AFF2 Heroes' Companion

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Before you read about this delightful little nugget, have you funded YOU ARE THE HERO yet?

How about GOBLIN'S BOUNTY?

Excellent.  Then let us begin.

Back in April 2011 (wow, that wasa long time ago), I published a wishlist for the 2nd edition of Advanced Fighting Fantasy.  Most of my wishes were granted, but it looks like the Heroes' Companion, the latest addition to the AFF2 collection will grant some more of my wishes and more with its simple yet versatile system.

I picked up this book at Dragonmeet but it will be available online in a few weeks.  Here is a run down of its contents.

Extra special skills and talents

This allows the players to have more options when building their heroes.  Most of the new skills are skills that more experienced heroes will want to learn when they move on from exploring dungeons for gold to spreading their influence across the world, such as battle tactics, leadership and stewardship.  There are several more advanced types of magic to learn and talents that make for more interesting heroes.  The templar talent allows you to create a paladin type hero, which fills a gap as usually, creating a warrior with some magical ability in AFF required a lot of XP to do both well.  Now, with talents such as templar, second sight and clearsight (which allows heroes to identify illusions), combat focused heroes can supplement their talents with a little magic.  There is also a magic resistance talent, a talent for leadership and a talent that negates your opponent's attack if it is the first round of combat.

New magical styles

This also offers plenty more options for players and also for directors to create NPCs.  There are several new magical types.  Tattoo magic is a great addition and also a nod to The Riddling Reaver.  Necromancy, conjuring and chaos magic will allow the director to create interesting NPCs and villains and battle magic will allow the heroes to take on whole armies.  I was glad to see that battle magic spells cost a lot more than normal spells to reflect their large scale effect as it seemed a bit wrong that in Allansia, creating a hail of arrows cost as much stamina as a couple of lighting bolts.  However, the rules allow the battle mage to use magic points from assistants so they do not have to sink all their XP into getting tons of magic points.

We also have more detailed instructions on making magical items, something the first edition AFF covered with a confusing description of a spell that cost 6 stamina in Blacksand.  Here we have a special skill for enchantment along with costs in terms of money, time and magic points.  The method does not cover every specific item so calculations need to be made but it has enough examples for a director to make an educated guess.

Hirelings

We then have a chapter on hirelings which gives rules for heroes to buy services of NPCs quickly and simply.  This allows the players to move on from a ragtag bunch of adventurers to people who can interact and grow in the world of Titan.

Domain management

Speaking of growing in the world, this chapter provides simple rules for owning a domain and making money from it from a small farm to a huge country.

Mass battles

Here are new rules for mass battles.  They are like an amalgamation of the complex and basic rules from Allansia! but they are more versatile covering units in the 10s, 100s or 1000s and also including heroic combats.  There are also rules for siege engines, buildings and standard bearers.  A lot of the mass battle rules needed more elaboration and these have done so without making them more complex.

Wilderness rules

This chapter covers the creation of a wilderness using a similar method to the dungeon generator from the first book (throw six sided dice on a piece of paper, draw a map based on where they land and assign the type of wilderness based on the number thrown).  There are also descriptions of hazards and encounters in the book.

Afflictions

Finally, we have some nasty afflictions that the heroes pick up, which also include a few nods to Vault of the Vampire. These afflictions are meant to create some interesting problems for the character and a hook for an adventure.  For example, curse of the warrior reduces a hero's skill and stamina if they fight, so they will have to find non violent solutions to their problems.

So there we are.  Graham Bottley continues to expand on the AFF2 system whilst at the same time making it  simple yet versatile.  This is not a system for those looking for hardcore realism.  It is more for people who want a fun game without being bogged down by too many rules.  Keep an eye out for it when it finally arrives  on the digital bookshelves.

YOU ARE THE HERO - KICKSTARTER!

It's been a great year for Fighting Fantasy, but the goodness isn't over yet!

Yes, we've had the 30th anniversary of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks this year, marked with the release of Blood of the Zombies in August where many adoring fans turned up to get their copies signed by Ian Livingstone.

The creators of the well loved gamebook series were also present at Dragonmeet where they told us the story of how they brought Fighting Fantasy to us all.  And it was a great story indeed.

Jonathan Green, author of many a great Fighting Fantasy gamebook wants to tell this story and bind it into a book called YOU ARE THE HERO.

To get this mighty tome off the ground, Jon requires £15000 to be raised.  Things are going well, with almost £7000 raised at the time of writing.  Well, this is the time when YOU ARE THE HERO and you can fund this excellent project.

The rewards for funding this book are wonderful.  You can get a pdf of YOU ARE THE HERO if you fund £10, a hard copy for £25.  For £30, you name will be in the acknowledgements part of the book - your name in a piece of FF history.  Other rewards include superb art prints, being interviewed for the book, and, if you have £500, having a lunch with Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone and Jon Green.  Now that is something to look forward to.

So get on down to the Kickstarter page and show your support to fighting Fantasy :)

Artist profile - Tony Hough

When I was younger, I would look at the front cover of Night Dragon made by the talented artist, Tony Hough and think of only one word - awesome!

The cover said it all. Here was a dragon that all other dragons feared.  It wasn't like a normal dragon as it looked like it had some biomechanical enhancements to it.  It's chest looks deliciously gigerian as if it is not just a dragon but some kind of xenomorph dragon hybrid.  Magic was flowing out of its claws as if there was too much magic inside it to be contained and its head contained an eerie blue glow, not like the traditional fire of those mediocre modern day dragons.  Oh yeah.  You don't mess with the Night Dragon.

Tony Hough has illustrated the interior of Spectral Stalkers, Night Dragon, Knights of Doom and Bloodbones.  He has also illustrated the covers for Night Dragon and Knights of Doom.

Tony has also done some excellent artwork which you can buy from here.  You can also commission him to do some art that you might want.

You can take a look at Tony's website here where he has many more excellent pieces.  You can also follow his blog.  So have a look.  

Dragonmeet 2012

Goblins and
goddess.

First of all, apologies for the lateness in my post.  I always try to get them out on Sunday and most of the time, I achieve this by bulk writing posts when I have the time and then scheduling them.  However, this one could not be scheduled as it was about the great experience I had (and gained) from Dragonmeet 2012, where I met up with lots of gamebookers and other great people in the gaming community.

I met up with Emil before the convention to  have a little discussion about Goblin's Bounty, which is coming along very nicely.  I also had a demo for people to play at the convention.

The fans are enraptured.

I then got to the convention in time for Steve Jackson's and Ian Livingstone's talk '30 years of Fighting Fantasy' where they entertained us with stories about them living in a van together,  being accused of making children fly with their books and how their first shop was so small, they had to leave it whenever a customer came in.  There was also lots of good stuff about the future of Fighting Fantasy where they announced that House of Hell will be the second fighting Fantasy gamebook to be released by the Tin Man and Jonathan Green announced that he is planning to write a book about the history of Fighting Fantasy and that there will be a kickstarter for it soon.

After the talk, I had a great chat with Tony Hough, artist, who has put his talents into illustrating some Fighting Fantasy books and is also responsible for my favorite Fighting Fantasy cover.

This is not Tony Hough - this
is my favorite FF cover.

Now this is Tony Hough.

We bonded over our mutual love of Terry Gilliam and manga and he told me some very interesting stories about his illustrations, which are awesome.

If you want to see more of his work, you can view his black and white drawings here and his colour illustrations here.

If you would like to buy any of Tony's art, you can go here.  If you would like to commission him, you can go here.  I'll be doing a post on more of Tony's work next week.

Sam Richards. Tweet RPG master.

I was also approached by Sam Richards of Tweet RPG fame  and we had a good chat about where he wants to take his innovative marriage of gamebooks and Twitter.  I'm looking forward to what is coming up.

I then headed over to the fighting Fantasy stall, noticing Michael J. Ward selling his new Destiny Quest book and made a mental note to talk to him when he wasn't being surrounded by enthusiastic customers.

Jonathan Green

The Warlock.

It was all happening at the Fighting fantasy stall - Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone were signing their adoring fans' Fighting Fantasy books (including mine - thankyou!) whilst the Warlock was selling a variety of Fighting Fantasy merchandise and trying to keep up with the demand.  The Tin Man and Jonathan Green were also there for a chat.  It was gamebook central.

Steve Jackson and the warlock
discuss who gets to ride
the dragon home.

Ian Livingstone talks to a fan whilst being minded
by the Tin Man and Jonathan Green.

Graham Bottley spearheads theAFF2 revival.

The Fighting Fantasy stand was not the only one that had all the gamebook goodness on it, however.  I also visited the Arion Games stall where Graham Bottley was selling his latest addition to the Advanced Fighting Fantasy RPG - the Heroes' Companion with its simple yet flexible rules for managing domains, mass battles, wilderness creation, curses, more types of magic and much much more.  Copies will be available from Cubicle 7 in the next six weeks or so, so stay tuned!

Michael J. Ward and myself.

Although it was only 2pm at this point, I was approached by Michael J. Ward who had closed his stall down because he had actually sold out of the Destiny Quests that he had bought with him.  It was great to finally meet Michael who had created the Destiny Quest series.  I was glad to hear that there is a third book in the works, planned for late 2013.  Until then, you have the Heart of Fire to beat.

The day went too fast but I also managed to squeeze in a game of Lords of War, a card game where fantasy races battle it out.  It was a close and enjoyable game, so I'm glad I played it.

It was an excellent day and I heartily look forward to next year's Dragonmeet.  I have plenty more posts to write about the day, such as a review of the AFF2 Heroes' Companion, Destiny Quest 2 and new projects from various people.

In the mean time, check out the Tin Man's 12 days of gamebooks and updates from YOU ARE THE HERO, the title of Jonathan Green's history of FF blog (also on Twitter) and back Goblin's Bounty to make it even better!

There's plenty to do in the world of gamebooks, so get stuck in!

Lastly, here's a picture of myself and Ian Livingstone :) (thanks, Ian Livingstone!)

Goblin's Bounty is full of goodness and we're not just talking about the coconut and chocolate

Our heroes and Dianamh,
the ugly goddess of nature.
She doesn't even have any warts.

For those of you who haven't seen my vlog, I am working on a great little project called Goblin's Bounty, an Android app, which combines two of my favourite things - gamebooks and collectable card games.  I've not been this happy since the release of the Ravnica block or Blood of the Zombies.

So basically, you play it like a gamebook and when you get to combat, you draw a load of cards that deal damage to an opponent, or protect you from their attacks and they do likewise.  You can see some examples of card combat here.

This is a challenging thing to do where we not only have to create a gamebook that provides lots of options and branching paths but also a set of cards which are balanced and fun to play both individually and as a deck.  And if my creative guru, Mark Rosewater (lead designer at Magic the Gathering) knows one thing, its that doing such a thing is no simple process (if it was, he'd be designing Magic the Gathering sets on his own in a shed)

A screenshot of combat.

So what's been going on with Goblin's Bounty?  First of all Emil (originator of the idea to have an app with a gamebook and a collectable card game in one), Ashton and I have been discussing the ins and outs of what kinds of cards we want and what combinations of cards we want.  One of the things we've decided on is that  we are not going to have too many defensive cards.  They will have their place but too many defensive cards will stall the combat and make it no fun.  We're also going to have opponents with themed decks and strategies.  This way, you are able to think about how you will fight them and beat them.  What strategies are there?  We can reveal that later.

There's also the story side of things.  Basically, your world is being threatened by a terrible danger where heroes of great strength and resolve are needed to save it.  Except the world will have to make do with four smelly goblins to save them.  Hopefully, despite, or even because of their goblin ways, they can save the day.  

This is going to be a crazy journey that will take our heroes to places beyond their wildest dreams (so in this case, better than a fresh steaming jacuzzi of ogre poo) in order to face terrible enemies.  Will our goblins have it in them to save the day?  You will have to find out.

Goblin's Bounty is going to be awesome, but you can make it even more awesome by supporting our kickstarter and also getting cool rewards!

You can also visit Emil's site, Attic Squad, here!

I'm also going to be at Dragonmeet where we can chat about Goblin's Bounty.  Come over and say hello!

Here is a Thordon machine.
See those things its holding onto?
They're mountains.
And you're going to have to stop it.
Good luck.

Arcana Agency preview - The Case of the Unghostly Ghost review

It is a great time for gamebooks as there is something new every week going on.  The end of the Windhammer competition was just the beginning of November's gamebook goodness.  Megara Entertainment is looking to release a gamebook written by Paul Gresty called Arcana Agency:  Thief of Memories via Kickstarter and just to give us a taste of what we have to look forward to, it has also released a free preview with a short 57 paragraph adventure.

Here is what I think of the preview.

First impressions:  The layout and the illustrations of the book are gorgeous.  It certainly has high production values and it really gives the gamebook a slick and polished look.  The book also comes with a foreword by Dave Morris who talks of how gamebooks have moved on since the 80s and how Paul Gresty, author the Arcana Agency gamebooks  has taken full advantage of the medium in order to deliver everything a gamebook can offer.  I certainly agree with him here.

The book certainly immerses you in the world of a 1930s New York detective agency world.

The rules:  The rules cover a mere two pages of the book but they have a lot of versatility and also enhance the depth of the characters.  The stats are strength, reflexes, knowledge, insight and charm.  They follow rules similar to fabled Lands' system where you are presented a task with a difficulty score and it is resolved if you roll 2d6 add the pertinent score and get equal to or over the difficulty. 
Your state of health is not given an abstract score, but rather five statues - perfect health, shaken, hurt, badly hurt or close to death. 

The characters:  Few gamebooks offer such depth to its characters as Arcana Agency.  In this book, you control the actions of Humphry Brown, the head of the agency who is accompanied by his two associates, Joe Strelli and Tom Shanigan.  Each character has their own page with their stats and also a little history about themselves.  Each character also has their moments during the book and you get a real feel for them through their interactions and opinions. 

Since you are reading about three characters, the book uses the third person instead of the second person which works very well.

There are also two pages devoted to supporting characters and it pays to look at the details.  You are playing an investigator after all...




Design:  This 57 paragraph book has a lot of depth.  It manages to include the hidden motives of the characters as well as a red herring and a puzzle based on translation and reading carefully (you are an investigator, after all).  It will take a lot of effort to solve the case and work out the motivations of everyone there but it is not imporssible and there are several excellent reveals and at least one thread hanging.  Let's just say that the book will keep you guessing about the metaphysics of the universe that you are in.  If the full book is like this then I can't wait to read it.

So in summary, read this preview and then back the full gamebook in order to fulfil the potential of this delight.

You can find Paul Gresty's site here.

You can play Case of the Unghostly Ghost here

You can fund the Arcana Agency kickstarter here.

And while you're on kickstarter, why not also support a gamebook app by Emil Bakalinov, Ashton Saylor and myself called Goblin's Bounty.  It's a gamebook with a collectable cardgame based combat.  It is a delightful combination of two wonderful things.  Fund our kickstarter here.

Goblin's Bounty!

Do you like collectable card games?  Do you like gamebooks?  Then we've got the game for you!  Goblin's Bounty from Attic Squad.

SUPPORT OUR KICKSTARTER!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/641639471/goblins-bounty-a-gamebook-with-collectable-cards

VISIT THE ATTIC SQUAD WEBSITE!
http://www.atticsquad.com/