AFG Character Sheet, second version

Last week Jason Sholtis sent me the first version of a character sheet for AFG. While it was clear to everybody involved that it had a whole lot of merit, I decided to have players use it and then decide.

So we playtested at Glasgow Geek Retreat (also with first-time players, Hey Dawn & Sandy) and adjustment were made. It’s most probably going to be changed again, but not very soon. 🙂

A handful of character sheets are going to be included with each order from the webstore. Because not chucking in some small freebie is a wasted opportunity.

Adventure Fantasy Game – Random Wizard Questions

These questions are good because Adventure Fantasy Game is mechanically well different from D&D despite being essentially the same game. And almost completely stat-compatible. Grab the free AFG Lite PDF here, full chargen included. Buy it here.

(1). Race (Elf, Dwarf, Halfling) as a class? Yes or no?

Possibly. AFG allows to pick a different class (actually, a Way, which is a bit different as it it represent focused growth in a specific discipline) every time PCs level up. Demihumans have special classes of their own that they can take.

(2). Do demi-humans have souls?

Yes, except elves.

(3). Ascending or descending armor class?

Armour reduces damage. In the lite version, ascending, kinda.

(4). Demi-human level limits?

All PCs stop levelling at level 12, 13 with a trick, but they can get other perks.

(5). Should thief be a class?

There are Practitioners that gives you experience with a specific task.

(6). Do characters get non-weapon skills?

Yes, with the 5MORE system. More commentary.

(7). Are magic-users more powerful than fighters (and, if yes, what level do they take the lead)?

Fighters are bread, Casters are Nutella. They’re different. Fighters kick so much ass in melee it’s unreal. Caster change the laws of physics.

(8). Do you use alignment languages?

No. Languages are national shibboleths though.

(9). XP for gold, or XP for objectives (thieves disarming traps, etc…)?

Levels and perks for accomplishments and looting important treasure troves. There are no equivalent for D&D XPs.

(10). Which is the best edition; ODD, Holmes, Moldvay, Mentzer, Rules Cyclopedia, 1E ADD, 2E ADD, 3E ADD, 4E ADD, Next ?

I roll with S&W Whitebox. Sometimes Moldvay/Mentzer/RC, which are for me equivalent.

AFG Character Sheet – Alpha Version

Update: new sheet downloadable here.

Adventure Fantasy Game characters, at least for my groups, are written on 3*5 index cards. I guess this is because AFG never had a specific character sheet. Until today.

The always awesome Jason Sholtis is flexing his illustration and design chops to prettify my AFG spreadsheety character sheet. You can see it below in all its clawytentaclybeardyness. While the work is not done, you can start using it and tell me how it feels. 🙂

Almanack of Peris: deadline and a list of the relevant and peculiar locations

The map of the Almanack of Peris shows many locales. The contest is about you describing the campaign. Two winners will get 30$ worth of Lost Pages swag (did I mention we do handbound PoD too?). The deadline is AUGUST 31ST 2013, NOON UTC.

Suggestions for submissions:

• monsters
• locales
• classes
• objects
• dungeons
• traditions
• art
• maybe even a full setting

To make the job of the contestant easier, I made a list of all the locales on the map, broken by quadrant. There are 5 quadrants: NW, NE, SW, SE plus the area around Peris itself.

Quadrant NW

• Vale of the Festival
• Anaton – a city
• the upper river Anaton – the longest river of the land
• The Blue Dome
• an Iron Pillar
• and an iron road between them
• Tower of Argl
• Home of the Hungry God
• Biaz – a town
• High Biaz – a village, with a fortress
• Devil’s Hill
• a sign pointing north: “Realm of the Tiger Queen”

Quadrant NE

• the lower river Anaton
• Tree of Time
• Cairn of the Blue Gate
• two Blue Pillars
• and an iron road linking them
• the Bog of Kerr
• Chained Sisters
• Miners’ Valley
• Iba – an hamlet
• Red Copse
• Kha – a fortress
• Alteb – a town
• Tower of Tally
• Woroton – a town
• Ziti – an hamlet
• Fort Ziti
• the Glass Wastes

Quadrant SW

• the upper river Rheu
• Ruins of Old Rheu – an ancient city, flooded by a swamp
• Fort Rheu
• New Rheu – a town
• Inn of the Stork
• Tower of Reienef
• a sign pointing west: “to Grencia”
• Spirint King Peak
• the Spirit river
• Tower of Nue
• a sign pointing southwest: “to Orpal”
• Tower of Obar
• the Canyon of Them
• Gnoles Woods
• the source of the river Fakě

Quadrant SE

• the lower river Rheu
• Lake Rheu
• City of Eptek – the biggest city of the land
• Hermitage of the Red Major
• Tower of the Red Bishop
• Edel – a village
• Ersi – a town
• Fyrt – a village
• the Sanctuary of Rudian
• The School of Fakery
• Uba – a tower
• Tower of Balo
• a sign posting southwest: “to [blank]”. This is for you to decide.

Peris Quadrant

• House of R’S’N
• by the biggest giant white megalith
• Chasm of C’X’L’
• by the tallest giant white megalith
• Great Altar of S’T’N’
• by the widest giant white megalith
• the Pyramid of P’R’N’
• by the smallest, but still giant, white megalith
• the Hut of Bagigi
• the Gazebo of Yum
• the Rainbow Pool
• a Soul Corral
• a big tree. like, big
• Peris – a town

Almanack of Peris and Environs: map and crowdsourcing.

Not much is known about the village of Peris, but we have a map of its environs.

Thing is, I wanted to exercise a bit my drawing. But since I’ve finished it it, I’d like to put it to good use. So it would be cool if you dear reader sent me:

• monsters
• locales
• classes
• object
• dungeons
• local foods and drinks
• whatnots
• maybe even a full setting.

Then it will all be mashed up and published as the Almanack of Peris and Environs, “soon” to be published by your truly, containing the edited, collected submissions.

Of all the submissions I’ll choose the two best (aided by Chris, pizza and beer), give them 30$ of credit toward stuff I publish and publish them completely.

Better scan to follow up soon: it’s drawn on an A1 sheet, and I have only an A4 scanner…

Variations on 5MORE

AFG is a game that welcomes tinkering. I wrote it so that parts can be easily taken out, replaced or defaced without making the rest of the game suffer. And while I’m very happy with the 5MORE mechanic, I have a few totally awesome 100% not rigorously tested home rules that you might want to try. I initially considered presenting only the ones I like best but, well, sometimes my standards are really low. Also, I love tinkering with rules. I really do.

Smooth Expertise

In 5MORE experience points don’t influence the rolls until all 6 EXPERT letters are collected (I kind of realised now this sounds like Bubble Bubble’s EXTEND). The alternative is, when a character with some experience in the task misses by 1, either treat is as a partial success or roll 1d6: if the result is less or equal than the experience, the check is successful.

Reasonable Proficiency

In some situations some experience is enough. Maybe if the character is very familiar with the circumstances of the task (“I hunt a lot of bears, that’s what I do”) or the task is kind of basic (preparing alchemical components). In these situations give the +1 modifier even if the character has 3 (or even less) EXPERT letters.

Focused Mastery

Instead of choosing the MASTER task when the 6th EXPERT task is gained, the character accumulates MASTER letters on a single EXPERT task of choice. Experience rolls for MASTER letters can only be attempted after an unmodified 6 on a 5MORE roll, and the MASTER letter is gained only on a natural 6 on the experience roll itself. The first time that happens, erase EXPERT from your character sheet and write down that big M letter next to the task. Yay you!

Specialised Expert

This replaces MASTER rules, and is worth trying for Engineers as they keep on making a ton of Engineering rolls. After a character becomes EXPERT, more EXPERT letters are accrued on specializations, and specializations bonuses stack. So if the engineer Tikola Nesla is already EXPERT in engineering and were to succeed an engineering experience roll while fixing a steam engine, she would get an EXPERT letter in Engineering – Mechanical. After becoming EXPERT in that, all 5MORE rolls on Engineering – Mechanical are at +2 and Tikola can now gain expertise in, for example, Engineering – Mechanical – Automatonic eventually getting a +3 on that if these giant robots don’t rebel and squish her first. Keep in mind that as more experience is accrued, the expertise coverage becomes narrower and narrower.

A specialisation tree for a steam-fantasy or tech-friendly fantasy setting might look like this:

• Engineering
  • Mechanical
    • Naval
    • Aeronautic
    • Automatonic (giant robots. Also less than giant robots, but why would you ever?)
  • Structural
    • Civil
    • Military
    • Demolition
  • Aetheric
    • Electrical
    • Arcane (where the best and brightest make magic and technology meet without uncontrolled explosions)
    • Brain-valve Interfaces

Training

Allow character to spend time and money training. Simply grant some EXPERT letters or experience rolls. Maybe grant letters up to EXP, with the rest to be gained through experience rolls. If you feel super-kind and have one of these long-term “more or less domain game” campaigns, allow a free experience roll for each season on whatever characters are busy doing, even without training. And to keep things interesting, never let that last T to be gained through training, let them sweat for it in dangerous situations. 😉

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