Start of a New Action Model for AGE in 2024

 I have taken a data approach to reverse engineering the AGE action model in two articles so far:

I learned some valuable lessons but afterwards I wasn't happy with the formulas fundamentally. 
  1. Why is the TN base a 9?
  2. Why use an MP to TN ratio of 3.5 to 2, or 1.75 to 1?

TLDR; Summary

  • 2HP = 1SP added to the equivalency formulas. This will keep the Mighty Blow stunt at a cost of 2SP, but will reduce Lethal Blow stunt to 4SP and allow a new stunt, let's call it Crushing Blow, at a cost of 6SP
  • Using TN 10/2MP/2d6 basic spell we can count backwards to find a new base TN for a spell. This turns out to be TN 6 since you take away 4 TN = 4SP = 2MP worth of value

The Reasoning 

My solution ended up questioning the usefulness of MP as a resource. I have been looking into Fortune in Fantasy AGE and it as a resource matches 1 to 1 with TN when using it as luck. The formulas of TN = 0.5*MP + 9 and MP = Value/3.5 we can substitute into each other and get:
  • TN = Value /  (2 * 3.5) + 9
  • Value = 7 * (TN - 9)
It's better but now we have larger coefficients and still do not have an answer for the +9. Instead I start looking at the SP table for which we have a 1 to 1 relationship established. If we mark a standard TN and value we can extrapolate to a useful intercept (the plus 9).

Let's start with a TN 10 action that results in 4SP or 2d6 or 7 value. This is the 2MP heal spell, or one handed axe or sword. If we also assume that 2SP = 1d6, then 4SP = 2d6 then we can count backwards to see what TN a 0 SP or 0 damage. 10 - 4 = 6, thus we can use 6 as the TN baseline when designing spells. This number feels good as rolling a 6 or better is ~95% and 7 or better is ~90%. It's not uncommon and saves us from bigger offsets if we had to dig into TN 3 or 4. It also makes the TN for other weapons fit as well. A dagger at 1d6 feels like it should be easier to strike, so it's TN is 8 (10 - 2 = 8). A two handed weapon is more of an effort and would need extra, so we add another 2SP for 6 total and thus get a TN of 12.

So instead of a plus 9, a plus 6 can make a lot of sense. The next part to look at is the value to TN/SP to value coefficient of 1.75 to 1. This of course makes the math perfect when using multiples of dice (ie 2d6) but is a few to many decimal places. However the stunt table where 2SP is 1d6 Might Blow feels like a good price. What we can do is pick a new number and check if it preserves that cost. If we pick a coefficient of 2 then we can preserve it if we are rounding up. The TN action formula then becomes:
  • TN = RoundUp(Value / 2) + 6
This keeps Mighty Blow (3.5/2 = 1.75 ~ 2SP), Lethal Blow with a better value (7/2 = 3.5 ~ 4SP), and even a new "Crushing" Blow as a 3d6 damage stunt for 6SP (10.5/ = 5.25 ~ 6SP). This also matches the new healing stunt of "Healing Power" introduced in second edition.

Coming back to the idea of removing mana points. We have established a good framework for deciding a TN from value. What this means is we can really just remove mana points completely. In push-your-luck-fantasy-age-luck-fortune.html we analyzed the new spell push and spell failure rules and provided a lot of improvements. The likely path forward is to use a separate resource for managing this. Call it fortune, luck, or for FAGE even rebrand mana as that extra effort needed for amazing feats. 

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