The following is the introduction to my upcoming FtA! sourcebook, the FtA!GN! (Forward... to Adventure! Gamemaster's Notebook!), due to be released whenever I finish writing the damn thing and Clash has time to publish it; probably not for months at least, I'd wager. But this is just to let you all see I've gotten started, and that I've finished deciding what's going to be in it, for the most part:
This book is a sourcebook for the Forward… to Adventure! RPG, containing a wide variety of articles for enhancing your “FtA!” game.
You won’t find anything in here that is essential for playing the game, but what you will find is a wide variety of optional material; hence the term “notebook”. In the FtA!GN! you will find new optional PC races, new classes (and outlines for how to use existing classes to create the kind of character you want); elucidation on how to resolve certain tasks or certain rules from the main rulebook, and optional tips to enhance play experience.
You’ll also get more details on the overall “world” of FtA!. The FtA! world (called “The Setting”) is a world with its own particular rules; some of the flavour of The Setting has already been noted in the setting elements that were included within the rules of FtA! itself. But beyond that, in this sourcebook you’ll get some more in-depth details on what The Setting is like as a world (as well as the multiverse it resides in). This will include more material for setting details in the Dungeon, for new less-common Spell Lists, details on the nations and regions of The Setting, overland travel, cities and things you will find in them, and weird miscellany of The Setting. You will also get some material on the Planes of existence, making the adventuring potential of FtA! truly infinite in just how “forward” you can go!
Instead of dictating a full-blown fully-detailed fantasy world from on high, however, what you will get in the FtA!GN! is an outline of the world of The Setting to help guide you in the bigger picture, and a system of guidelines and random charts to help you flush out the regions of The Setting in your own way. Each GM’s version of The Setting will be different, to fit whatever he needs for his campaign.
Finally you’ll get a lot of new rare monsters for the FtA! game, and an appendix full of random tables drawn from the winners and best entries of the FtA! Random Chart Design Contest. These random tables will be useful for enhancing your FtA! game in wild and wonderful ways.
So if you’re ready boys and girls, shout out “FtA!GN!” like it was all just one big word, and let’s charge forth once more unto the breach, one more time, Forward… to Adventure!
RPGPundit
So, what, NO comments?
RPGPundit
Well, I'm excited! :D
-clash
Other than "Bully," I have nothing to add except that I giggle when I think of the sound of the names of the FtA! line when you replace the exclamation points with question marks.
Forward...to Adventure? Gamemasters Notebook?
Sorry.
It sounds like "What you see is what you get." No excessive hype. I like the bit where you say it's useful but not required. It sounds like this product will continue offering "old school" to the masses.
I think the idea of it just being an outline interests me more than some indepth examination of the fluctuation in the price of hobbits bollocks down the quayside at Freeport. Too more source material gives me the fear (Forgotten Realms, fuck's sake) and keeping me from buying into it all. If I can just buy a rulebook and a setting book I'll be well chuffed.
Sounds great. I'd buy it and I'm dead stingey, always end up buying the sole gamebook rather than Gnomekin volumes 1-3 - and usually end up disappointed. FTA! could be what I'm after.
sorted
I'm always favourable towards supplements that are really what their name implies - supplemental stuff, not something required to be able to have any fun or even have a working game at all. (AEG, I look at you!)
I also like the approach to use setting description just as a springboard and worksaver for an own campaign setting, instead of the fleshed out and fully defined setting as it is more popular since the 90s.
If I buy will depend on what is finally to be found inside. Ammo directly usable in the game like spells, monsters and random tables is always a good way to sell me on something, though.
Quote from: SeanI think the idea of it just being an outline interests me more than some indepth examination of the fluctuation in the price of hobbits bollocks down the quayside at Freeport. Too more source material gives me the fear (Forgotten Realms, fuck's sake) and keeping me from buying into it all. If I can just buy a rulebook and a setting book I'll be well chuffed.
Sounds great. I'd buy it and I'm dead stingey, always end up buying the sole gamebook rather than Gnomekin volumes 1-3 - and usually end up disappointed. FTA! could be what I'm after.
sorted
Wow, Sean, thanks for making your first post to the site, and thanks for making it about FtA!GN!
I agree completely with you about "too much source material". A good setting, to me, is a framework around which the GM can fill in; too little material might make it too much work, but too much material makes it hard to make it your own campaign.
Hope you get into FtA!
RPGPundit
Quote from: SkyrockIf I buy will depend on what is finally to be found inside. Ammo directly usable in the game like spells, monsters and random tables is always a good way to sell me on something, though.
Well, you KNOW that there'll be lots of Random tables! That's what the contest was for. As for monsters and spells, there'll be two new spell lists, and a ton of new monsters!
RPGPundit
I still haven't had money to get FTA in print so I think when I do I'll pick up FTA and FTA!GN! Ai Ai FtA!GN!
:D
Well it might still take a long time to finish being written, though I'm getting along faster than I thought.
RPGPundit
Quote from: SeanSounds great. I'd buy it and I'm dead stingey, always end up buying the sole gamebook rather than Gnomekin volumes 1-3 - and usually end up disappointed. FTA! could be what I'm after.
sorted
I wasn't wrong !
How's the FtA!GN! progressing ?
(Seems ago ago since I got led here by a link by Pierce Inverarity on a Dragonsfoot thread about a Dungeon Squad/FtA! mashup. But it's only a matter of weeks. weird ?!?)
Quote from: SeanI wasn't wrong !
How's the FtA!GN! progressing ?
(Seems ago ago since I got led here by a link by Pierce Inverarity on a Dragonsfoot thread about a Dungeon Squad/FtA! mashup. But it's only a matter of weeks. weird ?!?)
Could you post a link to that thread?
Anyways, currently the writing of the book is at chapter 5, which is the magic section (always one of the tougher parts of any book, IMO). I've already covered the chapter on races, classes, equipment, and dungeoneering material.
Highlites I can now confirm will be in FtA!GN! include the rules for Kitchen Sinks in dungeons, the Random Alcoholic Beverage Name table, and a complete list of the effects of eating the corpses of any monster/race listed in the main FtA! book or the FtA!GN! monster section.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPunditrules for Kitchen Sinks in dungeons
I'm sold with that, but only if there's Puddingbane among the new artifacts and Newts among the new monsters :D
And a thumbs up for corpse eating rules, that is one of the defining points of a rogue-like experience (and one of the reasons that I never managed to like Angband).
Here's the link (http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24915)
(Ah, Dungeon Squad, turned out to be a bit of an 'inbetweener' after all.)
The most annoying table I ever saw was one for 'random polearms' in a homebrew:
Dm: 'you found a chicken staff !'
Me: 'a staff with a chicken on the end ?'
Dm, 'correctomundo. oh how those gnolls will quake with fear.'
Quote from: SkyrockI'm sold with that, but only if there's Puddingbane among the new artifacts and Newts among the new monsters :D
And a thumbs up for corpse eating rules, that is one of the defining points of a rogue-like experience (and one of the reasons that I never managed to like Angband).
There are a number of new monsters that are "inspired" by roguelikes.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPunditThere are a number of new monsters that are "inspired" by roguelikes.
RPGPundit
Oh no, not the....Wumpus !
_Every_ game gets improved by putting the Wumpus into it.
I'm afraid I can't go into detail yet; and they won't all be in there (its questionable whether the Wumpus will be); but I'm sure you'll find that not only are there a few truly nethack-esque monsters, but also some other new monsters that, while not taken directly from nethack, will be very satisfying to one's roguelike sentiments.
RPGPundit
And in other news, I have posted a summary and table of contents of one of the two new spell lists (http://www.xanga.com/RPGpundit/628682833/item.html) the FtA!GN! sourcebook will contain. In this case, its the Summoning/Binding list.
RPGPundit
ol' skool sword and sorcery - FtA! now has your ass covered !