Particle_Man
Explorer
I apologize if this is in the wrong forum.
I was wondering what people thought of the two games.
I was wondering what people thought of the two games.
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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Fantasycraft, Legend, others?
- Thread starter Particle_Man
- Start date
Howndawg
Explorer
I am not familiar with Legend, but I can tell you about Fantasycraft.
It is based off the Spycraft 2.0 rules, so if you are familiar with SC, then you have a good grasp of what FC is about. If you're not I'll enlighten you.
Character generation is point buy. There are no dump stats. A Soldier with a high Int is a perfectly viable character. Instead of race, players select either a species or, if human, a talent, and a specialty. The former is more innate while the latter is more like your occupation. The species list ranges from elves and dwarves to giants and drakes. The classes are diverse and have a large number of options for players who like to play skill monkeys.
Skills are streamlined into a list of twenty. Characters have a list of class skills but can expand that with origin skills. Feats are divided into around a dozen categories and are often linked into three-feat chains, which makes character development easier. If you want a spear and shield fighter who wears armor, there are three chains just for you and if you want to take advantage of the spears benefits and max out on Athletics, there is another chain for that. Wham, twelve feats just for you without even having to think about it.
Magic is divided into arcane and divine magic. The flavor is left intentionally vague so you can say your mage really gets his arcane power from the gods and your priest gets his from the elemental powers of nature. One thing of note is that mages get benefits from all mental abilities, so the totally cerebral, non-physical mage is a viable option.
There is a big section of gear which ranges from stone age to black powder, with tech levels listed. All weapon types are viable. There is no one weapon to rule them all.
Combat is much like D&D, though with wounds and vitality, and with skills playing a more important roll in combat. For example, bull rush is an athletics check. You do not want to stand near the edge of a pit while fighting that spear and shield wielding athletics-maxing soldier.
FC offers an excellent chapter on world building. The bread and butter is in campaign qualities, which are optional rules in which you can cater the setting to your taste. It is even possible to run a no magic historical adventure game using these rules. For those who think modularity in an rpg is impossible, it is done here quite well.
The drawbacks of FC are two, IMHO. One, the rulebook is fat, and can be quite intimidating, although not as much as Pathfinder. Two, Crafty Games is a small company and support, although of high quality, comes along at a snail's pace.
FC is for you if you want to tinker the world to your own tastes or if your group likes to engage in more than just hack and slash.
It is based off the Spycraft 2.0 rules, so if you are familiar with SC, then you have a good grasp of what FC is about. If you're not I'll enlighten you.
Character generation is point buy. There are no dump stats. A Soldier with a high Int is a perfectly viable character. Instead of race, players select either a species or, if human, a talent, and a specialty. The former is more innate while the latter is more like your occupation. The species list ranges from elves and dwarves to giants and drakes. The classes are diverse and have a large number of options for players who like to play skill monkeys.
Skills are streamlined into a list of twenty. Characters have a list of class skills but can expand that with origin skills. Feats are divided into around a dozen categories and are often linked into three-feat chains, which makes character development easier. If you want a spear and shield fighter who wears armor, there are three chains just for you and if you want to take advantage of the spears benefits and max out on Athletics, there is another chain for that. Wham, twelve feats just for you without even having to think about it.
Magic is divided into arcane and divine magic. The flavor is left intentionally vague so you can say your mage really gets his arcane power from the gods and your priest gets his from the elemental powers of nature. One thing of note is that mages get benefits from all mental abilities, so the totally cerebral, non-physical mage is a viable option.
There is a big section of gear which ranges from stone age to black powder, with tech levels listed. All weapon types are viable. There is no one weapon to rule them all.
Combat is much like D&D, though with wounds and vitality, and with skills playing a more important roll in combat. For example, bull rush is an athletics check. You do not want to stand near the edge of a pit while fighting that spear and shield wielding athletics-maxing soldier.
FC offers an excellent chapter on world building. The bread and butter is in campaign qualities, which are optional rules in which you can cater the setting to your taste. It is even possible to run a no magic historical adventure game using these rules. For those who think modularity in an rpg is impossible, it is done here quite well.
The drawbacks of FC are two, IMHO. One, the rulebook is fat, and can be quite intimidating, although not as much as Pathfinder. Two, Crafty Games is a small company and support, although of high quality, comes along at a snail's pace.
FC is for you if you want to tinker the world to your own tastes or if your group likes to engage in more than just hack and slash.
Psion
Adventurer
Fantasy Craft has been my go-to fantasy RPG for a while now. I could pontificate about it all day, but I'll try to keep it brief and bullet point key things I like about it.
I just barely got Legend. It's not exactly drawing me in, but it's currently free, so if you want to know what it's about, take a looksie.
- Action dice make it very heroic
- Talents and specialties add a layer of depth to characters
- Classes are very flexible
- Feats are very potent, but much more balanced with each other than most other d20 variants I have seen.
- Different, reduced system for NPCs
- Campaign qualities make for easy crafting of the campaign
- Magic is optional, and not essential to balancing the characters.
- Skills are more important than in most d20 variants, granting you combat options (acrobatics is to make trip attacks, etc.)
I just barely got Legend. It's not exactly drawing me in, but it's currently free, so if you want to know what it's about, take a looksie.
dm4hire
Explorer
Actually which Legend are you talking about?
There are two. The one by Mongoose which is percentile and the other which, despite knowing about Mongoose's releasing of same title, uses the d20 system.
The Mongoose variant is actually a reskinning of Runequest II, which they started to publish under license before it was withdrawn by the license holder. It is a percentile system that is skills oriented and presented in a generic format. Mongoose's original plan was to convert all their products over to RQII, using it as a system engine for the IPs that they own. Having lost the license they quickly renamed the core rules and have since moved all their products under the Legend banner. There is a general magic system presented with two variations presented in other books, spirit magic which is a free download and blood magic which is not. For further information on the Mongoose version it would be best to ask people about RQII.
There are two. The one by Mongoose which is percentile and the other which, despite knowing about Mongoose's releasing of same title, uses the d20 system.
The Mongoose variant is actually a reskinning of Runequest II, which they started to publish under license before it was withdrawn by the license holder. It is a percentile system that is skills oriented and presented in a generic format. Mongoose's original plan was to convert all their products over to RQII, using it as a system engine for the IPs that they own. Having lost the license they quickly renamed the core rules and have since moved all their products under the Legend banner. There is a general magic system presented with two variations presented in other books, spirit magic which is a free download and blood magic which is not. For further information on the Mongoose version it would be best to ask people about RQII.
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