Green Ronin and Fantasy AGE Plans in 2017

Well, as news on this year's plans trickle out we have some details on various publishers to consider. This year Green Ronin announced a number of planned releases, although not quite as exciting as last year's announcement....key among the releases is a Ashes of Valkana campaign book which would be more exciting if I was in to Titansgrave. Fantasy AGE will get its own crowd sourced "dmsguild" this year some time, which I imagine will be a way to fill out some of the much-needed absent content from the game as it currently stands. It's a shame that this appears to be the direction RPGs are going now to handle the desire for new content among gamers vs. the skeletal release rates of books these days, but I suppose when in Rome....get used to PDFs.

Blue Rose is also releasing this year, for those who are interested. I'm not really the target demographic, but I did find the original an interesting concept in the under-appreciated romantic fantasy genre.

There's also a hint of Dragon Age content to come, but mired in the license approval requirements.

So......a bit bare this year, unfortunately, and it sounds like instead of an "Advanced" rulebook for Fantasy AGE we will instead get a community content portal instead.

Monday Blaaaagh!!! Kickstarter Book of the Righteous; Plus: 13th Age and Mythras

I remember when I had lots of time to do stuff....sigh. Anyway! Some random stuff this Monday:

The Book of the Righteous Kickstarter

Green Ronin has their Kickstarter going for the 5th edition version of Book of the Righteous. It's not to goal yet but as of writing has three weeks to go. I'd be tempted, but I'm not a long-term investor, and the physical release is listed as March 2017. That's a long ways off....and if there's one thing I've learned it's that the farther out a Kickstarter date is, the less likely it is that I'll still be interested in a given Kickstarter by the time it finally shows up.

And that's assuming it isn't delayed!

I'll wait until this is available for print release. The fact that the release date is so far out tells me this is a "fishing for interest" Kickstarter....work has not begun, and they are testing the waters. This is not great; Kickstarters are essentially turning in to a market testing strategy but are only receiving the feedback from people who apparently have a lot of disposable income to throw away on hypotheticals. I'd absolutely buy this book, but I'm not going to hand off $45 in the hopes that the book is worth it at the end, that I still am interested, or that nothing disastrous goes wrong between now and then. This isn't a vote against Green Ronin, don't get me wrong; I'm just refusing to buy in to the idea that Kickstarter is the best way to handle a release like this. 

Other Stuff

Classic Fantasy/Mythras: if I took all the blog hits on these two subjects as a sign, I should really be doing more content for both. I'm still waiting patiently for CF to get a physical release (preordered) so that puts a tiny crimp in prepping content related to it, but anytime I do a blog tied to something The Design Mechanism (or Chaosium, for that matter) is behind I get four to five times the normal hits. Interesting. And good news for BRP-based games.

13th Age: Pelgrane Press released High Magic & Low Cunning, which is a sort of "encounter book" of highly customizable scenarios with an emphasis on combat in unusual locales, each tied to the various icons. It's a great book, really interest in premise and design. More interesting is the map pack, which contains a ton of high quality, full color maps you can use with the book. My pre-order arrived last week and I really advise 13th Age fans to check it out. Heck, the maps alone would be useful to any GM who likes to mix and match.

2015 Gaming Year in Review Part I: Green Ronin & Paizo

As 2015 goes away I thought I'd look at the highs and lows of the year, followed by some predictions.....and in 2015 for tabletop gaming there were more than a few!

HIGH: Green Ronin finally released Fantasy AGE and completed Dragon AGE.

...long in coming, this was a book everyone was waiting for, literally, for years. The first Dragon AGE boxed set released in 2010, and fans had been waiting very patiently for five years to see a playable "generic" edition as well as the completed Dragon AGE set, letting you at last run campaigns all the way to level 20. Fantasy AGE was so well received it blew through it's first print run and had to get an entire second print run to meet demand.

The high point was only offset by the low point....

LOW: Green Ronin's Mystery Setting Announcement Was...???

In January Green Ronin released a news piece about the first Fantasy AGE setting, suggesting it would be talked about for a long time to come. I provided my own biased suggestions for what sort of setting would be worthy of such monumental impact. As it turns out, Green Ronin actually only announced two settings this year: a Blue Rose Kickstarter and the Titansgrave "Ashes of Valkhana" book that was the initial companion campaign to the Fantasy AGE rulebook. Neither of these were worthy of the implied shock and awe that Chris Pramas implied, although I suppose one could imagine (based on the announcements written about it) that they had the strongly inclusive Blue Rose RPG in mind. The problem, of course, is that not that many people were all that excited about Blue Rose; it's a setting which has it's fans, and they are happy....but for the rest of us, it was more of a "okay, cool, so what's the shock and awe setting?" moment. And Titansgrave is, while fun, not even remotely newsworthy unless you have some weird fascination for Wesley Crusher.

....So, no setting announced worthy of the hype, unfortunately.

HIGH: Pathfinder keeps chugging along

We received the really cool Bestiary 5 this year, the complex and dense Occult Adventures (which was something I was very intrigued about but my group has found to be relatively difficult to actually get in to), even more interesting but impenetrable Pathfinder Unchained, and lots of other stuff. Pathfinder is holding its base, which is good since there are enough people to keep it going. This demonstrates that the market has room for a range of complexity in fantasy gaming: from ultra simple OSR games to the mid-tier D&D 5E to the top-of-the-heap Pathfinder.

LOW: Goblinworks and Pathfinder Online

I saw an end-of-year announcement from Lisa Stevens that Goblinworks had found a mystery backer willing to foot the bill for the completion of the game (or something to that effect). This could be good news, because the big deal in 2015 was that they had to lay off almost all staff and go into maintenance mode for the title, as they admitted they had fallen short of about 75% of their necessary funding to complete the game. Pathfinder Online remains a perplexing title for many....it's a game, and there may be a niche market for the kind of game it is, but it's not a Pathfinder game in the sense that most people would think of it, and not something Pathfinder fans like myself would be interested in. That, coupled with horrible animations, a current playable version that feels like a crude alpha build, and the general suck level of the Unity engine means that any backer stepping up will hopefully have the oomph to completely revise this project....but I suspect that's not its ultimate destiny.

PREDICTIONS: I expect Green Ronin to announce more content for Fantasy AGE in 2016, hopefully an "advanced set" with more player content and a GM's book and/or more robust bestiary. My worry is that we'll see more Blue Rose and Titansgrave and not much else. My dark fear is that this is Green Ronin and we won't see any of the desired content for another year or two....but I think that's a bit unfounded; the only real delay they experience is with licensed properties.

For Pathfinder I will be surprised if we don't see an announcement by close of 2017 that involves a possible rules expansion, but I doubt we'll see a "Pathfinder 2.0" under discussion. The 3.X engine it is built on is a contentious beast to redesign, as WotC itself has learned, twice. If Pathfinder Unchained was an effort at illustrating future directions for Pathfinder, then I suspect the road to 2.0 will be steep and treacherous.

Goblinworks meanwhile will probably be gone before close of year, unless this new mysterious backer is actually some real publisher with some teeth....but in the state the Pathfinder Online game is in I see no way it can survive 12 more months without serious cash and a new direction. Still.....a game like Alganon Online continues to exist (and on Steam, too!), so I could be wrong. My wife and I were playing it years ago before our son was born and marveling at the hidden promise buried beneath mounds of suck....although in Alganon's defense it's still more polished and playable than Pathfiner Online.

NEXT! Kickstarters And Stuff

Fantasy AGE: Pelayo the Warrior vs. an Orc

I've got a habit of stress-testing low level characters in what some might call an unfair manner (just ask my players) so this time around we're going to check out the basics of Fantasy AGE combat by taking our fighter rolled up in the last blog (Pelayo) and pitting him against a single orc. With a pie. Also, a rusty maul so he's not gonna give the pie up easily.

Pelayo's stats for reference:

Pelayo
Human male warrior (outcast wanderer)
Health 36; Defense 14; AR 4 (leather); Speed 12

1 Accuracy (focus: brawling)
0 Communication
4 Constitution (focus: stamina)
2 Dexterity (Focus: riding)
4 Fighting
1 Intelligence
1 Perception
2 Strength
0 Willpower

Languages: common
Weapon and Armor Skills: brawling weapons, axes, bows, spears
Warrior Talents: Archery (novice), weapon and shield (novice)

Equipment: backpack, clothes, water skin, heavy leather armor (AR 4), throwing axe (1D6+2+strength damage), battle axe (2D6+strength damage), long bow (1D6+3+perception damage), quiver with 20 arrows, and a medium shield (+2 bonus)

Goals: seek out fortune, slay the ogre king who killed father, become a prince among men
Ties: owes money to the crime lord Bossadan of Aelghast

The orc is on page 111 of the Fantasy AGE rulebook. He's a tough hombre, and can deal 2D6+3 damage with his battle axe. He's got 30 health, Defense 10 and AR 5.

Setup: assuming the orc lives in a small room of about ten feet by ten feet, standing in the middle with his pie, then when Pelayo kicks the door down the orc is not all that shocked since Pelayo has no stealth talent whatsoever.

FAGE uses static initiative (as most games after 2000 are prone to doing), and you figure initiative by rolling 3D6+dexterity. For the orc that's a straight 3D6, but for Pelayo that's 3D6+2. Everyone rolls for initiative and we get 8 for the orc and 15 for Pelayo. score! Pelayo goes first.

The FAGE action economy is simple: you can do one major and one minor action in a round, or two minor actions (and no major). Moving (walking) is a minor action but running is a major action. Regular and full attacks are generally major actions but conditional attacks (such as prepare or press the attack) are not. As it happens, readying a weapon is a minor action....the player would argue that he's been walking around the dungeon with axe and shield ready, but the GM wants to know how he can see then....so the player calls for a minor ready action to drop the torch and ready his axe; the GM will be nice and assume the shield was already readied.

For his follow-up action it seems prudent to wait (prepare action) and strike if the orc approaches....walking up to him now will leave Pelayo open to retaliation by the orc. The prepare action lets you prep a major action (for the cost of a minor, apparently) that triggers by the end of the round or just before someone else's later action. Okay then.

The orc goes. He readies his mace and the GM makes a quick difficulty 11 intelligence test to see if he's smart enough to wait for Pelayo to close or if he moves over to the warrior. We roll a 15! The orc stands firm, maul in hand.

Next round Pelayo loses patience and closes the gap with a charge for a +1 to his damage. Because a prepare action triggers by the start of your next round the orc can still strike! He must do so prior to Pelayo executing his attack, so the orc makes an attack roll: he rolls 3D6, gets +2 for his fighting score, another +2 for his focus on bludgeoning weapons, for a +4 total modifier. He rolls a 14 for a total of 18...much better than Pelayo's Defense of 14! Worse yet, he rolled doubles for a 5 and 5....a stunt triggers! The stunt die shows a 5, so that means the orc gets 5 stunt points. The GM elects that the orc spends 2 points to attempt a disarm and another 3 for a lighting attack (a second attack). These are two of 15 options in FAGE.

First the orc and Pelayo make opposed attack rolls for the disarm. The orc rolls 3D6+4 for 15 and Pelayo gets 3D6+4 (thank goodness for that high fighting score) for 19. He does not lose his axe!

Second the orc makes his second lightning strike, getting a total of 16, another hit. Even if he had rolled doubles a second attack triggered by a stunt does not lead to more possible stunts. He has now landed two hits on Pelayo and rolls 2D6+3 twice for damage, getting 7 and 7 damage on each...kinda low. Pelayo can soak 4 AR from each so he takes only 6 health damage total, dropping from 36 health to 30.

Now it's Pelayo's turn. He strikes, rolling 3D6 and adding his fighting score (no focus unfortunately) getting 18 total...well over the orc's defense. He rolls 2D6+2 for damage, dealing 12 points (with the charge bonus) against the orc's health of 30 and AR of 5, dropping him to 23 health after armor.

Now it's the orc's turn (remember, his earlier attack was from a ready stance provoked by Pelayo's impatience). The orc does an All-Out Attack to get a +1 to damage and a -1 to Defense. He rolls a total of 15, hitting Pelayo and also rolling double 4's, but a stunt die of 3. He burns all 3 SPs in another lightning attack, rolling a total of 17 for his follow-up attack and dealing two blows totalling 11 and 13 damage each! Pelayo takes 16 damage....ouch. Pelayo now has 14 health.

Starting the third round Pelayo tries for an All-Out Attack as well hoping to get lucky. He rolls to hit and gets a middling 10, which still hits the orc's reduced defense of 9, but good news! He rolled double ones and a stunt die of 4. He spends 2 on a mighty blow to add +1D6 damage to the attack and another 2 to try and disarm the orc. The damage total is now 15, so 10 points get through to reduce the orc to 14 health.

The disarm is a contested attack roll: Pelayo gets 18 and this time the orc rolls a total of 9....he's disarmed! The stunt indicates that the weapon is knocked 1D6+strength distance in yards away. The player rolls 4 yards. The orc panics!

Pelayo still has a minor action so he decides to Press The Attack, which means if the orc moves away from him he follows immediately; this minor action requires an adjacent target that you've already injured...the orc fits the bill.

The orc's turn is up for round three: he does indeed run over to grab his maul, using a minor move action to move 4 yards, then another minor move to ready his dropped weapon.

On round four Pelayo has a decided advantage since the orc lost an attack opportunity rearming himself. Pelayo pushes for another All Out Attack, rolling a normal 11 to hit but dealing 12 damage. The orc is now down to 7 health....

The orc retaliates, making a normal attack, rolling a 16 and connecting once more with Pelayo's 13 Defense (reduced due to All Out Attack). He rolls 11 damage, of which 7 gets through to drop Pelayo to 7 health....they are both equally battered and bloody it would seem.

Pelayo makes one more push to slay the orc before he perishes first: he rolls another All Out Attack for a hit total of 12, still enough to hit the orc. He deals 13 more damage, dealing 6 points after armor. The orc has 1 health!

The player still has a minor action and asks the GM if he can make a threatening "Yield!" noise at the orc. The GM assents, figuring this is a contested roll...orc's willpower (1) vs. Pelayo's strength (for intimidation) of 2. The orc rolls 15...not bad! Miraculously Pelayo rolls 16 so might makes right. The orc relents, dropping the pie before Pelayo and running off.

Interestingly, stunt points work for social and exploration encounters, too. Pelayo's roll was actually two 6's with the stunt die being a 6, so he technically has 6 SPs to spend on a social stunt. The GM has granted success to Pelayo already, but with his SPs he could have probably swayed a crowd of orcs to hand over their pies.

If that last roll the orc made had been an attack instead, it could have connected and the orc may well have dealt 11 damage, enough to kill Pelayo...so lucky Pelayo, eh?

Observations:

Level 1 fights are hard. One orc is enough to kill one warrior 50% of the time. Keep this in mind when designing adventures for FAGE....the system is not built to assume low level PCs are combat monsters at this stage in life.

Health totals are sufficiently high that no one is likely to drop in less than 2-3 blows. I can see how being ganged up on by several foes could be a quick death.

Getting stunts is easier than it looks as a chance of doubles on three dice isn't bad....but if you get unlucky for a stretch I can see this being a source of intense frustration for some; it seems to me a trigger mechanic, some sort of "hero point" system which lets you force a stunt every now and then would be both useful and help swing balance to the players in terms of who suffers most for stunts. Unless monsters don't prompt stunts, and I've just missed that factoid.

Pelayo at level 20

Character Creation in Fantasy AGE: rolling up a level 1 warrior

Character Creation in Fantasy AGE

I haven't done a walk-through on character generation in a game system for a while, so time to visit one of the newer games out there: Fantasy AGE!

Character creation in Fantasy AGE is similar to Dragon AGE, so if you've played the latter before (presumably in it's three boxed sets) then you'll see a lot of similarities....they are about 95% compatible, with just a few new tweaks to the FAGE edition of the AGE System.

The rules describe character creation as a nine-step process starting with a concept: My concept will be a warrior named Pelayo who wanted to be a mage but didn't have the aptitude for it. I'll let the devil flesh itself out in the details as we roll along....

Step 2 is to determine the nine abilities in FAGE. You can buy with points, assign numbers or roll, referencing a chart for the results. I'm going to roll. Since FAGE uses a numerical range from -2 to 4 for initial character stats the 3D6 roll you make for character generation is designed to give you some random scores along this spread. After rolling for Pelayo I get the following results:

0 Accuracy
1 Communication
3 Constitution
2 Dexterity
3 Fighting
1 Intelligence
1 Perception
2 Strength
0 Willpower

Pelayo has no bad stats, but judging from his intelligence and willpower I can see why he flunked as a mage....

Step 3 has us choose a race. Pelayo is human, so let's see what FAGE gives them: you get to add 1 to fighting, pick a focus from either constitution (swimming) or dexterity (riding) (I'll go with the latter as slightly more useful), a speed score of 10+Dex (so 12), the common language and two benefits on the "human benefits table." Everyone in FAGE has a benefits table, letting you gain a bit of a random selection to your racial type. For Pelayo I roll twice and get +1 constitution and focus in accuracy (brawling).

Step 4 determines our social class and background. Pelayo could come from riches....right? I roll 1D6 to determine and get....1. So Pelayo is an Outsider, a barbarian sort of guy from "somewhere else." Not a local. Although I can now choose background I decide to roll instead, getting a 6: a wanderer. Okay, makes sense.....from the focus options I pick constitution (stamina) since it sounds like it fits well with the hearty travels of a man with no home.

Pelayo's stats now look like this:

Pelayo:
1 Accuracy (focus: brawling)
0 Communication
4 Constitution (focus: stamina)
2 Dexterity (Focus: riding)
4 Fighting
1 Intelligence
1 Perception
2 Strength
0 Willpower
12 Speed
Languages: common

Next up is Step 5: the class. There are three classes in Fantasy Age: the mage (spell caster), rogue (expert type) and warrior (hits things hard). Level 1 in FAGE is designed to be a "learner's level" so you don't start stacking complexity on to the class until later on (level 4 is where you can pick a specialization, for example). Classes in FAGE are otherwise very similar to D&D classes, in that they determine starting health, weapon and armor choices as well as key abilities.

Pelayo is destined to be a warrior, so the choice here is easy. Note that there are no specific multiclassing mechanics in FAGE. If you want to make a sword-wielding mage, for an example, then you'll likely want to pick mage and then specialize in "sword mage" at level 4.

As a warrior Pelayo gets a range of primary and secondary abilities, as well as 30+constitution+1D6 for health; I rolled a 2 so Pelayo starts with 36 health. He gets brawling weapons group for proficiency and three others: I pick axes, bows and spears because that sounds about like what an outsider wanderer would know how to use.

For his level 1 abilities Pelayo can pick two novice level talents and gains novice in armor training automatically. For his two novice talents I pick weapon and shield style and archery style: shields, axes and bows is my thought. Note that the class description lists what you can pick....but you really need to look up the talents in their section as each has requisite requirements that you need to meet. For this reason an initial choice mine (two handed style) was ruled out because Pelayo's strength is 2 and he would need 3 for that talent.

Step 6 takes us to equipment, but before I go there I want to read up on what my two talents mean. As a novice in Archery Pelayo gets a +1 to damage against close targets (within 6 yards). For weapon and shield he gets the full shield defense bonus as a novice.

On to equipment! It's always interesting to see how a game handles equipment, because you can quickly tell what the game's style and focus is by the way gear is distributed. Some games stick to the "write it down or you don't have it" formula along with a concrete cost you pay for goods. Some games dispense with the cost, moving to a flexible (but annoying) wealth mechanic in which gear is a thing...a prop....but not necessarily a focus. Then there are games that treat gear like an effect or a cosmetic thing....I hate that system. Blegh! FAGE, thankfully, is type 1: you do pick your starting gear, but then you get some coin to spend: 15+3D6 silver pieces for an outsider like Pelayo, who ends up with 21 SP.

Pelayo also gets to pick from a selection of starting gear, getting a backpack, clothes, water skin, heavy leather armor, three weapons, and a medium shield. For the weapons I consult the list and pick out a battle axe, throwing axe and long bow with a quiver of 20 arrows. So...with all that gear I guess the SP is pocket change since I don't know what he'd buy with it right now...maybe some rope, which costs 2 SP for 20 yards of the stuff.

Worth noting that anyone can fight with any weapon, but if you're not trained in it you deal half damage and get a -2 penalty to hit.

Step 7 in character creation is to calculate defense. Defense keeps you alive, and is equal to 10+dexterity+any shield bonus (+2 for medium). For Pelayo his defense is 14. Note that no armor value is being added; armor itself has an AR (armor rating) which is subtracted from damage taken.

Step 8 is to pick a name (done!) and Step 9 is to choose goals and character ties. It is suggested that each character have three goals that relate to why he is adventuring, and the ties are effectively what everyone in the group has in common that gets them working together. Since Pelayo is (for now) a solo adventurer I'll provide a basic tie that can work across a spectrum.

Pelayo's stats now look like this:

Pelayo
Human male warrior (outcast wanderer)
Health 36; Defense 14; AR 4 (leather); Speed 12

1 Accuracy (focus: brawling)
0 Communication
4 Constitution (focus: stamina)
2 Dexterity (Focus: riding)
4 Fighting
1 Intelligence
1 Perception
2 Strength
0 Willpower

Languages: common
Weapon and Armor Skills: brawling weapons, axes, bows, spears
Warrior Talents: Archery (novice), weapon and shield (novice)

Equipment: backpack, clothes, water skin, heavy leather armor (AR 4), throwing axe (1D6+2+strength damage), battle axe (2D6+strength damage), long bow (1D6+3+perception damage), quiver with 20 arrows, and a medium shield (+2 bonus)

Goals: seek out fortune, slay the ogre king who killed father, become a prince among men
Ties: owes money to the crime lord Bossadan of Aelghast

Pelayo is now ready to adventure! It's a very clean, concise stat-block. I like.

Notes:

Combat: combat and most ability tests in FAGE are based on 3D6 rolls plus the relevant ability modifier; one of your dice is going to be odd colored and is the Stunt Die. When you roll doubles then a stunt kicks in, and the stunt die gives you stunt points (SPs) to spend on various options. For Pelayo, he'll be using fighting to attack with his melee weapons and accuracy for his bows. There's a big list in the book of which focuses apply to which abilities.

Ability Tests: An average test in FAGE is 11 or better. On a 3D6 that means you tend to roll 10-11, so the ability modifier will likely sway your direction of success. Furthermore, the adventurer gets a +2 bonus to the check when it relates to his focus. So Pelayo in our example could make a riding check at 3D6+4 for hid dexterity plus focus. It would behoove him to get a focus in axes and bows, soon.

Next: fight! Pelayo knows an orc in a room with a pie who's just asking for it.

Fantasy AGE capsule review

If you've been waiting for your pre-orders like I have, then know that they will be arriving soon. My FLGS got my copy of Dragon AGE in and it's a really amazing looking book...like, a coffee table art book sort of deal, the kind you leave around so people can ooh and ahh at it.

Fantasy Age is slimmer and more utilitarian, but it also looks very playable, and is also gorgeously laid out. Alas, my copy is a 1st printing and has the "interlligence" printing error on the character sheet.....but that's okay, they've got one here that's spelled right. If you don't mind the typo there's a form-fillable version here as well.

Fantasy AGE is hitting at the right time. The market is ripe for mechanically easier game systems that still have some meat on them....people like systems that offer interesting choices but don't require excessive rigor. Fantasy AGE also caters to a slightly different sort of fantasy from D&D, while still being very familiar.

Characters start with nine ability scores with a -/+ modifier from -2 to +4. You have six core races to pick from as well (human, elf, dwarf, gnome, hafling and orc). FAGE adds social class and background rules designed to support a wide array of settings as well; you figure out your social class and then an appropriate background (i.e. merchant, pirate, soldier, performer) out of 24 available choices.

After that, you've got your class. There are three classes in FAGE: mage, rogue and warrior. Each one provides rules through level 20, along with optional specializations (such as mage hunter, assassin or berserker), of which there are twelve. You can also get a focus for a really good ability score. Talents (FAGE's skills) round out the character options. Mages can also gain access to spell arcana, of which there are twelve (each arcana encompasses a handful of spells related to the arcana type).

The gamemaster section includes about 20 pages on how to run the game, 7 pages on magic items, and a bestiary section with fourteen adversaries provided. It's missing a conventional monster/animal list....no wolves, for example, but does provide some good starting points for GMs. While a Fantasy AGE campaign isn't as likely to be focused on the slaughter of monsters as D&D tends to be, you'll probably find yourself wanting to pick up the AGE monster supplements on RPGnow.com* or cribbing beasts from Dragon AGE until a more robust bestiary is released. Also worth noting is the Midgard Bestiary has an AGE edition*. Those resources ought to hold us over until a proper Bestiary is released.

Wrapping up the book is a short section on world building and a setting/adventure location to get you started. All told, for 144 pages it's a nice, compact set of rules with plenty of meat. If you can sustain yourself on the meager adversary offerings you'll be okay --for a while.

I haven't seen the Titansgrave module yet but expect to have it soon (ordered it via the FLGS). I do happen to have all of the AGE System PDFs Green Ronin offers, and for the price they are worth it if you are in to the system.

Five things Fantasy AGE does really well:

1. The stunt system. It's a dynamic combat mechanic that is only rivalled by Runequest 6's combat system.

2. Lot's of flexible character design features. You can make a lot of interesting characters in this system, but it remains focused and easy to roll up new PCs. While it has only three classes, the dozen specializations, numerous backgrounds and talents/focus rules make for a wide range of character options.

3. Emphasis on the fantasy tale vs. just monster killing/dungeon crawling. To be fair, D&D 5E (for example) provides lots of tools to do all sorts of cool stuff, but then limits the bulk of it's XP system to slaying things. FAGE provides a more well-rounded experience as part of its core design.

4. Ease of play. It's all about six sided dice, and the game has some very clean math in my experience.

5. Gorgeous, readable book! This is harder to achieve than it sounds, but Green Ronin really knows how to produce a nice looking, easily accessible tome.

Some downsides:

1. The "interlligence" typo is indicative of a few such editorial gaffs. On the plus side maybe the already-planned second printing will fix these issues.

2. It really needs more adversaries as well as more conventional beasties statted out in the core, or in a bestiary hopefully out yesterday. But with the PDF and Dragon AGE resources out there you can make do for now.

3. This is still definitely a "basic book" in the sense that it gives you enough to run with the game (a lot more than the D&D Basic Rules, to contrast) but after a year of using these rules I bet I'd start wishing for some follow-up material. I am confident Green Ronin has plans, though.

EDIT: I've bounced around a lot on what system(s) to use for my Sarvaelen (Watchers of the Sullen Vigil) setting....now thinking Fantasy Age might be the best fit....hmmmmm!


*All of the old AGE System documents are directly compatible with Dragon AGE but need minor conversion to Fantasy AGE, which uses some slightly different ability score names, and the combat skills (formerly dexterity in DA) is now split between accuracy and fighting scores. Abilities and attacks seem to mesh fine, however. Hopefully Green Ronin will think about releasing Fantasy AGE -compatible editions of these prior works that require no effort at conversion.

Fantasy Age is here!

Green Ronin's Fantasy Age, the generic version of the system which powers the Dragon Age paper and pencil RPG, is now out in PDF with print to come soon. The best deal is from Green Ronin directly, where you order the print and get the PDF tacked on for $5 but if you don't care about print rpgnow has it for $15.99 as well.

Due to all that Castles & Crusades stuff I bought I will have to wait until next week to get a copy and maybe review it. It's a good time to be in to non-D&D-like fantasy RPGs right now.

Fantasy AGE's newsworthy first setting is....

ENworld folk speculate here. The mystery all boils down to the statement from Chris Pramas that the announced setting could be perhaps the "biggest story of the year." Everyone at Enworld, being typical of our hobby, are thinking in terms of literary and game worlds. I'm going to suggest that we may in fact find out it is this: a tie in to....

...Pillars of Eternity:

if you're saying "Huh? Wazzat?" then congradulations, you are a hardcore tabletop gamer who's venn diagram does not overlap with an interest in the recent isometric CRPG revival. Among gamers into that stuff, Pillars of Eternity is a pretty big deal, though.

A second guess would be maybe a license for this upcoming big release:

Bonus points if you are like me and think that Andrzej Sapkoski's books alone are worthy of adaptation into a pure RPG setting.

A Third likely candidate, the one I personally consider most news-worthy, is the grand multi-title arc that is the Elder Scrolls Universe. That would definitely be news-worthy, and in keeping with the AGE System's origins with another popular fantasy CRPG.

But which version of The Elder Scrolls? Done right, it could be any of them...

These days a "story of the year" for a tabletop RPG is going to inevitably involve a big video game license....just my opinion. I do agree, a Fantasy AGE edition of a previously D&D-only world setting would be huge news....but the likelihood of that happening seems infinitesimal.

Although.....I imagine if they announced an Arduin or Blackmoor book for Fantasy AGE, that would be pretty impressive. Now I'm kinda hoping for one or both....but I don't think either would qualify as "news of the year," unfortnately. The only IPs out there in game and ficiton land that are currently without a host system are Moorcock's Eternal Champions books (Elric, Hawkmoon and co.) and of course Howard's Conan. Landing either of those properties would be big.

So...I'm gonna call it: we're either seeing an Elder Scrolls pnp RPG or Moorcock's Eternal Champions get a new home. I'd say Conan but I think Conan's still got some legal problems to sort out.

Green Ronin Shows how a Real Game Company Announces its 2015 Game Lineup (but...)

Green Ronin apparently also made an announcement for its 2015 book lineup, In this listing we have some very robust entries, including:

The AGE System gets:

A new Dragon Age Core Rulebook comprising the contents (revised) of the three boxed sets

An Inquisition sourcebook and revised GM's Toolkit

Faces of Thedas (formerly a PDF line) gets its own book

A may release of the long-awaited Fantasy AGE engine with a Gencon-release setting book

Mutants & Masterminds gets:

The Cosmic Sourcebook so you can have faux Guardians of the Galaxy Adventures

Freedom City revised book

Atlas of Earth Prime continues with an eventual print release

Other Stuff:

A Return to Freeport book for Pathfinder

Two Song of Ice and Fire releases for people who are into that (I have only ever read the novels. Seriously. We don't get Cable so no HBO, and until they show up on Netflix I am not going to see it)

Some card game called Love2Hate

Ork! the beer-and-pretzels RPG gets a re-release! This is kinda cool.

Now THAT is a proper game line-up. Of course, there is that giant BUT......

And if you know Green Ronin, you know what the BUT is: they are ambitious, determined, and produce fantastic books, but they are also notorious for slipping deadlines, sometimes by a year or two. So when it comes to much of their planned schedule (especially and chiefly for their licensed IP) I suggest adding 6 months to a year minimum to the release dates. I could be wrong.....I seriously hope I am wrong!.....but it's just how it's been for a long time now.

However, the good news is Fantasy AGE is not tied to any IP, and the rules are functionally out there now, so we just need the "IP-free" edition and we're good. My post yesterday mentioning to Paizo that we need a competitive "lite" edition of their game to go up against D&D 5E with more product support? Yeah, forget that.....I think Green Ronin may have this one handled just fine.


As a complete aside: I really need to look at Mutants & Masterminds seriously. I don't know why I am not playing this game (at all). I loved 1st edition, liked (but did not run) 2nd edition, and own all of 3rd.... 3rd edition appears to be amazingly well done, actually, and the DC Heroes books, despite being pre New-52, are also great resources. I don't know why I'm not doing something with this, need to investigate.

Dragon Age Set 3 Slated for January 2013 Release

In the realm of RPGs I really love that I can't find anyone to play with, this is exciting news. Dragon Age Set 3 has an official drop date, for sometime in January according to ICv2. Dragon Age uses the AGE System from Green Ronin, which is actually a great game system, and one which they have said will eventually get a proper treatment with its own license-free edition. Some of the seeds for the AGE System are evident in prior Green Ronin games (True20, Mutants & Masterminds) but it is distinct on its own merits.

Anyway, looking forward to this. Maybe I can finally talk some of my players in to trying Dragon Age out...I think a lot of my tabletop cohorts are simply not sufficiently in to the Dragon Age universe as I am, thus why it is a harder sell. Maybe....hard to say! I'll have to bring it up again soon, see if I can generate some interest.

Green Ronin Blowout Sale

It's here, with Thieves' World, True20, Blue Rose, Mutants & Masterminds 2E and others that you may hold near and dear. I myself just snagged all the True20 stuff, a game system that I have rather liked in the past and unfortunately got rid of along with many other books when I moved from Seattle to Albuquerque many years ago; it's definitely a system I'd run if I can find a batch of players willing to try it!