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Fan Forums => The RPGPundit's Own Forum => Topic started by: RPGPundit on July 27, 2007, 04:12:06 PM

Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 27, 2007, 04:12:06 PM
Hello all.  

This thread is the official thread for Questions and Answers regarding the new Forward... to Adventure! RPG.

You guys put up the questions, I'll give the answers.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: jdrakeh on July 27, 2007, 04:20:48 PM
Q: How is FtA different from D&D in the terms of the game experience that it provides? I gather that there is some kind of narrative "build it as you go" approach but woefully little information about what this approach consists of has been released to date.

Q: How is FtA different from Donjon in terms of the game experience that it provides? Again, assuming that allusions to a "build it as you go" approach have been genuine, how does this approach differ from that in Clinton Nixon's Donjon?

Q: What features of FtA would you consider to be "unique" or, else, rarely exercised in game design?

Q: Was this laid out in a word processing program? That may seem extraordinarily petty but it's a valid concern. If I'm going to pay money for something, I'd prefer that its production values be several steps above "free rpg" and the cover does not give me confidence that this is the case.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Silverlion on July 27, 2007, 05:10:08 PM
What is actual play like?

Do you have a link? (that describes system elements as well as the dialog of participants)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on July 27, 2007, 05:10:54 PM
Q: I noticed a lot of NetHack references in the blurb (wraith corpse eating, shop-lifting, Gnomish mines etc.) Is this just for the blurb, or will I find a lot of annotations to this classic CRPG in FtA itself?

Q: The stunt thing in addition to movement and combat during the combat round sounds unusual. What's up with this one? What can I do with stunts, and what purpose do they have in the system?

Q: Are there any dump stats like Charisma that most PCs can safely ignore, or was it a high priority that every attribute has at least a small substantial use for everyone?

Q: I heard there're rules to generate dungeons, including room layout, monsters, traps, treasure and what else belongs to it. Does that mean that I can just pick up the dungeon tables and wing an adventure without any prep, or is it just meant to fill smaller gaps on-the-fly?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 27, 2007, 06:45:55 PM
Quote from: jdrakeh
Q: How is FtA different from D&D in the terms of the game experience that it provides? I gather that there is some kind of narrative "build it as you go" approach but woefully little information about what this approach consists of has been released to date.


FtA! Can certainly be played in a "build it as you go" sense at least for the dungeon elements (it has a complete random dungeon generator in the book).  There's very little actual setting material in the book, there's no preset setting, though some of the rules elements assume a certain kind of generic fantasy setting with certain gonzo elements.. so you get glimpses of the SORT of settings you could use for FtA! in the descriptions of things like races, the magic system, and magic items.

The main way FtA! differs from the current incarnation of D&D is that it is made for MUCH faster character design and getting right into play.  Characters are more archetypal, which makes them less developed mechanically speaking but makes it easier to get right into the game. It has much more of an "old school" feel to it.

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Q: How is FtA different from Donjon in terms of the game experience that it provides? Again, assuming that allusions to a "build it as you go" approach have been genuine, how does this approach differ from that in Clinton Nixon's Donjon?


I have never actually read Donjon, only read about it, so I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer that question fully, but from what I have read I would suppose that FtA! is much closer to a traditional old-school game than Donjon.

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Q: What features of FtA would you consider to be "unique" or, else, rarely exercised in game design?


The combat system is collective, as far as I can think of only Tunnels & Trolls used that system before.
Other than that most of the other elements of the game system are extremely derivative, but not from any single source.  The game is not meant to be special because it does something really new and different, but because it epitomizes the stuff a lot of people liked about "old school" gonzo-style gaming.

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Q: Was this laid out in a word processing program? That may seem extraordinarily petty but it's a valid concern. If I'm going to pay money for something, I'd prefer that its production values be several steps above "free rpg" and the cover does not give me confidence that this is the case.


The layout was done by Clash and he'd have to answer that for you.  As it stands, the cover (and much of the style of the interior layout) is something of an homage to the old-school garage-RPGs designed by small press companies in the 70s and early 80s; but organized in a way that I think is far more practical and easier to read through than most of those games ever were.

The production values of the game are on par with Flying Mice's other games; so if you've seen Starcluster, In Harm's Way, or Cold Space you'll have an idea of how its done.  I didn't do any of the actual layout beyond the writing of the rules themselves... so I chose which chapters went where, but beyond that it was all Clash.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 27, 2007, 06:48:45 PM
Quote from: Silverlion
What is actual play like?

Do you have a link? (that describes system elements as well as the dialog of participants)


Actual play is what I'd describe as fast, risky, and tactical.  I don't have a link handly to the kind of full-blown actual play report you'd like, probably the closest one would be the one Settembrini wrote up on his blog (maybe he can link it), but that was of one of the earlier playtest rounds and so there are several concerns he voices in that playtest that have since been addressed.

Hopefully there'll be some AP reports in the future, when more people get a chance to try out the game and report on it.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 27, 2007, 06:57:09 PM
Quote from: Skyrock
Q: I noticed a lot of NetHack references in the blurb (wraith corpse eating, shop-lifting, Gnomish mines etc.) Is this just for the blurb, or will I find a lot of annotations to this classic CRPG in FtA itself?


No, its not just a blurb.  Nethack and OD&D were the two main inspirations for the game (and of course Nethack was originally inspired by OD&D, so there you go), and the game is full of a very "Nethack" feel to it.  You could easily use it to play a tabletop multiplayer version of Nethack.

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Q: The stunt thing in addition to movement and combat during the combat round sounds unusual. What's up with this one? What can I do with stunts, and what purpose do they have in the system?


Stunts are used to represent any kind of special maneuvre aside from just attacking or casting spells.  So a "stunt" would be any action that didn't involve making an actual regular attack (or magic) in a combat situation.  They also describe "special maneuvres" done with skills (any unusual use of a skill, in other words) even outside of combat. So in other words a "stunt" isn't like a feat, you don't buy them or earn them or something like that, they're just a term describing (and guidelines for the GM on how to handle) any kind of special non-standard action that would require an ability check to succeed at.

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Q: Are there any dump stats like Charisma that most PCs can safely ignore, or was it a high priority that every attribute has at least a small substantial use for everyone?


The stats are the standard six D&D stats (str, dex, con, int, wis, cha).  There are certainly "dump stats" for certain classes.  A standard fighter might not need too much charisma; a wizard might make due with not too much strength.  
But for certain, there's no stat that's low-necessity for absolutely everyone.
I tried to make sure that all the Stats had utility and that you wouldn't want to be pathetically low at any of the stats. But I wasn't overly obsessed with this particular kind of "game balance".

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Q: I heard there're rules to generate dungeons, including room layout, monsters, traps, treasure and what else belongs to it. Does that mean that I can just pick up the dungeon tables and wing an adventure without any prep, or is it just meant to fill smaller gaps on-the-fly?


Yes, you could roll up an entire dungeon as you play, using just a tiny bit of GM discretion. Its the "smaller gaps" you'd probably have to fill in with your own creativity. The Dungeon design rules are made to create the type of dungeon, the rooms, the monsters treasures traps and other weird stuff in the dungeon. Its very complete and probably one of the best features of the game, IMO.

Its still EASIER to roll up the random dungeon before beginning play, but if you're fast with the rolls and good at improvising the little details there's no reason you couldn't just "roll as you go". Indeed, I did exactly that on several of the initial playtest sessions.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: jdrakeh on July 27, 2007, 07:09:49 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
The combat system is collective, as far as I can think of only Tunnels & Trolls used that system before.


So far so good. . . now what do you mean by "collective"? ;) I've played a lot of T&T but am still at a loss here. Are you referring to the fact that combat is treated like any other conflict in the game, merely with opposing 'sides' engaging one another?

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The layout was done by Clash and he'd have to answer that for you.  As it stands, the cover (and much of the style of the interior layout) is something of an homage to the old-school garage-RPGs designed by small press companies in the 70s and early 80s; but organized in a way that I think is far more practical and easier to read through than most of those games ever were.

The production values of the game are on par with Flying Mice's other games; so if you've seen Starcluster, In Harm's Way, or Cold Space you'll have an idea of how its done.  I didn't do any of the actual layout beyond the writing of the rules themselves... so I chose which chapters went where, but beyond that it was all Clash.

RPGPundit


Eargh. All of that, for me, is a huge against buying the game at MSRP.  That 'homage' part rings a bit hollow in light of the second paragraph, as well (most FMI products aren't paying homage to anything layout-wise). Despite decent design, I have an extreme aversion to paying for many FMI products due to the hideous layout.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 27, 2007, 07:55:24 PM
I've often been critical of Clash's layouts myself in my reviews; so I understand your concerns.

However, I've also noted that Clash has been improving in his layout work in every product, and I think FtA! is his best work.  I won't lie to you and claim that its a masterpiece of layout, but its completely manageable: you can easily find everything, and the order of things all make sense.  The labelling is clear, and the structure of the game follows the modern "D20" sense (abilities, races, classes, skills, stunts, combat, magic, monsters, items, dungeons).

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: jdrakeh on July 27, 2007, 08:52:20 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
I've often been critical of Clash's layouts myself in my reviews; so I understand your concerns.

However, I've also noted that Clash has been improving in his layout work in every product, and I think FtA! is his best work.  I won't lie to you and claim that its a masterpiece of layout, but its completely manageable: you can easily find everything, and the order of things all make sense.  The labelling is clear, and the structure of the game follows the modern "D20" sense (abilities, races, classes, skills, stunts, combat, magic, monsters, items, dungeons).

RPGPundit


I won't lie -- this diminished my interest in FtA quite a bit (the credits not apparently reflecting the suggested reality in regard to playtesting is also a big strike at the present time). That said, the rest of what you've said has kept me from marking it off my "must own" list. So. . . what exactly did you mean when referring to combat as collective?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on July 27, 2007, 10:52:56 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit

The layout was done by Clash and he'd have to answer that for you.  As it stands, the cover (and much of the style of the interior layout) is something of an homage to the old-school garage-RPGs designed by small press companies in the 70s and early 80s; but organized in a way that I think is far more practical and easier to read through than most of those games ever were.


The layout was done in Adobe FrameMaker 7.0. I don't use a wordprocessor at all. Text was entered either directly into the layout program or (mostly in the case of FTA!) imported in from a text editor.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: JohnnyWannabe on July 27, 2007, 11:28:08 PM
Quote from: jdrakeh
Eargh. All of that, for me, is a huge against buying the game at MSRP.  That 'homage' part rings a bit hollow in light of the second paragraph, as well (most FMI products aren't paying homage to anything layout-wise). Despite decent design, I have an extreme aversion to paying for many FMI products due to the hideous layout.


I think you're being a little unfair here, James. Clash's layout has improved immensely. Now, his books have limited white space, functional charts, and are easy to read. I don't know about you, but I want a functional text, not a picture gallery. RPGs are technical manuals, first and foremost. They are tools.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: jdrakeh on July 27, 2007, 11:56:01 PM
Quote from: JohnnyWannabe
I think you're being a little unfair here, James. Clash's layout has improved immensely. Now, his books have limited white space, functional charts, and are easy to read.


To be honest, I wouldn't know, I based my remarks on the only products of his that I've ever seen (i.e., Book of Jalan, Star Cluster, Star Cluster II, Tribes of Mother Night, and Bloodgames). All have solid design. All look like they were laid out in Microsoft Word, complete with copy and pasted pictures (i.e., most of the pics haven't been formatted to fit inline with the text, but rather seem to be dropped in wholesale). The newer products may very well be an improvement. I honestly wouldn't know.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: JohnnyWannabe on July 28, 2007, 12:06:08 AM
Quote from: jdrakeh
To be honest, I wouldn't know, I based my remarks on the only products of his that I've ever seen (i.e., Book of Jalan, Star Cluster, Star Cluster II, Tribes of Mother Night, and Bloodgames).

The layout is greatly improved. Cold Space was the real turning point.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: jdrakeh on July 28, 2007, 12:44:44 AM
Quote from: JohnnyWannabe
The layout is greatly improved. Cold Space was the real turning point.


It looked very good in the previews but the previous layout made me hesitant to spend money on it and the fact that few people here locally enjoy sci-fi RPGs (well, other than Shadowrun and Star Frontiers) pretty much sealed the deal :( That said, since I don't know you from Adam, I can only positively assume that you're an impartial party and, thus, I'll take you at your word.

Now. . . I only need to get straight answers on the playtest investiture and how many people actually playtested the product and for how many man hours such QC testing actually comprised. Five or six months of four hour game sessions conducted by two play groups isn't going to meet my standards, I'm afraid. I'd consider that to be the bare miniumum for one round of playtesting.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 28, 2007, 03:32:48 AM
Quote from: jdrakeh

Now. . . I only need to get straight answers on the playtest investiture and how many people actually playtested the product and for how many man hours such QC testing actually comprised. Five or six months of four hour game sessions conducted by two play groups isn't going to meet my standards, I'm afraid. I'd consider that to be the bare miniumum for one round of playtesting.


Well, just like for $22 you can't really expect Ptolus-level layouts or art, you also can't really expect WoTC-D&D-level playtesting from a small print company project.

Round 1 of playtesting consisted of me running a series of multiple test games (probably about 24 playing hours in total) in the very initial stage to work out the kinks in the mechanics, followed by a multi-session campaign run in the Wilderlands (about 42 playing hours).  This stage had 9 playtesters who participated in total.  The playtesting in this round was done at various different levels of power and experience to try to figure out possible difficulties in low, mid and high level play.

Round 2 of playtesting consisted of playtesting run by Settembrini over in germany (including a couple of test runs in gaming Cons, where as I understand it the participants were people he did not personally know before the Con), and independant runs by one of the Round 1 playtesters here in Uruguay that I was not in any way involved with directly. I couldn't accurately tell you how many hours or people where involved with either of these.

Round 3 of playtesting was organized by Clash, and consisted of Clash giving the "Beta" version of the rules (essentially, the rules as I had given them to him at that time, with all the modifications that had been made from the first two rounds of playtesting) to a number of different people, who ran them with their groups.  As I understand it there were 7 different people who received these beta rules, not counting Clash himself.  We got a number of reports with a number of issues from this round, and this lead to some final changes to the rules. Most of these changes were relatively small cosmetic additions explaining or clarifying some of these existing rules, one of them was a relatively large change that helped make larger individual monsters much more challenging than they'd previously been.
Again, I couldn't tell you specifically how many people or how many hours were involved in total in the third round of playtesting.

I'd say that this probably beats the pants off of most RPGs published at this level of publishing, including most of the stuff done through the Forge, where their "playtesting" is a very insular incestuous affair done by people within the Forge itself (not to say that this is totally worthless, and I'm sure that there are some strong levels of criticism that can be achieved this way, but there is also some objectivity lost by having the only people who try out your rules be your own ideological "fellow travellers").

I'm pretty satisfied that the playtesting was more than thorough enough.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: JohnnyWannabe on July 28, 2007, 03:49:41 PM
Quote from: jdrakeh
It looked very good in the previews but the previous layout made me hesitant to spend money on it and the fact that few people here locally enjoy sci-fi RPGs (well, other than Shadowrun and Star Frontiers) pretty much sealed the deal :( That said, since I don't know you from Adam, I can only positively assume that you're an impartial party and, thus, I'll take you at your word.

My partiality/impartiality has nothing to do with it - I can be partial and still be forthright. Clash's earlier layout & design was, in my opinion, crap. I told him so several times in the past and he admited it was an area that needed work. One thing that drove me bonkers was the glaring planes of white space (hedged in by block upon block of crowded charts). That's all gone now. Cold Space was where FM made the quantum leap. Are they "picturesque" manuals filled with "lush" artwork, the kind of books you leave on your coffee table as conversation pieces? No. They are crisp and functional.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: jdrakeh on July 28, 2007, 04:30:02 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
Well, just like for $22 you can't really expect Ptolus-level layouts or art, you also can't really expect WoTC-D&D-level playtesting from a small print company project.


All true, though since I don't expect either of those things (and never said that I did) it's not an issue. Anymore, what I do expect is Reign-quality artwork and playtesting or Burning Empires-level artwork and playtesting. Both of these games are one-man endeavors, yet both boast the aesthetics and design quality of games published by large companies (in fact, the latter is up for several Ennies due to its stellar production values).

That "small-press companies can't. . ." is a bunch of crap. If a small-press publisher doesn't budget money for good artwork or time for extensive blind playtesting, it's not because they can't, it's simply because they choose not to. This has actually been a pretty big issue elsewhere as of late, because "I can't. . ." has been an increasingly common justification for churning out crap.

Currently, I'm of the mind that if one "can't" then they shouldn't.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 28, 2007, 05:32:41 PM
I am totally satisfied with both the artwork and the layout of this book, as well as with the playtesting. I think also that any gamer who is honestly interested in getting the book, and not just spreading mistrust about the book because of a beef with me, is going to be very satisfied as well.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: arminius on July 28, 2007, 06:30:12 PM
One way or the other, James, you could just take a page out of my book and...wait to hear what the early adopters say.

Pundit, I'm intrigued by the term "collective combat", so if you could answer the questions raised about that I'd appreciate it.

Also, is the Spanish translation done? How will the book be distributed in Latin America, and what will the price be? Any plans for translation into other languages, e.g. Portuguese for the Brazilian market?

Do you think the cover art is going to be attractive to your South American target audience (which IIRC is basically 12-14 year olds)?

Finally more generally, are the Internet Cafes in South America basically big gaming parlors for kids, as they are in some other countries? If so what are the prospects for P&P tabletop RPGs; I seem to recall you saying that there's already a fair amount going on using largely "pirated" texts, which you take as an indicator of pent-up demand. Is that right?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Settembrini on July 28, 2007, 06:48:34 PM
http://hofrat.blogspot.com/2006/06/prussian-gamer-special-delivery.html

http://hofrat.blogspot.com/2007/07/forwardto-adventure-beta-playtest.html
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 29, 2007, 04:09:43 AM
Quote from: Elliot Wilen

Pundit, I'm intrigued by the term "collective combat", so if you could answer the questions raised about that I'd appreciate it.


Did you have any specific questions about it?
The collective combat is basically that: you determine groups of combatants (it is usually all the "good guys" on one side, and all the "monsters" on the other; but you might sometimes divide the combatants into smaller clumps of groups based on positioning); and all of the combatants in one "group" will roll their attack dice, add their bonuses, and then add everything together. The other side does the same, and the comparison of the results determine the winner and the amount of damage done.

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Also, is the Spanish translation done? How will the book be distributed in Latin America, and what will the price be? Any plans for translation into other languages, e.g. Portuguese for the Brazilian market?


The spanish translation is not yet finished.  The book does not yet have a latinamerican publisher, but the plan is to try to market it in a "magazine" style format, at a price as affordable as possible but definitely under the $10 mark (as far under as can be managed).  There's no current plan for a portuguese translation.

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Do you think the cover art is going to be attractive to your South American target audience (which IIRC is basically 12-14 year olds)?


Depending on how things turn out, its very likely that the artwork would be completely different for the latinamerican edition.  It'd probably be uruguayan artists who'd do it, and it may or may not be in an "anime/manga" sort of style, which is very popular here.

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Finally more generally, are the Internet Cafes in South America basically big gaming parlors for kids, as they are in some other countries? If so what are the prospects for P&P tabletop RPGs; I seem to recall you saying that there's already a fair amount going on using largely "pirated" texts, which you take as an indicator of pent-up demand. Is that right?


The internet cafes are definitely gaming parlors, but there's a huge interest in tabletop RPGs.

The case in point here is Brazil, which does have a number of succesful RPGs published, in an affordable magazine-style format, sold in kiosks.  They've had a number of huge homegrown sellers that way.

RPGpundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: jdrakeh on July 29, 2007, 12:41:13 PM
Quote from: Elliot Wilen
One way or the other, James, you could just take a page out of my book and...wait to hear what the early adopters say.


I think I might have to go this route, as the unconventional use of standard industry terminology and the resulting presentation of playtest stages in the rulebook still bothers me. Levi's comments about the seemingly incongruous nature of the rules is making me falter, as well. Normally, I'd snap something like FtA up compulsively (the four rulebooks for BFRPG that I own attest to this). Right now I guess it's an inner struggle between my love of old-school gaming and my inherent distrust of anything with which Pundit is involved.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: One Horse Town on July 29, 2007, 12:49:18 PM
Grow up.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: jdrakeh on July 29, 2007, 01:10:33 PM
Quote from: One Horse Town
Grow up.


Yes, being cautious about spending money is horribly childish. Not everybody buys things based on biased publisher and/or author promotion. Some people want qualified, impartial, third-party feedback. This is esepcially true when the primary source of promotion is a guy who has been banned from every major hobby-related message board (other than his own) for intentional trolling. You need to get real.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: One Horse Town on July 29, 2007, 01:29:58 PM
I'm not against being cautious mate. Hell, i can't afford not to be.

However, basing that on an unconventional use of a word and playtest credits? Come on, you can do better than that. Distrust of an author is fair enough, if you really feel the need to be, but as this is his first release, you've got no design basis to rest that distrust on. It's just distrust of some silly posts on a message board. Let's be honest here.

If i could afford to spend money right now, i'd buy a lot of stuff. This would be one of them. If i found it objectionable, i'd say so, but let's leave your questioning of both clash's and pundits design methods out of it shall we? Clash wouldn't put his name on a dead dog, would he? So all we're left with is you trying to discredit this release and you're dragging Flying Mice into it as well. Think about it for a moment.

Note: I don't want to derail this thread further, so if you want to continue this discussion jdrakeh, it's probably best done by PM. :)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 29, 2007, 02:09:17 PM
Its pretty clear to everyone by now, I assume, that Jdrakeh is only here with the intention to try to damage the reputation of a product he's never read or even seen, with the sole purpose of attacking me personally, right?

Good.

Jdrakeh, you're welcome to open a new thread on the main forum or this "pundit's forum" about how much you hate FtA! and how it will make your babies deformed or whatever, show off your own stupidity over there as much as you like.
But over here, this thread is a Q&A thread meant to be informative.

Post again and I'll consider it a disruption of the forum.  

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on July 29, 2007, 04:36:44 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
Its pretty clear to everyone by now, I assume, that Jdrakeh is only here with the intention to try to damage the reputation of a product he's never read or even seen, with the sole purpose of attacking me personally, right?

Good.

Jdrakeh, you're welcome to open a new thread on the main forum or this "pundit's forum" about how much you hate FtA! and how it will make your babies deformed or whatever, show off your own stupidity over there as much as you like.
But over here, this thread is a Q&A thread meant to be informative.

Post again and I'll consider it a disruption of the forum.  

RPGPundit


If FtA! is going to sell, it will sell because of the quality of the game, not because of or despite anything jdrakeh says. He doesn't really matter. What matters - the only thing that matters - is the quality of the game you designed. Everything else is window dressing. We will see what the verdict is, as rendered by the public.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: HinterWelt on July 29, 2007, 08:11:29 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
Its pretty clear to everyone by now, I assume, that Jdrakeh is only here with the intention to try to damage the reputation of a product he's never read or even seen, with the sole purpose of attacking me personally, right?

For the fucking love of the gods, how did your tongue not turn black and fall off saying those words....oh, yeah, you typed them.

Good luck with the book Clash. I hope it will perform well for you.

Bill
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 29, 2007, 09:18:12 PM
He asked a number of questions, all indicating his "extremely serious concern" about the product, these questions were answered one after the other; he continued to voice more and more outrageous statements of his "deep concern" about the product, his doubt that it would be any good, until he finally admitted that the only reason he's posting with all these criticisms is because I wrote the book.

How is this is any way a legitimate thing to write about on a Q&A meant to be informative about the game? Its clear he's not writing in good faith out of curiousity.

Now, if he wants to insult the shit out of me or FtA!, he is allowed to do so, in his own fucking thread, instead of trying to derail this one in a pathetic effort to damage the sales of a game he knows nothing and cares nothing about, other than the fact that I wrote it, so it "must be stopped".

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Keith on July 30, 2007, 10:49:16 AM
Question:

I noticed on the character sheet that Social Status is listed there, but could find no mention of it in the rest of the book.  Was this an oversite?  Thanks.

Edit: Doh! Found it.  For some reason my text search of the PDF didn't pull it up.  Page 29 for people who want to know.


Keith Senkowski
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on July 30, 2007, 11:21:41 AM
Quote from: Keith
Question:

I noticed on the character sheet that Social Status is listed there, but could find no mention of it in the rest of the book.  Was this an oversite?  Thanks.

Keith Senkowski

Hi Keith!

The character sheet was handed over to me as finished, so I can't say for sure, but it may refer to Social Background on p. 40. There's also two Law Lores which I missed entirely when running my own game.

BTW - here's (http://jalan.flyingmice.com/FTA_Charsheet2.pdf) a link to the Charsheet.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Keith on July 30, 2007, 11:25:22 AM
Okay, I have another question concerning Stunts.  Is the purpose of Stunts for a player created skill role that creates a mechanical benefit outside of a normal success?  The examples are kinda all over the place with the exception of a few that grant a +2.  Is that the intended standard?

Taking the Diplomacy example, is the difference between a Stunt and standard skill as follows?

Rally the Troops: Skill Check
Rally the Troops and get a +2 Bonus: Stunt

Thanks

Keith Senkowski
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on July 30, 2007, 11:41:12 AM
Quote from: Keith
Okay, I have another question concerning Stunts.  Is the purpose of Stunts for a player created skill role that creates a mechanical benefit outside of a normal success?  The examples are kinda all over the place with the exception of a few that grant a +2.  Is that the intended standard?

Taking the Diplomacy example, is the difference between a Stunt and standard skill as follows?

Rally the Troops: Skill Check
Rally the Troops and get a +2 Bonus: Stunt

Thanks

Keith Senkowski


As I understood it, the purpose of Stunts is to give a structure to those wild things PCs want to do off the cuff - situational combat - where there are no applicable rules. Stunts are basically skill uses in combat which give the character an advantage over and above the standard combat. The GM chooses from the various examples given or uses them as guidelines to create his own effect to adjudicate the effects of the stunt. The effects in the examples range wildly, and are not confined to a +2 bonus - the very first example lists "to grant you or an ally +2 to their next skill check, or +3 to their next check with a specific skill if that check is done by the next round, or +1 to two different allies’ next skill checks" with different examples giving different effects.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Keith on July 30, 2007, 12:25:05 PM
Clash,

Ok.  Cool.  Makes sense.  My follow up is, could my players use this to say give themselves a bonus prior to combat.  Using the Diplomacy example, give a rallying speech to the troops to give them a +2 in the next battle?

Another Question:

With Alignment, Champions of Law and Chaos are mentioned but not Balance.  Is this because there are no Champions of Balance?  If there is one, what kind of powers would he get?

And to follow it up, what kind of limits are expected for these characters?

Thanks
Keith Senkowski
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 30, 2007, 01:01:39 PM
Quote from: Keith
Clash,

Ok.  Cool.  Makes sense.  My follow up is, could my players use this to say give themselves a bonus prior to combat.  Using the Diplomacy example, give a rallying speech to the troops to give them a +2 in the next battle?


Yes, that would absolutely be a perfect example of a "Diplomacy Stunt".

Quote

Another Question:

With Alignment, Champions of Law and Chaos are mentioned but not Balance.  Is this because there are no Champions of Balance?  If there is one, what kind of powers would he get?

And to follow it up, what kind of limits are expected for these characters?

Thanks
Keith Senkowski


A champion of Balance IS mentioned in the alignment section, and the sample power he would get was "regeneration".  The difference between a champion of balance vs. one of Law or Chaos is that the champion of Balance would not get a bonus to combat vs. any of the other alignments (the way Law gets a bonus vs. chaos and vice versa).

There are no particular limits for the Champions, and in true Moorcockian tradition they are certainly NOT expected to always constantly act as paragons of their alignment.  However, remember that everything you do that is in favour of any particular alignment will grant you points in that alignment.  Do enough things that are of an alignment other than the one you're Champion of, without doing enough things of your own alignment to counteract them, and you'll end up falling out of "strong allegiance", and you'll not only lose your Champion powers but the deity that gave them to you will now be your enemy.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on July 30, 2007, 01:03:06 PM
Never mind, Pundit cross-posted.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Keith on July 30, 2007, 01:10:49 PM
My bad.  I see it now.  That is what I get for reading while at work.  I like the Champions of X concept.  Very cool, though I guess I would dig a character example of each.  Any plans to follow this up with say sample characters and an adventure?

Thanks
Keith Senkowski
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 30, 2007, 05:30:39 PM
Quote from: Keith
My bad.  I see it now.  That is what I get for reading while at work.  I like the Champions of X concept.  Very cool, though I guess I would dig a character example of each.  Any plans to follow this up with say sample characters and an adventure?

Thanks
Keith Senkowski


Right now its just thought bubbles, but I have thought of writing more material for FtA!, but if I did it would probably be in the form of new and fun tables of cool shit (I'd really like to do some tables for planar adventures, for example; more items, etc) and maybe some sample dungeons or a small setting.

Though now that you mention it such a product could probably include some sample NPCs.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: JongWK on July 30, 2007, 06:21:36 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit

Though now that you mention it such a product could probably include some sample NPCs.



FtA! Quickstart Set? ;)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Keith on July 31, 2007, 09:30:21 AM
Pundit,

After reading through it some more I noticed something.  The game seems to scream Dungeonquest.  Was that an influence on your writing?

Keith Senkowski
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on July 31, 2007, 10:23:32 AM
What's Dungeonquest, Keith?

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Keith on July 31, 2007, 10:39:23 AM
Clash,

This is Dungeonquest (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/472)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on July 31, 2007, 10:55:59 AM
Ah! Cool! Thanks, Keith! :D

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Keith on July 31, 2007, 11:21:13 AM
Pundit,

Sorry about the barrage of questions, but the more I read and the more I think about it the more they come bubbling up.  This game just screams tiles and minatures.  I dig how the advancement works for levels.  Nice and simple.

Why did you choose to not include any sort of guide on how to play the game?  You gave lots of rules, but no DM is responsible for X,Y, & Z while the Players are responsible for A, B, & C.

Keith Senkowski
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 31, 2007, 11:47:52 AM
I never played or read Dungeonquest Keith, but I did avidly play Heroquest (the board game), which seems rather similar.

In any case, I wouldn't say that Heroquest was a major influence on my game, though it might have been a subconscious one.  The main influences, as I've said, were old-school D&D and Nethack.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 31, 2007, 11:48:55 AM
Quote from: Keith
Pundit,

Sorry about the barrage of questions, but the more I read and the more I think about it the more they come bubbling up.  This game just screams tiles and minatures.  I dig how the advancement works for levels.  Nice and simple.

Why did you choose to not include any sort of guide on how to play the game?  You gave lots of rules, but no DM is responsible for X,Y, & Z while the Players are responsible for A, B, & C.

Keith Senkowski


My game assumes that the GM is responsible for everything except the Player's own characters.  Its a Regular RPG, simple as that.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dirk Remmecke on July 31, 2007, 11:52:29 AM
Quote from: Keith
This game just screams tiles and minatures.  

Like this (http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview.php?fCID=564213)?
(Skip to page 9 of the preview.)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Keith on July 31, 2007, 12:31:27 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
My game assumes that the GM is responsible for everything except the Player's own characters.  Its a Regular RPG, simple as that.

RPGPundit

So is it safe to assume the goal of the manuscript is to appeal to people who have played D&D X and not to market towards people who are not already in that mindset?  If so why did you choose to go that route with the game?

Dirk,

Pretty much what I was thinking (though I had the game Zombies!!! in my head).
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 31, 2007, 12:59:42 PM
Quote from: Keith
So is it safe to assume the goal of the manuscript is to appeal to people who have played D&D X and not to market towards people who are not already in that mindset?  If so why did you choose to go that route with the game?

Dirk,

Pretty much what I was thinking (though I had the game Zombies!!! in my head).


 I don't really get what you're saying here, I think I made it pretty clear in the text of the game when the GM rolls something, and when the player does.

You see, for most people who start roleplaying, its pretty intuitive what the "GM" does as opposed to the players, he's the guy who creates the world.

Is the complaint that I didn't include a "What is roleplaying?" type chapter?
I didn't bother to in the English edition because sincerely I didn't think that too many absolute novices would be able to find the game, its not like Flying Mice has a huge marketing department.

Obviously, in the Spanish version of the game I WILL have a "what is roleplaying" section, because there I will be primarily marketing to new players.  Here it would just have been a waste of space.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 31, 2007, 01:00:25 PM
I'd certainly encourage the use of tiles and minis in FtA!; indeed, one of our playtests made use of them, and we found that very useful.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Keith on July 31, 2007, 01:49:55 PM
Not complaining man.  Just asking questions.  You pretty much answered it.  I wasn't really thinking along the lines of "What is roleplaying" section so much as this is how a session goes sort of thing.  There is very little if any of that in game books these days and was wondering why you chose to not write one.  

I think my favorite example of a section like that was in the D&D black boxed set from the early 90s I think it was.  They had these cards that took you through an adventure, step-by-step, teaching you the rules as you went along.

Keith Senkowski
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Claudius on August 01, 2007, 01:25:46 PM
I would like to know which task resolution it uses, for example, in D&D3 you roll 1d20, add skill + characteristic (0 is normal), and have to beat a target number. Of course I'm assuming FtA has a task resolution and skills. Does it?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: joewolz on August 01, 2007, 03:07:53 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit

Obviously, in the Spanish version of the game I WILL have a "what is roleplaying" section, because there I will be primarily marketing to new players.  Here it would just have been a waste of space.


Will the Spanish Edition be available in PDF?  I'd love to review it from a first world perspective.  Also, what would it cost to print FtA! as a magazine format for sale in North America?  You might be able to find a market for that here...
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 01, 2007, 03:40:02 PM
Quote from: Claudius
I would like to know which task resolution it uses, for example, in D&D3 you roll 1d20, add skill + characteristic (0 is normal), and have to beat a target number. Of course I'm assuming FtA has a task resolution and skills. Does it?



FtA! is a 3d6+attribute+skill+level-based-bonus (called an "Active check", or, if its a "saving throw" its a passive check) vs. a DC.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 01, 2007, 03:41:19 PM
Quote from: joewolz
Will the Spanish Edition be available in PDF?  I'd love to review it from a first world perspective.  Also, what would it cost to print FtA! as a magazine format for sale in North America?  You might be able to find a market for that here...


I really had no plan to do a spanish edition on PDF. Of course, if the game is succesful at all, you can almost guarnatee that there'll end up being a "Pirate" PDF out there...

I have no idea what it would cost to print FtA! as a magazine in north america. I doubt that it'd be cheap enough to make it work out.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: estar on August 01, 2007, 03:46:12 PM
I notice that Sett had a complaint about doors needing too many dice rolls. So I looked at the table in the copy I bought came with the following

Door Type and Position

(2d6)
2        End Passage
3        Floor Door to a Room
4        Secret Door at End
5        Left Door
6-8     End Door
9        Right Door
10      Secret Door at End
11      Floor Door to a Hallway
12      End Passage


Door Characteristics *
(2d6)
2 Stuck
3 Stuck and Trapped
4 Stuck
5 Trapped
6-8 Normal
9 Magically Locked
10 Locked
11 Locked and Trapped
12 Locked

* I ignored the possibility of stuck and magically locked and
locked and magically locked.

Enjoy
Rob Conley
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 01, 2007, 04:08:19 PM
Quote from: estar
I notice that Sett had a complaint about doors needing too many dice rolls. So I looked at the table in the copy I bought came with the following

Door Type and Position

(2d6)
2        End Passage
3        Floor Door to a Room
4        Secret Door at End
5        Left Door
6-8     End Door
9        Right Door
10      Secret Door at End
11      Floor Door to a Hallway
12      End Passage


Door Characteristics *
(2d6)
2 Stuck
3 Stuck and Trapped
4 Stuck
5 Trapped
6-8 Normal
9 Magically Locked
10 Locked
11 Locked and Trapped
12 Locked

* I ignored the possibility of stuck and magically locked and
locked and magically locked.

Enjoy
Rob Conley


Yup, you could certainly use these tables as a shortcut!

Good job.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: joewolz on August 01, 2007, 05:48:32 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
I really had no plan to do a spanish edition on PDF. Of course, if the game is succesful at all, you can almost guarnatee that there'll end up being a "Pirate" PDF out there...

I have no idea what it would cost to print FtA! as a magazine in north america. I doubt that it'd be cheap enough to make it work out.

RPGPundit


I'd prefer a real PDF...but I'll keep a look out for the scans when it hits newsstands.  Since I doubt you'll ask at the Forge, I can do some digging for you, see what it would cost.  I think that format would be pretty damn cool.

You might have to make it smaller for magazine format up here, though...maybe the typical three book split?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 01, 2007, 09:30:35 PM
Quote from: joewolz
I'd prefer a real PDF...but I'll keep a look out for the scans when it hits newsstands.  Since I doubt you'll ask at the Forge, I can do some digging for you, see what it would cost.  I think that format would be pretty damn cool.

You might have to make it smaller for magazine format up here, though...maybe the typical three book split?


The real question would be where to distribute it; in South America there are these little news kiosks everywhere. Kids buy their yu-gi-oh and pokeman games there. In north america im not sure there's an equivalent.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: joewolz on August 01, 2007, 10:45:11 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
The real question would be where to distribute it; in South America there are these little news kiosks everywhere. Kids buy their yu-gi-oh and pokeman games there. In north america im not sure there's an equivalent.

RPGPundit


Game stores would work, some stores would stock it.  Obviously, the game is not designed to make you rich, nor is it going to be a blockbuster here in the states, but you might be able to get some money out of it, and even a little money would go much farther down there than up here.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 02, 2007, 08:59:25 AM
Here's a question:  which published D&D setting, if any, do you, Pundit, or clash, see FtA! working best with?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 02, 2007, 10:17:25 AM
Quote from: Zachary The First
Here's a question:  which published D&D setting, if any, do you, Pundit, or clash, see FtA! working best with?


I believe the best published D&D setting for FtA! would be the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. Its the setting I've used in my FtA! playtest campaigns.

I could also see it working well in Greyhawk, Blackmoor, or Mystara. On the other hand, for something like the Forgotten Realms, either FtA! or the setting itself would need a lot of tweaking.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 02, 2007, 10:46:44 AM
Quote from: RPGPundit
I believe the best published D&D setting for FtA! would be the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. Its the setting I've used in my FtA! playtest campaigns.

I could also see it working well in Greyhawk, Blackmoor, or Mystara. On the other hand, for something like the Forgotten Realms, either FtA! or the setting itself would need a lot of tweaking.

RPGPundit

Just curious.  I find myself itching to run Greyhawk again...
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on August 02, 2007, 02:41:00 PM
I've got the PDF finally :) I'm pretty pleased with what I've read, and I hope to give it a test run soon.

1.) Can DR reduce damage to zero, or is 1 there the minimum? (In the first case, this could be especially important when going into melee with armored foes of equal power level: You'll get mostly only a small margin of sucess, and using the default method of even damage spread, most to all damage would be eaten by the armor.)

2.) Necronomicon, p. 134: "Whoever reads it must make a PAS WIS check against a DC of 35 or he will have to roll for a permanent affliction as though he had rolled a critical failure on a casting check."
Do I just roll 1d6+/-0 on the critical-failure-table, or are there any modifiers? In the first case, what do I do if I roll a 1 (that isn't covered in said table, as all spells have at least lvl1 so that 2 is the minimum result)?

3.) Will the character creation and advancement rules be more elaborated in the Spanish version? As compact as they're now I had a hard time to grasp them, and I think that a absolute beginner would have even more trouble. (A complete example for creation and level-up should also help.)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Settembrini on August 02, 2007, 02:45:43 PM
Quote from: Skyrock
I've got the PDF finally :) I'm pretty pleased with what I've read, and I hope to give it a test run soon.

1.) Can DR reduce damage to zero, or is 1 there the minimum? (In the first case, this could be especially important when going into melee with armored foes of equal power level: You'll get mostly only a small margin of sucess, and using the default method of even damage spread, most to all damage would be eaten by the armor.)

This will not occur in actual gameplay, you´ll see. Reducing to zero is possible, AFAIK.
But again, this will not be like you think= most of the times you´ll have pretty large margins.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 02, 2007, 10:50:19 PM
Reading through my copy right now...the jury's still out, but so far, seems like a very easy game to pick up.  I'm looking forward to a quick session if I get time this Saturday.  I also need to get to Kinkos and get the thing printed/bound.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 03, 2007, 01:55:04 AM
Quote from: Skyrock
I've got the PDF finally :) I'm pretty pleased with what I've read, and I hope to give it a test run soon.

1.) Can DR reduce damage to zero, or is 1 there the minimum? (In the first case, this could be especially important when going into melee with armored foes of equal power level: You'll get mostly only a small margin of sucess, and using the default method of even damage spread, most to all damage would be eaten by the armor.)


In theory, damage can be reduced to 0 by DR.

Quote

2.) Necronomicon, p. 134: "Whoever reads it must make a PAS WIS check against a DC of 35 or he will have to roll for a permanent affliction as though he had rolled a critical failure on a casting check."
Do I just roll 1d6+/-0 on the critical-failure-table, or are there any modifiers? In the first case, what do I do if I roll a 1 (that isn't covered in said table, as all spells have at least lvl1 so that 2 is the minimum result)?


Ah yes, it should have mentioned that you'd roll for a permanent affliction as though you had fumbled with a 9th level spell.

Quote

3.) Will the character creation and advancement rules be more elaborated in the Spanish version? As compact as they're now I had a hard time to grasp them, and I think that a absolute beginner would have even more trouble. (A complete example for creation and level-up should also help.)
j

Yes, I presume that the final version of any spanish-language version would have to be a bit more introductory and step-by-step in the process of character generation.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 03, 2007, 09:37:40 AM
Pundit, a couple of things I had questions on:

Do you have anything planned as far as a compilation or web release of random charts?  This game seem to lend itself to them.

Second, I noted you made the distinction during chargen for barbarian humans vs. humans.  Can you explain a bit about why you structured things like this, as opposed to make it a rolled up background (like peasant or city-dweller)?

Oh, and if you didn't see, your game is up to #41 (http://www.rpgnow.com/top_100.php) on RPGNow.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 03, 2007, 12:54:46 PM
Quote from: Zachary The First
Pundit, a couple of things I had questions on:

Do you have anything planned as far as a compilation or web release of random charts?  This game seem to lend itself to them.

Yes, I've started thinking about that.  I do believe that if the game is successful enough I'll be bringing out a "General Sourcebook" for it that will have all kinds of weird and wacky stuff and a lot of tables, assuming that Clash is favourable to that?

Quote
Second, I noted you made the distinction during chargen for barbarian humans vs. humans.  Can you explain a bit about why you structured things like this, as opposed to make it a rolled up background (like peasant or city-dweller)?

The main reason was because I wanted there to be a distinction between city-dwellers and barbarians (the Barbarian being such a huge thematic of the fantasy game), but didn't want to overcomplicate things.  So just making them a seperate "Race" was the easiest way to go.

If someone wants to interpret that as being something that also emphasizes the "Howardian" emulation, so be it too.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 03, 2007, 12:59:32 PM
The FTA! Page (http://jalan.flyingmice.com/FTA.html) is up on the Flying Mice site!

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 03, 2007, 01:52:10 PM
Quote from: flyingmice
The FTA! Page (http://jalan.flyingmice.com/FTA.html) is up on the Flying Mice site!

-clash


Woo Hoo!!

A few comments/questions for you, Clash: first, you should probably call it the "FtA! Q&A" since this isn't really an "FAQ", and people might expect something else clicking on that link.

Second: how open would you be to people writing FtA! fan material and having it posted on that site? Like dungeons they've designed, additional rules or tables, or sample settings or things like that?

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 03, 2007, 01:54:16 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
Woo Hoo!!

A few comments/questions for you, Clash: first, you should probably call it the "FtA! Q&A" since this isn't really an "FAQ", and people might expect something else clicking on that link.

Second: how open would you be to people writing FtA! fan material and having it posted on that site? Like dungeons they've designed, additional rules or tables, or sample settings or things like that?

RPGPundit


OK - I'll change FAQ to Q&A.

I'm totally cool with putting up fan-written stuff for DL.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Claudius on August 04, 2007, 02:56:17 AM
Quote from: RPGPundit
FtA! is a 3d6+attribute+skill+level-based-bonus (called an "Active check", or, if its a "saving throw" its a passive check) vs. a DC.

RPGPundit

So it has skills. Hmm. What's the usual range of points in attributes and skills? For example, in Ars Magica, attributes range from -5 to +5, 0 is normal, etc.

What's the level based bonus? I guess this means that you add your level to every skill roll, am I right?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Claudius on August 04, 2007, 03:17:27 AM
Ah, another question, how crunchy is it? Could you compare it to some other game in terms of crunch?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 04, 2007, 03:19:54 AM
Quote from: Claudius
So it has skills. Hmm. What's the usual range of points in attributes and skills? For example, in Ars Magica, attributes range from -5 to +5, 0 is normal, etc.

For attributes its exactly that, from -5 to +5 with 0 being average.

For skills the range is open, though it'd be unusual to have more than 6 points in any skill.  You get a rather limited number of skill points, so most skills will only have 1, 2, or 3 points in them.  

Quote
What's the level based bonus? I guess this means that you add your level to every skill roll, am I right?

Not exactly: every class has two bonuses (Active and Passive) which progress with level advancement but at different rates for each class. Your ACT bonus is added to any "active" skill check, anything you are doing with conscious effort.  Your PAS check is for what in D&D would be "saving throws"; its used whenever you are making a roll for reacting to something.

RPGPundit

(EDITED to clarify what I was saying about attributes and skills)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 04, 2007, 03:25:00 AM
Quote from: Claudius
Ah, another question, how crunchy is it? Could you compare it to some other game in terms of crunch?


I would say its about as crunchy as Rules Cyclopedia D&D.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Settembrini on August 04, 2007, 03:58:11 AM
Clash, were to put fan contributions?
I still have my single page character sheet, you can have it as a larger pdf, if you like.

(http://hofrat.rollenspiel-berlin.de/FtAsheet.jpg)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Settembrini on August 04, 2007, 04:10:17 AM
Or in black and white:

(http://hofrat.rollenspiel-berlin.de/FtAsheetsw2.jpg)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 04, 2007, 04:15:18 AM
Your character sheet was really nice, Sett, and could certainly be held up as a good alternate.  The reason we went with Cristian's in the end was just that his was only slightly more complete.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on August 04, 2007, 07:49:46 AM
I want to get ahold of the PDF, Set! One page character sheets are perfect, 2-page is acceptable and anything more is crap, so guess which one I'd prefer...

Quote from: RPGPundit
Quote
So it has skills. Hmm. What's the usual range of points in attributes and skills? For example, in Ars Magica, attributes range from -5 to +5, 0 is normal, etc.
Its exactly that, from -5 to +5 with 0 being average.
Just a minute: I thought skills were open-ended and couldn't be in the negative range? (Besides, a +5-cap for skills would contradict with the usage of Occult Lore for spell-slinging, which is capped at +6.)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 04, 2007, 09:50:52 AM
Sett,

That's a really nice character sheet, guy.  Would you mind emailing me or posting the pdf of both the color and B&W versions?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Settembrini on August 04, 2007, 09:57:08 AM
Thanks!
Well, I´d prefer having it online at a central place, or I´d send it around all day.
If you need it in a hurry, drop me a PM.
I´m sure clash will be around later today, so we can make it available for everyone.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 04, 2007, 10:03:53 AM
No, no hurry.  Central's good. :)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Claudius on August 04, 2007, 11:17:36 AM
Quote from: Skyrock
Just a minute: I thought skills were open-ended and couldn't be in the negative range? (Besides, a +5-cap for skills would contradict with the usage of Occult Lore for spell-slinging, which is capped at +6.)

Very good question, I supposed that skills have a range similar to the ones in Ars Magica, you know, 0 is no skill, 3 is decent, 5 is excellent, etc.

Is it so? Or can skills be negative?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 04, 2007, 12:43:56 PM
Quote from: Settembrini
Thanks!
Well, I´d prefer having it online at a central place, or I´d send it around all day.
If you need it in a hurry, drop me a PM.
I´m sure clash will be around later today, so we can make it available for everyone.

Hi Sett:

Send it to me and I'll get it put up on my website monday. If anyone wants it before then I can send it by email. I think it's awesome, BTW!

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 04, 2007, 12:54:14 PM
Quote from: Skyrock
I want to get ahold of the PDF, Set! One page character sheets are perfect, 2-page is acceptable and anything more is crap, so guess which one I'd prefer...

Just a minute: I thought skills were open-ended and couldn't be in the negative range? (Besides, a +5-cap for skills would contradict with the usage of Occult Lore for spell-slinging, which is capped at +6.)


Sorry; I was answering the question of "Attributes" there, not skills.  I'll edit that in my original response.  Attributes range from -5 to +5; skills are always positive, ranging from 0 (you don't have the skill) to a limitless value (though Occult lore has a cap for its use in actual spellcasting, as you mentioned).

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 04, 2007, 10:55:23 PM
I was able to run just a real quick trial combat session tonight between 3 PCs and 7 goblins and a goblin subchief.  A few quick notes:

-Combat was, after the first round, not blazingly quick, but not as slow as I had feared.

-You really need to work together to defend your casters in this game!  The mage had his spell disrupted via an attack before he could cast, due to his player's complete ignoring of any sort of positioning tactics.

-It was very cool to divvy up damage after the melee portion of combat.  Being able as a GM to selectively apply, using common sense or for dramatic effect (or both) the damage results of a melee round to a side did help in the "mop up" phase--the players made attacks, but it wasn't the dull, endless paring down of a defeated enemy or just totally hand-wavey, either.  

-Stunts worked out pretty well, much smoother than I expected first time out.  1 player was able to Stunt using his acrobatics to get to the subchief and cut him down pretty early on in the going.  Our rogue used a Performance Stunt to fake a couple of the goblins into believing they were about to be cutoff by a relief party "coming around the bend".  Afterward, several of the players commented on other stunts they might use next time around, as well as mention some....interesting...ideas for using them. :)

-Groups of enemies are dangerous!  Those melee result rolls mean that even a large group of relatively weak enemies can gang up to put the hurt on a party.

-One of the goblins dropped (using the tables in the back) a Luck Cloak, allowing the player to re-roll one roll per session.  As a GM, I really liked the tables, and think this is the sort of game that would do well with an expansion on those.

-The players playing the caster commented on how much can go wrong playing a mage.  He's the sort who usually plays magic-users, and I don't think he liked all the things that could go wrong when casting or trying to cast (though he did like the magic items FtA had).

I asked my players what they liked best, and two said the Stunting rules, one said it was between the way "combat and damage was handled" and the random tables in the book.  I asked them what they liked least; one didn't answer, one said he was confused by how missile attacks fit in, and one said he'd like more players options during chargen.

All in all, not bad at all.  Nothing earth-shatteringly new, but it doesn't claim to be.  It suffers a bit in places from lack of a streamlined layout or better examples, but so far, I've found more to like than not.  My players want to run a bit more if we get the chance tomorrow--so chances are I'll report back then.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Koltar on August 05, 2007, 02:27:44 AM
Pundit,

 Could the approach you took with this game design also be used with a Science Fiction setting?

 So far all the descriptions of play that I've seen are about Fantasy/D&D type adventures.

Have you thought of doing a Sci-Fi game?

 Now that I'm into this post - I realize this maybe should have been a thread all its own.

- Ed C.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 05, 2007, 02:39:05 AM
Quote from: Koltar
Pundit,

 Could the approach you took with this game design also be used with a Science Fiction setting?

 So far all the descriptions of play that I've seen are about Fantasy/D&D type adventures.

Have you thought of doing a Sci-Fi game?

 Now that I'm into this post - I realize this maybe should have been a thread all its own.

- Ed C.


You certainly could do this, but not with FtA! as it is; you'd have to make some serious mods to the rules.

And yes, you could certainly start a new thread about how to design a scifi game using the FtA! rules.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: pspahn on August 05, 2007, 03:36:00 AM
Quote from: Zachary The First

I asked my players what they liked best, and two said the Stunting rules, one said it was between the way "combat and damage was handled"


I just posted a capsule review of the game and those were my favorites parts of it, especially the collective melee combat rules.  I think the game itself is solid, but the melee combat rules are what really make it worth the price.

Pete
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on August 05, 2007, 07:38:21 AM
Quote from: pspahn
I just posted a capsule review of the game
And for those who don't want to spend search time like me, there's the direct link: http://www.therpgsite.com/?q=node/703
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: pspahn on August 05, 2007, 08:04:19 AM
Quote from: Skyrock
And for those who don't want to spend search time


You mean like "click, click?"
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on August 05, 2007, 08:53:22 AM
Quote from: pspahn
You mean like "click, click?"
I had to guess that it's here on theRPGsite first.
Besides, people who read this thread in eight weeks would probably like to be able to find the review ;)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 05, 2007, 09:05:41 AM
Quote from: pspahn
I just posted a capsule review of the game and those were my favorites parts of it, especially the collective melee combat rules.  I think the game itself is solid, but the melee combat rules are what really make it worth the price.

Pete

I've still got some playtesting ahead of me, but at this point, that's what I'd say as well, Pete.  Really, Stunting and Melee Combat are the two real big plusses in my book.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: pspahn on August 05, 2007, 09:10:47 AM
Quote from: Skyrock
I had to guess that it's here on theRPGsite first.
Besides, people who read this thread in eight weeks would probably like to be able to find the review ;)


There will be much better reviews than mine out eight weeks from now.  :P

Pete
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 05, 2007, 01:12:16 PM
For those interested, I posted a recap of our morning's "hangover session" of FtA:

http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=126424#post126424
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Settembrini on August 05, 2007, 01:18:03 PM
Charsheet pdfs sent to clash.

I can update it, if sonmebody wants something special/ changed.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 05, 2007, 05:10:02 PM
Quote from: Settembrini
Charsheet pdfs sent to clash.

I can update it, if sonmebody wants something special/ changed.


I hope you sent it to my yahoo address. My flyingmice address is neing nuked as we speak by hordes of virii. My virus program is catching them, but they are screwing up the mail itself, and I've lost hundreds of messages...

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 05, 2007, 05:51:15 PM
Quote from: flyingmice
I hope you sent it to my yahoo address. My flyingmice address is neing nuked as we speak by hordes of virii. My virus program is catching them, but they are screwing up the mail itself, and I've lost hundreds of messages...

-clash

wtf?  clash, you're like the nicest guy in RPGdom!  What jerkass would do that? :mad:
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 05, 2007, 05:54:28 PM
Quote from: Zachary The First
wtf?  clash, you're like the nicest guy in RPGdom!  What jerkass would do that? :mad:


I have no idea if it is rpg related. All I know is I'm getting flooded with virus-laden messages.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: pspahn on August 06, 2007, 12:23:09 AM
Quote from: flyingmice
I have no idea if it is rpg related. All I know is I'm getting flooded with virus-laden messages.

-clash


That sucks clash.  Hope it resolves soon.  

Pete

PS - Don't email me anything.  :)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 06, 2007, 12:36:06 AM
Quote from: pspahn
That sucks clash.  Hope it resolves soon.  

Pete

PS - Don't email me anything.  :)


Don't worry - nothing's getting into my computer. What's happening is that the email program is repeatedly getting disrupted as it downloads from the server, and multiple messages are getting lost. All the virus emails are getting caught and deleted, :D

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 06, 2007, 03:00:11 AM
This is why I only use web-based e-mail.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Koltar on August 06, 2007, 03:43:33 AM
Quote from: RPGPundit

And yes, you could certainly start a new thread about how to design a scifi game using the FtA! rules.

RPGPundit



I did...over here:
 http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7033

..just no new posts in it yet.

- Ed C.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 06, 2007, 08:37:07 AM
Quote from: RPGPundit
This is why I only use web-based e-mail.

RPGPundit


Yep! My personal email is through yahoo, so I obviously agree. My flyingmice address is the one I use as a contact point for the company, thus it is literally all over the web, and regularly gets deluged with spam.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 06, 2007, 09:00:46 AM
I've put up Sett's one page charsheets, along with Pundit's Optional Rule#1 on the FtA! page (http://jalan.flyingmice.com/FTA.html).

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 06, 2007, 04:09:37 PM
Piestrio asked, over on tBP, whether the Spanish Language version will be available in some form in North America. I thought it was a good question, so I'm asking the Pundit.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 06, 2007, 09:13:56 PM
Quote from: flyingmice
Piestrio asked, over on tBP, whether the Spanish Language version will be available in some form in North America. I thought it was a good question, so I'm asking the Pundit.

-clash


As I mentioned on my blog, there's no current plan to market to north america with the spanish language version.  No saying that might not happen in the future, though...

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 07, 2007, 09:55:11 PM
Gave my quick, shortened FtA! review at RPGNow (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews.php?products_id=28737&it=1&&it=1).  Still working on the longer one for here and RPGnet. :)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: pspahn on August 07, 2007, 10:02:12 PM
Quote from: Zachary The First
Gave my quick, shortened FtA! review at RPGNow (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews.php?products_id=28737&it=1&&it=1).  Still working on the longer one for here and RPGnet. :)


Nice review, Zach.  I'm glad to see stunting works as well as it reads.  I'm looking forward to trying this game out.

Pete
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on August 07, 2007, 10:05:51 PM
Quote from: pspahn
Nice review, Zach.  I'm glad to see stunting works as well as it reads.  I'm looking forward to trying this game out.

Pete

Well, I'll tell you, its one of those deceptively simple ideas that can lead to some really great ones by your players.  Those are the sort of things I love in an RPG.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 07, 2007, 10:06:11 PM
Thanks immensely, Zachary! That will really help folks decide!

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Nicephorus on August 11, 2007, 02:22:28 PM
Do the combat values of monsters include values from likely weapons or are weapon values added to these?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 12, 2007, 02:23:15 PM
Quote from: Nicephorus
Do the combat values of monsters include values from likely weapons or are weapon values added to these?


The combat values of monsters do not include the values of the damage they do from their weapons, natural or otherwise.  Usually, if their weapons are of the "natural" sort, these are included in the description of the monster.

So for example, a bear has 4D6+10 for its combat value, but adds +20 to damage, making it a very dangerous animal indeed.

Bugbears do 3d6+7 for combat value, and their entry says that they usually fight with morningstars, for an additional +5 damage.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: pspahn on August 12, 2007, 02:28:29 PM
Do you mind if I ask why you included Half-Mermen as a playable race?  I think they're cool, I'm just curious to know why you chose them (assuming you had a reason).

Pete
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 13, 2007, 01:53:57 AM
Quote from: pspahn
Do you mind if I ask why you included Half-Mermen as a playable race?  I think they're cool, I'm just curious to know why you chose them (assuming you had a reason).

Pete


The Half-mermen are there for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to have something unusual in there, outside the normal spectrum of D&D races, just to highlite to the reader that they could feel free to do the same, and not to feel obliged to limit themselves to the bog-standard races.
Second, because the default setting of my own playtests of FtA! were in the Wilderlands, and my own feeling of the Wilderlands is that its full of weird stuff like half-mermen, so it was an adequately Wilderlands-esque race to have there.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on August 13, 2007, 07:36:00 AM
If self-customization of races is a goal, why aren't there rules for race creation or at least guidelines?
Not that I couldn't take the existing races as examples and make my own conclusions about the worth of each race-perk and -flaw, but to get it stated clearly would definitively save some workload und protect of misjudgements.
(Maybe in a supplement or as a web-resource, just as a thought...)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 13, 2007, 02:28:38 PM
Quote from: Skyrock
If self-customization of races is a goal, why aren't there rules for race creation or at least guidelines?
Not that I couldn't take the existing races as examples and make my own conclusions about the worth of each race-perk and -flaw, but to get it stated clearly would definitively save some workload und protect of misjudgements.
(Maybe in a supplement or as a web-resource, just as a thought...)


Maybe in a future supplement.
Making races in FtA! is so simple based on the existing races as examples that I didn't feel the need to include any specific rules about it; unlike monsters which are trickier and thus did get their own rules.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: pspahn on August 14, 2007, 01:38:14 AM
Quote from: RPGPundit
First, I wanted to have something unusual in there, outside the normal spectrum of D&D races, just to highlite to the reader that they could feel free to do the same, and not to feel obliged to limit themselves to the bog-standard races.


I've been putting together a dungeon scenario in my head and I know there are going to be some underwater encounters/objectives a la Tomb Raider.  I hope (and am pretty sure) that at least one of the players will be a half-merman so this will be perfect (assuming we can get past the Zoolander jokes).  

Thanks!

Pete
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 14, 2007, 12:56:15 PM
Quote from: pspahn
I've been putting together a dungeon scenario in my head and I know there are going to be some underwater encounters/objectives a la Tomb Raider.  I hope (and am pretty sure) that at least one of the players will be a half-merman so this will be perfect (assuming we can get past the Zoolander jokes).  

Thanks!

Pete


Sounds cool. One of the things I was hoping FtA! would encourage is people making big and varied dungeons.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: cnath.rm on August 14, 2007, 01:40:11 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
Sounds cool. One of the things I was hoping FtA! would encourage is people making big and varied dungeons.

RPGPundit
How hard would it be to convert things if I already have my big and varied dungeon, say one of the Necromancer Games products, and am thinking about snagging FTA!?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 14, 2007, 04:17:01 PM
Quote from: cnath.rm
How hard would it be to convert things if I already have my big and varied dungeon, say one of the Necromancer Games products, and am thinking about snagging FTA!?


I don't think it'd be very hard at all.  The "standard" monsters are mostly all listed in FtA!, though some of them might need to have quantities or strength levels slightly adjusted to account for the level of play.
Since I also included the building-block rules for how to design monsters right into the rules, its very easy to "stat up" just about any monster from a D&D module and convert it to FtA!.

This was, in fact, one of the reasons I included the monster design guidelines in the rules.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: cnath.rm on August 14, 2007, 04:20:16 PM
Sounds good, thanks for the quick reply. :)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Nicephorus on August 14, 2007, 04:22:24 PM
Quote from: cnath.rm
How hard would it be to convert things if I already have my big and varied dungeon, say one of the Necromancer Games products, and am thinking about snagging FTA!?
(I know this is Q&A but for this, a reader's response has a different perspective than a designers.)
It wouldn't be an exact match but it wouldn't be that hard to get the overall feel. With a bit of practice I bet you could stat out a 10th level character for FtA in less than 5 minutes. Most of the basic monsters are premade.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: cnath.rm on August 14, 2007, 05:43:08 PM
Quote from: Nicephorus
(I know this is Q&A but for this, a reader's response has a different perspective than a designers.)
It wouldn't be an exact match but it wouldn't be that hard to get the overall feel. With a bit of practice I bet you could stat out a 10th level character for FtA in less than 5 minutes. Most of the basic monsters are premade.
More perspectives rocks man, thanks. :)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 15, 2007, 12:22:21 AM
Indeed, thanks!

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Nicephorus on August 22, 2007, 12:45:44 PM
If you take damage between declaring and casting a spell, the spell fails.  In such cases, do you also take damage as if you had failed your casting roll?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 24, 2007, 11:43:01 AM
Quote from: Nicephorus
If you take damage between declaring and casting a spell, the spell fails.  In such cases, do you also take damage as if you had failed your casting roll?


No, you do not, because you never completed casting.  If you look at the "metaphysics" of casting, casting involves a complicated series of verbal and hand motions that calls down a supernatural energy into you.  The casting check is to see how well your body handles that energy coursing through you.

If you get hit before you roll your caster check, it is assumed that you never got to the part where the energy came in, and thus will take no additional damage from that. At the time you were struck, all you were doing was wildly flailing your arms and speaking in ineffable words.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Nicephorus on August 24, 2007, 11:53:39 AM
That makes sense.  Also makes casting not quite as bad.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: cnath.rm on August 24, 2007, 12:22:49 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
If you get hit before you roll your caster check, it is assumed that you never got to the part where the energy came in, and thus will take no additional damage from that. At the time you were struck, all you were doing was wildly flailing your arms and speaking in ineffable words.

RPGPundit
Which could, if I'm getting the idea right, but an interesting defensive stunt on the part of one pc to try to get archers or whathave you on the other side, to target them instead of the actual mage**, or at least split the ranged attacks. :shrug: Is there such thing as a concentration check in FTA! or something where the mage can cast through the pain/shock of getting hit?

**(maybe wearing a cloak or robe of their armor, and making larger/louder casting motions/chanting then the actual mage is, all while having a longspear in the dirt at their feet to pick up at the last second ie: Braveheart and yes this idea amused me once I started it and just kept growing and growing.:D )
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on August 24, 2007, 12:33:29 PM
Quote from: cnath.rm
Which could, if I'm getting the idea right, but an interesting defensive stunt on the part of one pc to try to get archers or whathave you on the other side, to target them instead of the actual mage**, or at least split the ranged attacks. :shrug: **(maybe wearing a cloak or robe of their armor, and making larger/louder casting motions/chanting then the actual mage is, all while having a longspear in the dirt at their feet to pick up at the last second ie: Braveheart and yes this idea amused me once I started it and just kept growing and growing.:D )


That sounds right up Stunt Alley! So long as the character has an applicable skill to stunt with, things open up nicely. The GM would have to adjudicate it, of course, but the concept is sound. :D

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 24, 2007, 08:31:40 PM
If I recall correctly, one of the explict examples of stunts is to try to block and or divert opponents from an ally so that they won't attack him, and I was thinking of mages when I wrote that.

Also, there isn't a concentration check; instead there's the tactical option of "quick casting". If you make a quick casting roll, you get to activate your spell at the START of the round (when you declare it) rather than declare it at the start of the round and wait till the end of the round for it to launch.

So with quick casting, what you're  doing is taking certain shortcuts in the words and motions, hoping to do so with sufficient skill that the spell will work anyways. If you don't quickcast and you take damage, your spell is lost that round; but that's what quick-casting is for, to avoid the risk of taking your sweet time casting a spell.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: cnath.rm on August 24, 2007, 09:35:40 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
Also, there isn't a concentration check; instead there's the tactical option of "quick casting". If you make a quick casting roll, you get to activate your spell at the START of the round (when you declare it) rather than declare it at the start of the round and wait till the end of the round for it to launch.
How much harder of a roll is quick casting normally compared to the normal take your time route?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Nicephorus on August 24, 2007, 09:56:03 PM
Quote from: cnath.rm
How much harder of a roll is quick casting normally compared to the normal take your time route?

It's 15 + (level*2) instead of 10 + (level*2).  With 3d6, that's much harder. With a casting mod that would achieve a 99.5% success rate, you still have only a 74% success rate.   But not super hard; I put together a 6th level wizard who could quickcast 1st level spells with minimal risk.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Kiero on September 22, 2007, 07:34:35 AM
I've registered solely for the purpose of asking about this game. I've seen a couple of reviews which told me enough to pique my interest. What it's looking like to me, is that it's a cut-down version of True20 with some other influences (notably T&T for the "collective combat"). That's a good thing, to me. I don't like True20's adherence to D20, even if I thought the changes were very positive; in the main I still hate D20's combat system which I feel is overly complicated, and Feats.

Can I just use True20's "here's six/eight/whatever points" in place of rolling for stats? Will that "break" the game?

No Feats/Talents is a definite plus-point for me. Is the system built on the assumption there will be magic items (like 3.x)? Are there iterative attacks to mess about with, or does it remain as simple as "these are the phases, you act in them if you can" no matter how high a level the characters reach?

I like the Skills list (just as I liked the one True20 uses), but I note there are Ranks/Points. How many are thrown around, and does it become a hassle at higher levels (note I consider D&D's standard Ranks "a hassle", and like the approach of Saga Edition).

Why is there no warrior-rogue class? Would seem a logical inclusion for completeness.

What is the means by which the classes are differentiated from each other? I noted mention of "paths" of a sort for each class, how easily differentiated is one warrior from another mechanically (and I'm not actually that concerned that they are massively so)?

Is there only one type of magic (ie no divine/arcane/psionics split)? Again if so that's another plus point in it's favour.

Escalating hit points is another bugbear of mine. Would the game break down if I capped them at 3rd level, say for humanoids?

How easy would it be to remove the damage roll with a fixed damage stat instead (average of the roll, maybe?)? I'm not a fan of having an attack roll and damage roll. If that's not the case, ignore this point.

How tied to the dungeon crawl is it? This is a big deal for me; I'm liking much of what I've read besides this one facet. I've got some good memories of playing D&D back in the day, but we hated the 'crawl. Ditched it in fairly short order and played all overland adventures. Will I get a lot of utility out of the GM section (or indeed the whole game) if I have no intention of ever running a dungeon crawl?

And lastly, where are the actual play threads?

To be absolutely honest $12 is hardly going to break the bank, especially with the exchange rate as it is right now. What I'm more concerned about is whether I'll get some usage out of this as something to play with my non-gamer/newbie-heavy group. I'm after some old-school feel, without all the unnecessary crunch that tends to accompany them.

Many thanks.
Title: Combat
Post by: hogscape on September 22, 2007, 10:55:54 AM
Hi there,

After reading the RPG.net review of the game I downloaded the PDF and have been happily reading through the book.

And I must say I'm very impressed. One thing though, although I'm used to the combat style from T&T - it does look as though the GM has a lot on his plate during a battle. 3d6 plus modifiers for each GM character or monster sounds like an awful lot of dice.

Does anyone have any first-hand knowledge of the system they'd like to share?

Thanks heaps.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Kiero on September 22, 2007, 12:18:03 PM
Quote from: hogscape
3d6 plus modifiers for each GM character or monster sounds like an awful lot of dice.


Indeed it does. Surely there must be an easy short-hand that doesn't involve rolling for each and every one? Like one roll for a group (say if you had a half-dozen goblins, making one roll for all six), adding some kind of flat mods for the additional monsters?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: pspahn on September 22, 2007, 12:28:40 PM
Quote from: Kiero
Indeed it does. Surely there must be an easy short-hand that doesn't involve rolling for each and every one? Like one roll for a group (say if you had a half-dozen goblins, making one roll for all six), adding some kind of flat mods for the additional monsters?


There is a "mook rule" in the text that lets you roll 1d6 for each NPC monster that I assume speeds up the combat round.

Pete
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Kiero on September 22, 2007, 12:33:43 PM
Quote from: pspahn
There is a "mook rule" in the text that lets you roll 1d6 for each NPC monster that I assume speeds up the combat round.

Pete


I am heartily in favour of mook rules.

Anyone got time for my ridiculously long string of questions (I did get some answers on tBP, but was interested in those from the horses mouth)?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: pspahn on September 22, 2007, 12:50:47 PM
Quote from: Kiero

Can I just use True20's "here's six/eight/whatever points" in place of rolling for stats? Will that "break" the game?


Not at all from what I can tell.  

Quote

No Feats/Talents is a definite plus-point for me. Is the system built on the assumption there will be magic items (like 3.x)? Are there iterative attacks to mess about with, or does it remain as simple as "these are the phases, you act in them if you can" no matter how high a level the characters reach?


It seems like characters had the option of making multiple attacks at higher levels, but I can't recall offhand.  

Quote

I like the Skills list (just as I liked the one True20 uses), but I note there are Ranks/Points. How many are thrown around, and does it become a hassle at higher levels (note I consider D&D's standard Ranks "a hassle", and like the approach of Saga Edition).


That's a tough question.  The skills system seems pretty straightforward with standard D&D-style ranks, but thinking about it, I'm pretty sure you could modify it to something similar to SWSE without breaking anything.  

Quote

What is the means by which the classes are differentiated from each other? I noted mention of "paths" of a sort for each class, how easily differentiated is one warrior from another mechanically (and I'm not actually that concerned that they are massively so)?


I don't recall a lot of mechanical differences within each class.  I think that will have to come out in roleplaying.  

Quote

Is there only one type of magic (ie no divine/arcane/psionics split)? Again if so that's another plus point in it's favour.


Yes, one core magic system/spells handle all types of magic (arcane, divine, etc.).

Quote

Escalating hit points is another bugbear of mine. Would the game break down if I capped them at 3rd level, say for humanoids?


I don;t see why it would.  

Quote

How easy would it be to remove the damage roll with a fixed damage stat instead (average of the roll, maybe?)? I'm not a fan of having an attack roll and damage roll. If that's not the case, ignore this point.


With the collective combat system, you're rolling attack and damage in one roll and comparing it against your opponent(s').  Weapon damage and attack bonuses add to the roll.  So you make one roll, tally the results and then see who's higher.  The difference is applied as damage to the losing side (distributed evenly or by common sense).  One thing I don't like is the "all or nothing" nature of the roll - either you take damage or I take damage, there is no we both get lightly damaged.  They put an optional rule to address that issue on their main web page, but I'm still not sure if I'd use that one. It's an easy fix, but I think I'd have to test out a few house rules before I found one I liked.

Quote

How tied to the dungeon crawl is it? This is a big deal for me; I'm liking much of what I've read besides this one facet. I've got some good memories of playing D&D back in the day, but we hated the 'crawl. Ditched it in fairly short order and played all overland adventures. Will I get a lot of utility out of the GM section (or indeed the whole game) if I have no intention of ever running a dungeon crawl?


You'll get use out of the game, but the GM section is mostly filled with tables geared to running a dungeon crawl (although they can be adjusted easily).  There are also some free tables being posted on the main rpg forum here.  

Quote

And lastly, where are the actual play threads?

There are a few, but you'll have to dig around for them a bit.  Zachary the First had one that I recall.  

Quote

To be absolutely honest $12 is hardly going to break the bank, especially with the exchange rate as it is right now. What I'm more concerned about is whether I'll get some usage out of this as something to play with my non-gamer/newbie-heavy group. I'm after some old-school feel, without all the unnecessary crunch that tends to accompany them.


That pretty much sums the game up.  It's got an old school feel, low prep time, low handling time, and also the stunts are able to handle those odd situations during combat (and other times) where PCs try to do something not covered by the rules.  All in all, it's a nice game.  You'll beed your own setting, but that's not much of a problem.  

Pete
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Kiero on September 22, 2007, 12:58:16 PM
Consider me sold, my wife thought I was spending far too long researching and agonising over such a small amount of money.

I'll be back with comments when we've had a go making characters and I've had a read. Gracias!
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on September 22, 2007, 01:05:19 PM
Nominally, only Pundit should answer here, but I'll tackle the purely technical questions:

[edit]Damn, they outran me while I was still typing.[/edit]

Quote from: Kiero
Can I just use True20's "here's six/eight/whatever points" in place of rolling for stats? Will that "break" the game?
There is already attribute point-buy as an official alternative to rolling up attributes.

Quote from: Kiero
Is the system built on the assumption there will be magic items (like 3.x)?
The treasure table should statistically spread out some artifacts over the course of the adventures, but otherwise than that, there isn't such an assumption.

Quote from: Kiero
Are there iterative attacks to mess about with, or does it remain as simple as "these are the phases, you act in them if you can" no matter how high a level the characters reach?
No multiple actions based on level. (There might be spells and artifacts that could change that, but I don't have the whole crunchy bits in my head and don't feel like looking up the whole PDF.)

Quote from: Kiero
What is the means by which the classes are differentiated from each other?
#Hit points, #skill points, access to magic, progression and starting value in ACT/PAS/melee/missile stat, as well as a few specialities (warriors do critical hits more often, rogues get bonuses on certain checks depending on their path etc.)

Quote from: Kiero
I noted mention of "paths" of a sort for each class, how easily differentiated is one warrior from another mechanically (and I'm not actually that concerned that they are massively so)?
These are subclasses, like archer vs melee guy for warriors. The difference isn't too impressive in the beginning, but it should remarkably add up over several levels.

Quote from: Kiero
Is there only one type of magic (ie no divine/arcane/psionics split)?
There are different kind of spell schools (Bard, Druid etc.), but they are totally open for mix and match as long as you pay the extra price for additional schools known and don't belong to a class with a limit for maximal number of schools (IIRC Rogue-Wizards and Warrior-Wizards).

Quote from: Kiero
How tied to the dungeon crawl is it?
You'll loose some utilities like the dungeon generator, but otherwise it doesn't hinder much to do something else, although apart from wilderness encounter tables it also isn't much help in and of itself for other kinds of adventure.

Quote from: Kiero
And lastly, where are the actual play threads?
I know of this relatively recent one by Zachary the First: http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7030
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on September 22, 2007, 01:49:46 PM
Quote from: Kiero
I've registered solely for the purpose of asking about this game. I've seen a couple of reviews which told me enough to pique my interest. What it's looking like to me, is that it's a cut-down version of True20 with some other influences (notably T&T for the "collective combat"). That's a good thing, to me. I don't like True20's adherence to D20, even if I thought the changes were very positive; in the main I still hate D20's combat system which I feel is overly complicated, and Feats.

Can I just use True20's "here's six/eight/whatever points" in place of rolling for stats? Will that "break" the game?


There's a point allocation chargen as well as a random chargen. You can use either.

Quote
No Feats/Talents is a definite plus-point for me. Is the system built on the assumption there will be magic items (like 3.x)?


No. There are no such assumptions built in to my knowledge.

Quote
Are there iterative attacks to mess about with, or does it remain as simple as "these are the phases, you act in them if you can" no matter how high a level the characters reach?


It remains that simple.

Quote
I like the Skills list (just as I liked the one True20 uses), but I note there are Ranks/Points. How many are thrown around, and does it become a hassle at higher levels (note I consider D&D's standard Ranks "a hassle", and like the approach of Saga Edition).


Ranks of skill just give a +1 to the check. Skill points range from 3 + 1/2 levels for Warriors, to 8 + 2/3 levels for rogues.

Quote
Why is there no warrior-rogue class? Would seem a logical inclusion for completeness.


Don't know why there isn't such a class, but it would be easy enough to create one.

Quote
What is the means by which the classes are differentiated from each other? I noted mention of "paths" of a sort for each class, how easily differentiated is one warrior from another mechanically (and I'm not actually that concerned that they are massively so)?


Each class gets different skill points, combat bonuses, ACT/PAS Check bonuses, Hit Points, and Special Abilities, as well as different Gains.

Quote
Is there only one type of magic (ie no divine/arcane/psionics split)? Again if so that's another plus point in it's favour.


There is only one type of magic, though there are many different schools of magic.

Quote
Escalating hit points is another bugbear of mine. Would the game break down if I capped them at 3rd level, say for humanoids?


I don't know. I just did the illos, but I would guess it would run OK so long as the GM Kept that fact in mind.

Quote
How easy would it be to remove the damage roll with a fixed damage stat instead (average of the roll, maybe?)? I'm not a fan of having an attack roll and damage roll. If that's not the case, ignore this point.


It would be pretty straignforward.

Quote
How tied to the dungeon crawl is it? This is a big deal for me; I'm liking much of what I've read besides this one facet. I've got some good memories of playing D&D back in the day, but we hated the 'crawl. Ditched it in fairly short order and played all overland adventures.


It's not tied at all, but it is the default.

Quote
Will I get a lot of utility out of the GM section (or indeed the whole game) if I have no intention of ever running a dungeon crawl?


Not as much as you would if you ran an occasional crawl.

Quote
And lastly, where are the actual play threads?


There's a short one here somewhere by Zachary.

Quote
To be absolutely honest $12 is hardly going to break the bank, especially with the exchange rate as it is right now. What I'm more concerned about is whether I'll get some usage out of this as something to play with my non-gamer/newbie-heavy group. I'm after some old-school feel, without all the unnecessary crunch that tends to accompany them.

Many thanks.


That would about nail what you will get from this game. Old school feel without the old school hassles.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on September 22, 2007, 03:39:24 PM
Quote from: Kiero
I've registered solely for the purpose of asking about this game. I've seen a couple of reviews which told me enough to pique my interest. What it's looking like to me, is that it's a cut-down version of True20 with some other influences (notably T&T for the "collective combat"). That's a good thing, to me. I don't like True20's adherence to D20, even if I thought the changes were very positive; in the main I still hate D20's combat system which I feel is overly complicated, and Feats.

Can I just use True20's "here's six/eight/whatever points" in place of rolling for stats? Will that "break" the game?

Hello Kiero.  While FtA! isn't exactly True20, it is certainly along the same lines as, without being D20.  Its no surprise that True20 is a game system I love, and so of course any game I created would have some similar principles.

As for the "Here's x points" thing, that's actually IN the rules.  There's two methods of character creation; by rolling and by assigning points.

Quote
No Feats/Talents is a definite plus-point for me. Is the system built on the assumption there will be magic items (like 3.x)?

No. In fact, magic items are quite rare.  There are certain powerful creatures that can only be hurt by magic, but aside from that I can think of nothing that would require magic items.

Quote
Are there iterative attacks to mess about with, or does it remain as simple as "these are the phases, you act in them if you can" no matter how high a level the characters reach?

It remains that simple.  Any kind of maneuvering that is not within the boundaries of standard melee attack or missle attack or magic would fall under the "stunt" rules and can be resolved through a stunt.

Quote
I like the Skills list (just as I liked the one True20 uses), but I note there are Ranks/Points. How many are thrown around, and does it become a hassle at higher levels (note I consider D&D's standard Ranks "a hassle", and like the approach of Saga Edition).

Not many.  A 1st level character will start with between 3 and 8 skill points. After that they will gain skill points at a rate of either 1 point every 2 levels or 2 points every 3 levels depending on their class.

Quote
Why is there no warrior-rogue class? Would seem a logical inclusion for completeness.

Mainly because there's relatively little a warrior-rogue could be seen as doing that either a rogue or a warrior couldn't end up doing within those classes. What I mean is that if you want a "warrior-rogue" you could just get a warrior and make him fairly dexterous and give him skill points in rogue skills; and if you wanted a "rogue-warrior" you could just get a rogue and make him fairly strong and give him the assasin option.  The "x-wizard" classes exist for people who want to play your "D&D type elves" or "rogues with a smattering of magic" or "Bards with arcane lore and bardic-spells" or "rangers" or whatever.

There's a chance I might include a "Monk" class in the upcoming FtA!GN! sourcebook, that would be a kind of rogue-warrior.

Quote
What is the means by which the classes are differentiated from each other? I noted mention of "paths" of a sort for each class, how easily differentiated is one warrior from another mechanically (and I'm not actually that concerned that they are massively so)?

Warriors essentially have three factors that might differentiate them:
1. The choice between emphasizing on melee or on missle combat.  So you can play either a melee fighter or an archer (and my own position is that archery is FAR more useful and worthwhile in this game than it was in Old-school D&D, another important difference; without being the "5-foot-step" mockery that it is in modern D&D 3.x)
2. Choosing between heavier advancement in your ACT bonus or your PAS bonus.  This is the difference between choosing a more swashbuckling kind of fighter or a tougher "defender" type fighter.
3. Your skill points and where you put them: this is the wild card, since there are no "class" skills in FtA!, you could theoretically have very different types of warriors based on what their skill-orientation was.

Quote
Is there only one type of magic (ie no divine/arcane/psionics split)? Again if so that's another plus point in it's favour.

There's only one mechanic for magic.  Magic works by "spell lists": Its explicitly written into the "implied setting" of the game that basically priests and wizards do magic in exactly the same ways, but justify it differently, and either way could be true (ie. magic could be the product of the gods or it could be the products of hermetic secrets, and probably a little of both).  There are 17 spell Lists, which detail the kinds of magic you can have: Fire magic, Water magic, Curing magic, Knowledge magic, Travel magic, etc etc.
Among these lists are the "Bard" list (which has mostly music-based magic), the Druid list (nature magic), the "Rune magic" list (for dwarven item-making magic), and the "Telepathic" list (which is basically psionics).
These all work exactly the same way, with the exception that Bard magic uses Cha instead of Int to determine the maximum level limit for casters, and Druid school uses WIS instead of INT for the same.

Quote
Escalating hit points is another bugbear of mine. Would the game break down if I capped them at 3rd level, say for humanoids?

The game wouldn't break down, but it would certainly be more challenging for the PCs to face any of the tougher creatures.
The point of the Stunt rules is also to allow lower-level characters a chance to defeat or at least escape tougher monsters, by using tricks instead of straightforward combat.  This does mean that FtA! might be more versatile than old-school D&D when it comes to low-level characters surviving encounters with high-level creatures.
Its also noteworthy that the way that the experience system works, the system tends to naturally "cap" at a certain point. It takes only one adventure for your character to go from level 1 to level 2, but it takes 10 adventures for your character to go from level 10 to level 11. So while technically there's no "level limit", effectively its very unlikely that you can get to ridiculously high levels of play without cheating unless you run a character for a very, very long time.

Quote
How easy would it be to remove the damage roll with a fixed damage stat instead (average of the roll, maybe?)? I'm not a fan of having an attack roll and damage roll. If that's not the case, ignore this point.

There is no seperate damage roll. The damage you do is always the difference between your combat roll and your opponent's combat role (or your opponents fixed defence in missile attacks). The only time that there's "damage rolls" is for things like traps, explosions, and certain magics.

Weapons give you a direct bonus to your combat roll, based not on the "type" of weapon (ie. a battle axe's damage is no different than a longswords in principle), but based instead on the size of the weapon and on whether or not you are trained in using that weapon.

Quote
How tied to the dungeon crawl is it? This is a big deal for me; I'm liking much of what I've read besides this one facet. I've got some good memories of playing D&D back in the day, but we hated the 'crawl. Ditched it in fairly short order and played all overland adventures. Will I get a lot of utility out of the GM section (or indeed the whole game) if I have no intention of ever running a dungeon crawl?

There's a very extensive set of random tables to create dungeons, which I think are a really awesome feature of the game; mostly because its one of the few games around that I know of that has a complete dungeon randomizer (rather than just a couple of tables that are meant for flavour but not a complete way to design rapid adventures).
However, the game itself is in NO way limited to dungeon adventures. There are overland encounter tables in the book, and there's no reason you can't use the system for having fantasy-medieval adventures in a setting without ever entering a dungeon.

The upcoming FtA!GN! sourcebook will have some random region-creation and settlement-creation tables, and more details about the "implied setting" of the FtA! game.

Quote
And lastly, where are the actual play threads?

There are one or two actual play threads in the Actual Play forum of this site.  However, we could certainly use more.

Quote
To be absolutely honest $12 is hardly going to break the bank, especially with the exchange rate as it is right now. What I'm more concerned about is whether I'll get some usage out of this as something to play with my non-gamer/newbie-heavy group. I'm after some old-school feel, without all the unnecessary crunch that tends to accompany them.

This game was originally designed as a challenge to myself to make a game that could appeal to newbies and non-gamers.  I hope I've succeeded at that. The game doesn't have a lot of unnecessary crunch; I'd put it at a little less crunchy than RC D&D and a little more crunchy than the old Advanced Fighting Fantasy rules. So, right around the level of the old Tunnels & Trolls, without having nearly as many potential bugs in it as that system had.

Based on where it seems you're coming from and the nature of your questions, I would hazard to say that FtA! fits the description of what you're looking for.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on September 22, 2007, 03:46:04 PM
Quote from: hogscape
Hi there,

After reading the RPG.net review of the game I downloaded the PDF and have been happily reading through the book.

And I must say I'm very impressed. One thing though, although I'm used to the combat style from T&T - it does look as though the GM has a lot on his plate during a battle. 3d6 plus modifiers for each GM character or monster sounds like an awful lot of dice.


It is a lot of dice, if a combat has a lot of monsters, but hey, that's just part of the fun for the GM.  The players are always stuck rolling 3d6.  The GM will sometimes get to roll loads of dice.

Keep a couple of things in mind, though:
1. since a monster's attack dice are affected by its size, usually the encounters with a lot of monsters will be with monsters of smaller size, so the GM will only be rolling 2d6 or even just 1d6 per monster, and not 3d6.
2. There's also the optional "mook" rule, which if used would mean that the "horde" monsters would only be rolling 1D6 per monster.
3. Since a creature has to be in a melee area (ie. able to actually attack one of the PCs) to be able to actually participate in melee, the number of monsters the PCs will ever actually fight will have a certain limit.  Sure, you could have 50 kobolds, but that doesn't mean you'll be rolling 50D6; if you have 4 PCs, then odds are that at most maybe 15 or 16 kobolds might be able to attack.
4. Finally, since in FtA! the force of numbers counts WAY more in a battle than in D&D, what the fuck are your PCs doing facing 50 of anything in the open in the first place?! Unless you are using the mook rule, they're bound to get themselves killed doing that; and their next batch of characters will be way more cautious.  The only way to handle a fight against superior numbers of opponents in FtA! is by being very careful about strategically placing yourself in a place where they can't use those numbers to overwhelm you.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on September 22, 2007, 03:50:01 PM
Quote from: pspahn

It seems like characters had the option of making multiple attacks at higher levels, but I can't recall offhand.  


No, there isn't. The nature of FtA!'s combat mechanics is such that "multiple attacks" would make no sense.
In a combat round, if your high-level fighter ends up with a combat roll of 45, and the two goblins he's fighting roll 25, he does 20 damage in total.  The GM decides how that's divided, but odds are unless there's a good reason not to, he'd give 10 points of damage to each goblin (probably killing both of them).
So there you go, that fighter just did "two attacks". But he only rolls once.


RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: pspahn on September 22, 2007, 04:03:30 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit
The nature of FtA!'s combat mechanics is such that "multiple attacks" would make no sense.


Got it.  I didn't think it through, but just assumed there was an option for multiple attacks like most games have.  That makes sense.

Pete
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Kiero on September 22, 2007, 06:24:33 PM
Appreciate those responses, I'm reading my copy and it certainly does those things.

Quote from: RPGPundit
This game was originally designed as a challenge to myself to make a game that could appeal to newbies and non-gamers.  I hope I've succeeded at that. The game doesn't have a lot of unnecessary crunch; I'd put it at a little less crunchy than RC D&D and a little more crunchy than the old Advanced Fighting Fantasy rules. So, right around the level of the old Tunnels & Trolls, without having nearly as many potential bugs in it as that system had.

Based on where it seems you're coming from and the nature of your questions, I would hazard to say that FtA! fits the description of what you're looking for.

RPGPundit


For what it's worth, I'd say you've got something that does exactly that. I'd be far more comfortable throwing this in front of my crunch-phobic friends than I would even considering 3.x or many other systems. I'm pretty leery of complication as it is, but believe me if they're representative at all of newbies and non-gamers, they are even moreso.

I've been trying some chargen with my wife earlier, to see how someone who's not especially familiar with RPGs handles it. We'd gotten about halfway or thereabouts (as far as equipment).

Impressions thus-far. The point buy ability scores are a lot better than random rolling. I'm not a big fan of randomness in chargen anyway, but we both rolled just to see what happened. And came out with some pretty atrocious scores (I managed one with something like three 0s, a -1 a -2 and a -3). She got a broader spread with positives and negatives, totalling +4. In the end we both just laughed and agreed to go with the point buy.

She's building an elf wizard, I'm going for a human warrior (melee and ACT focused). In looking at hit points, she was a bit miffed that she had only 4, so we agreed to bump them both up to 3rd level. It's certainly feeling a lot like True20 in going through chargen, which is a good thing. More tomorrow when we finish them off.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on September 22, 2007, 07:00:15 PM
Quote from: Kiero
Appreciate those responses, I'm reading my copy and it certainly does those things.


Thanks!

Quote

I've been trying some chargen with my wife earlier, to see how someone who's not especially familiar with RPGs handles it. We'd gotten about halfway or thereabouts (as far as equipment).

Impressions thus-far. The point buy ability scores are a lot better than random rolling. I'm not a big fan of randomness in chargen anyway, but we both rolled just to see what happened. And came out with some pretty atrocious scores (I managed one with something like three 0s, a -1 a -2 and a -3). She got a broader spread with positives and negatives, totalling +4. In the end we both just laughed and agreed to go with the point buy.


Two things: first of all, whether or not it handles things "better" depends on what your priorities are.  If what you want is optimized characters that fit a preset idea about what you had in mind to play, then chargen probably will be better. If on the other hand your goal is old-school play and leaving what class you'll play and how strong or weak you'll be to fate, then the random system is obviously better.

But secondly, I think you made a mistake when you were randomly generating. If you do it by the rules, you should reroll any results that give you a total bonus of less than +1.

Quote

She's building an elf wizard, I'm going for a human warrior (melee and ACT focused). In looking at hit points, she was a bit miffed that she had only 4, so we agreed to bump them both up to 3rd level. It's certainly feeling a lot like True20 in going through chargen, which is a good thing. More tomorrow when we finish them off.


Thanks again for your contribution.

RPGPundit
Title: Quick Cast
Post by: hogscape on September 25, 2007, 05:50:58 AM
Hi folks,
The quick cast rules note the DC as 15 + Spell Level. Should that be 15 + Spell Level x2?

Also, the rules state that making the roll gives you +6 to the Casting Roll. I'm a bit confused. Why do you still need to make a normal cast roll?

Cheers
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on September 25, 2007, 02:47:19 PM
welcome aboard, hogscape!

Quote from: hogscape
Hi folks,
The quick cast rules note the DC as 15 + Spell Level. Should that be 15 + Spell Level x2?

The book is correct, its 15+spell level, NOT 15+spell level x2.

Quote
Also, the rules state that making the roll gives you +6 to the Casting Roll. I'm a bit confused. Why do you still need to make a normal cast roll?

Cheers

The rules do not say that, they say that rolling a critical on the quick casting check will give you a +6 to your casting check.

In any case, you need to make a normal casting roll too.

A quick casting check is ONLY so that you can cast your spell at the beginning, instead of the end of the round. The way it works is that if you choose to do it, you must roll the quick casting check first; then the regular casting check IF your quick casting check succeeded.  IF the quick casting check failed, the spell does not go off (you don't take any damage though, because you failed at even trying to get it off the ground, not at channeling the energies).

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Kiero on September 27, 2007, 05:02:00 AM
Quote from: RPGPundit
Two things: first of all, whether or not it handles things "better" depends on what your priorities are.  If what you want is optimized characters that fit a preset idea about what you had in mind to play, then chargen probably will be better. If on the other hand your goal is old-school play and leaving what class you'll play and how strong or weak you'll be to fate, then the random system is obviously better.


True enough, and I always come to a system with a concept already preset.

Quote from: RPGPundit
But secondly, I think you made a mistake when you were randomly generating. If you do it by the rules, you should reroll any results that give you a total bonus of less than +1.


I'd have been doing a lot of re-rolling, I couldn't seem to get higher than -1 total or so!
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on September 27, 2007, 10:06:30 AM
Quote from: Kiero

I'd have been doing a lot of re-rolling, I couldn't seem to get higher than -1 total or so!


Yes, that does happen sometimes, but there's nothing wrong with lots of re-rolls  (its part of the old-school fun); unless of course you just don't have time. In which case you can always house rule it this way:

When you roll a total of less than +1 in your attributes, assign a number of points by choice to the attributes until their total reaches +1.

RPGPundit
Title: Melee Space
Post by: hogscape on September 28, 2007, 09:57:07 AM
Hi again,

Although the rules don't specifically mention playing with miniatures and a battle-mat, it seems that such a set-up is intended.

Given the collaborative style of combat I'm interested to know how well that works. I find that with T&T the lack of a defined combat area leads to some exciting and inventive game-play and narration whereas (in my experience) the 'alternative' T&T rules included in the 7th edition boxed set, falls flat because of its reliance on maps and counters.

In fact, if you do use counters or figures I find it hard to come up with a compelling reason to use collaborative combat - why not conduct combats one-on-one as most RPGs do?

Of course I'm still working my way through the rules and haven't actually played a session yet!
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Settembrini on September 28, 2007, 10:48:15 AM
My experiences from the first blind Alpha and regular Beta tests pointed in another direction: collaborative combat desperately needs a Battlemat!

Why? Because superiour numbers are a HUGE factor. Finding the place where the enemy can´t gang up on you is paramount.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on September 28, 2007, 02:01:47 PM
Er, well, in the combat rules the most important thing to figure out is where people are, so that you know whether a given person can participate in Melee or not.
You can work that out with miniatures and a battle mat, or you can work that out freeform, it doesn't matter which you choose.  FtA! is certainly a game that goes VERY well with miniatures and a battlemat, but in no way requires it.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on September 28, 2007, 02:26:51 PM
Quote from: Settembrini
Why? Because superiour numbers are a HUGE factor. Finding the place where the enemy can´t gang up on you is paramount.
This was by the way one of the points that reminded me most of rogue-likes.

I cannot count the times that I ran into a single square wide floor to force the fire ant horde to fight me one by one...
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on September 28, 2007, 07:21:19 PM
Quote from: Skyrock
This was by the way one of the points that reminded me most of rogue-likes.

I cannot count the times that I ran into a single square wide floor to force the fire ant horde to fight me one by one...


Bingo!

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dr Rotwang! on December 24, 2007, 02:50:25 PM
Why is that every wepon in a category has the same damage bonus BUT the different weapons have different costs?  In other words, why would I spend, say, 100gp on a double-bladed polearm when I can spend, say, 10gp on a reg'lar polearm?  They are both reaching weapons, and my sexy warrior-chick still gets a +5 either way.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Zachary The First on December 24, 2007, 04:23:08 PM
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!
Why is that every wepon in a category has the same damage bonus BUT the different weapons have different costs?  In other words, why would I spend, say, 100gp on a double-bladed polearm when I can spend, say, 10gp on a reg'lar polearm?  They are both reaching weapons, and my sexy warrior-chick still gets a +5 either way.

You know, I was was actually looking throug the book (well, pdf) the other day, and all it says on it is that there are damage/weapon cateogires so your player can pick out what he wants based on role/appearance, not just stats.  Perhaps it's an affectation, perhaps it's a family heirloom.  But with a 100gp price tag, yeah, that'd have to be a decision you'd really want to make.  Maybe Mort's Level 6 Dungeon Shop only has the double-bladed in stock, and you just lost your weapon last level holding off those jackals.  Or you pick it up in the dungeon, and are able to sell it for a nice bit, as it's a costy weapon.  That'd be my response, and the only real difference/explanation I'd see.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on December 25, 2007, 01:05:43 AM
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!
Why is that every wepon in a category has the same damage bonus BUT the different weapons have different costs?  In other words, why would I spend, say, 100gp on a double-bladed polearm when I can spend, say, 10gp on a reg'lar polearm?  They are both reaching weapons, and my sexy warrior-chick still gets a +5 either way.


That's a good question. Mostly, this is due to the fact that I didn't include a "wealth" system, and that obviously some weapons are more expensive than others in the marketplace.

Note that for your starting equipment you start with a weapon of your choice (and possibly two) that aren't limited by cost as such, so you can start the character just as easily with a longspear or with a Tulwar; with a longsword or with a battle axe.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: hogscape on December 25, 2007, 04:36:26 AM
You're paying for style there my friend. I don't have a problem with that.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dr Rotwang! on December 26, 2007, 08:05:32 AM
I know you can have whatever you want, right out of the gate.  That's good, I like it.  I'm just trying to find the sense in paying extra pretend money.

'Course, I can change things however I want to.  Heh heh heh heh heh.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on December 26, 2007, 10:12:17 AM
Another question that came up in my play-test: Is the DR6 of the Wild Boar a typo, or is this value correct?
It seemed a bit high to me in comparison to the other armor values.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on December 26, 2007, 01:26:36 PM
Quote from: Skyrock
Another question that came up in my play-test: Is the DR6 of the Wild Boar a typo, or is this value correct?
It seemed a bit high to me in comparison to the other armor values.


The value is correct. Wild Boars are tough little fuckers.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dr Rotwang! on December 26, 2007, 04:39:04 PM
They're a challenge for every Uruguayan mass-transit user, I hear.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on December 27, 2007, 11:49:50 AM
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!
They're a challenge for every Uruguayan mass-transit user, I hear.


Well, in the countryside, yes.  They make great eating though, in a plumb sauce especially.  

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dr Rotwang! on December 28, 2007, 01:20:16 PM
For purposes of applying armor penalties, did you intend for combat rolls to count as ACT DEX checks?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on December 28, 2007, 03:47:19 PM
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!
For purposes of applying armor penalties, did you intend for combat rolls to count as ACT DEX checks?


If you check out the Armour table you will notice that there are two columns of penalties: the first, for TRAINED characters, lists the penalty as applying to ACT DEX checks.
The second, for UNTRAINED characters, lists the penalty as applying to "ACT DEX/melee".

So to answer your question, the armour penalty applies to combat (melee) rolls ONLY if your character is untrained in the armour he's wearing.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dr Rotwang! on December 28, 2007, 04:07:15 PM
I wondered if that were the case, but I was unclear (obviously).  Thanks for the quick response.

I'm working up a podcast review, by the way.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on December 28, 2007, 08:01:03 PM
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!
I wondered if that were the case, but I was unclear (obviously).  Thanks for the quick response.


Hmm, ok, one more question for the FAQ that's going to be included in FtA!GN! then...

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dr Rotwang! on January 03, 2008, 08:28:59 AM
Any advice on two-weapon fighting, profe?  I was just thinking a stunt would cover it, but then you'd be rolling that stunt every round and potentially doing less damage.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on January 03, 2008, 08:50:51 AM
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!
Any advice on two-weapon fighting, profe?  I was just thinking a stunt would cover it, but then you'd be rolling that stunt every round and potentially doing less damage.


There's rules on two-weapon fighting in the equipment section. You can use two weapons if you're wielding a one-handed or light weapon, you can have a second light weapon or a shield in your other hand.

If you're wielding two weapons, you add BOTH of the damage values to the melee combat rolls. So if you have a longsword and a dagger, both untrained, you'd do +3 total damage (sword +2, dagger +1).

You do NOT roll two seperate attack rolls.  There's no penalty involved in wielding two weapons.  

The above is almost verbatim from p22 of FtA!

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dr Rotwang! on January 03, 2008, 09:09:23 AM
You oughtta know!

I'm going to tell you, Pundit, I like your game a lot but I think that reading it on-the-go (say, at a lunch break or something) doesn't afford it the attention it needs.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Sean on January 03, 2008, 01:50:07 PM
you know that dungeon generator - just don't get stuck in a tunnel system, they're fucking ENDLESS :D
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dr Rotwang! on January 03, 2008, 04:36:26 PM
I rolled up a dungeon the other night.  I got a nice dungeon but very few monsters.  Weird.  Hell, I can put in more monsters if I want to, right?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on January 03, 2008, 06:04:47 PM
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!
I rolled up a dungeon the other night.  I got a nice dungeon but very few monsters.  Weird.  Hell, I can put in more monsters if I want to, right?


You control the dungeon generator, the Dungeon Generator doesn't control you!

Besides, who's wearing the pink tie anyways? :D

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on January 03, 2008, 09:45:12 PM
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!
I rolled up a dungeon the other night.  I got a nice dungeon but very few monsters.  Weird.  Hell, I can put in more monsters if I want to, right?


Yes, absolutely!

Remember also that there are rules about wandering monsters in the dungeon; the idea is that many of the monsters in an FtA! dungeon wouldn't just be sitting around in rooms (that's what traps are for); instead, there's some monster lairs, and lots of wandering monsters.

You can handle this game wise in two ways: you could generate them as you're actually running the dungeon, checking for wandering monsters as the players enter each new area (like the rules say, p. 144), or you could roll your checks for wandering monsters all at once when you start the adventure and have them in the default locations, if you're worried about not slowing down the game in play.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dr Rotwang! on January 11, 2008, 11:40:16 PM
Damn, Pundit, I like that idea -- monsters wandering around, mostly, instead of sitting around waiting for you to come mash 'em.

Huh.  Why didn't I think of that...?

And, yes, clash, the dungeon generator is my monkey; I tell it when to dance.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on January 14, 2008, 11:58:43 AM
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!
Damn, Pundit, I like that idea -- monsters wandering around, mostly, instead of sitting around waiting for you to come mash 'em.

Huh.  Why didn't I think of that...?

And, yes, clash, the dungeon generator is my monkey; I tell it when to dance.


I hope you can tell it when to stop dancing. I had to shoot mine with a hollow point .44 magnum when it wouldn't quit with the soft shoe one night last week. On the plus side, it went well with fava beans and chianti.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: joewolz on January 14, 2008, 03:54:19 PM
Quote from: flyingmice
I hope you can tell it when to stop dancing. I had to shoot mine with a hollow point .44 magnum when it wouldn't quit with the soft shoe one night last week. On the plus side, it went well with fava beans and chianti.


I'll remember the recipe...but whoa, a .44?  I only have a .357, I hope that's enough.  I don't want it to get mad.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on January 14, 2008, 04:18:30 PM
Quote from: joewolz
I'll remember the recipe...but whoa, a .44?  I only have a .357, I hope that's enough.  I don't want it to get mad.


The Wessons were family friends...

:D

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: arminius on February 11, 2008, 04:32:47 PM
1. Remind me what FTA!GN! stands for?

2. Is the title FTA!GN! a deliberate Cthulhu reference in acronym form?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on February 11, 2008, 04:49:26 PM
Quote from: Elliot Wilen
1. Remind me what FTA!GN! stands for?

2. Is the title FTA!GN! a deliberate Cthulhu reference in acronym form?

1. It's "FtA!GN!" Elliot - that lower case "t" is vital! :O

It's an acronym for "Forward to Adventure! Gamemasters Notebook!"

2. And yes, of course! :D

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on June 06, 2008, 10:14:56 AM
A question that popped up while I thought about some stuff for my conversion and re-read the class descriptions:
Quote
Likewise, a Rogue-Wizard can learn
new spells if he is taught by someone
trained in that spell, or from a scroll or
book of Lore. He must exchange a skill
point gained in his next level
advancement to “learn” that new spell.
A Rogue-Wizard cannot learn new
spell lists, though he can “save” skill
points for future use.
The same is written about Warrior-Wizards.

Which of the following statements is true?
a.) WWs and RWs can _only_ learn spells from their own list and _never_ from other lists.
b.) WWs and RWs can't learn complete lists like Wizards (what wouldn't make sense anyway as they don't get free spells by level-ups), but may still learn single spells from other lists.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on June 06, 2008, 12:17:18 PM
Quote from: Skyrock
A question that popped up while I thought about some stuff for my conversion and re-read the class descriptions:The same is written about Warrior-Wizards.

Which of the following statements is true?
a.) WWs and RWs can _only_ learn spells from their own list and _never_ from other lists.
b.) WWs and RWs can't learn complete lists like Wizards (what wouldn't make sense anyway as they don't get free spells by level-ups), but may still learn single spells from other lists.


"B" is the correct answer.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on June 06, 2008, 12:50:34 PM
Thanks for the clarification :) The bold printed "cannot" and the fact, that learning lists wouldn't be useful for RWs/WWs anyway, completely confused me.

Now my idea of converting TDE-Witches as Rogue-Wizards with two separate spell lists for their defining powers is saved without house-ruling...
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: rafial on June 17, 2008, 03:44:02 PM
Quote from: Nicephorus ;132518
It's 15 + (level*2) instead of 10 + (level*2).  With 3d6, that's much harder. With a casting mod that would achieve a 99.5% success rate, you still have only a 74% success rate.   But not super hard; I put together a 6th level wizard who could quickcast 1st level spells with minimal risk.


Hurm? The text in the printed book I just got lists the quick casting check as ACT INT 15 + level (not level * 2), and you still have to make the standard casting check of PAS WIS + (level*2) if you pass the quick cast check.

My question on spellcasting is how it is affected (if at all) by armor.  I've skimmed my book, not read it thoroughly but I've yet to find a reason why wizards aren't eventually wandering around in full plate.

(My thought would be that armor penalties apply to casting checks, but I haven't found that or something similar in the text yet)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on June 18, 2008, 06:00:15 PM
To answer your question:

Can Wizards, Rogue-Wizards, and Warrior-Wizards all wear any kind of armour they want?

As a default in the game, yes. However, note that wizards must have their hands and arms unhindered in order to cast spells; casting spells while wearing heavy armour or even medium armour could be judged impossible; or the armour check penalty could apply to all caster checks. In the end, it was my decision to leave the question of wizards wearing armour to each individual GM.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on June 18, 2008, 06:00:38 PM
Oh, and welcome to theRPGsite, rafial!
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: rafial on June 18, 2008, 06:07:00 PM
Quote
In the end, it was my decision to leave the question of wizards wearing armour to each individual GM.

Thanks for the response!

So we know then that an experienced wizard in the world of FtA is:

-deformed
-bald
-paranoid
-shunned by animals
-hunted by undead
-wearing a Plate Helm

:)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on June 19, 2008, 12:06:21 AM
Quite possibly all of the above, yes.

Remember, FtA! is much more Sword & Sorcery than it is "Tolkienesque".  Wizardry has its costs.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on June 21, 2008, 08:38:01 AM
Another one that came up during my conversion:

The level 10 spells of Cold-/Water-Shaping List and Druid List allow top summon a ice or plant elemental, but the elemental entry in the monster section doesn't include them, just the four classical elements.
If these two kinds of elementals were just forgotten, how would their stats look like? Or was it left intentionally open?

(I'd need them as TDE uses 6 elements; funnily, it are exactly the same as in FTA!, the 4 classical ones + humus (including plants) + ice.)
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on June 21, 2008, 12:44:39 PM
I didn't include any entry for an Ice Elemental, that's true. I would imagine that on a practical level they'd work like an Earth Elemental.

In the druid list, it doesn't say "plant elemental" it says "animal or plant spirit".  The Unicorn is presented as an example of an animal spirit. You could also adjust the Roc down to 16HD or adjust a Treeman up to 16HD for other examples.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Sean on July 06, 2008, 04:20:35 PM
Hi Pundit, How far are you from finishing the FtA!GN ?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on July 06, 2008, 05:18:16 PM
I'm not Pundit, but he announced on his blog that his part of work is done.
Everything else is in the illustrating, layouting and distributing hands of Clash, and how long that takes... I have no clue, but high hopes that it won't stand too long between me and FTA!GN.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on July 06, 2008, 07:53:32 PM
Yup, the timetable depends on Clash. I'm hoping he'll have it ready in time for Gencon.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on July 06, 2008, 11:15:24 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit;222342
Yup, the timetable depends on Clash. I'm hoping he'll have it ready in time for Gencon.

RPGPundit


I'm shooting for that as a target.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on October 22, 2008, 03:10:04 PM
It's time for the very first FTA!GN! question...

Lizardmen have a natural DR of 5.
Can they also add external armor to that? If they do, do they add their DRs, or does only the highest value count (as in the case of Defence spell 3: Shield)?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on October 22, 2008, 03:17:45 PM
It's time for the very first FTA!GN! question...

Lizardmen have a natural DR of 5.
Can they also add external armor to that? If they do, do they add their DRs, or does only the highest value count (as in the case of Defence spell 3: Shield)?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on October 22, 2008, 05:44:24 PM
Quote from: Skyrock;259409
It's time for the very first FTA!GN! question...

Lizardmen have a natural DR of 5.
Can they also add external armor to that? If they do, do they add their DRs, or does only the highest value count (as in the case of Defence spell 3: Shield)?


I left that matter open to GMs. In my own games, I would suggest that Lizardmen could not wear body armour, but could wear helms or use shields.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on November 08, 2008, 02:41:35 PM
Good news first: The German review of FTA!GN! should be done by Sunday (text is now complete, the only remaining taks on my to-do list are trimming and proofreading), and the English version should follow within 2 weeks after its submission.


Now, one thing I trimmed is a lengthy evaluation of the "Monster PAS checks vs. Magic"-rule on p.43, as I have length issues and couldn't afford to waste around 300 words on a single issue.
Here's the criticism as originally inserted by me into the review:

Rather strange seemed to me finally the errata about monsters and their PAS saving throw versus spells, which was squeazed in as an aside. First, my opinion is that errata for basic parts of the game belong into the public so that they are also usable for the original buyers of the MRB, not hidden in some for-pay-supplement.
Moreover, I have doubts that the rule change works as intended. What it offers in the end is a bonus for higher-HD monsters versus lower-level wizards amounting to the difference in level. The reasoning for this is that the attribute bonus isn't calculated in the monster's PAS.

That takes me wonder for several reasons:
1.) The monster bonus works 1:1 in a linear fashion. PCs, however, only gain one attribute point every three levels, turning this into a 1:3 relation. Moreover, the PC's attribute bonus would have to be allocated to one of the six attributes - so assuming an equal spread, only all 18 levels the resistance versus spells would be improved by attribute changes alone.
2.) At least over 11 levels difference, the bonus is greater than the whole attribute range (-5 to +5 results in eleven possible values), thus breaking the basic assumptions of the game.
3.) I always assumed that monster PAS already includes a flat bonus for attributes and skills, as it is higher than the PAS of a warrior PC of the same level, with special exceptions already included in the monster description (like the Wereswine's cowardice and the resulting penalty for morale checks). Therefore, this errata seems redundant.
4.) If the attribute isn't yet accounted in monster PAS: Why does it then only count in saving throws versus spells? What about stunts, which are also resisted by PAS + attribute?

Either way, this rule is either redundant to existing calculations, or it goes too short and excludes the stunting issue, so that it can't be recommended as written.


I'm yet curious about the thoughts behind this rule and why it is the way it is (1:1 progression, applying only to spells and not to stunts), so that I'm entering it here rather than letting it go to waste.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on November 09, 2008, 10:43:20 AM
Well, It was largely a throwaway issue regarding some players' thoughts that monsters were just too vulnerable to spellcasting after a certain level. A similar argument has also been made about stunts, one player claiming that stunts mean that a high-level rogue is easily the most powerful character in the game, and by the time a rogue gets to around level 15, there isn't a single monster in the book that can oppose him.

My feeling was that this was overstated on both counts, but I wanted to give the idea that this sort of fix could be implemented if GMs wanted monsters to be more resistant to PC ability.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on November 09, 2008, 10:50:25 AM
So it's purely optional? That changes the picture. It seemed to me rather like a mandatory errata.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on November 09, 2008, 12:36:43 PM
Nothing in FtA! is mandatory, much less in FtA!GN!

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: maeschda on August 24, 2009, 07:00:00 AM
Quote
if the attacker is shooting the defender in the back, the defender suffers a -4 penalty.
This implies there's a kind of facing in the combat system although i can't find any rules for rotary motion or back-stabbing. How should i understand this penalty?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on August 25, 2009, 12:38:48 AM
Well, with the ranged attack system, things like being aware of the attack and facing or cover can be easily taken into account.

With the melee system, either an opponent is completely unaware, in which case he won't be rolling any melee dice and will likely be butchered, or he is aware, and then if you want to try some kind of special "backstab" maneuver you'd be better off trying to handle that as a stunt.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: maeschda on September 20, 2009, 08:15:09 AM
Thanks for your help last time.

Here's another question:

Most monsters have a much better damage bonus than the recommended natural wapons or usual melee weapons would provide although there are no multiple arms described.

It seems that the equipment quality grows with the hd-value of a monster. If i'm right: What are appropriate equipment bonuses (damage, dr) for every hit dice an average monster with no other special powers should have?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on September 21, 2009, 03:43:24 AM
I didn't use any hard-and-fast formula for the damage values of the monsters in FtA!.
Instead, I simply tried to consider a variety of things: the ferocity of the creature's possible attacks, the nature of the weapon/attack used, whether the creature is larger than human-sized, whether the creature is magical or intentionally designed for combat, and yes overall hit dice are A consideration. But it will matter also whether the creature is natural or designed, whether it is an animal or an abomination, etc.

You should use the wide variety of provided monsters to act as a general guideline, think of a creature of similar size and type (or types of attacks) and reference the kind of damage they do.

I hope this helps a bit, at least.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Skyrock on September 21, 2009, 06:53:59 AM
As I've always assumed that the extra damage has been added to account for the magical weapons the PCs are going to acquire, you could just use the magic bonus spread as a guideline.
Just take the magic weapon bonus spread of +1-10 (or +1-20 if you account for dual-wielding) and spread it evenly from HD1 to HD20 as the end of the flagpole for usual monsters. (Only the Great Old Ones with their 40HD in FTA!GN! go beyond that, but their stats alone are anyway so grossly out of line to assume that any sane PC who hasn't been played for decades should tackle them in melee.)

Quote from: RPGPundit;332978
You should use the wide variety of provided monsters to act as a general guideline, think of a creature of similar size and type (or types of attacks) and reference the kind of damage they do.
That's how I create my custom and converted monsters if I can't be bothered to put too much work into it.

For my Wights two sessions ago I just took the Ghoul als closest thing to a wight, added the immunities and replaced the paralyzing claw with level drain with the same PAS check.

Likewise, the Hell Knights|Imps I stole liberally from Doom to serve as demonic aides for chaos cultists are just Trolls|Orcs without regeneration, but with a natural fireball spell.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Mischa on June 14, 2010, 09:27:49 AM
Quote from: RPGPundit;332978
I didn't use any hard-and-fast formula for the damage values of the monsters in FtA!.
[...]
You should use the wide variety of provided monsters to act as a general guideline, think of a creature of similar size and type (or types of attacks) and reference the kind of damage they do.
[...]
RPGPundit


For some reason I don't really get a guideline to find some enemies for my group of SC's. It always works out as long as I use NPC's (like the ones from the FtA!GN). But I get a lot of problems if I use Monsters.

For example I had a Level 3 Roque, a Level 3 Roque-Wizard and a Level 3 Warrior-Wizard that encountered a group of 5 HD1 kobolds.
After the first round in which the RW killed one of the kobolds with one shot. They totally lost control of the battle and had the Roque running away from the melee-kobolds and the WW shot to 0HP by the other two kobolds while the RW reloaded her Crossbow.

Seems to me that the whole thing is a lot of trial and error.


And I have some other questions:

Since there are rules to disarm someone, how do I pick up a weapon?
I just ignored drawing weapons but it seems to me that ignoring picking up lost weapons would make disarming and the first entries in the combat-fumble-lists useless.
I actually handled it as a -6 penalty to other actions (like it was a secondary action) but when in the combat round do I get control of the Weapon/Item.

So you don't get damage when your Qick-Casting-check fails?
Since the rules say that your Casting Check automatically fails I thought you would. A few lines later it is said (about fumbling) "...the spell simply fails and you get take the usual damage..."
Which implied to me that you take usually damage when failing a casting check even if it fails automatically.

Do you really get two missile attack ROLLs with the spell haste or is it just like the rule for firing two arrows or misslies at the same time?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on June 14, 2010, 11:08:11 AM
Quote from: Mischa;387306
For some reason I don't really get a guideline to find some enemies for my group of SC's. It always works out as long as I use NPC's (like the ones from the FtA!GN). But I get a lot of problems if I use Monsters.

For example I had a Level 3 Roque, a Level 3 Roque-Wizard and a Level 3 Warrior-Wizard that encountered a group of 5 HD1 kobolds.
After the first round in which the RW killed one of the kobolds with one shot. They totally lost control of the battle and had the Roque running away from the melee-kobolds and the WW shot to 0HP by the other two kobolds while the RW reloaded her Crossbow.


5 Kobolds shouldn't be too much for a group of 3 level 3 characters. It sounds like they had some very bad luck. Why did the Rogue run away?
In the game positioning and teamwork matter quite a lot, as does timing.  If one level 3 character puts himself right out in the open, alone, so that four level 1 kobolds can wail on him, he'll probably be screwed. If he knew that his only backup was a rogue (apparently a cowardly one), and a guy firing ranged attacks, he should try to move into some kind of position where he can avoid fighting all 4 kobolds at once.


Quote

Since there are rules to disarm someone, how do I pick up a weapon?
I just ignored drawing weapons but it seems to me that ignoring picking up lost weapons would make disarming and the first entries in the combat-fumble-lists useless.
I actually handled it as a -6 penalty to other actions (like it was a secondary action) but when in the combat round do I get control of the Weapon/Item.


Yes, that sounds right.

Quote
So you don't get damage when your Qick-Casting-check fails?
Since the rules say that your Casting Check automatically fails I thought you would. A few lines later it is said (about fumbling) "...the spell simply fails and you get take the usual damage..."
Which implied to me that you take usually damage when failing a casting check even if it fails automatically.


In the case of Quick Casting, if you fail the roll, it means you screwed up before drawing up any magical energies, which means that you don't take any damage; the only consequence of the failure is that the spell didn't happen.

Quote
Do you really get two missile attack ROLLs with the spell haste or is it just like the rule for firing two arrows or misslies at the same time?


You get two separate rolls, which means that in theory you could try to fire up to four arrows at the same time (two with the first attack, and two with the second).

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Mischa on June 16, 2010, 08:25:49 PM
And when in the Combat round do you pick up dropped weapons?
Is it a stunt without a roll or where should I put it?

And another question: Do stunning effects of stunts and stunning effects of magic spells end at the same time?
Since stunning effects of magic can be considered ongoing spell effects they should end in the appropriate spell completion phase (or don't those end in that phase at all?)
But the stunt states: For one round. So does it last from that very moment till the next stunt phase, or for the next round. The latter would include the moral/intimidation check phase of that round, too. I mean then that NPC/PC wont participate in two moral checks.

Why exactly did you give the crossbow a loading time?
I thought it had to do with the extraordinary range but the longbow is pretty good for the range too and it has no loading time.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: flyingmice on June 16, 2010, 10:31:25 PM
Quote from: Mischa;387814

Why exactly did you give the crossbow a loading time?
I thought it had to do with the extraordinary range but the longbow is pretty good for the range too and it has no loading time.


That one I can answer, I think. It's for non-game reasons. In real life, crossbows have to be cranked or set on the ground and pulled up with a stirrup. This takes a lot of time. Other bows just need to be pulled back.

-clash
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Mischa on June 17, 2010, 08:04:43 AM
Should there really be some Realism in FTA!?
That just leads to everyone wanting longbows insteads of crossbows and it is not so much realistic in the end.
Did you ever try shooting with a crosbow and with a longbow?
It is incredibly hard to "just pull it back" and some stirrup-mechanisms can be really fast.
As I said I thought it was because of the range which is more than doubled as the range of the shortbow but the range of the longbow is also twice the range of the shortbow.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on June 17, 2010, 01:27:21 PM
Quote from: Mischa;387814
And when in the Combat round do you pick up dropped weapons?
Is it a stunt without a roll or where should I put it?


I would consider that a movement; its not a stunt, there's no such thing as a mundane stunt or a stunt that doesn't involve a roll. Picking something up is movement.

Quote
And another question: Do stunning effects of stunts and stunning effects of magic spells end at the same time?
Since stunning effects of magic can be considered ongoing spell effects they should end in the appropriate spell completion phase (or don't those end in that phase at all?)
But the stunt states: For one round. So does it last from that very moment till the next stunt phase, or for the next round. The latter would include the moral/intimidation check phase of that round, too. I mean then that NPC/PC wont participate in two moral checks.


One round means one round from the moment an effect takes place; so it would be one full round from the phase where the stun took effect until the same phase next round.

Quote
Why exactly did you give the crossbow a loading time?
I thought it had to do with the extraordinary range but the longbow is pretty good for the range too and it has no loading time.


It was mainly a question of Range, if I recall correctly, plus Emulation.
Its true that an untrained person would take longer to use a Bow; if this really bothers you, you could say that if someone doesn't have Ranged Weapon Training a shortbow also takes two rounds to fire and a longbow takes 3.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Mischa on June 21, 2010, 07:11:32 AM
Quote from: RPGPundit;387933
I would consider that a movement; its not a stunt, there's no such thing as a mundane stunt or a stunt that doesn't involve a roll. Picking something up is movement.
RPGPundit


But that means that disarming is a really poor thing:
If you got disarmed in the stuntphase of one round (and don't flee in the moral check) you can pick up your weapon again in the next movement phase.

So it only hindered me from moving but I always thought disarming was supposed to hinder someone from fighting.
Only if one PC/NPC uses a disarming stunt on a shield and another one completes a damage doing spell the same round it has a secondary effect.

But is that what you want to have built in your rules?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on June 22, 2010, 04:13:05 PM
Quote from: Mischa;388565
But that means that disarming is a really poor thing:
If you got disarmed in the stuntphase of one round (and don't flee in the moral check) you can pick up your weapon again in the next movement phase.

So it only hindered me from moving but I always thought disarming was supposed to hinder someone from fighting.
Only if one PC/NPC uses a disarming stunt on a shield and another one completes a damage doing spell the same round it has a secondary effect.

But is that what you want to have built in your rules?


You can do a stunt to knock someone's weapon away a certain distance, requiring them to move away toward it (in most movies, when someone gets a weapon knocked out of their hand, it doesn't just drop to the floor beside them).
You could also a complicated stunt to disarm the person and end up with their weapon.

Also, I'd be likely to rule as GM that picking up a weapon when you're in a melee space is a pretty complex action, so if you did that while trying to fight you'd incur the penalty of doing multiple actions in one round.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Mischa on September 24, 2010, 04:06:07 PM
Since my group is still in some kind of vacation I started to play as a player.
My new GM just told me that changing from missile weapons to melee has to be some kind of action -> a move action...
which makes it impossible to use a bow and take part in melee combat.
The strange thing is that he thinks it is possible to fire a crossbow with one hand.
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on September 24, 2010, 05:16:55 PM
Quote from: Mischa;406841
Since my group is still in some kind of vacation I started to play as a player.
My new GM just told me that changing from missile weapons to melee has to be some kind of action -> a move action...
which makes it impossible to use a bow and take part in melee combat.
The strange thing is that he thinks it is possible to fire a crossbow with one hand.


Changing weapons is definitely a move action.  However, that doesn't mean you can't "use a bow AND take part in melee combat".  You can do both things, only in the melee combat you would be fighting without any weapon (like you were unarmed).  You would also incur the -6 penalty for taking a second action (firing your bow) besides melee. But you can definitely do both, its disadvantageous, but possible.

Also, tell your GM that crossbows cannot be fired with only one hand, unless its some kind of special one-handed crossbow.

RPGPundit
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: tracyk859 on October 21, 2010, 11:14:09 PM
Quote from: Settembrini;123377
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Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
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Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: Dan Davenport on March 21, 2011, 01:39:37 PM
So, do I have it correct that armor reduces damage rather than the chance to hit?

Which is used to hit in melee combat: Dex or Str?
Title: The OFFICIAL FtA! Q&A
Post by: RPGPundit on March 23, 2011, 04:35:57 AM
Armor reduces damage, yes.  And both STR and DEX are used in calculating melee attacks (DEX only in ranged attacks).

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