Lucius Posted August 7, 2012 Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age I found so little difference between Trolls and Ogres, I'm inclined to consider them the same species. Lucius Alexander More alike than palindromedaries and backandforthtrians Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted August 7, 2012 Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age Physically, there's certainly a strong resemblance. Since there are several subspecies of Troll listed in the 6E Bestiary, it wouldn't be unreasonable to consider Ogres another one of those. Socially and technologically, though, Ambrethelan Trolls are far more sophisticated than Ogres. I like that they're not just big dumb fighting monsters; they have a rich culture, renowned skill as smiths and masons, and unique and potent magic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted August 7, 2012 Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age Physically' date=' there's certainly a strong resemblance. Since there are several subspecies of Troll listed in the 6E [i']Bestiary[/i], it wouldn't be unreasonable to consider Ogres another one of those. Socially and technologically, though, Ambrethelan Trolls are far more sophisticated than Ogres. I like that they're not just big dumb fighting monsters; they have a rich culture, renowned skill as smiths and masons, and unique and potent magic. Right; and Ogre can just mean a savage Troll, while Troll means a far more sophisticated Ogre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted August 7, 2012 Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age One campaign concept I've been working on for the setting is what I call "The Three Dark Crowns." I noticed that three proximate kingdoms toward the north of Arduna -- Keldravia, Valicia, and Thalera-Saar -- are each ruled by a powerful, aggressive, ambitious king aspiring to conquer new territories. Individually each is a fairly local threat, and to some extent they stand in each other's way. Should they choose to ally and attack in concert, though, they could set Arduna aflame from Umbr to the Sirrenic Empire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Main Man Posted August 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age Reminds me of a campaign concept I once had: the Crowns of Kilbern - a good counterpart to the Crowns of Krim.My main motivation behind the possible removal of Trolls is that they are a variety of "Orc-Kin" in Ambrethel. Comes from the same logic of merging Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings. That said, maybe Trolls aren't an Orc-Kin, or maybe Orc-Kin can be reengineered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted August 8, 2012 Report Share Posted August 8, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age One thought I had a while back on the Elf/Man/Orc relationship was to theorize that sometime long ago, the Elves and Orcs were created from Man. Elves and Orcs represent the splitting of a Man into a more refined being (the Elf) and his more bestial nature (the Orc). Since then, other wizards and gods have experimented with this, creating Ogres and Trolls from Orcs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted August 8, 2012 Report Share Posted August 8, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age Hm, gives me ideas for my own setting.... I personally think I have a really neat conception for orc origins and reproduction... but your comment gave me some thoughts on human/elf-interbreeding..... Essentially, orcs are the result of a failed supersoldier project put together by some ambitious wizards. Reproduction in my setting is a magical act- thus odd things can occur, but in general things work as we would expect. Orcs might serve as the "bridge" that allows human-elf interbreeding- which is to say, the only way that a child could result from a human-elf pairing (barring truly unusual magical intervention) is if one or both have them has some orc somewhere in their lineage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Main Man Posted August 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age Just had an idea: what would Turakian Age be like if certain genre elements were dialed up or down? The Ambrethel we know is the "High Fantasy version." What could be changed to make it: Sword & Sorcery? Low Fantasy? Epic Fantasy? Crossworlds Fantasy? Urban Fantasy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age Just had an idea: what would Turakian Age be like if certain genre elements were dialed up or down? The Ambrethel we know is the "High Fantasy version." What could be changed to make it: Sword & Sorcery? Low Fantasy? Epic Fantasy? Crossworlds Fantasy? Urban Fantasy? If I were to change the dials on TA, I would change it to a Swords & Sorcery type of setting over anything else. All non-humans would fade even further into the background, and even the fecund orcs would be remnants of an elder age left in the dark corners of the world. I might leave elves as something akin to Elric's Melnibonians or the Dindrish from the background of the Valdorian Age. All the powerful wizards and godlings present (including the Big Bad himself) would have to either go away or be remade into Conan-esque sorcerers. I suppose Turak could become something more like Conan's Thoth Amon. The nations could probably remain much the same, other than being cleansed of much of the wizards and godlings present. The religions likely would remain the same, only with sorcerer-priests in charge instead of actual clerics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Main Man Posted August 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age Luckily, Low Fantasy is not hard to imagine from there. Just strip away all of the nonhuman races, keep magic to an absolute minimum, and focus on Ambrethel for what is different about it from Earth. Maybe play up legends and the like, with maybe the faintest elements of the mystical. Epic Fantasy Turakian Age simply needs a goal and to be focused on that goal. Otherwise no real changes needed. Crossworlds Fantasy Turakian Age is a simple matter of time travel in the official HERO universe. Urban Fantasy would require advancing Turakian Age to a more "modern" setting. I do like the sound of this option, though it obviously requires more work than the others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheQuestionMan Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age Fantasy Hero: The Turakian Age Setting. - More Later QM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age Just had an idea: what would Turakian Age be like if certain genre elements were dialed up or down? The Ambrethel we know is the "High Fantasy version." What could be changed to make it: Sword & Sorcery? Low Fantasy? Epic Fantasy? Crossworlds Fantasy? Urban Fantasy? If I were to start something like this, I'd probably cut down Fantasy Hero, then add a number of mini-settings covering each of the above. They might look like the mini-settings in Urban Fantasy and Post-Apocalypic Hero. Then full treatment books for any setting that seemed popular enough to warrant it. Alternately, make a "Fantasy Hero Complete" book, with rules for Hero and one base fantasy setting. Then release shorter (140 pages or so) books for each of the alternate settings, each using FHC as a base. For each idea, any popular setting should get 5 or so PDF adventures for newby players and GMs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted August 28, 2012 Report Share Posted August 28, 2012 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age Also, a suitable adventure for superheroic level characters. So that you can run the Champions through one of their time-travelling Turakian Age adventures. Oh. And a Champions-level update for the Flashing Blades. You know, for when they travel forward in time to become superheroes in Millennium City. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted June 12, 2013 Report Share Posted June 12, 2013 Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age I have no problems with the PCs altering 'canon' timelines. If the PCs manage to kill Kal-Turak, more power to them. The only time I could conceive of that being any kind of issue is if I was running a FH game and a Champions game that were intended to be in the same timeline ... which I can't imagine attempting anymore. And if I did, well then, Takofanes is now someone else. I throw things out of canon I don't like all the time. If I were to run Forgotten Realms, I'd kill off half the overpowered Mary Sue NPCs in the first week. Elminster, Drizz't, the lot of 'em. I ran a Star Wars game where the PCs failed to rescue Anakin Skywalker well in advance of him becoming Darth Vader, and he died. Canon is a crutch. The first Archlich of the Champions Universe was Archimago, introduced in Creatures of the Night for 4E Champions. Archimago actually existed in the history of the official 5E/6E CU, and when Takofanes first arose many mages thought he was Archimago returned. Exchanging him for Tak would be pretty easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I dislike having so many humanoid species, especially when there is little to distinguish one from another. But I decided I wanted to stick to the Turakian Age As Written for the most part, so I have Goblins and also Orcs. But I could barely tell the difference between Ogre and Trolls, so I did combine those two. Lucius Alexander I have not introduced any palindromedaries Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I dislike having so many humanoid species, especially when there is little to distinguish one from another. But I decided I wanted to stick to the Turakian Age As Written for the most part, so I have Goblins and also Orcs. But I could barely tell the difference between Ogre and Trolls, so I did combine those two. Lucius Alexander I have not introduced any palindromedaries As I think I mentioned earlier on this thread, there isn't a lot of difference physically between Ambrethelan Ogres and Trolls, although the latter are generally larger and smarter. Culturally, though, there's a world of difference. Ogres are usually crude brutes, while Trolls have a civilization as sophisticated as any race in the setting. I'm pretty sure that calling a Troll the same as an Ogre would be taken as a grave insult. For my part, I'm okay with the various "races" being distinguished as much as or more by their cultural traits than their physical ones. In the Turakian Age setting that actually sets up the option of "casting against type." That's probably why I prefer the smaller continent of Mitharia to the larger continent of Arduna. On Mitharia some of the assumptions most of the inhabitants of Arduna have about the way the races are have notable exceptions. Mitharia has demon-worshipping Elves, surface-dwelling Dwarves, civilized Orcs, rugged outdoorsy Halflings, Drakine ruling the mightiest realm on the continent, and Men from civilations having no connection to the majority of Men from Arduna, and even predating them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkarus99 Posted July 25, 2013 Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 My Hacks were as follows Change the history of Auralia so that it had appeared to worthy men in the Drakine wars, during the fall of the Lord of the Graven Spear and to my players as they took on the Ravager in the year 5000, I changed the curse on the Ulronai to only effect them as a nation, and I changed the magic system to a VPP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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