothing patterns become a fetish of the body.”[55] Havelock Ellis writes: “If the conquest of sexual desire were the first and last consideration of life it would be more reasonable to prohibit clothing than to prohibit nakedness.”[56]
The fashion industry depends on the sex appeal of clothing. Peter Fryer writes: “The changes in women’s fashions are basically determined by the need to maintain men’s sexual interest, and therefore to transfer the primary zone of erotic display once a given part of the body has been saturated with attractive power to the point of satiation. . . . Each new fashion seeks to arouse interest in a new erogenous zone to replace the zone which, for the time being, is played out.”[57]
Differences of clothing between the sexes focus attention on sex differences.[58] Psychologist J.C. Flngel writes: “There seems to be (especially in modern life) no essential factor in the nature, habits, or functions of the two sexes that would necessitate a striking difference of costume–other than the desire to accentuate sex differences themselves; an accentuation that chiefly serves the end of more easily and frequently arousing sexual passion.”[59]
Many psychologists believe that clothing may originally have developed, in part, as a means of focusing sexual attention.[60]
Partial clothing is more sexually stimulating (in often unhealthy ways) than full nudity. Anne Hollander writes: “The more significant clothing is, the more meaning attaches to its absence and the more awareness is generated about any relation between the two states.”[61] Elizabeth B. Hurlock notes that “it is unquestionably a well-known fact that familiar things arouse no curiosity, while concealment lends enchantment and stimulates curiosity . . . a draped figure with just enough covering to suggest the outline, is far more alluring than a totally naked body.”[62] And Lee Baxandall observes, “the ‘almost’-nude beaches, where bikinis and thongs are paraded, are more sexually titillating than a clothes-optional resort or beach. What is natural is more fulfilling, though it may not fit the tantalize-and-deliver titillation of our consumer culture.”[63]
Modesty–especially enforced modesty–only adds to sexual interest and desire.[64] Reena Glazer writes: “Women’s breasts are sexually stimulating to (heterosexual) men, at least in part because they are publicly inaccessible; society further eroticizes the female breast by tagging it shameful to expose. . . . This element of the forbidden merely perpetuates the intense male reaction female exposure allegedly inspires.”[65]
Topfree[66] inequality (requiring women, but not men, to wear tops) produces an unhealthy obsession with breasts as sexual objects.
The identification of breasts as sexual objects in our culture has led to the discouragement of breast-feeding, the encouragement of unnecessary cosmetic surgery for breast augmentation, and avoidance of necessary breast examinations by women. Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer write: “When a woman learns to treat her breasts as objects that enhance appearance, they belong not to the woman, but to her viewers. Thus, a woman becomes alienated from her own body.”[67]
Naturism is the antithesis of pornography.[68] Nudity is often confused with pornography in our society because the pornography industry has so successfully exploited it. In other words, nudity is often damned as exploitative precisely because its repression causes many to exploit it.
Pornography has been defined as an attempt to exert power over nature. In most cases in our culture, it manifests itself as an expression of sexual power by men over women.[69] Naturism, by contrast, seeks to coexist with nature and with each other, and to accept each other and the natural world in our most natural states.
Non-acceptance and repression of nudity fuels pornography by teaching that any form and degree of nudity is inherently sexual and pornographic. In the words of activist Melissa Farley, “pornography is the antithesis of freedom for women. . . . to treat the human body as anything less than normal and beautiful is to promote puritanism and pornography. If the human body is accepted by society as normal, the pornographers won’t be able to market it.”[70]
Naturism is innocent, casual, non-exploitative, and non commercial (and yet is often suppressed); as opposed to pornography, which is commercialized and sensationalized (and generally tolerated). In some American communities it is illegal for a woman to publicly bare her breasts in order to feed an infant, but it is legal to display Penthouse on drug-store magazine racks.
Many psychologists believe that repression of a healthy sexuality leads to a greater capacity for, and tendency toward, violence. Paul Ableman writes: “We have divorced ourselves from our instincts so conclusively that we are now menaced by their perverted expression. The blocked erotic instinct turns into destructiveness and, in our age, many thinkers have perceived that some of the most ghastly manifestations of human culture are fueled by recycled eroticism. Channelled into pure cerebration, the sexual instinct may generate nightmares impossible in the animal world. Animals are casually cruel and are usually, not always, indifferent to the pain of other animals. Animals kills for food or, rarely, for sport but they do not torture, gloat over pain or exterminate. We do. What’s more, we can tolerate our own ferocity. What we cannot tolerate is our own sexuality.”[71] Thus extreme violence is tolerated even on television, while the merest glimpse of sexual anatomy, however innocent, is enough to cause movie ratings to jump
Clothing limits or defeats many of the natural purposes of skin: for example, repelling moisture, drying quickly, breathing, protecting without impeding performance, and especially sensing one’s environment. C. W. Saleeby writes: “This admirable organ, the natural clothing of the body, which grows continually throughout life, which has at least four absolutely distinct sets of sensory nerves distributed to it, which is essential in the regulation of the temperature, which is waterproof from without inwards, but allows the excretory sweat to escape freely, which, when unbroken, is microbe-proof, and which can readily absorb sunlight- this most beautiful, versatile, and wonderful organ is, for the most part, smothered, blanched, and blinded in clothes and can only gradually be restored to the air and light which are its natural surroundings. Then, and only then, we learn what it is capable of.”[72]
Exposure to the sun, without going overboard, promotes general health. Research suggests that solar exposure triggers the body’s synthesis of Vitamin D, vital for (among other things) calcium absorption and a strong immune system.[73] Exposure to the sun is especially essential for the growth of strong bones in young children.
Recent research has suggested an inverse relationship between solar exposure and osteoporosis, colon cancer, breast cancer, and even the most deadly form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma.[74]
An obsessive sense of modesty about the body often correlates with a reluctance to share healthy forms of touch with others. Research has increasingly linked touch-deprivation, especially during childhood and adolescence, to depression, violence, sexual inhibition, and other antisocial behaviors. Research has also shown that people who are physically cold toward adolescents produce hostile, aggressive, and often violent offspring. On the other hand, children brought up in families where the members touch each other are healthier, better able to withstand pain and infection, more sociable, and generally happier than families that don’t share touch.[75]
Tight clothing may cause health problems by restricting the natural flow of blood and lymphatic fluid. Recent research by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer demonstrated that women who wear bras more than twelve hours per day, but not to bed, are 21 times more likely to get breast cancer than those who wear bras less than twelve hours per day. Those who wear bras even to bed are 125 times more likely to get breast cancer than those who don’t wear bras at all. Testicular cancer, similarly, has been linked to tight briefs. The theory is that tight clothing impedes the lymph system, which removes cancer-causing toxins from the body.[76]
Clothing can harbor disease-causing bacteria and yeast (especially underclothing and athletic clothing).
Medical research has linked clothing to an increased susceptibility to bites and stings by animals such as ticks and sea lice, which hide in or get trapped in clothing.[77]
Clothing fashions throughout history, especially for women, have often been damaging to physical and psychological health.[78] For instance, the wearing of corsets led to numerous physical ailments in women in the late 19th century. Men and women both suffered through many ages of history under hot, burdensome layers of clothing in the name of fashion. Footwear has been especially notorious for resisting reason and comfort in the name of fashion.
The idea that clothing is necessary for support of the genitals or breasts is often unwarranted. For example, research shows that the choice of wearing a bra or not has no bearing on the tendency of a woman’s breasts to “droop” as she ages. Deborah Franklin writes: “Still, the myth that daily, lifelong bra wearing is crucial to preserving curves persists, along with other misguided notions about that fetching bit of binding left over from the days when a wasp waist defined the contours of a woman’s power.” Christine Haycock, of the New Jersey Medical School, says that while exercising without a bra may be uncomfortable for large-breasted women, “it’s not doing any lasting damage to chest muscles or breast tissue.” In fact, given the tendency of sports bras to squash breasts against the rib cage, her research concluded that “those who wore an A cup were frequently most comfortable with no bra at all.”[79] Complete nudity presents no difficulties for conditioned male athletes, either; and thus the athletes of ancient Athens had no trouble performing entirely in the nude.[80]
Clothing hides the natural beauty of the human body, as created by God. In the words of Michelangelo: “What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot grasp the fact that the human foot is more noble than the shoe and human skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?”
Clothing makes people look older, and emphasizes rather than hides unflattering body characteristics. Paul Fussell writes: “Nude, older people look younger, especially when very tan, and younger people look even younger. . . . In addition fat people look far less offensive naked than clothed. Clothes, you realize, have the effect of sausage casings, severely defining and advertising the shape of what they contain, pulling it all into an unnatural form which couldn’t fool anyone. . . . The beginning Naturist doesn’t take long to master the paradox that it is stockings that make varicose veins noticeable, belts that call attention to forty-eight-inch waists, brassieres that emphasize sagging breasts.”[81]
Clothing harbors and encourages the growth of odor-causing bacteria.
Well, there you have it, Sisters. Several reasons why you should go nude instead of being a clothie. :) I'm pretty sure you don't want to deal with odor-causing bacteria. In other words, the last reason to go nude -- CLOTHING MAKES YOU SMELL BAD!
What was simple is that building a world starts with the solar system in this case. I figured four worlds in the cozy life zone, each opposite of each other. The approach or hook I'm using is that the surface of the main campaign world: Aerthas; is where the action is taking place.
The Solar System
The Solar System is heliocentric, and flies about a central, G2 type star that is much like our own Sun. This makes the Solar System Heliocentric. There are four planets that support life and are on the opposite sides of their respective orbits. So lets get the planets done and overwith.
Number of Planets in the Solar System: 9 (1d12, result 7, 7+2)
Mercury Orbit = (Earth World), a rocky mass that can only be called Hellania. Moon sized.
Venus Orbit = Asteroid Field (the remains of a planet that blew up anciently).
Earth Orbit = Aerthas, twinned with Arborea. Both are Terrestial worlds. Aerthas and Arborea have a circumference of 25,000 Imperial Miles around the Equators. They are also hollow.
Mars Orbit = Oceania twinned with Archeron. Also Terrestial Worlds. Oceania is a world covered with oceans, and Archeron is a world that is suffering from Defiling and Preserving.
Asteroid Belt orbit = Causiana -> a Magma World for the most part.
Jupiter orbit = Thea. A huge Jovian planet.
Saturn Orbit = Chronia. Chronia is a yellow-brown Dwarf star. It used to occupy the space above the North Polar region of Aerthas. Chronia is currently ringed like Saturn (okay, it's a Saturn rip-off.)
Uranus Orbit = Thalastos. Another Air world.
Neptune Orbit = Halandia. The final air world.
Pluto Orbit = (note that Pluto is down graded to a Kupier Object. Bleh!). Kieastos, an ice world.
Aerthas. Aerthas is the home of Humans and Dragons. When the Creators gathered together to create the Solar System. The Elven Gods and the Halfling Gods created Arborea, the Orc Gods and the Saurial Gods created Archeron, the Dwarf and Gnomish Gods created Oceania, and the Ilithid God and the Scalykind Gods created the planet that blew up.
As a result, the Illithids spread across the Universe bent on conquering other worlds, along with the Scalykind. Hellania and Causiana have no life to speak off. Hellania is too close to the sun to support life, and Causiana is a world of magma and slag.
Aerthas' Surface was divided up among the other Gods for future colonization. The Elves got green forests, the Dwarves got the riches of the mountains, the Gnomish gods got the sunlit, Rocky hills, and the Halflings the rolling meadows. The Creator God of the humans got the lot that allowed humans to dwell where they pleased. The Orc God was left the Badlands.
Humans came from inside Aerthas, the First Man and his Mates had to travel up through a cavern system to the surface. The Elves (Eladrin, Grey Elves, High Elves, and Sylvan (Wood) Elves) and Halflings had migrated to Aerthas on Spelljammer Ships from Arborea. The Orcs and Saurials, with their world's surface being ravaged by Defilers, were forced to flee Archeron in Spelljamming Ships -- bringing with them Warlock and Shaman magic.
The Dwarves and the Gnomes also came in Spelljaming Ships from the world of Oceania. Thus the races colonized the surface of Aerthas and on Aerthas is where the campaign's action is.
