Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2E Tabletop RPG

[Deleted]

For those of us younger (ahem : members who cut their pre-pubescent RPG teeth on various gamebooks along the lines of Fighting Fantasy & Lone Wolf back in the mid '80's, I found a site you might be interested in: www.advancedfightingfantasy.co.uk/home.html

Apparently these fellows have put together a revised version of Advanced Fighting Fantasy, ready for true tabletop play. I'm happier than a clam at finding this jewel. I just finished printing out the rules (which are extremely simple, I might add), & I'm definitely going to lay this on my wife & the usual's this weekend.

For completeness, here is a link to the official Fighting Fantasy gamebook site: www.fightingfantasy.com

And here's a link to Project Aon, the official home of Lone Wolf online: www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home


Now if only someone would save me the time & condense all the original Lone Wolf, World of Lone Wolf, & Magnamund Companion rules into an easy to print pdf...

[machfront]

That's cool. But...so weird. Why wouldn't they put it all into one pdf instead of nine separate ones??

[castiglione]

I know this is a bit late but I just found this thread; I really loved those Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks when I was a kid. Just what did Advanced Fighting Fantasy add to the basic system given in the books? I imagine some sort of missile combat system was given and some sort of official magic system as well?

[greyharp]

In 1984 they published Fighting Fantasy, The Introductory Role-Playing Game, which expanded the rules from the gamebooks, added in some advice for the GM and had three adventures. This was followed in 1985 by Out of the Pit, basically a monster manual. In 1986 they released Titan, a campaign world that fleshed out the continents in which most of the gamebooks were set, as well as The Riddling Reaver containing four more adventures and some additional rules (variable weapon damage, magic, etc.).

The Advanced Fighting Fantasy game consists of three volumes - Dungeoneer (1989), Blacksand (1990), and the elusive Allansia (1994). While the Fighting Fantasy rpg called the referee the GameMaster, annoyingly AFF referred to them as The Director, using the whole movie analogy to hammer home the point. The AFF books build on the original rules and expand them, rather than replace them. Each of the three volumes has between 300 and 400 pages, so there's a fair bit in there.

Dungeoneer focuses on expanding the rules and includes two adventures. Blacksand adds more rules, has a section on Town and City adventures, with the second half of the book fleshing out Port Blacksand (City of Thieves). Allansia adds yet more rules and several demi-human and humanoid character classes, has Mass Battle rules, a section on Outdoor Adventuring, details the continent of Allansia and has an adventure.

If you want more detail castiglione (such as specific rules) just let me know, however I'm just about to head off for several days and so won't be able to answer till the end of the week. Hope the above helped satisfy your curiosity somewhat.

Dave

[apeloverage]

Oct 7, 2009 23:23:02 GMT -6 @oltekos said:

Now if only someone would save me the time & condense all the original Lone Wolf, World of Lone Wolf, & Magnamund Companion rules into an easy to print pdf...

Mongoose have apparently made a Lone Wolf RPG based on the gamebook rules (separate to their earlier d20 one). But it doesn't seem to have generated much interest.

[apeloverage]

Some people on the 'Rebuilding Titan' email list were working on a version of AFF a while ago, separate to this one. Instead of choosing your skills you chose a background, like "Allansian hunter", and that gave you a package of skills.

[castiglione]

May 29, 2010 0:28:15 GMT -6 Greyharp said:

If you want more detail castiglione (such as specific rules) just let me know, however I'm just about to head off for several days and so won't be able to answer till the end of the week. Hope the above helped satisfy your curiosity somewhat.

Dave

Cool - no rush on this but I was just curious about how missile weapons and multiple vs. multiple fights were handled using the FFG system. The base system seemed to very much be limited to the 1 vs. 1 melee fight and even in the game books, 1 vs. many was never satisfactorily handled except via the old Kung-Fu movie standby of having the 2nd (and 3rd and 4th) bad guy wait patiently while you kicked his friend's ass before jumping in.

[apeloverage]

Missiles: roll 2d6, apply modifiers, hope to get under or equal to your Skill.

Multiple opponents: The outnumbered side fights each 'extra' opponent as normal. However they don't cause any damage if they win.

[castiglione]

That's pretty much what I thought it might be.

Pretty clean and elegant, as was the rest of the system. What was the magic system like? Was it Vancian like the system in the 2nd FFG book?

[greyharp]

May 30, 2010 4:51:25 GMT -6 apeloverage said:

Multiple opponents: The outnumbered side fights each 'extra' opponent as normal. However they don't cause any damage if they win.

The only thing I'd add to that is the outnumbered individual reduces his skill by 1 point for every extra opponent he has to fend off.

The magic system in The Riddling Reaver involves an extra characteristic - the Magic score (2d6+6). Spellcasters must have a minimum Stamina of 14 and their Skill score is determined by rolling 1d6+4. The Magic score determines how many spells can be cast each adventure. Spells may be chosen more than once and once a spell is cast it is crossed off the player's list.

To determine whether a spell is successful roll under the Magic score on 3d6, with an equal or higher roll indicating failure or misfire (GM to determine). Unless stated otherwise, spells last 3d6 minutes.

In AFF the Magic skill is just one of the many "Special Skills". A number of points equal to the Skill score can be allocated to selected skills (up to a maximum of 4 each), but if Magic is chosen, each allocated point reduces the initial Skill score, with the Magic score being equal to the new initial Skill score plus points allocated.

Spells have a Stamina cost and when cast temporarily reduce that score. The Magic skill total limits the "level" of spells that can be chosen. The success of a spell is determined by attempting to roll under the Magic score, with various modifiers affecting the total. Failure requires a 3d6 roll on the "Oops! Table"

Blacksand adds some new Magic rules, such as the Minor Magic skill (cantrips without Stamina cost), reverse spells and Clerical spells. Allansia simply adds more spells to each category.

[molcavian]

Glad you guys liked my site

[warrioroffrobozz]

I think some of you might be interested in this
http://the-lost-and-the-d**ned.664610.n2.nabble.com/Into-the-Unknown-dungeon-generator-td4523682.html
You'll have to get rid of the asterisks and replace them with A and M when you paste the URL, though.

[aramis]

May 29, 2010 2:29:46 GMT -6 apeloverage said:

Oct 7, 2009 23:23:02 GMT -6 @oltekos said:

Now if only someone would save me the time & condense all the original Lone Wolf, World of Lone Wolf, & Magnamund Companion rules into an easy to print pdf...

Mongoose have apparently made a Lone Wolf RPG based on the gamebook rules (separate to their earlier d20 one). But it doesn't seem to have generated much interest.

Cubicle 7 did a boxed set
cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/lone-wolf-adventure-game/
I've seen it, it's gorgeous.
I have not played it.

[hamurai]

[Casts Thread Necromancy]

I've recently found interest in the Advanced Fighting Fantasy game (after playing several Troika! one shots and a short campaign) and I was wondering if anyone here owned the latest AFF Deluxe edition available on DTRPG? I'm asking because I've seen a PDF of the old "regular" AFF 2E and it had quite a bunch of typos (lots of omitted words) in it, and I'm reluctant to spend my money on books I'm not enjoying to read. To clarify, I'm thinking about getting the printed version. I'd not make such a fuss about the PDF alone (although I do hate typos ).

And since we're talking about it, what AFF-based games do you play?

[asaki]

Dec 20, 2021 23:11:55 GMT -6 hamurai said:

I've recently found interest in the Advanced Fighting Fantasy game (after playing several Troika! one shots and a short campaign) and I was wondering if anyone here owned the latest AFF Deluxe edition available on DTRPG? I'm asking because I've seen a PDF of the old "regular" AFF 2E and it had quite a bunch of typos (lots of omitted words) in it, and I'm reluctant to spend my money on books I'm not enjoying to read.

I think I bought that when the bundle was on sale, what typos should I look for?

[hamurai]

I asked my friend to send some examples, What I remember is that magic skills were supposed to be named Magic-XYZ, e.g. Magic-Sorcery or Magic-Minor, but I often found references to the Minor Magic skill. That was in the Character Creation section when racial skills were explained, and in the Magic section.

Magic Points section:
"Spells of both the Minor Magic and Wizardry Magic types are powered..."; next paragraph: "If a Hero has any points in the Magic-Minor or Magic-Wizardry"
(Re-reading this I wonder if it's intentional to mark when skills are mentioned and when it's general info on the magic types. Not sure.)
Below the Magic Points calculation:
"and are replenished by a nights sleep."
At the end of the Magic Points section it says that when increasing the Magic characteristic or the Magic-Wizardry special skill, Magic Points increase. In the Experience section it explicitly states that MP does not increase when one of the two increase.

Combat Options - Defensive: "little though t o hitting"
The Combat Options have some visual problems with too much space between some words.

Character Creation, starting characteristics: "Each point added increases the Heroes initial STAMINA by 2"

Character Creation, explanation of magic skills: The headings are not in the same format, it's Magic-Minor, but Magic - Priestly, Magic - Sorcery (with blanks between the dashes)

The GM is called "Director" in AFF, sometimes it's capitalized, sometimes not.

I know, some of this may seem too picky and typos happen, but it's a second edtion and I remember I was annoyed during my first quick read-through of the basics, which rarely happens.

The above examples were found by my friend in about 10 minutes of skimming the sections I remembered.

[asaki]

Dec 21, 2021 23:26:08 GMT -6 hamurai said:

"Spells of both the Minor Magic and Wizardry Magic types are powered..."; next paragraph: "If a Hero has any points in the Magic-Minor or Magic-Wizardry"
(Re-reading this I wonder if it's intentional to mark when skills are mentioned and when it's general info on the magic types. Not sure.)
Below the Magic Points calculation:
"and are replenished by a nights sleep."

Hmm, this all looks the same.

Dec 21, 2021 23:26:08 GMT -6 hamurai said:

At the end of the Magic Points section it says that when increasing the Magic characteristic or the Magic-Wizardry special skill, Magic Points increase. In the Experience section it explicitly states that MP does not increase when one of the two increase.

I don't see this part? Maybe they took it out?

The closest thing I can see is in the middle of the section:
"If a Hero has any points in the Magic-Minor or Magic-Wizardry special skills, their Magic Point total should be calculated before play, and recalculated if necessary. The Magic Point score is calculated as follows:

(MAGIC Characteristic + Magic-Wizardry special skill) x 2

That is, 2 Magic Points for every point in that characteristic and special skill. These points are available every day to a Hero, and are replenished by a nights sleep."

I don't see anything about it in the "Experience" section either. It only says that MAGIC can't be any higher than 12.

Dec 21, 2021 23:26:08 GMT -6 hamurai said:

Combat Options - Defensive: "little though t o hitting"

"This option involves the Hero focusing purely on keeping out attacks, with no thought to __ hitting an opponent."
^ the underscores represent the extra space or two. There are three more spots like that on that page.

Dec 21, 2021 23:26:08 GMT -6 hamurai said:

Character Creation, starting characteristics: "Each point added increases the Heroes initial STAMINA by 2"

Unchanged.

Dec 21, 2021 23:26:08 GMT -6 hamurai said:

Character Creation, explanation of magic skills: The headings are not in the same format, it's Magic-Minor, but Magic - Priestly, Magic - Sorcery (with blanks between the dashes)

This is still the same, but not just for the headings.
It's actually:
Magic-Minor (hyphen)
Magic — Priestly (en dash)

The en dash seems more appropriate, but maybe the hyphen for Magic-Minor is supposed to mean something different? I have no idea. I know OD&D had similar issues with some of their spells, like the Power Word spells.



EDIT: I see my file is a little out-of-date (2017), so I just downloaded the current PDF (no idea if the printed version is the same or not, though). Mine isn't the "Deluxe" BTW, it's the standalone core book, with "Out of the Pit" and "Titan" also separate. But I assume the content would be the same.

At the end of the Magic Points section, they did add: "An increase in one of the contributory factors will however increase the magic Point maximum value."
And also in the Experience section: "(MP's do not increase if MAGIC or Magic-Wizardry are increased)"

That does sound confusing... (and "MP's" is incorrect)

I'm guessing it's supposed to read "will NOT however". That would make a lot more sense.

Under Defensive, looks like the "little thought __ t __ o" is a new typo.

Everything else looks the same.

I see people in the comments asking about typos, and the publisher (Graham) replied: "You can send us an email to admin at arion-games dot com for these. Thank you for that, it doesn't matter how much proof reading you have, there will always be some that creep through!"

[hamurai]

asaki, thank you very much for checking and double-checking!

I'll definitely check out the PDF before deciding about the POD.