Forward... to Adventure! Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Hinweis: Der Pundit beherrscht leider kein Deutsch, darum sollte in diesem Thread jegliche Konversation auf Englisch abgehalten werden.

Note: Unfortunately Pundit isn't proficient in German, so please stick with English in any discussion in this thread.


Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow B!rethren and every single German-speaking FtA! lover,

on this special occassion of the first FtA! forums world-wide, we we've been able to enlist the direct support of the creator of the game, RPGPundit, by participating in this very Q&A thread.

Unfortunately, we'll yet have to deal with the language barrier. But we're certain that having him on-site will yet be a win-win situation for all sides involved - you'll get to ask your questions without needing to jump to theRPGsite, while the game will get more exposure in this special place.

Feel free to fire all your FtA!-related questions away, whether you have to ask about

• rules application, or
• design decisions, or
• the reasons to pick up the game, or
• the South-American distribution plan, or
• whatever else you might have to ask about FtA!

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

WHAT IS FTA?

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Forward to Adventure, I think? It's the RPG written by the Pundit, as I understood it.

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

That's right. Its Forward... to Adventure!, correctly abbreviated as "FtA!".

I'm very glad to be here, and want to thank the mods for this opportunity, especially in light of the Swine having attempted to hijack this project by originally stealing this username, thankfully that has been resolved, and I'm now available to answer your questions.

Please limit questions to being about FtA!; any questions about other subjects you might want me to answer or discuss should be presented at the RPGPundit's Forum over on theRPGsite.

RPGPundit

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

What music were you listening to, when you wrote the game?

(Might appear silliy, but I loved the "sountrack list" of the "Red Star" comics. It is, after all, a glimpse into the author's mind to some extent.)

cheers
Hasran

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Hasran schrieb:

What music were you listening to, when you wrote the game?

(Might appear silliy, but I loved the "sountrack list" of the "Red Star" comics. It is, after all, a glimpse into the author's mind to some extent.)

cheers
Hasran

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Hmm.. that's an unusual question, but interesting. This being a few years ago now, it might be hard to recall precisely what I was listening to. But in general terms:
-Probably quite a bit of Mozart
-Daniel Viglietti
-Victor Jara
-Alfredo Zitarrosa
-Johnny Cash
-Holst
-The Neutral Milk Hotel
-Belle & Sebastian
-Nick Drake
-the Doors
-Bob Dylan

Something like that.

RPGPundit

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

LET ME REPEAT THE QUESTION IN A PHRASING THAT WILL BE MORE CLEAR: what is forward... to adventure.

AN ANSWER THAT IS MORE DETAILED AND CONTAINS MORE INFORMATION THAN "A ROLEPLAYING GAME" OR "THE EXPLANATION FOR THE ACRONYM F:TA" WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

WHAT IS IT? WHY SHOULD I BOTHER SPENDING MONEY AND TIME ON IT? WHAT SETS IT APART FROM THE FELT 1 MILLION OTHER SMALL RPG'S OUT THERE?

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Apocalypse schrieb:

LET ME REPEAT THE QUESTION IN A PHRASING THAT WILL BE MORE CLEAR: what is forward... to adventure.

AN ANSWER THAT IS MORE DETAILED AND CONTAINS MORE INFORMATION THAN "A ROLEPLAYING GAME" OR "THE EXPLANATION FOR THE ACRONYM F:TA" WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

WHAT IS IT? WHY SHOULD I BOTHER SPENDING MONEY AND TIME ON IT? WHAT SETS IT APART FROM THE FELT 1 MILLION OTHER SMALL RPG'S OUT THERE?

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

Forward... to Adventure! is an RPG that was inspired by old-school fantasy games without being a mere old-school "clone". It is a new system, which incorporates some more modern design elements but has an ever-present old school feel to it.
The origin of FtA! is that some of the mechanics literally came to me in a dream. After that I set about trying to create the RPG in real life. My intention for it was that it have the following features:
1. Very easy to make characters, start playing, and understand play. The sort of thing that meant that non-gamers could try and appreciate the game.
2. Playable entirely with D6s, so that the game was playable even in markets where there wasn't a large gaming culture (ie. no funny dice). I had planned (and still have on the backburner) the idea of translating it to Spanish and selling it here in South America.
3. The game should capture and focus on the spirit of "Adventure", but should be entirely capable of other kinds of play (investigative, political, etc).

It is not a "highbrow" game made for pseudo-artistes or pseudo-intellectuals. Its a great game if you want to play some fun classic fantasy (particularly Sword & Sorcery) with a quick and adaptable setting. Random tables make the GM's job easy. The classes each have their particular specialties (or a hybrid of specialties). There isn't a slavish devotion to "balance" but the system is set up so that no one class need be overwhelming. The skill system and stunting system allows for a lot of unorthodox play, and means that while there is a lot of niche protection in the classes, elements of individuality can be added to any character to personalize him and make him different from the others of his class.
The combat system is collective, and avoids the syndrome of any one character being the "star" of the show. It removes certain abusive and counter-emulative tactics from player repertoire, but at the same time allows for elements like movement, facing and location to be important in a very organic kind of way.

And basically, you get a whole lot of material and ideas in just a relatively few pages. There's more stuff of use in FtA!'s 160 pages than you'll find in a lot of 400-page books.

FtA!GN!, the FtA! sourcebook, adds a great deal of material both in terms of adventure/setting development material, new races and a new class, new magic, lot and lots and lots of random tables, and a fully-detailed sword & sorcery fantasy setting with everything from Pirates to Polacks, Frozen Wastelands to Undead-filled Deserts, Unspeakably Old Ones and talking Gorillas, quasi-Buddhists and Mongols, and giant killer chickens.

Ultimately, though, you don't get this game for how its "set apart" from other RPGs. This isn't trying to either be the next D&D, or be "better than D&D". Instead, you get FtA! because it is like a condensed essential oil of the juice of adventure-focused RPG play.

Please feel free to ask me anything else, or for more information about any detail.

RPGPundit

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Simple rule question:

Was the sleep spell thought to be used against enemies during ongoing combat situations? It seems to me that this would be a little to mighty for a level one spell.

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Thank you,

you actually managed to definitely spark my interest.

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Maeschda schrieb:

Simple rule question:

Was the sleep spell thought to be used against enemies during ongoing combat situations? It seems to me that this would be a little to mighty for a level one spell.

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Yes, it is a spell that theoretically could be used in combat. And while it might be a little more powerful than some of the other 1st level spells, consider the following:
First the victim has to fail a PAS WIS check, and has to be less hit dice/levels than the caster to begin with. Second, "sleep is natural, lasting 1-6 hours or until sleeper is disturbed", so assuming that combat is ongoing I would suggest that there's a very high chance that anyone who gets a Sleep spell cast on them during combat is going to wake up within one or two rounds. If that opponent has allies, they will wake him up immediately.

So really the only case in which sleep is a useful spell is if you are fighting a single opponent; then yes, it can end a combat immediately, but again only if the opponent is of equal or lesser hit dice, so it won't be effective against the larger sort of monsters that usually attack alone, only against random goblins or the like which may show up on their own, to quickly disable guards, etc.

Very good question, thank you.

RPGPundit

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

RPGPundit schrieb:

2. Playable entirely with D6s, so that the game was playable even in markets where there wasn't a large gaming culture (ie. no funny dice). I had planned (and still have on the backburner) the idea of translating it to Spanish and selling it here in South America.

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

how does the rules engine work?

Its a great game if you want to play some fun classic fantasy (particularly Sword & Sorcery) with a quick and adaptable setting.

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

would you please define the classic and S&S settings a bit more?

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

This thread got me interested in FtA! enough, that I've just bought the PDF version. Could be several weeks until I find time to really give it a try-out session, but at least now I am curious.

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Schwerttänzer schrieb:

how does the rules engine work?

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The basic mechanic involves rolling 3d6, adding modifiers and comparing to a difficulty number. For skills you would add your relevant attribute plus your level-based active bonus ("ACT"), plus any special skill-related bonuses. For combat your combat bonus and attributes. For "saving throws", you have the "passive" bonus (PAS) which you add to an attribute and sometimes a skill bonus.

Magic involves a similar type of check.

Missile attacks can be an opposed check if the opponent is aware of the attack, or a fixed check if not. Melee combat is done collectively, which is to say that if you have two groups where the combatants are in melee range of each other, instead of having each roll done separately, you add up the collective results of the PCs, compare them to the collective results of their opponents, and the difference is the damage dealt to the inferior side (divided up how the GM sees fit).

would you please define the classic and S&S settings a bit more?

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I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you mean? Do you mean what is "classic fantasy" or "Sword & sorcery"? Isn't that kind of a broad question?

RPGPundit

------- Automatische Beitragszusammenfassung -------​

RPGPundit schrieb nach 35 Sekunden:

Zornhau schrieb:

This thread got me interested in FtA! enough, that I've just bought the PDF version. Could be several weeks until I find time to really give it a try-out session, but at least now I am curious.

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

That's very good to hear, thanks.

RPGPundit

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Zornhau schrieb:

This thread got me interested in FtA! enough, that I've just bought the PDF version. Could be several weeks until I find time to really give it a try-out session, but at least now I am curious.

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

Awesome news!

I know Zornhau as a highly opinionated gamer who's seen - and has understood - everything from the early days of yesteryear's games as Gamma World to the highly unorthodox cutting edge stuff as HeroQuest, and everything inbetween, so when you get around to read or even playtest it, please let us know what you think.

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

RPGPundit schrieb:

The basic mechanic involves rolling 3d6,

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Thank You!

Do you mean what is "classic fantasy" or "Sword & sorcery"?

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No! I asked because Classic Fantasy is not the same as S&S is e.g. Conan, Elric, Fahrfd therefore i´m interested how a system supports both.

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Schwerttänzer schrieb:

Thank You!


No! I asked because Classic Fantasy is not the same as S&S is e.g. Conan, Elric, Fahrfd therefore i´m interested how a system supports both.

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

The game itself is a toolbox. There is very little default setting in the basic FtA! book, only a few things that can be kind of inferred by races, magic system, alignment system, etc. And what little there is can easily be adapted a little more toward the "tolkienesque" side of things or a little more toward the "Elric-esque" side of things.

The FtA!GN! sourcebook has a rather large setting provided (called "The Setting") which has a number of regions of play and the style of play would vary considerably depending on where in The Setting you made a campaign. The Bowlands would be for late medieval fantasy; Landrest is basically the setting's waterdeep-like "big city", The North is Conan-territory, the central Tribelands of the Hong are for a kind of "post apocalypse- fantasy" (imagine if Europe had been completely devastated by the mongol hordes, and they stayed and occupied), Diablo's Point is for swashbuckling pirate-themed sword & sorcery, and the far south is for really weird pulp-fantasy play.

RPGPundit

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

Although I'm not very interested in fantasy settings you've got my attention.

RPGPundit schrieb:

The skill system and stunting system allows for a lot of unorthodox play

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That sounds great - like a promise not easy to keep. What do you mean by "unorthodox play" and how is it achieved? (Maybe you can give an example.)

RPGPundit schrieb:

The combat system is collective, and avoids the syndrome of any one character being the "star" of the show.

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

What is collective combat system? How is it realized? (Again an example would be a nice explanantion.)

RPGPundit schrieb:

It removes certain abusive and counter-emulative tactics from player repertoire

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You may already guess it: What tactics you are refering to? And how are they avoided?

Cheers!

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

RPGPundit schrieb:

The game itself is a toolbox. There is very little default setting in the basic FtA! book, only a few things that can be kind of inferred by races, magic system, alignment system, etc. And what little there is can easily be adapted a little more toward the "tolkienesque" side of things or a little more toward the "Elric-esque" side of things.

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the tools are build so that they can be modified for medival or S&S Fantasy?
E.G. the price to pay for S&S e.g. Corruption, madness..

The Bowlands would be for late medieval fantasy; Landrest is basically the setting's waterdeep-like "big city", The North is Conan-territory, the central Tribelands of the Hong are for a kind of "post apocalypse- fantasy" (imagine if Europe had been completely devastated by the mongol hordes, and they stayed and occupied),

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How does the mix different magic systems f dark sorcery and medival wizardry mix?
How is the different styles maintained?


THX

AW: Ask RPGPundit [English only!]

REAL System schrieb:

That sounds great - like a promise not easy to keep. What do you mean by "unorthodox play" and how is it achieved? (Maybe you can give an example.)

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In the process of the game, instead of having "feats" that cover thousands of possible special actions, or rules for each of the same, if your character wants to do something unorthodox that isn't an attack he does a stunt. There is a specific phase for stunting in combat (That depending on which option you use can happen either before or after melee). The stunting rules permit one to do swashbuckling-style action, or to use some kind of clever strategy to try to keep an opponent from being able to participate in the melee, or even to incapacitate him without relying on combat rolls.

What is collective combat system? How is it realized? (Again an example would be a nice explanantion.)

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Sorry, I thought I'd explained it clearly, I'll try again: in collective melee combat the first thing you do is figure out which characters are in "melee range" of at least one character in the opposing side; these are the ones involved in melee (and thus those who could potentially take damage).
Next you find out who is actually fighting in melee; a character could fight and do another action, but at a stiff penalty to both actions.
Once you've figured out everyone who is fighting on both sides, each player rolls (and the GM rolls for the npcs) their combat rolls, and they add all their combat rolls together. The bad guys do the same thing, and you compare the totals, the higher total wins, making the difference in damage to the opponents.
Once that damage number is determined, the GM decides how he parcels out damage, he can divide it evenly among all participants, or give it all to one person, or anything in between.

So for example, you have three fighters in combat with three goblins. They are all in melee range of each other, so they all participate. The fighters all roll their attack rolls, getting 12, 18,. and 24. This adds up to 54.
The goblins roll 10, 23, and 8. This adds up to 41.
This means that the Fighters win that round of combat, and do a total of 54-41=13 points of damage to the three goblins. The GM decides that one of the goblins takes 8 points, another takes 5, and the third didn't take any damage because he was doing well.

You may already guess it: What tactics you are refering to? And how are they avoided?

Cheers!

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One of the tactics I'm referring to, that I absolutely hate about many RPGs, is when a group of 5 PCs are facing a group of 6 Ogres, and they decide that all 5 of them will attack ONE ogre and TOTALLY IGNORE the other 5, because they know that statistically their best chance of victory in the game is if they pile on one guy at a time and guarantee that they'll have one less opponent hitting them each round. This and other things like this is utterly counter-emulative play. So I wanted, with collective combat (and the combat system as a whole) to have a combat that was utterly emulative, where the players' best choices in terms of the system were ALSO the most logical ones in terms of the setting.

RPGPundit