Triumvir
Legendary Pubber
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Sparking off another thread, this one is about the Fighting Fantasy RPGs. I come from a place of much love for these games, but I'm fully prepared to admit it's heavily nostalgia-tinted and we're all just shooting the breeze here, so tell me why you hate them if you want.
But I love 'em.
It started as just a generalisation of the basic system from the gamebooks for multiplayer play - the 0e if you will - then led to Dungeoneer, the "Advanced" Fighting Fantasy system (still rules light and aimed at a younger audience) in the late 80s. Arion Games re-released it in the 2010s as effectively a 2e and are still going strong and doing a great job..
Let's start with the 1984 book that was essentially just the system from the first gamebooks: SKILL, STAMINA, LUCK, Potions of each, and Provisions:
By the British Steve Jackson not the American one.
It came with its own campaign:
This added crazy mechanical complexity like distinguishing different weapons (as if anyone can be bothered with that kind of detail, right?!), critical hits, and a magic system with 12 spells, in about 15 pages or something, making a kind of 0.5 or 0.9e.
It's very much a railroad so the cool kids won't like it, but I don't care. The villain for once is a rogue agent of Neutrality who wants to overthrow the balance between Order and Chaos. All aboard the Reaver's sky-galleon the Twice Shy for traps and puzzles galore, and try not to get eaten by the mouse.
The setting of the Reaver campaign and the default for the game is Titan, the world of most of the Fighting Fantasy solo gamebooks. Titan also had its own book:
I mean, would you look at that cover? Sheer awesome.
It's a pretty generic fantasy world, although leaning towards swords & sorcery, with a sarcastic sense of humour to it. Despite being generic, I find it is still incredibly flavoursome and evocative - maybe because it could draw on the creativity that had gone into the gamebooks (the good ones anyway). The S&S flavour comes through in Port Blacksand, ruled by the mysterious ex-pirate Lord Azzur, a tyrant but a fairly whimsical one.
This is turning into a long post but I can't resist sharing the cover of the monsters book, Out of the Pit:
(Same artist as the Titan book, Chris Achilleos, sadly no longer with us.)
Gameplay was dead straightforward. SKILL and LUCK are generated as 1D6+6, STAMINA as 2D6+12. In combat, hero and monster each throw 2D6 and add to SKILL for Attack Strength, loser subtracts STAMINA; the Heroes can Test their Luck to add extra damage or block some incoming damage. Riddling Reaver added varying weapon damages. I don't think the game every got round to varying armour types. I think if you lost your armour, you had to knock off a point of SKILL.
The mechanics were essentially 2D6 roll under SKILL for things you actively do, or LUCK as a kind of saving throw. But every time you Test Your Luck, you lose a point of LUCK, so it's obviously a diminishing resource.
There was no advancement system in the rules as written although I think one appeared in Warlock magazine. Clearly it's pretty simplistic and might struggle to support a long campaign unless everyone is invested in exploring the world of Titan. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I never got to run a long FF campaign.
But I love 'em.
It started as just a generalisation of the basic system from the gamebooks for multiplayer play - the 0e if you will - then led to Dungeoneer, the "Advanced" Fighting Fantasy system (still rules light and aimed at a younger audience) in the late 80s. Arion Games re-released it in the 2010s as effectively a 2e and are still going strong and doing a great job..
Let's start with the 1984 book that was essentially just the system from the first gamebooks: SKILL, STAMINA, LUCK, Potions of each, and Provisions:
By the British Steve Jackson not the American one.
It came with its own campaign:
This added crazy mechanical complexity like distinguishing different weapons (as if anyone can be bothered with that kind of detail, right?!), critical hits, and a magic system with 12 spells, in about 15 pages or something, making a kind of 0.5 or 0.9e.
It's very much a railroad so the cool kids won't like it, but I don't care. The villain for once is a rogue agent of Neutrality who wants to overthrow the balance between Order and Chaos. All aboard the Reaver's sky-galleon the Twice Shy for traps and puzzles galore, and try not to get eaten by the mouse.
The setting of the Reaver campaign and the default for the game is Titan, the world of most of the Fighting Fantasy solo gamebooks. Titan also had its own book:
I mean, would you look at that cover? Sheer awesome.
It's a pretty generic fantasy world, although leaning towards swords & sorcery, with a sarcastic sense of humour to it. Despite being generic, I find it is still incredibly flavoursome and evocative - maybe because it could draw on the creativity that had gone into the gamebooks (the good ones anyway). The S&S flavour comes through in Port Blacksand, ruled by the mysterious ex-pirate Lord Azzur, a tyrant but a fairly whimsical one.
This is turning into a long post but I can't resist sharing the cover of the monsters book, Out of the Pit:
(Same artist as the Titan book, Chris Achilleos, sadly no longer with us.)
Gameplay was dead straightforward. SKILL and LUCK are generated as 1D6+6, STAMINA as 2D6+12. In combat, hero and monster each throw 2D6 and add to SKILL for Attack Strength, loser subtracts STAMINA; the Heroes can Test their Luck to add extra damage or block some incoming damage. Riddling Reaver added varying weapon damages. I don't think the game every got round to varying armour types. I think if you lost your armour, you had to knock off a point of SKILL.
The mechanics were essentially 2D6 roll under SKILL for things you actively do, or LUCK as a kind of saving throw. But every time you Test Your Luck, you lose a point of LUCK, so it's obviously a diminishing resource.
There was no advancement system in the rules as written although I think one appeared in Warlock magazine. Clearly it's pretty simplistic and might struggle to support a long campaign unless everyone is invested in exploring the world of Titan. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I never got to run a long FF campaign.
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