7 hours ago, twincast said:

Somehow I missed an equally ridiculous line for greataxes. Also, the entries for maces and slings deserve some minor eye-rolling, which I deliberately didn't bother mentioning. Not so after realizing the following:

I must have read the entry a dozen times and am now 100% certain that what they call a "greatsword" is actually a longsword. Or moreover an absurd hodgepodge of all sizes of two-handed swords, not accurately reflecting any of them. Explains why there's no shortsword or longsword.

Suddenly all the goodwill from some other gear descriptions has gone up in smoke. And just when I'd decided to refrain from messing much with the system beyond moving some Skills to different Characteristics and simply changing bows and slings from "dam X" to "dam +[X-3]", after all. Yes, I can easily fix this for our sessions by replacing all mentions of "greatsword" with "longsword", but it leaves a tremendously sour taste.

Also, since this and the description of spears erased all lingering doubt that for both Melee and Ranged the one and only defining distinction for FFG between Light and Heavy weapons is whether they are one-handed or two-handed, that raises the question why they didn't just call them such instead of using ambiguous terminology.

I think you were looking for Genesys Medieval Simulations, but you got a sword and sorcery setting instead?

I was very pleased with the actual content, and surprised to find I was intrigued and interested in the setting itself. I feel like they should have gone into more detail on magic item creation, to help GM's out more, but there are enough example items to get an idea of how to do it. I was disappointed they did not expand on magic spell types, I was hoping to see stuff like Divination, Telekinesis/Manipulation, Enchantment/Charm, etc.

17 minutes ago, Direach said:

I was very pleased with the actual content, and surprised to find I was intrigued and interested in the setting itself. I feel like they should have gone into more detail on magic item creation, to help GM's out more, but there are enough example items to get an idea of how to do it. I was disappointed they did not expand on magic spell types, I was hoping to see stuff like Divination, Telekinesis/Manipulation, Enchantment/Charm, etc.

Color me precognitive but I am going to read the bones and say that some of the mental psi stuff/otions might show up in sci fi setting books.

32 minutes ago, SavageBob said:

I think you were looking for Genesys Medieval Simulations, but you got a sword and sorcery setting instead?

Yah, I was thinking mostly I don't actually care about or need to read a definition of different kinds of weapons at all, but for system specific mechanics that might need explaining. In regards to the wording, I'm not sure what eye rolling would be going on unless by the lead curator at the Metropolitan medieval antiquities department....

I think it is clear that people bought this supplement for very different reasons, so it's no surprise it doesn't please everybody.

I bought it for the fluff, hoping to use it for a sandbox style campaign coupled with Runebound and running D&D 5E.

I think the book should have been named "Realms of Mennara" instead of "Terrinoth", seeing as it covers so many regions.

For me, a few things are missing:

1. A timeline telling me how long ago the First and Second Darknesses were, etc.

2. A scale for the maps (!)

3. A calendar (at least for Terrinoth if not the other regions/cultures)

4. Thumbnail maps of the Free Cities

I do think that there are enough adventure seeds and hooks in the descriptions of the regions though, from "the baron is hiring adventurers to get rid of the monsters in his barony" to "there is a mysterious stone circle near the castle, where cultists are rumoured to hang out at" kind of thing. Add the adventure cards from Runebound, and I've got years of materials for a campaign.

Anyway, if someone here can point me to a timeline for Mennara, or a map of the world/a region with a scale on it, I will be very grateful.

Thanks!

Proofreading is clearly much better than most of the SWRPG books, especially in their early print runs, as others have said.

I'm more interested in Terrinoth as a setting than I was, which is a nice surprise. I usually expect settings-created-for-miniatures-games to be either very ho-hum or very over-the-top/tongue-in-cheek (think old school 40K). The only one I've really liked to date is Malifaux. And now, like others in the thread, I might actually run a game set in Terrinoth, which previously didn't interest me at all.

On the other hand, there isn't terribly much crunch for such a large book. I do like the Savage Worlds approach of having companion books for genres (e.g. Super Powers, SciFi, Horror, etc.). FFG seems to be going the route of "we'll give you a setting supplement for each of our owned-IP settings teased in the core rulebook." That's alright, but it limits their helpfulness as toolkit products. Gear list, new careers, some new talents, and crafting rules are all useful. Magic... Less so. But I've been saying and thinking since Genesys was announced that "magic" or its equivalent is one part of any setting's rules that will be very tightly linked to the setting's metaphysics. That's the hardest category to include definitively in a universal or generic RPG system. I think it's almost better to expect GMs to design their own magic systems for their own settings.

Although Genesys breaks down setting vs. tone differently than Savage Worlds, Cypher System, or GURPS, I'd still love to FFG put out more toolkit-like products for some of the "Tones" as defined in the core rulebook: Horror, Intrigue, Mystery, Pulp, Drama, & Superheroes. Give me Tone books with: lots of crunch, the page count of an SWRPG career book, and a price point of $20-30 dollars each (depending on the art). I'll get out my wallet.

Edit: Heroic Abilities are great! I'm looking at ways to build something similar within homebrew careers. Each career with a unique ability and various ways to upgrade it with ability points that you receive with each 50 earned XP. If you assume the longest campaigns will last to 1000-2000XP, with most campaigns lasting 300-900XP, then you can assume a career ability should have between 15-20 AP of upgrades (leave room for cross-career stuff).

I picked up the PDF earlier, skipped right to section 2. Still going through the crunch because I fell asleep earlier. I will definitely be using some of these rules in Star Wars, starting with the Heroic Abilities to replace Signature Abilities. Mounted combat is nicely laid out and the talent list is pretty extensive. Happy with the purchase and at some point I'll get around to reading the other parts of the book.

I really like that careers like the Primalist are not forced to rely upon magic for combat, the fact they can readily use big melee weapons fits so many shamin and Druid stereotypes.

I must say I’m slightly disappointed with the limited career choices, it’s as if they are holding back some for later books. There should have been at least a few options of “choose x or y to be a career skill” but I also think careers are so flexible that players should feel free to change a skill or two as needed

Did anyone else notice the book is printed in the USA? It says so on the credits page. I wonder if the print run was smaller as a consequence?

1 hour ago, Richardbuxton said:

Did anyone else notice the book is printed in the USA? It says so on the credits page. I wonder if the print run was smaller as a consequence?

I suspect all print runs for Genesys supplements will be smaller than those for the core book, but that's more a logistical reality of "we know X number of people bought the core book, and in all likelihood sales for supplements will always be some smaller subset of X group of people."

Ideally, you print in the USA or Europe (if your company is based there) for access to higher quality prints and assembly. And it did appear Terrinoth was cloth bound rather than glued, but sometimes the strip of fabric along the top and bottom of the spine is only there to conceal glue binding. I'll have to look when I get home.

On 4/20/2018 at 4:59 PM, GrumpyBatman said:

An adventure would have made the book super stellar in my opinion. I'm liking what I've read and glad to have some background for the world setting, but I wish there were some adventure seeds or plot points. Savage Worlds does a great job with a lot of its splat books and they generally take very little room (pages) so I am clueless why something so useful was left out?

I agree that there should be an adventure. Perhaps FFG will post one as a free download?

On 4/21/2018 at 8:17 PM, sfRattan said:

On the other hand, there isn't terribly much crunch for such a large book. I do like the Savage Worlds approach of having companion books for genres (e.g. Super Powers, SciFi, Horror, etc.). FFG seems to be going the route of "we'll give you a setting supplement for each of our owned-IP settings teased in the core rulebook." That's alright, but it limits their helpfulness as toolkit products. Gear list, new careers, some new talents, and crafting rules are all useful. Magic... Less so. But I've been saying and thinking since Genesys was announced that "magic" or its equivalent is one part of any setting's rules that will be very tightly linked to the setting's metaphysics. That's the hardest category to include definitively in a universal or generic RPG system. I think it's almost better to expect GMs to design their own magic systems for their own settings.

I pointed out in the rpg.net forums that everybody was expecting the Savage World's equivalent of Fantasy Companion when Realms of Terrinoth was always going to be more akin to Hellfrost.

I noticed one glaring omission from the supposed talent list for Terrinoth: Grit is listed but not Toughened... whoops!

Also Swift isn’t listed either, an odd exception but I suppose that’s what magic items and the Augment Spell is for.

Im glad they included a list of talents with page references, just a pity they forgot one of the most important.

On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 12:53 PM, twincast said:

Finally, hand crossbows and repeating crossbows are ludicrous concepts, but if you want to have some, that's fine by me.

The repeating crossbow was used well before Medieval times (BC) and the hand crossbow existed at least by the Renaissance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_crossbow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crossbow_pistol_IMG_3841.jpg (museum picture)

Thus, in my opinion, neither should be termed ludicrous in a Medieval fantasy setting especially one with a section discussing clockwork devices. Each should have weaknesses, but they were used even in reality.

3 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:

I noticed one glaring omission from the supposed talent list for Terrinoth: Grit is listed but not Toughened... whoops!

Also Swift isn’t listed either, an odd exception but I suppose that’s what magic items and the Augment Spell is for.

Im glad they included a list of talents with page references, just a pity they forgot one of the most important.

It’s a little odd, but given how both Swift and Toughened are used by the pre-gen characters from the Gencon demo the intention seems to be that they are available to players.

On 4/20/2018 at 10:35 AM, GroggyGolem said:

Question regarding this release: I am someone who has no desire to run or play in this setting and is mostly just looking for additional rules that add to the experience of Genesys, whether it be crafting, magic, net talents or other rulesets. For someone with this strict interest in expanding the Genesys toolkit, is RoT worth the price?

I use 5e D&D for my fantasy games. I got it to mine for ideas. And who knows? I might try it out eventually.

If you just want mechanical stuff, the PDF is probably your best bet. I still don't do the PDF-only thing, though. I always want a hardcopy. I prefer reading a book to reading a screen. Love PDFs to reference at the table, though.

3 minutes ago, Lickintoad said:

I use 5e D&D for my fantasy games. I got it to mine for ideas. And who knows? I might try it out eventually.

If you just want mechanical stuff, the PDF is probably your best bet. I still don't do the PDF-only thing, though. I always want a hardcopy. I prefer reading a book to reading a screen. Love PDFs to reference at the table, though.

I am near the same. I got the PDF first to see if I felt the book was worth it. I could have used a lot more crunch and far less fluff, but everyone's different. The nice thing is the PDF allowed me to pull out the monster pages and put them into a separate 42 page book for faster reference. I am die hard D&D fan but... I prefer the character design/progression of Genesys better.

33 minutes ago, Lickintoad said:

I use 5e D&D for my fantasy games. I got it to mine for ideas. And who knows? I might try it out eventually.

If you just want mechanical stuff, the PDF is probably your best bet. I still don't do the PDF-only thing, though. I always want a hardcopy. I prefer reading a book to reading a screen. Love PDFs to reference at the table, though.

Yeah I ended up nabbing the pdf over the weekend, already converted the Heroic Abilities over for Star Wars in place of the Signature Abilities.

I want to buy the book and dig into it. I love Terrinoth. I just know I will be frustrated to no end never to play the setting. It would in the end, just be a lap dance. I will want much more.

On 4/20/2018 at 9:41 AM, lecudas said:

I found it curious that there is no Intellect-based race. That is what I usually would play.

This could easily be an advantage for this setting, which has a focus on Runecraft, an Intellect-based skill. To my knowledge, no species starts with 120 XP. (Input...?) As long as each Intellect 1 species starts with at least 90, and every other species starts with at least 70 XP, every PC can raise Intellect to a maximum starting rank of 4 and has equal access to the setting-defining Runecraft skill. In an inversion of Syndrome's postulate ("If everyone's super, no one is."), if no one is special, anyone can be. Every conceivable way of building a "Runecrafter", no matter how weird, is equally valid. It might not be intentional, but the lack of one or two focused Intellect species may subtly encourage players to get very creative combining the versatile Runecraft skill with other skills, if you let it.

On 4/20/2018 at 7:41 AM, lecudas said:

I found it curious that there is no Intellect-based race. That is what I usually would play.

It's because people who choose to go into tombs with undead stuff and fight dragons are actually F-ing stupid....so no one deserves a high intellect.......

4 hours ago, CMink said:

This could easily be an advantage for this setting, which has a focus on Runecraft, an Intellect-based skill. To my knowledge, no species starts with 120 XP. (Input...?) As long as each Intellect 1 species starts with at least 90, and every other species starts with at least 70 XP, every PC can raise Intellect to a maximum starting rank of 4 and has equal access to the setting-defining Runecraft skill.

Given how stats are costed it is irrelevant whether you get Int from race or just character build, so CMink is on the money

On 4/23/2018 at 1:15 AM, Gamemasterbob said:

I agree that there should be an adventure. Perhaps FFG will post one as a free download?

I'm working on some playable material - look out for my other posts for some previews, intro is here - shall be working on developing it properly now I have RoT - perhaps with some new 'exclusive' locations as well as using those from Terrinoth lore, FFG did release one adventure ( THE HAUNTED CITY ) as well - see the info with the second link:

https://adobe.ly/2GxF9yr

and development/ resource thread here: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/268577-fantasy-descent-terrinoth-journeys-in-genesys/

On the subject of opinions.... WOW mind blown, it's somehow even better than expected, and some teasery (new I think?) elements such as the desert locale and the Singhara- are these new? Some of this stuff really has to find its way into Descent, nice that some of D1e has made it in such as a few Sea of Blood items, shame it didn't all find a way in but I'll be filling in some of those gaps as I need to for my saga campaign anyway.

It's so good even with having the PDF to keep me sane til I get the real thing that's still not closure- I need the book- it's going to be so lushly beautiful, a PDF doesn't quite do that beauty justice.

And it more than satisfies what I was looking for to start properly working on my campaign.

On 4/22/2018 at 12:00 AM, GroggyGolem said:

I picked up the PDF earlier, skipped right to section 2. Still going through the crunch because I fell asleep earlier. I will definitely be using some of these rules in Star Wars, starting with the Heroic Abilities to replace Signature Abilities. Mounted combat is nicely laid out and the talent list is pretty extensive. Happy with the purchase and at some point I'll get around to reading the other parts of the book.

There's other parts of the book? Huh.. you're right! Seriously, I grabbed crafting, Kobolds and the talents / heroic abilities and ran!

Btw. Kobolds, dressed up as life-sized wrapper covered chocolates similar to Hershey Park in PA, are FANTASTIC intro bad guys! lol

5 hours ago, ElderKoala said:

Btw. Kobolds, dressed up as life-sized wrapper covered chocolates similar to Hershey Park in PA, are FANTASTIC intro bad guys! lol

Giving out free chocolate. To adults. Never trust freebies. Especially freebies given to adults by people in costume in public places.