Adventure Fantasy Game is out now. Click here to buy it.
All started fourteen months ago when Sham posted three preview posts of the Bleak Beyond. After getting his permission I started to design, develop and test an SRD-based game based on his rules.
Earlier on I decided that the game was not going to be a retroclone, and to drop the SRD. The entire system is based on 5MORE, the concept that most times to succeed you need to roll a d6 and do 5 or more, applying very few modifiers, if any. The only dice used are six-siders, but tt’s still statistic compatible with most old school fantasy adventure games and retroclones, meaning you can yank gaming material from the past 38 years of our hobby and run them with no need to change anything.
The class system is very flexible, based on a MUD developed in the nineties; it’s similar to both multiclassing for d20 (without some of its fastidious problems) and disciplines from World of Darkness. The Vancian system has been ditched, replaced with a mana-based system after a bibliographic survey, long pondering and a talk with Roger. About 100 new original spells have been written. Clerics are gone, replaced by a more meaningful approach to worship. Two combat systems are included: the introductory one is a traditional “roll against armour”, while the advanced system features melee contests and armour reducing damage. Then, as I ran more and more playtest sessions, the game incorporated elements inspired from very bright designs such as ZZarchov’s Neoclassic Geek Revival and Delta’s Book of War.
Included in the manual there is also an 8-page hexcrawl adventure with a colour map: “The Temple Beneath the Harga Volcano”. It features mountains, glaciers, lakes, giants, cannibals, giant argonauts, squid templars and a Golden Idol of Cthulhu.
During testing no experience points were ever tracked. Players came up with really inspiring and story-driving accomplishments to complete to level up. We got rid of grind, beancounting, killing the last kobold to pass a level. Characters plotted to murder nobles, chased murderers and bandits, gathered bands of soldiers, accumulated a fortune and chased fabled tomes and golden idols of Cthulhu.
The change in attitude, from chasing experience points to chasing meaningful action, surprised and pleased us all. And I hope it will please you too.
Adventure Fantasy Game is available as PDF and Softcover+PDF. Both versions will give you free updates and the LaTeX source code to rebuild the PDF in case you want to kitbash it or change the layout. Click here to buy Adventure Fantasy Game.
Lost Pages 
Because I like to support the RPG community, and because I’ve followed this with interest, I’ve just gone and bought it. Looking forward to giving it a good read-through 🙂
OK, I ordered it, but how to I get the PDF? Is there an emailed link I should be getting, or a PDF attachment? This is why I hate PayPal…
Orders might take a few hours to evade because I have a manual system. And I don’t have a landline in the new flat yet, so everything is done through a mobile phone:)
I have a few orders to evade now, so bear with me for a second please 🙂
Sorry, didn’t mean to sound pushy. I have a problem with instant gratification 😉
Damn, ANOTHER fantasy game?! Heh, kidding. Like Morgan Freeman said in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves: “Allah loves wonderous variety!” and I agree! Seriously, I’ve been looking for a REALLY rules-light system, so I think I’m going to give AFG a look-see. Shoot, you mention not tracking XP, you got me excited. Getting rid of “beancounting” sounds delicious, seriously. I’ve really been thinking that I don’t like the mechanical side of the old school D&D games, such as resource management, Vancian magic, etc. I am moving closer and closer to just doing away with that stuff and focusing on the adventure part of the game. I mean, I think about characters having no equipment lists beyond their weapons, armor, spellbooks, items that have personal meaning, and I get happy! Seriously, I’m about to start saying “if you say you have torches, you have torches!” Did Conan worry about torches if it wasn’t integral to the story? No. So why do I want to play a game where I have to be an amateur accountant?! Anyway, I will cease rambling, and purchase your game ASAP! Congrats on completing it!
Wow, I wrote “seriously” three times in that comment above. What a dope I am. Seriously.
That only shows your seriousness, I guess. 🙂
As odd as it might sound the fact you’re including LaTeX files is a plus that will probably get me ordering on payday (when it might have been “yet another D&D style” fantasy game.
Cool to know! They will probably be ready this weekend!
Any idea when we’ll have access to the Latex files?
I sent you the files last night. The site should go up this weekend, but in case anybody needs the files, write me.