Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

A question or three about the book proper:

 

Does it cover the remnants of the nonhuman races we were told about in other HG books, who are supposed to be on the side of Gorak?

 

Myself, I'd like to run an 'Island of Macumeran' with 'wolf people' in the setting.

 

Also, are there any tie-ins to the greater history of the HG-Verse?

 

Thanks for any answers.

 

What nonhuman races have been mentioned supporting Gorak? I'm not sure what you're referring to (and that may very well be a duh moment for me, once you answer).

 

As for tie-ins to the rest of the metaverse, Elweir and Abyzinia from the Valdorian Age are mentioned, and Hidden Lands is referenced quite a bit (unsurprisingly).

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

What nonhuman races have been mentioned supporting Gorak? I'm not sure what you're referring to (and that may very well be a duh moment for me, once you answer).

 

 

I think it was something in Hidden Lands, where they talked about how when the nobleman who became Sharna-Gorak (Dalsith the Orphan) went against Atlantis he had the remannts of the last few nonhuman races on Earth battling alongside him, apparently because the Atlanteans had been persecuting them.

[John-Walton]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

...find a way to deal with that problem' date=' we're going back to the two-column method.[/quote']

 

Preach it, Brother !!

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

I think it was something in Hidden Lands' date=' where they talked about how when the nobleman who became Sharna-Gorak (Dalsith the Orphan) went against Atlantis he had the remannts of the last few nonhuman races on Earth battling alongside him, apparently because the Atlanteans had been persecuting them.[/quote']

 

The only non-humans I can think of from TAA are Centaurs, Satyrs, and Serpent Men, and the first two are Atlanteans. I guess the Empyreans and Lemurians technically aren't human either, though.

[Mr. R]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

Well just for fun I tried to make a character for the Atlantean Age. Then I got to Languages. It said see table.....flip flip flip.....?

 

So where is the table?

[Steve Long]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

The table's already been posted in the Free Stuff section. Andy accidentally left it out, and I somehow overlooked it in final editing.

[Tywyll]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

So... does anyone who bought it want to give a review?

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

I won't give it a full professional quality review, but I will say that it's an exciting book. The background is interesting, with a variety of nations and cultures, and room for global scale adventure...international intrigue, warfare, etc. High powered setting...the rank-and-file Atlantean soldier has a STR of 20, and wizards wield incredible power. Many people know at least a minor spell or two...there's a nation whose archers know a spell to cause their arrows to flame. There's a fair amount of stuff reprinted from Hidden Lands (pisciremes, flynq-sharks, etc), but a lot of new stuff too.

 

I spent about 20 seconds flipping through it at the store before I tucked it under my arm, knowing I would buy it.

[Cardinal]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

Has anyone done a full review of Atlantean Age? I did not find one with a quick search.

 

If not, is anyone who has a copy willing to step up and write one up?

 

Thanks in advance.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

I should (with luck!) have a full review by years end at the absolute latest. I have about 4 books in my Review Queue and I want to enter the new year with 0 left to do. So, check back this weekend.

[Susano]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

I finished reading it last week.

 

It is a high-magic setting, with 300+50 point characters. It reminds me a bit of Niven's The Magic Goes Away setting, but before the loss of mana. It also has a lot in common with the old 3rd Edition supplement of Mythic Greece by Aaron Allston, except the PCs are going to be even more powerful in AA than MG. Personally, I was intrigued by the character design concepts than the setting, as I realized it was perfect for someone wanting to run Weapons of the Gods in Hero. For example, AA has swords with STR min of 30 (and 40 IIRC), while WotG mentions swords that weigh 200 to 1,000 lbs. And while WotG doesn't have sorcery on the scale of AA, it does have utterly over-the-top kung fu powers that can let one man take on an army.

 

The book itself is closely linked to Hidden Lands (due to the Lemurians and Emperyians), so I'd recommend getting that book if you were to run something set in AA. You'd also want to have the Hero Bestiary on hand for assorted creatures and the like (Asian Bestiaries no so much).

 

The AA, much like Tuala Morn, is almost purposefully designed to give PCs a reason to wander the world and get into trouble. There is always a need for heroes to fight monsters, quest for the gods, stop an invading army, recover a lost treasure, and so on. So there's a lot for PCs to do, and the high-magic will make most campaigns globe-trotting ones.

 

On the flip side of all this, the book suffers from some major errors -- mainly dealing with layout. As stated, a chart is referenced that's not in the book, and later on, three page listings are given as: "see page yyy." I also thought the writing wasn't as tight in areas as I'd come to expect from Steve, but that's a matter of personal preference (i.e., I would have phrased things differently, or used different words). Also as stated, the art work of the settings BBEG is, well, uhm... not very good.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

I just bought and read it over the Christmas holiday.

 

The Good:

I really like most of the setting info that makes up the lion's share of the book, particularly the play-by-play of the various nations, their peoples, political setup, etc. The history of Atlantean-Lemurian hostility is especially riveting and offers a lot of story possibilities. It was also nice to read more about the Empyreans and the Serpent Men, races I've seen mentioned in previous books but had little concrete info about.

 

I liked the treatment of orichalcum and the various elemental substances similarly used by the Lemurians, an interesting take on magical science that reminds me of some Pulp-era magazine treatments of Atlantis.

 

Personally, I like the 3-column setup for everything but the character sheets. It makes for good flow in the highly compartmentalized geographical write-ups. Some of the art is beautiful, particularly Ted Kim's work and a breathtaking piece by Storn Cook.

 

The Bad:

I'm not fond of the hodgepodge mixing of Greek gods, Titans, and author-invented deities in the Gods section, but that may be something that wouldn't bother anyone who's not a mythology buff. I think it would have been much better to go with an entirely original pantheon, or if one wanted a feel hearkening to Greek myth, to use the primordial forces out of classical mythology that predated the Olympian gods, such as Gaea, Uranus, Oceanus, Nox, etc.

 

Also not thrilled by the magic system. It seems needlessly convoluted and twists the Hero Systems rules out of shape to simulate the kinds of SFX-themed spell lists used by games like Rolemaster and Ars Magica. But it's easy enough to keep the spectacular magic flavor and genre-appropriate trappings while ditching the specific rules in favor of a treatment I'd prefer (say, magic VPPs with an active point bonus to reflect the abundance of magic and SFX-based limitations to model sorcerers' varying expertise with different kinds of magic).

 

The Ugly:

I have to wonder what Steve and Andy Mathews were thinking when they allowed some of the art in this book to make it to press. The three most prominent figures in the book are represented by illustrations that are embarrassingly bad, and should never have been used in a professional publication. If one of the professional illustrators DOJ normally hires wasn't available for the commission of those images, it would have been better to leave them out entirely.

[Katherine]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

I've heard this setting/book wouldn't be bad for fans of Exalted looking for a more coherent rules set. Is that the case?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

Also not thrilled by the magic system. It seems needlessly convoluted and twists the Hero Systems rules out of shape to simulate the kinds of SFX-themed spell lists used by games like Rolemaster and Ars Magica. But it's easy enough to keep the spectacular magic flavor and genre-appropriate trappings while ditching the specific rules in favor of a treatment I'd prefer (say' date=' magic VPPs with an active point bonus to reflect the abundance of magic and SFX-based limitations to model sorcerers' varying expertise with different kinds of magic).[/quote']

 

I noticed that the magic system seems designed to make powerful magic spells readily available even to starting-level PCs through the reduced cost Multipower design, while still restricting the number of spells they could have so as to maintain some semblance of game balance. However, for most of the statted NPCs the points invested in their magic tends to add up to enough to buy a VPP sufficient for their mightiest spells, so converting them to more conventional HERO System seems like a fairly simple task.

 

As for those NPCs, . These are the most epic fantasy characters I've ever seen in a Hero Games book, even including the gods from the old Mythic Greece and Mythic Egypt sourcebooks. In particular, Vondarien and Sharna-Gorak are at least in the same class as Dr. Destroyer or Takofanes, and depending on how their magic powers were interpreted in a supers context, perhaps even more powerful. Atlantean magic still isn't as easy to use as most superpowers, but some of the spell effects and artifacts written up are Active Point monsters. This would be the easiest of Hero Games's published settings yet to port superheroes into, and vice versa.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

I've heard this setting/book wouldn't be bad for fans of Exalted looking for a more coherent rules set. Is that the case?

 

From what I know of Exalted, this book could definitely provide a practical template for fantasy characters in that class, although some elements of Exalted wouldn't translate directly. (There are some fan-created efforts at directly converting E to HERO on the Internet. I won't clutter this thread with them, but if you're interested send me a Private Message and I'll point you to them.)

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: Whoo-Hoo! Atlantean Age Is Mine!

 

In particular' date=' Vondarien and Sharna-Gorak are at least in the same class as Dr. Destroyer or Takofanes, and depending on how their magic powers were interpreted in a supers context, perhaps even more powerful.[/quote']

 

Hell, I'd say Sharna-Gorak is considerably more powerful than full-fledged gods (like Tezcatlipoca) I've seen written up for supers games. That VPP dwarfs the "Potentially Infinite Power" one possessed by the Dragon, and could simulate nearly equal versions of its specific mental powers. The write-up probably isn't going overboard given who it got the power from and what events it ultimately triggers, but even with the book's super-cheap magic rules throwing a group of 350-point PCs against that would be like running their character sheets through a wood chipper.