Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook

This review comes with the following caveat: even a quality game with excellent production values is not going to appeal to everyone. I've tried to base the review on something resembling objectivity but realize that isn't really possible. I'd also like to note that I've GM'd multiple sessions using these rules. Enough sessions that players had characters level up more than once. So, my review does include experience at playing the game not just reading through the book.Summary:I like Fantasy AGE. Quite a bit, actually. It fills a niche for me that is between the rules lite systems and the "everything including the kitchen sink" systems. It's core system is simple and easy to understand and for experienced players is familiar enough that learning it is very easy. However, there is just enough complexity that it doesn't seem like choices in character creation are just window dressing. So, if you're looking for a generic fantasy system that is simple enough to learn and even hack easily while being rigorous enough that it doesn't feel like free-form, I highly recommend Fantasy AGE.More In Depth:Production value is excellent. The hardcover book is sturdy and feels like it will stand up well to repeated use. The artwork is good. The writing is not some inspired deviation from standard gaming fare but is clear, concise and easy to follow. Editing and layout are very nice. All in all, the value of the physical product is very reasonable at the price point.The system itself is a standard class-based, task resolution game. That may not seem very inspiring or ground breaking. However, it is a nicely streamlined system with enough complexity to make it interesting. Each character has 9 Abilities that define their physical and mental aptitude. These Abilities are represented by numbers generally in the range of -4 to +4; although, there is technically no limit on how high an Ability can be. Abilities provide a bonus or penalty equal to it's value on all rolls related to that Ability. Abilities have associated with them Focuses which are very much like skills in other systems. If a roll is related to a specific Focus and a character has that Focus then the player gets an additional +2 to the roll. Characters also have Talents which are analogous to feats, stunts, or powers in other systems. They provide bonuses in certain situations or allow you to break the rules in some way. Spells are essentially a special class of Talents.There are 3 classes in the game: Fighter, Rogue, and Mage. Fighters are force based characters. Rogues are finesse based characters. Mages are magic based characters. Class determines which Talents are available and which Abilities get more focus. They are very broad and generic classes. Characters find their uniqueness in their choice of Talents and their Abilities. For example, a Rogue could be built easily to look like either a Ranger type character or a Con Artist character. Both are characters that rely more on finesse than brute force and so are Rogue class; however, in Abilities and Talents they may not be similar at all.The base mechanic is simple. Roll 3d6 and add Ability and Focus bonuses (or penalties) to the total. Compare that total to a Difficulty (ie 13). If the total is greater than or equal to the Difficulty the roll is a success. If not, then it is a failure. The 3 dice create a bell curve probability that keep results from being wildly unpredictable, which I like. However, there is still enough variation that rolling the dice can create some tension. The game uses only d6 dice.One of the very cool systems, is the Stunt system. When making an Ability check, the player rolls 3d6. One of the d6 should be of a different color. This die is the Stunt Die. If the roll results in doubles, then the value of the Stunt Die is the number of Stunt Points generated. Depending on whether the roll was for Combat, Exploration or Social situations, there is a list of Stunts and how many points they require to be used. Stunts allow the player to gain some advantage or break the rules in some dramatic and interesting way. I have found it to be a very elegant and enjoyable system in play.There is a good bit more that can be said about the system but you might as well read the book at this point. In play, I've found Fantasy AGE to be fun and engaging with just the right amount of rules complexity for me and my group. I recommend it.

Fantasy AGE (FAGE) from Green Ronin Publishing, based on the award-winning Dragon AGE game mechanics, offers a great way for new and veteran tabletop RPG players to jump right into the action. Striking a balance between combat, exploration and role-playing encounters, FAGE uses a simple 3D6 mechanic to adjudicate action and ability tests. In addition, FAGE includes a novel stunt mechanic to allow for more PC control of the action and increase the pressure to get the roll right when the party needs saving! FAGE includes a generic campaign setting, but its strength lies with allowing YOU to create your own world or modify an existing one. I have used my own, TitansGrave, Freeport - City of Adventure and Masters of the Universe settings for some great adventures across a unique campaign. Playing an RPG shouldn't feel like a calculus or C++ class with hours of table look-ups and volumes of tomes to memorize...it should be an epic grand adventure told between GMs and PCs! Pick this and the FAGE Companion up for a great game! Recommended!

The AGE system (short for 'Adventure Gaming Engine') was originally the set of rules used in Green Ronin's  Dragon Age RPG , and later used in Will Wheaton's  Titansgrave  campaign podcast. It's a great little game system: easy-to-learn, rules-light, and fast-playing. The Fantasy AGE Basic Rules takes the AGE system and strips away all background and setting information, giving players and Game Masters a complete set of rules-- everything they need to enjoy their own unique campaign settings, in 120 short pages.Did I mention that this book is only 120 pages long? That's an important point. Without any setting or background info, there isn't a lot of fluff here. If you're a Game Master looking for a set of rules to power your original campaign, this book is perfect, because you won't need to disentangle any setting information from the rules provided as you build your campaign from the ground up. On the plus side, it can be very liberating to work from a blank slate when you're creating a campaign from scratch, and the AGE system is so simple that it's easy peasy to create scads of unique obstacles, opponents, and NPCs for your players to vanquish; on the other hand, though, Fantasy AGE doesn't provide you with a setting which you can use right out of the box.So what do you get in this book? As mentioned earlier, the AGE system is extremely rules-light, and almost every rule in the game is summarized on a single page of this book (page 6). Without any background information, and without needing to dedicate much page count to rules systems, the Fantasy AGE Basic Rules still pack a lot into 120 pages. There's a chapter on character creation, a full chapter going into more depth on the rules (which, as I mentioned, were previously summarized on page 6), a chapter on character options, a chapter on money and equipment, a chapter explaining how magic works in the AGE system, a chapter on stunts (really the best part of the game-- see below), a chapter about how to Game Master, a chapter with suggestions for the GM about how to implement the rules in the book, a short selection of adversaries/monsters (with advice about how to create/modify entries for original adversaries in your game), guidance on player rewards, advice on adding setting to the game, and a full adventure-- plus a glossary of game terms and an index.For 120 pages, that's a lot of terrain covered.The system itself is really easy. Characters have 9 different ability scores, which are generally rated from -2 to 4. For any test in the game, players roll 3D6, add the appropriate ability score, add any modifiers, and compare the result to a predetermined difficulty number. The 'meat and potatoes' of the game are in its "stunt" mechanism; one of the three dice rolled should be of a different color than the other two, and whenever a successful 3D6 roll results in doubles (on any of the 3 dice), that player gets as many "stunt points" as the odd-colored die's result. These "stunt points" can be spent to purchase a variety of special game effects-- perhaps knocking an opponent prone in combat, or gaining an extra attack, or doing additional damage. Since players get to spend their own "stunt points" to achieve whatever effects they desire the most-- and if they have enough points to spend, they can even select more than one-- this mechanism gives players a degree of agency within the game's narrative.As of this review's date, there are three supplements in print for Fantasy AGE. The  Fantasy AGE Bestiary  expands upon the selection of monsters from the basic rule book, and the  Fantasy AGE Game Masters Kit  includes a sturdy GM screen, a couple of durable reference cards for players, and a dry-erase initiative tracker. See my reviews of each of these items. The Fantasy AGE Companion expands upon character options even further, with rules for chases and a mass combat system.Fantasy AGE is a great system for fast, rules-light roleplaying, particularly for GM's who want to create their own unique campaigns without getting bogged down creating complicated stat blocks. Well worth checking out!

Good balance of simplicity vs flexibility

great

Fast delivery, great book, some slight scratching on the cover though but nothing bad. Recommended!

I giocatori di ruolo non possono non innamorarsi di questo gioco. Un perfetto strumento per portare qualsiasi avventura, mondo e storia alla vita. Il manuale è ben fatto, la qualità eccellente, sia del materiale che visivamente e le illustrazioni superbe. Questa versione applica il suo focus sul gioco fantasy (come il nome indica) e applica il sistema AGE, cioè il Adventure Game Engine, un modello che vi permette di giocare infinite campagne e avventure nel sistema tipico dei GdR.Usa unicamente 3 dadi a 6 facce ma, a differenza dei suoi fratelli famosi che usano i dadi poliedrici, non ha niente da invidiare rispetto a complessità e profondità di gioco. Dettagliato, fornisce molti spunti e una completa caratterizzazione del personaggio garantendo fin dall'inizio una full immersion che ho provato con pochi giochi. Personalmente cercavo un sistema adatto alle mie ambientazioni e in un modo o nell'altro gli altri sistemi non mi accontentavano mai completamente. Fantasy AGE (FAGE per i fruitori) è stata la risposta alle mie domande.

This is a six sided dice rpg (called d6) that uses a unique game method called Stunts. Everything you do uses 3 dice. One of those dice is a different colour than the other two. This is the stunt dice. Whenever you roll doubles, you look at the number on the stunt dice to see how many points you get to spend doing awesome things. Consider this like rolling a natural 20 in other games but now you get to say what happens. The book is a great quality with nice firm pages, illustrations and binding. I can not recommend this game enough. If you are looking for a fun and easy game to get into, this is the one. This book really does contain everything you need to play. It has sections for the player, sections for the person running the game and even adversaries.