So... Tormenta Campaign Setting?

[Libertad]

So I've seen this campaign setting mentioned several times around the 'net, and by Atmo of these boards.  It's a very popular RPG setting in Brazil, and uses the 3rd Edition ruleset.

Unfortunately I cannot speak Portuguese or find an online translation, so I had to rely on Google Translator for the Tormenta SRD Wiki.

For anyone who owns this book, tell me its most distinguishing features.  What separates it from the other D&D settings out there?  What does it do differently?  Who and what are its most iconic characters, locations, and organizations?

[Atmo]

I'll ask someone (with better english than me) on the Jambo Forum.

[Libertad]

Oslecamo's doing a write-up here.

[Atmo]

Yay, now i can talk a huge load of silly things about this scenario with other people! \o/

[monteparnas]

Well, I'm here in response to Atmo's call, so I do hope to help with your questions, and just ask to forgive any problems with my english. But let me see what we have here:

Unfortunately I cannot speak Portuguese or find an online translation, so I had to rely on Google Translator for the Tormenta SRD Wiki.

First you have to be aware that we have two very distinct editions of Tormenta. The one depicted in the image you used is the old Td20, a campaing setting using the original D&D 3th Edition rules (and eventualy revised to the 3.5 rules).

The new one, known as Tormenta RPG, or just TRPG for short, is a new ruleset based on the OGL, created so new players wouldn't have to buy books out of the market, since they had no intention on going to 4th Edition with the setting.

Tormenta SRD Wiki is based entirely on those new rules, so be aware of the difference. Also, it have a strong focus on going with rules without give too much of the setting itself, and I think this is just your main focus, am I wrong?

its most distinguishing features.

Well, for one, it was the first major fantasy setting on my country, and the only one indeed until now! It was pieced together from material published along the time by the first, and for too much time only, RPG magazine on Brazil, Revista Dragão Brasil. So you can think of it as an experimental setting, created with a lot of ideas of a lot of people. The simple fact that those people are from a tottaly different cultural context add to the mix (even for us, since we are very used to USA products on the RPG market).

Aside that, you will found mix of ideas, a light and easy to understand and play setting (if not rules, since it is d20 after all), a lot of space to introduce almost anything you like (the scenario is rich, if not very congruent, and have a lot of unexplored places), and some uncommon features:

You loose the Gnomes as a race, but gains Roman-minded Minotaurs! Goblins are a playable race, too, but they come in two flavors: a bunch of beggars that thinker with things much like WoW Goblins to compensate lak of magic powers, and an unstoppable army of death cultists that conquered an entire continent the size of North America! Also, elves are loosers on the setting.

Arton, the world of the setting, also have a new approach on gods and their servitors if compared to D&D. About the gods, we have the concept of Major Gods as a closed pantheon of 20 all-powerful entities that govern the entirety of creation, and Minor Gods as something very closer to human (Minor God is a +2 CR template for 21+ CR creatures with at least one thousand followers). About their servitors, we have the notion of Obligations and Restrictions, strict rules that a divine servitor can't brake at all and varies by god. You can make them a rule, or let people act more freely, but in either case following those without fail give the character an extra feat.

Finally, you have the menace that give its name to the setting, the Tormenta (is a word for a kind of storm). It is an extradimensional invasion of insectoid super-resistant creatures that comes acompanied by a storm of blood-red acid and other mystical effects. Even in a high fantasy world, the storm proved to be beyond the powers of all that tried to do anything. Since a supplement called Área de Tormenta (Area of Storm), the menace becomes explained, but in a somewhat lovecraftian way.

[Ziderich]

Hi, to everyone. Atmo made a call in the oficial setting forum, so here i am. Sorry for the gramatical errors, my english is rusty.

I think it will be interesting explain a brazilian OGL system/setting to you guys. I will start with a moderate explanation about each one:




The Setting: The Tormenta RPG setting takes place in the world of Arton. Arton is created by the entities Nada (The Nothing) and Vazio (The Empty) and delivered to your sons, the twenty gods of the Panteão (Pantheon). Led by Khalmyr, the God of Justice they populate Arton with humans, elves, dwarves, dragons and the usual species.
In the recent times, Arton began to be attacked by the Tormenta (The Torment). The crimson storm gather above a area, bringing an acid rain and aberrant creatures, killing and corrupting people and structures and never leaving. It is a whole another multiverse, created by a sin of a triad of gods of Panteão. The ancient people of this multiverse, the lefeu, have no morality and were filled with ambition (a gift of goddess Valkaria, of Humans and Ambition), creativity (gift of the god of creativity) and power (their last gift, from Kallyadranoch, god of Power and Dragons).They kill their own false gods, break the barriers of space and time and assimilate their own multiverse, becoming a one being through collective mind and now pursue conquer Arton, to become gods through the enormous divine power of Arton. In Arton any epic creature can become a minor god, having enough number of devoted followers.

Features: Arton have lots of particularies, being very different of the standard of D&D settings. In Brazil we are big fans of the nipponic culture e Tormenta RPG have tons of influences of this: the scenario have a fantastic Japan/China kingdom called Tamu-ra, the first place attacked by the Tormenta. Their samurai, ninja, monks and people flee to the Reinado (The Reign), a coalization of kingdoms ruled by the King-Imperator Thormy and wait for the chance to revenge and take back their land. The handbooks have the art in anime/mangá style, what also is an cheap means of publishing rpg books in the expensive book market of Brazil.
Another particularity is the pop culture reference through all the setting: Tormenta began its development in the pages of Dragão Brasil (Brazil Dragon), a old rpg magazine here. This magazine monthly brings various adaptations of books, movies and games to systems like Gurps, AD&D and Storyteller and this preference passed to elements of the setting:
- You can find classes like Samurai, Swashbuckler and Lutador, a pugilist/MMA-fighter style class.
- The art is filled of references: The Bard illustration present a halfling dressed like Michael Jackson, for example.
- There are Prestige Class like the Cavaleiro do Corvo (Knight of Crow), of an order of knights trained as spec-ops team like SEALS or BOPE (from the brazilian movie Elite Squad) or Guerreiro Mágico (Magic Fighter), a hybrid fighter/wizard based on the protagonists of the anime/manga Magic Knight Rayearth.
- Even the NPC's don't escape: there's a lot based in pop icons: a city vigilante like Batman/Punisher, a high-priest of one the major gods based on Walter White, from Breaking Bad and a duo formed by a elf with native-american indian elements and a centaur cowgirl.

The System: Tormenta came to have its own system about three years ago. Before that it was just a scenario for AD&D/D&D 3.5 and a local system it took another direction. The Tormenta RPG system is a d20/OGL  variant, also with mechanic elements of games like Pathfinder, Mutants and Masterminds and Star Wars Saga. I quickly will detail every element of the core rullebook:
- Abilities: no change in the standard six, but the characters receive one point to expend at each pair level.
- Races: there 8 iconical/initial races: the jack of all trades humans and lefou, the corrupted half-lefeu race; dwarves and minotaurs (favored fighters); favored arcane elves and qareen (like genasi in Forgotten Realms) and goblins/halflings, stealth/rogue races. The racial traits are more iconical and powerful here: the standard abilities adjustments are +4, +2, -2 and the other traits become more useful (dwarves receive bonuses against all creatures above medium size, for example). Compared to D&D 3.5 the races have level adjustment +2. But you have more control of the final value of your abilities.
- Classes: most classes received a upgrade and/or mechanical change: Sorcerers gain 4 lineage powers; Paladins and Rangers have optional no casting progressions; Clerics receive metamagic or granted powers feats: the latter are a unique set of feats, guaranteed by God a character follows. Also have two additions: Samurai and Swashbuckler. No Favored Class and multiclassing is more simple: you dont' receive all inital feats and skill classes, must choose only one.
Skills: they are more useful and less complicated, in my opinion. Each character must choose your skills among the skill classes, in number defined by inteligence modificator + a number defined by the initial class (fighter have 2, rogues have 8, etc). These trained skills receive a graduation value equal character level +3. The untrained skills have graduation value equal to half-level. The skills are different and more comprehensive: Perception, for example, groups the olds Spot, Listen and Search.
Feats: more powerful than in other games. Most of the classes have extra feats and the characters receive one in each unpair levels.
Magic:Work on a magic points system, the caster classes receiving points each level. Also the spells not improve according to the level
Monsters: there are only six types: animals, undead, monsters, constructs, humanoids and outsiders.

Sources: The Revised Core Rulebook : http://jamboeditora.com.br/produto/tormenta-rpg-edicao-revisada/
               The Box Set: http://jamboeditora.com.br/produto/o-mundo-de-arton/
               The System Refference Document: http://pt-br.tsrd.wikia.com/wiki/Tormenta_RPG_SRD_Wiki
               O Inimigo do Mundo, the first volume of Tormenta Trilogy, telling the origin of Arton ultimate threat:http://jamboeditora.com.br/produto/o-inimigo-do-mundo-3a-edicao/
               http://www.jamboeditora.com.br/downloads/lit-idm2_preview.pdf
               Holy Avenger: a manga series  that goes into Arton, telling the Rubys of Virtue Saga: http://manga.animea.net/holy-avenger.html
               Ledd: Another manga series in Arton: http://www.genkidama.com.br/ledd/
               O Desafio dos Deuses (The Challenge of Gods): a PC Beat 'em up game, like Golden Axe or D&D Shadows of Mystara. Funded by crowndfunding, launch in March, 2014: http://catarse.me/pt/tormentadesafio

By now it is. As interest I'll bring more information to the topic.

P.S:Sorry for the poor english, guys.

[Atmo]

O Desafio dos Deuses (The Challenge of Gods): a PC Beat 'em up game, like Golden Axe or D&D Shadows of Mystara. Funded by crowndfunding, launch in March, 2014: http://catarse.me/pt/tormentadesafio

Yeah, i forgot that...

[Libertad]

"Elves are losers in the setting."

Can you elaborate further?  I recall reading a TV Tropes article saying that the authors really did not like elves.  But then again, TvTropes hasn't always been the best source of information for barely-mentioned things...

[Atmo]

"Elves are losers in the setting."

Can you elaborate further?  I recall reading a TV Tropes article saying that the authors really did not like elves.  But then again, TvTropes hasn't always been the best source of information for barely-mentioned things...

They lost their region when the Aliança Negra/Black Alliance attacked, her goddess was slaved (and raped, of course) by Tauron (minotaur god of minotaurs). They lost their pride (and women, as... you know) as a race and are, now, trying to overcome the shame by living while hiding from the outside world... or adventuring to find new weapons to fight back and destroy the enemies! Or something like that, as Aliança Negra didn't do ANYTHING after this conquest.

[NumeFinorio]

Hi. I'm João Paulo Francisconi. And I have actually published a oficial book of the setting, the Bestiário de Arton (Arton's Bestiary). Before that, I have been a long time fan of the setting, since it have been fisrt published here as a gift to be handed with the 50th edition of the brazilian RPG magazine Dragão Brasil in may of 1999 when I as, like, a bored, and boring, 11 year-old kid.

As a setting with almost 15 years of publishing there's more history to it than I honestly have the patience to explaim here. So what I will try to do is describe why I love Tormenta and maybe you will find what you want there.

The first thing that I love about the setting is that it is quite brazilian. That is, if you understand the brazilian nature as I do, one of a culturaly mixed country with more or less harmony going on. The creators of Tormenta are three of the staff of Dragão Brasil in the 90's, each of then have a distinct taste for RPGs and stuff in general. Marcelo Cassaro was a fan of manga and tokusatsu, Rogério Saladino of vintage horror movies, Lovecraft and the Ravenloft campaign setting and JM Trevisan of tradicional fantasy and the Dragonlance series of novels, and somehow they manage to balance all of that in a unique setting that have the positive energy of manga/anime and a giant tokusatsu robot on one side and the horror of a lovecraftian invencible driving-you-crazy menace on other, but also knights and tradicional fantasy stuff like Bielefeld, Portsmouth and the Order of the Light.

I love that, even as the setting do have archmages and great legends as Talude, Vectorius and Sir Orion Drake, they do not use those NPCs to solve every great challenge on the planet, but leave those guys to take care of their own affairs and all the action is focused on the players. The great menace of the horde of monters led by Thwor Ironfist will not be taken care of by the archmage Talude, as he is doing his personal mission of teaching magic and wonder to the world in his Great Arcane Academy. The evil dragon-king Sckhar will not be slayed by the other archmage of Arton, Vectorius, because he is quite busy running his flying comercial city of Vectora in his personal mission to improve the life of the people of Arton by bringing economic prosperity to everyone. And when they do take care of one of the great problems, as Sir Orion Drake destroyed one of the, until then, invencible areas of Torment he do that because 1. he wants to rescue his son and 2. because the authors want to show that this is possible to the players (as for many years there's little description of the main menace of the setting except that it was invencible and it causes insanity on those who fighted against it). When the goddess of humanity and ambition Valkaria was free from her imprisionement as a great statue, the players did that in a epic adventure and became part of the lore of the setting as the Libertadores. When Master Arsenal, the great high priest of the god of the war, finished the repairs of his giant tokusatsu-like robot using the thousand of magic itens he collect during decades of preparations, the players are the ones at the center of the battle that stopped his plans to bring a world wide war to Arton.

I love the unique take they have on the gods and divinity. It's easy for the players to became gods or even slay other gods, as a minor god is basicaly a epic creature with CR 21+ that make a claim of divinity ("I'm the god of the archers!") and have at least a thousand followers that worship him as such a god. On the other side major gods of the Pantheon are far more powerfull than this, with avatars that can sweep the floor with minor gods and their own planar realms to where the souls of the dead go after life, but with far less liberty as they represent the very idea of their portfolio. The God of Order and Justice will aways do the most fair thing even when it clearly is a bad decision! As in the time he give the God of Treason a chance to return to the Pantheon after, surprise, he commited treason against the other gods. Why? Because Sszzaas said he couldn't do otherwise as the God of Treason, it was his very nature and he couldn't help it, as Valkaria couldn't help herself but to rebel before because, even being good, she was the Goddess of Ambition! So the major gods do not govern their portfolios, but are governed by it.

And to finish it, more because I have more things to do, like going to sleep as it is 3:05 AM around here now, I love (almost) all the short storys, novels, comics books, audio drama, games and all the material derived from the RPG setting. Holy Avenger is probably the greatest brazilian comic book series of all time and the Torment Trilogy is, for me, the best novel series based on a RPG campaign setting of the world. And yeah, I have read the Dragonlance series of novels, and a shitload of other RPG based novels too, and there not one to beat it so far.

[DavidWL]

I love that ...

Thank you João! - that was a great and interesting explanation - I appreciate your posting it.

Best,
David

[monteparnas]

"Elves are losers in the setting."

Can you elaborate further?  I recall reading a TV Tropes article saying that the authors really did not like elves.  But then again, TvTropes hasn't always been the best source of information for barely-mentioned things...

Well, Atmo said something, but let me explain further. First, yes, we rear the same here about the authors not liking elves. Probably true.

First, in the setting the few elves where refugees. As the goblinoid Black Alliance took the south continent, the elven kingdom was utterly destroied and most elves where slaughtered. That came after a thousands of years old grudge called the Endless War, in with goblins where no more than your standard D&D minor threat and the elves where happy on crushing them from time to time. Note: the goblinoids claimed domain over the elven lands because they WHERE the original inhabitants of those lands, driven out by elven conquerers.

So one day the Death God of Bugbears gave to the goblinoids his own messiah, and this guy makes from goblinoids an army of hell, and personaly defeats Glórienn, the elven Major Goddes (that had elves as her only portfolio, but was still a Major Goddes) in battle. Elves are extremely prideful bitches in the setting, so they never cared about other people before and never ask for help after. The goddes Glórienn became apathic waiting forever for her people to save her (I don't know of what, shame I guess) and the few survivors have to retreat to human lands, where they are given some help and places to live.

In gratitude for the human help, the elves start to complain endlessly for their loss, and to hate the terrible luck that left them with filty homes (some of the best in the best human city) and nothing to do with their lives (for as much as I could see, they are the only race to never get a job. There are no elven commoners that I could see. If any existed in the past, they where all slaughtered or raped and imprisioned in their country fall).

Recently Glórienn reached the bottom of the well and finaly lose Major God status, and become a slave to the God of Strength (also God of Minotaurs). Followuing that, a LOT of elves decided to follow suit and become slaves themselfs just because they wanted too, and in just 4 years an entire Prestige Class based on being a slave in the army without any self respect was developed. And those guys are awesomely powerful, even being absolute losers.

Your own character is, of course, free to be a decent elf with something in your head, but will be probably the only one in miles. Or in the entire world.

[NumeFinorio]

"Elves are losers in the setting."

Can you elaborate further?  I recall reading a TV Tropes article saying that the authors really did not like elves.  But then again, TvTropes hasn't always been the best source of information for barely-mentioned things...

I think the best way to describe is that elves got what they deserve. In the setting the elves have a kingdom called Lennórienn in Lamnor, the south continent, until 1380 CE when their capital fall under the combined forces of hobgoblins and the bugbears of Thwor Ironfist, the forces that would became the heart of the horde know as the Dark Alliance of bugbears, hobgoblins, goblins, orcs, ogres and kobolds that conquered all the ancient kingdoms of the south continent. That was only possible because they are too arrogants to ask for help from the nearby human kingdoms (wich also caused the fall of those kingdoms to the Dark Alliance afterwards). Keep in mind that the Endless War between elves and hobglobins was started by the elves that conquered the motherland of the hobglobins by, you know, genocide, and them are all surprise when those guys who have their families butchered came back for blood.

The thing about that fall is that it would not be much of a deal to other races as it is to the elves. The Goddess of Elves, wich is at the time a major goddess, and so governed by her portfolio, was severely damaged by that because the elves believed that they are the perfect race (wich explains the nazi-like actions of starting genocide-wars or refusing help from "inferior races"), so when they are defeated by a "barbarian" race, that make the goddess became weaker as the mentallity of the elves of the world changed, until, in events that happened in the novels, she finally lost the status of major goddess and became a minor god slave to Tauron in exchange for him to protect the elves.

Although many people defend the elves, I don't think that much of them, as their history is like if nazy German got her ass kicked by jewish freedom fighters and after that the nazis go be slaves in spanish colonies in exchange for protection from those scary jewish people who wants to kick their balls for, you know, starting a genocide.