Sunday, April 24, 2011

My wishlist for 2nd edition Advanced Fighting Fantasy

Priests also get
cooler costumes.
Here are a few things that I would like to see changed in 2nd edition Advanced Fighting Fantasy.


Priest rules


In Advanced Fighting Fantasy, the priest spell list and the wizard spell list are too similar.  For example, priests have an equivalent of fire bolt and wizards can cast healing spells.  However, the priest spell list was smaller than the wizard spell list and priests were restricted by the morality of their gods.  Priests need something more to make them a competitive option compared to wizards.

I wish I could use a two handed sword
Nonhuman rules


Dungeoneer has rules for elves and dwarves and Allansia includes rules for centaurs, goblins, orcs and trolls.  However, each non human race must take some skills, some of which may not be completely useful.  Elves have to take magic, reducing their initial skill by at least one point.  The initial skill for goblins and orcs is 1d6 + 4 trolls can only buy a number of skill points equal to half their initial skill in addition to having to spend at least three of those points on strength, darkseeing and a large weapon skill.

Centaurs are the only non human race who do not have to buy certain special skills but some actions involving climbing and sneaking have penalties due to their size and shape.

In D and D, humans are the 'base' race with other races being better at some things and worse than others compared to humans.  Dwarves do have darkseeing, but they do not have precious skill choices restricted.

Armour rules

She's grumpy because the chainmail
doesn't actually do anything.
(Check out female armour from Realm of Zhu)
The Fighting Fantasy combat system is quick and simple but it didn't leave much room for effective armour.

Since only 2 stamina points of damage are dealt per hit, it doesn't leave much room for damage reduction.  Jonathan Green gets around this in Stormslayer by having armour reduce damage by 1 on a roll of a 1 or 1-2 or 1-3 on one die depending on the armour.

Increasing your attack strength, even by one point makes a big difference in combat, which would make your effective skill too high.  This led to the chainmail in Legend of Zagor which did nothing apart from reduce some damage if you fell into a pit an increase the damage you sustain in an electrical trap.  Not good.

Advanced Fighting Fantasy used a variable damage system which could integrate armour.  However, it said nothing more that if heroes don't wear a few scraps of armour then the damage rolls from their opponents must have two added to them.  Allansia! also has the heavy armoured combat skill in order to fight sucessfully in heavy armour but it
does not mention what the benefits of heavy armour are.
The spell to animate this golem
costs 4 stamina points.  It takes
two spells and 9 stamina points
to make a potion of stamina.  

Making magical items rules

Blacksand has the enchant item spell which allows a hero to put a spell into an item.  It states that it requires costly requirements in terms of magical paraphenalia but there is no formula as to how much it costs.  It then gives a formula for the cost in stamina and the time it takes.  It states that:

'The basic Stamina Cost for endowing an item with a particular spell is the 6 points for Enchant Item, plus the cost for the spell itself, cast three times into the item over a period of hours equal to the total Stamina cost for the entire operation in days!'


I get confused.  So if I cast ironhand on a sword to give it a +1 bonus to attack strength, it costs 6 for the enchant item spell, followed by 3 for the three ironhand spells.  So it costs 9 stamina points, but is it over 9 hours or 9 days or 9 hours a day over a period of 9 days?  And how much does all this cost in gold pieces?


Why bother
paying stamina?
How long does this enchantment last for?  Is it a 1 use item, a multi use item or is it permanent?

And what about potions?  Would anyone really pay that much for a one use item?

Minor magic rules

Some minor spells are too powerful.  In my opinion, the biggest offender is the Hold it! spell where the caster can freeze time for two seconds.  In combat, two seconds is loads of time.  In Dungeons and Dragons, Time Stop is a level nine spell and that only lasts for 2-5 rounds.

When's the Lonely Planet on Khul out?
More about Khul and  the Old World

The three continents of Titan all have their own distinct character.  I like the dark, chaos tainted, horror infested continent of Khul.  It would be nice to see encounters for the Chaos Wastes, mutation rules or a detailed description of the places and personalities in the city of Ashkyos.
As far as the Old World is concerned, I would love to know more about the War of the Four Kingdoms or the denizens of Kakhabad.
Please, no more
silver arrows.

Better treasure tables


I know that the treasure table says that you can substitute your items onto the table, but the items are too powerful.  Humanoids get a special item on the roll of a 5-6 and then that special item could be a magical weapon on the roll of a 2 or 12 on two dice.  That gives a 1 in 54 chance of a humanoid carrying a magical weapon.  I know it sounds like a lot, but I don't think that magical weapons are that common.  I guess that it's just my opinion, but I do not want quick power creep to happen in the adventures.  I want it more to be about character development than grabbing the best items.

What skill do I need
for this situation?
Streamlining of skills

Some skills need a bit more clarification such as heavy armoured combat, which implies that if you are wearing plate mail, that you calculate your attack strength from this skill, rather than any weapon skill you may have.  That doesn't sound right.

Do there have to be so many skills for mass battles - battle combat, battle tactics, siege combat and siege lore?

Also, why does fighting on horsebakc require both the ride and mounted combat skill.  Couldn't they be rolled together?


Does world lore cover too wide a range of knowledge?  Should it be broken down into other lore skills?

2 comments:

  1. Lets see:

    Priests and Wizards are now totally different!

    Nonhumans and Humans all have their own bonuses, but not to the detriment of others. An Elf can start with the same skill as a Human. There are also rules for designing your own PC races!

    Armour has a proper system now.

    We havn't yet put rules in for creating magic items. Sorry!

    The more powerful Minor Magic spells have been changed or removed.

    We don't have much on Khul in the core book, but we do have a Titan II planned

    We have changed and refined the Magical items tables, and put quite a few sample items in

    We have also clarified the individual Special Skills somewhat.

    Only a couple of weeks to go now!

    Graham

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  2. Hi Graham,

    Thanks for taking a look and leaving some feedback. I've pre ordered my new AFF book and it sounds like I'm going to be delighted with what I'll be reading. I'm looking forwards to it. :).

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