Solo with Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2e: RPG and Character Intro

Returning to British RPGs with Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd Edition, using an old character from the actual play of Dungeoneer (Advanced Fighting Fantasy 1st Edition).

AFF 2e - intro | start | partway | finish | all rolling solo

Disclosure - I'm a DriveThru RPG affiliate

Rounding off a Fighting Fantasy Cycle

aff2e intro | solo tools | chars | chargen

Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd Edition (AFF2e) closes off a cycle of articles taking in actual plays of Dungeoneer (AFF 1E), Troika! and Warlock! And also breaking Warlock of Firetop Mountain into random tables, exploring Fighting Fantasy and other gamebooks.

Both Troika! and Warlock! are roleplaying game that inherit from Advanced Fighting Fantasy, and Dungeoneer was my first RPG, soon after discovering Fighting Fantasy books.

I got to meet some of the people behind Fighting Fantasy (including Advanced Fighting Fantasy) at Fighting Fantasy Fest Five (London Sept 2024), and so AFF2e is the natural next game for the Rolling Solo Actual Plays.

And we're returning to Fireborn, the character who somehow survived the Dungeoneer actual play in Port Blacksand, even with her skill of 5. (normally the lowest was 7 in 1e, except for foolish dabblers in magic)

RPG Introduction - Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd Edition

aff2e intro | solo tools | chars | chargen

Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd Edition was first published in 2011, by Graham Bottley, building on rules by Marc Gascoigne and Pete Tamlyn from 1st Edition (covered in the Dungeoneer actual play). It has years of supplements from Arion Games. And a free Quickstart for anyone wanting to take a look.

So getting down to details, my copy is a 174 page book with an index, introductory adventure, character generation, game rules, magic, monsters, world overview (of Titan, the Fighting Fantasy world), gamemaster advice, treasure, adventure ideas and optional rules.

There's more than enough to run a game or campaign from just the core book, which is how I prefer to run the solo game. Although I may also be using random tables from the AFF Adventure Creation System.

(Advanced Fighting Fantasy calls the Gamemaster the Director, but as always I'm using the term Gamemaster / GM)

Characters in AFF2e have Skill, Stamina, Luck and Magic. Skills represents the ability to do nearly everything, Stamina is your health, Luck used to avoid traps, resist magic and maybe discover clues. Magic starts at 0 and covers ability in magic. Characters have special skills such as Axes, Crafting and Ride. They also have talents from Fast Healer to Familiar and Knighted, which have a wide variety of benefits. There's more on character creation in Chargen.

Much appreciated is the option of Sample Archtypes, pregenerated characters for a quickstart or a starting point to modify.

The actual game uses a 2d6 roll under system, with modifiers for difficulty. Skill totals are based on Skill (or Magic) plus the special skill ranking. So Fireborn with a Skill of 6 and a Dodge of 1 must roll 7 or less to dodge something (outside of combat). If she was carrying a heavy weight it would be a -2 penalty, resulting in a roll of 5 or less to succeed.

Some actions such as many combat rolls are opposed rolls, where each opponent rolls 2d6 + skill total, with the higher result winning.. Most special skills can be attempted by anyone, using just their base Skill.

Luck is also a 2d6 roll, trying to get equal to or under to resist the charm, avoid the pit trap and other "lucky" points in an adventure. Luck goes down by 1 each time used, being restored at the end of an adventure!

There are several pages covering various rules situations, including combat. A lot of it is applying various modifiers for situations. We'll get more into combat in next part. Although the double 6 which might kill a character in one blow from 1st Edition is gone. (First fight in the Dungeoneer/ AFF1e actual play)

Magic comes in several flavours, which was a pleasant surprise. Many tests go off of Magic + relevant magic skill. So a character with Magic 6 and Magic-Sorcery skill of 2 will need 8 or less to cast a spell. Minor magic (such as Dry or Mend) are cantrips and other simple spells, easier to cast than others. Wizardry is classic mage magic such as Light, Force Bolt and Fly, costing magic points. Fireborn uses both Wizardry and Minor Magic.

Sorcery uses the system from the Sorcery! books, where the spellcaster knows all of the spells, but pays for them using Stamina points. Last up is priestly magic, where the priest has powers, depending on their god, without needing to test each time a power is used. Each power can be used once a day, with further uses costing Luck. An example is Asrel, goddess of Beauty and Love, who grants powers of Bless, Commune and Heal, plus a unique ability 1/day of a bonus on social tests for an hour.

Other bits I spotted include a comprehensive equipment list with prices for city, town and village, a dungeon generator, magic items, a small sample dungeon, adventure advice and monster creation guidelines.

Last up is the optional rules. which include random hero creation, extra talents & skills, alternative opposed tests, new magic spells and weapons.

Solo Tools

aff2e intro | solo tools | chars | chargen

I'm intending to go fairly light on new tools this time, as I'm travelling at least some of it. Having said that I intend to use a settlement tool (such as Pendulum from creator of Tale of the Manticore), random encounter tables and random tables from the AFF Adventure Creation System (lots of tables and ideas for FF adventures). I'll cover these when they first get used.

This Rolling Solo I'm going to be using a simple emulator, my own Chaos Solo Emulator, slightly updated. It's a stripped down version of other emulators using familiar elements such as plot Threads, Extras (characters, factions etc) and a d20 Yes/No oracle. Hoping to publish first version of this as a pay-what-you-want in the next month

Introducing Fireborn (Again)

aff2e intro | solo tools | chars | chargen

We last saw Fireborn in Dungeoneer part 3, as she started an apprenticeship with a ghost of Carsepolis under Port Blacksand.

Now she's finished her apprenticeship and elves have called on her to investigate the Hollows of Havoc. And heard of a wizard there who can teach her more magic!

Fireborn Ridlaire

Elf female. Unpredictable, guardian of the dead, grew up with a fear of trees.

SKILL 6, STAMINA 10, LUCK 8, MAGIC 6. Magic Points - 20

Skills - Axes 2 (8), Bows 1 (7), Dodge 1 (7), Forest Lore 1 (9†), Knowledge Special Skills (all) 0 (8†), Languages (Common Speech) 2 (10†), Languages (Elven) 4 (12†), Lockpicking 1 (7), Magic (Minor) - 3 (9), Magic - Wizardry 2 (8), Magic Lore 1 (7), Sneaking 1 (7), Underground Lore 1 (9†)

Talents - Dark Seeing, Learned† (+2 to knowledge special skills)

Minor Spells - Attraction, Dry, Extinguish, Glimmer, Hold, Instil, Noise, Pied Piper, Ripen

Wizardry Spells - Fear (1), Find (4), Gills (4), Ironhand (1), Lock(1), Mirror Selves (2), Sleep (2), Ward (1)

Equipment - Spellbook, battle axe (3/3/3/3/4/4/5), shortbow (1/2/2/3/3/3/4), backpack, provisions worth 2 meals, potion of Magic,

Character Generation for Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2e

aff2e intro | solo tools | chars | chargen

There is an option for random character generation in the optional rules, but I was happy using the standard rules as converting a character from a previous game.

Characters start with Skill 4, Stamina 8, Luck 8, Magic 0. There are then 8 points to increase these. To max of Skill 7, Stamina 16 (each point gives 2 Staminal), Luck 11 and Magic 7.

(Fireborn can both fight and use magic, so I skimped on Luck and Stamina).

Races include Human, Elf and Dwarf, with rules in the book for making others and including examples for Goblins and Rhinomen. There are new races in other supplements and zines. Each race gets some skills and other bonuses.

(Fireborn got +1 Magic for being an Elf, the Dark Seeing talent, plus a rank in Forest Lore, Minor-Magic, 4 ranks in Languages - Elven and 2 in Languages - Common Speech.)

Characters get to choose 9 skills, three with 2 points and six with 1 point each. These can stack with ranks in skill from Race. Most skills use Skill for their skill total, except for Magic skills (using Magic) and Knowledge (higher of Skill and Magic).

(Fireborn carried over skills from her Dungeoneer younger self, choosing 2 ranks in Axes, Magic - Wizardry and Minor - Magic. Then 1 rank in each of Bows, Dodge, Lockpicking, Magic Lore, Sneaking and Underground Lore)

Then a character gets a single Talent (similar to Savage Worlds, Fléaux! or Dragonbane). These can represent a natural unique ability, a magical companion (such as Familiar), social standing (such as Knighted) or magic power (such as Focus). There are optional rules for giving starting characters extra talents, which you might consider for solo if using one character.

(Fireborn took Learned, a +2 on all Knowledge skills, even those with 0 ranks. This represents her years of eclectic by a Carsepolis ghost)

Then it was spell selection, standard equipment for each character and a bit of gold to spend.

(I let Fireborn trade lantern, oil and money for a shortbow. (and an animal companion!)

Character creation was pretty smooth and at the end of it you get a seasoned Adventurer ready to tackle danger, and not a level 1 character on the path of zero to hero.