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Bob Schroeck Wrote:Quote:You rock, my friend!
Indeed, back and forth with my arms wrapped around my knees, eyes closed and gibbering softly at the magnitude of the challenge I have set myself... I'd offer to help write the silly thing, except (a) I still have LoGG, BSBW, and Weekend at Looney's (in that order) to write, (b) I'm not sufficiently familiar with this particular Step, and (c) I don't retire for at least another decade...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
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vorticity Wrote:Well, it looks like I'm going to have to buy some of the Valdemar books now. Are they good reads?
Canadian lighthouse to U.S. Warship approaching it: "This is a lighthouse. Your call!"
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Yes. Very much so. Brent, when buying, don't forget to purchase "Oathbound", "Oathbreakers" and "By The Sword", which don't initially look like they're part of the Valdemar books, but tie directly in.
-- Bob
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most especially, make sure that you read By the Sword before reading the Winds of Magic Trilogy, it will help explain a bit more of what is going on there.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
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Also be advised the ending of the Vanyel trilogy (Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, Magic's Price) is spoilered in Arrows of the Queen, the first-written Valdemar story.
Note: Vanyel's ghost shows up in one of the later books. His sense of humor may be judged from the fact that the first thing he says is a cheerful, "You all look as if you'd seen a ghost!"
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Well well, I've been away for a while. In the past few months I've been doing a lot of code compiling, which gave me time to read quite a few Valdemar books. Er, I guess 14 by now. So I guess they're pretty good. 
I hadn't realized how much of the DW magic system comes from Valdemar, but it's a good choice. It's a nice consistent system with specific kinds of powers, but it's flexible enough to do just about anything and is used very inventively.
Lackey's beginnings are much better than her endings. I don't know why, but the denouements nearly always feel too short to me, with maybe the exceptions being Exile's Honor and Magic's Price so far. The White Gryphon feels like the weakest of all the books to me, because a mystery genre story is far less interesting when you know the identity of the killer at the beginning. But it was still interesting, largely because of the new culture and the culture clash.
Now that I got the complaining out of the way, Mercedes Lackey is really good at the man-against-nature type stories. And she knows her stuff with horses and raptors. The angsty parts are done well. And the romance... When I was reading Vanyel's story, a friend of mine from college called up, and told me how much he missed me. With the combination of the two, well, shinzo ga dokidoki shimashita. Dammit Lackey, you're turning me shay'a'chern.
I wonder if Doug has ever considered using final strike on an opponent. Although... * /me googles* ... it does look like a boomer tried it in DW2:6. lol. Well, thanks for the recommendations everyone, it's been a lot of fun, and there are still quite a few books to go.
-- ∇×V
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Doug doesn't really have good enough access to his magic to try a real final strike, although he could probably fake it if he had a big enough song running at the critical moment.
You want a final strike among the Warriors, you need to go to Hexe. It's not on her character sheet, but basically, if someone actually manages to kill Hexe's mortal shell, they're in for a world of hurt, as they've basically just unlocked all of Hexe, and she's going to still be right there, and pissed.
As for the magic system, personal-line-node isn't really unique to Lackey, although she's done a master's work on making it a part of Velgarth. I will admit to starting with her interpretation, but I very quickly expanded on it, leaving it as one of several "configurations" magic could take in a world. WW, for instance, doesn't really have nodes, although it does have the rare ley line. And places like the Harry Potter world clearly do not work on the line-node system.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Bob Schroeck Wrote:As for the magic system, personal-line-node isn't really unique to Lackey, although she's done a master's work on making it a part of Velgarth. I will admit to starting with her interpretation, but I very quickly expanded on it, leaving it as one of several "configurations" magic could take in a world. WW, for instance, doesn't really have nodes, although it does have the rare ley line. And places like the Harry Potter world clearly do not work on the line-node system. And Rental Magica (which liberally borrows more than just names from Hermetic and Crowleyian magic) makes use of ley lines as an important background feature.
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Oh, the idea of ley lines and nodes wasn't new to me -- I had just assumed it had come mostly from Warrior's World before. Heck, in an Alternity game I played 10 years ago, we accidentally toppled Tokyo Tower by messing with the ley lines. Oops.
It's just the that the little features of magic resemble Velgarth by default. Like the fact that after using a gate song, Doug is pretty much drained. There might be an entirely different explanation for that under the surface -- not necessarily from personal power drain -- but it still feels a little Valdemar's Gates. Obviously that configuration doesn't hold true for magic in the Potterverse.
Quote:You want a final strike among the Warriors, you need to go to Hexe. It's not on her character sheet, but basically, if someone actually manages to kill Hexe's mortal shell, they're in for a world of hurt, as they've basically just unlocked all of Hexe, and she's going to still be right there, and pissed.
Ahahaha. I assume her opponents have to go for Dogma-style incapacitation tactics, then.
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Quote:vorticity wrote:
Ahahaha. I assume her opponents have to go for Dogma-style incapacitation tactics, then.
Those of them who know what kind of danger they're in, at least. Does she advertise what she really is? Anyway, the impression I got is that people with enough power and/or skill that they could kill her mortal shell are few and far between, and most villains could go all-out on Hexe with no risk of getting anything more in return than a first-class shellackin', as opposed to what a truly enraged deity would deal out. Which probably isn't much comfort to those of the Evil persuasion. ("Have you tried not being a villain?")
Edit: I decided my phrasing might not have been clear enough about who'd be getting shellacked. Hopefully this is better.
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Quote:vorticity wrote:
It's just the that the little features of magic resemble Velgarth by default. Like the fact that after using a gate song, Doug is pretty much drained. There might be an entirely different explanation for that under the surface
Oh, there is -- that's there solely to give a reason why Doug doesn't cycle through several dozen (or more!) gate songs a day until he finds the right one for his current universe. Quote:Ahahaha. I assume her opponents have to go for Dogma-style incapacitation tactics, then.
They probably would if they knew, but that little bonus is not public knowledge -- it's possible that not even all the Warriors know about it. (Although the players all do.)
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Quote:DHBirr wrote:
Quote:vorticity wrote:
Ahahaha. I assume her opponents have to go for Dogma-style incapacitation tactics, then.
Those of them who know what kind of danger they're in, at least. Does she advertise what she really is? Anyway, the impression I got is that people with enough power and/or skill that they could kill her mortal shell are few and far between, and most villains could go all-out on Hexe with no risk of getting anything more in return than a first-class shellackin', as opposed to what a truly enraged deity would deal out. Which probably isn't much comfort to those of the Evil persuasion. ("Have you tried not being a villain?")
You know, I should read all the way to the end of the thread before replying. I could have just written, "Yeah, what DHBirr said, more or less."
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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