There are a few creatures in Far Away Land that rise to the status of legendary. These are unique, usually enormous monsters whose presence heralds destruction. There’s the Crematoru, whose parents are a demon and an elemental and who awakens every several hundred years to terrorize the world. There’s also Bigzilla, the giant, earth-stomping lizard of Nuzoz. And then there’s Varro, seen here, who came to life in the ancient days of celestials and roams the spaceways looking for worlds to feed on. For me, what makes these creatures interesting additions to the world of FAL is how they can impact an adventure or story indirectly. I mean, no player and no party no matter how high-level or geared-up is ever going to be able to take down one of these legendary beasts. In fact, if they’re smart they’d never even think about trying. These monsters aren’t meant to be opponents. They are primal forces, beings of immense power that shape the world. When the Crematoru awakens, it’s a sign of great upheaval and change. That city your party has been using as a base for the last year? Well, the Crematoru just burned it to the ground, killing thousands. That shadow blocking out the sun? Varro has arrived. These monsters are shapers of events, changers of landscapes, meant to impact the world and serve as reminders of the grand scale of the universe.

 If you follow us on Facebook, you saw how the recent (ish) Splatterblood games gave us the chance to watch Level 0 characters grow and advance to Level 1, but advancing a PC doesn’t stop there. The rules for advancement in FAL have been revised in the 2nd Edition to be more straightforward and streamlined. PCs still gain experience points, or XP, as rewards for heroic deeds, good role-play, achieving a character goal, making the other players laugh through action, and more. XP gained automatically progresses PCs to the next level (this is the update and features a set scale of advancement as opposed to the previous do what you want approach), but there are also ways to spend XP to increase Stats, improve Boons, and other options. 

To be honest, I was never totally satisfied with the explanations and mechanics of this in the 1st Edition. Far Away Land is not the only game to use a dual-XP system (automatic gains and purchased gains), but there are a lot of different ways to do it, and if the explanation isn’t clear, it can be confusing to GMs and players alike. With the 2nd Edition, the language around the FAL system for XP has been revised and, I think, much improved, making it clearer and easier to understand.

Blades cut. But do they cut through metal? In the right hands they do (kinda) and your PC has those hands (maybe). You are a born fighter, a wielder of steel, a slayer of constructs. You know how use a blade and you know how to look for the opening between panels, the chinks in the armor, the weak points in the target. And nothing is more satisfying than running grandad’s sword through the deadly lazer eye of a Berzerk or slicing through the mechanical tentacles (mechanicles?) of a Soracan with that beloved family heirloom. But simply hacking through plates of armor won’t always do. PCs will need to be strategic and imaginative in how they approach enemies of the construct variety. Different materials may require different approaches. I mean, why hack away at wood when you can burn it?

 The upcoming 2nd Edition of Far Away Land has a bestiary with around 350+ entries. That’s a lot of content. For the original 1st edition books, the Nuzoz continent expansion book provided a list of encounters from the previous bestiaries (which were spread out over 4 books - ugh) in one location. The 2nd Edition will bring that into the core rules. That means in addition to a comprehensive bestiary, there will also be encounter charts based on level and biome/environment. I may even go completely crazy and provide page numbers for additional access. This will of course be in addition to a thoroughly compiled master index as well. Easy access is an important part of a large index. Even though the 2nd Edition rules is a big book, we are working to make it easy to navigate.

Fantasy Naming Conventions

 

 

So, naming conventions are a big deal in a fantasy world, and I wanted to talk about where some of the names in the bestiary of 2nd Edition FAL came from. I mentioned before that the Ten Time Ten Men got their names from a Wu-Tang Clan song. The Demented Avengers also take their names from a song, Pink Floyd’s “Sheep" to be specific. 

And while the Giant Castor gets its name from the scientific genus for beaver, some names come from other languages. For example, the Winkapuss, that giant cosmic owl we saw around New Year’s, actually gets its name from an old English dialect word for owl. The Herensuge, one of the children of the Cosmic Wanderer in FAL lore, comes from the Basque word for dragon, while the Boohoohoo, another giant owl, gets its name from the sound an owl makes in Romanian. And the Purr Beast, of course, gets its name from the sound a cat makes in English: purrrrr.

But some names come from what I think a word feels like. For example, the two creatures in this picture. Yldeti looks sort of like a squishy starfish and the word Yldeti feels like something squishy and wet to me, something that sits on an ocean floor. Same thing with the Slurgoth. It just looks like it sounds to me. 

I really enjoy making names. It's a visual exercise for me because words make pictures and color. It’s also really fun to look at other languages and cultures and see their words for sounds and animals.

 

Thoughts on Combat

Combat is an essential part of most fantasy RPGs. For some games, it’s the centerpiece of the action as players brawl their way to heroic status. For some players, being a murder-hobo is half the fun (I have a load of stories about Ninjas and Superspies that were basically GTA one offs before GTA was a thing). That’s all fine by me, but I didn’t want Far Away Land to be in quite the same class. Sure, players can be heroic. And danger is everywhere so combat is going to happen. But in FAL, I wanted characters to consider the costs. Think you’re going to steamroll that Berzerk because it’s 3 v 1? Think again. Combat rules are simple and combat itself is brutal. With the dice pool system that FAL uses, it is not unrealistic for a couple of bad decisions followed by a couple of bad rolls to reduce your PC to near death, even if they are of a high level. Going into battle is sometimes necessary, but the risks involved should make it anything but the first choice for players. I’ve mentioned before that some level of risk needs to be on the line for players to feel the exhilaration of success. I think FAL’s combat system does a good job of helping to create this.

What Did I Just Watch?

Have you ever seen Zardoz? It’s got Sean Connery wearing thigh-high go-go boots and bandoleros. He’s also got a sweet pre-Highlander ponytail. And there are these big, weird, floating heads. I’m oversimplifying the movie and it really is worth a watch (directed by John Boorman who also did Excalibur in 1981) in a bad-movie kind of way. 

Today, I think it’s less obscure than it was ten years ago but nonetheless, it made a huge impact on me visually when I first watched it and directly inspired several things in FAL, specifically the Zoordrooz and the Sorocan. Looking at the Sorocan image from a couple of days ago, you may not see the connection but the threads that led to their creation are there. Big floating heads (check) that speak Dubstep, which sounds a lot like the noise the floating heads in the movie made as they went by (wub wub wub womp zzzzzzzzzz wub wub womp). And although Zoordrooz look like dudes, they are actually genderless and reproduce through mustache clippings to make baby Zoordrooz, none of whom are named Sean, btw.