Herding Dice

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 ...