Terah: Character Reference Guide (PFRPG)

4.00/5 (based on 1 rating)
ROSRG1E
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A World of Industry and Magic!

This first book for Rossi Publishing Games' World of Terah is specifically designed to make the new classes, spells, and feats that will be featured in the upcoming Terah World Guide to be portable to any other Pathfinder Roleplaying Game compatible setting, including your own house campaign.

Play a conman with a heart of gold, with the new charlatan class or an insane scientist capable of bending the laws of physics with the spark class. Customize your character with the new feat lines in runeworking, telekinesis, and telepathy.

Who will you be in Terah?

"Spark" is a registered trademark of Phil and Kaja Foglio ©2009. Used with their kind permission.

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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4.00/5 (based on 1 rating)

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Turns Out Yelling "SCIENCE!" Is Pretty Fun

4/5

So I was initially leery. Steampunk has never been something I'm huge about. But I played in a game at Paizocon, and it was a ton of fun. I didn't like vikati at first, but Varrak the vikati swordsman won me over.
Charlatans are very interesting. I have yet to use them very much, but they seem to be a very complex class to balance. They get powerful spells like vanish as cantrips, and a seemingly at-will version of bardic performance, but certain limitations seem to render them quite suitable. When the charlatan spends most of the game being completely subtle only to leap out at the last minute and shrink the rail gun, you know there's something interesting here. The art is beautiful--I wasn't surprised to see that Hugo Solis was to thank for that--and I love the little snippets of fiction.

Sadly, it's not all good. Kobolds are inherently spiteful creatures, especially when we realize we are not as pro at reviews as we'd like to be. One major problem is the complexity of the spark class. Seriously. The spark class takes about 12 pages to explain, versus the charlatan's 3-4. Still, I like the disciplines, and it's clearly very fun to play once you understand it.

I still wish there were goblins. I think there's a lot of potential for fun with goblins. I house-ruled them into my game as gnomes an especially volatile spark experimented on, and I have yet to regret it. Goblins are funny enough with mere torches and oil flasks. Give them kegs of gunpowder and see what happens. Also, goblin sparks. "I INVENTED A NEW KIND OF FIRE!" indeed. ;D

I'd also like to see the exploding dice variant, but that's kind of wishful thinking on my part--"exploding dice" has always been my pet mechanic, ushered into every game I can fit it into.

Finally, I would have liked to see a bit more information on dwarves. There's some sort of Great Machine they serve? Sounds like it needs at least a little bit of elaboration.

For the reasons above, and because I hate to give extreme ratings when I'm barely qualified to give any, I'm giving this a 4/5. Great work!



I really can't wait for this. How fantastic. I've been running a homebrew Steampunk game for three years now and LOVE to idea of adding more roleplaying arsenal to our world.


I saw the book at PaizoCon and it looked really nice.

The Exchange

So Cheapy you were at PaizoCon and we didn't hook up. I'm just going to go with the assumption you were actively avoiding me! Thanks!


I was the witch in the Temple of Orcus!

Contributor

Now available as a Print/PDF bundle!

The Exchange

Cheapy wrote:
I was the witch in the Temple of Orcus!

Wait was that the spell "caster" directly to my right that didn't cast one spell successfully? Or are my games running together...


Yea! Every spell but one (lightning bolt) was useless against undead, since I didn't know we'd be facing undead. And all my offensive hexes were useless since they were mind-affecting.

...I did lightning bolt the zombie lord to death though! Poor mittens.

The Exchange

Ok yeah lol and I was playing Gilmer Gildenshield, the gnome potato fanatic... lol Good times!

Liberty's Edge

The preorder is due to a warehouse error. There are actual copies there as of today.

Contributor

Yeah, I'm waiting for the warehouse to shuffle inventories around in the system. :D


So who's picked up the book and played with it? There's an awful lot in here, what does everyone think?


I GMed a single session and felt like I was qualified to write a review. Vain creatures, we kobolds.
In the session, the charlatan died to a lucky critical with a longsword (22 damage, ouch) and was quickly replaced by a vikati priest of Cayden Cailean (since no deities are mentioned in the book from what I've seen). Sorcerer got knocked unconscious and tossed down some stairs. A gnome mechanic NPC creeped out the ranger. Gunslinger managed to prevent the ranger from accidentally killing everyone with a barrel of gunpowder.
All in all, it was a blast. Especially with goblins inserted. The spark class is really confusing, but it looks like it'd be cool if used right. It was certainly fun to watch at the convention.


Kobold Cleaver wrote:
The spark class is really confusing, but it looks like it'd be cool if used right. It was certainly fun to watch at the convention.

It was kind of confusing, but it had SCIENCE. Protip: When playing a Spark, shake your fist a lot.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

And never EVER give up the opportunity to laugh maniacally while you 'Show them! Show them ALL!!!'


My husband and I were lucky enough to win the lottery game, "Mr Dumont and the Magnificent Time Piece". We had a fantastic time. Anthony Rossi did a great job as GM. It was easily the highlight of the con. I look forward to spending more time in Terah.


I'm going to be running a bimonthly pickup game set in Terah, out of the new Otherworlds store in Edmonds. Anyone interested in joining the character pool?


Will there be a way to buy the upcoming world guide if we weren't one of the savvy people who joined the kickstarter? When is the ETA on the book?


Nice review, Kobold Cleaver - I think I gotta check this out as well...


There will absolutely be a way to buy the upcoming world guide. I believe the new release date is in mid August.

Liberty's Edge

Yes, the ETA on the World Guide is mid-August and the first AP module is due out just before that.

I'm flattered by the amount of support we've seen so quickly. We're working fevorishly to get things out as fast as possible. At this rate, we'll be flying soon enough.

And yes, the spark class is a difficult class to master, as mentioned in the review. I'd like to say that this was by design, but it wasn't entirely. It turns out that basing a class on the spark from Girl Genius is not only difficult to design, it makes a class that almost requires a very experienced player to play. Like other classes though, its best to start at level 1 and work up. =) Sparks in our play-testing consistantly are a very useful class.


I added an epub to the pdf file free of charge. Layout didn't charge me for it, so I'm not going to charge you for it. =) There's also some minor corrections throughout, although none that actually change the crunch or fluff at all.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Sounds interesting but then I like Steampunk a lot. Took me all this time to even notice it existed.


I am in the midst of planning a campaign for my kids (set 7,000 years in Galorion's future). It is going to start in a steampunk setting, but once they hit second level I am going to transport them to Galorion and start the RotRLs AP.

Terah sounds like it is going to save me a TON of world creation time and effort. I'll be watching for the World Guide.

Any update on the release?


The World Guide is due out in October. I finally stopped adding things to go into it, so the production is going ahead. The first adventure path (We call them Arcs) module is due out by the end of September.


Just picked up a digital copy of Terah: Character Reference Guide and absolutely love it. I so can't wait until the world guide comes out later next month (October). I so want to use a spark mechanist or energeticist either in a Terah game or Pathfinder game (oh the level of fun I could have with that). Granted the level twenty ability of the biologist is just beyond broken (at least in my opinion) but having the ability to "create" any creature is quite unbelievable. I can't wait to sink my teeth into the world guide and really get a picture of this game. A preview or a few page spoiler of the world guide would be awesome, but I am willing to wait for the actual guide to come out next month :D.


So, I have a rules question. Is this the place for it?

In the book, it states that it takes one round for a spark to activate an experiment. Later, it states that it takes as long as the spell's casting time to activate an experiment. Which is right?

Second, if it takes one round and lasts for the rest of the day, a spark could just activate all experiments at the start of the day, right? The rules don't contradict that.


Where should I ask, if not here?


Okay, I think I worked it out, nevermind. It's still unclear, but you can kinda put two and two together.


Carl, any chance of a preview or pdf coupon for kickstarter backers? The wait is killing me!


Consumer Update: I'll never forget that this item was made with misused funds from The Terah Project Kickstarter; or how the backers who wanted information were insulted by one of the authors. I'll never trust Rossi Publishing with an RPG product again, which is so unfortunate. This was such an amazing concept... with what seemed like a rock solid direction and potential to expand into something much larger than just a Campaign Setting of the season.

Worst of all? I paid for it, twice.

Their misuse of funds really turned me off of 3PP Crowdfunding; and the hopes of seeing a well done Steampunk IP for Pathfinder.

It was sort of released on Google Drive, with heavy errors, missing art and grammatical issues galore. :(

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