Troika! review/overview

As an avowed Advanced Fighting Fantasy fan, I've been a big fan of Daniel Sell's Troika!, even though I've STILL not got it to the table. It's a really terrific 2d6 fantasy game built on the Fighting Fantasy chassis but very much doing its own thing. There are tons of reviews out there, but I'd like to point YOU (if I was to trust the visitor data, the YOU these days is mainly adult webcammers) in the direction of a nice little review by Jakob Schmidt HERE.

Social Status in AFF

Okay, you've assigned points to SKILL, STAMINA, and LUCK (and MAGIC)[1]. You've assigned your Special Skill points and selected your Talent. If you are that way inclined you have selected your Spells or Miracles[2]. You've thought up a name, a description, and you've done the most boring bit of any character creation process - you've gone shopping. Your Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2e Hero has the expertise and equipment and is ready to Dungeoneer!

But wait. What's this? Social Status?

Heroes start with a Social Status of between 0-6 (chosen as per character concept), with 7 and 8 available to starting Heroes who take the appropriate Talents.

What's this for? Do the GOBLINS in the Forest of Doom care whether or not my Adventurer is a dirt farmer from Hick Town or the son of King Salamon himself? Well, actually, they just might. But yes, I'll concede, as far as the rules go, Social Status isn't of any great importance.  In fact, the only place I can find a mention of using it is on p51, in the Social Actions - Reactions[3] section, which reads:

"Social class should also be taken into account if the difference between the two parties is more than 3 or so. A beggar talking to a Lord may well get an unfavourable reaction, but a Lord talking to a beggar will be very different!"

So all a bit loose and freeform. And "3 or so" seems like a rather large gap to begin with; the difference in social rank between a 'senior priest' and a 'master craftsman' ought have some effect in most pseudo-Medieval settings, even if the difference in Social Status is only 2.

But it *could* be used by enterprising Directors to add an impression of depth to their campaigns. First, and most obviously, Social Status could be used as a modifier in social situations. So you're asking your Heroes to test their Leadership, their Etiquette, their Bargain, their Con[4] Special Skill? Surely all of these could be influenced by a PCs Social Status? I wouldn't recommend rolling against Social Status, unless you want failure to be the norm - and perhaps that's right, that leveraging your Social Status is something that can only be reliably done by people of the knightly classes and above. But as the rules suggest, the power of social rank to affect a situation is relative: a Sir Therfax can reliably browbeat a peasant, but a king can impress his will upon the Sir Therfax. It is also not simply one directional. Horgun the dockworker has a much better chance of making useful contacts in the Block & Tackle Inn than does Sir Therfax.

So the rules are right, difference in Social Status matters, and should be applied on a case-by-case basis to 'social' Special Skill tests. Sometimes the Heroes Social Status will be being measured against that of an NPC[5]. Sometimes the bar will be set by the setting - a Director can assign different 'Social Status' scores to different parts of a city (or even different parts of a Castle, a Palace, or a Temple). So a knightly hero (Social Status 7) might have +3 modifier when attempting to impress their will upon a the town clerk (Social Status 4). But such a character roleplayed as leaning on the little people might also might suffer a -4 modifier when attempting to make friends with a sergeant of the town watch. A few points on the dice can be a way to reinforce the colour of the setting. There is no reason why Social Status cannot be used to add more fun (yes, fun!) to the Hireling, Mass Combat, and Holdings rules in the Heroes Companion. It is up to the Players, through their choices, statements of intent, and description of their Heroes' actions[6] to determine quite how their Social Status would effect the game world, and for the Director to make a judgement. 


[1] I've written before (and I'm not the first to say so), that AFF, being such a simple, robust system, is well suited to the addition of extra 'stats', or the replacement of the existing stats (usually MAGIC, but I could imagine replacing LUCK too). Stellar Adventures does this, adding TECH for Robot characters (which interestingly replaces LUCK) and PSIONICS for Space Monks and other Psychics (replacing MAGIC). Other examples from the solo gamebooks would be FEAR (House of Hell), HONOUR (Sword of the Samurai), WILLPOWER (Beneath Nightmare Castle), EVIL (Dead of Night), though I'm pretty sure that there's others scattered through the books. Add whatever is thematically appropriate for your setting and campaign. CORRUPTION? Go ahead. SANITY? Sure, and get all 1920s pulp hero investigating what needs be done by renaming SKILL 'COMPETENCE' and STAMINA 'GRIT' too.

[2] Actually, the magical abilities granted through worship of the gods of Titan are described as 'powers' in a section entitled 'Priestly Abilities', but I like 'Miracles' so that's what they are in my game!

[3] AFF2e has no set mechanism for 'Reactions'. I use something very like the 2d6 Reaction Roll of Classic D&D, adjusted by whether the NPC/Monster disposition is Friendly, Neutral, Unfriendly, or Hostile - the categories given to us in Out of the Pit. I tacked it onto the end of my Viscera! supplement.

[4] And why are there no Persuade or Orate Special Skills? Want your Hero to have one - write it in! There is, please note, a Silvertongued Talent which adds a whopping +3 (on a 2d6 curve, that's a LOT) to these kind of social skill tests. 

[5] Note that I advise that Directors do not listen to the AFF2e rulebook here. Way back in 2015 I wrote:

"AFF is meant to be a simple game. The master merchant should have SKILL 4 STAMINA 5, which adequately represents him as a combatant, and on the same index card you scrawl 'PCs attempting to bargain with Marco Columbo suffer a -4 penalty to their effective SKILL'. Instead of opposed tests - which require NPCs to be statted out as if they were PCs - non-combat 'contests' are then conducted as unopposed tests based only on the PC's SKILL and Special Skills, plus or minus modifiers, with the capability of the NPC to frustrate the aims of the PC being expressed as a simple modifier. The NPCs are treated just like any other feature of the world of Titan that might affect the PC's chances of achieving their goals." 

[6] i.e. Roleplaying, but so many take that to mean more speaking in a funny voice than making choices on behalf of your character. You don't have to put on a posh voice to have your adventuring prince bully the town guard, you just need to say that that is what he intends to do and describe how he will do so. And then we might roll the dice.  

Advanced Fighting Fantasy: Everything!

Everything! Cheap!

And it is for CHARITY!

Bundle of Holding have two Advanced Fighting Fantasy offers on for the next 7 days. The first contains everything you'd need to play long, varied fantasy campaigns:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2019AFF

The second, 'More Fighting Fantasy', not only contains supplements that allow you to play AFF in the hellish dimensions of The Pit or 'In Spaaaaaace!', but also several *all new* books, notably Return to the Pit and Travels in Arion:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/MoreAFF

Get the lot!

AFF: I'm a man of many talents

...but posting more than every few weeks seems to be beyond me!

AFF starting PCs are, by contrast, much more competent - they're called Heroes by the game, after all. They have a broad range of (Special) Skills, and a usually able to get by by their 'raw' SKILL alone. If you have three players around the table (AFF works best, in my opinion, with small parties) chances are their Heroes will have lots of overlapping competencies. So what sets them apart?

Role-playing, you fools!

No, sorry. There is something else. AFF2e adds Talents into the mix. These weren't found in Dungeoneer (the first edition of AFF), but an embryonic talent system was found in the gamebook series - I know for certain they were to be found in Jim Bambra and Stephen Hand's Dead of Night, and that something very similar was found in Jamie Thompson and Mark Smith's Sword of the Samurai[1]. Indeed, the Talents from Dead of Night are translated into AFF in the Heroes' Companion, but the core rulebook lists 32 different Talents.

These range from Ambidextrous, Animal Friend, and Arcane... through to Swashbuckler[2], Trapmaster, and Weaponmaster. Not all of these are equally powerful. Many have an effect in combat - and AFF games will likely involve plenty of that - others, such as Status (punchline - the Aristocrats!), Natural Linguist, or Learned will find use in other situations... and the Director should pay heed to this. A player choosing these for their Hero should be assured by the Director that they will come into play at some point - but equally players should be reminded to *make decisions* on behalf of their Heroes that will bring their Special Skills and Talents into action.

As with Special Skills, there is no reason why a Director, perhaps in collaboration with their players, should not introduce more Talents, using the existing Talents as a guide. Talents could certainly be re-skinned and given flavourful, evocative names. There is no reason why, for example, Armour Training could be renamed Vymornan Legionary, though players and Director need to be on the same 'cheat sheet' when it comes to understanding what each Talent encompasses.     

Players choose one Talent for their Hero at character creation. Non-humans might start with other Talents intrinsic to their species - Dwarfs and Elves both start with Dark Seeing. The Rhino-Man, given as an example of creating new Hero species in Chapter 11: Optional Rules comes with both intrinsic armour and weapon as Talents, alongside Strongarm from the standard list.

Talents in AFF are one of the little gems hidden in the system. Their nothing special, in themselves; they're not complex, or innovative, you don't read the list and go 'wow', but in play they can be used to effectively add character to your characters - I don't like players building intricate backstories for their Heroes, but using their Talent to give us a glimpse of their Hero's history? Yes, absolutely. 

[1] One of the things that AFF has going for it is not just the material in Arion Games' own line of books, but the vast back catalogue of gamebooks (and fan created material). Some inspiration can be taken from the way in which the 'dead' Director (keeping with AFF terminology) of the gamebooks offers idiosyncratic methods of resolving actions and encounters, and lots of inspiration can be drawn from the straight, high-strength, system-neutral flavour - including great black and white illustrations that look great on the player-facing side of a Director's screen. Some of the later books might be a bit pricey, but the first 30 or so are normally pretty cheap. 

[2] Stellar Adventures (AFF in space! - a complete game in its own right which does not need AFF2e to be played) does away with the Swashbuckler Talent and allows all characters to use their Dodge Special Skill to reduce damage. This is one of a number of (minor) improvements that Stellar Adventures introduces to the AFF system.

AFF: I've got (Special) Skills...

...they're multiplying!

So sang the famous Ogre minstrel, Jhon Revolta.

Luckily, in AFF2e there isn't quite the proliferation of Skills that can be found in some games (I'm looking at you, iterations of BRP). Plus, having Hero competency based off a generic SKILL score rather than finely sliced into different skill ratings means that a PC doesn't end up being extremely able in one area while incapable in another closely related area (though I am of the opinion that when this does happen it is as much a problem of the players (including the GM) as it is the system).

Nevertheless, in the AFF2e core rulebook there are a whole bunch of Special Skills, grouped into Combat, Movement, Stealth, Knowledge, and Magical. It is here, with the Skill groupings, that I sometimes start thinking of AFF as a kind of 'Junior RuneQuest' (there's also some bits of Titan that suggest a RuneQuest influence). These grouping have no effect on the game, but can help players when choosing to allocate Special Skill points, organise Special Skills on the character sheet, and might point the way to simplified or player-defined Special Skill categories.

More Skills are added in the expansion books Blacksand!, the Hero's Companion, The Titan Herbal, etc. There is no reason why a player could not discard this list and simply assign points to 'areas of expertise' (in negotiation with the GM to make sure nothing too broad or narrow is selected) or even to 'sources of power' - want to have a PC that can accomplish things through their 'Love', their 'Curiosity', or their 'Beauty'? Well, why not make it as Special Skill and bring it into the 2d6 resolution mechanism - AFF2e is a pretty loose game, with resolution mechanics that are pretty 'abstract', so why not? If this doesn't sit right, these things could always be added as custom Talents (see next post).

Special Skills are rated between 1 and 6, with the rulebook saying that "A special skill of 1 point indicates someone who has had basic training, 2 points indicates fully trained, 3 points can be considered an expert, and 4 or more a master" (AFF2e p 25). This sits uneasily with the standard task resolution mechanism which is to roll under SKILL + Special Skill (or roll + SKILL + Special Skill if using the alternative 'roll under'. As such, I have thought carefully about the ways to understand SKILL and Special Skill in AFF2e. I'll not rewrite those arguments here, but will point you to the appropriate blog posts:

Skill Rolls in AFF2e (November 2014)

HWWJD: More on AFF2e Skill Tests (November 2014)

AFF2e: The Virtues of Asymmetry (June 2015)

AFF2e House Rule: Capped 'effective' SKILL (August 2014)   

These posts preempt much of what I have to say with regard to the 'Game Rules' chapter of the rulebook, in terms of simplifying (and, in a some senses, expanding) on how to handle Skill rolls in AFF2e.

Next up: Talents.

AFF: Your Adventure Starts Here (Part One)

I picked up the Advanced Fighting Fantasy (AFF) 2e rulebook with a view to, as promised, write a 'review'. I could write a chapter by chapter description of the content, but that wouldn't be all that much help. And I realised that it is actually quite difficult it is to write a 'review' of a book with which you are intimately familiar, as surprise and novelty that highlights in your mind the distinctive features of the book have long faded. 

So let's start at the beginning. 'Fighting Fantasy' is the name of a series of gamebooks. You know this. But keep it in mind when thinking about the mechanics of Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2e. A Fighting Fantasy gamebook character sheet looks like this:

  

Just a handful of characteristics, SKILL, STAMINA, and LUCK, a space to write down your characters' equipment, their gold, and their Provisions. And that's enough for perfectly usable 'lite' multiplayer game, especially back in 1984 when 'Fighting Fantasy: the Introductory Role-playing Game' was released. As the gamesbooks had introduced a generation (in the UK and beyond) to fantasy gaming, chances were that anyone up for playing Fighting Fantasy as a tabletop RPG was already familiar with the rules and jargon. 

Advanced Fighting Fantasy adds to character complexity. Obviously. When I'm flipping through a rulebook in my friendly neighbourhood hobby shop one of the first things I do is find the example character sheet. I'm of the opinion that character sheets are a good proxy for complexity/crunch, especially the degree of complexity that is 'player facing'. I tend to play with players who don't have a background in RPGs, so this matters to me.

Let's begin this series proper - a review of everything AFF2e - with a discussion of character creation. What makes an Advanced Fighting Fantasy character? 12 pages; character creation takes up 12 pages of the AFF2e core rulebook. Character creation in AFF2e is a process of design, not random generation[1]. There is an alternative method offered in Chapter 11 - Optional Rules that involves rolling and allocating dice to generate the basic stat-line and the number of Special Skill points available. Given the granularity of each step up in SKILL (or SKILL+Special Skill) I would hesitate to recommend this optional rule.

Starting characters (Heroes in AFF lingo) have a SKILL of between 4 and 7, STAMINA between 8 and 16, LUCK between 8 and 11, and MAGIC between 0 and 7. What do each of these mean? Well, putting it in terms familiar to players of the original fantasy RPG, STAMINA are equivalent to Hit Points, LUCK is something like a (finite) Saving Throw resource, and SKILL and MAGIC are... 

...well, it is best to think of these two characteristics as fulfilling the same role as the concept of 'Level'. Especially SKILL. A Hero with SKILL 7 is just much better at everything than a Hero with SKILL 4 - on an unmodified test the former succeeds 60% of the time and the latter just 20%. This applies to almost everything risky that the Hero might do. This strikes some people as being quite odd, even as their Level 7 Wizard has more Hit Points, a greater chance to hit, and far better saving throws that the professional soldiers they might hire as retainers. SKILL is a game abstraction, a measure of overall adventuring competence, and in my opinion AFF2e works better when you 'lean into' this idea.

MAGIC can be understood as something skin to 'casting level', acting as a measure of a Hero's competence and, depending on the type of magic, determining the size of the Hero's reservoir of magical power in the form of Magic Points (MP). It can also be used in place of SKILL when the test is of a Hero's knowledge (p55). If, as a Director (the AFF term for GM) you have players with Heroes with MAGIC higher than SKILL, it is worth thinking very liberally about this, and expanding this to any tasks for which knowledge, intelligence, insight etc. play a role that is as, or more, significant than physical attributes.    

Abstraction. Abstraction. Abstraction. Have I said it enough? MAGIC isn't intelligence, or wisdom, or willpower. SKILL isn't strength, or agility, or reaction speed, or hand-eye co-ordination. MAGIC and SKILL are all of those but also none of those. These scores are not in themselves descriptions of anything precise or concrete about the Hero. They are numbers that allows the player and Director to use an impartial dice roll to determine the outcome of risky situations.  

  

And LUCK. LUCK is the what I think of as the Fighting Fantasy characteristic. Above I likened it to a Saving Throw, as it is the characteristic that a Hero must test - via the iconic Test of LUCK - to avoid terrible consequences. But unlike Saving Throws (or SKILL, for that matter) it is a diminishing resource, being reduced by one each time it is called upon, regardless of success or failure. Taking a Test of LUCK is a choice made by the player; they can opt to take the consequences rather than tempt the patience of Sindla, Goddess of Luck and Fate. But as a choice, it can also be called upon, to maximise or minimise damage in combat, or in place of SKILL when a player wants to give their Hero the chance of succeeding through 'dumb luck'. As a Director, I encourage clever and inventive uses of LUCK. It is a diminishing resource which, unlike STAMINA, cannot be restored simply with a good night's sleep and chewing on a mouthful of preserved meat[2], so if a player is willing to spend their LUCK, let them.

Remember that I said that SKILL applies to almost everything? We've already seen where the 'almost' is to be found; that in certain circumstances a Hero might rely on their MAGIC or LUCK characteristics. But even when it is SKILL that is being tested, that's not the be all and end all. Not all situations are equal - the book provides a whole series of example modifiers to different types of SKILL tests (I'll discuss these later) - and not all Heroes are equal either. Some are especially skilled at the use of swords, or bows, or sneaking, or bargaining, or have knowledge of law, or religion, or inhuman languages, or, or, or... These distinctions are made by way of Special Skills. Which I'll discuss in the next post.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

[1] I'm going to try to avoid getting side-tracked by discussions of the first edition of AFF, which did involve dice rolling in the generation of SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK. While understanding what didn't work well in AFF1e (and this is one thing that didn't) might help us understand certain design choices in AFF2e, it doesn't much help explain why YOU should be playing AFF2e now, in 2019.

[2] Regaining LUCK is not particularly well codified in the rulebook - p48 advises that Directors allow Heroes to regain their LUCK at the end of an adventure, and provides a few examples of exceptional events that might prompt to Director to award a point of LUCK. I have thought about having restoring LUCK during an adventure be dependent on a Hero taking the consequences of a player defined 'flaw' or 'trouble', to take a little inspiration from the appropriately named Fate RPG.  

Advanced Fighting Fantasy: Turn to 1

I am a massive fan of Fighting Fantasy. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was my entry point into adventure gaming, Titan was the first 'world book' I ever read, and I could (and do) spend hours poring over the monsters in Out of the Pit. Fighting Fantasy: The Introductory Roleplaying Game *might* have been (probably was) the first RPG I ever ran, and I picked up the original version of Advanced Fighting Fantasy at the same time I was playing Mentzer D&D and getting into, among other things, WFRP. 

If you search this blog, you'll find all too many entries on Fighting Fantasy - playthroughs of the gamebooks, discussions of how Titan has inspired/coloured my gaming, house rules for AFF2e (including my little 'supplement' Viscera!), and pages and pages of actual play reports.

But AFF doesn't get enough love, as far as I can see, so consider this the beginning of an Advanced Fighting Fantasy love-in. I'm going spend the next few posts reviewing the Advanced Fighting Fantasy books - obviously from the perspective of a (critical) fan. *And* I will start running a new campaign of AFF soon, too.

May your STAMINA never fail, but if it does Test Your LUCK!

First up (probably in multiple parts, as this will involve discussion of and reflection on game mechanics): the AFF2e core rulebook.

Lack of Play / Let's Play!

I'm playing in a very good game of Scum and Villainy online - we manage a session once every three weeks or so. But gaming at home has seriously stalled. I'm going to need to run something myself, soon. And I'll have to make the jump to running a game online.

I love GMing, but I have, until now, only run games for people who I already know. Running a game for a group of strangers is different. Running a game for a group of strangers who I'm not going to sit down at a physical table with and establish the rapport that will, hopefully, have them forgive my missteps, mistakes, the occasional bad session, etc. is another thing entirely.

But I should jump in to test the water, finally. I'll probably run Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2e, because PCs start competent and robust and so we'll not end with a session 1 TPK, and because it is so spectacularly straightforward to run we won't end up digging through books looking for the correct procedure. If in doubt, roll 2d6 and interpret the results!
Who would be up for this? In order for it to work for me it'd be best to play on Monday evenings, probably starting about 8:30pm [edit: GMT]. I'd plump for an 'Allansian sandbox' campaign, but happy to go for other flavours, perhaps Stellar Adventures, in fact. I know that's a pretty empty pitch, but just gauging interest - if there are takers we could start next week, or in a fortnight. 

Leo Hartas' lovely colour map of Allansia

[Addendum: Click on the Advanced Fighting Fantasy 'label' to see actual play reports from previous games as well as my thoughts on how to best GM games using the system, and other miscellanea.] 

Stellar Adventures is out!

Arion Games have published Stellar Adventures. I've yet to read it all, as yet, but it'll very likely be my go-to game for all kinds of science fiction adventuring, as Advanced Fighting Fantasy has come to dominate my fantasy gaming.

Here, I've printed the chapters out in handy digest form. I also found a few source books!

That said, I could imagine myself using some of the sandbox creation tools in the brilliant Stars Without Number (as well as the GM guidance in that book, and its supplements), and would probably struggle to avoid drawing heavily on the original Rogue Trader - I picked up the reprint from Warhammer World a few weeks ago...

Advanced Fighting Fantasy Bundle of Holding

Well, nothing much to say, except that for about £17 you can get everything yet released... and it's for charity!

Edit: Of course, YOU can choose to be a HERO and pay more than £17!

Viscera! (v1.0)

For a long while I've been mooting the idea of an Advanced Fighting Fantasy fanzine. I've chatted to people, got some agreements in principle, but never made much progress. So I thought I'd knock up an 'issue #0' largely by myself, just to get something out there. And, after a spell in which I put the project aside for several weeks, I've finally finished the thing. Well, 'finished' the thing - if there are typos, or egregious balance problems that you uncover when these ideas are not being applied at my own, idiosyncratic table, let me know, and I'll update it to v1.1.

So, here is Viscera! a collection of rules, tables, and guidelines for adding a bit more blood, gore, and grit to your Advanced Fighting Fantasy games.

[To be printed as a 'booklet' of A5 pages.]

[Update: pdf updated to version 1.01 (minor errors fixed) 190317.]
[Update 2: pdf updated to version 1.02 (minor errors fixed, acknowledgements expanded) 280317.]

On AFF2e SKILL and Skills: Collected

I thought I’d collect, for myself as much as anyone, my thoughts on how to use SKILL and Special Skills in AFF2e. But, more than anything, an AFF Director should have this table in their head, which helps them imagine an AFF character in as if they were written up in the most intuitive of skill systems, the percentile system used in BRP-derived games:

 

SKILL	2-	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11+
D100	3	10	15	30	40	60	70	80	90	98

 

These are rough numbers, of course, but rough approximation is all you need to ‘eyeball’ roll-under chances of success. So, beginning PCs in AFF2e typically have a range of Special Skills in the 70-80% range, and a general effectiveness of about 60%. Keeping this in the back of your mind when running a game helps you to judge how and when to call for Skill Tests.

 

Anyway, here are my previous musings:

Skill Rolls in AFF2e

How Would John of Salamonis Do?

Capped Effective Skill 

The Virtues of Assymetry

And generally, on skill rolls in RPGs more generally – Skills as ‘Saving Throws’

Nasir for AFF2e

By popular demand – i.e. one request – here is Nasir, a Saracen and former Assassin who enters Robin's story as an ensorcelled thrall of the black magician, Baron de Belleme.  

Hero: Nasir (Player: Mark Ryan)

SKILL 7

STAMINA 16

LUCK 10

MAGIC 0

Talent: Ambidextrous

Special Skills

Combat

Swords 1, Thrown 2

Movement

Acrobatics 1, Climb 1, Dodge 2

Stealth

Awareness 2, Stealth 3

Knowledge

Arabic 4, English 2, Religion Lore 1, Tracking 1, Secret Signs 1, World Lore 2

Treasure: 2d6 silver pennies

Provisions: 2

Equipment

1 Scimitar (treat as ‘Short Sword’)

2 Scimitar (treat as ‘Short Sword’)

3 Throwing Daggers x3

4 Throwing Daggers x3

5 Long Bow

6 Quiver w. 20 Arrows

7 Leather Cuirass

8

9

10

Nasir’s starting Talent is an obvious choice – his whole shtick is two-weapon fighting. As a former Assassin, I have given him points in Movement and Stealth skills, and given set him up so that his highest ‘effective SKILL’ in combat is with his throwing daggers, not his sword – it seems to me that Will Scarlet and Robin ought be the best out-and-out swordsmen in the Merry Men, though Nasir’s ability to fight with two scimitars makes him very effective in his own right. In addition, rather than giving a point in Forest Lore or City Lore, etc. at character creation, I have given Nasir an extra point of World Lore to represent the fact that he is much better travelled than the rest of Robin’s band. I’ve also created the Special Skill Tracking, as I thought that Hunting didn’t really capture Nasir’s skill at finding and following the trail of humans.   

I considered giving Nasir an extra Talent, in exchange for a point or two at character creation. However, the Talents that I was considering – such as Combat Reactions – I am reserving as the ‘unique’ characteristic of other characters. Plus, I didn’t want to engage in ‘power creep’.

I also considered giving Nasir some MAGIC, to represent the uncanny disciplines and techniques that he may have learned while an Assassin, or even as a result of his service to de Belleme. Cantrips such as Extinguish and Noise would, indeed, be useful powers for an Assassin, but I decided that these would do too much damage to atmosphere of Robin of Sherwood. In a ‘vanilla’ AFF2e game, an Assassin should absolutely have some low powered magic that will help him move unseen and get the drop on his targets.

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.

AFF: The Three Stats, and the Role of the Fourth

A brief discussion on G+ got me thinking; what would I have to do to use the Advanced Fighting Fantasy ‘engine’ for genres other than the high-ish fantasy of Titan. Obviously, the gamebooks covered lots of ground here, with sci-fi, post-apocalypse, superheroes, and horror, as well as slightly different takes on the fantasy of Titan. Sometimes these played straight with the Fighting Fantasy system, but on other occasions they added in a new mechanic; FEAR, EVIL, FAITH, HONOUR etc. were all added to provide a mechanic that stressed a particular theme.

As I thought about it, I felt that a lot could be done simply by renaming the traditional three statistics. So, for a pulpy game, rather than SKILL, STAMINA, and LUCK, you could have COMPETENCE, GRIT, and FORTUNE. Of course, you wouldn’t have to rename *any* of these, but by renaming them you send a particular set of messages to the players (and you remind yourself) as to the genre expectations.

COMPETENCE I like as it captures what SKILL really means when it comes to PC Heroes, and disassociates it from Special Skills. It is easier (for me) to think of COMPETENCE as being something similar to ‘Level’, with Special Skills representing particular areas of training. It would also make it easier for me to explain that someone with a Special Skill rating of 4 is much better trained than someone with a Special Skill rating of 1, but that when it comes down to testing those skills when under fire from a Nazi agent wielding a tommy gun, well, then COMPETENCE matters.

I like GRIT, not only as it seems genre appropriate, but because it is easier to narrate the loss of GRIT when being shot at (but not struck), when missing sleep, or hungry, or when psychologically harmed.

FORTUNE? Well, FORTUNE is only in there as I thought I’d best change all three, as LUCK seems perfectly fine for a pulp game. However, as I mused over the possible alternative names for LUCK, I did find the perfect name for it in a ‘Dark Ages’ themed game: WYRD.

And then there is the fourth stat – the default of which is MAGIC – which is acts to add mechanical weight to the genre’s themes. A fourth stat isn’t strictly needed. AFF runs just fine with warrior/rogue type Heroes with not a point in MAGIC, but the presence of a fourth stat does allow a bit more variation in point distribution when making PC Heroes. But more than that, having a fourth box labelled MAGIC, FAITH, SPIRIT, EVIL, CORRUPTION, HONOR, SANITY, PSYCHIC POWER, etc., produces expectations of a particular type of game – that in this setting, in this campaign, these are important enough to be removed from being governed by SKILL, STAMINA, LUCK, Special Skills, and Director fiat. Rather, these are a source of a power, or weakness, and will figure in the adventures of these Heroes.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain for AFF2e

This is not a review. It wouldn’t be fair to review an adventure that I have not run. This is a very short piece to note that, by the evidence of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the graphic design standards of Arion’s AFF2e line have come on in leaps and bounds.

One criticism that has been levelled at AFF2e, and particularly the core rulebook, is that the design and layout is not up to standard. That there were entirely blank pages in a couple of places was a particularly egregious example. See,for an example, Dyson Logo’s mini-review. But note what he has to say that is positive about the game as a game, and remember, I wouldn’t have, in recent years, run more AFF2e than any other system if I didn’t tremendously enjoy it.

An aside: In part, this post is inspired by the arrival, just this morning, of Arion’s republishing of Titan and Out of the Pit. I hadn’t bought these yet because I already own copies of the originals published by Puffin. Of course I did. Importantly, I own Titan in the original larger format, and can confirm that the Arion publication has a layout that is almost identical to that of the original. Some of the art has ‘faded’, and a couple of items of ‘page furniture’ have shrunk, but otherwise it is a faithful reproduction. I suspect the same is the case for Out of the Pit, but I only have a very battered / well-loved paperback sized version so can’t compare. This is just to say that the ‘boring’ two column layout is a legacy of the original books.

Here is a comparison of pages from the Puffin and Arion publications of Titan:

But this post isn’t about those books, but The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. I confess that I bought this ages ago. While I have run the Crown of Kings adventures, I’ve never done more than read The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. But what did strike me, from when it first arrived, is the way in which the graphic design has improved immensely, while keeping with the general style. Have a look at a few pages from the book to see what I mean.

The art from the book is mostly well-reproduced, the ‘page furniture’ is well done, there are some fantastic page borders, a new map of the Pagan Plains, and the character portraits for the pre-gens perfectly in keeping with the Fighting Fantasy aesthetic. I’m not a big fan of the computer-produced dungeon maps, but that's a personal preference, and they are certainly serviceable.

Congratulations to Graham Bottley, and especially to Brett Schofield, for ‘translating’ the gamebook into AFF2e and providing some good quality art that fits in nicely alongside Russ Nicholson’s original illustrations.

A player's view of Kakabad

In lieu of a post about contemporary gaming, what with the sunny weather, afternoons in the pub, and the odd barbecue - and for anyone not in the UK, we get so few really sunny days these must be seized upon - I thought I'd dig out some old player maps and let you see how one of my players interpreted our journey across Kakabad in pursuit of the Crown of Kings.

  Khare

The Baklands

Mampang

Preparation for a jungle expedition... delayed

I was busy making my own version of a very familiar map, and adapting the encounters for Advanced Fighting Fantasy, when my brother invited me down the pub. Ah well, hangover cleared, that gives me time for a bit more polish then...

Why I play Advanced Fighting Fantasy... #43

"This A4 sci-fi comic, with 20 pages of strip and a six page text story, displays a penchant for the twist ending and poetic justice. The tales of killing, cloning and interrogation are written as if by someone who takes life very seriously. It’s impressively drawn by Bolt-01, with grey tones by Richmond Clements and backgrounds that convincingly evoke the worlds in which the stories penned by Andrew Bartlett are set. 7/10."

In a past life I had a short crack at writing small-press comics. This was the review of one of them from Comics International. And this sums up my problem: 'written as if by someone who takes life very seriously'. And I do, to my own detriment. I'm always in danger of draining the fun from things, for intellectualising (and politicising) the things that I enjoy, rather than just enjoying them.

Fighting Fantasy (Advanced, or otherwise) operates as a necessary corrective to my tendency, when running games, to strive for too much 'realism' and too little of the fantastical and 'adventuresomeness'. I'm just the kind of Games Master who would ruin a Star Wars game by beginning a campaign with this:

"Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.

Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo.

While the congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict...."

Fighting Fantasy is Steven Spielberg to my George Lucas.

The Cobwebbed Shrine and the Dark Pool

After making mincemeat of the cultists, the Adventurers push deeper into the caves...

5. The Cobwebbed Shrine

The Adventurers’ lanterns light a heavily cobwebbed room. Cocoons of spider-silk hang ominously about the chamber, which is obviously a shrine. A SPIDER-MONK, sits cross-legged suspended in webbing, chanting before an altar crawling with normal-sized spiders. A tapestry spun from spider-silk hangs behind the altar, showing Arhallogen astride an astrological representation of the Heavens. If the Monk is inspected Adventurers will notice that he has two small extra sets of legs growing at awkward angles from his hips. Compared to with withered, aged skin of the rest of the Monk, these legs have bright pink, babyish skin. The Spider-Monk is in the midst of metamorphosis – being most blessed of Arhallogen – and is unable to respond to the Adventurers.

If the Adventurers do not take care in this room, they will pull on the webs. If they do so, they will alert 1d6+2 GIANT SPIDERS to their presence.

There are four exits. To the [north] there is a climbing rough cut stair-way, from where can be heard the clang of metal and brutish shouts. To the [south] there is a tunnel that slopes up, back to the entrance chamber. To the [east] there is a climbing tunnel, which is illuminated by flickering firelight. Also to the [east] there is also a smaller, downward sloping tunnel. This tunnel is utterly silent and utterly black.

GIANT SPIDER

SKILL 7 STAMINA⑧⑦⑥⑤④③②①             

Weapon	1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Bite	2	3	3	3	4	4	5

Giant Spiders can make 2 Attacks.

Armour	1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Bristly Hair	0	0	0	1	1	1	2

Snaggletooth the Dwarf decided that he would use his battleaxe to clear a path through the cobwebs... so any real investigation of this room had to wait until after the Adventurers had dealt with the Giant Spiders that he had alerted. Once that was over, and much of their recent rest and recuperation undone, the Adventurers had the chance to inspect the Spider-Monk. Unable to break his meditation, Rhoda Red-Tress hacked off his head.

5a. The Dark Pool

At first glance, the pool here seems to be filled with water, but is impossibly black, no matter what illumination is used. The pool is made of the essence of Krazan Krazan’s magical webs, and is an extremely sticky and utterly black substance. It can be collected, perhaps, and used imaginatively. It is, however, also partially in Eternal Web, the Realm of Arhallogen, and so will act as a homing beacon, should Arhallogen turn his attention to the Adventurer carrying the stuff. 

Naturally, enough, after poking the blackness with their weapons and finding it almost aggressively sticky, the Adventurers decided to 'chuck stuff in'. They cut down several of the cocoons from the Shrine and tossed them into the pool. Tendrils of black climbed up the cocoons thrown into the pool, dragging them down, but before they were fully submerged the cocoons faded out of existence. Puzzled, the Adventurers decided to throw the body (and head) of the SPIDER-MONK into what they presumed was a cosmic dustbin.