From what I've seen from C7, Arion's new version of Advanced Fighting Fantasy has been released... anyone got it yet? How is it?
RPGPundit
I'd like to know too. I preordered through Amazon, which means that, while I get a great price, I'll have to wait a month or two after everyone else gets theirs.
According to FRP Games website, the new Out of the Pit and Titan books are out as well.
http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=search&s=fighting+fantasy
The fantastic Fighting Fantazine is currently running a competition to write a mini AFF adventure for the next issue. The rules and submission information of the competition are here:
http://fightingfantazine.blogspot.com/2011/05/competition-rules.html
The prize is to have the adventure published in the magazine,and also a copy of each of the new books!
Get your creative hats on, and get writing!
Nostalgia, I suspect, ain't what it used to be.
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;457800Nostalgia, I suspect, ain't what it used to be.
Is that "The game will not live up to what i remember it to be" or "this game is much better than the original used to be"? :)
My copy arrived today. On first glance it looks excellent, containing all the great stuff I remember plus plenty of new and streamlined content. It may well knock Dragon Warriors and the various retroclones off their pedestals and become my rules-light frpg of choice.
If anyone has questions I'll be happy to answer them.
Are you guys going to release it on pdf?
Quote from: CRKrueger;457931Are you guys going to release it on pdf?
Unfortunately not. It was one of the preconditions of the license i am afraid.
Interesting. Is the prohibition on PDFs for fear of "piracy"; I suppose?
RPGPundit
How's the art? Is there loads of it, and is there any new stuff?
Quote from: bottg;457933Unfortunately not. It was one of the preconditions of the license i am afraid.
Ouch, sorry to hear that. Based on your answer I'm sure you argued for it, why didn't the license holders want to do pdfs?
As much as I'd like to see this right now my personal inbox is loaded. It's on order but I'll not have time to look it over this month.
I still can't hunt down anything about the system it uses. Just lots of people saying it's great and some houserules that don't really inform you about the system.
Quote from: bottg;457929Is that "The game will not live up to what i remember it to be" or "this game is much better than the original used to be"? :)
I don't have it. I used to have the original books when I was a kid, some of which were great fun. But the rules were, obviously, very very simple.
This seems to be less a game and more a box of memories.
There isn't really anything to live up to, the game was so simple it's almost irrelevant.
Quote from: RPGPundit;458022Interesting. Is the prohibition on PDFs for fear of "piracy"; I suppose?
RPGPundit
Which will happen anyway, so they are only hurting themselves - or the licenser is, I suppose. Unfortunate lack of vision.
If it's full or Russ Nicholson's art, I'll get a copy just for that! :D
Quote from: Stainless;458132I still can't hunt down anything about the system it uses. Just lots of people saying it's great and some houserules that don't really inform you about the system.
2D6 roll under Skill+Special Skill for everything but combat
(Skill is a single attribute that represents overall competence, akin to level; Special Skills are what you would normally think of as "skills")
In combat, combatants each roll Skill + [some kind of combat Special Skill], highest roll wins, loser loses Stamina (hit points)
There's also a Luck score, which can be used to try to increase the effect of a success or as a sort of D&D-type Save.
Here (http://www.ffproject.com/rules.htm) is a page with the basic rules from the original gamebooks (these, like the original gamebooks, do not have Special Skills), along with several fan-made adventures.
Out of the pit!
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_0dOXQ_dv5kk/TBnpuWLlq6I/AAAAAAAAALc/fbJ4S7F7mz8/s400/wheelies.jpg)
How about this kind of marketing campaign?
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-lyzG3ia8AZo/TXMfNumvTGI/AAAAAAAAATw/mQBpfo5zmWg/s1600/deathtrap+dungeon+dominatrix+ad.jpg)
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;458726How about this kind of marketing campaign?
When I bought my PS1, I got it with Diablo and Deathtrap Dungeon.
The only thing more torturous than Deathtrap Dungeon was the wait until I could get back into town to trade it in for something good.
Thank you Sir.
Quote from: Technomancer;4582752D6 roll under Skill+Special Skill for everything but combat
(Skill is a single attribute that represents overall competence, akin to level; Special Skills are what you would normally think of as "skills")
In combat, combatants each roll Skill + [some kind of combat Special Skill], highest roll wins, loser loses Stamina (hit points)
There's also a Luck score, which can be used to try to increase the effect of a success or as a sort of D&D-type Save.
Here (http://www.ffproject.com/rules.htm) is a page with the basic rules from the original gamebooks (these, like the original gamebooks, do not have Special Skills), along with several fan-made adventures.
So there's a core rulebook, a bestiary (Out of the Pit), and a world book (Titan). Of these, the rulebook's author Graham bottley notes (http://moldyvale.blogspot.com/2011/05/advanced-fighting-fantasy-and-other.html):
Quote from: GrahamI would just like to point out though that when we wrote the new version of AFF, we did completely rework the rules, layout, content etc, as well as add in completely new materials.
We then playtested for many months, revised again, and then re-laid out with original art. It has taken a fair amount of time and money to get there as we didn't want to just rerelease the original game.
Titan and OotP are hower originals with a new cover.
Quote from: Drew;457930It may well knock Dragon Warriors and the various retroclones off their pedestals and become my rules-light frpg of choice.
Interesting. I think the main draw of Dragon Warriors is the world and the modules for it. In that vein, would you use Titan's setting or Ellesland for your AFF game?
So the "three books" that have been combined into one in this new edition, are they Dungeoneer, Blacksand, and Allansia, then? If Out of the Pit and Titan continue to be separate products?
RPGPundit
a quick look at the LFGS tonight after "Encounters"...nice layout and art looked great. Quality production. Not much time to peruse the rules but I plan on getting this soon.
"Out of the pit" seemed to have the same quality.
Saw the book in the shop. It looks very bland. I wouldn't bother myself.
Out of the Pit and Titan are sold separately.
Quote from: RPGPundit;459088So the "three books" that have been combined into one in this new edition, are they Dungeoneer, Blacksand, and Allansia, then? If Out of the Pit and Titan continue to be separate products?
RPGPundit
Yeah, OotP and Titan are just straight reprints of the originals.
It doesn't have all of the content from Dungeoneer, Blacksand and Allanisa - iirc, things like the city generation tables aren't there, and the campaign isn't there - but I don't have my actual books yet, so I'm not sure of the exact details.
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;459204Saw the book in the shop. It looks very bland. I wouldn't bother myself.
Is it the artwork, the writing, or both?
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;459204Saw the book in the shop. It looks very bland. I wouldn't bother myself.
My impression was the opposite (mine came in the mail sooner than I thought it would). The cover is nice without being too busy, the layout is good, it's easy to read, the way it's organized makes sense (so far), the interior art, if it isn't mostly recycled from the original, looks like it is.
Very well done, overall, IMO. I already want to play it.
Quote from: Melan;459215Is it the artwork, the writing, or both?
There seemed very little artwork, though i think it's from the books.
The presentation seemed bland and the content presented a very bladn frpg.
Quote from: Technomancer;459222My impression was the opposite (mine came in the mail sooner than I thought it would). The cover is nice without being too busy, the layout is good, it's easy to read, the way it's organized makes sense (so far), the interior art, if it isn't mostly recycled from the original, looks like it is.
Very well done, overall, IMO. I already want to play it.
purchased today at LFGS...my thoughts exactly!
:D
I just read it today and I think its a pretty cool little system for short, simplistic, fun style adventures. The thing I really like is that you could easily house rule this system to make it much more detailed if thats what you like. The art is kinda bland but I still like it in a retro style way. The main issue I had was with the price. For what you get vs other rpg products out there the cost is kinda high. $19.99 would have been perfect for this product. I want to play it but I dont know if I would choose it over Barbarians of Lemuria or Shadow,Sword & Spell.
Quote from: dogrodeo;459744For what you get vs other rpg products out there the cost is kinda high. $19.99 would have been perfect for this product.
That is what I paid for it. It was (and still is, just checked) 19.79 on Amazon.
Yeah, thats what I paid too. I was just going by the $29.99 normal price and should have stated that earlier. I felt that the production values were a little lacking for a thirty dollar book but I'm happy with it for the twenty bucks I paid on Amazon.
I have some of the original books (all except Allansia - silly money on ebay), not sure I'd get this one (would have done if in PDF as I print and bind them in a hard cover myself).
The problem I have is in my head I think. When this came out way back when it was a few quid. Paying £16.61 off Amazon (and more in my friendly local full rrp thanks but no thanks shop) doesn't compute in the same way that paying £13 or so didn't for each of the Lone Wolf multiplayer books Mongoose knocked out a while back. By the time you finished shelling out for those you are looking at the other side of £60 for a rules light retro clone (in the case of Lone wolf) which, with a bit of house ruling, you could run from the game book rules in the original books. Those are poor value for money. I understand the economies of scale - they aren't going to sell millions so they charge enough to make a reasonable profit and hope to sell thousands - but the pricing is still 'salty' when people are watching the pennies.
Until I see a review that states why Fighting Fantasy is a 'must buy' I'll keep hold of my dosh, methinks. Nearer a tenner and I'd have taken a punt. It's not the money - I earn enough - it's my old fart mentality I think. As mentioned I'd have bought the PDF for a decent price, especially if there were a bundle PDF deal for a reasonable discount.
As a result of looking for AFF on Amazon (out of stock in the UK, which must be a good sign?) Fabled lands popped up, which I will drop £20 on for the four books. I have already bought the Destiny Quest gamebook (Amazon £7, 534 pages, not played yet but looks like a decent game) so I don't mind spending the money if I feel I'm getting value for money.
Best o luck to the Fighting Fantasy fellas though - competing against video games these days for kids money is a tough ask, and I suspect it's the old fart/nostalgia crowd who'll buy this rather than the young uns, sad to say :(
Someone should do an Appointment with FEAR supplement for, oh I dunno, M&M.
What are the chances? Test your luck!
I just got the core book, and I was very disappointed in the quality of the product. I feel a little churlish in complaining about Mr Bottley's work - it was no doubt a labour of love - but it's just not up to snuff, especially when compared to the original AFF books. This book has that amateur layout and feel, and the illustrations, which were a key selling point, didn't come out right. They seem to be printed in a shade of grey and look like they would on my printer in ink-saving mode. Next time, print out some test copies and tweak before committing to the print run.
But the worst thing is the writing. The author randomly capitalises Words in what might have been a charming Manner in in the eighteenth century, but follows no Known schema, and punctuation is just as haphazard.
Even more annoying, though, is the writer's habit of using filler words to pad out almost every sentence. There are redundant qualifiers like "obviously" or "lots of" all over the place, and useless adjectives abound. There's nary a paragraph where my red pen wouldn't see action. I just can't read it without being constantly jarred, so I'll never know if there's a great game in there.
You might think I'm a pedant or aesthete, but actually I can read 90% of games without experiencing this discomfort. At the minimum, Bottley needs to employ the services of a good editor, because he just doesn't have the facility with the written language. So I'll go back to Dragon Warriors with its good English, nice art and layout, on top of its perfectly adequate game.
Drop me a line if you want my copy for the price of postage.
Quote from: Windjammer;459016So there's a core rulebook, a bestiary (Out of the Pit), and a world book (Titan). Of these, the rulebook's author Graham bottley notes (http://moldyvale.blogspot.com/2011/05/advanced-fighting-fantasy-and-other.html):
Interesting. I think the main draw of Dragon Warriors is the world and the modules for it. In that vein, would you use Titan's setting or Ellesland for your AFF game?
Sorry for the delay, I moved house and had trouble establsihing a new connection.
I'll be using FF with both settings - Titan for a knockabout game that hews to the tone of the gamebooks, Ellesland for something meatier. To reflect the grittier tone of DW I've cooked up a couple of simple house rules (stamina costs 2pts per point at chargen and combat's been tweaked to be significantly more dangerous). It's great how the system accommodates a range of styles and characters; I can create a non-magical Friar Tuck priest far more easily than with DW or early D&D, and much faster than any skill based game I've owned.
How far does it differ from the original rules? Is it basically those repackaged, is it a different game with the same name, something in between?
It's the original rules with a number of revisions; some substantial, others less so. Chargen is now point based with the random method as an option. Talents have been added - they're like feats, but you only get one and they're far too expensive to learn en masse. Magic has been expanded to include Sorcery! from the Crown of Kings series as well as a new divine system. Combat is much like it was before, with the loser of the contested roll determining armour absorption on a d6 in the same way as the victor does for damage. A few basic options like all-out attack and full defense have been added to make things a little more tactical.
Character sheet and preview here: http://www.arion-games.com/affmain.html
Thanks Drew, very helpful.
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;459894Someone should do an Appointment with FEAR supplement for, oh I dunno, M&M.
What are the chances? Test your luck!
That was a kickass book. Sadly I don't think it would be as kickass on the second go.
RPGPundit