Little John for AFF

I recently finished watching series 2 of the 1980s TV series Robin of Sherwood. I was overjoyed when I found that all the episodes were available on ITV Encore, and pretty dejected when, after finishing series 2 which I had downloaded, I found that none of the series were currently available. So no Jason Connery.

Watching the first two series did remind me of just how much of my imagination of the ‘fantastical’ has been shaped by Robin of Sherwood. In fact, I’d say that the lingering mid-1980s influences on my imagination are Robin of Sherwood, Fighting Fantasy, and 2000AD. I won’t be able to shake these, ever.

So, Fighting Fantasy and Robin of Sherwood? Why not? I know that Dragon Warriors is often described as evoking that Robin of Sherwood feel, and dates to the right period of UK gaming. Indeed Legend is a fantastic pseudo-historical medieval game world. But Dragon Warriors is a class-based system, and worse (for our purposes here) its classes are not generic ‘roles’ but are fairly specifically fixed in the fiction, if that makes any sense. In Basic D&D, for example, Fighter can be anything from a knight, to an outlaw, to a barbarian, to a samurai, etc. Fighter, to some degree, represents an area of expertise, not a particular profession or social role. Knight and Barbarian, the Dragon Warriors ‘fighting’ classes, however, are much more specific, the theme built into them from the start. Yes, I know that the Player’s Guide includes new classes, specifically Hunter, Knave, and Priest, which would fill out Robin’s Merry Men very well, but I am still unsure as to how I feel about the additions in that book – I worry that it will be for me what Unearthed Arcana is for AD&D grognards.

Anyhow, how would be build Robin’s Merry Men in AFF2e? Let’s start with a simple one. No, not Much! Little John (as played by Clive Mantle).

When ‘modelling’ a character in AFF2e it is best to work backwards. Forget SKILL, STAMINA, and LUCK for a moment, and start by considering what this characters Talent(s) will be. What will make them unique: a Hero rather than an NPC who needs only SKILL and STAMINA as their mechanical presence.

Of course, Little John would have ‘Strongarm’.

With regard to Special Skills, I’m going to (more or less) build these characters as if they are starting Heroes. Beginning Heroes in AFF2e are powerful characters, certainly on a par with an PC from an Expert Set D&D campaign. So Little John’s Special Skills would look like this:

Combat

Bows 1, Brawling 2, Staves 2, Strength 2, Swords 1

Movement

Climb 1

Stealth

Awareness 2

Knowledge

English 4, Forest Lore 1, Hunting 1, Religion 1, Secret Signs 1, World Lore 1

It occurred to me as I assigned the points to these starting Special Skills that, were I do develop my pseudo-historical AFF game properly I would need ‘packages’ of skills representing social class, culture, or profession. Or maybe two of these, layered on top. What a peasant knows (and knows how to do) is very different from what a noble knows. While this can be done by players taking care over their Special Skill choices, this involves spending more time on character creation, involves asking players to understand the system a little, and the setting. Better, I feel, to present them with packages, as Daniel Sell has done in Troika!

The same is true for the ‘racial’ stat ‘bonuses’ – in AFF2e these each race is given, effectively, an extra point in their basic stats according to whether a Hero is Human, Dwarf, or Elf. In an all-human game, adding an extra point to every Hero’s LUCK seems pretty pointless. Where that extra ‘point’ is assigned ought be either a decision for the player, or enforced by a thematic ‘package’. This extra point could even be an extra Talent in some cases – after all, the ‘demi-humans’ get a free ‘Dark Seeing’ Talent.

So, I’ve given Little John the Dwarf’s +2 to STAMINA, giving him a character sheet which looks as so:

Hero: Little John (Player: Clive Mantle)

SKILL 7

STAMINA 18

LUCK 9

MAGIC 0

Talent: Strongarm

Special Skills

Combat

Bows 1, Brawling 2, Staves 2, Strength 2, Swords 1

Movement

Climb 1

Stealth

Awareness 2

Knowledge

English 4, Forest Lore 1, Hunting 1, Religion 1, Secret Signs 1, World Lore 1

Treasure: 2d6 silver pennies

Provisions: 2

Equipment

1 Quarterstaff

2 Sword

3 Dagger

4 Long Bow

5 Quiver w. 20 Arrows

6 Furs+Leathers (treat as ‘Leather Cuirass’)

7

8

9

10

You will see that I have simply assigned him appropriate equipment, and if we did play we would be using the ‘silver standard’. While we’re on the subject of equipment, I am thinking of adopting the neat little encumbrance and item retrieval system from Troika! But more on that another time.