The Valdorian Age - Good, Bad or Meh?

[Steve]

One of the PCs in my recent one-shot was Drindrish-blooded (basically a half-elf), a legacy of their race mixing with humans long ago. He had an ancient, inherited elfin chainmail hauberk (the only advantage it had was that it was half-mass).

[Lord Liaden]

That could be a huge issue in Valdoria.

[bluesguy]

17 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

That could be a huge issue in Valdoria.

Yea the only good "Drindrish" is a dead one 🙂

[Steve]

20 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

That could be a huge issue in Valdoria.

Yes, the character had Distinctive Features and a Social Complication. They didn’t really come into play during the one-shot, but they would cause trouble eventually.

[Sallos]

     I might be wrong, but I think I'm seeing two basic concepts being tossed about. One is where the GM prefers a rich setting and the other being a smaller setting for the room to express individual vision.  I've been doing table-top since the eighties in about every system you can imagine and done a LOT of world building.  In either case, you (the GM) will need to invest a lot of time and effort either researching the pregenerated material or inventing it whole cloth.  I have two of my regular players who want to GM but refuse to put in the work to prep.  It's frustrating since they have these huge, rich, and inventive stories and settings in their heads.  It's my hope that before I die of old age they will pull the trigger and share their insanity.

     As to the original thread question; The published setting for Fantasy Hero is 'ok' in my opinion but isn't really offering anything I havn't seen in other settings who's writers put in a lot more work and content.  Speaking for myself, I can't summon an argument for why you should use their setting over, let's say converting Toril and just using the literal Gigs of content present.

     I guess it all boils down to what kind of game you want.  The 'least' amount of work is to take one of the larger settings as you wont have to invent as much. You will however have to be conversant with the large body of work, which is a bit of reading generally.  Doing something new is less reading but more mentally taxing as you're creating.  It's a crapload of work either way in my opinion.

[Lord Liaden]

I believe the "reading" part of this equation is significant. If you're using a detailed published setting, as GM there's a lot to get familiar with. Obviously you can present the players with as much or as little as you believe they need and want to know. But I personally love the reading part. I love to explore a world, immerse myself in a different perspective on life, learn which things I would adopt whole cloth and which I'd like to tinker with. That process is a big part of the pleasure of fantasy gaming for me.

[Sallos]

I'd like to amend my earlier statement.  I originally gave a solid "meh" for the Fantasy Hero meta setting.  I admit this was a knee-jerk to seeing all of the usual tropes that you find in pretty much all such settings.  I have since more deeply delved into the material and find myself liking it quite a bit.  So much so that I will be running a game at my local shop using said material. I also agree with Lord Liaden that pre-done settings an give a lot of inspiration.

[Lord Liaden]

May I ask if you're planning to base your game on one of the setting "Ages" published by Hero Games (Turakian, Valdorian, Atlantean, or Tuala Morn), or adapting elements from more than one of them? Since they're all part of the same Fantasy Hero "meta-setting."

[Sallos]

     I'll be using Turakian initially and then will be doing a crossover involving Dark Champions Hudson city.  The more I'm delving into it, the more I like it.  Havn't used Hero in many years and am excited to be using it again.  It may take some arm twisting to get a group to take a chance on something other than 5e.  Fortunately, I have a good rep as a GM at the store, so I think I'll get some bites.