Advanced Fighting Fantasy and D&D Quick Battle Rules Mashup

Got a mass battle in your D&D game and you don't fancy going through the rigmarole of using the War Machine or similar? Try re-skinning the Advanced Fighting Fantasy rules from Allansia. It works like this:

1. Work out the number of troops on each side. Anything with more than one attack counts as [number of troops x number of attacks], so 2 troops for a 2 attack monster, 3 troops for a 3 attack monster, etc.
2. Add the number of troops from both sides, divide by 100, and round down: this is the total amount of rounds in the battle.
3. Each side rolls 2d6 and adds the following modifiers:

• +1 positioned on higher ground
• +2 fortified (e.g. stakes, ditches, etc.)
• +4 strongly fortified (e.g. constructed fortifications)
• -1 outnumbered
• -2 outnumbered more than 2:1
• -3 outnumbered more than 3:1
• +1 better quality troops
• +1 more than 10% missile troops
• +1 each 25% of troops mounted
• -1 mixed species army
• -2 surprised or ambushed
• +1 each previous battle round won

4. Highest score wins the round. The winner rolls [1d6 x difference between scores] and loses that many men from his side, 25% killed, 75% wounded. The loser just uses [difference between scores x 20] and loses that many men from his side, 50% killed, 50% wounded. The commander chooses where casualties are distributed.

5. Continue until all rounds are over, one side surrenders, or one side flees. If one side flees, the other may let them go and automatically capture all their wounded, or continue the fight, adding +2 bonus to the next combat round.

I may tweak this. For working out troop numbers, it might make more sense to base it on the number of hit dice rather than the number of attacks, perhaps incorporating the asterisk system from BECMI. You could also add on further sub-rules, forcing commanders to define some sort of "marching order" so the casualties get distributed for some units and not others, or perhaps allowing the commanders some way of selecting which of the enemy units lose men.

Example:

Gertrude the Grimy leads her army to try to lay siege to Bartholomew the Bastard's castle. Gertrude has 400 foot soldiers, 50 knights on horseback, and 100 archers. The knights have two attacks because of their magnificent war horses, so they count as 100. Total troops: 600.

Bartholomew the Bastard has 350 foot soldiers, 100 outriders on ordinary horses, and 75 crossbowmen mercenaries. Total troops: 525. 

The total number of troops is 1125, so there will be 11 rounds. 

Bartholomew has used his scouts well and knows Gertrude's line of approach: he prepares an ambush from higher ground. He also has higher quality troops and more than 10% of his troops have missile weapons. He has 2d6+1+1+1.

Gertrude's army is surprised, but they outnumber Bartholomew's, and 10% of her troops also have missile weapons. She has 2d6-2+1+1. 

For round 1, Bartholomew rolls 3, giving a total of 6. Gertrude rolls 7, giving a total of 7. Bartholomew may have prepared an ambush, but clearly this does not perturb Gertrude's men; she rolls [1d6 x difference between scores] and gets a 5; she loses only 3 men wounded and 2 killed in the initial fight. Bartholomew uses [difference between scores x 20] and hence loses 20 of his men, 10 killed and 10 wounded. Clearly, both armies have used screens of skirmishers and Gertrude's make the best of the initial exchanges. 

For round 2, Bartholomew rolls 8, giving a total of 11. Gertrude rolls 8, giving a total of 8. Now, clearly, the bulk of Bartholomew's army is swinging into action - maybe his crossbowmen are now letting fly: he rolls [1d6 x difference between scores] and gets 6 - he loses 18 men, 5 killed and 13 wounded. Gertrude's army, on the other hand, takes 60 casualties, 30 of whom are killed; perhaps Bartholomew's intelligent use of skirmishers has tricked Gertrude's men into over confidence.

And so on, for another 9 rounds. 

Fighting Fantasy has so much to answer for

Back when the world was young, I wrote this entry, which, to summarise, tried to contrast British and American approaches to fantasy by comparing Warhammer with D&D:

I believe that in many ways Warhammer and D&D can be taken as representative of the cultures which created them. On the one hand you have a cynical, nasty, bleak and darkly humurous setting whose dominant idea is decay. And on the other you have a game basically founded on the principles of rugged individualism and self-betterment - in which a set of characters fight to success all on their own, without much in the way of a helping hand, or else die trying. In a strange sort of way, you don't get anything more representative of British values than Warhammer, nor anything more representative of American values than D&D.

You can see this in Fighting Fantasy too. And the tone is set by the artists who worked on it. By coincidence, Zak, here, and -C, here happened to put up posts with two of the most prominent of those guys over the last 24 hours or so. They are, respectively, John Blanche:

And Russ Nicholson:

I'm sure you can see the connection here and the kind of tone that I'm talking about.

This vein in Fighting Fantasy art was a huge influence on me as a kid, and I think it's influenced me ever since. To this day images like these have always struck a chord with me, and I think when I imagine stuff that appears in a fantasy RPG - goblins, dragons, trolls, whatever - the visions that appear in my mind always manifest as Blanche- or Nicholson-esque in tone: a little bit dark, a little bit grimy, a little bit weird, a little bit twisted.

I strongly believe that art has a big but not well-acknowledged influence on gaming style. The sort of work that Nicholson and Blanche deal in just lends itself to my type of game, being more interested in strange concepts and grim vignettes than heroics and grand themes. The sort of person who really responds to Nicholson's art, I think, is precisely the sort of person who is comfortable with save-or-die; the kind of person who appreciates the picture of the halfling being abducted by goblins probably also has an appreciation for the abstract, detached and uncaring universe envisaged by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or OD&D. If you like one you'll probably like the other.

Maybe this could be a test I could use if thinking about introducing somebody to one of my games. Instead of an extensive interview process, I could just hold up a picture like this:

If you like it you'll fit in. If not, move along, there's nothing for you here.

Note: Your victory is very improbable.

If you were ever a fan of adventure gamebooks as a kid, I heartily recommend this thread by Melan at therpgsite. It had me laughing so hard I was fighting for breath, partly because his commentary is so funny but partly because the younger him sounds so similar to the younger me; the only difference is that he was slightly more diligent in his efforts to create the ultimate adventure gamebook.

There's something rather life affirming about the fact that adolescent boys, whether in Britain or Hungary, can have exactly the same sort of weird interests. One of those "we are the world" moments.

The Fighting Fantasy Cover Monster Bestiary (V)

An occasional series which stats-out and re-imagines the creatures found on Fighting Fantasy book covers.

Number 5: Gwillick and The Eater


Gwillick is a diminutive, scrawny being, probably human, who roams the wilderness and ruins of the Eastern Wastes, alone save for a companion who he calls 'The Eater'. This is a dinosaur, who Gwillick apparently managed to tame some years ago. Armoured like a stegosaur and with a similarly powerful tail, it is carnivorous, with a mouth full of shark-like teeth.

Gwillick is a cannibalistic, sociophathic murderer, who has never been able to fit into society and has long given up trying. The Eater is probably the only living being he has ever met whose mentality is anywhere close to his own: vicious, mean, unsubtle and voracious. Together they hunt for human prey, who they devour together.

Gwillick will generally try to kill and eat anybody travelling the Wastes who he believes is weaker than himself (and The Eater), and will avoid or try to bargain with those who are stronger. He has a practiced eye and is reasonably good at judging his own capabilities, and the DM should take this into account.

Gwillick carries a magical sword, which is an ego weapon (+2) with an Intelligence of 8, and the ability to detect magic and find secret doors. Gwillick stole it years ago, before his self-imposed exile from human society. The sword was the family heirloom of a Baron who Gwillick was employed by as a dog handler. The Baron died (apparently of consumption, though poison was suspected) and Gwillick was never seen in the region again; nor was the sword.

Gwillick the Cannibal

Armour Class: 4
Hit Dice: 6*
Move: 90' (30')
Attacks: 2
Damage: By weapon (Sword +2)
No. Appearing: 1
Save as: F6
Morale: 7
Treasure Type: V
Intelligence: 10
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 500

The Eater
(Medium Armoured Land Dinosaur)

Armour Class: 1
Hit Dice: 9*
Move: 90' (30')
Attacks: 1 bite/1 tail
Damage: 1d6/2d4
Trample Damage: 2d8
No. Appearing: 1
Save As: F5
Morale: 6
Treasure: Nil
Intelligence: 1
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 1,600

Sorcery! Art, or Griminess Beats Awesomeness

When it comes to fantasy art I'm a fan of the delicate, the weird, and especially the grimy. Recent fantasy art, with its 'dungeonpunk' themes, beautiful people, and constant obsession with awesomeness and bad-assness, rather bores me. Each to their own, these things are completely subjective and blah blah, but paging through my Sorcery! books after yesterday's post got me thinking about how much I love the work of people like John Blanche, whose slightly creepy, waif-like, ugly creations are one of the best things about the series. His pictures strike just the right note of gloominess and exoticism, with nary a hint of kewlness in sight, and they build up an atmosphere of foreboding strangeness that suits the story perfectly. A few favourites:

Who is this guy, what is all that crap on the shelves behind him and where does it all come from? I love how this picture hints at a world beyond the game itself: you're not important, just another adventurer, really; he buys and sells men like you every day before breakfast, and to be frank he'd rather you leave him alone to smoke his pipe in peace.


Cultists in the desert, doing...something. What are they up to? Obviously a nefarious activity of some kind, but are you brave enough to try to find out what? Again, hints at a world of activity going on outside of the 'plot'; all you are is a passer-by, barely worth registering, and everybody else is getting on with their own lives, regardless of the success or otherwise of your little 'quest'.


Take a look at this guy. He's just sitting in his hole, trying to stay out of the sun, charming his snakes. So why does he seem so oddly menacing?


Flying Fish in the Old World have teeth, and smile joyously as they contemplate sinking them into your flesh...

Abracadabra, Hocus Pocus and Alakazam

The Sorcery! line of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks is one of the great overlooked masterpieces of pulp fantasy. Yes, I'm serious. If you've never read them, or have some sort of misguided prejudice against gamebooks, I'd say you need to do some serious thinking about your life and the way it's going.

Anyway, one of my favourite aspects of Sorcery! is that in order to cast spells, the player is forced to memorise certain code words. As with most aspects of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, this is achieved through a strict honour system which naturally nobody ever follows; if you play by the rules you're not allowed to look up the code word when trying to cast a spell, and instead have to guess or recall from memory. The code words are simple (zed, mib, hig, that sort of thing) so it isn't a particularly onerous task, but when you guess wrong and cast a completely inappropriate spell it injects a dose of light-hearted weirdness that I used to really appreciate. (Of course, I would usually then go back to the previous entry and guess again until I got the right phrase.)

I've sometimes thought about introducing some sort of system of magic words for D&D spells, so that instead of Vanican spellcasting a wizard can cast any spell according to his experience level - provided the player can get the word right without looking. Of course, for every new magic user character you'd have to randomly generate new words, in order to prevent it from being too easy. And you would only allow the player about a minute to try to memorize all the different code words. There would also have to be a system of random effects if a mistake were made. People being turned into frogs and the like.

I can't quite decide whether this would be inspired genius, amusing distraction, or idiotic annoyance and mood spoiler. Probably the latter.

The Fight Fantasy Cover Monster Bestiary (IV)

An occasional series which stats-out and re-imagines the creatures found on Fighting Fantasy book covers.

Number 4 - The Tentacled Thing




In the marsh lands of Hlatepo the people speak of a Tentacled Thing, which lurks in the murky waters, waiting for prey. Those who claim to have seen it speak of a great giant-sized beast with a many-limbed body and huge clacking pincers which tear through flesh.

Legend has it that the creature has a third eye in its forehead through which it can percieve the future. This allows it to attack, kill, and retreat with eerie precision and timing.

The Tentacled Thing

Armour Class: 0
Hit Dice: 15***
Move: 120' (swim)
Attacks: *Special
Damage: *Special
No. Appearing: 1
Save as: F20
Morale: 9
Treasure Type: K
Intelligence: 2-4
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 5,000

*The Tentacled Thing does not have a fixed number of attacks per round. It can always bite for 3d6 damage and claw with its pincers for 2d6 damage each, but it also has 2d6 additional tentacle attacks per round which cause 1d6 hit points of damage each. If both pincers and the bite attack hit, the Tentacled Thing can swallow its prey.

The Tentacled Thing is never surprised, and its opponents are surprised on a roll of 1-5, rather than the usual 1-2.

The Fight Fantasy Cover Monster Bestiary (III)

An occasional series which stats-out and re-imagines the creatures found on Fighting Fantasy book covers.

Gehurt the Green

In a rickety old mansion deep in the woods outside Tannenberg lives Gehurt the Green, so named for his unusual sea green skin. Nobody knows where he gained this strange affliction, though the most common rumour is that he was cursed by the Gods for his foul congress with the many beasts of the forest. Most of the stories surrounding him regard alleged sexual deviancies, but they vary from village to village and it is impossible to know if they have any credence. That Gehurt has the role of a bogey man in the folklore of the Tannenberg villages - "Eat your oats, or Gehurt the Green will come and eat them for you!" - has served to shroud the reality in even greater mystery.

Gehurt is almost never seen. He is an expert at camouflage, and when he is out wandering in the forests he blends almost perfectly with his surroundings. He can move as silently as a halfling and as smoothly as an elf, and he uses these abilities to steal up on his victims from out of the shadows. His favourite targets are small children out wandering or playing in the woods, but he will attack anybody or anything to assuage his bloodthirst.

He is often accompanied by two allies - malignant and nameless spirits from the darkest and most ancient parts of the forest. These spirits have the ability to possess trees and other plant life, which they can then manipulate to attack their enemies.

Gehurt the Green

Gehurt has all the standard abilities and statistics of a Vampire. In addition, when in woodland areas he has a 95% chance of being undetectable by sight or sound. He loses this advantage once he makes an attack.

Nameless Spirits

The Nameless Spirits have the standard abilities and statistics of a Spectre. In addition, they have the ability to possess a tree. This process takes one round, and occurs automatically without the need for a dice roll. Once it has been achieved, the Nameless Spirit can animate its host, controlling it from within. This gives it the combat statistics of the least powerful form of Treant. The spirit can only be driven out of its host by a dispel magic spell, or by combat - reducing the host to 10% of its hit points. Either of these events causes the Nameless Spirit 50% damage, and it cannot possess another tree for 1 turn.

The Fighting Fantasy Cover Monster Bestiary (II)

An occasional series which stats-out and re-imagines the creatures found on Fighting Fantasy book covers.

Number 2: The Red Eyed Cat-Apes of Xarg-Jobba




On the barren peak of Spiderclaw there is a monastery to the God of Waiting, Uncle Kafalat. The monastery's name is Xarg-Jobba, and its monks have long experimented with the mystical arts of spirit-summoning, selective-breeding, and enforced mutation. One of their most successful (although in a certain way their least successful) projects has been the Red Eyed Cat-Ape, a creature bred originally for defense of the monastery but which is now spreading across the continent with astonishing rapidity after a number escaped some decades ago.

The Red Eyed Cat-Ape is a cross between a particularly ferocious breed of carnivorous ape (summoned up by a member of the order from Uncle-Kafalat-knows-where) and a jaguar; its glowing red eyes are an accidental bi-product of the enforced mutation process. (A bi-product with mysterious effects, however.) It is astonishingly aggressive and rapacious, will eat essentially anything, and breeds with rabbit-like rapidity. Worse, its unnatural ancestry has endowed it with strange and unintended powers.

Red Eyed Cat-Ape of Xarg-Jobba

No. Appearing: 1-6
AC: 5
THAC0: 16
HD: 4+1
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage per Attack: 1-6/3-6/3-6 (bite/scratch/scratch)
Morale: Elite (13-14)
Intelligence: Low (5-7)
Treasure: None
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Special Attacks: If a Red Eyed Cat-Ape's scratch attacks both hit, then it has succeeded in grabbing its target and its bit then automatically hits for double damage. Also see below.
Special Defenses: See below.
Magic Resistance: 25%

Three times per day a Red Eyed Cat-Ape can use its eyes to fire ball-like missiles of magical energy at opponents. There are three kinds of missile, determined randomly; the DM should roll a d3 to determine what type is fired. The first kind is equivalent to a weakness spell; the second is equivalent to fear; the third causes slowness. To be effective the missile has to hit its target (+3 bonus to the 'to hit' roll).

If a Red Eyed Cat-Ape loses 75% of its hit points it can immediately cast a blink spell to escape. This is a special use of its eyes, and it is unable to use them for a round afterwards (equivalent to blindness).

The Fighting Fantasy Cover Monster Bestiary (I)

An occasional series which stats-out and re-imagines the creatures found on Fighting Fantasy book covers.

Number 1: Geck the Warden




Eternally patrolling Wracklaw, the evil arch mage Denistier's keep, is Geck the Warden. An ancient and debauched lizardman, he likes little better than to discover intruders so he can set his panther on them.

The only thing Geck likes better than setting his panther on people, in fact, is eating them. Preferably while they're still alive. He does that with particular relish, crunching bones with his powerful jaws and sucking out the marrow. He's rather stupid and doesn't much like to think. But he makes up for that with sheer meanness: he's like a reptilian tiger shark who Denistier can point at his enemies and then simply let loose. He wears a strange, delicate-looking helmet at all times; in fact it is a Helm of Brilliance, which was given to him as a reward by his evil master.

Geck's panther is called Mouth. Geck lacks the imagination to come up with much better in the way of names, and as Mouth's mouth is the best thing about him, that's what he plumped for.

Geck the Warden

Intelligence: Low (6)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
AC: 3 (1)
Movement: 12 sw 15
HD: 8
THAC0: 13
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage per attack: 5-20
Special Attacks: Mighty Blow (Geck does not use a trident like other lizard kings; instead he uses a machete-like scimitar. If his attack roll is 5 greater than the number required to hit, the attack does double damage.)
Special Defences: None
Magical Items: Geck wears a Helm of Brilliance.
Morale: 16
XP: 975

Mouth the Panther

Intelligence: Semi (4)
Alignment: Neutral
AC: 6
Hit Dice: 4+1
THAC0: 16
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage per Attack: 1-3/1-3/1-8
Special Attacks: Mouth can leap up to 20', gaining two extra attacks from his rear claws (1d4+1)
Special Defences: None
Morale: 14
XP: 420

The Gateway Drug

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings might have influenced me a lot as a kid, but it was the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks that were my real introduction to the wonderful world of sci-fi/fantasy and role playing games in general - the marijauna to 2nd edition AD&D's heroin, as it were. I loved those books, and read them like a true addict - if my local library hadn't had the complete collection for me to borrow from religiously (at a rate of four books every Saturday) there's no doubt I would have been lead to theft and murder in pursuit of the habit. That led me onto the range of (surprisingly quite good) novels, then to the Advanced Fighting Fantasy role playing products, and then my fate was sealed.

The Fighting Fantasy ouevre was pulp at its finest - mad, honest-to-goodness theft and graverobbing of every known trope of fantasy, horror and science-fiction, hacked up and sewn together and then reanimated, Frankenstein-like, into horrible monsters. Their beauty is that you know exactly what you're going to get with them; if you've never read/played any, take a look over this short list of title examples and it'll tell you all you need to know:

• Creature of Havoc
• Deathtrap Dungeon
• Crypt of the Sorcerer
• House of Hell
• Armies of Death
• Island of the Lizard King
• The Keep of the Lich Lord
• Fangs of Fury
• Appointment with F.E.A.R.

See what I mean? I bet you can not only imagine perfectly the tone and broad content of each of those volumes, but can take a pretty good stab at how the stories begin and end - all from the title. There was a real genius to those titles.

I think my favourite one of all was The Forest of Doom, in which...well, I don't need to explain the story, do I? Because you can already guess, I'm sure. It involved a forest full of monsters, mostly - and, needless to say, a healthy dose of DOOM. The best thing about it was the artwork, though. I've searched everywhere for some examples on the internet but couldn't get hold of any - the interior artist's name was apparently Malcolm Barter, but that's as far as I've got. He only did one of the FF books and seems lost to history - one can only hope that, El Greco-like, he will come to be appreciated centuries after he is gone, although somehow I doubt it. I did find the cover, though (done by somebody else):



All good things come to an end and most FF books are now out of print, although another company called Wizards Books has relaunched the series by publishing a few of the old books and some new ones, which needless to say I don't like the look of. (You have to wonder if there wasn't some kind of ethereal synergy going on between that company and Wizards of the Coast: can it really be the case that the wreckers of two of my favourite adolescent pastimes had such similar names purely out of coincidence?)

Anyway, pick up some of the old FF books if you can find them. I'm not sure how popular they were outside of the UK, but they're still worth a read.