Vrahode is a world teeming with life and full of creatures and characters that you've never seen before in any fantasy world.
But what does that actually mean in practice?
This is part 1 of a 5-part deep dive into the playable races of Vrahode. We'll be talking about the Mynoc and the Toreln, who were created by the Accourisch by imbuing mushrooms and forests with human-like souls.
Vrahode will be coming to Kickstarter most likely in quarter one of 2024. When that campaign goes live, you will not only be able to buy the core game, Vrahode: The Calteeryn Ascension, but its three expansions as well.
Trailer Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy5rapu8Dd4
Learn more about Vrahode on the website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Vrahode is a world teeming with life and full of creatures and characters that you've never seen before in any fantasy world.
But what does that actually mean in practice?
This is part 1 of a 5-part deep dive into the playable races of Vrahode. We'll be talking about the Mynoc and the Toreln, who were created by the Accourisch by imbuing mushrooms and forests with human-like souls.
Vrahode will be coming to Kickstarter most likely in quarter one of 2024. When that campaign goes live, you will not only be able to buy the core game, Vrahode: The Calteeryn Ascension, but its three expansions as well.
Trailer Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy5rapu8Dd4
Learn more about Vrahode on the website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Brandon Rollins: I'm not rushing you. You can do that intro whenever you want to.
Jeff Irving: I will go ahead and do it.
Brandon Rollins: All right.
Jeff Irving: Jeff.
Brandon Rollins: Oh boy, it's gonna be one of those days.
Jeff Irving: Oh, it's not. A bad rehearsal, good show. That is the, that's kind of a rule, I think.
Brandon Rollins: At least I've got a cold open now.
Jeff Irving: That's right. Okay. Here we go.
My name is Jeff Irving and this is the Vrahode Tavern podcast. I am the creator of the Vrahode Game System. And in this podcast, we're going to do a deep dive into the lore and gameplay of Vrahode. I'm joined by Brandon Rollins, who will be acting as a stand in for you, asking many of the questions you might be curious about yourself.
Brandon, what are we talking about today?
Brandon Rollins: Well, we are going to kick off a five part series where we talk about all of the crafted races of Vrahode. And we're splitting this up into five episodes. We're going to do two at a time. And for this very first one, we're going to do the Mynoc and the Toreln.[00:01:00]
Jeff Irving: Yes, we got a request, I think, from one of, uh, one of our fans to, to start with those two races. And I'm more than happy to do that.
Brandon Rollins: Mm-hmm, and that's a really good idea because there's just so much lore to dive into. And I think this is the kind of thing that people are going to really want to know more about.
Jeff Irving: Definitely. Um, I'll tell you what I'd like to do is, um, once we conclude mini series of talking about the crafted races of Vrahode, I would love to follow up and do a small series about the other races that are involved in the, in the Vrahode Game System that are not crafted, um, including the, the Accourisch, uh, the Quayuan, the Barajadeem, and even, uh, perhaps some of the races that are part of our, our kind of, you know, the back story of the world, uh, including the Priuul and maybe even a couple other lesser known races that have come to [00:02:00] Vrahode in the distant past.
And maybe we just get, uh, glimpses of their presence, uh, still in the game series. So that might be kind of fun too, depending on what, you know, if people show interest in that.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah. And I think that would be an interesting subject to cover for sure because the ones that we're going to be talking about in this five part series are all playable, right?
Jeff Irving: Yeah, these are all, well, I'll not all of them are playable in the core box. In the core box, we give players access to six of the 10. There are four, uh, races that are crafted that have, have yet to come to grips with the scale of the threat to the, to the world. And so the first six playable races that are in the core box are the Mynoc, the Toreln, the Cautuuk, the Drelrhune, the Mahorii and the Athak-uul.
And then in, um, episode, or expansion 2, I should say, we add the last [00:03:00] four crafted races, uh, and make those playable. And that is the Sahrhune, the Ju'Airne, the Chorne, and the Greenleng.
Brandon Rollins: You've made the decision to add more playable races to the expansions relatively recently, right? Like, that was the last handful of months.
Jeff Irving: Well, yeah, it was, and a lot of people liked the idea. They were liking the art of the other four races. They were asking questions about them. And, um, I had a discussion. And it was it's longer. It's been longer than that. Um, I had a discussion with the writer, um, about that idea of, of including them.
And he was great with that. In other words, his writing, and the ability to, to move forward from expansion 2, uh, into expansion three with all 10 of the crafted races being available. It gave us an opportunity to, um, add new roles to, uh, six new roles, uh, which is our equivalent of classes to the game.
It [00:04:00] added, it added, of course, the four races, but it also added a lot of new abilities and, um, skills to the decks. And so people who, you know, play through the core box and the first expansion. They get kind of a refresh and the ability to add new skills that weren't available until that point in the story arc.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, definitely. Something new to keep you hooked.
So I think maybe the best way to even really approach talking about these is to start with the pregenerated heroes. Because every playable race, as I understand it, has two playable heroes by default, no customization.
So, um, why don't you talk a little bit about the pre generated heroes for, let's say just the Mynoc? Let's focus on Mynoc for now.
Jeff Irving: So, okay, we'll start with the Mynoc race. Um, so, so we give you Kenezzrha and Shiroku. Those are the two, um, pre generated heroes from the Mynoc race. And Kenezzrha is an augur, which is [00:05:00] kind of, uh, I guess the easiest way to describe what an augur is in Vrahode. They are kind of like war priests. Um, so, you know, they have the ability to wear some banded armor, they, they don't, uh, they don't quite rise to the level of wearing some of the fancier, uh, more elaborate plate mails, but, you know, they're, they can be well protected. Um, and, uh, as an augur, as a, as a war priest, you have the ability to, to be in melee. But also, um, Kenezzrha has decent healing abilities.
And so he's a good party member because he can heal his comrades during battle. He has a battle heal that he can use twice per battle. Um, and then Shiroku, uh, she is an arbiter. And so the decks that the arbiter has access to mostly are, uh, the spirit deck and the mind deck.
And so where, um, the augur is primarily straight spirit. [00:06:00] So Kenezzrha is more straight spirit. Um, Shiroku as an arbiter, she is primarily spirit, but her mind stat is higher. And so that gives her those abilities to kind of cast some more, uh, what I would call mage like skills. Um, and so that's the two pre generated heroes, uh, from the Mynoc race.
Brandon Rollins: And where do these guys live? If memory serves, they live on their own island, right?
Jeff Irving: Yeah. Um, the, the Mynoc live in, in an area of a larger forest. They live in an area of the Watching Woods, which is, um, on Prahaar. It is the leafward most island. On the known lands of Vrahode.
So basically we don't have north, south, east and west. We have iceward, stormward, tailward, and leafward, which is in our world, the equivalent of east. So they live in this on this island called [00:07:00] in an area called the Darkened Grove. It's a fungal forest within the larger Watching Woods. So the Watching Woods is a huge forest.
And then there's, uh, an area, uh, kind of nestled with, with mountains around it called the Darken Grove. And so their village of Stradtholm is there in, in the Darkened Grove. And, um, it is a bit isolated from, um, the largest and most populated island on Vrahode, which is called Renduur.
But, um, one of the things I just added to the overland map are world stone locations and, um, Prahaar is lucky enough to have a world stone location in, uh, on the, um, leafward most end of that island in region 353. So, um, if the Mynoc race wants to travel across the globe in a, in a fast way, they're lucky enough to have a, a world stone there on their island.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, and I have to imagine that makes just, it makes [00:08:00] the isolation less of a big deal for them.
Jeff Irving: Well, yeah, you've got a, you've got world stones. Um, you got a couple world stones on the mainland mass of Renduur that are, you know, very, they're, they're far flung. And then you've got one on Prahaar, there's a couple large islands, uh, uh, in the world of Vrahode that do not have world stones. And that is the icy island of Nyrlin, which is far iceward and also the far tailward island of Duwora.
It also is devoid of a world stone. And so there, those two landmasses are much more isolated because of that. The only way you're going to get to those islands is via ship. You're gonna have to travel by sea to get there.
Brandon Rollins: So, what's the description on the back of their card?
Jeff Irving: Uh, on the Mynoc?
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, on the Mynoc. Wait, it different by character? I should probably ask.
Jeff Irving: No. So, so the way we've designed it, the way we've designed the hero cards, [00:09:00] um, and the custom hero cards, uh, in the Vrahode Game System is that the front of the card is for the specific hero. Okay. It's going to list there, uh, uh, from the, from the pre generated standpoint, it's going to list their starting gear that we've picked out for you.
It's going to list their skills. We pick those out for you, um, with pre generated heroes and, uh, they're the restrictions of that role. You know, that pregenerated hero role are also on the front of the card. So everything related to the pregenerated hero and their role is the front, the back of the cards, whether it be, um, uh, pregenerated or custom heroes.
Cause you can, you know, of course create custom heroes in our, in our world, and we encourage you to do that, uh, but on the back of the card is all race related. So everything on the back is race [00:10:00] related.
And so, um, it might be good since we're talking, you know, we're starting to talk about the back of the card to just go ahead and maybe give you, um, a little, give you the description of the race, just give you the, um, what we give you on the back.
And this is just a taste of the lore. Okay. This is just what will fit on the back of a, of a poker sized card. Um, so it's not, it's not a lot of information about the race, but it's just, it's just kind of a hook. So I'll go ahead and read that to you.
So living in a shared existence with the endless tendrils of the Great Spire, Mynholm. The Mynoc are as much a single entity as they are a people. Their fungal colony, Stradtholm, rests upon the stump of an ancient tree whose name is lost to time, but whose limbs once grasped above the clouds. They are the watchers of the Darkened Grove. A mushroom [00:11:00] forest where their ruhl finds them, but their borders begin to relent, saplings of alder and oak growing where once were only mushrooms.
And so we give you this, we kind of set up the race and, and its place in the world, um, with the description and, and that's, that's the Mynoc.
Brandon Rollins: Cool. Now, on the back of the card, do you also have, like, other things on there, like their traits and abilities and restrictions?
Jeff Irving: Yes, absolutely. Um, let's talk about, um, racial traits a little bit. So the game, the Vrahode Game System is designed to be easy to learn, easy to teach, you know, accessible, uh, we stay away from complex iconography and we try to make all of the language on the cards kind of intuitive on its face. So you're not having to look into rule books and to figure out what cryptic things mean.
We're trying to keep it pretty much plain spoken. So, um, the racial traits are, are these for the Mynoc. So this is going to apply to [00:12:00] Kenezzrha, the Augur. It's going to apply to Shiroku, uh, the Arbiter. Um, it's also going to apply to any of the custom heroes that you would create using the Mynoc race. So, so again, this is going to apply to any Mynoc character in the game.
So their racial traits are their immune to paralysis effect. This is great. So, so based on their race, their, you know, and the way their, their, their physiology is, um, paralysis effects just don't work on, on the Mynoc. So that's great. So when, when your party members, uh, might be getting paralyzed in battle against, um, particularly, nasty foes, uh, the Mynoc is going to stand tall and keep on fighting.
Um, so that's nice. Um, they have plus one skill rolls in forest battles. So because, um, the Mynoc are, you know, their, their city, uh, their culture is used to dark fungal forests, um, you know, their skill roles, um, which [00:13:00] is, you know, every hero's most potent attacks. And it's powered by their ruhl, which, which is what we call magic in the world of Vrahode is rule.
And so they have plus one skill roles in, in forest battles. That's very helpful. Um, but because the Mynoc did not grow up in complete darkness underground. They have a minus one to rolls in the underlands. So as dark and gloomy as the, um, the forests and the dark and grove are, they're still at a little bit of a disadvantage in the underlands.
And so, um, you know, obviously that minus one, uh, to rolls in the underlands is due to complete blackness. They have, you know, they have no visual reference points, uh, that they can discern in the underlands. They have to have a light source. So if there's a light source available in the party, or if you're playing solo, as long as they have a light source, lantern torch, uh, or other, um, item, then that minus one to rolls is mitigated.[00:14:00]
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, and I think a long, long time ago you had mentioned to me that they're quite sensitive to damage, and now I might be getting them confused with someone else, but...
Jeff Irving: No, it is. Yeah, no, their skin is very soft. And I mean, think about what mushroom mushrooms are like, and these are essentially fungal warriors. Um, they tend to enjoy. Um, either doing their ruhl, you know, from a distance or armoring up. So, you know, so for example, Kenezzrha, he's a, he's a war priest and he is not going to be, um, up close in battle and unless he's armored, you know, obviously to protect his skin.
And they also shy away from cutting weapons. They're just not fans of swords and, and, you know, that sort of thing. They tend towards, um, either a piercing weapon or blunt weapons. So, so they are not, they're never, you're never going to be able to use a sword, um, with, with a [00:15:00] Mynoc.
Brandon Rollins: Oh, it makes perfect sense. I mean, anthropologically, they would probably, um, they would have quite a taboo against using weapons that would be dangerous to the person wielding them.
Jeff Irving: Yeah. So I mean, I can tell you this, the, the, um, the breadth of weaponry that's offered in our system. You're never going to miss it. I mean, yes, there are going to be times when you're finding cutting weapons, um, and you can sell those, you know, obviously, and get the value from them if you're a Mynoc or you can trade with your, you know, with your party mates, um, because someone else might find a really cool two handed hammer that they, um, can use, but you may have a sword that they want.
You give them the sword and you get the hammer. And so you're, you're going to, you're going to stick to blunt weapons. Um, they can use piercing weapons like arrows and things like that, but just this idea of a big blade near their skin is, is something that they, they shy away from...
Brandon Rollins: Oh yeah, [00:16:00] it would probably gross him out quite a bit just thinking about it.
Jeff Irving: Uh, you want to talk about abilities.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, yeah, let's talk about abilities and restrictions as well.
Jeff Irving: Well, the restriction, the only restriction really is what we just talked about, the cutting.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, can't really do cutting weapons, that makes sense.
Jeff Irving: So as long as you're, you know, if you're playing these heroes, just be aware of that. And if that's a big deal to you, you know, if you like to be a swashbuckler and you like to have swords and use those, the Mynoc is probably not the race for you.
Um, however, there are. Um, there are plenty of, of blunt weapons in the game and plenty of even blunt weapons that are dual wieldable, which is a, is a big deal. A lot of people in the game love to dual wield because it gives you additional, uh, chances to hit every, um, every time you're, you're doing that and they have the ability to do that as long as they're, you know, they're not, they're blunt.
So, um, but moving on to, uh, abilities, [00:17:00] I'm, I'm crazy about the racial abilities of the Mynoc. Um, every race has two, two racial abilities. And, and basically the way racial abilities work is it's like a skill. That costs you ruhl, um, to use, but it's free. And the reason you have these abilities is because of your race.
And so the abilities are going to feel like they fit with that race. They make sense. Okay. So, um, the Mynoc, so this is going to be Kenezzrha. This is going to be Shiroku. This is going to be any custom Mynoc hero that you would roll up. Um, these are the two racial abilities. All of those will have access to.
They have one called Mycillic Healing. This is a battle heal. Okay. So it's going to heal for damage on touch to a friendly target twice per battle. So you can use that twice. So you basically got eight total points of damage that you're going to be able to heal on a friendly target. which, you know, obviously if you needed to [00:18:00] heal yourself, you're a friendly target.
You can do that too. You can heal yourself. Um, the second racial ability is called Choking Spores. And this is a, this is, I'll tell you whenever anybody plays a my knock, this is a skill that they, they use often. Um, you can use this as often as you like. Um, there's no restrictions on this one, like there is with the mycelial healing.
So basically it causes two damage for three rounds. To a target enemy, this battle, and it is range 10. So you're going to treat this as...
Brandon Rollins: That's a considerable range.
Jeff Irving: Yeah, 10. And that's the nice thing about it because a lot of times when a battle ensues, the enemy isn't very close. And so this is a, this racial ability allows you to kind of reach out across the battlefield.
And, and get this, uh, Choking Spores hung on them. And so it's a damage over time effect. It puts a 2x poison effect on that enemy. So for three rounds following [00:19:00] when you use the racial ability, so it doesn't start when you use it, it starts the next round. But it's going to be two points of damage to that enemy for three rounds.
So a total of six damage over those three rounds. And so it's very effective. Um, you use it one turn, the very next turn, you could use it, uh, on that same enemy again, or you could use it on another enemy. So as long as, as, um, you're willing to. Um, basically pay the expense of the racial abilities, which is the time, you know, if I use a racial ability on my turn, I can't also do a physical attack or do a spell.
So I'm giving up that round to use that racial ability. So as long as you don't mind paying that cost of of the round to do it, then you can continue to use that. And again, there's no cost to you in ruhl because it is based on your race.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, and that's like... Remind me again about the rules on specifically how [00:20:00] you can use those abilities. Like, you can only use them a certain amount of times in battle, right?
Jeff Irving: Well, no. Um, well, the one, the Mycelic Healing, it says heal four damage on touch to friendly target twice per battle. So that one is limited to two times per battle. Their second racial ability, Choking Spores, they can use, uh, uh, you can use that as many times as you like in a battle. So you can use it each turn if you like, so there's no limit to how many times, and it doesn't cost you any ruhl because it is a racial ability. You can, you can use that ability because you are, are a Mynoc.
Brandon Rollins: Okay. So really the only limited thing it takes up is just your, your action per turn.
Jeff Irving: Yep.
Brandon Rollins: Cool. Let's see. Um, so I guess if you're making a custom hero, what would make somebody pick Mynoc over anything else?
Jeff Irving: I don't know. I mean, it depends on your build. Well, I mean, what, what do you think if you're, if you can't use a sword, you know, if you can't use [00:21:00] blades that might, that might sway you away from a minor, if that's what you like, but I think any, any. You know, you know, there's so many weapon choices that aren't cutting.
Um, I mean, I think they're well suited for anything. I think if you look at their race as just at the abilities, they've got a damage racial ability and they've got a healing racial ability. So to me, that's what that speaks to is versatility, right? You're, you're missing the versatility of the cutting weapons, but your racial abilities are quite versatile.
So, I mean, I think, I think they would be great for just about any build, you know, I think just about any build would work well with, with the Mynoc.
Brandon Rollins: Even like a bruiser type?
Jeff Irving: I think properly, properly armored, you know what I mean, with enough mitigation. Um, because we don't have defense rolls in, in the game system. We [00:22:00] just have gear mitigation. So you've got gear protection. Um, and I think as long as their mitigation score is high enough, you could be a bruiser. But that's more based on gear really than race, you know what I mean?
I think they're versatile. That's what I see when I look at the Mynocs is they're, they're, you know, whenever you can start out a hero, whatever build you do, with a healing ability for your comrades or you, and an attack, a damage over time attack, that's good. I mean, that's good.
Brandon Rollins: Absolutely. So then you've got your other kind of, um, plant based crafted race, which is going to be your Toreln as well.
So, let's see, let's talk about these guys a little bit. First, can you just kind of describe for folks who haven't heard any of the past podcasts what they look like, and then go into talking about what the pre generated heroes are like?
Mm hmm.
Jeff Irving: Well, one of the things that's funny about today is we're, we're basically talking about the giants of the game, [00:23:00] the Mynoc and the Toreln. They're the tallest races that exist on Vrahode that have been crafted. So, um, the only race that is taller than the Mynoc is the Toreln. Um, and so the Toreln race was crafted from the forest where the Mynoc were crafted from a mushroom based life form, um, and then imbued with, with, with a soul, you know, if you will, uh, the Toreln is basically a soul combined with literally with the trees of the forest.
So they're quite literally nature incarnate. Um, and so they're, they're, you know, 10, 12 feet tall, very tall. Um, they, they really don't speak, um, other than telepathically. I mean, they can, they can tell you their thoughts and, and, you know, uh, do that, but they really don't have mouths like the rest of the races do. They're just, they're just different in that sense.
Um, uh, but they're, you know, [00:24:00] they're massive. Uh, and, and the miniatures, you know, when you play the game, they tower over everybody else. It's really cool, uh, to play a Toreln and see them on the battlefield. Um, but the pre generated heroes, uh, that we have for the Toreln are Piril, um, the male who is a shield, which is kind of a paladin archetype, um, I would say.
Defensive warrior, uh, great, great on the front lines. Um, gear wise with him, you start with an ax, a shield, um, and, and decent simple studded leather armor. So he's got some, you know, some decent armor.
Um, he starts out with two body skills, Zealous Defender and Bulwark of Might. And he starts out with one spirit skill that is called Weapon of Wrath. Um, and again, these skills are, these starting skills are designed to kind of purify this hero's archetype and really. Each of the skills to give you the idea of this protective [00:25:00] warrior, um, the other, um, the other pre generated hero of the Toreln race is Harna and she is our Oracle.
And so she is very much the opposite of Shiroku, where Shiroku is primarily spirit with a little bit of mind. Harna is primarily mind with a little bit of spirit, and so you're kind of flipping that archetype around and giving her more mage like, uh, direct damage from distance skills and a little bit of healing, and so she's going to start with some pretty basic cloth armor, some bandages to heal, um, a stone dagger, so just a small, uh, melee weapon, which can also be thrown.
Um, her role restrictions as an Oracle. Okay. This has nothing to do with her race, but as an Oracle, she has not to use long or heavy weapons and the limit to her, um, armor is simple [00:26:00] studded armor or less. So any of the, of the leather armors are fine for her to upgrade to, but she cannot exceed leather armor and go into chain, banded, or plate.
And so she's going to stay light and mobile. Um, with her armor use and, and you'll find that kind of rationale, um, play through all of the heroes, uh, uh, pre generated heroes is that the less a hero, their role is designed to be on the front lines in melee, um, the lower, the lower, the, the upper, upper threshold of their armor use is.
So if you're not on the front lines, chances are, you're not going to be able to use plate mail. You're going to be down in the lower tiers of armor. Um, and so that is, um, uh, basically our Oracle hero, Harna.
Brandon Rollins: A pretty like, kind of like a, um, a medic or a priest kind of role.
Jeff Irving: I would definitely, yeah, with, oh, we can talk about her. We can talk about her skills too. While [00:27:00] we're, while we're on the topic of pregenerated heroes, she starts out with two, um, two mind skills and one spirit skill because her, her mind is highest, then spirit. So she gets Incorporeal, um, which is, allows her to, uh, become Incorporeal, uh, travel, uh, uh, I think up to her maximum movement rate, it might be slightly reduced and then, and then return to her corporeal form.
And so that allows her to pass through walls, doors, um, to, to get away from situations where she's under threat. Um, Shocking Bolt is her other mind skill is a great one because it targets up to three enemies. Um, it just kind of forks around the battlefield. You don't have to target them directly. The shocking bolt just kind of seeks out enemies up to three and it's going to do, I think, three damage to each enemy.
Um, and remember a lot of these. Um, skills or, um, [00:28:00] are scalable. So where Shocking Bolt initially might do three points of damage to up to three enemies. Um, you're able to later as your mind skill increases, uh, to actually kind of pay more ruhl to have that Shocking Bolt do more damage. And so Shocking Bolt is one of those ones where, um, it's going to do that.
It's going to scale up and then her last skill in spirit is called Sanctified Ground. And so basically what she does is she can sanctify, uh, like a two by two area on an encounter map, a battlefield. And as long as her comrades or she is standing inside that sanctified ground, they get a buff. Um, and so they get some protection from this kind of.
You know, holy ground that she's created. And then again, this is a scalable skill, so she can increase the area of that sanctified ground, um, so that it's bigger and can hold more, uh, more friendlies. And so that's, that's [00:29:00] Harna. Um, I think, I mean, she's cool. I can't wait to play her. Um, I haven't had the opportunity to play her yet.
Um, I've run demos where people have played her and, and really enjoyed her and basically just worn out shocking bolt on enemies. It's, it's been kind of cool to watch because. You know, with, with a lot of the magic or the ruhl in, in the game, a lot of that damage from magic is just automatic.
Brandon Rollins: Just complete left field question here, uh, what, what, um, pregen hero do you think is, is probably a breakout hit so far?
Jeff Irving: I'll tell you what people love Corive. Um, Corive is a Mahorii, um, and she is a...
Brandon Rollins: Oh, I played as her the other day, yeah.
Jeff Irving: Yeah. So, so she's got, I mean, I think she's a really nice little Swiss army knife hero because she's got, um, the ability to have an enemy attack a second enemy. So Confused Allegiance, it costs her 2 ruhl to use it. So it's kind of an expensive, um, skill.
Uh, but [00:30:00] man, is it nice to have an enemy turn on another enemy for you? Um, she has Aura of Adoration, so she can basically become a non enemy. Uh, the enemies, they don't, they see her as a friend and I think the thing that people like the most and and she uses this, she has every time I run the demo, she's used this ability a lot.
It's Battle Hymn. So basically she comes up behind the front lines and just parks and start singing and and everything within six spaces of her voice, all the friendlies get a plus one to rolls and the enemies get a minus one to rolls. And so basically she is, she is buffing and debuffing at the same time with her voice.
And then I think the other thing, I don't want to get too deep into the Mahorii.
We'll talk about that race later, but I think as a, as a class or as a role, the Syrin is a really, really interesting and, uh, uh, role to play in the game, uh, within a party.
Brandon Rollins: Oh yeah, definitely, and, and, and having playtested with her [00:31:00] myself, I agree, I mean, it's immediately obvious the kind of things you can do with her.
Jeff Irving: Well, and that's in the, I would say that's in the Overlands. I mean, when you're playing in the Overlands, I think Corive is our breakout hit, the one that, that people are really, really loving, but when we play, when we've been playing, doing Underlands demos. I think the breakout hit there is, um, either, either Drista or, or Grendlem.
And that's the two heroes from the Athak-uul race. They're the only subterranean race. They don't have that minus one penalty, uh, for the dark cause they live there. Um, their ability to short fly and fly over difficult terrain. Um, and, and just the fact that their magic is based on just this bloodlust and this desire to just have blood everywhere in the battle, it makes them like this unsavory little irresistible hero that people want to play.
You know, it's cool.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, there's a certain kind of darkness to that that I think people just really like.
Jeff Irving: Yeah, [00:32:00] since we don't have like a necromancer type hero in, in, um, in that, in, in the pregenerated that we offer, I think the, the Athak-uul satisfy. That sort of dark desire that people have to play to play something a bit unsavory.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah. Absolutely.
Jeff Irving: Yeah.
Brandon Rollins: Um, I, I, I guess, back to Toreln.
Um, so, so what's the description on the back of the card say?
Jeff Irving: Okay. So, um, it says there is less known about the terrain, even than the Mahorii of Duwara, but this little, but this little is accepted as fact, that they are a proud people, strong as the trees they live within, and swift against any danger. They are believed to live only high among the boughs of the forest, their village Ilnu, seeming not to have been built there, but rather woven into being by the trees themselves.
That also is where the Toreln are believed to derive their rule. [00:33:00] So basically we're just speaking to the fact that this race, the Toreln race uses their rule to kind of manipulate and warp and weave, uh, the resource that their magic is connected to, which is the trees. And so they can literally take a tree and shape it into a home, you know, within a tree, you know, using their rules so that, so it just makes sense that they would live, you know, kind of up in and among the trees.
Brandon Rollins: I wonder why don't they live on the forest floor? It seems like it'd be easier to live there, unless there's something I'm not accounting for.
Jeff Irving: Well, I can tell you this. Um, every, every biome in the world of Vrahode has kind of a unique mathematics to it. And the risk, the risks and rewards of going into any forest regions, uh, into that biome in the world of Vrahode, the risk is higher. And the reward is higher. And so I'm assuming that their choice to live up [00:34:00] in, in the bowels of the, uh, of the trees has everything to do with what's going on on the forest floor.
And, and I can tell you that, you know, there are some pretty nasty things that wander the forests of Vrahode, even in the core box, um, things out of legend. I mean, there's, there's. Our forests are pretty scary. And so I think they're, they're just doing it so that they're, you know, they can raise their young and safety and, and, um, you know, kind of keep an eye on what's going on below.
Brandon Rollins: Makes a lot of sense, especially if the forests are, uh, a pretty dangerous place to live in the first place.
Brandon Rollins: So, what kind of traits and abilities do they have that we might not have discussed?
Jeff Irving: Different than the Mynoc. The, uh, where the Mynoc are immune to paralysis because the Toreln are essentially living trees and I mean, trees are alive, but I mean, they're the combination of a tree with imbued essentially with more of a, of a, of a [00:35:00] true human soul or, you know, humanoid soul, um, they're immune to knockdown.
So they're essentially when they walk around and they're in battles, they're kind of rooted to the ground. And so you can't knock them over. Um, so instead of an immunity to paralysis, they're immune to knockdown. Um, like, um, the, um, like the Mynoc, they have an advantage in the forest. But instead of the Mynoc where they're, they have plus one to skill roles in forest battles, the Toreln have plus one mitigation in forest battles, and so they have greater protection against attacks.
They can call in branches around them, you know, to kind of give them some of the, some of the, uh, protection. So they're plus one mitigation and like the Mynoc, they're at minus one rolls in the underlands. And so they're going to need to find a light source when they're in the underlands to mitigate that darkness penalty.
And so those are the traits of the Toreln.
Brandon Rollins: And, uh, what [00:36:00] about their restrictions?
Jeff Irving: Um, restrictions, racial restrictions for the Toreln, there are none. However, when you look at the roles of, um, the Toreln, Piril has none. Piril has no restrictions on his, the armor that he can wear, the weapons that he can use. But Harna, the Oracle, because she is not a frontline battler. She, she, you know, she works from a distance.
She has, she cannot use long or heavy weapons, nor can she use anything above, uh, leather armor. So simple studded armor or less for Harna. Um, so yeah, that's, that's the restrictions on the Toreln. And again, those are just based on that Oracle role.
Brandon Rollins: Now, let's say I'm making a custom hero. Based on the Toreln, why would I want to pick them over someone else?
Jeff Irving: I, I, I just love the idea of immunity to knock down. I think that's a great thing to start a [00:37:00] hero with.
Um, obviously there's lots and lots of forests in Vrahode. It's, it's covered in forests. And so to have greater protection in any forest battle, even a plus one, um, that's, that's considerable. Um, and also I, I, I think what we haven't talked about yet is the racial abilities of the Toreln main reason, um, someone might choose to play a Toreln, whether that pregenerated heroes or to roll up a custom Toreln hero, male or female.
Um, and that, and their racial abilities are this, the first one is called Thorny Disposition. Some of the skills in the, in the game have a little bit of a tongue in cheek kind of name. You know, we have fun with the naming.
We don't take ourselves too seriously and, and, and calling it racial ability Thorny Disposition is just fun. It's cool. So each successful melee attack on this hero causes one damage to the attacker, this battle, and it may [00:38:00] not be mitigated. So that's nice. So if you're a target and you're being attacked in, in melee by enemies, they need to know that they'll be taking the point of damage too.
Uh, so you've got basically you have the ability to grow this kind of thorny skin or bark that is hurting your attackers. I love that. It's a great defensive skill. Um, well, I should say it's a, it's a great defensive racial ability because it doesn't cost you any ruhl to use it to put it in place. You simply declare I'm, I'm using Thorny Disposition.
And that is your, you know, that is your action for the turn and that it is in place in place for the entire battle for you. So it's a really cool thing to kind of like the first turn in battle, you hang that so that you know that anytime you're attacked that battle, they're going to take a point of damage when they attack you.
I love that. The second one is called Forest Fury. This is the second Toreln, uh, racial ability and it adds plus one range and plus one damage [00:39:00] to ranged attacks this battle. So basically if I'm using a bow and arrow, if I'm using a hand ax, if I'm using a spear, if I'm using daggers, um, anything that is, that can be thrown.
Okay. I'm going to get a plus one range and damage with that. So I just, the Toreln just no ranged attacks. And so, um, another, this is a great offensive skill. I mean, to be able to reach farther and do more damage. I mean, who doesn't want that? Right?
Brandon Rollins: Absolutely, and those seem like good reasons for picking one of the Toreln.
Jeff Irving: I love it. I love this race and when I initially came up with the world of Vrahode and I was thinking about, um, the story of Vrahode as a series of novels, uh, the main character, um, in the novels was, was Piril, was this, this male Toreln, um, a shield and so they're, they're near and dear to my heart and they came, uh, they, they, uh, came to me first.[00:40:00]
The race I wanted first in the story was the Toreln.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, and I can see that, because when you, when you actually look at the art, it's, it's pretty compelling. Like, you immediately want to know more about them.
Jeff Irving: Yeah, I do. I think, I do, I do think it's compelling. I'm trying to think who created that art. I think it was, it was a Russian guy, Mikhail Palamarchuk. Yeah. Mikhail Palamarchuk of Russia is the, is the guy that created the Toreln.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, that sounds right.
Jeff Irving: Yeah.
Brandon Rollins: Let's see, is there anything else you want to cover about the Mynoc and the Toreln?
Jeff Irving: Well, I just would say, you know, both of these are great races. They have, I think they're, they're similar. Um, I liked the idea with the terrain that I don't, I have used of cutting weapons as well, which is a little bit of a, an advantage over the Mynoc, but I love the plus one skill rolls in forest for the Mynoc, so I think they both have...
I think they both have [00:41:00] very unique, um, racial abilities. I think they have great racial traits. I just, they're both pretty near and dear to my heart. And so I think you can't go wrong with either one.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, and I will say, like, from what I've, from what I've seen in testing so far, the characters seem pretty balanced. Not only just the races, but like the actual pre generated heroes, they all seem pretty balanced. So it's kind of like, there might be a little FOMO where you choose to play one over the other, but there are no bad options here.
Jeff Irving: No. And let's look at their movement too, because movement is one of the things in the world of Vrahode that does not change your ability to move around, um, the encounter maps is based on your race and you can modify your movement rates temporarily, but it will always return back to the native movement of your race.
And so, as we look. As we compare the movement rates of the Toreln versus the Mynoc, we have [00:42:00] the Toreln have a movement rate of 7, okay, and the Mynoc have a movement rate of 6. So if movement is a consideration for you, then the Toreln are a bit more mobile than are the Mynoc. Um, but they're, they're, uh, they're starting maximum life is the same.
They both start out the game with 15 life, which is a lot that's on the higher end of the spectrum for our heroes. And so both of the Mynoc and the Toreln could be considered pretty robust.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, both of them you can get around pretty easy.
Jeff Irving: Yeah. What do you think? You want me to go ahead and take us out and we can, uh, wrap this up and then maybe we'll do, um, we'll do some more of this.
Brandon Rollins: Yeah, I'd say, um, go ahead and take us out and for the next one, just to tease it for everybody listening, it, we're going to be covering the Cautuuk and the Drelrhune.
Jeff Irving: Yes. Can't wait. All right. Well, um, thank you for [00:43:00] listening to the Vrahode Tavern podcast. If you've enjoyed this show, take a moment and subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. If you're on Apple Podcasts, please leave a five star review. It helps more than, you know. You can learn more about Vrahode on Vrahode. com. That's V R A H O D E. com. Link in the show notes.
You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where we're @Vrahode. Thank you again for listening. We really appreciate it and keep an eye out for our next episode in two weeks.