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Note: I am reviewing the printed version here but I will make some comments on the PDF version, as I go along. Such comments are from viewing the PDF on-line.
The book, printed by Lulu.com, is 176 pages, 8.5" x 11", and perfect bound. (For the production values and excellent shipping I would give Lulu 5 out of 5.) There is artwork at the beginning of each chapter that varies in size from about 1/2 the page to almost a full page. The monster chapter contains a few smaller pieces of art. This ‘art’ seems to be photoshopped in some way from live action photos with a few extras drawn into them. Printed in black and white, the artwork is functional and does help set the tone of each chapter. However, the garish water color versions in the PDF are almost painful to view.
The text of the book is presented in two, left justified, columns with wide margins. A little less white space would not hurt this product and could have reduced the page count. The PDF really suffers from this extra blank space where there is no binding to use some of it up. The book uses two types of fonts, a calligraphy one and a normal one. The normal font is a little larger than I have seen in most products of this type which also makes the narrow columns seem that much smaller. (Not that I really mind this because having passed into the 40-something realm, larger type can be a good thing.) Both fonts look better in the printed version than they do on the computer screen in the PDF. There are a few spelling and editing mistakes such as the Chapter 1 page heading saying “Chargen” instead of “Introduction” but nothing that makes it hard to read. It is a little strange that the only place that you can find the chapter numbers is in the page headings. They are not found in the Table of Contents, which appears to be just an outline of the books contents with page numbers added, or at the beginning of each chapter.
Here is an overview of each chapter in the book with, hopefully, enough detail to give an idea of how things work without going into the full details of every rule.
Chapter One is the Introduction (2 pages). Here the author lays out his design goals which is basically to create a game that allows the players to “kill things and take their stuff” with a few innovations.
Chapter Two is Chargen (15 pages). This chapter begins by giving the basic mechanic of the system which is 3d6 modifiers vs. a target number or an opponent’s roll of 3d6 modifiers. A roll of all 6’s is a critical success. Although it does not say it here, the results of a critical is that you get to roll again and add the new results to your total.
The attribute scores, which are also used as modifiers, are given next and range from -5 to 5. The numbers for the common six attributes (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) may be rolled randomly or purchased with a point buy system. The standard races Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, and Haflings are presented next along with a sub-class of Barbarian Humans and, just to be different, the half-merman race. Each race is listed with a predictable set of attribute modifications (such as the Dwarfs 1 Con, -1 Cha) and racial bonuses with certain skills, weapons, saves, languages, etc. Each race, except humans, has one or more ‘favored’ classes. Characters that do not select one of the favored classes will effectively start out two levels behind the characters that do buy will make up that difference quickly at the higher levels.
Next are the classes; Warrior, Rogue, Wizard, Rogue Wizard, and Warrior Wizard. Some classes have more than one ‘option’. Warriors are trained in all weapons and armor but must choose the option to be better at either missile or melee weapons. The Rogue class should probably have been called the ‘Specialist’ because it not only covers the Assassin and Thief options but also allows any other highly trained professions such as the medic and engineer with the ‘loremaster’ option. Wizards cover any of the spell casting professions including Druids, Bards, Rune Masters, Clerics, etc. The specializations all depend on the spell lists selected or in some cases, required. The term Rogue in Rogue Wizard is again misleading. Rogue Wizards are ‘Specialists’ who have some magical training. In practice the Rogue Wizard has about half the spells and magical ability of the pure Wizard classes. Warrior Wizards cover the monk and paladin type characters from other games.
This chapter also includes the rules for level advancement. Basically a character must complete a number of ‘adventures’ equal to his current level to move to the next level. So after one adventure characters advance from level 1 to level 2, after two more adventures they go to level three. Exactly what counts as an ‘adventure’ is left up to the GM. At each new level characters advance based on their class and option. These advancements are ratios such as 1 per 2 levels (1/2), 1 per 3 levels (1/3), 2 per 5 levels (2/5), etc. So, a warrior with the melee option increases his weapons skill by 1/2 or one for each 2 levels gained ( 1 at levels 2, 4, 6, etc.). This is not as difficult as it sounds because it does eliminate the need to keep track of any type of experience points and a handy table eliminates most of the calculations. Characters also gain 1 ‘Adventure’ point per level which can be spent to add 1d6 to any roll.
Chapter two finishes up with alignment which is only tracked on the Law, Balance, Chaos scale with good and evil being left up to the player and GM.
Chapter Three covers Equipment (10 Pages). This chapter starts out with by setting the basic value of coins. FTA! uses the basic 1 gold = 10 silver = 100 copper and has a few notes on larger coins and coins from different locations. Next is the weapons section. Weapons have fixed damage amounts (from 1 to 6) and are divided into four types; Light, One-Hand Melee, Two-Hand Melee, and Ranged. The fixed damage is increased if you are 'trained' with that class of weapon and can also be increased by purchasing or finding a Master Level weapon. A decent sample list of weapons with cost, range, and the possible quality of 'reaching' is included. Reaching is the ability of some long weapons, like polearms, to bypass one target and reach a 2nd target behind them. Armor is listed next with the damage resistance (from 1 to 3), trained Dex penalty, untrained Dex penalty, and price. Shields can add 1 or 2 more to damage resistance. The chapter finishes up with a fairly comprehensive price list for sundry items and notes on what 'initial equipment' characters can start with.
Chapter 4 list Skills and Stunts (7 pages). Skills are bought with skill points (gained at character creation or character advancement) on a one-for-one basis. One skill point adds 1 to a given skill. Skill checks are made with the standard 3d6 roll skill level an appropriate attribute vs. a target number. The choice of which skill and attribute to combine in any given situation is left up to the GM. The target numbers start at 10 for an 'easy' task and go up by 5's. An average task has a target number of 15; a challenging task is a 20, etc. Because the 3d6 roll is open ended there is no limit on how high the target number can go.
The skill list contains 21 broad skills like Acrobatics, Bluff, and Climbing. Some skills such as Language, Craft and Lore, may be taken multiple times with different specialties. Lore skills are the general knowledge skills like Farming, Law, Sailing, etc.
Stunts in FTA! are any non-attack action taken during combat to give you or an ally an advantage. This can include things like taunting, tripping, disarming, pushing, or anything else the player can come up with. Stunts are not pre-defined and can be attempted by anyone. Once a stunt has been declared the GM selects the appropriate skill and/or attribute and the difficulty level. The minimum suggested difficulty for a stunt is 20.
Chapter 5 details Combat (12 pages). Combat is divided into 7 phases; Movement, Magic Declaration, Missile, Melee Combat, Stunt, Spell Completion, and Morale/Intimidation Check. Every character may move in the first phase and still act in one additional phase with no penalty. Any character that tries to act in more than one of the Magic Declaration, Missile, Melee Combat, and Stunt phases will suffer a -6 penalty on each action. Magic, declared in the 2nd phase, will usually take effect in the Spell completion phase but there is a way for skilled magic users to ‘quick cast’ so that their effect goes off before the missile, melee, and stunt phases.
Missile combat is resolved individually with each attacker rolling an attack against a target. The target will roll or calculate a defense value based on the actions they are doing in the turn. The amount of damage inflicted on the target is the sum of the attackers roll minus the defenders roll. Missile attacks happen in DEX order.
There is no initiative in Melee combat because this is done as a group. All of the characters in melee range (who can and wish to act) make simultaneous attack rolls. All of the rolls for each side of the conflict are then totaled up. The side with the highest total wins the round. The amount of damage inflicted is the total of the winning side’s rolls minus the total of the loosing side’s rolls. This damage is then divided up and applied to the characters on the loosing side by the GM. The GM has complete control over which characters are injured and how much of the available damage they take.
The Stunt phase is where any non-magic, non-combat skill check is made. The Spell Completion phase allows the magic users to apply the effects of their spells in DEX order and ends any ongoing magical effects due to end this turn. Finally, the Morale/Intimidation Check phase is used to determine if either side surrenders or flees.
The chapter finishes up with the specifics on the effects of damage cause by combat, poison, diseases, fire, cold, acid, falling, and drowning.
Chapter 6 is the Magic chapter (23 pages). There is only one method of casting spells; the various spell users (Mage, Cleric, Bard, etc.) all use it – The Casting Check. The Casting Check is a WIS based roll with a target number of 10 (2 x the spell level). Twelve for level one, 14 for level 2, etc. If the caster fails the Casting Check they take 1d6 the spell level in damage. In addition they incur a cumulative 1 that is applied to all Casting Check target numbers until the mage has a chance to rest for at lease 1/2 hour. Other than this damage and casting penalty, there are no other limits to the number or level of spells that may be cast in a day. The results of a critical success or failure are significant and are listed in tables here.
A spell caster has the option of making an INT based Quick Casting roll to complete their spell in the Casting Declaration phase by rolling against a difficulty of 15 the level of the spell. If this is successful, they must still make a subsequent Casting Check. Again the results of a critical success or failure are significant and listed in its own table.
This chapter also contains 17 themed spell lists, called schools, with 10 spells each. The schools (Fire Shaping, Illusion, Bard, Curing, Rune Mastery, etc.) allow casters to fill any of the traditional fantasy roles.
Appendix I (Chapter 7) gives the basics for Monsters (3 Pages). The rules for generic monsters consist of a short description of how to read a monsters data block and a table of generic monster statistics that cover from level 1 to 20.
Appendix II (Still in Chapter 7) is a list of Sample Monsters (30 Pages). There are 76 entries in this monster list which includes all of the common fantasy monsters (Orc, Dragon, Unicorn), common animals (Dog, Horse, Boar), and common undead (Ghoul, Skeleton, Zombie) you would expect. It is a very complete list for a game of this size.
Appendix III (Chapter 8) has all the Treasure you could want (27 Pages). Like the sample monsters in the previous chapter, the treasure tables and samples are also very complete. It is obviously heavily influence by early editions of Dungeons and Dragons with separate tables for armor, potions, rings, robes, shields, etc.
Appendix IV (Chapter 9) covers Dangerous Wilderness Encounters (3 Pages). This section consists mostly of random tables covering Grasslands, Forest, Jungles, Hills, and Desert. The result of a d6 roll on the appropriate table does not give specific encounter but a list of common encounters for that terrain. This section is obviously not as impressive as the monsters and treasure sections.
Appendix V (Still in Chapter 9) is the Random Cavern/Ruin/Tunnel/Dungeon Creator (17 pages). This chapter fits right in with the overall theme of FTA! It has everything you need to randomly generate an adventure site for your characters. So what if your Cavern has wandering monsters that have nothing to eat but adventures. Hey, that’s what wandering monsters (and adventurer) are for.
The book finishes up with a 2 page character sheet and a nice 3 page Index (which is left out in a lot of small press games).
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Style: The style of this book could have been better with the inclusion of a few side-bars to break up the text and a dedicated rules chapter. With some of the rules tucked away in each chapter it can be a little difficult to find them all. But, it is really no better or worse than other games of this type so I am going with a 3. On the other hand, if I had been judging this only on the PDF it would have been a 2.
Substance: My initial impression of this game was not very good because the first rules I looked at was Combat, and I am not a fan of the group combat method. But, after going through it (and taking you through it) I realize that everything you need for an old style fantasy game is here. In fact, in some cases like the sample monster and the treasure chapters, you get more than you need.
Because this is a capsule review and not a playtest review, I am not sure how all of the elements will really work together so I will also make this a 3 and say that YMMV.
