If I wanted to play a shitty D&D heartbreaker with a more complex and fiddly rules set, I'd write my own damn game.

What a useless waste of bandwidth. This thread, I mean.

Quote from: Benoist;509193What a useless waste of bandwidth. This thread, I mean.

Your mother is a whore.

So guys, like, Warhammer 3e, totally a board game, right?

Or am I in a wrong thread?

Quote from: B.T.;509194Your mother is a whore.

No. U.

Bye.

I have no idea what the OP is even talking about, apparently some relatively little-known game.  B.T., next time you want to start something like this, please provide more information and make it something less than a blatant profanity-thread.

RPGPundit

Imagine you have D&D 3.5 and you want to transform it.  You want to tear out its guts and remake the d20 system and make it work this time.  Fix the math, patch up the broken bits, simplify the rules, and create a system that works from level one to level twenty without the DM having to police character builds or rewrite spells.

Now imagine you decided to do the exact opposite.  That is FantasyCraft.

QuoteFantasy Craft is powered by one of the most robust RPG rule sets available: Mastercraft is the culmination of almost a decade of experience honing a single game system, which is itself based on the oldest, most respected RPG on the market.

So begins the game.  If I had spent a decade working with the d20 system--not just playing, but restructuring it and selling it as a product--I would be appalled if this is the product I had created.  The Mastercraft system is a convoluted mess stemming from the rules-laden 3e mindset of needing a rule for every circumstance.

But let's talk why the game is so bad.  First of all, it has no setting.  FantasyCraft even boasts that its underlying system (Mastercraft) "assumes no genre or time period, making it the ideal vehicle for games of any kind."  This is a recipe for failure.  When I was younger, I loved toolbox game systems because I could modify them and put them into practice in almost any way possible.  As I've matured, I fully reject this idea.  I don't need a three-hundred page comprehensive tome about the game world, but I need a semblance of setting to understand the game world.  Even D&D, with its barebones system, assumes that you're playing in a high-fantasy game world where you're dungeon-delving, slaying dragons, and pawning treasure.  The FantasyCraft system does not, which in turn means that its mechanics don't support a specific style of play.  They're bland.

That would be excusable, however, if the mechanics weren't terrible overall.  To fully understand how bad they are, we're going to have to start at the beginning: character creation.  Prepare yourself, dear reader, as this is going to be a long one.

Character generation in FantasyCraft involves a point buy system that harshly penalizes min/maxing and favors average characters.  Characters have 36 points to spend on a sliding scale.  All stats start at 8 and you buy them up.  Buying a stat from 9-12 costs a single point per increase; 13-14 costs two points per increase; 15-16 costs three points per increase; and 17-18 costs four points per increase.  16 (14 points), 14 (8 points), 12 (4 points), 12 (4 points), 12 (4 points), 10 (2 points) gives me a pretty well-rounded character and ups being the equivalent of a 30 point buy in 3.5.  Not a bad deal.  Now, in 3e, I'd probably want to go a little more focused than that, but I'm going to stick with this because it gives me a lot of bonuses for my buck.

Next step is picking an origin.  You select your species (race) and a profession to go with it, and then you get some skills.  FantasyCraft is different from D&D in that it introduces several more exotic races to play among the traditional dwarves and elves--drakes (dragons), giants, ogres, rootwalkers (ents), unborn (golems), and saurians (lizard folk) all make the list.  Your race gives you certain bonuses and penalties as with 3e, but there are a host of oddities that go with it.  For instance, some races can never perform certain actions--orc can never make Calm or Influence checks, and Dwarves can never make Swim or Jump checks.  Seems like an interesting take on racial stereotypes, and I won't fault them for this.  However, some races get +3 to a stat rather than +2, which strikes me as incredibly peculiar, and there a vast number of things that I don't understand at this point in the rules.  Goblins need to be lancers or priests (or at least multiclassed as such) or else they suffer a penalty to their Action Dice.  I don't know what Action Dice are.  Pechs (halflings) have the following ability:

QuoteYour maximum Resolve rank increases to your Career Level + 5. Only the highest bonus from any single enlightened ability may apply to each skill.

I have no idea what this means.  If I were to make a guess, this parallels your skill rank maximum in 3e, where it was equal to your level + 3.  Why the writers didn't just give them a +2 bonus to their skill checks eludes me, but this sort of unneeded complexity is an ongoing problem in FantasyCraft.  As another (worse) example is in the elven race:

QuoteElf Sight: Your visual range increments are equal to your Wisdom score × 80 ft. You also ignore range penalties from the 2nd and 4th range increments while you’re Aiming.

This is a terrible ability because it results in unnecessary complication.  As of now, I'm not sure what's going on with the ability, but I'll jump ahead and look at the rules for the Notice skill, as I'm sure that will explain how this works.

...And it says:

QuoteA character may only become alert to things he can see or hear and each Awareness check suffers a –2 penalty per visual or hearing increment beyond the first between the observer and the target.

You would think that there would be a note in the rules that would explain what a visual increment is, but, of course, there isn't.  There's another negative for FantasyCraft: junk layout.  I eventually found the damn thing, and it turns out that your "visual increment" is an amount equal to your Wisdom score x 10 feet and you can see up to ten of those.  Each one beyond the first gives you a -2 penalty.

I'm writing this review stream-of-consciousness as I go, and I'm amazed myself at how terrible the rules are.  Do you understand just how shitty that system for spotting things is?  It is wondrous in its agonizing rules.  How many of you want to play a game where you have stats for a "visual increment" that determines exactly how far you can see and hear?  How many of you want to run a game where you're calling for Notice checks and four different people have four different "visual increments" which results in four different skill modifiers?  I sure as hell don't.

But let's get back to the elf because I've wandered far afield.  The reason that the elf sight rule is bad is because it involves a complicated calculation (multiplied by eighty?  not even a round fifty or one hundred?) that completely changes how your character interacts with the rules.  The idea, in theory, is cool: while the humans are trying to see something a football field away, the elf glances in its direction and can see it as if he were standing next to it.

Here are four better ways to handle this (even assuming the shitty visual increment rules):

• Elves get a +5 bonus on all Notice checks.
• Elves halve the penalties due to range on visual Notice checks.
• Elves take no penalties due to range on visual Notice checks.
• Elves can roll twice for all visual Notice checks.

Four simple, easy ways to simulate Legolas's elven eyes.  Four simple, easy ways that the writers did not think to include, instead favoring Wisdom score x 80 feet because that works.

But back to race.  Humans are an interesting case.  Rather than getting racial bonuses, humans get talents, which are descriptors (cunning, educated, hardy, etc.) that provide stat bonuses and other mechanical benefits.

Now, once you've selected your race, you must choose a specialty.  A specialty is another descriptor (aristocrat, cleric, fencer, etc.) that describes your profession.  This gives you more mechanical benefits, including a bonus feat.  I'm going to copy the fencer's directly to show you something:

QuoteFENCER
You’ve made a name for yourself with footwork and swordplay.

• Bonus Feat: Fencing Basics
• Decisive: You gain a +5 bonus with Initiative.
• Edged Proficiency: You gain the Edged proficiency.
• Fast: Your Speed increases by 10 ft.
• Parry: You gain the Parry trick (see page 222).

This might seem like a good idea to those of you at home, but it's not.  You may not realize just how many things we're tracking at this point.  I'm going to bring up a race description (the Dwarf) here to emphasize this.

QuoteType: Medium biped folk with a Reach of 1. Your maximum wounds equal your Constitution score.

• Attributes: +4 Constitution, –2 Dexterity
• Base Speed: 20 ft.
• Banned Actions: You may not use Kick tricks or make Jump or Swim checks.
• Enlightened Skill: Choose one skill. Your maximum rank in that skill increases to your Career Level + 5. Only the highest bonus from any single enlightened ability may apply to each skill.
• Iconic Classes: If your level in any base class is higher than your level in either Keeper or Soldier, your starting action dice decrease by 2.
• Improved Stability: You’re considered 1 Size category larger for carrying capacity, Trample attacks, and resisting Bull Rush and Trip attempts so long as you are standing firmly on the ground and not climbing, flying, or riding.
• Iron Gut: You gain an insight bonus equal to your Constitution modifier with saves against disease and poisons (minimum +1).
• Low-Light Vision: You ignore the effects of dim and faint light.
• Thick Hide 3: You’re considered to be wearing partial armor that provides Damage Reduction 3. This DR does not stack with other armor (only the best protection applies). If you gain thick hide from multiple sources, your hide offers the highest single DR value + 1 per additional hide benefit (e.g. thick hide 4, thick hide 3, and thick hide 1 offer DR 6).

1. Stats and their modifiers.
2. Wounds.
3. Speed.
4. Banned actions.
5. "Enlightened Skill."
6. Favored class (or what amounts to it).
7. Effective increase to your size modifier.
8. Bonus to saves vs. disease and poison.
9. Low-light vision.
10. Natural armor.
11. Bonus feats.
12. A modifier to Initiative.
13. "Edged proficiency," whatever that is.
14. A boost to your speed.
15. Something call a "parry trick."

This is a lot.  We haven't even gotten to the part where we pick a class and skills, and I'm already feeling overwhelmed.  This game has too many mechanics and I'm not even through with character creation.  But let's march onward to the level chart.  Here, we see some things that characters gain when they level up: feats, skills, proficiencies, interests, action dice, and attribute bonuses.  The table also mentions that you can pick expert and master classes at levels 5 and 10, respectively.

Oh, goody.  Let's move on to picking a class, however.

All classes have the standard 3e things--base attack bonus, saving throws, hit points (called vitality), and so forth.  FantasyCraft decided that wasn't enough and tacked on a few extra things: defense, initiative, lifestyle, and legend.  Add onto this a slew of class features and core abilities, and my head hurts already.

What's really strange about these abilities is that they dance between ultra-specific mechanical bits and metagame abilities.  There are a number of strange abilities that simply don't make much sense unless you already know what you're doing in the game.  For instance, the assassin's core ability:

QuoteHeartseeker: Your base attack bonus is considered equal to your Career Level when you attack a special character and when choosing feats, though so long as this improved bonus is needed to meet a feat’s prerequisites you may only use the feat’s abilities against special characters.

In 3e, the rogue's big thing was its sneak attack.  At twentieth level, you'd be adding +10d6 damage to your attacks.  Players can understand this.  They know that more damage is more better, and they love throwing a fistful of dice onto the table.  But in FantasyCraft?  There's this turd.

Basically, what it means is that if you are fighting an important NPC, you get a bonus on your attack rolls.  (Metagame shit, by the way.)  But it couldn't just be a flat bonus, no--that would be too easy.  You couldn't just get a +4 bonus and call it good.  No, it fluctuates based on level.  If this weren't horrendous enough, you can select feats early on due to this ability but you can only use those feats against important NPCs.  Again: too much shit to keep track of.

As another example of shitty metagame abilities:

QuoteCold Read: You easily pick up people’s social cues and details about their private lives. At Level 2, once per session as a free action, you may ask the GM a number of personal questions equal to your starting action dice about a character you can see and hear. Sample questions include “What does he do for a living?” and “What is her favorite author?” The target may conceal an answer by spending 1 action die per question ignored. You may target each character with this ability only once per session.

QuoteSigns & Portents I: You may contact higher powers for guidance in times of need. At Level 2, as a 1-minute action, you may request a hint from the GM. If he refuses, you gain 1 bonus action die. You may use this ability a number of times per adventure equal to your starting action dice.

QuoteArmor Use I: At Level 4, you gain a +1 bonus to Defense while wearing armor and receive a 20% discount when purchasing armor.

The FantasyCraft system moves away from the 3e style of skill system in which you were given some leeway in selecting cross-class skills, instead forcing you into spending your skill points only on your class skills.  It does, however, stay in the shitty 3e tradition of multiplying your starting skills points by four.

This, on its own, may not be enough to deter you from FantasyCraft.  The sheer number of class features you are expected to keep track of is dizzying.  The courtier, for instance, has the Only the Finest, With a Word, Gifts and Favors, Obligations, Eloquence, Rise to Power, Power Play (x5), Master Plan, Master of Graces, and Never Outdone abilities.

Good Lord.  But once you've picked your class, we are at the final point of character creation: selecting an Interest, which is an alignment, a language, or a study.  (Hooray, more shit to track.)  Alignments are a moral outlook or philosophy or "kinship with a powerful force" or any and all of the above at once, but you can only have one at a time; they aren't that important but some classes like the priest require them.  Languages are new languages you are fluent in.  Studies are:

QuoteA Study can focus on a nation or region, a culture, a celebrated adventurer, a religion, a monster, an adversary, or anything else you and the GM feel is appropriate.

Each Study should be broad enough to find periodic use in the setting and story but narrow enough not to enter every conversation.

Studies provide a small benefit, usually a +1 bonus on skill checks.  Seriously.  The rules specifically state that no combination of studies can grant more than a +2 bonus on skill checks.

Are we done yet?  Fuck no, we're just warming up.  It's time to start learning about the mechanics of the game and the skill system.

Action dice are a huge part of FantasyCraft.  I think it's the selling point of the system or something.  Basically, your character gets action dice at the start of a session that he can use to make himself better.  At level one, he gets three d4 action dice; at level twenty, he gets six d10 action dice.  (Note that this is not 3d4 and 6d10; it's three d4s and six d10s.)  You use these and roll them and things happen.  They can be used to boost a die roll by the amount you roll, boost your defense by +2 per round that you roll, activate a thread (whatever that means), activate an opponent's error (whatever that means), and heal your character.  (The healing is terrible.  Given that even the wizard is getting 6 + Con modifier vitality per level, rolling a d10 at level 20 and getting that many hit points back is awful.)

The dice also "explode," so if you roll max on the die, you keep the result and roll again.  Whatever.  Onto skills.

Skill DCs in FantasyCraft have DCs that range from ten (10) to sixty (60).  I don't know how a character is going to reliably get a skill modifier that's going to let him beat a DC 60 skill check, but maybe you can in this shitty system.  Who the fuck knows, if you're rolling your skill rank + your stat bonus + a feat bonus + your equipment + your Study + your race + your Action Dice + a spell bonus + a random fuck this game bonus, maybe you can do it.

They've got the Take 10/Take 20 rules from 3e, and there are rules for "team checks" and "cooperative checks" and multitasking, but I don't really care.  The big thing that keeps getting reference in the rules so far is "error range" and "threat range."  Now, I'm assuming that this is a critical success/critical failure system, but if I were a new player being introduced to this system, I would be completely lost and perhaps drowning myself in cheap whiskey.  Your character's error/threat range depends on the skill and other things (your class will influence this), but your natural error/threat range is a 1 for error and a 20 for threat.  As in, roll a natural 1/natural 20 and get a special effect.

Let me reiterate that you are tracking way too fucking much stuff in this system.  I don't just have skills to track, I have skills with error ranges that vary depending on "character options, gear choices, and other effects."  If it were just the natural 1/natural 20 rule, I could live with it, but when you start adding in the additional effects, it causes a cerebral lockdown.  You're seriously expected to mark down on each skill what this range is.  The example in the text:

QuoteExample: A character’s error range with a particular skill check increases by 2 and his threat range increases by 1. Unless other modifiers are in play, the check has an error range of 1–3 and a threat range of 19–20.

Good God.

The rules then produce this gem: "To gain the benefits of a critical success, the character simply spends 1 or more action dice as listed in the skill description."  That's right, each rule for skills has additional rules attached to it.  There's also the error range, but the GM has to spend his own action dice (typically those of the monster) to get the players to suffer an error.

The rest of the skills themselves are a pared-down list of 3e skills, but they contain all the bits of minutiae that make the 3e system intolerable.  (No, thank you; I do not need to know the exact DC for traversing a slope with a 60° incline.  Funnily enough, the rules unintentionally allow you to climb a 90° incline with a DC 25 Acrobatics check.)  Each skill has potential skill uses listed and what actions they use--Investigate, for instance, grants access to the "sub-skills" Canvass, Decipher, Identify, and Research.

I'm not going to waste my time going through the skills, so it's off to the feat system now.  The number of feats is...distressing.  You have Basic Combat Feats, Melee Combat Feats, Ranged Combat Feats, Unarmed Combat Feats, Chance Feats, Covert Feats, Gear Feats, Skill Feats, Species Feats, Spellcasting Feats, Style Feats, and Terrain feats.

As with the rest of the system, these have too many moving parts, are terribly written, and poorly balanced.  For instance:

QuoteCOMBAT VIGOR
You shrug aside even punishing blows.

Benefit: Your vitality points are calculated as if your Constitution modifier were 1 higher.

Right.  You couldn't just get +1 vitality point per level; no, the feat has to be written in the most cumbersome way possible.  And again, the wizard is seriously getting about 8 vitality per level, so this feat is useless.

QuoteBLACK CAT
Strange and unfortunate accidents plague your enemies.

Benefit: Once per character per scene, as a free action, you may raise the target’s error ranges by 2 for the rest of the scene.  You may use this ability a number of times per session equal to the number of Chance feats you have.

QuoteLUCKY BREAK
One inch to the left and that would have been bad.

Prerequisites: Special character only
Bonus: You gain 2 Edge at the beginning of each scene. Once per round when an attack hits you by 1 or less, you may spend 1 Edge to cause the attack to miss.

Edge is yet another subsystem within this disaster zone.  

QuoteMANY-ARMED
You have multiple arms and the coordination to use them.

Prerequisites: Rootwalker or Unborn, Level 1 only
Benefit: You may simultaneously hold and arm up to six 1-handed, four 1-handed and one 2-handed, or two 1-handed and two 2-handed weapons or objects. Also, each round that you hold no more than this, you may Handle an Item as a free action. You also gain a +1 bonus with skill checks made as part of a Grapple action per two of your hands that are free (maximum +3).

Special: When you gain this feat you may reduce any of your attributes by 2 to gain an additional Species feat with the requirement “Level 1 only.”

This is what it is like to look into the Abyss, folks.  It gets worse when you consider the existence of feat trees and powers that result in even more character tracking.  For instance, let's say you want to make an axe-wielding dwarf.

QuoteAXE BASICS
The bite of your axe isn’t limited to the reach of your arm.

Prerequisites: Edged forte
Benefit: When you wield an axe it gains hurl and you gain
a stance.

Punish the Defiant (Stance): Opponents who haven’t moved
since your Initiative Count last round are denied their Dexterity
bonus to Defense against your melee attacks.

QuoteAXE MASTERY
First the shield, then the squishy thing behind it!

Prerequisites: Axe Basics
Benefit: When you wield a 1-handed axe it gains bleed and when you wield a 2-handed axe its gains guard +2. Also, you gain a trick.

Sundering Chop (Axe Attack Trick): Your attack also inflicts the same damage on 1 piece of gear on the target’s person (your choice).

QuoteAXE SUPREMACY
Mortal man or mighty oak — your sweeping blade cuts them
all down with ease.

Prerequisites: Axe Mastery
Benefit: Your Strength score rises by 1 and you gain a trick.

Cleave in Twain (Axe Attack Trick): If your target is a standard character with a lower Strength score than yours, he immediately fails his Damage save (damage isn’t rolled). You may use this trick once per round.

Multiplying the shittiness of these feats is that a lot of them have save DCs that depend on the number of feats you have.  Example:

QuoteEn Garde! (Fencing Blade Total Defense Trick): Each opponent who moves into a square adjacent to you must make a Reflex save (DC 10 + your Dex modifier + the number of Melee Combat feats you have) or be automatically hit by your fencing blade.

Either you keep spending feats or your save DC is junk.  Bad, bad design.  And again, there are a tremendous number of these, and I'm certainly not going to go through all of them.

Now, though, we move onto spellcasting.  Magic is a spellpoint system that is refreshed on a per-encounter basis.  Not a terrible idea.  The spellcaster also must make a Spellcasting skill check when he wants to cast a spell; the DC goes from 13 (cantrips) to 40 (9th-level spells).  Oh, and divine spellcasters don't cast spells with spellpoints; they have special per-scene abilities.  I'm also pretty sure there aren't actually rules for spellcasters learning new spells beyond first level; that is left up to the DM.

Yes, in FantasyCraft, the wizard learning new spells is up to the DM, but "visual increment" needed explicit rules.

The spell descriptions are woefully sparse, making even 4e appear to have the verbosity of a World of Darkness book.

QuoteEARTHQUAKE
Level: 8 Conversion (Earth)
Casting Time: 1 half action
Distance: Long
Area: 80 ft. sphere
Duration: 1 round
Saving Throw: Reflex half (damage), Reflex negates
(conditions)
Effect: An intense but highly localized tremor occurs. All
scenery and characters on the ground suffer 8d6 lethal damage
and become stunned and sprawled.

QuoteCOMMAND I
Level: 1 Word
Casting Time: 1 free action
Distance: Close
Duration: 1 round
Saving Throw: Will negates scene
Effect: One character immediately performs 1 Movement
Action of your choice to the best of his ability.

QuoteGUST OF WIND
Level: 2 Weather (Air)
Casting Time: 1 half action
Distance: Personal
Area: 60 ft. long line, 15 ft. wide
Duration: 1 round
Effect: Unanchored characters and objects are hit by a Huge
Bull Rush result equal to the Spellcasting result.

Terrible.

Moving on, we have a bunch of adventuring rules, including explanations of Lifestyle and Appearance and Prudence, and I honestly can't be bothered to explain all of those right now.  This book is shit, and I'm going to go straight to the shitty combat/monster system.

There are a number of reasons that make the combat system atrocious, so let's just dive right in.  The difference between special and standard characters.  Special characters, as mentioned earlier, as your Special Snowflake NPCs, the ones that work like normal PCs.  The standard characters have to make a saving throw every time they are hit or they die; the special characters have vitality and wounds just like the PCs.  But instead of making standard characters simple so you don't have to track anything, the masterminds behind this shit sandwich have the following rules:

QuoteWhen a standard character suffers damage from any source (or of any type, including stress or subdual), it adds to a single damage total the character’s suffered during the current scene.  The GM rolls 1d20 and adds the character’s Damage save bonus.  If the result is equal to or higher than 10 + 1/2 the accumulated damage (rounded down), the character suffers nicks and scratches
but no lasting injury; otherwise, he either falls unconscious (if the damage is subdual or stress), or dies (otherwise).

The GM is forced to track damage...in order to save time by not tracking damage.

The vitality/wounds system is simple: vitality is your abstract hit points; wounds are your physical health.  Lose all your vitality, and you start taking wound damage.  Lose all your wounds, and you're unconscious and dying.

There are also many, many damage types.  Acid damage.  Bang damage.  Divine damage.  Electrical, Explosive, Fire, Flash, Force, Sneak Attack, Sonic, Stress, and Subdual damage all make the list.  Each one has special rules.  Not even joking--acid does damage over time and can melt your armor, bang damage is loud but doesn't actually do damage, sonic damage is really loud and can deafen you, etc.

Moving on, there are all sorts of tricks characters can attempt, from shoves to "triumphant swings," and there are too many to track.  Moving on yet again, we come to the NPC system.  If I haven't warded you off from this shit-tier system yet, I hope to now.

In 3e, you could pick a monster type (animal, undead, dragon, etc.) and then build a creature using the same rules as PCs.  It was a lot of work, especially with the skill points, but it provided a solid framework for the DM to work with.  In FantasyCraft...you do not do this.  You instead craft a monster from Lego parts and bullshit.

When creating an NPC, you do so based on:

• Its size.
• Its type.
• Its method of locomotion.
• Its attributes (which you pull out of your ass).
• Its traits (five attributes which determine its attack/defense).
• Its health grade (another attribute which determines health based on an odd formula).
• Its skills.
• Its qualities (special abilities and class features).
• Its attacks (how it attacks and what special abilities the attacks have).
• Its gear.

The problem with this is that it's being pulled out of the GM's ass using a half-working XP system to chart difficulty.  You're literally supposed to say, "Hmm, I'm making a bear, so here's about how strong it's supposed to be," and then you cross-reference a table keyed to "threat level" (how relatively strong the monster is, ranging from 1-20) to determine its stats.

In 3e, if I want to make a rogue NPC, I can stat it up in about 10 minutes.  I put down his stats, I roll his HP, and I consult the class table to show me his saves and attack bonus.  There's an entire system in place that helps me gauge power level.  Now, this obviously doesn't work very well in practice because some classes are more powerful than others, but at least the system is there.  FantasyCraft's system is "make shit up."

Moneyquote:

QuoteExample: For no particular reason other than the GM’s fancy, Fortunado gets Initiative II, Attack V, Defense III, Resilience IV, and Competence V.  Fortunado’s XP value also increases by 19, bringing his value to 46.

As with any freeform system, this is ridiculously easy to break, especially when the rules say:

QuoteThe full range of options is listed on Table 5.4: Size (see page 217). An NPC’s Size doesn’t impact his XP value — just run with whatever works best.

EVEN THOUGH THE HUGEST MONSTERS IN THE GAME HAVE FORTY-EIGHT TIMES THE NUMBER OF WOUNDS THAT THE SMALLEST NPCS DO.

The game does offer a handful of pregenerated NPCs, but the statblocks produce an exquisite piercing sensation between the reader's temples.

QuoteForest Dragon (Huge Beast Flyer/Walker — 222 XP): Str
20, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 14; SZ H (2×5, Reach 2);
Spd 120 ft. winged flight, 40 ft. ground; Init IV; Atk VIII; Def VI;
Res IX; Health VIII; Comp V; Skills: Acrobatics VI, Impress VI,
Intimidate VII, Search VII, Sneak VI, Spellcasting IV; Spells: Pass
Without Trace, Sleep, Tree Walk, Verdure; Qualities: Aquatic
I, beguiling, chameleon I (forest/jungle) damage reduction 5,
dramatic entrance, never outnumbered, spell defense III, swift
attack 1, superior swimmer IV, tough II, treacherous, veteran I
Attacks/Weapons: Venomous Maw (Bite III: dmg 2d12+5
acid; threat 17–20), Choking Breath (fatiguing attack III: 40 ft.
aura; Fort DC 20 or become fatigued), Claw II × 2 (dmg 1d10+5
lethal; threat 19–20), Tail Slap II (dmg 1d12+5 lethal; threat
19–20; upgrades: reach +1, trip), Trample II (dmg 1d12+5 lethal;
threat 19–20; notes: Medium and smaller only, Fort (DC equal to
damage) or become sprawled)
Treasure: 2A, 2L, 2M

Yes, that is a statblock.

Ugh.  This system is terrible.  Perhaps the great insult to players is that the game does not bother to balance the math of 3e.  FantasyCraft leaves all the bad 3e math in place and then adds more to it.  Even 4e came closer to successfully balancing the math in the game, which is sad when you consider that the developers admitted that the entire first Monster Manual was an incredible failure and that their carefully balanced equations were humiliatingly incorrect.

Feel free to ask more questions about it.  No, I don't know why I did this write-up.

[size=20]TL;DR: If I wanted to play a shitty D&D heartbreaker with a more complex and fiddly rules set, I'd write my own damn game.[/size]

Doesn't sound like a game I could ever play.

Quote from: B.T.;509323I'm writing this review stream-of-consciousness as I go, and I'm amazed myself at how terrible the rules are. Do you understand just how shitty that system for spotting things is? It is wondrous in its agonizing rules. How many of you want to play a game where you have stats for a "visual increment" that determines exactly how far you can see and hear? How many of you want to run a game where you're calling for Notice checks and four different people have four different "visual increments" which results in four different skill modifiers? I sure as hell don't.

Whenever I see a rule like that, I assume that the game was never playtested. My brain simply refuses to accept the possibility that anybody wastes huge swaths of their playing time juggling some mathematical inanity.

From your descriptions this sounds like a real pile of shit. I'd prefer playing D&D, and that means a lot coming from me as I normally won't touch it with a stick.

Quoteif you are fighting an important NPC, you get a bonus on your attack rolls

okay... :idunno:

I'm wondering, did you actually buy this game?

I don't know why, but I actually read that whole review....

If all of that is true, then a 1000 plagues on the designers.  Seriously, all they did was make a more fiddly version of a game that was already too fiddly to begin with and thought it was a good idea in doing so.  Why didn't any of these 'visionaries' try and design a SIMPLIFIED version of D20/D&D which many people ( including actual fans of 3E+ ) said would be very welcomed?

  The really funny thing is despite it's fiddlyness, there seems to be certain things ( like spell acquisition ) that just seemed to be hand waved.  Maybe the designers themselves were overwhelmed by their own monster they created and started 'simplifying' certain things?  Or maybe FantasyCraft is just shit...

  With garbage like FantasyCraft on the market, it really goes to show you that ANYONE can be an RPG designer.

I've got it and yes, the amount of things you have to keep on top of, even at 1st level is pretty crazy.

I liked how they handled Races - but once that's added to all the other stuff, you need a degree in beurocracy to make head or tails of it.

In fact, in theory, i liked how they handled a lot of things. Taken in isolation any one of them could have been a decent addition to an OGL game, but taken as a whole it's pretty overwhelming IMO.

Sometimes, less really is more.

Just imagine what you could accomplish if you put all the energy for this hate into something you enjoyed.

I picked up the PDF of Fantasycraft when it came out. I was amazed at the buzz for this game compared to what it was. I can't imagine actually trying to play this.