Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sketchpad" data-source="post: 2141336" data-attributes="member: 9168">Valorian AgeThe Valdorian Age     Before I start, let me just say this isn’t a d20 book.  Instead, this is a setting for Hero Games’ Fantasy Hero and uses the Hero System.  That being said, this book is for all the fans of Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser and even to a lesser extent, Thieves’ World.  Yes, the Valdorian Age is the sword and sorcery world for the Hero System.       Weighing in at about 200 pages, this book isn’t as big as other campaign sourcebooks.  But rather than fill the book with a score of useless information, the Valdorian Age cuts to the point and gives the reader a world that most fans of sword and sorcery would love to play in.     In chapter one, the reader is introduced to the city of Elwier, the chief location for the campaign.  Like many campaign cities, Elwier is presented in great detail, from the overview map of the city to the seasonal temperature range.  Need to know the holidays that a character may celebrate in this world?  There’s a section devoted to the calendar in the first chapter.  How about common currency?  It’s covered as well … within this first chapter, the reader is given a tour of the inner and outer workings of Elwier and includes detailed Neighborhood maps so a group of characters can get lost properly.  Each of the neighborhoods describes the culture that’s within it, as well as notable locations, the local law and any distinguishing features.     While the first chapter focused on a campaign city, the second brings the lens back a bit and discusses more of the world on a larger scale.  Though one of the shorter chapters, chapter two offers a plethora of information on the various nations that exist within the setting.  Though not as detailed as some would like, the nations presented are given in capsule format, allowing the GM to work with it to make the campaign their own.       Chapter three offers the meat of the setting as it supplements the Fantasy Hero book with additional rules on how to run a sword and sorcery game.  Included here are various archetypes, appropriate packages, as well as modifications of skills, perks and talents.  Akin to the Dark Champions genre book, this book also offers various weapon tricks so player characters (as well as NPCs) have a bit of flair to their fighting styles.  What good would a sword and sorcery game be without sorcery?  The last part of this chapter details various spell systems that may be used during a Valdorian Age campaign, as well as sample spells and rules on using arcane favors.  Even if a gamemaster didn’t want to use the setting, it’s this chapter that proves to be invaluable to anyone considering the genre.       Gamemastering is the topic of chapter four, offering campaign advice and an inner look at some of the plots that have been created within the book.  The “GM’s Vault” section opens up the book for the gamemaster, advising them of what’s behind the scenes of various pages throughout the first three chapters.  Of the details given, the advice for character generation and sorcery are the most useful, as they help gamemasters in building guidelines for their campaigns and set limits for the player characters.      Finally, in chapter five, the reader is treated to a handful of monsters and NPCs that allow the gamemaster may use in their campaign.  This chapter also covers non-human races briefly and provides additional information on what creatures to use and how to use them.  Included within are a few templates for otherworldly creatures, some stock NPCs like guards and gang leaders, and some specific NPCs that are to be used as main antagonists for the player characters.  Personally, I think I would’ve liked to have seen some other world-specific creatures in this section, but it’s still quite informative.     Add to the information some great maps by cartographer extraordinaire Keith Curtis, some good illustrations and Hero Games’ incredible indexes and you have a great product that could be used in any system.  I wouldn’t only recommend this book; I plan on running it the first chance I get with my weekly gaming group.</blockquote>

Verification