Fantasy role playing rules

Rules for fantasy RPGs

Why do we need yet another set of rules? Well, time passes, new games are played, ideas gleaned and the best of the best amalgamated into a set of rules suitable for the D&D scene.

Whilst the main aim of these rules is to enhance the playability and hence enjoyment of the system. The methods by which this is accomplished are :

  Removing the restriction of fixed classes
  The ability to train in all skills (general, secondary & saving throws)
  Adding traits so not all characters are the same (eg phobias, powerful enemies)
  Adding feats
  Using a single die for (nearly) all rolls (2d8)
  Introducing heroic acts.
  Splitting out stamina and wounds
  The use of armour absorbtion
  New prime statistic of Alertness
  Ability to trade stats of a spell during casting (eg range for area)

In most rpg's you play a hero who, although he starts out as a lowly bod, generally manages to climb the tradesman's ladder (if not the social one!). In order to be fair to the players' expectations there must be no undue advantage to the budding heroes that allow them to get away with murder (pun intended), thus spoiling the fun as they seem invincible. However, characters with an extremely short lifespan are also not enjoyable; so how do we strike the right medium?

Hero points as a concept in Torg (and now Serenity) work very well and can be adapted with a little work to be even better. They can apply both as luck in battles or training, whereby heroes pick up many skills without the laborious years of dedication that are normally required for the average man in the cobbleway.

Thus in one fell swoop we have swept away the restricting and tired old concept of levels and introduced the luck of the gods.

Combat also has flaws though not so serious or obvious. In the old system it was possible for a fighter lord to roll a 20, producing a crushing blow upon the hapless goblin, then roll damage on a d12 and watch in horror as a 1 ends face up and the goblin loses an armpit hair. We thus have a system where a brilliant roll is made and almost no damage occurs. In addition we need different dice depending upon the weapon of the hour. By altering the structure of damage so that it is dependent on your skill we have removed both problems. These changes when thought out result in a need to redefine almost every aspect of the game (oh how I love this).

This is designed as a non-sexist/.non-racist publication, however I can't be bothered to write man/woman/blob or he/she/it every time and I believe it hinders the readability, so apologies if any offence is taken, it is not intended.

 

 


PDF files

Weapons

Swords

Misc

Misc 2

Missiles

Missiles 2

Actions crib sheets

General

Training

Skills

Tables

Maps

Player

Spreadsheets

Spells