Herding Dice

If you are going out to buy the latest edition of the Engine magazine #3 you will find articles about a small experiment in the AGE families of systems. This new one is called SAGE and stands for "simple adventure game engine". The fastest way to get to the parts and existing AGE enthusiast is to flip to the last article which is a conversion guide between AGE and SAGE. Here are some of the main conversions you might be interested and some of the critiques I have for the developers choices. Bonds Instead of Relationships, Class Theme, and Specializations The new element in SAGE "bonds". It uses the same mechanics as seen in FAGE 2e Modern AGE with ranks and wordy themes. I think the developers liked that it represented a small boost of resources that can be spent to improve outcome. What bonds are in SAGE do are basically an additional pool of fortune points. Each bond has a rank and number. You can spend a bond point to create a fortune point to be added back to yo...

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 advance...

Armor plays a large part in the Adventure Game Engine in the pacing problems. Not only are there large health pools and large chances to miss with defense but there can be hefty armor values to chew through as well. Looking at existing published adversaries armor the median armor is 3 which blocks the average 1d6 attack. Here are the basic number equivalencies useful for armor: 1 AR prevents 1 HP of damage during an attack action 2 HP is healed or damaged per 1TN of action, so 2 AR also equals 1 TN 1 TN is equal to 1 SP Armor is essentially a counter to a stat increase for the attacker. The value is more difficult to calculate with rolled damage with it's average value versus a die roll being slightly less than its paper value. This is because with high enough armor much of a die roll is too small to be fully utilized. As such it's not as helpful to balance against the roll portion and instead balance against the ability score progression. The armor progression is where we will...

TLDR; Improve progression relationship between focuses and ability using the table below. Add up all the focus bonuses within an ability. An ability score bonus is derived from that total and that is added on top of your starting ability scores. Right now in AGE, progression in ability scores and focuses are independent. It seems that you might have some relationship between the two. A high specific skill would likely lead to a decent general skill, but not the other way around. What simple rule could describe such a relationship? I have in the past experimented with an ability first approach that acts as a constraint to the number of focuses but what if we derive an ability score from focuses? A good formula is the sum of integers which is a quadratic formula. We will use the total of all focuses in the ability as the total and then solve for what integer would give that total sum. Here is a table of the number of total focus bonus for a derived ability score.   This looks like a...

  The test roll for the "Adventure Game Engine" is 3d6. I was experimenting with some math and realized the TN 10,11,12 probability chance lines up perfectly with 1d8 die with TN 3,4,5. Therefore you could realistically switch from 3d6 to 1d8+6 without changes to any system numbers. Yes you lose the opportunity to roll doubles but for this thought experiment we are OK with that. There are few main advantages for 1d8+6 over 3d6. The first is a single die which is easier to do math with and does not have a curved probability distribution (it's a straight line). The second is that it maintains a compact rolling range which won't feel as swingy as d20 does. The plus six makes a firm foundation such that the average of the roll is only 50% of the base. Compared to d20 where a modifier of plus 1 is only 9% of the overall roll value. A plus one here is more like a +7 which is 60% of the roll value. So much less of the overall roll value is random. The third advantage is that...

Advanced tests are not advanced enough. The best case is that there are a few rules of thumb in the rule book but they do not take into account a number of critical factors. First factor is the absence of "difficulty" related to the target number and only relying on threshold to convey loose adjective of difficulty. "Average" and "Formidable" are not sufficient and instead target numbers and number or rolls or rounds needs to be established. Second factor is the suggestion that for each roll in an advanced test that you can design about 3 degrees of success. This is inaccurate as explained in a previous blog post - adventure-game-engine-stunt-die-and-advanced-tests . Due to the correlation between overall success and the stunt die you get smaller average successes with easy tests and larger average successes with hard tests. This is offset a bit as the hard tests fail more often. However the rules prescribe the number 3 regardless of target number. A TN 9 ...

In  start-of-new-action-model-for-age-in.html  we have TN = 6 + Value/2 as method for balancing a target number and the value (or MP) of a spell or action. How can we use that in redesigning advanced tests? An advanced test in AGE is when the results of more than one roll added together in a sequence. These are used when a test maybe taken over a period of time. Something like scaling a mountain may be implemented as several tests rather than just one but harder test. The current rules use the stunt die as the value you are adding together. A single 1d6 has a value of 3.5, but is that more like damage or more like increment TN? I think it better fits the TN description. Additionally if you think about the the lower bound of TN 6, adding the stunt die basically gets you to the standard TN 10 action anyway. Let's use the definition that for an advanced test you are adding the stunt die and getting sum of those particular TNs. That leave a 2d6 base die plus 1d6 stunt die. Thinkin...

Talents (and specializations) in AGE need some work. They do not have a discernable formula between requirements and ranks (novice, expert, master, etc) and each benefit value. Starting off from  start-of-new-action-model-for-age  definition of actions and TN design, we can build a pattern for talents and specializations. Talents, Target Numbers, and Requirements A talent will generally be a new action or a bonus to an existing action. For a talent with a bonus we propose that the bonus is based on  stat-equivalencies  and that these raise the TN of the base action. The amount of equivalent TN the bonus adds is the requirement. If a talent does not add a bonus and instead just another action then no bonus is required nor a requirement. The requirement can use an ability score or a focus or both. Use the total as the TN bonus being applied to the talent. One ability and one focus would equal a bonus TN of 3 Talent Advancement Talents have at least three tiers or ranks...

 The following are equivalent and can be used to convert between each other. 1 MP (mana point) 2 SP (stunt point) 2 TN (target number) (Note: this is used incrementally and is not the base) 4 HP (health point) 1 minor action 0.5 major action 10 yards (measure of distance) All of those equivalencies can be worked out using basic action and stunts. 1 MP = 2 SP, from Skillful Casting stunt 2 SP = 2 TN, from Powerful Casting stunt 2 SP = 4 HP, from Healing Power stunt 0.5 major action = 2 TN, from Defend major action 1 minor action = 0.5 major action, comparing move versus run 1 minor action = 10 yards, using move with zero stats or ancestry is 10 1 major action = TN 10 at 2 MP using Healing Touch (2MP) which is 2d6 1 major action = 4SP, from Healing Touch being average 7HP which divided by two and rounded up for SP cost is 3.5 => 4SP 1 minor action = 2SP, from 1 minor action = 0.5 major action The minor action here is a little stronger than many of the minors actions in the rules. ...

 I have taken a data approach to reverse engineering the AGE action model in two articles so far: https://herdingdice.blogspot.com/2023/07/decoding-mp-from-spell-descriptions.html https://herdingdice.blogspot.com/2023/07/decoding-age-action-economy.html I learned some valuable lessons but afterwards I wasn't happy with the formulas fundamentally.  Why is the TN base a 9? 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...

I have been researching the math behind fortune and have found that the new luck and spell push are basically the same mechanic. As a result we can craft a unified mechanic that allows any player to spend a resource to ensure their action succeeds. This address the problem of a "miss" feeling bad in TTRPG play and creating decent trade off of short term success versus long term penalty. TLDR; Summary Combine fortune based "luck" and spell push into the same mechanic for all characters call it "Push Your Luck" player is allowed to replace one die with a new face for the cost of the new die face for example, if you roll a 1 and want at least a 3 to succeed, then you pay a cost of 3 for the new die face value stunts are not allowed since this was initially a failed roll. choose an appropriate resource pool to spend from Modern AGE Master book on page 47 has fortune as an independent resource. This is probably the easiest way to implement fortune even for Fant...

We now have a number of clues to start understanding the AGE system and go beyond "major" and "minor" actions. In the current rules it is not clear how much value these provide as you could go from "Charge" which adds a +1 on a potential 3d6 attack to "Heal" which is baseline 1d6 value. Clues MP to SP to 1d6 Relationship As discovered in https://herdingdice.blogspot.com/2023/07/decoding-mp-from-spell-descriptions.html we can safely say that 1MP equals 1d6 value as well as 2SP equals 1MP. The spells descriptions and basic combat/spell stunts lead us to that conclusion. Given those measurements a "Melee Attack" major action can range from all the different melee weapons so from 1d6-1 to 3d6. This would be equivalent to about 1 to 3 MP or 2 to 6 SP. Move/Run In the blog post we also determined that 1MP equals 10 yards of movement. This matches the move action and thus we can say a minor action would be equal to 1MP or 2SP. Looking at r...

  On the heels of the last post https://herdingdice.blogspot.com/2023/06/decoding-mana-point-and-target-number.html, I used the data and attempt some multiple linear regression. It was rough, but I found something to start from. I only used 44 of the easier spells to decipher, mostly damage spells. There are a lot of spell effects that I would have to put a lot of opinion into their numerical values so instead of opinion I just cut them from the analysis. I ended up with three basic parameters that one can use to ball park home brew your own spells decently close to rules as written. The Simple MP Guide for Homebrew Spells Every d6 of damage or healing or direct value costs 1MP (1d6 = 1MP, 2d6 = 2MP, 3d6 = 3MP) if there is a +1 or +2 type of effect round up to 3.5 for 1MP cost Every 10 yards of range costs 1MP (round up to nearest multiple of 10) Every 10 yards of area of effect range costs 1 MP for spells defined with radius the range is the radius for spells defined with rectangl...

 Good question over on Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/FantasyAGE/comments/14g8wdc/magic_item_distribution/ Here is my comment. Came up with a decent framework for incorporating items into an overall character advancement plan. Items are definitely quietly supported in AGE. A decent amount of focus on weapon equipment and styles, but little on modifiers on those weapons. I went through the AGE books (even ModernAGE Threefold as that has a lot of things that made it into FAGE 2e). I found that the FAGE Campaign Builders Guide Chapter Six on Rewards is the most helpful. On page 77 it has an example campaign called "The Horde of the Dark Temple" with its magic item intentions. The guide splits a campaign into five groups much like adversary threat. Level 1-4 magic items are limited to story focused common trinket (to be later empowered). Level 5-8 magic items are intended to have 3-4 permanent magic items per character. The example ends there and does not go into plans for the...

  Revenant on the "Green Ronin AGE Appropriate Discord" Discord server posted a short list of their rule tweaks. I wanted to discuss and comment to continue the evolution of better AGE rules. Some of the words are taken directly from the document. Others are paraphrased. Attributes and Ancestry Characters automatically begin with all their ancestral ability bonuses factored into their character’s attributes. Because of the racial ability bonuses, starting characters receive only 10 attribute points. Remove the attribute bonuses from the ancestral tables, allow the players to pick two from the table. I like the spirit of this quite a bit. Personally I don't understand the draw of a randomly generated character and I think this is a good compromise to get background stats. One can actually just use roll table as it has an average of about 10 total and add the ancestry modifiers. I would actually recommend the 10 stat ability array from  https://herdingdice.blogspot.com/2023...

I took another try at figuring a formula for spells in Fantasy AGE with the release of the second edition. Recently I came to a new idea (to me) that there might be a linear relationship between TN and MP and not TN times MP equals Value. This allowed me to start from the beginning again with this analysis as the former model requires more advanced math and never scaled the way leveling does. Calculating TN from MP The above chart plots all 161 spells in the Fantasy AGE 2nd edition rule book. What is new to me is that I used to plot this with reversed axes and the line of best fit never interpreted favorably. If we flip the axes so MP is the input variable and TN is the output, it works much better for me. So with some round numbers I think a good way to summarize a suggested AGE TN is the following: Target Number = 0.5 * MP + 9 The factor of 0.5 is supported by the stunt point cost of "Skillful Casting" which is 2 points per MP reduction, as well as the 1 stunt point cost pe...

Talents and specializations are roughly interchangeable with specializations have more unique actions and talents having bonuses. The differences in power may be attributable to their requirements but largely feels like random numbers. Additionally I will categorize them into one of the three pillars of TTRPG (combat, social, exploration) as explored by Fantasy AGE and their categories of stunts. Talents By Class Any Alchemical Explosives Animal Training Carousing Chirurgy Contacts Draak Secrets Dwarven Secrets Elven Secrets Gnome Secrets Goblin Secrets Great Endurance Halfling Secrets Human Secrets Inspire Linguistics Lore Mighty Thews Oratory Orc Secrets Performance Quick Reflexes Unarmed Style Weapon Training Envoy None Envoy or Rogue Intrigue Envoy or Warrior Command Mage Arcane Training Rogue Observation Scouting Thievery Rogue or Warrior Archery Style Dual Weapon Style Firearms Style Mixed Weapon Style Single Weapon Style Thrown Weapon Style Warrior Armor Training Mounted Combat ...

Navigating weapons in Fantasy AGE can be a bit tricky. Here are a few lists to help out. Weapon Groups and Ancestry Dwarf - Axes Elf - Bows Goblin - Light Blades Orc - Bludgeons Wildfolk - Brawling As noted in Goblin Light Blades Experiment picking an ancestry benefit that matches with a class starting weapon group choice is quite good as the double weapon group instead is a focus for that weapon group. Gets you ahead in useful advancements. Weapon Groups and Classes Envoy Black Powder Bludgeons Bows Brawling Heavy Blades Light Blades Slings Spears Mage Brawling Staves Rogue Light Blades Staves Black Powder Brawling Dueling Warrior Brawling Axes Black Powder Bludgeons Bows Dueling Heavy Blades Lances Light Blades Polearms Slings Spears Staves Weapon Talents - All Classes Unarmed Style Reqs - None Novice - removal of unarmed damage penalty 1d3 to 1d6, or bonus if you had 1d6 already (ie natural weapons from wildfolk). Also may add Strength instead of perception as damage. Expert - 1SP ...