Two adventures will be provided in the Kickstarter. These will be familiar to folks with first edition as they will include The Wizard’s Spiral which is a Level 0 Grinder and Isle of the Rat Wizard which is an introductory adventure for Level 1 PCs. The goal of both of these adventures is to provide players with easy to access content to immediately get started in FAL. The Wizard’s Spiral allows GMs to run a grinder event in order to weed out weak Level 0 PCs while Isle of the Rat Wizard allows Level 1 PCs to test their mettle. Both adventures have been updated for the new rules of course.  

In the 2nd Edition of Far Away Land, I am really intent on players being able to create stories and narrate as much as possible during play. I think it is an easy way to get players involved in the game and give them a sense of ownership and agency over their interactions and actions. It gives them that wonderful moment to shine and be the center of attention. That feels good.

The new magic system reflects this style of play by allowing for a more freeform approach to magic that provides players and GMs a list of descriptors and effects to build the basic definition of a spell. The system uses two keywords, a descriptor (like provoking or weakening) and an effect (like plume or blast). With this two-word combination, the player (within guidelines) is free to determine the spell specifics. As a character increases in their magical abilities, the effects of that spell likewise increase. For example, a low-level wizard with a spell that creates light might be able to conjure up something like the light of a candle while a high-level caster with the same spell might be able to create a flash of light blinding a room full of goabs! The high-level caster could even have the option to modulate its power as needed.

I really believe this system can create spells that feel linked to the PC, who is free to change the name of the spell to personalize it once it is defined, and allows for more nuance and storytelling.

 

On Tuesday, July 9th, we will provide the link for the prelaunch signup link Far Away Land Kickstarter. Things are coming together, proofs of The Enchiridion of Awesome along with the Core Rules and Bestiary I have been ordered. The Book of Lore is in the layout process with art and finalized writing being completed. All books will of course be completed prior to the actual project launch which we will be announcing in an upcoming post!

I posted a portion of the second edition cover some months back. Since we are getting closer to the summer launch of the project, here is the cover art (minus text).

In the last post I gave some specific numbers concerning content in the Far Away Land second edition Enchiridion of Awesome. As I looked through the Index I am a bit overwhelmed at the amount of content in the book. And some may argue this, but I definitely see FAL as a minimalist rules system (being that the core mechanics of the game is really on a few pages). This being said, a single, nearly 500 page book may not be what some folks are interested in. So, for the Kickstarter, backers will have options. They can choose a hardback version of the game called the Enchiridion of Awesome which contains all of the core rules stuff under a single cover. A big, fat book. There will also be an option for the Enchiridion to be available in two books, The Core Rules and The Bestiary (not sure about names yet). And of course the Book of Lore is its own separate book in both instances. PDFs of everything will also be available. So, backers have lots of options. Last thing. The Enchiridion of Awesome as a single tome will only ever be made available through the Kickstarter. On public release, the book will be split, making the one-volume Enchiridion extra awesome. 

 

Here are some numbers from Far Away Land second edition Enchiridion of Awesome. 450+ pages. 19 chapters. 36 PC Heritage templates. 351 bestiary entries. 168 spells. 72 reagents. 55 premade magic items. 54 abilities. 36 NPC templates. 525+ pieces of full-color artwork (some of which is new and some of which has been updated from the 1st edition). Index with 1,200+ reference entries. Loads of custom generators for everything from spells, monsters, castles, settlements, dungeons, plants, PCs, NPCs, vehicles. Oh, and we haven't even mentioned the Book of Lore yet! If it sounds like a lot, it is. In an upcoming post I'll let you know some options in dealing with this mass of content!

 My niece loves to draw, paint, and color. She makes monsters and writes stories and is incredibly creative. Several years ago I gave her a copy of Far Away Land and I like to think she was inspired by her uncle. A few months ago, I realized she and I were doing the same thing, making monsters and writing stories and drawing, so I asked her to create an entry for the Far Away Land bestiary. She was into it so she researched existing monsters in the book and then emulated the FAL style. She wrote the description and came up with the abilities as well. The end result was the creation of the Vector Cats which you can see in the image. The version you see is the finished version which is almost identical to the version she sent (I just made the linework a bit smoother) which will be featured in the new book!