Les Ombres d'Esteren - Forum officiel

So i finally got a chance to give an indepth reading of book 1 universe nearly finished with it got book 2 up next and it brought to mind a few questions that leave me a little bit concerned. Which ultimately boils down to how well does shadows of esteren handle campaigns outside of officially published adventures.

1) It seems fiondas are a big part of the esteren campaign, book 2 gave us 10 of them to play with. Im not sure if they are stat blocks to be used in official campaign since it appears that each fionda is unique as opposed to a creature type. So are they for use in the official campaign or for us to play with in a game leader designed adventure? And also, Are there any guidelines for creating our own fiondas?

2) What about morcail, sorcerers, ghosts/spirits, c'maugh and all those other ones. How to handle incorporeal creatures and other spirits?

3) An assumption i made on buying the game was that it was optional to use officially published campaigns/adventures and making up our own material within the world was encouraged. Is that correct?

4) As the game is written is it designed with the idea of having human interactions the main focus of the game between various factions and people or rather how common should interactions with monstrous entities be? There seems so many different things you can do on the world but at least in book 1 very little information on how to handle these things as a game leader. As of right now i have sort of in my head "world of darkness with swords and weird science"

These were just various things that popped up while reading it since i noticed book 1 lacks a lot of game leader advice and is very reminiscent of a players guide. Book 2 seems like it was designed more for game leaders but with more actual setting information than crunchy mechanics. So in the future will there be guides to address things like a dedicated bestiary or at least a rough guide on monster creation. I am planning on running a game in the near future will probably have to be online though. I do hope i get to play in one first.

Ocule a écrit :So i finally got a chance to give an indepth reading of book 1 universe nearly finished with it got book 2 up next and it brought to mind a few questions that leave me a little bit concerned. Which ultimately boils down to how well does shadows of esteren handle campaigns outside of officially published adventures.

1) It seems fiondas are a big part of the esteren campaign, book 2 gave us 10 of them to play with. Im not sure if they are stat blocks to be used in official campaign since it appears that each fionda is unique as opposed to a creature type. So are they for use in the official campaign or for us to play with in a game leader designed adventure? And also, Are there any guidelines for creating our own fiondas?

2) What about morcail, sorcerers, ghosts/spirits, c'maugh and all those other ones. How to handle incorporeal creatures and other spirits?

3) An assumption i made on buying the game was that it was optional to use officially published campaigns/adventures and making up our own material within the world was encouraged. Is that correct?

4) As the game is written is it designed with the idea of having human interactions the main focus of the game between various factions and people or rather how common should interactions with monstrous entities be? There seems so many different things you can do on the world but at least in book 1 very little information on how to handle these things as a game leader. As of right now i have sort of in my head "world of darkness with swords and weird science"

These were just various things that popped up while reading it since i noticed book 1 lacks a lot of game leader advice and is very reminiscent of a players guide. Book 2 seems like it was designed more for game leaders but with more actual setting information than crunchy mechanics. So in the future will there be guides to address things like a dedicated bestiary or at least a rough guide on monster creation. I am planning on running a game in the near future will probably have to be online though. I do hope i get to play in one first.

You'd better say "Feondas" or "Féondas" if you can use diacritics on your keyboard

To answer you, all your questions are in fact related to the Book 4 - Secrets, which is currently under writing process. This book was first intended to release just after Book 1 - Universe, but time, community, fame and ideas came up, and the whole team worked on the other sides of Esteren : Book 0 - Prologue, The monastery of Tuath, Book 2 - Travels, and now the official campaign, Book 3 - Dearg. All of this, combined with all the Ulule and Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns, represents a huge amount of work, this is why the Book 4 - Secrets takes time to release.

I think you'll find all your answers in this book once it's finished !

Pierstoval a écrit :

Ocule a écrit :So i finally got a chance to give an indepth reading of book 1 universe nearly finished with it got book 2 up next and it brought to mind a few questions that leave me a little bit concerned. Which ultimately boils down to how well does shadows of esteren handle campaigns outside of officially published adventures.

1) It seems fiondas are a big part of the esteren campaign, book 2 gave us 10 of them to play with. Im not sure if they are stat blocks to be used in official campaign since it appears that each fionda is unique as opposed to a creature type. So are they for use in the official campaign or for us to play with in a game leader designed adventure? And also, Are there any guidelines for creating our own fiondas?

2) What about morcail, sorcerers, ghosts/spirits, c'maugh and all those other ones. How to handle incorporeal creatures and other spirits?

3) An assumption i made on buying the game was that it was optional to use officially published campaigns/adventures and making up our own material within the world was encouraged. Is that correct?

4) As the game is written is it designed with the idea of having human interactions the main focus of the game between various factions and people or rather how common should interactions with monstrous entities be? There seems so many different things you can do on the world but at least in book 1 very little information on how to handle these things as a game leader. As of right now i have sort of in my head "world of darkness with swords and weird science"

These were just various things that popped up while reading it since i noticed book 1 lacks a lot of game leader advice and is very reminiscent of a players guide. Book 2 seems like it was designed more for game leaders but with more actual setting information than crunchy mechanics. So in the future will there be guides to address things like a dedicated bestiary or at least a rough guide on monster creation. I am planning on running a game in the near future will probably have to be online though. I do hope i get to play in one first.

You'd better say "Feondas" or "Féondas" if you can use diacritics on your keyboard

To answer you, all your questions are in fact related to the Book 4 - Secrets, which is currently under writing process. This book was first intended to release just after Book 1 - Universe, but time, community, fame and ideas came up, and the whole team worked on the other sides of Esteren : Book 0 - Prologue, The monastery of Tuath, Book 2 - Travels, and now the official campaign, Book 3 - Dearg. All of this, combined with all the Ulule and Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns, represents a huge amount of work, this is why the Book 4 - Secrets takes time to release.

I think you'll find all your answers in this book once it's finished !

Well now you guys got me all kinds of excited. Guess official campaign should last me until then when it comes out. I do kind of wish Secrets would have come out immediately after book1 So book 4 - secrets will contain everything you need to make your own stories within the esteren universe? So if i understand correctly:

Book 1 = Players guide
Book 2 = Setting Guide/Almonac
Book 3 = Official Campaign
Book 4 = GL guide/akin to the DM book in the D&D line.

And I need to use alt codes to say Féondas sadly

Hello Ocule and welcome to the shadows, here what I think of your concerns

1) Like you said Feonds are often original creatures so I would say on the contrary that you don't have to worry, the peninsula is big enough and filled with feonds so I think you should feel urged to create your owns. May they be as vicious as eager to kill your players.

2) They are already few official scenarios with incorporeal threats so they exist but it seems to me they are really rare. But then again if you want to add some of your own why would you restrict yourself ? So long your idea is good and instill fear. I think at the moment Esteren is flexible enough so you should feel free to add you own schemes, the only thing, I think, you should be wary when you add something is that it should remain mysterious. Don't try to explain the universe wait for book "secrets".

3) I highly think so

4) World of Darkness is a good inspiration but I find there's a difference, world of darkness has very clear rules about it's universe even if it's magic they are some clear rules that applies. I find Esteren on the other hand still very ambiguous in it's fantastic aspects. Some things work a certain way without explanations. Also the world is still dominated by humans, the magic is not the core aspect of the game. Try to play a mere human in World of darkness, fantastic has not the same power here hence the importance of the social and humans aspect of Shadows of Esteren.

Ocule a écrit :Well now you guys got me all kinds of excited. Guess official campaign should last me until then when it comes out. I do kind of wish Secrets would have come out immediately after book1 So book 4 - secrets will contain everything you need to make your own stories within the esteren universe? So if i understand correctly:

Book 1 = Players guide
Book 2 = Setting Guide/Almonac
Book 3 = Official Campaign
Book 4 = GL guide/akin to the DM book in the D&D line.

And I need to use alt codes to say Féondas sadly

Don't worry, just say "Feondas", everyone'll understand ^^

For the books order, you're totally right ! A 5th book has been chosen by the backers from previous kickstarters, and will concern Peoples, but can't tell more

To add more details to what Deorman answered to you, remember that Esteren is a threatening world, and any story has many chances to finish with death and darkness.
I don't think that a GM needs proper rules to create monsters like Feondas : they are the reason why people are always scared of everything, they are the curse, the main plague that populates the whole world of Esteren, the reason why children hide under their bed at night, afraid of the dark. Feondas are deadly creatures, and they are strong, solid, tough and hard to kill. This is why any Feond you can create would match only one word : deadly.

I'm just passing by to clarify that "Feondas" is actually the official spelling (no accent on the "e").