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What an excellent book. So much info and so well written.
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Gotta say, I love this game! You can tell a lot of love, interest and effort was put into this version of Maelstrom. From the extensive history, day to day life, culture, etc. to the traditional bestiary that doesn't seem out of place, this game showed that the makers cared about the subject matter.
The game itself uses a D100 system, which if you're familiar and like Call of Cthulhu (which I am looking into introducing monsters and such from it into my Domesday game), all the concepts are there and easy to follow. Whether you are a proponent of D100 or not, the lifepath character generation is a fun game in itself. Taking the random journey through your character's life before your adventures is such a great time. No joke! The magic system also harkens to Ars Magica, with me being never a fan of Vancian magic, I love it! There's more creativity involved, which with low magic I appreciate.
Only critique I have is I wish there was more products to add to it. And in products, I mean supplemental tools to add more monsters, other parts of the world during this time period or things to add more fantastical elements to the game. I know these things would take away from the purpose of the game, but I could see this ruleset as the quintessential Warhammer Fantasy successor, especially with that lifepath system being expanded to even more gritty occupations and such.
Highly recommend this game!
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This books expands massively the lore and the options available to the Director, to produce and run better and better adventures, keeping them fresh. Awesome!
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I love that the information originally provided in the gamebook had been expanded, explained and a lot of background information has been provided. This way it is not just a straight conversion from gamebook to roleplay adventure, but much more...
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Just a quick scribble.
There are some things I don't like here.
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Whilst the writing is very good, it's overly wordy, I think a good editor (like me) would have shaved a few pages off the manuscript. Obviously this is purely subjective and the next reader in line would probably disagree with me.
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I just don't like the basic Skill/Stamina/Luck system. It worked in the game books but with multi-player games, it's clear what the best mix is and the players will likely end up with similar characters because of this.
- Finally, the overall layout is not to my liking, it really does look like a word document. The artwork seems to be stock and, frankly, not very good. Frequently, paragraphs will be broken by random bits of art; a common one is merely a strange code: "GH08.12 arrow up". No idea. The point is they are superfluous, drag out the size of the document and should be removed.
However, it took about 15 minutes and half a page to house-rule it to the way i wanted. There's a reason:
This game is deceptively massive. And modular.
Massive because it effortlessly encompasses most sci-fi genres and games from Traveller to Star Wars or Tron and in those between. I bought Stellar Adventures because i wanted a more manageable system to run my Traveller games—I’m getting too old for all the work—and I can. Everything is here, star system creation, trading, interstellar travel, low-key. It's all I need.
It’s modular so, the bit of house ruling I did at the top of the game isn’t going to impact elsewhere because you can bolt on your choices where you like—the modues are practically self-contained.
A lot of work went in to this project and it’s shows. A clever design that covers a lot of ground. Excellent.
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This is a good book. It's got the immediately likeable trait that you could run it with just this book, ready-made characters are included within, and damagge and armour rolls are provided for for monsters and heroes alike.
Obviously a copy of the AFF rulebook would be needed if you wished to be a spellcaster, and you'd need a copy of Out of the Pit, if you want to use the random encounters effectively, but otherwise it stands on its own two feet (though the warlock himself might be a challenge to run).
The adventure doesn't deviate very much from the original gamebook, but it stil seems to work.
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Nice Book, and very informative. All artists were given credit too.
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I purchased this as part of a bundle of holding as I used to play maelstrom. This version is even better than the original all the career's are believable and I like the way abilities increase through 6 ranks, although needing 3 ranks to be competent at literacy makes it hard to develop characters that can read & write, which I suppose is what you would excpect in the dark ages
or early medieval. There is a mass of background and details on loads of herbs, this came with a variety of supporting materiel the beast of ledsham and north yourkshire moors for example.
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This system is deceptive in its simplicity. Despite the lightness of the rules, the mechanics are elegant, and there is a lot of depth here. There are no classes, but this is not a limitation - you define your own class through Special Skills and Talents.
Fighting Fantasy was my first touchstone for RPGs, and also for solo play. I certainly encountered Warlock of Firetop Mountain before D&D... those books led me to D&D, as a matter of fact. And those books also blew my mind. I remember the thrill of seeing the newest one when it arrived at my local bookstore. Citadel of Chaos. Forest of Doom. City of Thieves. Starship Traveller, a sci-fi adventure. And then, probably my fave, Deathtrap Dungeon. I can picture every cover. Absolutely epic moments in my childhood.
I play a lot of D&D. I also do a lot of solo gaming and create solo gaming products, and I've tried a lot of so-called "Rules-lite" systems. All of them have something to offer. DCC, Warlock, The Black Hack. They're all awesome in their own way. AFF, however, rises above all these I think. Deep? Yes. Old-school feel? Certainly. And rules-lite? Definitely. It takes you less than a day to learn the rules. And there's not many special rules you have to remember, in addition to the Core Resolution Mechanic. I'd list the extra rules I'm aware of so far thusly.
- THE MAIN ONE TO REMEMBER: Resolution/attack mechanic - Roll two dice, compare to Skill or Magic + Mods. If the roll is equal or lower, you pass.
- You can voluntarily test for LUCK.
- Monsters use SKILL when testing LUCK.
- Number of attacks for a monster (given in "Out of the Pit") refers to the maximum number of opponents that a creature can fight in one attack round.
- Invest your spell with a few more Magic Points if you want it to succeed. The Luck test by the target must be modified by the same amount.
The one thing that I didn't find in there was an explicit reference about how to avoid traps, but I thought it was probably the following method: - Avoid Traps = Skill + Dodge. If fail, take 1d6 STAMINA. That's how I've been playing it anyway.
Anyway, I know I've rambled a bit, but all in all this is an elegant and deep system which makes for incredibly satisfying gameplay.
Can't recommend enough.
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Another great set. It not only rounds out the other pirate sets, but it will also be useful with other sets for gunpowder and sail settings. Something for British (or French) soldiers to go against in a "Sharpe's" style game
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A solid treatment of an X-Com like response to hostile alien intrusions. All player Characters are humans with a couple extra “base” skills and two new optional skills. Since there are no arcane backgrounds there are no arcane skills. Several edges have been removed as not appropriate for the setting (including all Weird and Power edges). While no new edges are added, Leadership edges are expanded to cover the PCs as well as NPCs. Gear is appropriately laid out but is mainly focused on military hardware (and money is ignored focusing on assigned materials and limited options).
The game assumes players are mainly heading out to battle the invaders, collect bodies or prisoners, and return. Healing will primarily occur between missions with extra characters encouraged so a wounded character can (and should be) left behind to heal up if not at full health. Military rank is addressed, relying on character rank for advancement. Personally, I would change this as it doesn’t make much sense for a “squad” of 6 Captains to head out with no more than two other soldiers with them. Based on the focus, I would have kept the advancement in the lower ranks up to Sergeant. A new rule for ammunition loss is included that leaves it to a special dice rolled (die type based on the weapon) for each Shot taken. Fear and Panic are also addressed.
Gear is well written but does not follow the gear (particularly armor and armor piercing) progression in SWADE. Advanced Gear is part of the very nice BASE development rules. These allow the players to choose which advance their base receives (that they qualify for based on what they recovered from the mission) after each scenario. This includes both human and alien research.
The mission Generator has been given a lot of thought. Much like X-Com, this covers most of the basic entries – Crashed UFO, Alien Raid (called Invasion), Infiltration, Collaborators, Rescue, and Terror attack. Combined with randomizing where (both continent and location) the event happens and the recommended use of google maps to identify the combat area, this becomes a real treat! The scenarios are scaled to increase in difficulty as the number of missions (and thus, the rank of the PCs) increase however this might be too fast based on the fact the PCs, unless the same one is used in every mission (discouraged), will soon be left behind by the alien invaders. A game master might use the table as an average of the ranks of the PCs’ rather than the number of missions played for both the difficulty and the opportunities for Base Advancement.
The final section gives a nice Bestiary of Aliens including really nice survivor descriptions, from different points of view, as well as the statistics and powers. Only issue I have here is all the Aliens have boosted Toughness that is not recognized in the “Special Abilities,” ranging from 1 to 6 points.
Allowing this to be used for donations to Doctors Without Borders was inspired. It was well worth the price and can easily be adapted for other ideas in the genre!
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This book is fantastic. Even though it ostensibly contains options for expanding the Advanced Fighting Fantasy game, I would consider it an essential addition to the core rulebook. It manages to make various aspects of combat in the AFF game much richer and more engaging, while still retaining the simplicity that is fundamental to the system.
In addition to providing more choices to players in desgining and playing their characters, this book contains a lot of information useful to Directors in planning and running games, such as will help to keep even experienced players a little more on their toes.
I was also pleased to see material applicable to characters other than 'pure fighters' - for example, the inclusion of rules for combat magic, and mounts of various kinds.
Finally, the appendix at the end indexing rules and options from all the rulebooks published so far is extremely useful.
In summary, if you're a player, get this book even if you're not playing a straight fighter. It will enhance many aspects of your game, whatever your character. If you're a Director, just get this book - you absolutely will not regret it.
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I have all the first editions of the AFF system so wondered whether it was worth my while getting the 2nd edition version. I'm glad I did as everything seems far more slick and more straightforward. I'm working through the adventures from the original books using the new system, it is a shame these couldn't be included, but there do seem to be a lot of adventures written under the AFF system available.
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Awful. I was scammed by Drive Thru RPG. I paid for a hard copy to be sent, they said it shipped, but Purolater confirmed it never did. Drive Thru RPG refuse to contact me to resolve issue. Avoid buying anything from this company. They are a scam.
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Creator Reply: |
Hi,
Obviously this is beyond our control, but if you email me at admin at arion-games dot com, I will ensure that another hardcopy is sent to you immediately. I will then try and find out from DTRPG what has happened here.
Graham |
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DUNGEON MAGAZINE MEETS NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
TheWarlockReturns is, naturally enough, a relaunch of the one published byby games Workshop in the mid to early 1980. This new version, like its predecessor, focuses on Arion Games Advanced Fighting Fantasy Games.
The beauty of this magazine it holds much needed information into the readers hands. They have sections Denizens Of The Pit, Jungle Mania, Mini-Adventures, Character Sheets, recent and upcoming releases and much, much more
This is a must have for anyone who enjoys the Fighting Fantasy Worlds. It is well put together magazine in either pdf or print version. Personally, I purchase both as each serves its purpose.
I would like to continue to see Stellar Adventures, and Titan sections. That said, I would love to read articles on AFF Horror and AFF Super Heros too!
I originally commented that I was willing to pay $40 for a subscription (4 issues a year). After reading issue 2, which appears to an oversight with the contents, I'd actually pay $50 a year for quarterly subscription. It's well worth it!
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