Realms of Terrinoth

Mr. Bistro writes the fluff bits for Summoner Wars and we've got a lot of very cool stuff coming.

Fantasy and Sci-Fi are staples of Ameritrash gaming. Publishers need to put in their own twists, but I still find if I'm honest with myself Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Post Apocalyptic, are all still attention grabbers for me. I mean what do you propose exactly would make a good game theme? Because if you want to play games about selling flowers and farming they are out there, but they hold no interest for me. It can be tough to walk the line between innovative and bizarre when trying to tell a story that has NEVER been told before.

But hey, maybe I'm not enlightened enough for delicate nerd tastes. Example: Avatar was a great movie. The world said so with their money, and yet there are nerds all over the internet crying about how played out its story and setting were. It was a freaking marvel with story telling that grabbed me and pulled me in and a world that they rendered with such care that I was engrossed, childlike, for the length of the movie. I feel sorry for people who couldn't enjoy a great movie because they feel the need to muster up their over analytical nerd rage over such things.

screamingtruth wrote:

Fantasy and Sci-Fi are staples of Ameritrash gaming. Publishers need to put in their own twists, but I still find if I'm honest with myself Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Post Apocalyptic, are all still attention grabbers for me. I mean what do you propose exactly would make a good game theme? Because if you want to play games about selling flowers and farming they are out there, but they hold no interest for me. It can be tough to walk the line between innovative and bizarre when trying to tell a story that has NEVER been told before.

You're exactly right. A game publisher needs to mix the familiar with its own twist in order to sell a game. Unless a game is a license, what do you think draws in Friday Night Magic player to wander over to the board game shelf at the comic store? It's something too out of this world, they might dismiss it. If it's too generic, they won't give give it a second chance.

Fantasy sells, though. Summoner Wars could have been given a sci-fi theme, but I bet it wouldn't have sold as much as with its fantasy theme.

I can't believe you guys are complaining about the chainmail bikini. This has been going on for about 50 years now, since Frank Frazetta's work in the 60's, and like the generic fantasy setting with elves, dwarves, goblins and orcs, love it or loathe it, it is here to stay.

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote:

I can't believe you guys are complaining about the chainmail bikini. This has been going on for about 50 years now, since Frank Frazetta's work in the 60's, and like the generic fantasy setting with elves, dwarves, goblins and orcs, love it or loathe it, it is here to stay.

Amen. It is like complaining that rain makes you wet or snow is cold. Fantasy is trite and cliche, no matter how you cut it. Why make a big deal about that?!? And yes, it HAS to be that way, else it really isn't 'fantasy', is it?

Someone needs to photoshop Mike and Jack's head on to the balcony Muppets.

Terrinoth works because it's a setting that is defined by the games that are developed in it, not the other way around like happens with stuff like Middle Earth games.

Mike and FAT can wank on about how much Runebound sucks until the cows come home. Fact is with 25+ expansions released AND now an advertising badge on the cover of a tentpole release, it's got a massive amount of fans and it's a brand that sells. You clowns have about as much influence over Runebound sales as BGG has over Space Hulk.

Runebound is still THE fantasy adventure game after talisman. What stands before it - middle earth quest? Don't make me laugh.

kookoobah wrote:

Maybe it's a Terrinoth RPG? That could work for me.

Meh. Why do a RPG that will directly compete with Warhammer?

Be the first to see the debut of all-new official Runewars and Descent scenarios!
Scenarios for Runewars sound interesting, but the ones for Descent will probably flop.

Why will they flop? Its easier to do scenarios in descent (which IS scanrio based) than Runewars. Based on Star Craft I have hoigh hopes for the Runewar ones mind you.

Race for the finish in the Delve of Doom, a weekend-spanning Descent challenge for multiple teams. Gather your party of adventurers and make it as far as you can in this massive and unforgiving map. Few will succeed, but the team that ventures deepest into the dungeon will earn a great reward...

Now THIS has me very interested. If I remember correctly, The Delve was originally going to be made by Kevin Wilson as some sort of Diablo type map that had you drawing the small RtL dungeons one after another, looks like they changed it a bit to a massive map. I hope it doesn't need several copies of the base game or something, but it probably will.

You are getting confused - "The delve" was just a bunch of online rules Kevin was going to make up which used the maps from ROAD TO LEGEND for use in 1 off games. It wasn't meant to be a new release with new maps or anything.

Be the Last Party Standing! In this hero-vs-hero brawl set in Descent: Journeys in the Dark, the Overlord will the be the least of your worries!

Finally, some official PVP rules!

I'm confused, what PVP rules do you need? All you need to do is just allow friendlies to hit each other, and the mechanics will work just fine.

Learn about the history and background of Terrinoth

I love fluff! I hope this trickles down to those who don't get to go to the event.

And that's where I start to become sad. I won't be able to go to this thing, and it happens on my birthday too. It sucks balls.

I'm interested to see all of the fluff too. Hope it makes its way online.

Each attendee will also receive a Realms of Terrinoth gift bag, including:
Four promotional figures for use in all three games! These four figures, which previously included character cards for Runebound and Descent, now include a hero card for use in Runewars!


I recently bought the three heroes during the Christmas sale and got Sea of Blood to hit up Nara the Fang, and now they have Runewars cards for them too. BS. I'm bitter.

I got 2 copies of each 'extra' hero! Why didn't they throw the runewar cards in with them, the game was obviously developed by that point. Wahhh!

A booklet of premier Runewars and Descent scenarios!


... and more!
(

60 dollars for the ticket is a steal -- but not when I have to pay for plane ticket and accomodations to get there too. I'm not really a convention person, but wow. FFG is doing some very exciting stuff.

The question is, which of my good buddies from FAT is going to get me a showbag?

Wow, What a derailed thread. Thankfully skeletor has got it back on track.

My chances of going are close to nil because I will have burnt my time off but I never say die. I think it would be a lot of fun and I'm still going to look into it.

without getting too far off thread:

Any fantasy genre needs some stereotypical material to ground it and give the players a solid frame of reference. The more it is developed, the richer it wiull become. Events like this convention are just what they need ot help that.
BTW Anyone remember that Fantasy RPG Jorune? It came off feeling more alien than Fantasy. Still cool nonetheless.

and @ Dogmatix Prophecy = math problem?? I don't see it. Other than the basic math that is any board game.

BTW I am not a Runebound Hat3r. Just don;t play it with more than 3.

Steve"DrunkMillHonky"Avery

Stephen Avery wrote:

Any fantasy genre needs some stereotypical material to ground it and give the players a solid frame of reference. The more it is developed, the richer it will become.

Amen.

And of course, the people who complain about Runebound being too generic are the same ones who complained about Aliens making an appearence.

If you play all 3 games you can see the little 'unique' touches that are specific to that world - all magic being rune based, high number of dragons, orcs not being bad guys, etc.

My racial background is from the Northeast of England, with a mixture of Scandinavian/Viking, and Celtic descent.

Fantasy worlds that most resonate with me are the ones that seem to trigger off something subconscious in me, my lost pagan culture that was wiped out by the advance of Roman Catholicism from about the 4th century onwards.

Tolkien resonates with me, as does the Arthurian legends.

Generic fantasy with chainmail bikinis, warriors with kick ass swords, clerics, rogues etc doesn't resonate at all with me, other than recognising it as a genre for marketing purposes.

I like Runebound. It is at least as good a game as Talisman. The settings for either game doesn't do much for me. Doesn't reduce my enjoyment of the games though.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

Meh. Why do a RPG that will directly compete with Warhammer?

Actually you're right. My friends are all itching to play WFRP 3rd Ed, which is precisely why I'm not buying it. A Descent RPG would not see table time at all.

Why will they flop? Its easier to do scenarios in descent (which IS scanrio based) than Runewars. Based on Star Craft I have hoigh hopes for the Runewar ones mind you.

I'm bitter about the whole Descent Quest Compendium thing. They messed up terribly on that one; typos, some missions had missing instructions and some needed more components than they stated, and if that was any indication of how they're going to be making bonus quests, it doesn't sound too good.

You are getting confused - "The delve" was just a bunch of online rules Kevin was going to make up which used the maps from ROAD TO LEGEND for use in 1 off games. It wasn't meant to be a new release with new maps or anything.

I know it wasn't going to be a release. I've been waiting for that for a long time since I find the RtL/SoB dungeons to be more fun than the big dungeons, but we have no time to commit to a real campaign. I'm glad to hear he's finally down with the Delve.

I'm confused, what PVP rules do you need? All you need to do is just allow friendlies to hit each other, and the mechanics will work just fine.

Yeah, but have you ever actually tried it? It's boring as hell hitting each other repeatedly. Now they're framing it within a Dungeonquest style treasure grab-a-thon which I'm sure will include items being dropped when killed. Very very excited.

I wonder how I can get my hands on those promos. I don't care if they don't add too much to the game. I paid 50 dollars for my Hill Giant and Earth Elemental. I want my extra stuff.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

And of course, the people who complain about Runebound being too generic are the same ones who complained about Aliens making an appearence.

If you play all 3 games you can see the little 'unique' touches that are specific to that world - all magic being rune based, high number of dragons, orcs not being bad guys, etc.

Tru dat. Plus the heroes are much more anti-heroes, many of the core monsters are unique to the world When you really think about it, the Runebound world is far less generic fantasy than pre-4th ed. D&D or Warhammer, for example.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

And of course, the people who complain about Runebound being too generic are the same ones who complained about Aliens making an appearence.

If you play all 3 games you can see the little 'unique' touches that are specific to that world - all magic being rune based, high number of dragons, orcs not being bad guys, etc.

Tru dat. Plus the heroes are much more anti-heroes, many of the core monsters are unique to the world When you really think about it, the Runebound world is far less generic fantasy than pre-4th ed. D&D or Warhammer, for example.

Someone needs to photoshop Mike and Jack's head on to the balcony Muppets.

HA! I'd love that. They are, unsurprisingly, my favorite Muppets characters.

Frank actually makes a great point about Terrinoth, that it's been generated by the games and not applied to them. That's as good an argument for its validity as a setting as any, regardless of its novelty or unoriginality.

And he is right, RUNEBOUND does sell and the huge amount of support it gets is telling. It's telling us that there's a lot of people outside of the usual board game circuit that are into the game, including a lot of people who may play it and almost nothing else. At AGF, I had a couple of RPG players that played RPGs...and RUNEBOUND. No other board games. RUNEBOUND was their one-off, "campaign players missing" game.

But it's still one of the more boring, cluttered, and miserable fantasy games on the market now, particularly compared with PROPHECY (math problem? huh?), ME:Q, ARKHAM HORROR, and hell, MYTHGARDIA floating around out there.

My racial background is from the Northeast of England, with a mixture of Scandinavian/Viking, and Celtic descent.

Fantasy worlds that most resonate with me are the ones that seem to trigger off something subconscious in me, my lost pagan culture that was wiped out by the advance of Roman Catholicism from about the 4th century onwards.

This brings up an interesting point about fantasy. The foundations of fantasy are in mythology, traditional stories, history, and folklore, and indeed most "proto-fantasy" was a lot closer to these influences. Tolkien, for example.

However, as the genre matured (?) fantasy writers, illustrators, game designers and what have you started to be influenced more by the fantasy work being done in the 1970s and 1980s instead of in these original influences. The result is that it's ALL ultimately watered down D&D taken away from its original Tolkien/Howard/Vance/Leiber template and further away from its roots. It became more cannibalistic, and less creative.

Now, fantasy game designers aren't going back to these ideas _at all_. They need characters, they pull out the D&D Player's Handbook and pick archetypes. Not mythological archetypes or examples from literature. They need monsters, they practically break out the Monster Manual and pick some. In short, fantasy game designers have reached the point where their only real influences are other fantasy games.

In creating game settings, I don't see why there shouldn't be more creativity...why does it all have to go back to D&D and a handful of writers who were all pulling very directly from their immediate antecedents? There's no reason that there shouldn't be a great adventure game set in a fantasy setting more informed by Native American mythology than the works of fucking Terry Brooks.

As much as I don't like George RR Martin, at least A GAME OF THRONES was a unique fantasy setting, and it made for a good game.

That little Czech game, INSULA, really ought to be looked at. It's kind of a MYSTIC WOOD thing with more complexity. But the fantasy setting is nuts, it's very reminiscent of something like FANTASTIC PLANET or BELOW THE ROOT. It's all about bugs and plants. The monsters have no names, but they're all weird polymorphous "things". There's no spells or magic items, it's all plants and flowers that give you benefits. It's alien, bizarre, and much more engaging as fantasy than the humans/orcs/elves/undead thing, and there's no spiky armor or chainmail bikinis to be found anywhere.

There's no reason that there shouldn't be a great adventure game set in a fantasy setting more informed by Native American mythology than the works of fucking Terry Brooks.

It wouldn't sell nearly as many copies. I would love a game about wendigos, skinwalkers, dream quests, thunderbirds and the like. But the average D&D player who is looking for something to play on their off nights isn't going to look at it twice. He's going to look at a more typical fantasy game.

Keeping things cliche has its advantages. You can sit down and instantly recognize that the elf character is going to be quick and agile, the dwarf defensive, the barbarian is going to rip things up and the wizard is going to blast things with fireballs. You know what the bad guys will most likely do: Skeletons will regenerate, orcs will come in hordes, dragons will be really tough.

But you have to put your own twist and branding on it so it stands out enough. It's a tricky balance.