Some questions for those familiar with Fantasy Age 2e

[Thomas Shey]

as I said, I have not played it, but it sounded like early teens

Well, I'm not going to fault you for not knowing what you don't know, but even that would be a significant step up from how it worked in DA. Its still unfortunate if its true--I'm kind of a little over games that have a theoretical advancement range, and don't give the upper part of it enough love.

 

[The Soloist]

(Far as that goes, is the FA Companion worth investing in? I know it was written for 1e. I've already got the Modern Age Companion, so is it likely to give me anything I don't already have?)

Most of the Companion content was moved into the 2e core book. It's not worth getting.

In the 2e core, you can do away with Health Points and use Fortune (p.198-199) instead. This is taken from The Expanse AGE system. You go from healthy to injured, then wounded to defeated (out of action but not dead).

 

[The Soloist]

Healing: Restoration can heal one character, Willpower of the Mage x10 = health points. That would be 30 HP minimum normally by the time you reach Master Level.

 

[kronovan]

I ran a Dragon Age campaign that went from level 1-18, so I can appreciate concerns about game play suffering at later levels. That said, my campaign used rules that were a hybrid of DAGE and Fantasy Age, so the campaign avoided some of the pitfalls at higher levels.

I don't own Fantasy Age 2. From what I'm reading here, it seems like FAGE 2 with the missing features from Modern Age's modes, would be a decently GMable and playable game. I was skeptical that a +1 Defense bonus at levels 12 and 16 for Modern Age's Pulpy mode was enough to stem the high tendency towards auto-hits. While +1 Defense bonus at level 4 and 8 seemed reasonable, I'd houserule it as +2 at later levels. If FAGE 2's focus play mechanics and linked attributes for martial fucuses are the same as FAGE, I'd probably make those adjustments to level 11 and 16 Defense bonuses as well.

For HP bloat, it seemed that GMs that used the houserule of halfing the results of the DAGE or FAGE fomula, were happiest with how their combat encounters played out. The adjustment to HP in Modern Age's Pulpy mode seamed resonable, but the Gritty mode seemed a bit extreme. Could see it beinng doable for certain genres though.
I never did buy the FAGE Companion, so I'm curious if it contained anything like Modern Age's optional modes?

Having bought the original Dragon Age boxsets, FAGE and Modern Age and no longer doing much with the system, I'm not really looking to buy FAGE 2. I'm curious though, so I'll follow this thread.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Thanks for your response, Kronovan. I'm not sure about the Modern Age gritty mode either; I've seen games that get by with the equivalent, but they also have better avoidance/defense than even more current versions of AGE seem to.

 

[agrayday]

IMHO with the pedigree of Chris Pramas, it amazes me this is not a better product line, and well tested. The Age games all come with various issues that seem to be more in quantity and blatant than their competitors.