FANTASY AGE Can Now Be YOURS!

Green Ronin's Fantasy AGE roleplaying game is alive! You can now pick up the PDF version of the 144-page full-colour book, or you can pre-order the hardback. Written by Chris Pramas, Fantasy AGE is, of course, the system powering Wil Wheaton's Titansgrave show. The game uses Green Ronin's AGE (Adventure Game Engine), which is also found in their Dragon Age and upcoming Blue Rose RPGs.

"The Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook is your entry point to tabletop roleplaying. Now you can be the hero in your own sword and sorcery adventures! This is the game played on Wil Wheaton’s new tabletop RPG show, Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana. The Adventure Game Engine (AGE) rules are easy to learn, and feature an innovative stunt system that keeps the action tense and exciting. This Basic Rulebook includes full 20 level advancement for all three classes, a new magic system, advice for players and GMs, and an introductory adventure so you can get started right away. You can use Fantasy AGE to run adventures in the campaign setting of your choice or a world of your own creation. A new AGE is upon us!"

The PDF is $15.99, or $5 if you pre-order the hardcover as well.

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In other Green Ronin news, the Blue Rose RPG Kickstarter ends in 4 days. It funded early in the campaign, and is now blasting through stretch goals, the latest of which is a GM screen featuring the art of Stephanie Pui-mun Law. Blue Rose is billed as an inclusive game of romantic fantasy.

 

[JesterOC]

Is there any particular reason to play FA over 5e?

It is just a matter to taste. For me 5e has been great, but at the same time Dragon AGE was a fantastic ruleset that was probably my wife's favorite gaming system ever. What she (and the rest of my gaming group) did not like was the Dark setting of Dragon Age. At the time (and still pretty much honestly) I don't have time for creating my own adventures so after playing 1-2 Dragon Age adventures the group was pretty much done with them. We moved on to other systems and have been enjoying 5e, but we want to try to convert the current campaign to Fantasy AGE to see if we can combine the best of both worlds (a fairly good guy hero centric story with the AGE combat and stunt system).

In a Nutshell I find 5E and Fantasy AGE to be simple systems that are good at representing Fantasy Settings.

Here is how I currently compare the systems

5E Pros
More Monster Selection (Hundreds vs 14)
Combat lethality appears more predictable (Going on Dragon AGE experience for this)
More Adventures
More Gaming Accessories (DM screens, spell cards)
More Class options
Easier Spell expansion options

Fantasy AGE Pros
More fun/dynamic combats due to Dragon Dice stunt system
A lot of diversity within Class options (I think this outweights 5E's more classes pro)
Monsters appear more unique (by being able to give them custom stunts it adds a lot of interesting options in creating and fighting monsters)

 

[Nebulous]

Hmmm.... I might have to check this out.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Eh, I'll stick with 5E then and get that Primeval Thule from Sasquatch instead.

I did both.

 

[fjw70]

A few more differences between Fantasy AGE and 5e.

Armor provides damage reduction.

The math is even flatter. All the monsters have +4-6 attacking bonuses. Damage is flatter too. Weapon damage ranges from 1d6 (club) to 3d6 (two handed sword). Spells seem much less powerful (lightning bolt does 2d6 damage but ignores armor).

There is no multiple attack ability for PCs (but you can get an extra attack from the stunt system if you roll well enough).

So I agree that they are different without one being being superior to the other. I am thinking about trying out Fantasy AGE with the new setting for it (Titansgrave). It seems like an interesting high magic and high tech setting.

 

[aramis erak]

No, they are not. It doesn't cost 30 bucks to ship a book if that's what others have posted above as the shipping cost.
medium flat rate that a book fits in with really to much room to spare from one side of the USA to the other is $12. Anything over that is a HANDLING charge by green ronin. If they charge 30, your paying 18 in handling, 12 in actual postage.

USPS Flat rate Priority (2-4 days anywhere in the US, including Puerto Rico, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, or the Minor Outlying Islands) is $5.75 in the 12x10" cardboard envelope.

Packaging a book in one takes about 1 minute: wrap an 18x12 sheet of foam, slap an inch of tape, shove in envelope, pull seal strip, and fold. Printing the shipping labels takes about 3 minutes, counting typing them up at 40 WPM. Oh, and walking it over to the outgoing bin is a minute. But let's pretend they hire the handicapped and assume that they can only push 5 an hour (12 minutes to do a 5 minute job). And let's assume they pay decent: $10 per hour. Handling should STILL cost only $2. So the cost to ship it should be $7.75. and you get it in 2-3 days.

If you really want to prevent bent corners, you use the box. $12.65 postage. Handling should be $2 still.

Most books arrive to stores with bent corners anyway, so it's not that big a deal to me...

GR seems to be basing it all on the $50 international flat rate envelope.

 

[Staffan]

How do they fit an entire game into a mere 144 pages? What are they missing, which is necessary to play the game?

I don't know what they did with Fantasy Age, but the game I cut my teeth on (Drakar och Demoner, back in 1984) had a 68 page rulebook in B5 format (between A5 and A4, so it would probably be about 50 regular pages), and was "feature-complete" - perfectly playable, but lacking variety in monsters and spells.

D&D, of all editions, is a fairly "bloated" game, because everything is its own special case. For example, the Fighter class in 5e takes up 6 pages, because it has a bunch of special abilities, background, inspiration, and such. By comparison, the Warrior profession in Drakar och Demoner looks like this translated to English:

Warrior
A warrior is usually a wandering adventurer whose sword is for sale for money and glory (mostly money!). He is often willing to go on adventures, particularly if they seem lucrative. But he is independent and does not like excessive discipline. Therefore, he is not very keen on being a bodyguard or a soldier in some army.
* Detect danger
* Ride
* Weapon skills (up to 3, can choose any weapon)
* Hide
* Climb
* Jump
* Appraise

(The last bit is a list of skills the Warrior can start out with - they get to choose 5 in which to be proficient and 3 in which to be experts).

So a complete game in 144 pages? No problem.

 

[Ravenheart87]

The contents are good. It appears to be a solid generic continuation of the AGE engine. The main problems I have seen to far are typos and typographical problems (inconsistent use of Bold text). My biggest problem so far is there is no easy way to mimic a D&D Cleric. I was hoping to change my D&D campaign to Fantasy AGE and it looks that I will have to create a Mage Priest Specialization.

You can probably also use Gifts of the Gods.

 

[CapnZapp]

I'd would have been interested in this, if we didn't have 5e

Green Ronin dropped the ball on Dragon AGE in so many many ways.

Not delivering timely content. They absolutely should have negotiated a license allowing them to publish all four sets at their own pace. Not any of that "wait for a new crpg release" nonsense - that was way too slow to sustain most gamers interest.

Not designing all levels at once. It is painfully clear set 1 was written without any clear idea on how to proceed with higher levels. Taken in isolation, set 1 is a nifty little game. It quickly falls apart at higher levels. Surprising imbalances manifest that an experienced designer like Pramas should have caught - and probably would have, had he designed the entire game at once.

Mishandling their personel situation. Nuff said.

More generally, I have really tried to love Green Ronin ever since their WFRP2 days. But the harsh truth is that it has always been a fickle companies, starting up a game line only to not follow through with enough attention, manpower and product. M&M and possibly Freeport being exceptions, and Blue Rose as the especially egregious example.

Oh, and the hare brained decision to jump on two major fantasy brands at roughly the same time with too little staff to do either justice, which also splintered their already tiny customer base. SIFRP and DA, that is.

 

[JesterOC]

You can probably also use Gifts of the Gods.

I wonder how compatible it would be, perhaps they will kick out an updated version. Too bad they don'r have a preview to see how easy it would be to convert.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Gift of the Gods is super easy to convert.

I am a huge fan of this game. I tend toward much crunchier games (Pathfinder, Hero) and have been looking for a lighter game. I don't especially like the OSR. I liked a fair amount of 5th, but it just sit right - not enough freedom for a lighter game, and not enough crunch for a heavier one. Fantasy Age is just what I was looking for. I never played Dragon Age (looked through the rules once). I got this Thursday, read it, and had put together a campaign work and GMed the first session for my wife Friday night - it's mean to have a feel similar to 8 & 16 bit JRPGs, so something the rules don't specifically support. I've already worked out some conversed stuff from Dragon Age, The Gift of Gods, and Midgard setting Age rules. I have been this enthused by a new game system since I discovered Hero in 1985.

The fact it doesn't have a direct setting within the rules (other than what the rules sort of have to have given mechanics) is a big plus for me. I almost always home brew - so I didn't have to disentangle the rules from the setting to start using this the way I wanted to.