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Fantasy Originals RPG, My New Kickstarter Project

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Soulfinger
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Well, I am super excited to be launching a Kickstarter for my new game, Fantasy Originals, on April 1st just before midnight (link forthcoming). I decided against doing any real promotion, because I have a strong feeling that the right sort of people will gravitate toward it, and frankly, it is such a good game that success is the only logical outcome. However, I thought I would go ahead and share some of the highlights of the game here.

• FO features FOUR unique character classes, including Fighter, Thief, Wizard, and Tantric Wrestler.
• There are eighty-seven playable races, including fifty-five unique variations of human, half-humans, quarterblood humans, elves, dwarves, an elf/dwarf hybrid that bears a striking resemblance to a human, and elves with hats.
• Whether you are a pole-vaulter, ape-wrestler, or poetry-slammer, maximize your character’s potential with over one-thousand balanced skills with no redundancy or overlap. Each skill is equally useful to the adventuring party and just as necessary to survive!
• A dynamic magic system with 18 distinct spells that gives players the option whether to blast foes with lightning or roast them with a ball of fire. One spell even turns people invisible by refracting light!
• Easy to learn, intuitive rules based on the thirty-four-sided Danish lottery die. Want to shoot a human with an arrow? Just roll the dice! There are no unwieldy modifiers to jumble up your role playing experience.
• Unleash your imagination with a dozen monster archetypes, each with unique options for customization. Liven up your run-of-the-mill goblins by giving them horns, fangs, or even human skin! Change a monster’s color to increase its difficulty, or select one of two weapon options for an added challenge.
• An equipment list based on actual weapons and armor used during the Middle Ages or inspired by dreams.
• Unlike other role playing games, Fantasy Original includes clear goals and objectives for winning the game with an integrated achievement update system to avoid confusion and ensure that players understand their progress.

ACTUAL SAMPLE OF PLAY

Both playtest games of Fantasy Originals proved wildly successful. What follows is a transcription from the second playtest group's actual game. Player 1 is playing a Half-Human Tantric Wrestler named FootFace. Half-humans are very good at heavy lifting and winning games of chance. Player 2 is playing an Elf Wizard named Crackshot, who eliminates enemies with his trusty bow. The GM’s name is Russell, and he enjoys anything with mango flavoring.

GM: You enter the slime encrusted hallway. Walking down this loathsome passage, you feel as though you are delving into a giant nostril.
P1: Ewww gross!
P2: I search for traps. [Player 2 rolls a die against his Finding Traps skill. He rolls a 7. Success!]
GM: You don’t find any traps, but you do notice three goblins approaching from the other direction. They have blue skin and elephant trunks, and one of them is wearing a hat.
P1: Blue skin! Those are particularly tough.
P2: And that one with the hat must be their leader. I draw my bow and fire. [Player 2 can use a bow because of his character’s Use Bow skill. He rolls a die against the monster’s Get Hit value and rolls a 7. Success!]
GM: The goblin falls down dead and bursts into flame. His companions rush forward to attack.
P1: What should we do?
P2: I draw my bow and fire. [Player 2 rolls another 7. Success!]
GM: A second goblin falls down dead. The last remaining one attacks you with his rusty bec de corbin. [Russell rolls against the monster’s Hit Opponent value and rolls a 7. Failure.] He narrowly misses, and the weapon’s long spike traces a line across your gorget.
P1: That was close!
P2: I draw my bow and fire.
GM: Oh no! It looks like you are out of arrows.
P1: Way to go not buying enough arrows from the kindly forest fletcher, lame-brain.
P2: Okay, I will cast a magical spell instead. [Player 2 rolls against his Cast Spell as an Alternative to Melee Combat skill and scores a 7. Success!] I am going to throw a ball of fire at him.
GM: He’s dead! You killed them all. Congratulations, you have cleared this part of the dungeon and are 1/20th of the way to winning the game.
P1: Hooray!
P2: I unstring my bow and place it in its carrying case.

Anyways, I hope that you guys enjoyed this sampling and are as excited about this game as I am. It clocks in at just over 400 pages in 6 point Comic Sans and took me nearly a month to write. I'm not a great artist, but I did all of the illustrations by having friends dress up in costumes and then applying Photoshop filters and wild effects to the images. Also, I found some of the art on the Internet. I'm confident that everyone will enjoy this game every bit as much as I do, and I'm really looking forward to your feedback!

kos
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Joined: 01/17/2011
Sounds awesome!

How do I give you my money?

The only thing I'd add is that your spellcasting system seems a bit limited with only 18 spells. What if you turned each of the spells into a spell class, and then let the PCs create combinations of the spell classes on the fly? Poison-Lighting! Invisible-Fireball! More variety is what this game needs, don't let the haters distract you with trivialities like gameplay.

Regards,
kos

The Professor
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Two whole play-tests!

I can't believe with this kind of energy, this didn't hit the KS circuit pre-play-tested...it basically sells itself! As an RPGer of 30+ years, I feel as though I've wasted precious time actually developing a character over the decades, manifesting the experience into deep and thoughtful game-play...I could have been chuckin' a 34-sided die this whole time and turn my brain off for a few hours...TAKE MY MONEY!

lewpuls
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You miss the point of KS

I stopped reading at this:
". . . it is such a good game that success is the only logical outcome."

Mate, you are thoroughly confused. KS isn't about good games, and being a good game or even a very good game is no guarantee of success. KS is smoke and mirrors (and miniatures and art).

No matter how good your game is, you MUST do all the preliminary work (not necessarily reviews, though RPG rules are much easier to provide review copies for than physical games). If you don't have a fairly large group of people ready to cough up money, your game will very likely fall flat.

KS tends to be a bandwagon thing, and you have to get that bandwagon started with a bang.

I suggest you listen to "What attracts backers to Kickstarter board and card games pt 1" http://youtu.be/Pqk_x01Qoxo , and part 2 as well.

Or have I been taken in by April Fools? If so, what a waste of time.

Jarec
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Joined: 12/27/2013
Well, poops... This actually

Well, poops...
This actually made me google Danish lottery die :<

Soulfinger
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kos wrote:The only thing I'd

kos wrote:
The only thing I'd add is that your spellcasting system seems a bit limited with only 18 spells.

Spellcasting is only limited by your imagination. Market research has shown that most players have an imagination that can accommodate 18 spells. Also, all of these spells work in real life. It was very difficult to research so much functional magic, particularly the fireball.

kos wrote:
As an RPGer of 30+ years, I feel as though I've wasted precious time actually developing a character over the decades, manifesting the experience into deep and thoughtful game-play...I could have been chuckin' a 34-sided die this whole time and turn my brain off for a few hours...

Fantasy Originals has a richness of character development unparalleled by any other game on the market with a level of game play that transcends traditional role playing. The example of play includes subtle nuances detectable only by master gamers who have been delving into the very soul of gaming for at least 31+ years. There is genuine emotion at the table, people crying, laughing, and vomiting -- sometimes all at once and for no reason. There are no reference charts or die roll modifiers to take you out of the immersive experience. In fact, there is very little substantive content whatsoever to get in your way.

kos wrote:
I stopped reading at this: ". . . it is such a good game that success is the only logical outcome."

Only advanced players with a deep rooted grasp of game mastery should read any further than the first sentence. Also, I was contacted by the three founders of Kickstarter and assured that if my game doesn't raise one million dollars within twenty-four hours that they would fund its production themselves. I didn't advertise this initially as I wanted my first post to reflect my tremendous humility.

kos wrote:
This actually made me google Danish lottery die :<

Danish lottery dice are the most mathematically precise gaming instruments on the market today, and ownership of several is the hallmark of a superior gamer. The four additional faces allow for greater role playing possibilities than the traditional North American thirty-sided die.

questccg
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On another note...

Here is a group of interesting collaborators that are trying to put together an ADVANCED world with actions having consequences in the game.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/othersidegames/underworld-ascendant...

I know this is nothing like "Fantasy Originals" - but who knows, you might appreciate the link! :D

Update: If you check the page, be sure to see the brief video about "Tracey Hickman" who was the Award-Winning writer of the "Dragonlance" (D&D) series...

Soulfinger
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I hope everyone had an

I hope everyone had an enjoyable April Fools' Day. I think the best one this year was the Google Maps Pacman feature (still up if you haven't tried it), although ThinkGeek really had some great prank product offerings this year. Thanks especially to lewpuls for wasting your time here with that perfect holiday-themed incredulity. :)

Also, thanks for the link questccg. I was a huge fan of the original game and the Ultima series in general back in the day. Nice to see the Stygian Abyss making a comeback.

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