Fantasy AGE by Green Ronin: Anyone read/Dm'd or Played it?

[R_J_K75]

I recently bought Green Ronins Modern Age and have been reading it, albeit slowly. We are taking the summer off and Im going to start a Modern Age game come this fall. The 2 other DMs in our group are going to run ShadowDark too concurrent with my game. I really like that Modern AGE is a "classless" system and Im assuming that Fantasy AGE is probably the same but I'd like to ask people who have played it if that is the case. Id also like to know peoples overall impression of Fantasy AGE and their experiences playing it, i.e. the system is too complicated, not complicated enough, character creation takes a long time but there are lots of options to make truly unique characters, things you'd change, things that need to be added or modified. I do like that there is only 5 or 6 official products so the system seems pretty finite.

 

[mamba]

Fantasy Age is not classless. It has Mage, Rogue and Warrior (and in the new release also Envoy). The Core Rulebook replaces the Basic Rulebook and the Companion book. So do not count them double in your list of official products

 

[R_J_K75]

Fantasy Age is not classless.

Thats disappointing. Even though it was a little rough around the edges I really liked the 2E AD&D Players Options Skills and Powers which Modern AGE reminded me off so I was hoping Fantasy AGE was the same.

 

[Jasca87]

I dm'ed Dragon Age and Fantasy Age 1st couple of times, FA 2nd once. It's okay system, but pretty bland in the terms of rules. Amount of hit points and armor as a DR result fights dragging. Some people like the stunt system, I don't really care for it.

 

[R_J_K75]

Some people like the stunt system, I don't really care for it.

I havent played Modern AGE yet but what I've read I liked. It reminded me of Alternity. Who knows how it will play out in game or if my group will like it. Im getting the impression that perhaps the AGE systems is better suited for a modern game than a fantasy game, but Im just guessing so I suppose the true test will be when we actually play a game. I'll probably pass on Fantasy AGE.

 

[amethal]

I played in a Dragon Age campaign for a while. It was fun (even though most of us knew nothing about the setting, having never played the computer game) and a nice change of pace from the much more rules-intensive Pathfinder we usually play. I think the (comparative) lack of character options would have paled after a while, but we only did the one campaign so that wasn't an issue.

I've only read Fantasy AGE, never played it, but it seems to improve the rules a bit (adding a Fighting skill, for instance) and expand the Stunt system.

I'm pretty much neutral on the stunts question. They added a bit of interest at first, but eventually we defaulted to using the same ones all the time. The monster stunts took a bit of getting used to. As a long-time D&D player, when the giant spider successfully bites my character I expect to get a saving throw against poison. It doesn't feel right to get bitten repeatedly and not have to worry about poison, and then (because the monster finally rolled some stunt points) to get poisoned "automatically" with nothing I can do about it.

 

[R_J_K75]

Thanks for the Feedback folks its really helping me decide if I want to invest in this game or not

 

[Thomas Shey]

Thats disappointing. Even though it was a little rough around the edges I really liked the 2E AD&D Players Options Skills and Powers which Modern AGE reminded me off so I was hoping Fantasy AGE was the same.

You might be able to kitbash it with Modern Age, which I believe is technically classless.

(I should note two things:
1. I ran a Dragon Age game at one time and we all concluded it started to breakdown for various reasons about level 6-8. There are things about the publication history that suggest why the design might have that particular failure point.
2. That said, while I own and have read both Fantasy Age I and Modern Age, I have not run them, and by my count Fantasy Age 2 is, effectively the 4th evolutionary iteration of the base system since DA. Its possible that the issues we had may have been hosed down some in fashions that are not obvious from a casual read).

 

[aramis erak]

I've read Dragon Age, and skimmed Fantasy Age 1e. Neither was compelling to me as a game. DA was a good read, tho'. Lots of good setting detail. (Never played the DA videogames, either.) The mechanics are close enough to d20 that it didn't appeal at the time.

For me, the lack of a cleric class was a major flaw. Magic-using priests are a common trope in fantasy (tho' them being combat effectives isn't as universal); it's my big complaint about T&T/M&M and TFT, as well.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I've read Dragon Age, and skimmed Fantasy Age 1e. Neither was compelling to me as a game. DA was a good read, tho'. Lots of good setting detail. (Never played the DA videogames, either.) The mechanics are close enough to d20 that it didn't appeal at the time.

For me, the lack of a cleric class was a major flaw. Magic-using priests are a common trope in fantasy (tho' them being combat effectives isn't as universal); it's my big complaint about T&T/M&M and TFT, as well.

Depends on your fantasy palette. Frankly, in most of the ones I'm aware of that are not clearly D&D influenced, they're either not common, or simply appear to be priests where part of the job description was also being sorcerers.