Advanced Fighting Fantasy Adventures!

Last night I cracked open my copy of Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2.0, which I hadn't read in awhile.  Just flipping thru the pages, my mind filled with a pile of adventure ideas.  I think I may write an adventure (and post it here) for AFF.  I just sent a message to the publisher in regards to what the legality's are of posting things.  Below are a few adventures & resources. 

Here are a few resources/adventures for AFF.

Arion Games on Drivethru. 
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/667/Arion-Games/subcategory/1684_25223/Advanced-Fighting-Fantasy

Advanced Figthing Fantasy Quickstart
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/108092/Advanced-Fighting-Fantasy-Quickstart

MEWE Community
https://mewe.com/join-front/advanced_fighting_fantasy_and_stellar_adventures

The Crooked Cup (adventure)
Welcome, brave adventurers!  You are no doubt walking your way across Titan in search of fame, fortune and more than a little glory, so lend me your ears and I will tell you of a place so foul with the corruption of evil and chaos, and yet so full of the gold and renown you seek, you'll wonder if the risk is worth the rewards.

Do you dare seek out the Cup of the Crooked King, and risk eternal damnation for the chance of more riches than the King of Salamonis himself has ever seen?

Of course, I know what your answer will be.

This is The Crooked King's Cup, an Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd Edition adventure for an experienced adventuring party, although it will be easy enough to adjust the statistics of the foes and dangers to suit any level of skill.

Inn Of Lost Hope (adventure) 

The old Inn stands derelict and rotting.  But within is rumoured to lie a great treasure, stolen from dying adventurers by an unscrupulous landlord.  Dare you enter to try and find it?

This new self-contained adventure for Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd Ed describes the Inn and it's terrible denizens and can be dropped into almost any AFF Campaign with ease.

Requires the Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd Ed RPG

The Floating Dungeon of Varrak Aslur (adventure) 

The town of Chalice is in danger from a very unexpected source: A Floating Dungeon!

This new self-contained adventure for Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd Ed sends the Heroes into this unusual dungeon to stop the rain of undead overwhelming the Allansian town.  What could be up there and can the Heroes stop it?

Titan Wiki - Handy resource for AFF & FF fans. 

AFF discussion over at Known World, Old World

If you are a fan of Advanced Fighting Fantasy, I'd suggest heading over here:
https://drbargle.blogspot.com/2019/05/aff-your-adventure-starts-here-part-one.html

I've written a lot on the subject as well.

http://3toadstools.blogspot.com/search?q=advanced+fighting+fantasy

It's a wonderful game, one that I'll eventually run again.

You can get a copy of the quickstart rules here:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/108092/Advanced-Fighting-Fantasy-Quickstart?term=advanced+fighting+

The Advanced Fighting Fantasy system was re-released as a second edition in 2011 to great acclaim and received great reviews.

Although we are unable to offer a pdf version of the full rulebook, we are now able to offer the quickstart adventure to enable everyone to try this great game.

Even inexperienced ropleplayers can be up and running in 10 minutes with the pregenerated Heroes included, and a classic dungeon awaits.

Veteran gamers will get a taste of a very fast and adaptible system, well suited to long-term campaigns.

My heart is happy

I have fond memories of those old green spine books from the magical island across the sea from me.

(this post was started awhile ago, and I'm finally getting back to it).  

These books were my first introduction into this role playing world.  I remember having a shelf full of them when I was a kid.  Listening to Nirvana Nevermind on a cassette and rolling dice on my lap, instead of doing homework.

When I first jumped onto google plus, I think my first search term was Fighting Fantasy.  Shortly after I found the OSR.   Shortly after that I created a community for Advanced Fighting Fantasy.  I then grabbed the NEW version of AFF by +Graham Bottley .  I dubbed it AFF 2.0, I think it stuck.  I love that there was a vibrant community around all things fighting fantasy.  All this is possible because of the internet.  I remember being a nerdy kid thinking "I wonder if other people know how cool this is?".   I didn't know that it was HUGE in the UK (yonder magical island across the sea from me, where there are pubs on every corner, note I must go there).

My interest in AFF & FF has been reignited latetly, as I've been reading a few of the solo books in my spare time.  Crown of kings & armies of death.  Which has got me thinking about either writing my own rules hack, re-buying the original dungeoneer or just running AFF 2.0.  The other night I found a PILE of resources out there for AFF.  

The original advanced rules were broken, there was a lot of things like leveling up that just made heroes gods eventually.  That being said, the simplicity of the system is JUST AWESOME.  And honestly I think it would be perfect for 1 shots or even a 3-4 session type game.  Part of the reason I don't know if I would run Aff2.0 as a one shot is that not everybody has the rules handy.  (especially if playing online).  So what I might do, is just go ahead and create a house rules document with the basics.  Possibly use a few tweaks from Troika, AFF 2.0 etc.  Basically something that allows a quick start type of game.  (speaking of quickstarts there's one for aff 2.0). 

If you haven't heard about TROIKA! you should go and check it out.  It's a throwback to the original set of advanced rules, however there's lots of fun little tweaks.  From a brief little read, there is a world behind the rules, classes, backgrounds that all tie in.  (A full review is upcoming).  Here's the blurb.

Troika! is a complete role playing game, giving you everything you need to create characters and lead them through the hump-backed sky towards adventure.

The game is a response to decrepit UK RPGs. A "retro" RPG rebuilt without sentimentality, corpses of darlings litter the streets.

The game is 56 pages and includes:

Unified art direction by Jeremy Duncan.

A fully automated character creation system to represent the vagaries of fate.

36 backgrounds. You have no influence on who you were, only on who you will become.

A setting baked into the rules and resistant to untangling.

Plainly expressed rules, easily accessible and highly modifiable.

Art Version

Pay What You Want Version (No art) 

Just a few thoughts on Troika while I'm rambling here.  I really like it!  However the baked in setting and background isn't really my cup of tea currently.  To a degree the backgrounds sort of remind me of Barbarians of Lemuria (another wonderful system that's easy to run). 

So in my quest last night to find some interesting resources I found the following cool shit: 

*This site is an amazing resource of all the advanced books (detailing the world, the mechanics etc): https://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kayumi/fighting-fantasy/  (detailed in here is also explanations as to why the original advanced game was broken).  This explains a lot of the issues

*Note that's basically where I'm going to get my home brew version.

*Fan written adventures for AFF (and version 2.0): https://fightingfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Fan_Written_Advanced_Fighting_Fantasy

*A Fifth Edition conversion of "The warlock of firetop mountain":  https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HyE1NYoSf

*Dyson Logos redrew the map for "warlock of firetop mountain".  https://dysonlogos.blog/2019/01/26/the-warlock-of-firetop-mountain-combined/

*A bunch of fan rules: http://fightingfantasygamebooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1788&Itemid=37

*A pile of monsters: http://fightingfantasygamebooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=445&Itemid=65

*adventure sheets: http://fightingfantasygamebooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1407&Itemid=68

*Dysons review on AFF2.0: https://dysonlogos.blog/2014/08/07/advanced-fighting-fantasys-reboot/

What I've always loved about the system is the simplicity.  That and the idea of just being an adventurer (in the books).  You start off with a backpack, a sword and a torch and your wits.  Love it. 

One Fell Swoop - Rpgaday2015

I did the month long D&D competition, then I started the revised version of the same blog idea and I never finished it.  I recently noticed that we are now doing #rpgaday2015, and taking a page out of Zak's book err..blog I'm just going to sit down and write the whole thing now.  As I stated I'm on vacation, currently having a nice cup of coffee and procrastinating cutting the grass.  And of course I like doing these types of things as it forces you to write.  

1.  Forthcoming game that you are most looking forward to.  
Mutant Crawl Classics by Goodman Games.  You know its going to be good.  Just from the coolness factor of DCC.  http://www.goodman-games.com/6200preview.html

2.  Kickstarter game you are most pleased you backed. 
Bad Shane!  I haven't backed any KS's yet.  There was one super cool Labyrinth Lord video game that didn't get funded.  It was super old school bard's tale esq.

3.  Favourite New RPG game of the last 12 months. 
I really liked the idea and the playability of Crimson Dragon Slayer.  I had a very light hand in giving some ideas out on that one.  The system is pretty cool and usable for other things.

4.  Most surprising game.
I'll go with Fifth edition on this one.  I never had a chance to play the 3rd or 4th editions but from what I've heard they were a bit nightmarish.  I find fifth edition surprising in that it feels like 2nd edition to me, the chassis is a bit easier however.  There are still things that my head hasn't quite figured out, but its getting there.

5.  Most recent RPG purchase. 
The fifth edition DM screen.  BAH! I shoulda returned it.  For $18 CDN I coulda made a better homemade job myself.  A friend of mine is going to start DMing soon and I think he maybe borrowing it.  Probably long term.  The only good thing about the screen is that its a bit lower so you can see your players.  That was one thing that annoyed me about the 2nd edition screen that I have.  (which btw had a crap ton of stuff on it).

6.  Most recent RPG played
Fifth edition, however I really want to get some Barbarians of Lemuria, Mutant Future or Advanced fighting fantasy going.

7.  Favourite Free RPG.
This is going to be difficult as there are so many.  But here are a few of my favs.
Blueholme
Labyrinth Lord
Advanced Fighting Fantasy Quickstart

8.  Favourite appearance of RPG's in media
Going with Big Bang Theory on this one.  Love that show, makes me proud to be a nerd.  However I have heard that some true nerds don't like all the attention its causing to us.  Nerds... lol.

Sheldon Cooper: The entrance to the dungeon is a moss covered door. You manage to open it only to find yourself face to face with a hideous, foul-smelling, moss-covered ogre. What do you do?

Howard Wolowitz: I say, "Hey, Ma! What's for dinner?"

Sheldon Cooper: [Sheldon rolls dice] Seventeen. The ogre is amused by your joke and allows you to pass. And by the by, I liked it too.

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Howard Wolowitz: Really? On Dungeons and Dragons I enter a dungeon and find a dragon? Isn't that a little on the nose?

Sheldon Cooper: When you play Chutes and Ladders, do you complain about all the chutes and ladders?

9.  Favourite media you wish was an RPG.
It seems like every time I think of something there is already an rpg for it, or a hack somewhere.  I've seen Skryim, Fallout RPG hacks, Noir.  Wait a sec, I wonder it there's a Dick Tracy RPG?  YUP! http://www.tracyrpg.freeservers.com/  I don;'t know if I can think of anything that hasn't already been made.  there is even a X COM one - http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?119239-XCOM-pen-amp-paper-RPG

10.  Favourite RPG Publisher
Playing Favourites isn't fun, however I like pretty much everything these guys do.
Task Boy Games
Genius Loci Games
Dyson Logos
Middle Kingdoms Exploration & Trading Co. 
Kort'Thalis Publishing
Dreamscape Design
TSR
WOTC
Arion Games

11.  Favourite RPG Writer
See above
Plus Gygax, Moldvay, Holmes.

12.  Favourite RPG Illustration. 
Frank Turfler from Middle Kingdoms Exploration & Trading Co.  and Stuart Robertson http://stuartrobertson.deviantart.com are really awesome.

13.  Favourite RPG Podcast
Roll for Initiative podcast - it was one of the first podcasts I found that introduced me to the OSR, I've listened to a few other ones and have really dug them as well, but I keep coming back to this one.

14.  Favourite RPG accessory.
Without dice it would be difficult to play these games, so dice.  oh and my dice bag.  Buy a dice bag and get a free bottle of whiskey!

15.  Longest Campaign Every Played. 
I've never really played in a super long campaign, things always tended to crap out on me.  writing furiously just to find out that we had moved on to something new.  (this was in high school).  Now it appears we are starting a new campaign shortly.  Where I will be a player.  After the starter set, I plan to run a mutant future campaign sandbox for awhile.

16.  Longest game session every played.
I am sure we played a good 8 hours or so of Advanced Fighting Fantasy back in the day.  Of course there were breaks for SNES and Sega.

17.  Favourite fantasy RPG.
Why is this question even on here? D&D.

18.  Favourite SF rpg.
fuck it.  tie.  White Star & Mutant Future.  oh and apparently there's an X-COM rpg that I need to read.

19.  Favourite Supers RPG
I've heard a lot about DC heroes.  I've never played a super hero RPG.  The thought has never crossed my mind to tell you the truth.  I think I am so mired in Lord Of The Rings fantasy, that anything else just seems weird.  Eventually I'd love to try CoC, Mutant Future etc.

20.  Favourite horror RPG
see above, apparently I'm a big fan of dwarves & elves.  Venger just released this, do you know about it?   The outer presence.

21.  Favourite RPG setting

Titan.  The world of Fighting fantasy.  It's equal parts high fantasy and dark fantasy.  I need to try Red & Pleasant Land.  And I am so tired of the realms.  Mostly because I am so behind.  (still in 2nd edition whilst running the starter set, still trying to figure out how to explain Tieflings).  Its funny, I like the realms, but because there is so much written about it I feel like I can't touch it, can't fuck with it.  Just leave it alone and let it breath by itself.  I need a new world to destroy (mental note create a new world let a bunch of people destroy it). 

22.  Perfect gaming environment

Despite the fact that I would love to be surrounded by suits of armour and random torture tools, I am perfectly happy with smoked meat & and good friends, and of course beer.  This of course reminds me of Friar Tuck from Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves movie *with Kevin Costner.  

"Grain which any fool can eat, but which god intended a higher purpose, let us give praise to our maker by learning about beer. 

23.  Perfect Game For You.  (me?).

This is seriously the only question that I needed to think about.  My perfect game is a low level game, where its deadly serious, and the PC's might die.  But with some luck, and excellent role playing and possibly a few DM slip ups everything comes together and the Heroes become HEROES! There is a reason that there are a lot of low level D&D type modules out there.  Everyone likes to start off a character with hopes & dreams.  See KOTB

24.  Favourite House Rule

I honestly don't have any specific house rules, however I am a big fan of my resurrection rules, and whenever that happens they will be used at the time (fuck it tooting the horn).  That said, since I'm playing 5e currently I am pretty much done with the idea of a saving throw for each ability stat.  I like death saving throws (and the 3 strikes you are out rule of 5e) and I really like the Swords & Wizardry one saving throw rule. 

25.  Favourite revolutionary game mechanic. 

its a toss up between advantage/disadvantage which is basically friggin hilarious, and DC's (while not old school it does make things easier for the GM).  

26.  Favourite Inspiration for your game.

So here's a story.  My wife acquired a Kobo, and read thru pretty much everything on it.  I got jealous, I then read thru all the cool stuff on it.  INSPIRATION.  Go and grab a Kobo (or similar ereader).  don't download anything, just read all of the pre-loaded books on the system.  ie classics.  You will find your inspiration, they are easy to port.  When you are done reading that stuff ie classics, goto https://www.gutenberg.org/

Project Gutenberg offers over 49,000 free ebooks: choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online.  Once you get thru those come talk to me about inspiration

27.  Favourite Idea for Merging Two Ideas into one. 

Read all of James Lovegrove

add D&D

add Mutant Future

add the Pantheon of ALL gods. 

Twist the whole god durned thing! (thank you Bruenor)  Yes.... I've been reading a lot of a certain Dark Elf trilogy.

and go!

*I need to do this somehow.   

 28.  Favourite game you no longer play.

There was choose your own adventure, and then there was FIGHTING FANTASY.  (thank the gods that my Mom worked at a book store = discount.  There was a time that all my friends had them and we would trade and whoever had the most won.  Why do they not do this any more?  Good way to get kids to read). I know there has been a variety of versions of the titles, but all of mine had green spines (I do not know how early that was, but I think it was fairly early in the line of titles).   I have been able to grab a few here & there at book meets/markets/swaps.  Unfortunately divorce spelled disaster for my initial collection.  Despite how much I'd love to have He-Man (and GI JOE) again, I would be much happier with these. 

29.  Favourite RPG website/blog

http://initiativeone.blogspot.ca/

Semper Initativus Unum

2nd - 

30.  Favourite RPG playing celebrity.

Okay so obviously we all know that Wil Wheaton is basically our god king, and Marilyn Manson plays D&D with Zak S.  BUT Did you know that I play D&D with the bass player from Silent Dissonance?  Yah no probably not.  He's a friggin cool guy!  He married me.  He's my Wifes cousin.  He's not technically a celebrity....but in my eyes he is! (I even made him wear a kilt, totally fine with it btw). 

Kurt (normally a Dwarf on the left, moi on the right). 

31. Favourite non RPG thing to come out of RPG-ing

First off, that question is inherently funny.  Tis a silly question perhaps, but I think before RPGing there was Monty Python, or maybe it was around the same time? I do not know, nor have the google fu to care, but I'd love to be a a Knight of Ni.  (either that or a drow priestess of Lolth with a ridiculous female English accent.)

Editor's note:  I managed to cut the grass prior to finishing this.  score. 

Read more examples of rpgaday2015.

http://dieheart.net/ 

http://initiativeone.blogspot.ca/

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.ca/

30 Day Challenge - Day 4 Favorite Game World

Well this one is going to come out of left field for you D&D types, My favorite game world is TITAN.

You can find it here - http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Titan_(world)

The latest version of the Titan source book was published by Arion Games, which is available for purchase.  I suggest you pick it up, its a GREAT world to adventure in, regardless of the system you are using.

Here is what the world looks like.

The world of Titan is an extremely dangerous place. Mankind and its allies huddle in fortified settlements, for beyond the castle walls the wild lands stretch across three continents. Out in the wastelands, Orc tribes war with each other for dominance. Savage monsters roam at will in search of food. Evil sorcerers ready their inhuman armies for battle. No one, surely, would venture out into such inhospitable places - unless the rewards were so great a hero couldn't possibly refuse!

- The Book Allansia, late 3rd century AC.

Titan is the name of the Fighting Fantasy world. It is where the majority of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone'sFighting Fantasy books are set, as well as providing the setting for the Sorcery! epic, most of the novels, and many of the other affiliated publications. It is treated in detail in Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World, a guide book written by Marc Gascoigne (though credited to Jackson and Livingstone) in 1986.

A good percentages of the adventures I ran using Advanced Fighting Fantasy where on the continent of Allansia.  

You can find more information about Allansia right here - http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Allansia_(continent)


[It] may offer the greatest prizes for a daring, ambitious adventurer, but it also offers the greatest dangers. Throughout the land, the Forces of Evil are drawing together, growing ever stronger. In the north, corrupt humans bring forth wild magic into the world, knowing little of what they are really doing; and creatures are stirring in the southern swamps, things that will ultimately affect all of Allansia.

- Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World, 284AC, The Year of the Fox.<sup>[1]

The other world I grew up with was "The Forgotten Realms"  specifically this box set (for AD&D 2nd Edition).  We adventured in "The Dales" , which seems to be from my experience where a lot of people ended up adventuring as it was very tailored to it.  I also ended up running some adventures in Cormyr.  

Here is a wiki for the Forgotten Realms</sup> 

Day 20 - Blog Hop Challenge

First non D&D rpg you ever played?  The first RPG I ever played wasn't D&D, but Advanced Fighting Fantasy, which was a take off from the original series of Fighting Fantasy game novels (similar to choose your own adventure, but with dice).  There is a new version of the RPG which is very good, you can find it here - http://www.arion-games.com/

There is also a google + community which I created and then passed on to another fellow gamer.  https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/106450976552021388118

You can download the quickstart PDF right here FOR FREE! - http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/108092/Advanced-Fighting-Fantasy-Quickstart

As a side note to this blog, the one game that I've been considering getting into is Mutant Future! I had a look thru the rest of the questions for the blog hop challenge, and there is no mention of games that you'd like to play in the future, so I figured I'd just add that to this question.  I've been playing a LOT of Fallout 3 lately, and doing a lot of reading on the latest version of D20 Gamma World, as well as Mutant Future.  I think I'm going to go ahead and print off Mutant Future to take home a read thru shortly.  (I need to get an ipad ugh)  After taking a look at http://www.wizardawn.com/rpg/ they have quite a lot of handy little programs for creating maps & adventures etc.

Anyways, I have a few scenario's jumbling around my head, including a destroyed city crawl, a little fallout and hunger games thrown in for good measure.

rpgaday2017 - one shot

I decided to do this in a one shot, so if you don't want to read my responses, its only one blog post rather than 31 or so.

1.  what published rpg do you wish you were playing right now? 
Pretty much anything at this point, I've been going thru a bit of a slow period.  I'd like to run basic D&D for the old school group at some point (they greatly prefer basic fantasy).  And at some point I'd like to run the 5e group thru something other than 5e, even if its a one shot.  Maybe advanced fighting fantasy 2.0. 

2.  What is an RPG you would like to see published? 

To tell you the truth, I think almost every base has been covered as far as genres are concerned.  What might be interesting is an RPG based on HE MAN, and other 80s cartoons out there.  

3.  Where do you find out about new RPGs? 

Google plus!  And osrnews.blogspot.ca

4.  Which RPG have you played the most since August 2016?

Fifth edition - Curse of Strahd campaign. 

5.  Which RPG cover captures the spirit of the game? 

I really dig the red box cover, with the warrior and the dragon.  That said the Erol Otus cover for S&W is probably my fav.  

6.  If you could game ever day for a week what would you do?

I think I would run the birthright setting for 2e, and everyday would be "ex number" of years.  So the whole week might end up being a 20 year campaign.  That would be interesting, but probably a lot of math. 

7.  What was your most impactful game session? 

I think the very first old school group game, it was supposed to be a one shot, but ended up being a 12 game session campaign.  Starting with "beneath brymassen" from the basic fantasy adventure anthology, then we did "the lizardmen of Illzathatch" and "tomb of gardag the strange" which was quite fun.  

8.  What is a good RPG to play for sessions that are 2 hours or less?

I'd say any iteration of Swords & Wizardry, you can get playing rather quickly.  High up on the list of "nope!" would be 5e, due to character creation taking longer than 2 hours.  Unless of course you use a pre gen.  Even then I find that it drags a bit during play.  We might have 1 encounter in 2 hours. 

9.  What is a good rpg to play for 10 sessions?

I've played basic fantasy and 5e for more than ten sessions and enjoyed both of them thoroughly.  It depends on who is DMing. 

10.  Where do you go for RPG reviews?

tenfootpole.org

and merricb.com

11.  Which dead game would you like to see reborn?

it's a board game, not an rpg technically.  But if someone wants to put out new adventures for HerosQuest I'd be all over that!  

12.  Which RPG has the most inspiring artwork?

Difficult question. I really dug the 3rd edition printing of Swords & Wizardy, as well the Whitebox Medieval Fantasy rules for art.  As well lotfps Vaginas are magic.  OH! and I totally forgot, pretty much anything DCC just gets me going, I love all the cover art, and the way they lay it out, etc. 

13.  Describe a game experience that changed how you play? 

I think that the more you play a game, the further you get into it.  I remember first running KOTB with my wife & her cousin,  they basically attacked everything.  As time has gone on they have got a LOT better at role playing, not roll playing. I personally need to follow that lead when I'm a player and actually role play better.  This of course is an ongoing thing. 

14.  Which rpg do you prefer for open ended campaign play? 

I think a set of rules that doesn't have a baked in setting is probably the best idea.  I've waxed about how I dislike the realms, because of all the cannon involved.  Even a game like a Star Wars RPG would be hard to run without destroying something in the universe.  Best plan would be to get some dice and create your own setting and rules, then you can just really do whatever the heck you want right? 

15.  Which RPG do you enjoy adapting the most? 

S&W whitebox is infinitely hackable.  I do enjoy playing with B/X however. 

16.  Which RPG do you enjoy playing as is? 

Advanced fighting fantasy 2.0 is great.  Love the setting, and the revision to the rules.  Just play it as is. 

17.  Which RPG have you owned the longest but never played?

My Mom bought me a copy of "Dragon Knight" adventure module for DragonLance (2e) and I've never ran it.  At some point maybe, it's the middle module of a set of 3.  I've downloaded the other 2 and read them.  As you know dragonlance can be a bit railroadey, but epic.  Maybe I'll run it for the 5e group at some point. 

18.  Which RPG have you played the most in your life? 

Well the first rpg I ever got was the 2nd edition of AD&D, so I'll have to go with that one.  As I said a little while ago, if I hadn't discovered the OSR I would A.  Probably not be playing RPGs at all and or B.  I would probably still be playing 2e. 

19.  Which RPG features the best writing? 

I'll wave the fan boy flag and say "pretty much anything that Gary's hands touched" .  I'm currently reading the 1e DMG and there is some great stuff in it.  I've read the 1st edition of greyhawk and it's very cool.  As well some of the other adventures he's written (homlet, toee, kotb).  Obviously everything he wrote wasn't gold, but there is a lot of good nuggets here and there.  

20.   What is the best source for out of print RPGs? 

Drivethrurpg.com and the DMsGuild. 

21.  Which RPG does the most with the least amount of words? 

Blueholme. 

22.  Which RPGs are the easiest for you to run? 

Honestly probably second edition, as I've played it the longest.  However I think my house rules mashup would be the actual easiest obviously. 

23.  Which RPG has the most jaw dropping layout?

I really dig Glynn's "Midderlands".  +MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal) 

24.  Share a PWYW publisher who should be charging more? 

Hand's down anything by +James V West 

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/199081/Black-Pudding-1

25.  What is the best way to thank your GM?

Whatever he or she needs to run a game, new adventures or RPGs you want to play, extra dice, mini's!  For awhile our 5e group was buying each other bday presents.  We got minis, campaign adventure books, core books.  

26.  What RPG provides the most useful resources?

basicfantasy.org has a pile of great resources all of which are FREE! And a great community building more content daily. 

27.    What are your essential tools for good gaming?

Imagination, good friends, a couple of nice craft beers.  Obviously dice, and a good adventure to run.  Oh and cheezies and mountain dew! 

28.  What film or series is the biggest source of quotes for your group?

I hate to say it but for me it's totally Monty Python.  There are also a lot of LOTR quotes, and a couple of GoT quotes thrown in for good measure.  

29.  What has been the best run kickstarter that you have backed?

Any kickstarter that has already been written and ready to go.  DCC and Frog God games have been very successful.  Obviously the Midderlands is going to be good.  

30.  What is an RPG mashup you would like to see?

How about a thundarr/he-man/john carter of mars with zombies, mechs and Cthulhu? That might be fun.

31.  What do you anticipate most in gaming in 2018?

I'd like to game more, run a long campaign with a bunch of characters.  I'm sure there will be new 5e releases that someone will buy I can look at.  I personally would like to release a bunch more adventures, time will obviously tell. 

Lots of blogging today! Rules Mash up idea

I was thinking today about Microlite and Advanced Fighting Fantasy, and I had an idea about a very easy mechanic that might be fun to try as a mashup idea.  I quite like the Skill tests in AFF, wether it being a Skill Test + specific skill, roll under, and how microlite splits up skills into 3 things, (mind, str, dex i believe).   In AFF anytime you want to try something you test your skill, (and any extra specific skill) so for example, you want to pick a lock.

Skill 7 + Lockpick skill + 1 = 8.  Roll under 8 and you succeed.

While having just a one test thing to know if a specific action works is absolutely handy, and straight an to the point.  Having it split up into 3 things makes a bit more sense as well.  So instead of just a quick test.  or a Difficult class sorta thing.  What might be cool is to have a D6 based skills game, where the basic Skill modifier is replaced with the microlite kind of version.   Of course this would be dependent on class as well.  So for example

A Warrior may look like this - STR 8 DEX 5 MIND 4
Whereas a Wizard might look like this STR 4 DEX 6 MIND 8
and a thief, obviously the DEX would be higher.

The other thing I wouldn't mind incorporating is the ascending armor class, as it makes for one less roll per encounter.   In AFF the Hero & The Monster both roll there skills + dice roll, whoever wins then rolls damage and the other guy rolls what the armor reduces.

Wheras the D20 mechanic is roll over the AC , then roll damage.  thus allowing both the monster and the PC to inflict damage at the same time, which makes a bit more sense in a battle.

The other thing that's kicking around my head is Mass Battles, I need to re-read the rules stated on this blog - http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.ca/2012/08/advanced-fighting-fantasy-and-d-quick.html

But what I'm thinking is the following, same idea as AFF as far as the combat mechanic goes, minus the damage/armor stuff.  Basically the hero's would be in charge of a large battle with 10 different pieces in the army, and the bad guys the same thing.

Hero's Army

Fighting Men Skill 5 Stamina 14
Archers Skill 5 Stamina 14

Etc

Bad Guys
Orcs Skill 5 Stamina 14
Goblins Skill 4 Stamina 13

On a large board I would give little markers for each group with the stats on them, and we can move them around the terrain deciding who goes after who.  All damage would be D6 based.  More like the original version of AFF I suppose.  Of course thruout the battle I would switch to "What's happening in the now" with the PC's and have them battle a specific monster one on one, then back to the actual warfare.

30 Day Challenge! - Day 1 - "How You Got Started"

Just caught this - http://isungr.blogspot.ca/2013/08/30-day-d-challenge-upcoming.html I'm totally doing this and you should too!


Day 1 - How I got started 

A long time ago in a bedroom in the basement....

Actually I started playing D&D because I was really into the Fighting Fantasy Novels, When we were all kids that's what we got into and we had almost all of the book's and would trade etc.  I remember playing Advanced Fighting Fantasy with my cousin, he had this book called "dungeoneer", it was magical.  Soon after I played AD&D 1E with my other cousin and was totally hooked.  Since all of my friends were into Fighting Fantasy, I got a copy of Dungeoneer and started playing with them.  Eventually I got D&D 2nd edition and we went from there.  Along the way we played Hero's Quest, Dragonstrike, Dragon Quest and a few other table top games.  Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of times when I wasn't the DM, I remember only once playing with a friend of mine and he had the red box, I think I was a wizard and got my ass handed to me early on.

Stellar Adventures released on pdf

I'm stoked about this!  After a successful kickstarter Stellar Adventures has been released on pdf.   Stellar Adventures is based Advanced Fighting Fantasy, a role playing game set in space.  Written by +Graham Bottley and Johnathan Hicks. 

Here's the blurb. 

This standalone game will allow just about any type of SciFi adventures from soldiers in powered armour vs vicious alien monsters to the command crew of an imperial frontier explorer ship.  Small time traders moving between starports to space bounty hunters.  Dystopian robot hunters to rebels fighting against a corrupt government.

The core rules have all been planned out, and the first draft of several chapters have been written, but we would like interested KS backers to join the playtest of the game as soon as the campaign has finished.

The game has the same core rules as the fantasy version of AFF, but has new skills, talents, weapons, armour and rules.

The provisional Chapter list is:

     Chapter 1 - Hero Creation

     Chapter 2 - Game Rules

     Chapter 3 - Combat

     Chapter 4 - Equipment

     Chapter 5 - Robots

     Chapter 6 - Starships and Vehicles

     Chapter 7 - Psionics

     Chapter 8 - Aliens

     Chapter 9 - Trade and Organisations

     Chapter 10 - Setting Ideas

     Chapter 11 - Campaign Ideas

The book includes artwork from the original fighting fantasy game books: Rebel Planet, Star Strider and Robot Commando. 

You can grab the pdf on drivethru here: 

It appears that the print copies are in the works as per the kickstarter 

"I am uploading the print versions today and so hopefully should be in a position to order test copies in a week or so"

Also I just noticed that the "Starship Catalog" has also been released on pdf: go here. 

This supplement for the Stellar Adventures RPG provides statistics and descriptions of a wide range of starships, component modules and weapons.  Presented as a Dealer’s Catalogue, every item here for sale is fully illustrated and includes a sales pitch from one of our highly experienced and knowledgeable salespeople (or salesrobot). 

Included within you will find:

53 Starships

26 Modules

10 Weapon Classes

Considering how well the updated version of AFF2.0 was written, I'm sure this will once again be a great rpg system to run.  Graham stuck with the original concepts and rules and tweaked them to fix the leveling problems in the original version of the advanced game.  I remember fondly playing Star Strider & Robot Commando when I was kid, and enjoyed them thoroughly.  It never dawned on me to use the aff rules to play a sci fi game, partially because for whatever reason when it came to RPGs for me it was all about the "dragons, dungoeons, elves, etc".  

I'm curious to see how this book is in relation to the AFF rules, I'm sure having both in hand you could do some interesting stuff.  Just like gamma world, you could run a game with characters starting off in a medieval society, and then getting better technology.  Or the mashup I've been working towards, a Thundarr the barbarian game!  

I like the starship catalog, it's cool having some extra mini's for games.  If you haven't checked out some of Graham's mini's please do, they pretty awesome.  Here's the link http://www.arion-games.com/paperminis.php

Damn it I'm excited.