I saw that the reprint Heirs of Blood campaign for Descent 2 is on the boat. Is there enough in this book to convert to a Genesys campaign?

I've always wonder if anything in Descent could be made into a Realms of Terrinoth campaign, since I have never played Descent and I bet people I will GM for will have never played Descent.

There’s a framework definitely.

I think you could use it to get the creative juices flowing for a game. I think you could definitely set an adventure in the hidden kingdom of Saradyn with the characters trying to foil Eliza's play for power.

You might have to take out a few elements and focus and expand on the main ones you want as a board game is a little bit denser not having to worry about realism and flow as much as a role-playing game does.

As Horus States, however, the framework is definitely there, you'll just have to do some work to convert it to an rpg adventure.

Think you could use if for inspiration if you wanted to create a campaign.

A cording to the decent wiki it consist of

13 pages with lore and art.
1 campaign (32 encounters)
1 Introduction
7 Act 1 quests
2 Interlude quests
8 Act 2 quests
1 Finale quest

https://descent2e.fandom.com/wiki/Heirs_of_Blood

There is a list there of the battles and what the overall goals are gives you and idea on how to build the story. I guess the actual book will have those pretty detail layed out.

Think about how the pc get involved or are invested in the forgotten kingdom. Are the agents of the throne or just random bystanders etc.

You could juice it up by using the mass combat rules from the star wars book "lead by example" At least towards the end

There is a lot big bad guys in the Farrow family a GM can have fun it seems.

I havent played the board game but from reading the table it seems the story progress no matter who wins or loose so there are options for the GM to move the story along even though the PC fails individual acts.

FFG very much set up the possibility with their ' The Haunted City ' launch adventure (as previewed at Gencon, it's linked with the Genesys resources on the FFG website) which introduced Eliza Farrow to Genesys. Another Farrow, Merick is a key NPC in the start of my epic adventure series.

I'm working away in my wizard's laboratory on quite a lot of Terrinoth game lore to Genesys ideas so look out for plenty of that in the future, a bit of a slow burn as it's a lot of work with me doing several projects at the same time and also I'm doing the campaign building groundwork alongside the first few modules so have to jump around different tasks a lot so the first few modules are slower to make as I keep finding extra bits of work they need, eventually much of this background and same-every-time work will be done so the churn-and-burnout rate should decrease as I won't have to do all that framework extra stuff every time, plus I'm helping some other fans with some projects and compiling a gm's timesaving resource for the Genesys RPG system that will help with some of this work (and help others with similar work) and am making that the priority as the former's helping others and the latter saves time in the long run.

But there is a lot on the way.

Rugal's working on bringing The Ascension of Margath from Runebound into Descent which I'm helping with playtesting and documenting, and in turn I'm working on a module to bring that into Genesys also, once we've done this there are some other elements of Runebound we're keen to bring over including The Corpse King, Fall of The Dark Star and Caught in a Web , and I've been taking a jigsaw like approach of seeing how all such different elements could fit together.

If anyone wants to help with this by working on bringing any of the other stories from the Terrinoth games into Genesys let me know as I'd be happy to be there to help and it shares the creative work mountain out a bit, these can also eventually be integrated into my series of campaign modules (that can be played as a series or as standalones), if needs be with a campaign series version that tweaks anything that doesn't match up to the rest of the campaign. I have Heirs of Blood but don't want to start any new Terrinoth fan projects just yet with already doing overlapping work on enough to handle for now. I did have some ideas for it such as introducing a twist regarding Eliza and one of her past crimes mentioned in the story coming back to haunt her (no spoilers).

I'm being majorly ambitious for Terrinoth in terms of Descent and Genesys as I'm aiming to weave all the lore together, I can be this ambitious as I love the setting and its possibilities, Genesys and the Terrinoth games especially Descent enough to be in it for the long haul. I also like the idea of building up quite a large collection of modules for players so there's plenty of adventures to choose from and dive into with a lot of variety and story/character development.

VerdantSF and some others ran an enjoyable series of Terrinoth Genesys sessions through Discord/Roll20/online which used some of the lore and linked the sessions together under the title 'Dreamwalkers of Mennara'. This will likely be returned to in future (that group are currently having a look round the worlds of Android and I'm in a creative phase for Terrinoth and had a break to learn the system a bit better but there are ideas we hope to return to).

Over time I think we'll get a really good and deep well of tales and adventures for GM's to delve into and as an owner of quite a lot of the Terinoth games (with others still on the save up for list) I'm very active in turning the lore into actual adventures.

My immediate projects are:

- some play testing and document work for Rugal and a few others for their Descent projects

- a timesaving resource for Genesys projects including a full, in depth, timesaving index for the books and other official content (I've lost a lot of time finding and refinding stuff in the books so figured a full A-Z would save me and others loads of time by making it quick to look up what you need, much improved vs the indexes!)

- a fan development supplement to the CRB of some sort, initially for now probably just with any bits that go into the collabs I'm involved with, but in future I may try and bring together some of the forum fuelled additional options for the game through a coordinated group effort on the forums as to what might be worth including in such a supplement/appendix to the CRB, there are lots of good ideas on the forums giving a lot of new options for the system, could be worth bringing the best together (again a timesaver as would save ploughing through the forums for already arrived at ideas/innovations/solutions).

- some assistance with the Genesys Mennara/Terrinoth bestiary work (which awesomely Archellus and a few others have done a lot of leg work on, so a lot of bestiary type work I thought I'd have to do is already out there and much appreciated, it would help with any conversion of Heirs of Blood )

And once I've got some of those more pressing Terrinoth tasks out of the way the first three modules sequentially of 'Wandering Orbits of Light and Dark' , a fifth darkness Mennara-set campaign series (Saga Fi(v)e of the whole over-arching collection which I've cunningly titled 'Ascent : Journeys Out Of The Darkness' )

'Ascent : Journeys Out Of The Darkness'

'SAGA FI V E : Wandering Orbits of Light and Dark'

Module V.1 - Ruinbound Skies (where the consequences of the fourth darkness and those that preceded it combine to lead to the rise of the fifth darkness in the shadows of the dark star, the final one if the prophets are to be believed...)

Module V.2 - The Bleakest Winter (set in the harsh rime-chilled climes of Isheim)

Optional side modules for the above or any other time players were in Zanaga/Isheim or Frostgate respectively (I may do these much later so as to focus on the main core modules for the immediate future) The Path of Bones & The Trials of Legends ( new as in not from the app Frostgate Trials and a Singharan trial adventure based on those parts of the lore)

Module V.3 - The Stormy Seas of Blood (where the heroes' sea voyage back from Isheim doesn't go too well and they meet some long-forgotten yet still-alive/still-undead enemies)

There's some kit I want to get linked to these and some creative brain-simmering that mean the delay from the first few tasks is actually proving beneficial!

- alongside but mostly after this working on bringing the other Runebound stories into Genesys, and with Rugal, into Descent.

- then of course the rest of 'Ascent : Journeys Out Of The Darkness' which I'll be completing by putting out one new module at a time.

With delving into all the lore I've had a lot of other ideas- the creative process isn't too linear at first which excites and slows down progress in equal measure - but have put these on hold as they feel like they belong later in the timeline of events, unless I change my mind (I'm a creative I'm allowed to!) these three modules seem to be the first three chronologically, especially as they can set up the rest of the series and each other nicely. So I'll see which of the other module ideas they naturally lead to and let things decide their order that way.

As there's so much lore to thin things out a bit and not cram it into one adventure I decided to do five epic saga campaign series so there can be one for each of the three darknesses in the existing lore, one for the stories in the games (so I see things like The Ascension of Margath and anything inspired by Heirs of Blood or the other games to sit in this 'fourth darkness' age which would also be a good way to weave any official modules into a longer campaign)- The Haunted City would work in this context and is how Dreamwalkers of Mennara was begun by the Discord/online group as they used that adventure as a starting point. Some of their modules, if the persons concerned are happy for them to be used as such, I shall ask closer to the time, would fit well into this fourth darkness adventure series, and there are some top quality ideas and creations in there such as The Malady Melody which VerdantSF has done a lovely and rather impressive module for (it's on these forums, the other sessions are on Youtube and not yet converted to modules but may get a module made for them in future). There was also a nice bit of negotiating with three hard to negotiate with major adversaries (no spoilers) which is just a perfect fit to one of my ideas were that idea the explanation for it being played out like it did. It could be a role play of sorts within a role play and there's a great diplomatic way story-wise I'd like to make use of it. So potential collaboration could lead to some unexpected new ideas too.

So all in all right now I'm totally loving Mennara/Terrinoth and it's sparking loads of creativity, the other games are certainly good springboards for ideas for Genesys (Even Drakon - I'm thinking I may do something Trials of Frostgate-esque for this).

Wow, amazing work Watercolour Dragon, as Senator Palpatine says "I shall watch your career with interest".

Just out of curiosity is the Fourth Darkness something out of one of the other Terrinoth game products or is it something you've come up with yourself?

@Watercolour Dragon

Not sure if this will help, but I have compiled a set of rules I use with my group to adapt Genesys to a more tactical play setting (and some general rule clarifications, magic and skill balances, etc) that may be helpful.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17drzBfqitzSRTfRkupOuDITVxuSFYiaR

14 hours ago, Suneisha said:

Wow, amazing work Watercolour Dragon, as Senator Palpatine says "I shall watch your career with interest".

Just out of curiosity is the Fourth Darkness something out of one of the other Terrinoth game products or is it something you've come up with yourself?

The latter - I only know of three darknesses specifically named as such in the lore of the games and ROT - hence it was logical to (in the spirit of throwing some more chaos at Terrinoth as that's what heroes need, chaos and 'broken' things to fix ) make any new adventures after this game lore in a new darkness, the next age of troubled times, so that it's clear they are new events happening after this existing history, it also sits with the fact in many ways you can think of the events in most of the games as this current darkness - the games are in this 'window' of time after the third darkness, which I thought would be nice to weave together.

Because of this a key reason for also having a fifth in this new lore I'm adding was partly to split my own brand new adventures as a separate series from any ways the other official/ some fan ones/ the ones inspired by the games might fuse together as one campaign (thus keeping those in the fourth darkness) but also because I liked the idea of a potential 'final darkness' when the heroes can actually properly 'win' so to speak, where the stakes are highest and where all the others come back consequence-wise for something of a last stand. It's quite a nice way to bring in some surprises and twists and turns from the prior lore and join up some dots.

For example The Ascension of Margath is all about those seeking Margath's return, historically Margath being considered dead at the end of the dragon wars (third darkness) so this will sit in the fourth darkness bit of the timeline.

This works well with the fact the fourth darkness is something of a build up for the fifth also as it brings old threats, tensions and terrors back from the shadows and back into power and sees the evils of the first three darknesses beginning to unite and find new allies from the fourth with some consequences that escalate things and bring things together for the fifth.

The final reason for the five darknesses with me adding two was for the fact it helps split what will eventually be quite a lot of content rather neatly into five campaigns that make sense chronologically and progressively.

And on your comment I wish it were a career, I could happily do this full time, mind you then it would be work, what was that Mark Twain quote about leisure never seeming like work even though it often is and if it were work it would perhaps seem a chore....

Fascinating, you keep this up and it may very much become a career if FFG take notice (not that I have any idea how they work, just my thoughts not theirs unfortunately). I'm sure doing something you love as a career, whilst it might become more of a chore, would still be more enjoyable than doing something you don't have a passion for.

At the moment I have my players having their first tentative steps into Terrinoth through Legacy of Dragonholt (just completed) and Descent 2 (just starting) with the intention of then bringing them into the Genesys RPG with the lore and events established in those games as part of the additional history when the RPG begins in earnest.

I never even had the foresight of bringing in a new darkness (let alone two), just letting events progress through a series of more standard adventures. It looks like you've gone much further and will have a great deal of lore and adventures prepared by the time I introduce my players to Realms of Terrinoth and I will have to say I won't be too proud to pilfer such in depth work

I've still got to get Legacy of Dragonholt, as well as Heroes of Terrinoth, been getting some of the older games first lest they go out of print (I managed to get Rune Age, most of Battlelore (glad I did as some of it's not now available) and the original Runewars (most recent version) while I still had the chance, I may not complete the collection as a few things seem to be selling out and not be being reprinted and are going for crazy prices second hand, plus some of the sellers pics for the older items seem a bit suss like you might just end up with the card token, it's not like buying a current product and it seems suspicious that they can only put a pic of the card token when it's described as the miniature, things like that can smell fishier than Captain Bones' breath.) But I've still got a nice tasty chunk of Terrinoth and have even started adding some of Runewars Miniatures to the line up.

This means I now have two almost-identical Arduses with a plan to greenstuff the RWM one into Waiqar, if I can make the required changes well enough and it works using a sword repurposed from a Merlin toy , yet to find out if it does work but if not I'll find another solution - so I will be bringing Waiqar himself into my Descent and Genesys. And the Descent first edition lieutenants and nemesis level adversaries even if FFG remain too blinkered to remake most of them - they were such well designed and in some cases fairly unique figures they're hard to proxy without having something quite different but I'm working on it. Lined up a few possible options for some of them .

You are going to have your heroes face Waiqar, you are a bad, bad man, I love it! 😀

Heirs of Blood was actually what got me thinking about a Descent RPG (this was back before Genesys was announced). I started off using D&D 5e rules (I still have my notes around here somewhere...) but sidelined that when Genesys / Realms of Terrinoth were announced. Right now I just need the time to sit down and do the conversion work.

It looks like Watercolour Dragon has similar ideas and access to a lot more material (I got into Descent with 2nd Edition). I'd love to see what s/he produces.

On 2/1/2019 at 1:06 AM, Suneisha said:

You are going to have your heroes face Waiqar, you are a bad, bad man, I love it! 😀

Waiqar's been hiding in the shadows for too long, about time he emerged so that's one thing I'm building up to.