Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

[FenrisUlf]

I'm interested, but not enough to be sure I want it.

 

If you have a copy, what do you like about it? I'm mainly interested for the background on Takofanes and his time (will probably send my Champs heroes back on a time travel adventure sometime), but what else does it have?

 

Thanks for anything.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

I you want to run Fantasy, dont already have a Fantasy Setting of choice (either homegrown or from another game), and dont want to make it all up yourself, then get Turakian Age.

 

I have it, but since I have a plethora of Fantasy Settings that Im already more familiar with and like, between my own homegrown setting and several published ones like Oerth and Kalamar, any one of which I would likely use over some new minimally supported world -- well lets just say that I dont get any use out of my copy.

 

It seems to be a decent enough setting on a cursory scan. Since I dont intend to run it Ive never looked at it beyond that. Seems like a pretty vanilla by-the-numbers fantasy setting.

 

The maps are really good however. If only they were printed in a nice glossy color foldout I might be more interested in playing the game. Good maps that are useful as playaids are a big selling point for me with any fantasy setting. Im kind of a map snob I guess. I liked them so much, I commissioned the artist, Kieth "Around Here Somewhere" Curtis, to do a map for my own setting and I know of one other Fantasy HERO GM who did the same.

[James Gillen]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

What else does TA have?

 

In addition to the Elves and Dwarves, it has Drakine (a lizardman warrior race), at least one other lizard man race, two catlike races, and Trolls (although Trolls would be REALLY expensive as PCs).

 

It has a fairly interesting schism within the main church of the continent, one that may lead to war between the western kingdoms and the Hargeshite Empire.

 

It also is the house setting that allows spellcasters to divide the Real Cost of spells by 3, allowing them to have an appropriate range of spells without just giving everyone a Variable Power Pool.

 

I'm running it.

 

JG

[Rigel]

What else does TA have?

 

.. a swamp full of religiously-crazed frog-men...

 

.. an ancient city that was completely destoryed by one pissed-off dragon centuries ago for no apparent reason..

 

.. a benevolent "kingdom" rules for generations by one family who see themselves as only stewards of a lost empire, thus never taking the title of king for themselves..

 

.. a kingdom of civilized orcs who have learned to farm, build cities, and are reknown across the world as master shipwrights..

 

.. an entire "race" of men who have been cursed to never be trusted..

 

.. trolls, orcs, ogres, shark-men, giants, dwarves, dark dwarves, elves, dark elves, man/lion centaurs..

 

As published fantasy settings go, I think that TA is one of the best I've seen. I only wish there was more information. I don't know how the sales figures have been, but it would be great to see TA get some of the same treatment that the CU gets. I can envision an entire book on the free city of Aarn, or a sourcebook detailing the Sunless Realms under the planet's surface.

 

I plan to start a game within my group soon using the TA setting. A friend of mine are going to co-GM the game, taking turns running various adventures in the campaign. The campaign will be based around a travelling carnival or circus that has been on tour for hundreds of years now.

[Krieghandt]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

Actually, I dont care for the multitude of add ons, as it simply clutters up what I want to do. I like TA, but I'm adding in some of Monte Cooks Arcana Unearthed material ( Trolls will become Monte's giants after the main crisis). The best part is you can remove entire races without to much effort, and play vs. race x campaigns, including having the humans as the bad guys. It does take some work to choose the campaign area, and get it ready for play, but it will be the way you like it when your done, not the way somebody at a game company thought it should be.

Krieghandt

[bcholmes]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

I'm interested, but not enough to be sure I want it.

 

If you have a copy, what do you like about it? I'm mainly interested for the background on Takofanes and his time (will probably send my Champs heroes back on a time travel adventure sometime), but what else does it have?

 

I didn't like it. It has made me reconsider my "buy one of every Hero Games product" policy. I haven't yet passed up a product, but I'd be content to do so, now.

[James Gillen]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

I didn't like it.

 

Why not?

 

JG

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

I liked it, but I do have a few complaints about it:

 

1. Not enough maps - or rather, not enough information presented in the maps. It would have been nice and useful to have a few extra world maps that showed the religious/racial/economic/governmental divisions, at a glance. I'd like to be able to quicly determine (or be reminded) which kingdoms are the generally "good" kingdoms - relatively peaceful, benevelant ruler, subjects have some rights, reasonably tolerant of travellers, etc., and which are the "bad" guys - practice slavery, make constant war on neighboring lands, tyrant ruler, worship "dark, evil gods," have oppressive laws and restrictions, etc.

Also, there is no key to the maps. Eventually, you'll figure out that the round dots are "human" cities, the diamond dots are drakine cities, the tree shapes are elf cities and the axe shapes are dwarven cities. But where are the gnome and halfling cities?

Also, there is at least one area where I can't quite tell from the map which way the rivers flow.

 

2. Almost all of the names of people, places, and things seem to have no rhyme or reason to them. The place names seem to be nothing more than made-up words bearing no relationship to what they are. Most place names ITRW mean something, like a city being named after its founder. If there was some explanation of what the names meant, they would be easier to remember. As it is, many references in the book give no context to help the reader know what is being referred to.

 

3. In the description of the different lands' resources, they use too many generic terms. Just about every one uses one or more of the following: farming, herding, fishing, mining, craftwork. This isn't the most useful way to describe a nations economy. I would have liked more specific descriptions: precisely what craftworks do they do? Are they known for woodworking? Silversmithing? Armoring? Weaving? Leatherwork? Musical instruments? What exactly do they mine for? Gold? Diamonds? Iron? Copper? Plotdeviceium?

 

Other than that, I was pretty impressed with the book.

 

The scope of the book is so huge, you could game in the world for a whole lifetime. There's lots of stuff going on in the Turakian Age, even besides the looming threat of Kal-Turak himself!

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

I liked it, but I do have a few complaints about it:

 

1. Not enough maps - or rather, not enough information presented in the maps. It would have been nice and useful to have a few extra world maps that showed the religious/racial/economic/governmental divisions, at a glance. I'd like to be able to quicly determine (or be reminded) which kingdoms are the generally "good" kingdoms - relatively peaceful, benevelant ruler, subjects have some rights, reasonably tolerant of travellers, etc., and which are the "bad" guys - practice slavery, make constant war on neighboring lands, tyrant ruler, worship "dark, evil gods," have oppressive laws and restrictions, etc.

Im the same way when it comes to maps. I want political boundaries, nations with shared ancestry, and any significant geographically representable groupings depticted.

 

That kind of map helps me immerse myself in the setting and get a feel for it's socio-political climate, boundaries, some areas where tensions are naturally going to develop over resources, and so forth.

 

 

Thats the main reason I had Keith Curtis do my worlds primary map with color coded regions. However, judging from the reaction to it more people seem to prefer pure geography so it looks like we are in the minority on this one.

[arcady]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

It does DnD better than DnD.

 

You could read my review of it for why I say that and more:

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10598.phtml

[Rigel]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

The scope of the book is so huge' date=' you could game in the world for a whole lifetime. There's lots of stuff going on in the Turakian Age, even besides the looming threat of Kal-Turak himself![/quote']

I agree completely. Although no one at DOJ has said this, I hope that TA gets more published support in the future. A book about just the Westerlands or just the city of Aarn, or the Sunless Realms would be a great supplement to add to the 2006 schedule. If not a published book, maybe we can generate some interest in smaller DH articles to expand the setting.

 

And, yes, I too would have liked more maps, but I don't think that is a major problem with the book.

[James Gillen]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

City of Aarn would be a good choice for a fantasy sourcebook.

 

JG

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

Oh, and one more complaint:

 

4. Some illustrations would have helped a lot. A picture is worth a thousand words. They devoted quite a few words describing cities that are "a jumbled mish-mash of houses and shops, and even residents can get lost," and "clean, bright, well-organized cities with wide paved roads," and the royal palace Fnokirolis built by King Hufarb (Why didn'y he name it after himself?), and "gloomy dark neighborhoods infested with criminal activity" and "grand market places selling exotic goods from all over the world" and "mysterious ancient sacred monoliths inscribed with indecipherable runes" etc. Why aren't there any pictures of these things? Can you imagine a guidebook to New York City that doesn't include a picture of the skyline? Or a picture of the Statue of Liberty? Or pictures of the dozens of distictive buildings, places, and people of the city? The Guggenheim? The Empire State Building? Central Park? Times Square? Line of cabs? Street hot dog vendor? How else does one get a feel for what the place is really like? (Well, of course, you can always go there and experience it directly, but that option is not available for Aarn.) That's why they have postcards - come to LA and get a postcard of babes on the beach, the Hollywood sign, surfers, etc. These are all pictures, not words. Pictures bring the place to life, give it personality and atmosphere. I think the book would have been much better if they had left out, say all of the continent of Mitharia and Kumasia, and replaced those pages with pictures.

 

Is Steve Long reading this?

[James Gillen]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

Yeah, some pictures of surfers and babes on the beach woulda helped.

 

JG

[keithcurtis]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

Oh, and one more complaint:

 

4. Some illustrations would have helped a lot. A picture is worth a thousand words.

...

I think the book would have been much better if they had left out, say all of the continent of Mitharia and Kumasia, and replaced those pages with pictures.

 

Is Steve Long reading this?

 

There is a limit on how big they can make the art budget, I suspect. If they left out those two continents, people would complain that two whole continents went undescribed and the space could have been better used than to illustrate some fairly generic-looking buildings. Besides, if they had included all the pictures of buildings, they wouldn't have had room for all the historical, cultural and language maps.

 

Keith "No that I object to more map, you understand..." Curtis

[arcady]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

If you want more illustrations shift the typeface down by two points and thus free up a hundred pages or so...

 

All a setting book needs though is perhaps a generic male and female of each culture illustrated somewhere and a pic for each major highly unusual something.

 

Take those and pose them for mood.

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

There is a limit on how big they can make the art budget' date=' I suspect.[/quote']

No, there's a limit on their overall budget. They could have spent more on art and less on writing.

If they left out those two continents, people would complain that two whole continents went undescribed and the space could have been better used than to illustrate some fairly generic-looking buildings.

I'm not saying to not describe them at all, but a shorter, overall might have sufficed. Then they can be fleshed out further in a subsequent source book. You could run a good campaign for years without ever leaving the Westerlands. Without ever confronting Kal-Turak, or the evil wizards of Thun. And if all the buildings are generic, why bother describing them with words either? Give us some scenery to bring the places and people to life. We don't need scribbly pictures of "This is what a generic dwarf looks like. This is what a generic elf looks like. etc." I've seen fantasy art before. There are a few of us out there that even saw a recent movie you may have heard of. We know what elves and dwarves and hobbits, er, excuse me, halflings look like. The only "generic" illustrations you "need" are of the unique or unusual races or monsters, like the drakine (though why they have cat-like legs and feet is still a mystery to me). Better yet, don't include *ANY* generic illustrations. Let every illustation show a specific character, place, or thing. Not "a drakine," but "Locoron Bonecarver, the drakine general at the Battle of Hantagshire." Not "a castle," but "Ciprio Hall, the Royal Palace of King Dajor XVIII, built by his ancestor, Dajor VI, overlooking the city of Selask and the Selask River."

Besides, if they had included all the pictures of buildings, they wouldn't have had room for all the historical, cultural and language maps.

It's a matter of priorities. I think they chose the wrong ones. The lack of illustrations is a sad missed opportunity.

 

And no, they shouldn't have made the type size any smaller, just to save space, IMO. I fully understand that the main expense comes in producing the artwork (paying the artists and the added printing costs), not simply in the number of pages.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

I take the opposite approach to Phil's ... I would very much like to see gaming supplements with only the absolute minimum necessary art. Maps, illustrations of character races, perhaps (but not necessarily) illustrations of monsters, art for example illustrations ... but that's it. I would much rather have more text, or simply a lower page count (to reduce the cost) than artwork that exists just to make the final product more 'presentable' or 'attractive'.

 

This isn't meant as any kind of slam on the artists. Your work is great ... but I don't put a whole lot of stock in the presentation. Just flipping through FRED, I don't see any art that I see as being really important until the Force Wall Example. I always thought that the 'Stingy Gamer Edition' books that GoO put out were a great idea. Don't want the flash? Don't pay for it.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

I take the opposite approach to Phil's ... I would very much like to see gaming supplements with only the absolute minimum necessary art. Maps, illustrations of character races, perhaps (but not necessarily) illustrations of monsters, art for example illustrations ... but that's it. I would much rather have more text, or simply a lower page count (to reduce the cost) than artwork that exists just to make the final product more 'presentable' or 'attractive'.

 

This isn't meant as any kind of slam on the artists. Your work is great ... but I don't put a whole lot of stock in the presentation. Just flipping through FRED, I don't see any art that I see as being really important until the Force Wall Example. I always thought that the 'Stingy Gamer Edition' books that GoO put out were a great idea. Don't want the flash? Don't pay for it.

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

I agree that you don't need much art in a rule book or a genre book or a generic source book, but for a setting book you do. Also for a character book. An illustration can really give a feel for the personality of a place or person more than text.

[AlHazred]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

It's been said before: The Art Of The Turakian Age and The Atlas Of The Turakian Age (both in full color, a la similar Lord of the Rings products) would be on many gamers' Christmas lists.

 

But who's going to risk the money to make them? You? It certainly won't be me; I don't know how easy it is to get a third mortgage, and I'm not going to find out, either.

[keithcurtis]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

All good points, which cause me to paraphrase my last answer:

 

"You can't please everyone."

 

Keith "but more maps is always better" Curtis

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

A related question, while we're on the subject of illustrations: What is that on the cover of the TA book? Where is it? What part of Ambrethel is depicted? Who are those people? Anyone important to the Turakian Age?

[keithcurtis]

Re: Turakian Age: Why should I buy it?

 

A related question' date=' while we're on the subject of illustrations: What is that on the cover of the TA book? Where is it? What part of Ambrethel is depicted? Who are those people? Anyone important to the Turakian Age?[/quote']

 

I believe we are seeing a portal to the fabulous past of the city of Iluria, before it fell during the Drakine Wars. It can be found on the coast of the map on page 60, west of Aarn, wher it is incorrectly marked as a city. It should be ruins.

 

Keith "shamefaced cartographer" Curtis