Combat Challenges in Fantasy Craft

My last adventure for Fantasy Craft was not a challenge for my players or their characters.

The players advice was to bring back a mix of one big monster and several standard monsters. I had tried a combo of two special monsters (wizard and lizard and rakshasa and umber hulk for example) to fit the story and that did not work.

As I write this, I haven't played the next adventure yet. But it opens with a balrog and a collection of barghest minions. If I end up with more combat scenes, I plan to build them in the same fashion. I'll report back how it goes here after the next game.

Reporting back now. I played FC last night. I opened the game with double the number of standard barghests to get things rolling. The PCs won and moved in on the demon.

I used a tormentor demon for the balrog and again used double the number of standard barghests. This one-two punch (along with spending two Action Dice to double stress damage, tormentors love the stress) really ratcheted up the tension and danger. The encounter was thrilling if a bit tough for the PCs.

Conclusions

Easy encounters for my PCs in FC would be two special characters or standard minions. Moderate would be a special character and standard minions or double standard minions. Challenging would be a special character and double standard minions. I may try out an even bigger mob of standards next time.

Back to Fantasy Craft Adventure Building

I want to finish detailing the steps I use to build an adventure for Fantasy Craft. Last month I covered step 5 on my template. This month I continue with the remaining steps.

6. Locations

Edge of Tannery Town
Tainted mushroom faerie ring
Caverns
Poisoned mineshaft
Mines

7. Maps and Minis

I note what maps and minis I plan to bring to the table.

8. Scenes and Encounters

I cover all scenes here. This section becomes the meat of the adventure. Everything written before is a guide to writing the adventure. Everything from this point forward is the adventure and the rewards.

9. Scene One:

Edge of Tannery Town Beatdown

1. Roll for initiative

The wizard and basilisk are nowhere near ready for play as written in the Fantasy Craft rulebook. I stat combat NPCs and monsters out completely. This process helps me to both understand the system and challenge the PCs as well as better facilitate my ability to run the adventure.

While I work on the stats I remove anything I won't need including ability scores of 10, reach 1 etc. Anything that doesn't require special handling I pull out. I also plug in the values for an 8th level NPC (the PCs are 4th level and Menace V bumps up Threat to 8) who is a Special character.

Wizard (Medium Folk Walker -- 56 XP):
Dex 10, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 14; SZ M (1◊1, Reach 1);
Spd 30 ft. ground; Init II; Atk II; Def I; Res III; Health II; Comp V;
Skills: Investigate VII, Resolve VII, Spellcasting VII; Spells: Cure Wounds I, Identify, Knock, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Read Magic, Sleep; Qualities: Class ability (Mage: arcane wellspring I), expertise (Resolve), feat (Casting Basics), spell defense II
Attacks/Weapons: Quarterstaff (dmg 1d8 subdual; threat 20; qualities: double, trip)
Gear: Mage's pouch, mana potion
Treasure: 2M, 1L

Of course, knowing what I know now I would have turned the basilisk special into a horde of standard basilisks.

10. Bonus gear/reputation

I put an extra note in about which scene contains bonus reputation or gear (if any bonus gear is awarded).

11. Loot

Loot in my campaign is rolled twice and the best result taken because one the characters is an explorer. Money rewards are reduced by Prudence but some loot can simply be kept and I don't mark the value down by Prudence for those bits that are kept.

The explorer has left the group, so I'm back to rolling once now. I just give the best treasure out rather than rerolling in this case and make the change for the next adventure.

Loot not modified by Prudence.
I let the PCs keep some loot that has value without reducing it by Prudence.

Loot modified by Prudence.
Silver, gems, art etc. gets downgraded by Prudence.

This adventure generated many, many, many elixirs and those spoil at the end of the adventure. Something I would keep in mind for future adventures.

12. XP

I add up all the possible XP so I can get a rough idea of level advancement likely to result from completing the full adventure.

13. Reputation

I note reputation gain here as I don't like searching for the table.

14. Downtime

I also note how much downtime will likely follow the adventure.

A Lot of Steps

Fourteen steps to make an adventure is a lot of steps. Even so, without having to track magic items on an Excel spreadsheet I still have more fun than writing up a Pathfinder or 4E adventure.

I now have a better handle of types of monsters for combat. And I need to be careful in handling elixirs or just let the PCs drink and drink all adventure long.

On the Fly Scene Building

I have had to create a scene on the fly and it is challenging. In a nutshell, if you want to play FC, I suggest adventure prep.

Here's what I learned.

In 4E, you can simply throw some monsters in and all you have to do is track conditions, saves, bloodied etc. Some work in game but really no prep.

In Pathfinder, you have to look stuff up--monster abilities, feats, spells, etc.

In Fantasy Craft you, you have to look stuff up--monster abilities, feats, spells, etc. In addition, you have to plug in all the combat stats from a one page chart. When six players are staring at you, this extra step seems to take much longer than it likely really does.

The bad news with Fantasy Craft is that the default rule in the game is to have the monster numbers change every time the PC level changes. Great modularity, terrible for on the fly GMing.

If you want to fly FC by the seat of your pants, be ready to write really fast.

Conclusion: I miss my Bestiary/Monster Manual while running FC. FC has rules to convert monsters over however so a GM has options but all require prep work to do the conversion and have it ready for the correct level.

Conclusions about Fantasy Craft

I like Fantasy Craft. It is a lot of work. Work I enjoy more than choosing magic items in 4E and PF. I think a skilled GM who is willing to do his or her homework before each game can build a great world with the rules.

Wrapping Up a Campaign and World Gracefully

In previous crisis versions of this column I wrote with angst about changing campaigns and the challenges it involves. I like to think I've learned some things over the last few years and grown up a bit.

I have also mentioned how I have changed the way I place value on different areas of gaming. I now believe that the players around the table are the most important part of gaming (for example, world building supports the game we want to play).

I knew that Fantasy Craft was becoming too much work for me personally. In my other life I sit in front of a computer plugging in numbers for many hours a week. To have to do the same in FC outweighed the pure joy the system creates in character and world building. For another GM who doesn't mind some quick fill in the numbers it would work great. But not for me.

Rather than email the group and emote about my angst, I just played a nice satisfying ending to the balrog combat. And I was just honest that the game was becoming a challenge to run.

The whole group understood that and even the two guys who had bought the FC rulebooks were okay with a change. The guy who really knows the rules truly understood the work the GM has to do to prep well for a game. Awesome group I have.

We first decided that we would play 4 to 6 sessions of a new system and see if we like it. We could then continue for another few sessions or give something else a go. This decision fits my GMing style much better and gives the rest of the players a heads up before they decide to invest in any new books.

Then, we went through the List of what I could GM: Ashen Stars, One Ring, Rules Cyclopedia with B4 module, Night's Black Agents, Airship Pirates, Chill, 2300AD using Mongoose Traveller, 4E Dark Sun, 1E D&D, Pathfinder, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

So, of course, we finally decided on Rogue Trader. Which leads toÖ.

Next Month

Worlds building for Rogue Trader: creating an adventure path using existing adventures, books, and freebies. "In the future, there is only profit and loss,"
Charlie