So, I enjoy Runebound, but I would like a little expansion on the realm. What is out there for sources on the setting? I can show up in the town of Forge...but what is it, and why is it there? Are we to assume that Terrinoth is "general generic fantasy" land or are there some back story info out there, otherwise, the game appears to be very dry. I understand it is the sister game off Descent...is there more world development there? Is this world based on a Novel or Collection of Stories?
Runebound Background
In Descent's campaign expansion, road to Legends, there is some more background, and information of the Terrinoth's cities. Not very much, and not stories, but some additional information.
GalaxyUC said:
game appears to be very dry. I understand it is the sister game off Descent...is there more world development there? Is this world based on a Novel or Collection of Stories?
Prior to RtL there was actually less world information in Descent. You didn't even have a map of the world before that expansion, and almost none of the cards have flavour text on them. (I just picked up RB and am delighted to note that many of the cards here DO have flavour text.) Information on Terrinoth is sparse at best. I'm actually a little disappointed to see that artwork from Runebound is being used in Descent for different things (ie: Lady Farrow's pic from RtL is some completely different chick in RB.) That's not a huge deal, but it makes me a little sad. =(
Anyway, there's a thread in the Descent forum discussing the idea of a Terrinoth RPG book and I for one would love to see that happen. For the most part it seems like a generic fantasy realm, but there are definitely a few things that set it apart and would make it a fun change of pace from vanilla D&D (forgive me for saying so, but d20 does seem the obvious system of choice to me.)
So...that's it? There is no further information about this realm, aside from some flavor text on the cards or some blurbs in Descent: R to Legend? How much info is actually in that box set, surely not enough to warrant a purchase. Isn't there a campaign guide coming out for it? Perhaps that will have more info.
Anyone else? Is there some more info ou there?
Yep, that's it, at least in Descent. 95% rules, props & stuff, and only the minimum amount of unnecessary fluff...
There is a nice story feel to the Descent dungeons, as well as to playing Runebound, but mercifully the rulebook isn't bloated with too much non-game related fiction. In warhammer army books the ratio is reversed, and I could live with a lot less imagined background for my tiny heros
GalaxyUC said:
So...that's it? There is no further information about this realm, aside from some flavor text on the cards or some blurbs in Descent: R to Legend? How much info is actually in that box set, surely not enough to warrant a purchase. Isn't there a campaign guide coming out for it? Perhaps that will have more info.
If all you want is background info on the world then no, RtL is definitely not worth purchasing. It's a great expansion to the game, but if you're not actually looking for gameplay then it would be a waste of good money. There is a Quest Compendium coming out at some point later this year (probably) but that's really just a book of additional quests. I highly doubt that it will contain any sizable amount of information about Terrinoth.
I understand the desire to know more about Terrinoth in general, but perhaps you should be careful what you wish for. Right now the world seems tantalizing because there's so much we don't know about it, but truthfully I doubt FFG has written very much beyond what's presented in Runebound and Descent. If they start fleshing it out, it might come to more closely resemble a standard high fantasy realm and end up disappointing you in the end.
I'm not telling you to give up on the dream. As I said before, I would be very interested in seeing a fully fleshed out RPG set in the world of Terrinoth. All I'm saying is if you really want to get going on something like that, maybe you should just take what is known and fill in the rest yourself. Have fun with the world instead of agonizing over the fact that FFG has focused on the mechanics in the games they've released to date in this franchise.