Ideas for Classless FAGE in 2025

The Adventure Game Engine has always been on the rules light side of things but the minimal number of classes make it really easy to wonder why they are there at all.

Common Class Starting Advancements

All classes have some similarities in starting advancement. They vary a little bit in terms of total number of advancements but not enough that we can't smooth it over if necessary.

• 1 to 2 starting talents (2 for envoy/warrior, 1 for mage/rogue)
  
• 0 to 3 starting class abilities (0 for warrior, 3 for mage/rogue/envoy)
  
• 1 specialization advancement
• 2 to 5 weapon groups (2 for mage, 3 for envoy, 4 for rogue, 5 for warrior)
• 20 to 30 starting HP (20 for mage, 25 for envoy/rogue, 30 for warrior)
  

Common Class Advancements

All classes have some similarities in character progression after level 1 from 2 to 20.

• 19 focus advancements, one for every level after level 1
  
• 19 ability score advancements, one for every level after level 1
• 10 stunt advancements, one for every even level
• 10 talent advancements, one for every even level
• 9 specialization advancements, one for every odd level after level 1
  
• 3 defense advancements, at level 6, 11, and 16
• 1 "damage bonus" advancement at level 6
  
• 1 "focus bonus" advancement that increases all focuses by +1 at level 11
  
• 1 "add stunt die to damage" advancement at level 16
• 1 "epic class" advancement for +1 SP at level 20
  

The Magic Point Problem

Before diving into a lot of individual changes we need to address magic points. This is likely the biggest issue with moving to classless however I think it is extremely feasible. The main help is that in the magic system it seems that TN and MP are basically the same thing and AGE basically is doing the same check twice. Do you have enough TN on the roll and MP in the tank? We can get rid on MP as it isn't being greatly utilized as a resource. What we can use as a resource is HP in the vein of the fortune points system. If a mage or warrior rolled under their intended TN, they could both spend HP to push that failure into a success. That can be done with a 2HP per TN cost. The concept of spell failure is the same as a weapon miss, but you can turn both into a success for that small price. Most of the time you will only need to pay 2 to 6 HP for the benefit.

Any obstacle to magic needs to be handled in the story or setting. There is no useful mechanical reason to gate or balance that ability.

The Health Point Problem

This solution is a bit more optional but helps constrain using the push mechanic for magic. Right now, especially for player characters, health point advancement is a compounding formula. Investment in CON early significantly boosts overall HP for that character to the point of being overpowered. Nothing else in AGE compounds like that and should be redesigned.

I have created a new method of health point advancement. This uses the 2HP to 1TN conversion but applies that to the total ability score of the character. A level 1 character with 14 starting ability scores will have a starting health of 14*2=28HP.

The Talent Problem

This issue is more related to not understanding completely what the differences are between a talent, specialization, spell talent, and stunt advancement. A spell talent seems like the most flexible idea of a talent. Something that grants a static bonus and also comes with some actions. The action isn't strictly necessary as anyone can say "I want to do X" and GM says "sure, roll against TN Y". However like spells and weapons its helpful to both to have some things ready and not always off the cuff. Therefore I think it would be a good streamlining change to refer to all these things as talents with the focus as the bonus for each rank.

What to Change to be Classless?

We are going to make the number of advancements equal where possible and mark what new specializations or talents might need to be created to keeping that game aspect.

All Classes

• Standardize HP. Use something like 20 or 25, or use the suggested way above.
  
• Magic is removed and everyone gets a "push" mechanic on a major action to create a success, costing 2HP for TN improvement. 
  
• Removed class restrictions from all talents
  
• 4 starting talent choices
• 1 talent because we removed weapon groups
• 2 talents because we moved starting class abilities into talents
  
• 1 talent to standardize other starting talent options
  
• Add many "class abilities" to weapon weapon talents, or as basic rules since most of them are scaling (add focus to damage, add stunt die to damage)
  
• "Epic Class Stunt" is a stunt advancement progression for something, or potentially cut as a feature since at level 20 no one commonly achieves it. Current "favored stunts" get a similar result.

Envoy

Envoy class turns into 1-4 other talents.

• Combat based talent with dazzle and stunning repartee.
• Support talent with coordinate. Maybe this is a new basic action.
• Social talent with social chameleon and double talk
• Additional opportunities for focus bonuses, but this probably can just be axed.

Mage

Mage class turns into "Arcane Weapons" talent that specializes in magic infused objects for dealing damage. This could be combined with ideas from "Sword Mage" specialization or "Enchantment" arcana. The mage class aside from magic points only grants class bonuses for arcane blast is why this is possible.

Rogue

Rogue class turns into a combat talent with stunning attack, slippery. Maybe it has a dirty fighting theme or something similar. Lethality is a bit confusing as a secondary ability score adding to damage which doesn't exist in any other classes. Easy to remove it until a general way to apply it to the game is understood.

Warrior

Warrior class turns into applying it's bonuses into weapon talents (expert strike, quick strike). Bonus weapon groups are removed. Bonus armor rating is also removed. Something more interesting could be done an "Armor Training" talent.

Wrap Up

I have always wanted AGE to be classless. You can see from the conversion ideas each class had limited flavor on it's own. I hope this gives you some ideas to convert your FAGE game into something a bit more flexible to create more rounded and interesting characters.

Edits for Reddit (Modern AGE)

Some of the new comments in the reddit post for this article brought up Modern AGE as what a classes AGE could be. What Modern AGE does is similar to many things I have suggested, so I will compare and contrast what it could do instead of being labelled as 100% homebrew.

Character Creation

Modern AGE uses the following for creating characters.

• Background - this is like an ancestry in FAGE
• 1 talent, 1-3 focus, 1-3 ability scores (depending on benefit table choice or roll)
  
• Profession - this is somewhat similar to a class in that it defines starting HP
• 1 talent, 1 focus, starting hp
  
• Drive - an additional talent and other improvement that would also be in a class
• 1 talent, additional improvement
  

In total you would get 3 talents, 2-4 focuses, 1-3 ability score. This is very close to FAGE. I had suggested 4 talents choice since I removed the concept of a weapon group. Writing this section I finally noticed that FAGE only the warrior has starting weapon talents despite rogue and envoy being combat oriented at level one. I would consider the 3 talent for starting too keep level 1 a bit simpler to choose. FAGE also has the specialization choice as well so it's starting to take a while to choose your starting options. Only the "Military" background in Modern AGE offers full choice of one combat talent. There is a few others that offer only one weapon talent choice.

Character Advancement and Talent Types

Modern AGE has the level advancement I am looking for as it grants one advancement for an ability score, focus, and talent every level. For specializations Modern AGE has 6 specialization choices while Fantasy AGE has 10. Modern AGE may make the same move in the future that Fantasy AGE did to add specialization choice to level 1. Or just make it an suggested option for quick adventures to start at level 4.

I still stand with the opinion that there are too many talent types and they could be consolidated. In Modern AGE the idea of background/profession/drive as already similar to talents but are only used once in the game. I think streamlining these into a single talent idea will be a benefit to reducing complexity. Then for advancement you can just get a talent every level.

Magic Problem

Modern AGE offers no help here. Their "power points" are implemented exactly like magic points in fantasy age. The only difference being that instead of locked behind the mage class or a specific specialization, Modern AGE grants power points when the first power talent is acquired. I would recommend Modern AGE adopt the same push mechanic so that any test can spend a resource to succeed.

Classless Modifications for a Modern Fantasy

Modern AGE does somewhat cover the problems I discussed but it you still need to convert classes into talents. We see the pin point attack talent was already officially done in a style I recommended. Warrior is so simple that you can look at the "Military" background and call it a warrior. The "mage" class is essentially just picking power talents and you just need the arcane weapons talent to fulfill a wand fantasy. Envoy is probably unnecessary since there are more social talents in Modern AGE. Either way, just make the talents you want to fulfill the fantasy.