On the whole I like the AGE system. The stunt mechanic is interesting, task resolution is generally fast and smooth and it is generic enough to build a homebrew setting around pretty easily. The system and this pdf do however have a few glaring problems that I find no one is talking about. First, the combat relies too heavily on the stunts system to add interesting choices. There are very few mechanical options in combat beyond "hit guy with my weapon using my most appropriate talent" and if you don't roll doubles or roll crab on your stunt die that makes for a very dull turn. Second, the mechanical effects of the different talents and specializations just feel uninspired and bland. It doesn't feel like there is really a significant difference between playing say a two-hander warrior and a sword and board warrior. Yeah you get a couple of small stat differences and very minor ability riders but nothing that makes the game experience notably different or varied. Third, I can't find animal statistics anywhere in the book. This is especially frustrating because they include mounted combat rules and animal companions (especially with the Beastmaster option in the Companion) but no actual animals to use. So several of the options that might actually make the game fun to play with aren't actually useable.

The pdf itself is very poorly put together. The bookmarks are an absolute mess. They are often out of order and there are sub-marks under headings that make no sense. For example, after the classes in the book there are a few pages dedicated to the final touches of your character (calculating defense, starting money, character goals, gaining XP and the like). Only about half of them are given a bookmark and all the bookmarks are submarks of the Warrior class bookmark. That is only one of a few example of very poor bookmarks. To make this even worse, the pdf is locked so you cannot even change the bookmarks manually.

This pdf has been rigged so that if you print it the names of talents and the like do not show up on the document. I even using a print to pdf program and the names were not visible.

For those people, like me, who didn't quite grow up with the depth of experience to master point spend-based superhero rpgs, this book delivers a very accessible, attractive game and system that can be played practically out of the box. The art direction is very strong too, with the use of a short comic strip inside to illustrate the possibilities.

While the system is the same used in the more advanced Deluxe version of the game, it focuses on easily recognisable archetypes (8 in total) and simply chosen packages of abilities and powers to build characters. The elegance of this is that both versions of the game are completely compatible and, along with the points buy and random tables found in the Deluxe book, almost every preference for character generation is provided within the game as a whole. Fans of class-based systems, however, will appreciate this book the most.

The Basic book is still pretty comprehensive as a self contained game (you don't need any other), with plenty of advice and resources, that can run pretty much any type of tale found in the comics and movies. The tone is decidedly positive and cheerful, rather than gritty (should you be looking for a darker style) but, in all, this product largely underlines Mutants & Masterminds claim to be the 'greatest superhero roleplaying game'. For me, this was the best product I have seen of it's type and genre.

Another fantastic product by Green Ronin. Looking forward to the full book!

When I kicked off my D20 Modern Call of Cthulhu campaign, I needed a training scenario to test the new agents. You might think "Danger Room"-type scenarios are common, but they're much harder to find than you might think. This scenario involves robot tentacles, heat seeking missiles, and lots of danger room madness that was perfect for my new players and helped them get into the groove. It was compatible enough for me to easily convert it to D20, but really I just wanted the training challenges so it worked fine for my campaign.

I've read the Quickstart and reviewed it here. Check it out, or download the Quickstart now for some Modern AGE goodness!

le supplément pour M&M que j'ai attendu une bonne partie de ma vie, le supplément pour jouer des aventures spatiales épiques...et cosmiques :).

This was the sourcebook I'v waited for most of my life, want to play cosmic and epic adventures, this is it :)

Vous voulez faire un remake des Gardiens de la Galaxie dans l'univers de Freedom City ? Maintenant vous avez les personnages pour le faire :).

Wanna make a Guardians of the Galaxy remake ? Now you have the characters to do it :).

A very useful sourcebook for any superhéro gamemaster.

A great sourcebook for combining horror, supernatural and super-heroes.

The AGE system (short for 'Adventure Gaming Engine') was originally the set of rules used in Green Ronin's Dragon AGE, and later used in Will Wheaton's Titansgrave campaign podcast. It's a great little game system: easy-to-learn, rules-light, and fast-playing. The Fantasy AGE Basic Rules takes the AGE system and strips away all background and setting information, giving players and Game Masters a complete set of rules-- everything they need to enjoy their own unique campaign settings, in 120 short pages.

Did I mention that this book is only 120 pages long? That's an important point. Without any setting or background info, there isn't a lot of fluff here. If you're a Game Master looking for a set of rules to power your original campaign, this book is perfect, because you won't need to disentangle any setting information from the rules provided as you build your campaign from the ground up. On the plus side, it can be very liberating to work from a blank slate when you're creating a campaign from scratch, and the AGE system is so simple that it's easy peasy to create scads of unique obstacles, opponents, and NPCs for your players to vanquish; on the other hand, though, Fantasy AGE doesn't provide you with a setting that can be used right out of the box.

So what do you get in this book? As mentioned earlier, the AGE system is extremely rules-light, and almost every rule in the game is summarized on a single page of this book (page 6). Without any background information, and without needing to dedicate much page count to rules systems, the Fantasy AGE Basic Rules still pack a lot into 120 pages. There's a chapter on character creation, a full chapter going into more depth on the rules (which, as I mentioned, were previously summarized on page 6), a chapter on character options, a chapter on money and equipment, a chapter explaining how magic works in the AGE system, a chapter on stunts (really the best part of the game-- see below), a chapter about how to Game Master, a chapter with suggestions for the GM about how to implement the rules in the book, a short selection of adversaries/monsters (with advice about how to create/modify entries for original adversaries in your game), guidance on player rewards, advice on adding setting to the game, and a full adventure-- plus a glossary of game terms and an index.

For 120 pages, that's a lot of terrain covered.

The system itself is really easy. Characters have 9 different ability scores, which are generally rated from -2 to 4. For any test in the game, players roll 3D6, add the appropriate ability score, add any modifiers, and compare the result to a predetermined difficulty number. The 'meat and potatoes' of the game are in its "stunt" mechanism; one of the three dice rolled should be of a different color than the other two, and whenever a successful 3D6 roll results in doubles (on any of the 3 dice), that player gets as many "stunt points" as the odd-colored die's result. These "stunt points" can be spent to purchase a variety of special game effects-- perhaps knocking an opponent prone in combat, or gaining an extra attack, or doing additional damage. Since players get to spend their own "stunt points" to achieve whatever effects they desire the most-- and if they have enough points to spend, they can even select more than one-- this mechanism gives players a degree of agency within the game's narrative.

As of this review's date, there are three supplements available for Fantasy AGE. The Fantasy AGE Bestiary expands upon the selection of monsters from the basic rule book, and the Fantasy AGE Game Masters Kit includes a GM screen, a couple of reference cards for players, and an initiative tracker. The Fantasy AGE Companion is going to expand upon character options even further, with rules for chases and a mass combat system.

Fantasy AGE is a great system for fast, rules-light roleplaying, particularly for GM's who want to create their own unique campaigns without getting bogged down creating complicated stat blocks. Well worth checking out!

I do not own any of the other AGE system lines, so it is a happy addition to the core book and the bestiary.

There are loads of goodies here to enhance your game and to ultimately spoil your players - these are the highlights for ME:

First: Arcana was expanded to include seven new options - for instance Death, Illusion and Spychic. Existing arcana got added spells - which was of a concern to some players. Option to add Minor Arcana (essentially a few minimal cantrips that is not tied to any particular Arcana), I really enjoy these as a story element. The second option is to add Divine magic to your game - I personally prefer my FAGE not to resemble another well known fantasy game, so I wont use this at my table, BUT this treatment of divine magic is really interesting and comes with a "Crisis of Faith" mechanic that could add interesting consequences in your game.

Second: Talents. A few new ones and guidelines how to create or re-skin existing ones, excellent ideas.

Fourth: Advanced Rewards: This chapter is a treat, it covers giving characters additional rewards beyond the regular level advancements: Honorifics, Titles and Memberships to organizations.

Fifth: Artefacts. These are not just magical items, they are much more. They have the ability grow with a character. Two types of artefacts are described: Tiered and Locked. Further more rules are given how to create these. This is one of my favourite chapters.

Sixth: Ways to deal with the Hitpoint bloat of FAGE, from increasing damage to decreasing hitpoints gained per level, and suffering wound penalties. I was personally hoping for an option similar to what True20 used, but these are a great starting point. Some of the options, or similar, have been dabbled at by the G+ community.

Lastly: There are a huge number of things that I skipped over - Mass Combat Rules, Realms and Organisation, Stunt Packages, Vehicle Rules etc...

Is there negative feedback? Yes, nothing is perfect. Those that own other AGE system products might feel this is redundant - As I mentioned before this product is very much for people like myself that are only interested in FAGE.

Grab it, grab it now!

I bought this after watching the show (which I highly recomend), because Will's style of running games is just like mine. This is a great mini-campaign which fits seemlessly into the Fantasy AGE rules. * It also gives you encounters and scenes that were not in the show (and two other city-states with story hooks to go beyond the show).

There are only a few things that are odd, and that is that they don't give you a difficulty rating for each encounter, nor do they give you advice on when to advance your characters. Also, some of the locations in the adventure in the city state of Nestora can not be found on the map... and that is dissapinting since they do go into detail of that city. BUT, to be honest those two minor details are not dealbreaksers and I still give this a "GOOD" rating!

If you loved how the D&D 4th edtion monster manuals gave cool background and stories to their monsters, you will love this book too! They even give some story hooks to add to your games, which is awesome, because there were a few monsters that I never thought about adding to adventures until I read some of those.

I have run this game more than any other in the past two years (and ran Dragon Age more than most other games in the few years before that) and I really do like this system! It gives you a basic D&D like game without all the B.S. like Alignments (none), encumbrance (none.. just use common sense), or spell slots (there are spells you know, and you use magic points to use them). I also like how you can play an orc, and that half breeds are "optional" (I personally think that those things were just min-max tools that usually don't live up to a story that the player is supposed to roleplay). And I like their focus rules vs. the standard skill points of other games (tho, they do have too many focuses).

What makes the game more modern is the stunt point system, which works really well with combat, and magic, but is a bit awkward with roleplaying, and exploration (those two can work, but your group has to really try to make it work well).

For the size of the book, it has a good selection of monsters/opponents, magic items, and spells (tho, there are some spells are are kind of worthless, like "Arcane Spring"). I tell my players to level up (and it actually has that as an optional rule), but I do like how each encounter has an X.P. amount based off of difficulty, instead of having to calculate that stuff. It seems more organic. But.. just like with D&D and all of it's clones, I think 20 levels is too much (13th Age has it right on that).

The art is also great (it's a mix of art from some of their other games, and some made just for Fantasy AGE). And to top it off: It comes with a great adventure! Since the days that they had the Warhammer license, they write great adventures, and "Adventure in Highfalls Swale is no exception."

The bad things: Combat just takes too long. It is a combo of most good opponents armor rating (which you always subtract from most damage), and the small amount of damage most people can do. This usually leaves you with long combats (compare it to Pathfinder length), or having to limit the amount of opponents (or modifying opponents if the story calls for several). To me, this really gets annoying after a while (I had to use home brew rules of bonus damage, and mob/mook type of rules that I borrowed from other games like Fate and 13th Age).

The other bad thing... and to be honest, this was not a problem for me, but I can see people coming from D&D or Pathfinder finding this an issue: Not a lot of variety compared to those two other games. There are only three classes. You do end up customizing your class with the options you take (especially after 4th level when you get your first specialty), but I feel the game drives the story more than trying to give you a bunch of fluff (and that is fine with me).

So, my only real complaint is that combat takes too long because of the limited amount of damage one can do to someone with good armor. But if you are wanting an easy system with some neat gimmicks (sunt point system), and more modern rules that cut out the old school trappings like Alignment & spell slots, I highly recommend this game!