Better Mousetrap Games and Flying Mice Games are pleased to announce the release of FtA!GN! (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58017&filters=0_0_0&manufacturers_id=111), the Forward... to Adventure! Gamemasters' Notebook in pdf, with print release to follow soon.
This book is a sourcebook for the Forward... to Adventure! RPG, containing a wide variety of articles for enhancing your "FtA!" game. What you will find is a wide variety of optional material. In the FtA!GN! you will find:
* New optional PC races
* New optional classes (and outlines for how to use xisting classes to create the kind of character you want)
* Rule clarifications from the main rulebook
* Optional tips to enhance play experience
* New monsters, like the Were Swine and the Gazebo
* An overview of the FtA! setting, called "The Setting"
* Explanation of the Multiverse and the Road of Worlds
* More random generation tables than you would believe if we told you!
Time to go Forward... to Adventure! once more!
clash
Congratulations! It's about time :hatsoff:
Quote from: brettmb;248980Congratulations! It's about time :hatsoff:
Thanks, Brett!
It was planned for GenCon, but I had a bad computer crash, and had to redo some work. :P
It was worth it though! Pundit did an awesome job!
-clash
I was thinking that $12 seemed a tad high. But then I noticed 312 pages. Is that right? That's must be a ton of tables.
Quote from: Nicephorus;249000I was thinking that $12 seemed a tad high. But then I noticed 312 pages. Is that right? That's must be a ton of tables.
That's correct. There's More Random Generation Tables Than You Would Believe If We Told You!(TM)
There's a full setting, called, of course, "The Setting", but there's also enough random tables to create a whole world from scratch if you prefer. :D
-clash
FtA!GN! (http://www.lulu.com/content/4149213) is now available in print from Lulu.
-clash
And it is downloaded. So far, so good. Haven't looked at the 100 pg setting but did see that coats of arms were included. Short on new rules, but decent additions, plus a FAQ. In addition to the setting, 30ish pages on overland travel and encounter tables. 25 pages a cosmology and planar travel, including tables for encounters and other world inhabitants. A (relatively) short but fun section on new monsters: evil robots, gazebos, and were swine.
So far, I'm getting a 1e DMG vibe.
Quote from: Nicephorus;249366And it is downloaded. So far, so good. Haven't looked at the 100 pg setting but did see that coats of arms were included. Short on new rules, but decent additions, plus a FAQ. In addition to the setting, 30ish pages on overland travel and encounter tables. 25 pages a cosmology and planar travel, including tables for encounters and other world inhabitants. A (relatively) short but fun section on new monsters: evil robots, gazebos, and were swine.
So far, I'm getting a 1e DMG vibe.
That's a Good Thing. IMO the 1e DMG was a master work.
It was the cartoons, wasn't it? :D
-clash
The 1e comparison is a complement. But it also is a quick description. In a quick perusal, I'm seeing lots of different ideas that can be added on a case by case basis.
The cartoons were a pleasant surprise. I knew you did the photomanipulation but didn't know you could do line art as well. And you can make cool maps? impressive.
Quote from: Nicephorus;249408The 1e comparison is a complement. But it also is a quick description. In a quick perusal, I'm seeing lots of different ideas that can be added on a case by case basis.
The cartoons were a pleasant surprise. I knew you did the photomanipulation but didn't know you could do line art as well. And you can make cool maps? impressive.
Hi Nicephorus!
Ummm... I've said this before, but no one seems to hear it. I don't do photo manips. I do e-painting. I use photos as a reference.
-clash
Quote from: flyingmice;249640Ummm... I've said this before, but no one seems to hear it. I don't do photo manips. I do e-painting. I use photos as a reference.
I heard you, Clash. Stop screaming! :)
I almost missed this thread. Now I know where some of my disposable October income will be allocated...
Or are you currently looking for reviewers for FTA!GN? I'd probably be reading it intensively anyway as FTA! currently competes with Traveller for the slot of the system in my next campaign, so I might as well review it while I do so.
Quote from: Skyrock;249808I almost missed this thread. Now I know where some of my disposable October income will be allocated...
Or are you currently looking for reviewers for FTA!GN? I'd probably be reading it intensively anyway as FTA! currently competes with Traveller for the slot of the system in my next campaign, so I might as well review it while I do so.
I'd be pleased to have you review it. Skyrock!
-clash
Got it, and am already glancing through it.
I'm especially pleased about the fact that there are "behind the scenes"-articles to certain elements as spell list design or class design... I can't yet give an informed opinion about the content, but it should prove useful for those who want to houserule or modify FTA!
I think anyway that FTA is a much more precisely designed game as it might look at first glance (e.g. the inconspicious connections between skill advancement per level and class, stunt rules, monster stats and combat round structure, to pick something off the top of my head), so I hope to find something out about the game that I haven't considered before.
And I also already noticed that there are Bender, Daleks and rayguns in it, and that just now where my current campaign choice is between Traveller and FTA... Clash, admit you diabolical clandestine conspiracy to delay FTA!GN until I plan a new campaign, to wait to find out until I've nailed down my options and then to sneak something in to keep me away from GMing the wrong game!
Quote from: Skyrock;249843And I also already noticed that there are Bender, Daleks and rayguns in it, and that just now where my current campaign choice is between Traveller and FTA... Clash, admit you diabolical clandestine conspiracy to delay FTA!GN until I plan a new campaign, to wait to find out until I've nailed down my options and then to sneak something in to keep me away from GMing the wrong game!
Drat! I don't know how you found me out - you and those meddling kids! :O
-clash
Holy fuck, I'd missed this thread altogether. I actually had no idea that my book was already out.
RPGPundit
Meanwhile, due to my day job, the review didn't really progress... But next week-end is convention time, where I can hopefully playtest some bits of which I'm yet uncertain in my evaluation.
I especially hope that I can talk the one or another player into playing a Drake, which according to my reading will either turn out as a shallow jack-of-all-trades without a real home turf in combat, spellcasting or rogue stuff, a walking WMD with his breath attack, or hopefully something in-between that is quite different to other races but yet comparable in overall power level.
And I also hope that adventure location on one of the Pirate Islands south of Diablo's Point gives me an excuse to consult the random caravan tables. Meanwhile, the random terrain tables already proved quite handy in doodling a wilderness map for the area:
(http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1038/bdmaptm7.th.jpg) (http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bdmaptm7.jpg)(http://img232.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif) (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)
Let me know if some review pops up somewhere that includes a description of more or less how the map generation works, no need for specifics just basically how the system works. I have some free time and if it isnt overcomplicated i might give a try to make a random generator for PC.
When I finally get around to type down my review, there probably won't be enough info to retro-engineer the random terrain sub-system - I have to review a 300-page-book with very diverse content, and if I want to reach a review length that's yet read by anyone, I'll need a broad stroke.
But to give a broad description now:
Generally, you roll up terrain on a 2d6-chart. From there on, you go from hex to hex and determine deviation from the previous hex, occassianally doing a completely new roll on the 2d6-chart when the dice indicate a heavy deviation.
After you have so the base of your wilderness, you can roll for each hex on the expanded encounter table to find out if there's stuff as mystical sites, old burial grounds, roads, castle ruins etc.
It should be noted that there's yet some need for human decision, like the direction in that hexes are filled out, so a computer program would need some additional rules and directions to use the sub-system on its own.
It should also be pointed out that the bell-shaped curve of the 2d6-chart leads to some minor issues - for instance, ocean and ice land lie at the very ends of the chart, so it's highly unlikely to roll them up at some point, and there's a very heavy emphasis on the moderate climates around entry 7.
There's only so much ocean on my linked map because I rolled it up at some point and then decided to turn my wilderness into an island, only rolling to see how far the water extends from the first ocean hex, and then filling in the land from the inside.
If done on a computer where we don't have to care for the rules of the platonic solid, it would probably work better (in the sense of more diverse results) with 1d11+1. On the table, maybe by dismissing the mixed terrain of forested hills (which work like forest or hills at the GMs discretion) and then rolling 1d10 instead of 2d6.
YAY!
Thank you Skyrock.
Regarding the dice rolls 2d6 vs 1d11+1 it can be easily done as an optional which one to use.
And yeah, a computer has to use certain assumptions like in which order to generate but it shouldnt have a negative impact on the generation itself.
Regarding choosing something along the lines of weighted options could be done with the user having the option of choosing predetermined value sets. Example: continental, large islands, lots of small islands, etc. Very much like the generator in Civilization 4.