Valdorian Age, Turakian Age

[Alcamtar]

Do these settings contain Fantasy Hero mechanics, or are they just setting fluff? That is, do they offer anything more to the Fantasy Hero gamer than, say, Forgotten Realms or even a good novel?

Assuming they do contain mechanical stuff, how well integrated is it? I mean is it just an appendix or chapter on how magic works, or are mechanics pervasive throughout the books? (For example, "finding your way in the great dismal swamp requires a Survival check at -3")

Do these books contain mechanical ideas that could be ripped off and used in a homebrew setting, or maybe to convert another published setting? (I have nothing in mind here, just trying to guage how useful these books may be)

Thanks,
Mike

[Alric]

There are lots of racial and cultural templates. There are also a handful of pre-designed spells and special abilities. Turakian Age seems to have more mechanical stuff than Valdorian Age.

There are tons of things that can be lifted for other campaigns.

The mechanics are fairly segregated from the "fluff". The machanics are broken into appropriate chapters, i.e. the characters chapter has all the racial templates while the magic chapter has the spells.

[Captain Obvious]

VA has an excellent magic system for S&S. I felt it was worth it for that alone.

[katal3]

Incedently the same magic system is presented in the Fantasy Hero Grimorie series. with many more examples of its application

[Steve Long]

Just to be clear, the Valdorian Age magic system is not in either of the FH Grimoires. It's found only in VA itself. The FHGs present so many options for spells that the spells are easily adapted to many different systems, but adapting them to the VA system (where that would even be appropriate) would require a little effort.

[katal3]

oops. my bad, shoulda remembered that.

[Lord Liaden]

I really couldn't give you more detail, or more balanced overviews of these products, than appear in extant reviews on the Internet.

Here are reviews of The Valdorian Age:
http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=2141336
http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=2153159

And here are a couple for The Turakian Age:
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10309.phtml
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10354.phtml

[Susano]

VA has an excellent magic system for S&S. I felt it was worth it for that alone.

I'll second this comment.

[PhilFleischmann]

I'll second this comment.
I will third that comment. I thought VA was excellent. I seem to be in the minority who thinks it's a better book than TA. TA was very broad, covering vast areas of the world in limited detail. VA, in contrast, covers one city in so much detail that you can really get a feel for it. There's probably about an equal amount of crunchy goodness in both books, but in TA it seems to be spread a little thin. I think it would have been better if TA was written that way: Start with Aarn, and thoroughly detail that city, its inhabitants, etc., and then branch out from there.

[Susano]

There are things I didn't like about VA -- mostly dealing with the names used for people and places. But, the wealth of ideas is excellent -- it is far more colorful than TA, which while huge in scope, is rather dry.

[Roland]

VA actually introduces a lot of peculiar game mechanics. Besides the specialized magic system, it also introduces special rules about characteristics and skills. In addition to standard characteristic maxima, it introduces standard skill maxima: if you want to increase a skill above 13- it costs double.

It also has rules about the Power Skill: Weapon Tricks for various weapons.

I was very impressed with VA - I think it captures the S&S sub-genre quite well. It's basically Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser with Elric-style summoning magic.

[Susano]

The magic system is reminiscent of some elements of REH's Hyborian age as well. I'm not 100% sure it captures the feel of S&S settings... it certainly doesn't seem like Conan, as Conan himself is nigh impossible to create using the VA rules. It doesn't seem like Elric's world much either... but it might be Lankmar. I think it most reminds me of Thieves' World, although TW had very present gods, which VA doesn't.

[Captain Obvious]

The magic system is reminiscent of some elements of REH's Hyborian age as well. I'm not 100% sure it captures the feel of S&S settings... it certainly doesn't seem like Conan, as Conan himself is nigh impossible to create using the VA rules. It doesn't seem like Elric's world much either... but it might be Lankmar. I think it most reminds me of Thieves' World, although TW had very present gods, which VA doesn't.
Conan's not a good example of S&S, at least for gaming purposes. For that matter, neither is Elric. They both outclass everyone else around them by so much that they wouldn't fit into any kind of low fantasy game.

[Lord Liaden]

Well, I think that VA is evocative of much of the sorcery that appears in the Conan stories, specifically the calling up of spirits/demons/etc. to do stuff for you. It's just that Conan often plows right through entities that would be unstoppable by a normal man (although luck and smarts sometimes help him out a lot in that regard).

I think the sorcery system works really well for Elric's summoning of elementals, animal master types and the like, if you remember that Elric has the benefit of ancient pacts forged with these beings by his ancestors, that allow him to call on some of the mightiest of them pretty much whenever he wants. I remember when Elric had his final confrontation with the wizard Theleb Ka'arna, that wizard bartered his soul like crazy for the aid of a fire elemental lord to protect him from Elric's attack. Of course Elric often interacts with true major gods, whose powers transcend any mortal sorcery.