Steve Long

YES!  This is the organization that I threw at my gaming group after a couple of small adventures.  Interrupting a kidnapping or two brought the party to the attention of the local group of the Red Talons.  The party started to investigate some more and was getting an idea that this was a larger group than they thought.  Suddenly DNCPs/contacts/family/friends were threatened/investigated/kidnapped by the Guild to distract them.  Fun for all.
 

Ooh. Sold. Steve should pay you a kickback. 😉 Indeed, not many FRPGs (or the fantasies that inspire them) pay much attention to religion, as distinct from gods. It's one reason I like Bujold's "World of the Five Gods" stories so much.
 
Dean Shomshak

I definitely prefer the Turakian Age without Kal-Turak.
 
But I do like some of the "little villains" that LL has mentioned. And a holy war is always fun. I'd cheerfully steal some of the names and situations.

I wouldn't necessarily say that magic is more common in Ambrethel than many other fantasy locations, as far as when and how the average person interacts with it. However, magic does seem to be integrated into the social fabric of that world to a greater extent than in most other fantasy RPG settings. There are quite a few well-known and respected schools of magic across the known world, often focusing on distinctive styles of spell. There are also at least two mageocratic nations, Arutha and Kurum-Sathiri. Powerful individual wizards also seem to have had an unusually prominent role in shaping the (extensively detailed) history of the Turakian Age.
 
A particularly distinctive element of TA is how religion is handled. While most fantasy RPGs confine themselves to little more than lists of gods in pantheons, with their powers and "spheres of influence," and what abilities they grant to their priests; TA delves more into the theology of the major religions, what their doctrines are, their hierarchies, their politics, and the practices their adherents follow which shape how they live their lives.
 
If the main continent of Arduna adapts many of the familiar conventions of D&D and its imitators, the smaller continent of Mitharia is where those conventions are often subverted. There you can find surface-dwelling Dwarves, demon-worshiping Elves, civilized Orcs, rugged outdoorsy Halflings, a benevolent Lich. The Drakine (dragon-men), a people long in decline on Arduna, rule the most powerful realm of Mitharia. Mitharia also holds civilizations of Men not connected to and predating the oldest legends of the Men of Arduna; civilizations inspired by real ones from Earth which have rarely been adapted to games like these.
 
As the common designation of this setting implies, Kal-Turak is the dominant figure of his era. His intentions are feared by all. The "GM's Vault" info in the TA source book describes his hidden machinations to weaken the world as prelude to his campaign of conquest. Yet it's surprisingly easy to run the setting completely excising Kal-Turak and his realm. Turakia is located far to the north of Arduna, well beyond the territories of any other peoples. It conducts no trade or diplomatic relations with other nations. While the Ravager of Men has covertly meddled in global affairs for centuries, many of his described schemes occurred long before the default start date for a Turakian Age campaign, and have had little to no lasting effect on the "present day" world. For other more recent events where Kal-Turak's involvement isn't suspected, the public frequently have their own explanations for them, which a GM can choose the make the "correct" explanations. The few that don't fall into either category are not hard to rationalize without the Ravager, or to just ignore.
 
Excluding Kal-Turak still leaves a number of major foes which could become the focus of a campaign, from such world-shaking menaces as Vashkoran holy war, the freeing of the gods of Thun, or the imperial expansion of Orumbar; to more regional threats like the Yellow King of Valicia, the Vampire Lord of Dragosani, or the Seven Sorcerers of Vuran.

I've noticed a few similarities, e.g. the Nyr Dyv in Oerik and the Sea of Mhorec/Lake Beralka in Ambrethel. Aarn and Tavrosel also seem to play similar roles as Greyhawk and Dyvers in their respective settings. But I'm not sure that was a deliberate act of imitation -- maybe just following a common fantasy RPG zeitgeist.

I have never played Fantasy HERO where it felt like I was playing D&D.  I run D&D to get a certain vibe (possibly purely nostalgia) but I enjoy that and never get that same feel running Fantasy HERO.
 
That said, if I had a very specific campaign I wanted to run, I would be happier capturing that using HERO than D&D.  I reckon that Al Quadim and Dark Sun would have rocked using HERO but (for me) the D&D ruleset overwhelmed the different character of those campaigns.
 
Doc

I haven't read Turakian Age, but I readily take your word that it's much better than Forgotten Realms. I've read the Forgotten Realms setting guide, and found it very generic in style and content. Yes, it's perfectly designed to support D&D games. But there's no voice or vision. Complete checklist setting design. I would not recommend anyone waste time or money on it.
 
I do hope someday I can find time for Turakian Age.
 
Dean Shomshak

Alright, good leads thanks.  This ain't my first rodeo, and though I have no idea yet where the campaign will start or center around, I am looking forward to flexing my HERO rules from supplements I have not used in... a while
 
Namely Horror HERO, Pirates, Mythic Greece, Combat Handbook and maybe PA HERO. Not to mention APG Kingdom HERO.
 
So many dials, knobs, levers, switches and  buttons to push. 
 
 

Had the book, now have the PDF. Reading and taking notes.
 
My next FH campaign will be set using the Turakian Age. Will have to read through this thread for ideas.

Sorry, I meant "right" as in "justification in principle and precedent," rather than legal or intellectual right. I probably should have chosen a more precise word.
 
Given Steve's great familiarity with the subject, I'm sure the name choice was deliberate and calculated. One can disagree with the calculation, of course. (I reacted to it similarly to you, to be honest.)

Thank you. Maybe I should be in the business of writing back cover blurbs.
 
 
Given that, 1) the relatively small number who will see a phrase like "The Desolation of Skarm" and automatically think of Tolkein's line "They were come to the Desolation of the Dragon, and they were come at the waning of the year," and given that 2) of those who DO think of it, most will respond approvingly and only a vanishingly small portion (perhaps  a single individual) will sneer and say "really?", I will venture to suggest that yes, even if it we regard it as a crib, it's still a good idea.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary looms up to say that overuse of the word "looming" is not necessarily such a good idea. Everyone's a critic.

Did someone say artist?
 

Sure.
 
All of the NPCs in Nobles Knights And Necromancers are explicitly drawn from the races, cultures, and locations of Ambrethel. Many of them are elaborations on specific people mentioned in Turakian Age. The adventures in Fantasy Hero Battlegrounds are all set in identified locales within Ambrethel. The creatures in Monsters Minions and Marauders and Book Of Dragons often include background for representative individuals of their kind, linked to a particular location and/or group within the Turakian setting. The two Fantasy Hero Grimoire(s) detail the spells that make up the "arcana" of classes of magic identified in TA.
 
All of these things are "generic" in that they'd easily fit into almost any "D&D-esque" fantasy game setting; but they all refer to the Turakian Age world as their default.

Crossposted from RPG net
 

I don't disagree with you, in terms of building up locations in the world. But DoJ did make an effort to support TA, with supplementary books tying directly into that setting, such as Monsters Minions And Marauders (bestiary), Fantasy Hero Grimoire I & II (spells), Nobles Knights And Necromancers (NPCs), Fantasy Hero Battlegrounds (adventures), Book Of Dragons (dragons and other really big monsters), and Enchanted Items (um, that).
 
Ultimately it was sales that determined the fate of the Turakian Age. Generally speaking, Hero fantasy material just didn't sell as well as Champions. At one point Steve actually put Aarn, City Of Adventure on the publication schedule, and expressed eagerness to write it; but it ended up being pulled due to the performance of the whole line.

"It's a bargain at twice the price!"

If you like that campaign style you will find the Pathfinder adventure path War for the Crown to be particularly interesting.
 
It thoroughly mixes in royal balls, senatorial intrigue, exploration and a modest chunk of combat.  It is a very nice change of pace from dungeon crawl heavy runs like Dungeon of the Mad Mage.

TA is my go-to fantasy game setting: Recognizably "generic" yet with a number of distinctive elements; broad and detailed but with plenty of room to elaborate; almost every location having plot seeds ripe for development. Admittedly, I've made a large number of modifications to the history and geopolitics of Ambrethel to suit my own priorities and preferences, but I couldn't and wouldn't have done so without having been given such a solid frame to hang them on.
 
Previously I posted to the forums what I would suggest if I were a GM (or writer) looking to further develop a place in the Turakian Age world as home base for my campaigns. I would look for a spot with plenty of story hooks built in, but also lots of unspecified room to expand upon. I'd want the home base to be large enough to be interesting, but small enough to be manageable. I would prefer it to be able to support a variety of adventure styles without going very far afield: wilderness exploration, city skulking, dungeon crawling, monster fights, political intrigue, military conflicts, etc. But I'd also like there to be ready potential for PCs to travel to other interesting places, as their abilities and ambitions grow.
 
On the largest continent of Arduna there are two enormous bodies of water which are the centers of vast geographic regions, with multiple kingdoms on their shores engaging in trade and political interactions: the inland Sea of Mhorec, and Lake Beralka. These two bodies are linked by the long Shaanda River, navigable along its entire length, making it one of the most heavily trafficked trade routes in the world, potentially bringing people from almost anywhere. There is no single state dominating the Shaanda; pairs of rival kingdoms are at each end, but the central stretch contains several independent small cities and large towns. The largest of these cities, Ishthac, is smack-dab at the middle of the river (according to the included map).
 
One would expect the larger kingdoms at the ends of the Shaanda to vie for control over the strategic central river. One of those kingdoms, Valicia, is ruled by a powerful wizard with ambitions of conquering the whole region (and who makes for a fine "big bad" for a campaign). But the cities of the Shaanda are described as too independent and clever to be ruled. To me this implies that they probably cooperate to defend themselves and play the kingdoms against each other; but that doesn't preclude rivalry among the cities themselves. Otherwise the Shaanda cities are given little further definition -- nothing about city layout, population, society, government, or the like.
 
Ishthac lies at the south-western edge of the huge, rugged Valician Hills region, said to be populated by "monsters" which sometimes raid the river settlements; as well as independent-minded "hill folk" with only a few other clues as to their nature. The Valician Hills also rest above one of the largest regions of the "Sunless Realms" (TA's analogue to D&D's Underdark). Somewhere within the hills is a hidden coven of powerful witches whose agenda is unknown. Chonath, a large ancient ruined city once the home of mighty magicians, and now monster-infested, is perhaps a hundred and fifty miles west of Ishthac.
 
Traveling a couple hundred miles along the Shaanda River in either direction from Ishthac will take you into the territory of the larger kingdoms, and the dangers and intrigues they feature. From there it's a relatively short trip to the Sea of Mhorec or Lake Beralka, and ready transport to half the continent.
 
I also previously posted a set of plot seeds set in one area of Ambrethel which IMO is particularly well suited to a campaign inspired by A Song of Fire and Ice/ Game of Thrones, emphasizing politics and diplomacy more than fighting and looting: Besruhan Intrigues.

I'm currently reading through my copy of The Forgotten Realms campaign setting for D&D 3. TA has it beat on all counts -- even Steve's attempt at an olde worlde voice in his writing (which I find hard to stomach at times, especially in Tuala Morn) is better than what the FR authors tried to pull off.

I agree 100%.  My son wanted to run a campaign when he was in High School after playing in my campaign for a while.  I got him a copy of TA and it worked very well.  There was enough detail that the world felt real, plus a ton of space so he could make it his own.

Looking forward to picking these up

Steve, any form of Super Magic matches the powers of anime/manga style magical girls?

Well I have insect Powers. I think I may have to get the Super Magic and possibly Hard Light too.

I was able to do it on my Android.

Ooh, I'll have to get Super-Magic Powers. Professional interest, doncha know. A while back, I thought of doing an updated 6e version of the Hermetic Theurgy section from Ultimate Super-Mage, since the treatment in Ultimate Mystic was so brief, but I figured not many people would be interested.
 
Dean Shomshak