RPGPundit Reviews: Forward... to Adventure!

Yes, this is an RPGPundit review of Forward... to Adventure! by the RPGPundit. Obviously, take this review with a big a grain of salt as you care to.

Forward... to Adventure! is a game that has no shame in proclaiming an old-school and slightly gonzo style.  Old-school in the sense that its primary influences are basic D&D, Tunnels & Trolls, and also the "Roguelike" computer games (particularly Nethack). Slightly gonzo in that there's a fair share of weirdness and wacky in the presumed "setting", but only slightly; you won't actually find any high-tech mixed in with the fantasy or really unusual material in the game itself.

The game is also unusual in that it was created with a particular framework in mind: to serve as an introductory game for a largely-untapped latinamerican market (though obviously this is the english version of the game).  This explains a few of the design goals of the game: to only use D6s (a compromise to the reality that polyhedral dice are difficult to find in south america), to make it as easy as possible to make characters, and the unashamedly archetypal nature of the game.

What this means is that the game is particularly well-suited to running as a pick-up game, to play with people who are not yet gamers, or to run anytime you need something fast and easy to run.  None of this means, though, that FtA! isn't suitable for campaign-play. On the contrary, some of the rules are clearly designed with the idea of long-term play reaching very high levels in mind.

A bit about the physical structure of the game book.  Its printed by Flying Mice games, and was edited and laid out by Clash Bowley.  This means that you get most of the good about Flying Mice, like the reliable Lulu printing.  The book is well bound and certainly looks like it would hold up well against heavy wear and tear. You also get that reliably old-school feel to the layout, though that might sometimes irk people who have pet peeves about the columns being justified (instead of just left-aligned), and other layout details that aren't in keeping with the "industry standard" of today.  Finally, you also get the cool photoshopped-photo images throughout the book, a good number of them (particularly appealing, judging by how many people have commented on it in other reviews, is the spectacular nude of a Nymph in the monsters section; but I also personally think that the elf-chick at the start of the Skills & Stunts section is incredibly cute).

Of course the other side of Bowley's editing is that it shares some of the rough spots that Flying Mice's other games suffer from. There is the occasional typo in the book, and there's some odd choices for page breaks (areas with an excess of white-space where at the least another photo could have been added).  While on the whole Bowley's editing work has continued to improve with each product he releases, hopefully some of these bugs will be fixed either in erratta or in subsequent printings. I don't personally think there's any problem so glaringly bad that it harms the ability to enjoy the book, much less play the game.

Now, a chapter-by-chapter review:
 
0. The basic mechanic: all PC rolls in the game are based on 3d6 rolls, with various bonuses added, where you must beat a fixed DC (or occasionally an opposed roll).

1. Character Creation:  here we get the basics of the system.  FtA! uses the same basic six attributes as the world's most famous RPG, and each of these attributes is rated from a -5 to a +5 in value, with the average value being a 0.  Also like the world's most famous RPG, the game also has both classes and levels.  You also get races, with the races being the four standards: Human (divided into civilized humans and barbarian humans, who each get different bonuses and abilities), elves, dwarves, and halflings. Added to these are Orcs (NOT "half-orcs") and Half-Mermen, which were added mostly as an example of a gonzo race, implicitly granting permission to the GM of FtA! to feel free to create any other kind of weird and wonderful race he might wish to use in the game. As well as giving you certain bonuses to attributes, special abilities or skills, each race also has a preferred class.  Any race can theoretically play any class (except for Orcs, who cannot be wizards), but if you play a class that is not "preferred" for that race, it will advance more slowly in levels. Humans, as expected, have all classes as their preferred classes.
Your class determines your bonuses in combat and in "Active" and "Passive" checks. An "Active" bonus is added to all skill rolls or to any attribute roll where your character is "actively" trying to accomplish something. "Passive" bonuses are essentially saving throws; they're what you add to a skill or an attribute roll when you're trying to resist or avoid some outside action or effect.
Available classes are Warrior, Rogue, Wizard, Rogue-Wizard and Warrior-wizard. The "wizard" classes cover all types of spellcasters (magic users, clerics, bards, druids or psychics). Multiclassing is not allowed.
Characters advance in level by completing adventures. You must complete a number of adventures equal to your current level in order to advance to the next level (races that are not using their "preferred" class require 2 extra adventures completed per level to advance, starting at level 2).
This chapter also details the alignment system; the three alignments are Law, Chaos, and Balance.  Unlike D&D, where you choose a certain alignment and this dictates your behaviour, the FtA! alignment system works almost in reverse: at the end of each adventure you gain a D6 "points" in the alignment you most closely emulated in your actions in that session; thus a PC could theoretically end up gaining points in different alignments from one session to the next.  If he ends up having many more points in one alignment than the others, he will get bonuses and penalties to social interactions.  If he ends up with 100 points or more in one alignment, and at least 25 more than in the other two, he will be a "champion" of that alignment and may end up being contacted by a Deity to become that Deity's champion, gaining special bonuses but having to do that Deity's bidding.

2. Equipment: This chapter details weapons, armour, and miscellaneous items for characters, as well as how to determine initial equipment.  In the game, the stats of weapons and armour are based entirely on weapon size/type, and not on which particular item you're using.  So weapons will vary in damage between light weapons, one-handed melee weapons, two-handed melee weapons, and ranged weapons; but you won't do different damage with a one-handed battleaxe than you do with a one-handed sword.  Weapon damages, and the range at which you score a critical (a natural result on the dice that lets you roll again and add to your total combat roll, augmenting damage) also depends on whether or not you're "trained" in a particular weapon-type, which is determined initially by class (though PCs who's class does not start with training in a weapon type can choose to use skill points to gain training in particular weapons).  Armour provides damage resistance, but gives penalties to Active Dexterity checks; except for helms which give penalties to perception checks. Armour also varies according to training or non-training, as if you are not trained in using a type of armour you will suffer the armour penalty to your attack rolls.
Armour and weapons can both also be made "master" quality, which gives them certain bonuses but makes them much more expensive.
There's also a fairly decent list of sundry items, by no means definitive but lengthy enough to fill most of the basic adventuring needs (the ten-foot-pole and fifty-foot-rope are both there); it also contains a couple of vanity items clearly influenced by the author (like including prices for smoking pipes and tobacco).
Initial character equipment is based on a fixed list of items (often giving starting characters a certain range of choices), plus a roll for starting "social class" (ranging from "runaway slave" to "minor titled noble") which determines initial starting money.

3. Skills and Stunts: There are 21 skills in FtA! (some of them are umbrella skills, like "X" Lore); each is detailed in this chapter; the skills are all fairly standard Fantasy-adventurer skills, bought with skill points. Stunts are described as special maneuvers that you do with skills, where you try to obtain some kind of special bonus or result.  The stunts are a mechanic that allow you to cover any type of special attack or action a PC might think of, and the game includes a fairly good list of sample stunts that give a very good idea of how a GM could frame his own stunts or how he could handle stunts thought up by a player. Sample stunt checks include such things as making a stunt check to grant an ally a +1-3 bonus on his next skill check, give yourself a +2 bonus to your next PAS check by mentally preparing yourself or being on alert for some forseeable danger, doing a Crafting stunt check to make a Master quality item, doing a Diplomacy stunt check to rally your side after they lose a morale check, doing an Acrobatics stunt check to move past a group of opponents to get to something or someone behind them, or making an Occult Lore stunt to give yourself a +2 bonus to your next quick casting check.

4. Combat: This chapter details the combat system of FtA!  Combat in FtA! is "collective"; which means that both sides act at the same time (no initiative) and both sides are generally fighting as teams against each other.  In each round of combat, participants must first declare their intended action in inverse order of DEX (allowing characters with higher dex to know what their opponent is planning to do before deciding what to do themselves) and then, where applicable, resolved in direct order of DEX (allowing faster characters to get an edge).  In a combat round, you resolve movement first, then missle attacks, then melee attacks. Missle attack rolls are checked individually, but melee is resolved by having all those who are fighting roll and add their sides' roll totals, then compare that to the total rolled by the opposing side. Whoever rolled higher "won" that melee round, and the difference between the two values is the damage dealt to the losing side, divided among its participants by the GM.  This makes movement and location fairly important in the game, because whether you are in a "melee area" or not determines whether you will be able to join in the melee part of the fight, and whether or not you are eligible to take damage if your side loses the battle round. Critical strikes add an extra 3d6 to your combat roll, and critical fumbles (triple 1s) make you roll on critical fumble tables (with different tables for missle and melee fumbles).
There is also a phase for performing stunts, which can be pretty crucial to giving your side an edge if its disadvantaged.  There is an option for the GM to run the stunt phase either before or after the melee phase; this makes a big difference because putting the stunt phase before melee phase will really encourage people to stunt (leading to a more "swashbuckling" kind of game), whereas putting the stunt phase after the melee phase will lead to a more traditional kind of combat system, where only characters very inclined to stunting or otherwise unable to help in the battle will choose to stunt, while most other characters will just choose to fight in melee instead.
Spellcasting is handled by having casting characters declare their intended spell at the beginning of the round, but not actually releasing the spell until the end of the round (unless they choose to make a quick-casting check to release the spell immediately). This is significant because if the caster is injured or stunted before he completes the spell, his spell will fail.
At the end of the combat round there is a morale phase, which is also quite important in the combat system.  Both the opponents and the PCs themselves might be forced to make a morale check; failure means that the losing side must either flee or will suffer a significant "morale" penalty to all their rolls.
Stunts and morale in particular serve to make the combat system very dynamic.
This chapter also includes rules on injury: in FtA! players have hit points (based on class and going up with each level); reaching 0 hit points leaves you stunned, negative hit points leave you unconscious, and if you go far enough into negative hit points you die. A "permanent injury" table is included for cases where a pc suffered particularly severe damage but managed to survive. Rules are also provided to cover poison and disease.

5. Magic: The FtA! magic system is based on a "spell list" system. There are 17 different "spell lists", each with 10 spells; each spell being of an increasing level of power.  Wizard-class PCs must choose one or more lists (depending on class) that they will automatically have access to, but they can also end up learning new spells from other lists if they can find these. Wizards are not limited either by spells-per-day or by "mana points" in FtA!, instead they must make a casting check on each occasion that they cast a spell; failure to cast a spell correctly will cause temporary damage to the PC and make it more difficult to cast more spells until the PC has rested. The PC might also want to try to quick-cast a spell, to release it instantly instead of at the end of a round; this is a seperate roll.  Fumbles are possible with either the casting check or the quick-casting check (on triple 1s, in either case) and fairly amusing fumble tables are included for either effect; quick-casting fumbles tend to be more amusing and annoying results, whereas fumbling on a casting check can be serious trouble.  Rolling a critical (triple 6s) on a casting check means that a spell will have its maximum possible effect (maximum range, duration and damage), and the PC will gain bonuses to all his subsequent rolls for the rest of the day. Spell lists are grouped by type of magic; such types as "Curing School", "Energy School", "Knowledge School", "Telekinetic School" or "Travel School".

6. Monsters: In addition to a fairly large list of sample monsters, FtA! includes complete guidelines for creating your own monsters, with a table detailing appropriate bonuses based on the "hit die" level of each monster. The monsters listed include animals (like the Wild Boar), standard fantasy creatures (centaurs, the aforementioned nymphs), cthuluesque creatures (Deep Ones, Chaos Creatures), and a couple of more particular creature (like the Night Dragon or Wraith King). The entry for Gnomes includes guidelines for using gnomes as PC races; another incentive to encourage GMs to allow alternate races if they so choose.

7. Treasure: Complete random treasure tables are provided, based on the hit die and type of monsters faced. This section also includes lengthy magic-item tables. Magic Items in the presumed default setting of FtA! are rather rare, and many of the items included are unusual, unique and powerful (including a number of artifact-level items that are tied to the gods of balance, law or chaos).

8. Dungeons and Encounters: fairly complete tables are created for overland encounters. This chapter also includes one of the best features of FtA!; a complete set of random charts for the creation of your own random dungeons, including guidelines for different types of dungeons and how they will look (tunnels, caverns, ruins or fantasy dungeons), tables for determining the physical structure of the dungeon (random passages, alcoves, stairs, rooms and chambers), extensive tables for traps, and tables for random monster allocation, random treasure, magic fountains & pools, and magic shrines.

The book ends with a well-detailed complete character sheet, and an index.

A note about "setting": there is no explicit setting material for FtA!; you don't actually get a world detailed in this book. Instead, there are a number of details that can be gleaned of the type of fantasy world you're dealing with throughout the book: its a setting full of wilderness and ruins, high adventure, where magic is relatively rare and quite powerful, the secrets of magic are lost to the ages, the gods of Law, Chaos, and Balance/Nature are moderately active in the world, and civilization is bordered with vast areas of lawlessness or wilderlands.

In conclusion, FtA! is an ideal game for anyone who might find themselves regularly wanting to run fast fantasy one-shots, anyone who's ever wanted to run a tabletop version of the old Nethack game, anyone who's looking to introduce a newbie to fantasy Roleplaying, or anyone who wants to run an old-school campaign using rules that are as quick and smooth (or indeed, quicker and smoother) than old-school D&D.  You can use FtA! for one shots, short campaigns, or detailed long-term campaigns.  You can use FtA! for dungeon crawls with little in the way of setting material, or you could use it for complex fantasy campaigns in a rich setting or your own devising (or for use in most of the more popular existing RPG fantasy settings).

What is FtA! not good for? Well, its not particularly good if what you want is to run anything that isn't fantasy (there's nothing set up in the rules for running a sci-fi campaign), and the game would need some serious tweaking if you wanted to run a game that was high-power or high-magic right off the bat. This is not a "generic" system like D20 or GURPS.  Also, FtA! is clearly NOT a "storygame", where the mechanics themselves help you to create a story or where your characters stats will define his personality (in FtA!, your character's personality is based on the history you make for him and the way you play him, not on his stats).

Obviously, I'm going to avoid giving a conclusion about whether this game is "good" or not; my own opinion being far too biased for that (clearly, I'm going to say it IS good, but as the author of the game I'm hardly qualified to give that conclusion free of prejudice). I just hope this review will help you have more information to make the decision as to whether FtA! is a game that would appeal to you or not.

RPGPundit

re the aim of selling the game in the Latin American market:

Is fantasy well-known enough in Latin America that people will be interested in/understand the idea of the game?

Fantasy is as well known in latinamerica as it is anywhere else in the world. 13-15 year olds are just as enamoured of Tolkien and Harry Potter here as they are in the U.S. or the U.K.; anime is almost as heavily-read, etc etc.

RPGPundit

Just one question: Can the GM just kill a player character, or at least force a check that could result in the player character's death?

Quote from: EppyJust one question: Can the GM just kill a player character, or at least force a check that could result in the player character's death?

Yes, obviously. Like in any other Roleplaying Game, the GM could in theory kill a PC outright for no reason (though he'd probably have some angry players on his hands if it was totally unjustified); he also could and certainly often will make the PCs make rolls (PAS checks, mostly), that if failed could easily result in their death.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditYes, obviously. Like in any other Roleplaying Game, the GM could in theory kill a PC outright for no reason (though he'd probably have some angry players on his hands if it was totally unjustified); he also could and certainly often will make the PCs make rolls (PAS checks, mostly), that if failed could easily result in their death.

RPGPundit

Sold.

Quote from: EppySold.

Well um, good. Thanks.

RPGPundit

It really sounds like a solid effort.  I'm looking forward to my next paycheck.

Excellent.

RPGPundit

Pundit, FtA will be on my purchasing list for next month. Like a fool, I neglected to write a birthday list for my family to check out. If I had, I'd have put FtA on it. Oh, well.....I'll still pick it up.