Fantasy/ Descent / Terrinoth : Journeys in Genesys

By Watercolour Dragon, in Genesys

This will be easier once we have the Terrinoth sourcebook but this thread is for anyone wanting to explore creating some Terrinoth adventures based on the games, especially but not solely Descent, which I am an avid collector of, and similar fantasy settings that fuse into Terrinoth convincingly. I mean actual specific adventures (not just toolkit/resources) like that of the gen con one, that being a good example:

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/56/75/5675bba2-a5a2-4161-b4c0-eaed85a3d0b7/genesys_gencon_adventure_lowres.pdf

This is a thread both for discussing making/running/playing such adventures but also to share any you create (again this gen con example gives a good idea of how to set the scene for one), it may be a good way of finding players to playtest them too.

But also once I finally get my core book (this week fingers crossed, *rolls for boost/setback* ) we can start exploring the toolkit we might need- possibly not worth doing too much 'til the sourcebook's out but we can start thinking about things.

I might also put my own adventure out there once I get the core book, maybe revised once the sourcebook's out if needs be.

I have an interesting idea of 'twofolding' (I've even coined a new word for it) my adventures as both an RPG and a Descent campaign (which would ultimately be available on the Descent Quest Vault if it works for it) so there's an interestingly unique two ways of playing them, although I might have to square the circle of how to prevent one being too much the spoiler for the other thus making it too easy / ruining any surprises - the only problem I can see with the idea, they may have to not be carbon copies story-wise, although I've played RPG's based on familiar films for example and the prior knowledge hasn't ruined them, indeed one took a very unexpected turn!

Would be awesome if a few other brave souls take on the 'twofolding' challenge creating a campaign/ adventure story for both Genesys as an RPG and for Descent gaming. But if you're just making a Terrinoth RPG adventure that is equally of interest.

I'm also keen to bring as much of Descent and the other Terrinoth games as possible into Genesys so this is the place to start thinking about this while we await that gorgeous sourcebook.

"There are rumors in my neck of the woods about a connection between the necromancer Mavaris Skain and the mystery entity that is Skarn, what that connection is remains unknown, if indeed there is any truth in such whisperings. In these places and times truth is as elusive as what hides in the mists, and good and evil are subjective"

'All Manor of Evils' await

Edited by Martinslair
Couldn't resist adding a teaser

I am wanting to run a campaign set in Terrinoth. Where are the best references about the world and cites and stuff.

15 hours ago, Molinext said:

I am wanting to run a campaign set in Terrinoth. Where are the best references about the world and cites and stuff.

There are quite a few resources out there - there's a Descent wiki http://descent2e.wikia.com/wiki/Descent:_Journeys_in_the_Dark_(Second_Edition)_Wiki

The forums for each of the Terrinoth games here are useful, there's some specific discussion too of such matters in those forums if you dig down and find it, other gaming forums such as Board Game Geek and video services such as Youtube might be useful. Check out the Descent Quest Vault and Road To Legend app too (as well as their respective sub forums) and some web researching of Descent 1st and 2nd edition as well as the other games could be of interest if you want some more character / other ideas / visual inspiration.

Also read the info on the Terrinoth games on FFG's website- the main info and the news releases - check the News page / Upcoming page / Runebound under 'Products - Universes' for the Runebound games (for Genesys you can find it under 'Products - Categories- Roleplaying Games'). It's worth doing some digging on FFG's site as there are often multiple nuggets of information scattered around the various website pages for their games. Different news items, product info etc mentioning what's in the games and giving some background.

Of course you get some useful info in the Terrinoth games themselves such as within the quests for Descent and their storylines, especially in some of the main quest books such as Heirs of Blood which you get either in the current core set or as a standalone, either as an official or a fan-made I can see Heirs of Blood being ported over for Genesys very soon as it's such an obvious thing to do! The games also have many useful bits to use for creating games such as what's in the cards and ideas you may get from other bits of kit in the games as these give more insights into what equipment characters may have, their skills, magic, curses they might use, the world and character backgrounds and so on. Not everything is in every game so the various different games offer different races, equipment and so on. All great for seeding creative ideas for campaigns, quests and stories.

We'll get a lot more when the Genesys Terrinoth Sourcebook comes out (it's a shame it didn't launch at the same time but it's good to have some time to look over the basics in the core book first). So bear in mind you may need to plan ahead to make any changes/improvements needed or that you think up once we know what's in that.

I have a lot of the Runebound games with quite a few on my wishlist and most of D2e so I'll be working on what we need a bit myself to be able to make full use of these possibilities in Genesys- will probably wait for the sourcebook before undertaking a lot of this as it may already do a lot of it for us! Like I say though you don't have to wait for the sourcebook to start working on a Terrinoth campaign, you can make the generic Genesys system fit even before then, it's just that when the source book is out you may find it suggests other ways of doing things and will probably do some of the work for you.

As I've just got the core book and it's my 100th post I thought I'd put the first taster of my project out there:

I've started my first pet project (it's even possible to dive into an RPG session using this intro as a standalone with a little prep work- see the breakpoint and guidance on session prep and GM'ing in the core book)

Sorry for any missed typos and some editing quirks I may need to fix- I'm tired and bleary-eyed like the heroes as I did this in a day / night after getting the Genesys Core Book (I'd already got the storyline intro basics in my head), currently some issues such as pages going back to being plain and losing their shade but I'll hopefully fix that later.

Next step I shall add the bits to make it a fully fledged RPG setup for this first part (I've only done the story and scene setting bit of this first part thus far but like I say it could still be free-form RPG'd if you have some things like adversaries readily available you might bring in and so on - at the moment it just launches the story, the GM and players would need to do the rest, ultimately it will be similar to the Gencon document example and fleshed-out with the elements you need to run it fully such as the info for rivals and other NPC's)

https://adobe.ly/2GxF9yr

Edited by Martinslair
PS- loses some of its visual quality on the cloud, may look at sharing options too for if I can share at original quality

With rumours of Battlelore going out of print (I have no idea if this is the case but it is saying 'not available' rather than 'out of stock' for some items) it might be your last chance to get the awesome banshee figure with two skeleton guards- if you like featuring minis in your RPG's this is a good set for Terrinoth purposes - I've made use of it along with some other kit for mine- if you like that eye candy / visual stimulus style of play I thought I'd share the heads up while it's still available (Terrors of the Mists pack):

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/7/27/the-undead-legions/

bt08_bansheecard.png

bt08_necromancercard.png

bt08_bonehorrorscard.png

Edited by Watercolour Dragon

More Useful 1e and 2e Descent Terrinoth Lore Resources

Partly miffed at missing content in 2e compared to 1e Descent, but more for researching the Descent/Terrinoth inspired 'Wandering Orbits of Light and Dark' epic campaign, I've done some digging and 'historical research' in the infinite library and found some very awesome very useful resource material out there:

You can still read the old rulebooks for 1e Descent and its 1e 'Sea of Blood' and 'Road To Legend' expansions which could spark some RPG ideas (I still dream of a 2e version of the 1e expansions, if only)

Remember these are the old 1e not the new 2e rules which are equally useful for RPG ideas (you can see these in the support section of the 2e page):

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/descent/descentrules.pdf

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/descent/descent-sea-of-blood-rules-web.pdf

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/descent/drtl_rulebook.pdf

And there are some great resources for D1e and Terrinoth's history to inspire too:

http://www.descentinthedark.com/home.php

Includes a hotlinked Terrinoth Map resource - http://www.descentinthedark.com/_t_/terrinoth.php

Equivalent wiki resource for 2e: http://descent2e.wikia.com/wiki/Descent:_Journeys_in_the_Dark_(Second_Edition)_Wiki

Both versions (limited useful info though) on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent:_Journeys_in_the_Dark

With all this to inspire and the sourcebook on its way being shipped in by a friendly dragon (Patience, patience, apprentice) I've got some great ideas for the campaign I'm working on, some of those lieutenants and rivals might just make a surprise comeback!... (Perhaps with better names in a couple of cases, that spiderguy sounds dodgy in the UK and the dragon-corpse-thing needs a name that fits maybe :) )

http://www.descentinthedark.com/_l_/lieutenants.php

http://www.descentinthedark.com/_a_/avatars.php

And I wonder who this could be? http://www.descentinthedark.com/_m_/master_of_the_hunt.php

I aim to bring much of the lore of Terrinoth and especially Descent into my campaign.

Is your campaign something you'd be willing to share? I love Descent (both 1e and 2e) and am planning to create what may end up qualifying to be called a "campaign". I've never designed an adventure or campaign before, though, so we'll have to see how it turns out...

Yes indeed Schmiegel, , I'll be sharing my project, and welcome ideas from others, I've been eagerly awaiting Realms of Terrinoth (which promptly sold out and has not yet made the UK, just got the PDF though to tide me over- still getting the book too as it is a work of beauty!) so now I've got the PDF I can make a proper start on this project. The PDF epic campaign preview I've linked sets the scene for my campaign and is usable for a standalone freeform RPG as well where the players decide where this intro takes them- it has a breakout to use it in this way. (A GM would just need some ideas and GM prep ready from Genesys and the RoT source book).

I'd love any suggestions on how to fuse my ideas with the RoT logic, there's also some maps I've linked in some of my other discussion posts (or search Martinslair's quests on the Descent Quest Vault which is linked from the Descent bit of FFG's website) which will be the maps for some of the parts. Everything's an early-stages work in progress, especially as I was waiting for RoT to come out, but even as it is now any of it can still be used as a starting point for an adventure for a group of heroes.

I'm sooo excited about this, RoT has really got the creative processes flowing into overdrive (and the ideas were already big scale!), plus the map makes me want to add some new places in an extended map to fuse the new parts of my epic tales with the lore and legends of Mennara.

So also welcome are any suggestions on what map locations could be added, are there any races not given an 'origin' home in the lore, where might unicorns or a genie who holds aloft a magic carpet be found? Where might be a suitable home for nature untainted by that which blights much of the other areas and where the creatures and inhabitants of which could be a good ally for the elves?....

I think people are going to like my ideas for fusing the Terrinoth legacy into one epic adventure with plenty of new surprises and twists which should be a lot of fun, it has dragons, wizards and all kinds of creatures and surely anything with dragons, wizards and all kinds of creatures is good right?, so much fun things like work seem an inconvenience :) - I just want to get to making it and playing it! I want to know where the stories lead as well!

Someone's just asked about guns in Terrinoth and it dawns on me I need to think about this for my campaign- I'm not sure as I feel uncertain about it in timey wimey flavour terms - some thoughts on this would be helpful so please share any - discussion is here https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/274114-guns-in-terrinoth/

I'm still working on this massive project and having a lot of creative fun doing so - as it's seasonally apt I'm hoping to have the alpha of my first full module from it up soon. It's the first module in my current release list plan because of its seasonal appropriateness (unless you live somewhere where it's summer!) and I'm working on it over my coming days off so hopefully I'll have it done in the not too distant future. The plan is to release the modules one at a time then collate any feedback, improve/tweak as needed then eventually have the full campaign for people to play. Each module will work as a standalone but the whole campaign fits together as a whole with its own over-arching story (I've commented further on some of the ideas feeding into this in the Descent forums).

This wanderer guiding the heroes into the chill of Isheim looks familiar......

https://adobe.ly/2yQAwxq

Updated- realised earlier link was just for me!

PS- if any of the admins are reading this any chance of moving this thread to the 'Realms of Terrinoth' section as it belongs there? It didn't exist when I started the thread.

Edited by Watercolour Dragon

Heres a link to my campaign. Especially check the folders section. Ive been including lore from Descent, Runebound, Battlelore, Runewars, even Battlemist and Diskwars as all take place in the setting. The Terrinoth Bestiay folder has over 200 monsters!

https://www.scabard.com/pbs/campaign/235523

On 8/22/2019 at 11:21 AM, IamGazrok said:

Heres a link to my campaign. Especially check the folders section. Ive been including lore from Descent, Runebound, Battlelore, Runewars, even Battlemist and Diskwars as all take place in the setting. The Terrinoth Bestiay folder has over 200 monsters!

https://www.scabard.com/pbs/campaign/235523

Not had a look at your content yet but have you looked into the Genesys Foundry (see the recent FFG news article) - if it's within the rules/guidelines you may be able to share it on there. Haedra's Shard by one of the forum regulars (Darth Zorg I think) is looking good too.