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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Review: AFG: Adventure Fantasy Game

 
 Here's another review long over do.  +Paolo Greco has created AFG: Adventure Fantasy GamePaolo used the 5MORE system.  I've never heard of 5MORE before reading through AFG.  Here's a concise description of the system.
First, describe what you’re doing. 5MORE shall not completely replace deliberate intention with a roll.
Then, roll a d6: is the result 5 or MORE? Success! Is it 1? Abject and utter failure!
First off, does it get much simpler than this?  Think of how fast you can get a game going using this system.  Pickup games would be a snap.

AFG uses a three attribute system: Physical, Craft and Spiritual.  There are three classes or Ways: Fighter, Caster and Practitioner.  The Practitioner is a professional craftsman.  Starting equipment is already laid out with options for each Way. 

Here is additional information why the 5MORE system is great for getting a gaming going quickly and keeping the action going with ease.

  • +1 for easy tasks, -1 for hard ones
  • +1 for good ideas or plans, -1 for bad ones
  • +1 for high relevant Stat, -1 for a low relevant Stat
  • +1 for excellent equipment, -1 for inappropriate equipment 
Then roll 1d6 and consult the following list of results:
1: Absolute Failure: be creative with the consequences.
2-4: Failure: the character failed but consequences might not be dire.
5-6: Success: awesome! The character might also get better at this! If
they succeeded with unmodified 5 or 6, try an Experience Roll: roll 1d6 and
if the result is an unmodified 5 or 6, note a letter from the word “EXPERT”
next to the Task name on the character sheet: for each Task, the first letter is
going to be an E, the second an X and so on. With experience, the character
can become an EXPERT as described in section 2.1.


I am the first to admit that I am lousy at picking up new systems.  I let the sharper minds figure them out, but this 5MORE system is a breeze to learn.  Paolo has provided a lot of simple and interesting options for character development and play.  You'll find play familiar and easier to run than ever before.

Paolo provides what most rulebooks do, with an extensive list of spells, some very cool cults, equipment, and how-to pieces.  In addition he has a very interesting monster generator.  And at the end there is an interesting hex crawl adventure.

I want to take a moment to talk about the physical features of AFG: Adventure Fantasy Game.  Well the PDF version at least.  AFG is 108 pages long, a fantastic cover by OSR favorite +Stefan Poag.  The layout is easy to read and I had no trouble finding the information I needed which is no easy feat considering all the information that's included.  


My advice is to pick up a couple print books.  At $9 bucks you're getting a bargain.  I think Paolo has done an exceptional job of introducing this easy to play system.  He mentioned tonight he had a few more interesting add-ons in the works.  Get in on this one.  You'll be running a game within minutes of opening the book.

9 comments:

  1. Ack! I just was looking over my recent acquisitions and vowed not to buy anymore RPG rulebooks this year since as it is, I'll probably never play even a small number of them.

    But this looks really fun and easy to get people into.

    Between this game and "Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures" my vow might be short lived.

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    1. I know John, cool stuff keeps rolling in. I know I am way behind what I would like to get. It's hard to keep up. This one though you can just grab and get people playing in matter of minutes.

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  2. This does look easy. My kids want to start a blog about D&D for kids, looking at ways to simplify rules - this looks like a great start for them.

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    1. I think it is perfect for introducing kids into RPGs.

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  3. I did the editing on this project and, I must admit, the system is as intuitive as any I've ever seen. It's both powerful and simple -- a tough balancing act to pull off.

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  4. It usually takes about 10 minutes to get newbies started using 1eAD&D and your imagination. This doesn't sound very appetizing or OSR.

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  5. CAn ask for much simpler than that, but I'm not surprised as Paolo does good work.

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  6. I picked this game up a while back, but like many of us older gamers, I haven't had time or opportunity to learn the rules and play the game. But you never know...someday! I collect games for that "someday" with abandon, which it seems is something others in the RPG blogosphere can relate to, eh?! But Mr. Greco does some good work, indeed, and now I'm itching to dig up my copy and delve again...

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