I buy a lot of RPG’s that I’m never going to play. In fact, for most of the games I buy, I do so intending on simply using them for inspiration or for exposure to new rule systems. A friend recently turned me on to the FATE system, and all I can say is that I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to start using it. I’ve been aware of FATE since the release of Spirit of the Century, but neither me nor my gaming group are really into pulp adventure, so unfortunately I let FATE pass me by. Now, however, Cubicle 7 Entertainment has released Legends of Anglerre, and at last I have a FATE RPG in my preferred genre, fantasy.
Let me start by saying that I almost missed this game. Why? Well frankly when it comes to fantasy RPG’s, I’m not really looking for a specific setting, and I’ve never even heard of Anglerre or the Starblazer Adventures comics that inspired the setting. But upon closer examination I was pleased to discover that only one chapter, sixteen of the book’s 378 pages, is about Anglerre as a setting. The other 362 pages are much more accurately described as “The Fantasy Toolkit for FATE”.
Right up front, this is a beautiful book. The layout and design are top-notch, the index and the contents are user friendly, and numerous sidebars and examples allow for easy understanding of the game. The artwork is all black and white panels, apparently from the original British comic series. It took awhile to grow on me, but I like the consistent look and style.
Mechanically, this is my favorite iteration of FATE (having recently read Diaspora, The Dresdin Files, and Spirit of the Century). For those of you unfamiliar with FATE, it is a narrative-based game that strongly supports player contribution to both the story and setting. Characters are quick and easy to create, and are defined by their Aspects (short descriptive phrases) instead of lists of numeric data. In fact, when we tried Legends of Anglerre using the quick-play character generation system provided, five of us made up characters and were playing in literally 10 minutes. Full-blown character generation might take as long as 30 minutes or so.
In addition to character generation and rules for basic actions, Legends of Anglerre includes an excellent system for creating other elements in the campaign in a consistent and logical format. You can easily create and define anything from a bustling city – to a secret organization – to an elite unit of spearmen, using the same basic system as used in character creation. The beauty here is that all of these things can interact with each other in a variety of interesting ways. This allows Legends of Anglerre to include rules for other things, such as mass combat (say between a castle and an invading orc horde) as well as interactions between organizations (such as a thieves’ guild and local constabulary). All of this meshes completely with character scale mechanics and systems. In addition, one of the coolest components of Legends of Anglerre are the chapters dedicated to running the game, creating stories, and building campaigns. Regardless of the game you’re running, there is fantastic advice here for any gamemaster.
Overall I give legends of Anglerre my highest recommendation with only one caveat, and that has to do with the FATE system itself. Without going into a lengthy discussion of the way FATE works, you should know that it is generally a “rules light” system. For those of you needing more “crunch,” FATE may not be for you. This isn’t to say that the system is lacking in anything, just that it’s not about lots of math, hard data, and five-page character sheets. However, for those of you looking for an extremely flexible fantasy system, one that places the emphasis on storytelling over mechanics, and are not afraid of letting players make some of the decisions about the campaign, then Legends of Anglerre may be exactly what you are looking for.
So, if you like story over mechanics, and narrative over data, or you’re just a fan of FATE, then do yourself a favor and pick up this game. As for me, Legends of Anglerre has definitely become my game of choice, and the vehicle by which I want to tell fantasy stories. In fact, I’ve already begun work on my next fantasy campaign, and can’t wait to put Legends of Anglerre into action.
Editor’s note: Sadly, Legends of Anglerre has been discontinued, but you can still get copies at Amazon!
John Lewis
John Lewis started roleplaying back in 1983 with the ‘old blue box’ edition of Dungeons & Dragons. He has played and/or gamemastered more games than he cares to admit, or can even remember! Currently he spends the vast majority of his game time running a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying campaign. John's next project is to convert the Warhammer 40,000 RPG's (Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, Rogue Trader) to Strands of FATE. He is also an avid miniatures painter and wargamer and enjoys a variety of different boardgames.
I’ve been looking at this for a couple of months and debating. It’s slowly moving from whenever column to the put it on the shop list.
I can’t say enough good things about it. Worth every penny.
Can you give a little more info on the setting?
Also, I just found this site, and I think it’s fantastic.
@ Rudy: Actually there are two setting included with the book, both are 16 page chapters.
Anglerre, the one the comic was set in, is a sword & sorcery setting. It focuses on the human kingdom of Anglerre and their conflict with the evil kingdom of Suvethia. It’s a fairly low magic setting without elves, dwarves, or halflings.
The other setting is the Hither Kingdoms, a high fantasy setting. I don’t think it’s based on any other book. Basically it’s classic fantasy in the style of the Forgotten Realms or Middle-Earth.
Both settings are just briefly outlined, no more than a paragraph on any given sbject. For me it’s just enough to kick-off some great ideas. But, if you’re looking for a completely laid out setting with all of the details this might not really work for you.
One other thing, there are really nice full-cover maps of each setting inside the front and rear covers.
I understand LOA has some sort of kingdom rules. Can you tell me about that a bit?
Kingdoms, empires, guilds, religions, etc. all fall under the category of Organization and so use the Organization rules. The scale of the organization determines its initial number of Aspects and Skill points. Scale ranges from Tiny (a company, village, or organization of around 50 – 100 people) to Internection (a vast organization spanning the entire cosmos). Scale also determines what an organization can directly interact with (basically anything of the same scale or within two steps of its own scale).
On paper an organization will look a lot like a PC (in fact a “character sheet” for organizations is included). It will have Aspects (such as Tax Hungry, Dark Secrets, Aggressive, and Benevolent Monarch), and Skills (like Influence, Information, Arms, and Trade). It may even have special skills (Assassination, Secrecy, and Divine Protection). As with PC’s the Organization may even have Stunts associated with its Skills (Elite Forces, War Engines, Trade Network, and Strongholds). And finally an Organization will also have both Physical and Composure Stress tracks.
From here the organization works like a character. Say the Thieves’ Guild uses one of its Skills (Conspiracy) successfully against the kingdom. It would inflict Composure Stress to the kingdom, which in turn could be mitigated by the kingdom taking a Consequence, say Disrupted Trade. Now the kingdom has a new Aspect that can be Tagged just like a PC taking a Consequence.
That’s just a real brief overview. I havn’t ever played any other game that had such interesting and useful rules for something like a kingdom but I really like what LOA has done.