Make your battles faster and deadlier powered by AFF

hack

#1

Hej guys, ghouls, girls and everything beyond,

If the search function is to be trusted there is a complete lack of Advanced Fighting Fantasy-hacks here.
That’s understandable though because AFF is mostly a British phenomenon and it’s rather weird and probably nobody plays it. :smiley:
Nevertheless, I have a weird fascination with it and it got me thinking if little bits and bobs could be taken out of AFF and put back into ICRPG. This is some spontaneous bricolage here, so I haven’t playtested any of it.

Quick and dirty dice mechanic summary for AFF

AFF is a 2d6-system.
You have a SKILL and SPECIAL SKILLS. Every roll you do scales with your SKILL + whatever SPECIAL SKILL is appropriate.
Normal checks are roll under, so you add your SKILL + SPECIAL SKILL and roll under that number with 2d6.
In combat though, checks are opposed roll over checks, so you add your SKILL + SPECIAL SKILL add that to your 2d6 roll and compare it with whatever your enemy rolled.
Whoever has the higher number wins and can deal damage.
Your armour does not function as some kind of AC but soaks up a fixed number of damage.

ICRPG powered by AFF (?)

Now what could it look like if we took some of the AFF-stuff and put it into ICRPG?
First: DEFENSE would need to be 0 by default. CON + LOOT being the only bonus you get.
Suddenly your DEFENSE is only 4 or 6 instead of 14 or 16. That’s alright, though. Bear with me.
In combat you and your opponent roll an opposed check against the TARGET.
Whoever wins does damage. If both of you win, the higher die result wins.
If you take damage, your DEFENSE soaks it up equal to its score.

PROS

  • combat is even faster
  • CON is a even more so an indicator of your PCs sturdiness
  • combat is much more immediate

CONS

  • maybe too deadly?
  • damn all multiattacks are suddenly useless or need to be reworked to fit
  • why?

So, that was just buzzing through me brain. Maybe it’s usable, maybe there’s no need for it, but I wanted to share it with the shield wall nonetheless. Take good care and tell me what you think. :slight_smile:


#2

Thanks for sharing this. Always been a fan of AFF, super simple gameplay with all the bloated mechanics out of the way, our table has always really liked the Luck stat and choice of when to test your luck.

Fighting Fantasy is also celebrating 40 years in August, I hope they announce a new edition and go back to the original digest format rather than the booklet format of AFF.


#3

We generally run with Roll-To-Dodge, so my players are used to checking against the target to see if they take damage, and we use the stripped down DEFENSE stat that you mentioned.

I’ve been thinking about trying to implement a more Dungeon World type combat roll, where they just roll against the target, if they succeed they deal damage, if they fail they take damage.

I’ve also considered running AC as a damage soak, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Another option would be, roll your d20 once against the TARGET, but add your STRENGTH to see if you hit, and your DEFENSE to see if you get hit. I guess this might get pretty brutal when the target gets around the 15+ range, but it hasn’t gone that high for us often.

I do enjoy the combat as is, but I can’t help but think about hacking and tweaking things. Plus, time is always a problem when trying get a game together, so anything that speeds up the game is worth considering.


#4

Roll-to-dodge also sounds brutal and even easier than my idea.
I am going to play some ICRPG with people who have mostly played 5E before, so combat will be way faster based on the fact that we are playing ICRPG alone. :smiley:


#5

It is! Ian Livingstone even got knighted. I wish I could get my hand on a box set with some classics (e.g.: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain). Maybe Jonathan Green also does a reprint of his two books about the history of the Fighting Fantasy books.


#6

I hope they like it! We were slowly figuring out 5e when my brother found Professor Dungeon Master and Runehammer on YouTube. He introduced me to ICRPG, and I fell in love. I don’t think it needs to be hacked, I feel like it wants to be hacked. I’m always looking for ways to speed up combat or add more tension to the rolls. If I get a chance I’ll give this hack a try. Best wishes on your game!