[Age Past] Fantasy RPG! Build any character you want!

[Locke]

So this is the game.  It's pretty much done.  I'm still getting art so this is the quick printable version.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B-7APna9ZhHEZmRhNmFmODktOTgxNy00NDllLTk0MjgtMjI4YzJlN2MyNmEw&hl=en

What's inside:

- Easy step by step character build system
- Gear has now been allocated for and is easy to track
- MAKE ANY CHARACTER FROM FANTASY THAT YOU COULD EVER DREAM!
- 140+ spells
- 130+ powers
- Simple combat rules
- New dice rolling mechanic that gives the player control!   [Elegant10]
- Characters building has consequence but your not stuck with gimped characters!
- New style alignment system!
- Clean magic item system
- GM's Screen
- Character sheets that you actually want to use!
- GM character and monster cards to help keep track of things
- HIGH LEVEL COMBAT for those who want it
- Rewarding combat where decisions matter from 1st level!
- TEAM BASED.  You can't do it alone, teamwork = synergy
- Healing is available and not concentrated so getting from battle to battle doesn't depend on one party member.
- Actual utility spells you want to use in or out of combat!
- Simple to find rules!
- Crafting is straightforward and available without being overburdening to the GM or out of reach to players
- Every weapon has a positive and negative value
- and yes even simple grapple rules that make sense!

let me know what you think!  This version should be finished in 30 days, with the full art book to be done in 12 months!

[markgamemaker]

First impressions: that's a whole lot of information, and not terribly well-organized.  There's no doubt you've been very thorough (entirely too thorough, IMO, but to each his own).  Your domesticated animals are in a different area from your monsters.  Your spells and magic items and divine cosmology are all over the place.  Your chapter headings and section headings look the same so the reader is left with an unbroken wall of text.  My recommendation is to consider taking all your scattered topics and chapters and clustering them together into <10 units or categories with some kind of big ass division to make it easier to navigate.  Also consider echoing section headings in the margin or footer for ease of navigation.

I may revisit the content, but I can tell you right now both the system and setting are not my cup of tea, so I don't know that my input will be terribly useful.  All I can tell you is that your stated goal of playing and running quickly (p.164) is undercut by the amount of crunch in the system.  By putting all these combat maneuvers and powers in, you're telling me that's what's important, that's what you expect people to use.  But then you say later on the same page that you don't expect people to be able to find or remember the relevant rules, just wing it.  You're shooting yourself in the foot.  Either trim it down and/or reorganize it so that it does play fast and smooth out of the box like you want, or admit to yourself that you have a crunch-fest (and still reorganize it).

[Locke]

Thanks for the input.

I can understand the problems with stuff seeming like its un-organized, so i can work on  that, and will try to get other people's opinions  (shadowrun, dark heresy and dnd 3.5 are both worse than this IMHO from an organizational standpoint).  I assumed that if you wanted to know about actions you would just turn to the actions page referenced by the contents.

page 164
"The design helps players have a more complex in depth combat system without a lot of crazy amount rules that need to be cross referenced.  If the rule is not found easily or not known the GM should make up for the sake of expediency."

The intent is that if the GM reads the rules he should have an idea for what the mods are.  The game is a situation based abstract off of reality.  So different types of terrain will slow the characters down in different situations.  Each has a different mod.  Its not reasonable for the GM to know those rules by wrote.  He can make something up and be close or just look up "Difficult Terrain" from the contents page.  How hard is that.  The mods just go from -1 to -4 essentially in almost all cases so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which mod would be getting close.  AND if the mod is off at most its off my 1 or 2, which isn't the end of the world and is suggested for the purposes of expediency.

This isn't crunching.  Its exact opposite.

Also I wanted a system where the players had rules for things like grappling, pinning, and bulls rushing.  If the rules were not in there than the GM would be forced to make up his own.  Many systems don't have a  rule to charge someone and knock them down.  I had a bad DnD adventure when i pounced on someone from a  tree and the GM wouldn't let me knockdown the target and pin him because there are no rules for it.  Even though my character dropped like 25 feet from a tree and landed on the target's head.

There is also a difference between referencing and cross-referencing.  My layout I have ATTEMPTED (maybe failed) at eliminating cross-referencing.  Eliminating referencing is impossible.

The common mount list is in a different place on purpose.  Its there to help eliminate cross-referencing and is duplicate information.  So mounting rules have SOME of the mountable monsters right there for quick access.  That's all.  They are still in the monster section on page 143.

A player who uses a rule should know that rule and be able to reference it.  The character sheet helps with this.  This game has the same problems as any other regarding players or GM who want to do something technical but aren't prepared. I've tried to mitigate this problem by making the "one page, all rules" philosophy I cant figure a way out of this that doesn't involve taking the rule out or making it electronic.  Also because players chose their powers they should be intimate to what it does, and have ample room on the character sheet help themselves out.  Since most players will have 1-4 different combat powers they should know how these work.  There are lots of spells, but they generally have one effect and a duration.  That's all and they are all found together by category.  There is some cross-referencing here related to effects if you don't know 'the mods for those, and the critical failure and hit charts are always a cross reference.

I have found that new players who were learning both DnD and Age Past at the same time for the first time, have less of a problem becoming learning age past.  They also seem to enjoy character creation more and feel that they have more control over how play happens in game due to the dice rolling system.

Hopefully I can take your comments and apply them in a  way that can help smooth things out.  Hopefully others will have more input.  Input is great when everyone says the same thing, but when people have contradicting input it becomes hard to figure out which direction to go.

THANKS!

[Locke]

I hope that those who have viewed the game have had a chance to take a look.  Anymore feedback would be appreciated.  I am working now on typos and the such.  If anyone happens to see any typos or have any questions, please post them so I can respond and fix any issues.

thanks!

Always looking for more feedback.

One thing to add.  I'm not trying to say this is the most simple system, but it is the most simple system based on everything that it has to offer.  I really did try to make the grapple rules more simple, but just couldn't do it.  I figured it was better to have them than to have the GM responsible for making everything up completely.

[Locke]

I am currently moving the content into Quark and fixing the typos and making tweeks from play testing.  If anyone has any thoughts ideas or anything regarding the rule-set or anything I am missing or have included too much of, I would love to hear them.  I am mostly concerned about clunky rules and imbalance problems.  I am reformatting the layout so basic layout suggestions can be helpful.  I will add the categories of the book to the side running vertically.  I am also having art done now.

Some things I am adding:

- contemporary history of the incian races and nations
- more maps
- race based naval vessels
- aero vessels (blimps)
- better rules for damaging non-weapon objects and blocking with bows
- cleaner rules for dual wielding weapons
- changing some nomenclature here and there to make it more intuitive
- making the talents interact better and more useful in general (like shadowrun but not as broken)
- allowing attributes to go to zero
- more comprehensive crafting section (more content not just more rules)

I think that's it.  Nothing major really.

thanks!
Jeff 
(check the link in the signature for full rules copy!)