Travar Released!

[Mataxes]

@Dougansf - I'm at my day gig and can't check the info right now, but shoot me an email (josh-at-fasagames-dot-com) to remind me to check for you when I get home this evening.

We don't pull addresses for the Kickstarter physical books from our web shop info, so if you are getting a physical book, I'll have to update the address in our KS shipping records.

[Kosmit]

After I re-read Travar there is one thing that bothers me with 4th Edition...

It's to vague...

I understand the reason that it will allow Gamemasters to fit the system to their tables but not mentioning a legend about which 4 cities the Codex may be about... It's just dissapointing. At least for me.

[Mataxes]

Here's some honest questions for you.

How would those details add anything to the picture of present-day Travar?

What gets cut to fit it in?

I understand the fascination with Earthdawn's Deep Lore as much as anyone, but it isn't always appropriate or useful.

[Kosmit]

Since it is mentioned that Travar is in the fifth tablet there could be one or two pages describing possible locations of the previous four.

Also questions regarding the ancient civilization like how they were perceived by Dragons in the previous Era.

It also would be nice if every new sourcebook contained development to the general timeline without sticking to Travar "as is". What is the part of Iopos in coming events? Always loved that ED has roch history in setting without many details. I could place my campaign earlier than described in the book and have some general knowledge what could happen. In 4th Edition this part is missing. I mean the part with some radical changes (In my Barsaive The Everliving Flower cured Alachia after she was stabbed with it and Alamaise burned her in the Palace, and then became Thorned Dragon because doing it during Ritual of Thorns)

[etherial]

Since it is mentioned that Travar is in the fifth tablet there could be one or two pages describing possible locations of the previous four.

Also questions regarding the ancient civilization like how they were perceived by Dragons in the previous Era.

I agree that answers might not be so useful, but unanswered questions...those are what Legendary campaigns are made of.

[Mataxes]

Since it is mentioned that Travar is in the fifth tablet there could be one or two pages describing possible locations of the previous four.

Also questions regarding the ancient civilization like how they were perceived by Dragons in the previous Era.

What purpose would it serve? How would it inform the present day setting of Barsaive (whatever relative era you set it in)? Aside from providing more meat for your lore sandwich, why should your typical GM and his group care about it?

And again, what "one or two pages" do you cut to fit it?

(This is a question with practical considerations. The physical book is printed in 32-page sections that are collated and bound together. So the total page count must be a multiple of 32. Travar is 320 pages. If, when layout was done -- and all the tricks used to tweak the layout to fit -- we ended up at 323 pages, we either find a way to fill another 29 pages or cut 3.)

It also would be nice if every new sourcebook contained development to the general timeline without sticking to Travar "as is". What is the part of Iopos in coming events? Always loved that ED has rich history in setting without many details. I could place my campaign earlier than described in the book and have some general knowledge what could happen. In 4th Edition this part is missing.

I'm confused about a couple of things here.

You loved that ED has rich history in setting without many details, but are upset that there isn't more detail in Travar? Or do you mean that previous books provided a lot of historical detail but not much present-day info?

Can you give me a more concrete example of what you think is "missing"?

Because I'm not sure what you're thinking of. There are a lot of "missing" details in the history spread across the line. And the ED1 sourcebooks provided a lot of "as is" info -- the Throal book provided a snapshot of the Kingdom at the in-setting time of the book (pre-Prelude). Cara Fahd only sketches in some a little info about the area before the nation was restored. There's a lot more info about the status of things post-founding. Crystal Raiders doesn't really provide much info about Ustrect, despite a faction in one of the moots being obsessed with it. Serpent River doesn't answer questions about how Aban views the presence of the Castle of Assassins in the Mist Swamps, or whether there's an unknown relationship between them.

[Flowswithdrek]

Since it is mentioned that Travar is in the fifth tablet there could be one or two pages describing possible locations of the previous four.

Like Josh said, what would you have cut from the book to make room for those two pages? At one point there were a few exceptionally vague clues, that if taken together, pointed to a few general locations, but I’m confident only one, perhaps two have made it through the editing process.

Also questions regarding the ancient civilization like how they were perceived by Dragons in the previous Era.

Honestly, if I had delved into this, I know for a fact it would have been edited out as irrelevant to Travar today. Believe me, there was a ton of stuff snipped, and compared to the ancient perceptions of dragons, was much more relevant, yet still not relevant to make the cut.

Perhaps it’s better that way? I could have written the dragons colluded in the creation of the Ivory Codex, but then someone would have asked why, and which dragons. Perhaps they alerted the city rulers to the treachery that was taken place, but again why and whom?

What was written, but never made it, was “A civilization, according to the journal to have vanished from the living memory of all Namegivers, except perhaps the dragons; upon whose old buried stones they claim as their homes and lands, and had they known of it they were not likely to have cared.”

Knowing the dragons didn't actually care, kind of spoils things a bit, don't you think?

[Graymayne]

While I would have loved to see another 29 pages added to our book and would have been glad to attempt some of it, some questions come to mind:

How long do we take writing, editing, waiting for more possible image work?

How long does that delay the other books forthcoming?

Do we really accomplish anything by doing so?

FWD started this project and brought me in on FEB 16th, 2010. So after seven years, I personally want to see the book come out, good, bad, weak, strong, however you want to define it, I'm okay with that. We weren't going to make everyone happy. I'm just happy to see the work make it to print. I told FWD many a time, no matter what happens, the book must come out.

He stayed with it and I am glad first and foremost that he accomplished getting it into print. This was with the help and hard work of FASA, but he is the book project leader to me.

I won't say that I loved hearing more stuff had to be cut to see it printed. No one who contributes anything to a book ever wants to hear that, however, I am both thrilled and relieved that the book is finally out for all intents and purposes.

And FWD and I talked over many points during the pre-FASA days. The phrase "leave that vague so that GM's have something they can use" came up at least a few times. So, I would encourage you to use your imagination, remember one of the games motto's is: In My Barsaive ....

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So I would like to finish with this:

Thank You, FWD and Mataxes.

Graymayne

[etherial]

Travar is mine! It's been a long wait but it still has that new book smell. The map is a little smaller than I was expecting (I pictured 2x3 rather than 2x2) but I'm not gonna look a gift map in the mouth.

[Flowswithdrek]

Nice to know its out in the wild. Now i know i will be sitting by my door waiting for my copy