Fantasy Craft Freeport: The PCs

One of the first activities that usually happens early in a RPG campaign is character creation. Today, I'll be offering a few insights regarding the player characters in my Freeport Fantasy Craft game.

Fantasy Craft has a species list that includes the standard D&D races and more, minus the half-species (though you can get some of that through species feats.) The PC species in the FC book are:

Drake
Dwarf
Elf
Giant
Goblin
Human
Ogre
Orc
Pech (a single race that nets in both halflings and gnomes)
Rootwalker
Saurians (essentially, lizard folk)
Unborn (golems and clockwork creatures)

I didn't spend too much time detailing limitations and special qualities for my game. I wasn't ready to introduce a bunch of blatantly non-human creatures into what amounts to (or at least starts as) a city based campaign. So I outlawed all large creature PC species in the book except for Fire Brave Ogres (ogres with the fire brave species feat, which gives them a shapechanging disguise ability, essentially Ogre Magi). This still leaves players a few choices that aren't quite the norm for D&D: Saurians and Unborn.

In Fantasy Craft, in addition to species, a starting character must choose a specialty and a starting class. Human also get a starting talent; this gives them a bit more variety. Species bonuses and talent bonuses are similar in function, but species bonuses tend to have more extremes in terms of both positives and drawbacks.

Four of my players were there for the initial character generation. The characters they made were:

Human Agile Fencer Assassin (going for Swashbuckler)
Human Unpredictable Adventurer Explorer (specializing in chance feats)
Elf Acrobat Priest (of Water deity, Healing path)
Elf Bard Courtier

To get those not familiar with Fantasy Craft on the same page here, the first character's species is Human, the talent is Agile, the specialty is Fencer, and the character's starting class is Assassin. Classes operate in fantasy class much as they do in other d20 games, providing abilities and modifiers as you advance. Species, talent, and specialty, on the other hand, provide a handful of starting abilities or modifiers that don't change with level (mostly), but they are significant enough that they help define the character.

Now those familiar with Fantasy Craft will note right off the bat that the elves have made some suboptimal choices. In fantasy craft, some races have iconic classes and specialties that make some choices better than others. The priest player actually knew this; this came as something of a surprise to the courtier player.

I pretty much decided to waive the iconic specialty penalty for the elves; I've always thought losing a feat over a specialty was a bit much. I think as far as this sort of thing goes, I prefer Pathfinder's "mild but positive" approach to encouraging certain choices. At any rate, though neither Acrobat or Bard were on the elf iconic specialty list, it seems reasonable that they could be in this campaign, so I retroactively house ruled them to the list.

Iconic Class, I was a little rougher on. The game penalizes characters who don't have at least as many levels in one of their iconic classes as they have other classes (but only some races have iconic classes). I halved the penalty as the player wasn't aware of it, at least until she reached 2nd level. That would give her the chance to take a level in one of the elf iconic classes (sage or scout) and bypass the penalty.

So what did she end up doing? Upon reaching 2nd level, she decided not to worry about it. Courtier suits the player's style, so she decided she'd rather stick with what she started out with. But in doing so, she's now starts each session with 2 fewer action dice (dice that can be used during the game to add to rolls and do other things.) I guess she'll have to make up for it with clever roleplaying!

At the time of this writing, the party has progressed to 5th level.

For the priest player, I offered a conversion of Prielghari, a multi-aspected "tree of life" figure presented in Green Ronin's d20 sourcebook Bow & Blade; the player took the water aspect of the five aspects/sects the deity offers (wind, water, fire, metal, and wood). The priest player elected to take levels in Keeper (a physician/craftman "skill monkey" class) to shake off the elf iconic race penalty. This will slow down acquisition of some of the better healing abilities, but gives the character a leg up when it comes to skill based challenges in the game.

The assassin player plays his character in a charming swashbuckler-like fashion, always trying to woo maidens given the chance. He is building his character up to enter the Swashbuckler expert class (which features abilities with flavorful titles like "All for One" and "Only mostly dead".)

He could have chosen to enter the Swashbuckler class upon reaching fifth level. However, he was intrigued by the fifth level assassin ability Sword Practice, that lets the character pick up a temporary melee feat by practicing for an hour. This adds a nice bit of flexibility and lets you "try before you buy" with feats!

The explorer and courtier players are content to play their characters as pure members of their classes. The Explorer player has chosen to max out his chance feats. Some feats in Fantasy Craft scale according to how many chance feats you have. Explorers can take chance feats as bonus feats, and the adventurer specialty starts with one as well: Adventurer's Luck. This feat has been a boon to the party so far: it doubles the amounts of treasure rolls you make when resolving randomized treasure!

The courtier player, as mentioned, is also playing a fairly focused member of her class. However, the player is intrigued by the prospects of taking the martial arts feat at 6th, which lets her use Charisma in place of strength and dexterity for many purposes in combat. I'm hoping there will be some good flavor to go with this, such as some elegant ancient elven martial style.

Fantasy Craft Freeport: A Look at Fantasy Craft NPCs

Freeport has small line of system-free products. Aside from what can be extracted from the character description, the only indication of what an NPC can do is a classification that includes race and a three tier level of competency (apprentice, journeyman, and master.) Perhaps I'm spoiled by the old Flying Buffalo Citybooks, but I usually like a bit more game speak in my NPC stats, even supposedly systemless ones.

But all is not lost. Freeport has a host of system-specific supplements, most of them for D20 fantasy. By good fortune (or rather, good judgment), the Fantasy Craft book includes a conversion system to convert D20 system stat blocks to Fantasy Craft stat blocks. The book also includes a listing of statistic blocks for many common creature and character types.

For those not familiar with Fantasy Craft (or Spycraft 2.0), the NPC (including monster) statistics are handled with a different system than PCs or with that of D20 Fantasy type games. Instead of plugging into a HD or level that directly determines most statistics apart from special qualities the creature may have, creatures in FC/SC 2.0 are rated from roman numerals I (1) to X (10) in several areas, such as initiative, attack, defense, and competency. Then when you determine what level characters will be facing them, you do some system magic to get actual modifiers for these numbers.

Take for example this Rakeshame Thug I made. I didn't use the NPC stat converter, mind you. I simply took one of the existing statistic blocks in the FC book and tweaked it to fit the description of the Rakeshames (a gang of children of wealthy families that formed into a bitter criminal gang.) This is what the statistic block looks like before applying the level specific details:

Rakeshame Lackey (Medium Folk Walker — 28 XP): Str 12, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 10; SZ M (1×1, Reach 1); Spd 30 ft. ground; Init III; Atk V; Def V; Res III; Health III; Comp I; Skills: Athletics III, Intimidate III;
Attacks/Weapons: Club (1d8 subdual, threat 20)
Treasure: 1A, 1C

Now apply the tables to look up the actual values for a first level party, you get:

Rakeshame Lackey (Medium Folk Walker — 28 XP): ( TL 1 )
Str: 12/+1; Dex: 10/+0; Con: 10/+0; Int: 10/+0; Wis: 8/-1; Cha: 10/+0;
Init: 1=1+0(dex) Melee: +2=1+1(str) Fort: +1=1+0(con)
Health: +1=1+0(con) ~ 15/10 Ranged: +1=1+0(dex) Ref: +1=1+0(dex)
Def: 12=10+2+0(dex) Comp: +0 Will: +0=1-1(wis)
Speed: 30 ft. ground
Skills: Athletics (Str): +5=4+1; Intimidate (Wis): +3=4-1;
Attacks: Club (1d8 subdual, threat 20)
Treasure: 1A, 1C

Note that looking up the values is a bit of a task, but it's made pretty easy by using the Fantasy Craft Web NPC Builder. If I wanted to use the same creature for a higher level group (and still have it be a meaningful challenge), I could plug in that level to get a scarier stat block. Here's what the same lackey would look like facing an 8th level group:

Rakeshame Lackey (Medium Folk Walker — 28 XP): ( TL 8 )
Str: 12/+1; Dex: 10/+0; Con: 10/+0; Int: 10/+0; Wis: 8/-1; Cha: 10/+0;
Init: 5=5+0(dex) Melee: +9=8+1(str) Fort: +4=4+0(con)
Health: +4=4+0(con) ~ 120/10 Ranged: +8=8+0(dex) Ref: +4=4+0(dex)
Def: 18=10+8+0(dex) Comp: +2 Will: +3=4-1(wis)
Speed: 30 ft. ground
Skills: Athletics (Str): +10=9+1; Intimidate (Wis): +8=9-1;
Attacks: Club (1d8 subdual, threat 20)
Treasure: 1A,

A Conversion Example:

Vikki Tarjay is an NPC that was in both the Denizens of Freeport product for D20 Fantasy and in the D20/3rd Era Freeport Companion, a book with game statistics supporting the system free Pirates Guide to Freeport. The Pirates Guide updates events a few years, and the Companion reflects this by giving a modestly more experienced Vikki. She is a level 1 rogue in Denizens and a level 1 Rogue / level 2 assassin in the Freeport Companion (the assassin mentioned here is a new core class in the Companion, not the prestige class of the 3e DMG.)

Vikki was in the last adventure I ran, so required conversion. Some feats and abilities map to other feats and creature abilities in Fantasy Craft. Some just add to some values (e.g., having the dodge feat merely translates to a higher defense stat.) Vikki had dodge and improved initiative, as well as a new feat in that book, improved speed. Dodge adds to her defense grade, and improved initiative increases her initiative grade or gives lightning reflexes; I choose both. Improved speed is not a core OGL feat so isn't in the conversion list, but it's not hard to figure out: just bump up her speed.

NPCs in Fantasy Craft only choose grades for their best skills or "signature skills". Any other skill rolls are made against a generic (much lower) competence bonus. The OGL conversion recommends only porting the highest 5 or fewer skills and having any excess contribute to bumping the competence grade.

Vikki in D20 has high skill ranks in Balance, Escape Artist, Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Spot, and Tumble. Balance and Tumble both map to Acrobatics, Escape Artist maps to Athletics, Listen and Spot map to Notice, Move Silently maps to Sneak, and Open Locks maps to Prestidigitation. I'll skip the gory details; the results of this translation is: Acrobatics VI, Athletics VI, Notice VI, Prestidigitation VI, Sneak VI. As above, these Roman numeral grades translate into specific skill bonuses when you decide what level you will be playing at.

Fantasy Craft uses the same six attribute scores D&D does, but when doing a translation, the attributes are toned down. I think this is to put most of the "oomph" of the stat block into the graded qualities, so they scale with level. For example, Vikki has a dexterity of 16 in d20; in FC, the default is 10+the d20 stat mod (13), rounded down to the next even number (12). But while NPC Vikki lost 4 points of Dex in the translation, she got the full benefit of her original modifier when figuring her skill grades above.

Next comes converting class abilities. There is no equivalent to trap finding, but I substitute in the class ability tomb raider. Thought this ability includes some similar functions (it makes her great at searching), it also benefits her athletics. No biggie, that just makes her all the better to keep the players' hands full.

The sneak attack ability from rogue and assassin map to the ambush basics feat or the sneak attack class ability. As I have 2 dice of sneak attack to convert, I take them both. The assassin also gets an ability called ambush. I'll make a quick judgment call and drop in the FC ambush mastery feat.

After the most straightforward conversion steps, there's a step called Final Tweaks, inviting the GM to mess with things. The background text for Vikki in the Pirates Guide to Freeport calls her a "social chameleon" and Denizens of Freeport speaks of her wiles.

It sounds like Blend would be a better choice than Sneak, and perhaps Bluff and Impress might deserve to be in her signature skills. But she's already pretty top heavy with signature skills and the burglar-like skills are more likely to come up in play; I'll settle for giving her the basic skill mastery (actor) feat, which will give her a small boost to Bluff and Impress, but doesn't scale as much as her signature skills.

The final Vikki stat block looks like this:

Vikki Tarjay (Medium Folk Walker — 82 XP): Str 10, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 12; SZ M (1×1, Reach 1); Spd 40 ft. ground; Init VI; Atk V; Def VII; Res IV; Health IV; Comp V; Skills: Acrobatics VI, Athletics VI, Blend VI, Notice VI, Prestidigitation VI; Qualities: class ability (Explorer: tomb raider, Scout: sneak attack 1d6), feat (Ambush Basics, Ambush Mastery, Basic Skill Mastery-Actor, Lightning Reflexes).
Attacks/Weapons: Short Sword (1d8 lethal, TR 19-20, keen 4, upg: finesse), Buckler (1d3 subdual, guard +1, upg: grip, finesse), Light crossbow/std bolts (1d6 lethal, TR 19-20, poisonous, AP2, load 5, range 50 ft. x 6, ammo 30)
Gear: Partial Studded Leather Armor (DR 2, upg: fitted, no DP), fast acting debilitating poison (3 doses, 2 con damage)

Vikki prepped for a typical level 1 adventure looks like:

Vikki Tarjay (Medium Folk Walker — 82 XP): ( TL 1 )
Str: 10/+0; Dex: 12/+1; Con: 10/+0; Int: 12/+1; Wis: 12/+1; Cha: 12/+1;
Init: 3=2+1(dex) Melee: +1=1+0(str) Fort: +1=1+0(con)
Health: +1=1+0(con) ~ 20/10 Ranged: +2=1+1(dex) Ref: +2=1+1(dex)
Def: 14=10+3+1(dex) Comp: +2 Will: +2=1+1(wis)
Speed: 40 ft. ground
Skills: Acrobatics (Dex): +8=7+1; Athletics (Str): +7=7+0; Blend (Cha): +8=7+1; Notice (Wis): +8=7+1; Prestidigitation (Dex): +8=7+1;
Qualities: class ability (Explorer: tomb raider, Scout: sneak attack 1d6), feat (Ambush Basics, Ambush Mastery, Basic Skill Mastery-Actor, Lightning Reflexes).
Attacks: Short Sword (1d8 lethal, TR 19-20, keen 4, upg: finesse), Buckler (1d3 subdual, guard +1, upg: grip, finesse), Light crossbow/std bolts (1d6 lethal, TR 19-20, poisonous, AP2, load 5, range 50 ft. x 6, ammo 30)
Gear: Partial Studded Leather Armor (DR 2, upg: fitted, no DP), fast acting debilitating poison (3 doses, 2 con damage)

At level 8, she should look like:

Vikki Tarjay (Medium Folk Walker — 82 XP): ( TL 8 )
Str: 10/+0; Dex: 12/+1; Con: 10/+0; Int: 12/+1; Wis: 12/+1; Cha: 12/+1;
Init: 10=9+1(dex) Melee: +8=8+0(str) Fort: +5=5+0(con)
Health: +5=5+0(con) ~ 160/10 Ranged: +9=8+1(dex) Ref: +6=5+1(dex)
Def: 21=10+10+1(dex) Comp: +6 Will: +6=5+1(wis)
Speed: 40 ft. ground
Skills: Acrobatics (Dex): +15=14+1; Athletics (Str): +14=14+0; Blend (Cha): +15=14+1; Notice (Wis): +15=14+1; Prestidigitation (Dex): +15=14+1;
Qualities: class ability (Explorer: tomb raider, Scout: sneak attack 1d6), feat (Ambush Basics, Ambush Mastery, Basic Skill Mastery-Actor, Lightning Reflexes).
Attacks: Short Sword (1d8 lethal, TR 19-20, keen 4, upg: finesse), Buckler (1d3 subdual, guard +1, upg: grip, finesse), Light crossbow/std bolts (1d6 lethal, TR 19-20, poisonous, AP2, load 5, range 50 ft. x 6, ammo 30)
Gear: Partial Studded Leather Armor (DR 2, upg: fitted, no DP), fast acting debilitating poison (3 doses, 2 con damage)

Into the Fray

Greetings, all. This is my new Volcano Base. Well new, because that's what I also called my page at livejournal. I mostly used that account to write about OGL/GSL related stuff. Now, much like that issue, my lj account seems like so much water under the bridge. But I noticed a few people are putting some interesting stuff about gaming et cetera up on blogger, and I thought I would join the "fray".

So where to begin? How about keeping it simple and talking about my gaming life? I run ("GM") a variety of role-playing games (RPGs) with a group of friends locally, and also play with an extended group of friends at various gamedays and conventions.

My latest RPG campaign, which I recently started, is a Fantasy Craft game set in Green Ronin's Freeport setting. I'll probably throw a few details of this little venture up on the Secret Volcano Base.

Fantasy Craft is role playing game by Crafty Games. It is a d20 based engine, but one a few generations removed from Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition. Though there have been quite a few games in this mold, Fantasy Craft is the one that intrigues and excites me the most, for reasons I will probably discuss in future posts.

Freeport is a fantasy RPG setting by Green Ronin. The settings focal point is the city of Freeport, a city in a fantasy world with a long history of being a pirate haven, and riddled by supernatural cults. The original setting (and the adventure that introduced the city) were for "D20 Fantasy" (aka, Dungeons & Dragons 3e product by third party publisher).

However, Green Ronin has put out an updated version of their setting first in a mechanics-free format, though supplements providing NPC stats and other mechanical details for some game systems: D20* (wink wink D&D 3e), True20, Castles & Crusades, and Savage Worlds. Of course, as I am not using any of those, I'll have to come up with my own mechanical details. Due to various reasons, that's not as horrible as it might sound. But that is something I'll post more about soon.

* - Actually, after the old D20 logo and D20 System Trademark License was sunset, a variety of third party D20 publishers selling through RPGnow pulled their products down, others removed the D20 logo and reposted their product sans logo. In Green Ronin's case, they re-branded all their D20 products on RPGnow as "3rd Era" proucts. So if you are looking for the D20 Freeport Companion on RPGnow/DTRPG, you'll find it under the guise of the 3rd Era Freeport Companion. (You can still find a print version of the D20 Freeport Companion at Amazon, but they only seem to have a few copies left at the time of this writing.)

Freeport & Fantasy Craft: A Match Well Made?

My gaming group has a mild affection* for Call of Cthulhu. They also have enjoyed my Spycraft games in the past.

As for me, I'm I historically long-time fantasy GM, having long run D&D. However, it has been some time since I have run D&D and I am getting a fantasy itch again.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition is right out. My group has almost zero interest in it, and I have less, for reasons I won't re-hash again in this particular blog.

I had been toying with both Pathfinder and Fantasy Craft for some time, having run well-received one-offs and game day events of each. I'm finding that Pathfinder scratches my itch for dungeon crawling, defeating evil, and taking its stuff. But Fantasy Craft seems more suitable to the sort of more nuanced campaign with secret plots and power plays I liked to run but D&D's assumed character types and combat focus never quite accommodated.

Some of my group are really not that fond of dungeon crawl play and are burnt out from our last bout of it. That being the case, and still having that fantasy itch, I decided that I'd try to sell my group on Fantasy Craft. Much like its parent system Spycraft 2.0, Fantasy Craft recognizes play based on skills and interaction as just as valid a central driving mechanism for a game as combat, and provides more detailed handling of skills. (Fantasy Craft skill rules are not quite as rich as those of Spycraft 2.0, but if the need arises there is enough portability between the systems that I can borrow Spycraft 2.0 features with relative ease.)

And what to run to accommodate this sort of play? Once upon a time, I would stitch together my own setting, power groups, detailed NPCs, and nefarious plots. But these days, I'm a bit too busy to do that all on my own. It only makes sense to dip into my considerable collection of gaming products to help me out here.

Freeport seems a natural for what I need here: city-based with many detailed NPCs, and a touch of the Lovecraftian Horror my players love, and enough fantasy to it that it will scratch my Fantasy itch.

This has been something I've wanted to try for a while, but finally got off the ground with the few extra days off around the holidays. If Fantasy Craft and/or Freeport interests you, stick a round for a bit; I'll be posting a few posts examining my play experience using Fantasy Craft for Freeport.

* - An understatement, really.