FAL Lore: Agnuns

 

This is an early piece from FAL circa 2016-ish. Agnuns riding grizzle bears facing off against some adventurers in the snow. Agnuns are telepaths (with one another and their bonded grizzle bear companions) thanks to a half-formed creepy face each Agnun has on the back of their head. They come from the world of Nevermore and were brought to Far Away Land during fissures opened thanks to the Boom War.

10 Years and New Horizons

 

In 2012-ish, I started on what would eventually become the Far Away Land Role-Playing Game. That project was a sort of culmination of stories, artwork, and ideas that had been swimming inside my head for several years. In 2014, I ran the first FAL Kickstarter, and amazingly, the game far surpassed its funding goal. Since then, the game and the world of Far Away Land have expanded through adventures and additional expansion books. Skip to 10 years later, and somehow I am still just as dedicated and devoted to building this fictional world.

FAL has evolved and continues to grow into the thing I originally imagined: a big, sprawling, epic world that I could play in, tell stories in, and create maps and artwork in, all while allowing others to share in that experience as well. I look back at the early artwork in those first books where I was drawing with a pencil, scanning, redrawing the images, and coloring on my old computer (the first thing I did with that first Kickstarter money after all rewards had been fulfilled was buy a digital drawing tablet). I think about the difficulty of completing even a single image. Although I had always drawn and painted, I was learning and developing a style that would eventually become my own. I was also developing a world that would grow with time.

Next year is the 10th anniversary of Far Away Land, and to celebrate that milestone, we will be running a Kickstarter for two new books. The first of these books is a second edition set of core rules called "The Far Away Land Enchiridion," which features rule revisions and compilation from all of the previous books, plus new content. The second book is the "Far Away Land Book of Lore," which explores the world/universe of Far Away Land, compiling current lore and adding to it greatly.

Over these next months, we will be teasing artwork, rule revisions, new content, maps (hex maps are back!), stories, and other elements of the new books. This is a huge project with big, thick, colorful books, and I hope that you will join us as we explore all the new awesome.

- Dirk

Getting Serious and Progress

I noticed that I have been quite the non-poster considering the last post on this page was from FEBRUARY 2023! Well, all that is about to change. With the upcoming 10th-anniversary of FAL fast approaching, as well as a Kickstarter for a second edition to launch in late spring or early summer next year, it is of paramount importance to get serious and start paving the way for both the celebration and the Kickstarter. Luckily, I have some help, not only with the writing of Far Away Land Book of Lore but also with the whole social media aspect. Social media has never been my thing, but apparently the 1990s were like 25 years ago, and I have continuously missed that digital train.

With all of this said, moving forward, social media for FAL will very much be handled with regularity and attention. Posts will be scheduled and driven by logic as opposed to whims. This is all well and good and honestly makes the whole thing more approachable and doable on my end. A special announcement will soon be made as I begin to share some of the load.

Okay. That's out of the way.

Progress on the new books has continued without interruption (even though I can't say the same thing for my updates). The second edition of the Far Away Land RPG will be called The Far Away Land Enchiridion of Awesome, and that book is essentially done. I have posted previously about updated mechanics and systems and additions, but I'll not go into that here (a comprehensive list will follow soon). That book is a bit over 400 pages, and unlike previous FAL books, it will be 8.5 x 11 inches.

The other book, The Far Away Land Book of Lore, is in the midst of being worked on. The focus so far has been gathering all of the various writings about FAL and getting them together in a single place - thus the Book of Lore. Preliminary work on that project has seen a revision of the maps and locations with two new continents added, completing the entirety of the world. The maps have not undergone any significant location changes, although I have decided to return to hex maps. I have created an entire custom set of hexes in the style of FAL so that these maps very much feel a part of the aesthetic of FAL in general. More to come on that in later posts (but I am really excited about the maps and the revisions to location descriptions).

Alright. I promised myself I would keep this brief. So that's where things are. I'm looking forward to being a bit more connected, working on the project with someone else, and moving toward the 10th anniversary of FAL.

- Dirk

FAL 1.5 Change Log 2/22

 Well, it seems Im not so great keeping a change log as I dive into the revision and editing and often forget to keep notes. But, here is where things stand as of work these last few days (some of this may be repeated from earlier logs or have undergone further revision)...

• Constructonomicon revision - crafting golems and clockworks (changed from mechanix) has been greatly simplified - less maths 
• Crafting mechanix type constructs uses the Tech Boon instead of Crafty
• Magic and Abilities chapters have an overview on spell and ability creation along with examples
• Advancement change - Ability upgrades are purchasable with XP (cant remember if I already listed this and too lazy to recheck)
• Settlement builder revised and expanded to include settlement descriptor lists
• Castle Builder included
• Character Grinders and Deadly Games have been updated
• Mass Combat greatly revised and simplified - no more charts and ridiculous maths - what was once a huge chapter is now just a couple pages
• 30 magic items have been added along with multiple lists for magic item generation
• All lists now use d6s in some form 
• Level 0 PC builder has been revised
• Necronomicon included
• Travel revised and simplified
• All Encounter lists have been revised and included

Whats next?

• Sea combat, ship building, crews and all that good stuff - Im happy with these rules and have no plans to make in-depth revisions
• Level 0 Character Sheets will be included (for multiples on a single page)
• Scouring Adventure Awesome for items to include
• 
  

FAL 1.5 Change log

One thing I want to point out as a major change to magic and abilities are the scaling system based on the score (from 1 to 5) indicating the magnitude of the spell/ability. This doesn't change the mechanics but allows for a more narrative approach to the handling of spells and abilities. 

Other changes these last few days...

• Mass Combat has been greatly simplified - the goal here was to provide a basic set of rules to allow for mass combat to take place - dense bookkeeping has been removed 
• Travel has been simplified
• Travel and Weather has been updated and simplified - trying to allow GMs the ability to make decisions without having to refer to charts for everything - ugh
• Training Montage rules have been reworked to be more specific and elegant in the information presented - the section flows better and is more specific with examples, explanations, and options (such as preparation advice) - montage scoring and cost/time modifications have been simplified - a chart of specific montage upgrades with costs and times has been included to make upgrade less vague
• Training rules have been included
• Treasure has been revised and expanded, a mini game has been included to create random treasure values - treasure types and random treasure has been included
• Monsters - this is a huge work in progress to the massive length of the section - so far, Actions have been reduced to fit the new Action system, small editing fixes have been made to correct errata in grammar, punctuation, 
• Downtime rules and guidelines have been added and simplified to allow for sessions between adventures
• Hireling rules have been updated to be more concise and elegant - new rules have been provided as to how to obtain hirelings - hireling costs have been revised
• Example names and spoken languages have been added to all PC character templates - languages will also be added to creature entries where applicable
• Gear has been expanded to included some elements from AitM - various weapon types and armor specifically
• Ability examples have been provided with broad categories as inspiration - 
• Magic and Abilities chapters have an overview on spell and ability creation along with examples
• More changes on the way - specifically getting ready to tackle the creature section and revamp the way spells and psionics are listed 

Far Away Land 1.5

This is a change log with updates to the FAL rules for version 1.5 

Here we go...

• Basic Rules
• Spell and Ability damages are now based on the users Arcane/Ability score. Damage is the score in d6 (this may be changed to score in d3 damage). This prevents damage from having to be listed and referred to.
• Actions have been simplified. Now longer will specific actions have specific costs. Simple actions are 1 Action, complex actions are 2 or more. This has removed need of an Action chart - yeah - cause I hate that thing.

• PC Creation
• Species/Race has been changed to Heritage to be more encompassing race, culture, language, etc.
• 36 Heritage templates have been included
• Sample names (both male and female) have been provided for all 36 PC Heritage templates to gives player a sense of language and feel 
• Catling claws damage changed to 1d3 (from 1d6)
• A d66 list of flaws so players can roll for flaws during character creation
• How flaws work have been updated to be more clear
• All PCs start with 2 Actions now. Actions can still be upgraded.
• Light weapons do d3 to 1d6 damage now to allow for more nuanced damage from smaller weapon
• 
  
• Advancement (largely untouched cause I really like the system)
• gaining XP examples have been condensed
• XP for cleverness and exploration has been introduced

• Combat (largely untouched -mostly just combining all of the optional systems)
• Weapon types have been clarified a bit
• Optional Combat Rules have been expanded to included Optional Combat Rules from all books
• Combat Achievements have been expanded to included Combat Achievements from all books
• 
  

• Magic 
• Magic rules have changed to be more freeform - spell lists have been removed
• PCs can now cast additional spells beyond the 3 + level per day but with a penalty of -1d6 per cast
• Armor hinders spellcasting now. Light armor -1 die, heavy armor -3 dice

• Abilities
• Some abilities have been simplified. FOr example, all of the -kinesis abilities have been grouped under psychokinesis with examples of various types provided. More specific defintions have also been provided
• Several undead abilities have been removed as they felt too much like spells
• Any Abilities that overlapped with magic have been removed (so weird summoning stuff and golem creation stuff is gone from the Abilities list)
• High-level abilities (like resurrect self and omniscience) have been removed.

Orka Game Engine and License

The Orka Game Engine Logo

As of this morning, I released the Orka Game Engine along with the Orka Game Engine License. Both can be downloaded on our site or via the following links...

Orka Game Engine

Orka Game Engine License

This system has evolved over the last year and a half or so. My initial intent was to build a super simple little game that I could use to introduce new players to gaming. That little system ballooned into a huge system which was then distilled into Mere Anarchy. From there I made Adventure Perilous and then the OGE. 

Currently, Mere Anarchy and Adventure Perilous each run off of this engine (however there is no mention of the engine in either game as their publication predates the OGE). Both the engine and the license are designed for simplicity and ease of use by third parties. The engine simply acts as a framework upon which user can build and modify and reskin (the engine offered has a fantasy skin but lacks any real flavor such as specific NPCs, monsters, etc.) The license allows for commercial use of the engine by third parties.

Basically, the OGE is taking OSR style games and simplifying them to bare essentials with the goal of as little record keeping as possible while still giving the players plenty of options as to character creation and advancement. Classes are ditched. Levels are simplified. Math is kept incredibly simple. 2d6 are used for most every roll. A focus is on players making characters and using their imaginations to play those characters as opposed to focusing on stats and score and predefined skills and attacks and magic and etc. The game is really designed to allow new players to learn the system in minutes and begin playing. Huge rulebooks aren't needed as the mechanics are straightforward and consistent throughout. 

I hope and encourage use of this engine and the license as I feel it is an incredibly elegant and robust system full of wonderful mechanics from scale and favorability rolls to attack and conflict rolls to rules for treasure and downtime to quick creation systems for NPCs and Monsters. 

Dirk