So according to map completion I've completed 5 of 6 'Hero Challenges'. I assume these relate to the 'Hero Point Earned' markers on the map. Looking over the map, I have earned all 6 hero points. I hover over them and they all say 'Hero Point Earned' as opposed to 'Earn Hero Point'.
Did you count them as you were hovering the mouse over them?
My guess is you've only uncovered 5/6, so all the ones you've uncovered have been completed, but there's one in an area of the map you haven't yet discovered. That's especially likely in Sparkfly Fen because there's two hero challenges in areas on the edge of the map which have no other map completion points in them, and at least one of those is easy to miss.
If you want to know where they are have a look at the wiki: _Fen#Locations
(I didn't link directly to those areas in case you want to discover them for yourself, but if you want to know the list of locations and the interactive map will show you.)
Second, and this takes some patience, wave your cursor over the HP icon in the map legend while viewing the map. Any incomplete ones will flash. The patience comes in because it is a big map so you will have to move it around from quadrant to quadrant to test for the flash.
Third, just in case it matters -- it shouldn't -- make sure you've gone into the cave on the east side of the map. It is an area that has no map-legend-locations in it, but you need to unfog it for the unrelated world exploration achieve.
The car mechanic at the end of the block is really a musclebound dwarf. His assistant is a craft-wise gnome. One of the college dropouts at the bar is a powerful wizard, trawling for guardians and apprentices between drinks. He's just recruited the woman at the stool next to him. She decided it was better to be a Legendary hero than a network administrator.
AEternal Legends (AEL) is a game of modern urban fantasy, where heroes (Legends) have adventures and perform great deeds in a fantastic world hidden from the eyes of the mundane population. While other games have staked out this territory before, most have emphasized horror over fantasy, such as with White Wolfs World of Darkness. AEL is first and foremost a fantasy game, and high fantasy at that; it's a game about earnestly accepting and embracing the genre, rather than ironically deconstructing or questioning it.
AEL is the creation of two White Wolf freelance stalwarts, Stewart Wilson (setting) and Malcolm Sheppard (rules), and published through Malcolm's Mob United Media operation. It's a very professional work, as you'd imagine, but it doesn't feel like a White Wolf game. Largely that's because it's designed as a 'high trust' game, where GMs and players work together to interpret broad rules and ideas to make the best possible game a very different approach to WW's more detailed and defined rules & settings.
(Here's a disclaimer, in case it matters I know both Malcolm Sheppard and Stewart Wilson through my freelance work for White Wolf, and Stewart asked me to review AEL after giving me a free copy of the PDF. So I'm probably not a 100% unbiased & objective reviewer but I think I'm close enough.)
Physically, AEL is a 158-page PDF (there's a POD version as well, but I'm reviewing the PDF). It's a clean, uncluttered, landscape-format file, designed to fit the screen of your PC or laptop; single column text with occasional sidebars. There's a small amount of black-and-white art, most of it full-page chapter openers with some extra pics for races, creatures and items towards the end of the book; artist Chris Huth's work is good quality, somewhat reminiscent of Geof Darrow's material. It's a straightforward, professional-looking book, marred by a number of widows and orphans that probably won't matter to many readers but that annoy me far more than they really should; things like a large-font header being at the bottom of one page and the text following on the next, that sort of thing. None of this prevents the book from being readable, but it should have been tightened up before publication.
The setting of AEL is drawn in broad strokes rather than specific details, as you might expect from a 'high-trust' game; this is a toolkit for creating your own urban fantasy campaign, rather than a detailed plug-and-play world. That said, there are baseline assumptions and details to the setting, and AEL spells those out in full.
As with any fantasy game, magic is real and in this case, it's a power born from self-belief, from knowing who you are and having the conviction to make impose that knowledge on the world. It can't be understood scientifically, although it doesn't negate science or technology; its a power of will and passion, an mythic art that can only be practiced by those who perceive it and summon up that strength within themselves. There are two sides to magic, the Light and the Dark, as you'd expect in a classical fantasy world, but those sides aren't really about morality; they're about the way individuals approach magic and their own beliefs. The Light is the path of discipline, idealism and meaning; the Dark is the path of immediate gratification, cynicism and the denial of meaning. In a world of monsters and Dark Lords, that's an interesting take that feels personal and character-focused, an internal rather than external dichotomy.
There are two kinds of people in the world the Unaware, or mundane humans in the mundane world, and the Aware, those who know that magic exists and can see its effects throughout the world. About 5% of people are Aware, a huge proportion of the population, and magic is an ever-present part of their lives.
Think about the ramifications of that 1-in-20 idea for a moment. If there are 20 people in your extended family, one of them is probably Aware; maybe your eccentric aunt actually enchants her paintings with glamour and sells them to elven aesthetes. If you work in an office of 100 people, you likely have five Aware colleagues, working together on some magical project or warring for control over the dungeon hidden under the office's headquarters. And all of these Aware live in two societies the mundane world of the Unaware, and the hidden magical society, half modern and half D&D-fantasy-medieval, of the local Aware community. The notion that 5% of us are actually part of a parallel fantasy society is an exciting one, and something that really separates AEL from other 'hidden fantasy' games. It makes that society large and vibrant, filled with people and yet somehow kept apart from the mundane world.
How is it kept apart? Partially because the Unaware can't perceive magic, since they lack passion and conviction, but mostly because it just is because that's the premise of the game, and part of the 'high-trust' stance of the game is the belief that players should embrace the premise and explore it, rather than trying to break or damage it. That's not going to suit every player or group, but others will find it more than enough and stay focused on their fantastic adventures.
Aware society is different from place to place, a local phenomenon that creates itself from scratch in every city and town. There's a vague worldwide Aware community, sometimes known as the Secret Commonwealth, but it's more a loose network of alliances and information than a real government. Theres also the Ministry of Administrative Affairs, a particularly obscure and boring department of many mundane governments, that in truth is controlled by the Aware and dedicated to looking after Aware concerns but again, it's more a story device for covering up magic and handing out plot hooks than a real society.
While some local Aware communities simply hide behind closed doors, most are based around and inside an Interstice, or Pocket Kingdom a pinched-off piece of reality, separate from the mundane world, where magic expresses itself freely. Interstices are common, and four example Pocket Kingdoms are briefly described; my favourite is Waydowntown, the goblin market beneath Toronto, where Rail Clans fight gang wars from secret subway stations.
Finally, there are multiple races, or Clades, in addition to humans. Many Aware folk were born human, but realized their true nature upon becoming Aware, while folk born within an Interstice are born as their true selves. There are three non-human Clades, but they manifest different forms and natures depending on whether they follow the Light or the Dark Elves can become Orcs, Dwarves can become Trolls, and Gnomes can become Goblins. All of these Clades resemble the usual stereotypes to an extent, but they all have significant points of difference too, making for a fresh and engaging mix. Only humans have the same nature whether they follow the Light or the Dark, and they appear the same no matter what they believe.
PCs and major NPCs are Legends, the heroes, villains and adventurers of the Aware - remarkable individuals who gain great power and destiny through their exceptional conviction. Legends live technicolour, maximum volume lives; they slay dragons, plunder dungeons, battle Dark Lords and generally leave the mundane world in their dust. Like the Solars of Exalted (although less powerful), Legends are characters that demand epic adventures just by existing, and players that want low-key, Average Joe characters might be overwhelmed or turned off by this; such players may find 'ordinary' Aware characters more to their liking.
I think that would be a shame, though, because the really interesting thing about Legends isn't their power level, its how that power comes from, and is expressed through, their beliefs and their self-image. In a world where magic is born through self-belief, Legends epitomise that power, and in playing one you decide what her beliefs are and then enforce those beliefs on the world around her. That's fascinating stuff in my eyes, a way of making internal truths external reality; thats what fantasy is (or should be) all about, and AEL puts that idea into play with remarkable speed and ease.
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