Turakian Age with no Kal Turak

[Mr. R]

The opposite to my other question. Has anyone planned to use The Turakian Age WITHOUT (gasp) the BEBG. Does he just not exist? Or is he a mostly normal person with a great imagination who has managed to carve a kingdom for himself up there.

To me Number 2 Allows for some interesting stuff as you can add some of your own countries and add to the already heavy political situation (are they High church/Hargeshites, another Orc/Elf kingdom, another Old one buried in the north?)

So .......?

[Markdoc]

Sounds feasible to me.

I'm still pondering whether to buy TA (the whacked-out magic system put me off, but the otherwise positive comments are making me reconsider it as source material).

Since the BBEG doesn't have any stat lines, and is there as a placeholder/source of plotlines, you could easily replace him with someone/something else.

cheers, Mark

[Metaphysician]

Without Kal-Turak, you'd have to heavily alter alot of the history though. Its his presence that has caused all those various old hatreds, rivalries, and ambitions to flare in recent centuries, to say nothing of his actual manipulations and plots.

[DreadDomain]

I'm still pondering whether to buy TA (the whacked-out magic system put me off, but the otherwise positive comments are making me reconsider it as source material).

I sure don't want to hijack this thread but I am curious as to why you feel the magic system is whacked-out. Feel free to start another thread if you think it would be better answered there...

As for Kal-Turak, he could easily be nothing more than superstition. Some kind of bogeyman everybody blames when something goes wrong. The same goes for Turakia. It could be believed to be and evil land so nobody goes there but it could be anything else in reality, from a wasteland to a realm of xenophobic, isolationist culture/race. Heck, it could even be paradise on earth and those staying there (people controlling high magic perhaps) would themselves nurture all the rumors to keep other people out.

[JJR]

I'm still pondering whether to buy TA (the whacked-out magic system put me off, but the otherwise positive comments are making me reconsider it as source material).
There is a copy for sale on eBay right now for like $8.50. If I did not already have 2 copies I would bid on it myself.

EDIT: I did not know you were in Denmark when I posted. That auction will not work for you. Sorry for the trouble of bringing it up.

[Shadowpup]

I sure don't want to hijack this thread but I am curious as to why you feel the magic system is whacked-out. Feel free to start another thread if you think it would be better answered there...

I think it has to do with the whole figure out how much the spell costs after limitations and then divide by 3 to get actual point cost. It allows players to create wizards with loads of spells. Not sure if the need a skill for each type of magic thing is part of it but kinda makes sense to me. In a way having to buy a different skill for each type of magic balances out the divide by 3 thing.

[Talon]

If I ran a TA game, Mr. Turak would not play a major part in the game, though he might be up there. Since I'm running a large-scale game right now, my next one will have a less-epic focus.

The TA magic system is...high powered. It would be nice to have seen some notes on balancing it, but I suspect it would do just fine as long as the rest of the game was equally high powered.

[Killer Shrike]

Ive heard that Turak is the cambion son of Grzz't and Iggwilv.

OK, not really, but the point is "BBEG's" like Turak are pretty interchangable. They basically just exist as a) plot tools and b) to give players that are uncomfortable dealing with shades of grey a clear cut comparison point for badness.

Sure the Loaranzian Pirates or Horsh are bad.....but are they as bad as Turak?


If you want to get rid of Turak either write him out, replace him with your own patented blend of eleven evil spices, or just say Belgarion already killed him in a previous Age :D

[PhilFleischmann]

I bought the book for inspiration, but I don't plan on running a campaign in it. I wouldn't say the magic system is whacked, but it isn't the system I want to use.

On to the topic at hand: My campaign world is somewhat like TA without Kal-Turak. Who says you need a BEBG at all? There is still plenty of adventure to challenge the PCs. There are political intrigues, unexplored lands, trade routes to be secured, dangerous monsters running around, ancient mystic ruins to explore, and treasure to be found. There are plenty of other over-arching plots for a campaign besides "BEBG gradually takes over the world unless you eventually stop him."

[Greatwyrm]

There are plenty of other over-arching plots for a campaign besides "BEBG gradually takes over the world unless you eventually stop him."

True, but what's the point of being a contender if you never get a shot at the champ? Sooner or later, everybody wants that one fight, where they know they've bitten off more than they can chew, just to see if they can pull it off.

[Talon]

True, but what's the point of being a contender if you never get a shot at the champ? Sooner or later, everybody wants that one fight, where they know they've bitten off more than they can chew, just to see if they can pull it off.

Sure, but you don't need a BBEG to have that fight -- a champion of Thun, a demon, or a team of rival adventurers can all fill the same slot without threatening the entire world.

Some groups find a "stop him or he will TAKE OVER THE WORLD" plot to be too heavy -- too much responsibility for an escapist game. I like those plots at times, but don't want to run them all the time.

[Krieghandt]

I plan to run TA with my own magic system (VPP based) and leave Turak a scheming workaholic the first go around, then after he dies and comes back, make him the BBEG. Since a group of trolls will have migrated off continent, this leads to a Monte Cook alternate history, with trolls taking the place of giants.
Krieghandt