Thanks to everyone who gave their opinions. I just picked it up - now I just gotta read it!
You all convinced me! 

For those asking about books, there are 3 that I know were released physically.

Fantasy Craft - the core book with everything you need. The PDF that's readily available is the 2nd printing, which is the same as the first with some errata. If you want physical, that's harder to find, and you'll either want the 2nd printing or the 1st printing w/ the errata document. Here is a page of free Fantasy Craft downloads including the aforementioned errata, free NPC builder software, and a few other goodies.

Adventure Companion - 3 ready-to-use settings(nothing as detailed as a dedicated Forgotten Realms book, but a nice starter), a few new classes at each tier(basic, expert, master), and some new feats and a handful of new campaign qualities. All very well thought out.

Time of High Adventure - It's just 3 adventures with some NPC and monster stats thrown in as needed. No new player options IIRC. 2 of the adventures are published separately in their own PDFs(to avoid accidental double-purchase, in case you're interested in this kind of things).

Then there are the Call to Arms PDFs. They're just new classes. Some of them are included in the Adventure Companion. Avatar, Crusader, Inquisitor, Shinobi, Skirmisher, and Witch Hunter are not, in case you want to know which you can get without doing an accidental double purchase.

Laboratory of the Forsaken - another adventure, only available in PDF.

Then there's the big, unreleased thing . . .

Spellbound - at least, I think this is what it was going to be called. They've given the option to refund your preorder since it's been quite a few years, but I keep holding out hope that it'll come out someday so have thus far not done that. That's probably dumb of me, but I really, really want it and don't want to give up. (This is also why I'll never, ever, EVER buy a Mistborn RPG product even though I love Sanderson's work to death.) Anyway, it's the big magic supplement. New spells; newer, less generic magic-using classes. I know at some point they released what they already had, but for the life of me I can't find the PDF on this computer. Sorry, if I could, I'd give you more specific info about what they actually finished.

Next in the pipeline was supposed to be an equipment and gear book. I don't even know if they had a tentative name for it. But since it looks less and less likely that a full release of Spellbound will ever see the light of day, this one's even more of a pipe dream.

Quote from: GeekEclectic on November 26, 2020, 04:41:12 AM
I know at some point they released what they already had, but for the life of me I can't find the PDF on this computer. Sorry, if I could, I'd give you more specific info about what they actually finished.

The Spellbound material released to pre-order supporters included a draft of the some new spells sans NPC stat blocks and a preview document that includes two base classes (Conjuror and Reaper), one expert class (Hexer), one master class (Arcane Savant), and two spellcasting feats (Familiar Basics and Spell Specialist.) I would consider it part of the first party material for the game and I personally include them as part of character options when running my own games.

TESTING CONTINUES:

So going forward, now that I've given it a full readthrough, I'm crafting a party of adventurers AND converting an old-school module series to see both sides of the toolbox.

Desert of Desolation

It's obscure enough that I'm -certain- my players don't know it, so if the conversion/test goes well I can run them through it.

I'm working off the original versions - from 1982 and 1983

Module I3 - Pharaoh
Tracy and Laura Hickman
meant for 6-8 characters of levels 5-7

I'm going to try it with 4 or 5 FantasyCraft characters.

Johnny Vulhkan - This handsome devil is equal parts Foghorn Leghorn and Harry Mudd.  This steampunk alchemist was the perennial pain in the party posterior during our GURPS Castle Falkenstein/Infinite Worlds game.

I'm going for a level or two of Courtier and sage into Alchemist.

Edit:  Campaign settings:  Industrial, Fast Levels, Miracles and Sorcery

Setting it industrial to play with a little black powder.

Any requests or suggestions for the rest of the party?

Oddly enough, Desert of Desolation (either as the collected edition or the separate I3, I4, and I5 modules) shows up on several Best X D&D Modules lists.  See article 1, article 2, and article 3.  I enjoyed them all in their original module form, especially the first two.

Oh yeah desert of desolation is excellent, I just find the latecomers and the Casual fans are just familiar with it is for example ravenloft or Tomb of Horrors.

Got sidelined by work.  Had three people out, and I'm the only one with a work ethic. 

ANYWAY; finished Johnny Vulkhan - turns out I was able to make him the shifty, lying manipulator I wanted rather easily.  Three levels of Courtier, a single level of Keeper to buy the crafting and medicine skills needed to get Alchemist right at level 5.

Thematically, I'm not grabbing Spellcasting even though I now can - he'll get by on elixirs, potions, and his glib tongue.    He has 10 in Bluff, 12 in Crafting (chemistry),  10 in Medicine, and Black Powder Forte if he needs to fight.  Additionally, with Charming and Beguiling, Black Cat, and Elusive, he can stymie the opposition while he makes a quick getaway.

I've been fiddling with PCGen, the only program I can find that supports FantasyCraft character creation, and have attached a character sheet.  Sadly, without a template, I can't do plain text and I haven't taken the time to learn what I need to bang one out.  So I've attached the character sheet as a PDF in the meantime.

Next up:  Rykeena, the (half-)orc Martial Artist.

Since I discovered PCGen, this should be quicker.  I'm using the Eastern Horde (Skull Tribe) for half-orc stats -if I was doing a 'proper' Greyhawk style half-orc I'd redo and swap the intelligence penalty, but this works for now.

Since I didn't play 3+ or much Pathfinder, level pre-planning is novel and new to me.

I'm eyeing Martial Artist to Edgemaster, but that seem obvious, and Johnny V was a more interesting combo, so I might do something else.

Quote from: LiferGamer on December 04, 2020, 10:42:46 PM
Since I didn't play 3+ or much Pathfinder, level pre-planning is novel and new to me.

Fantasy Craft is much, much more forgiving in this aspect than 3.x or PF. Your build will probably work no matter what. They really want you to feel competent in general, and very competent in your niche. Some options are more optimized than others, of course, but not game-breakingly so. Absolute tons of viable combinations. Expert/Master classes are about the only time you have to put any forethought into a build, and they tend to be a lot less stringent than 3.x/PF prestige classes in that regard, too.

Does anybody know if there are any Virtual Table Tops with Fantasy Craft support?

Quote from: TKurtBond on December 06, 2020, 02:08:31 AM
Does anybody know if there are any Virtual Table Tops with Fantasy Craft support?

A little more searching found a Roll20 character sheet.  It is convenient of Roll20 to have them all on github.

Quote from: TKurtBond on December 06, 2020, 02:08:31 AM
Does anybody know if there are any Virtual Table Tops with Fantasy Craft support?

Quote
A little more searching found a Roll20 character sheet.  It is convenient of Roll20 to have them all on github.

Fantasy Craft is just supported enough that its playable and not entirely fringe, but still impossible to find games for

If I get the hang of it, I'm either running this or DCC as a side game online.