I want to spend some time focusing on other fantasy table top RPGs this year. I still love my D&D and likely always will, but I also have a lot of other games I enjoy as well. Here is one I have been playing around with for a little bit now. It is the newest from Jason Vey at Elf Lair Games. Cd8 Fantasy Role Playing.
Cd8 Fantasy Role Playing is described as a "beer and pretzels" fantasy RPG. Everything you need to play (minus paper, pencils, some d8s and some friends) is included in 32 pages.
It is designed to be picked up in an afternoon and have you playing right away. It is based on his previous RPG, Chutzpah! A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi. While designed as a bit of a joke and a design challenge, it turned out to be a very solid game. Cd8 Fantasy takes that same game design and applies it to fantasy. You do not need either game to play the other.
You have the same attribute stats as Chutzpah, "Gumption," "Moxy," "Chutzpah," "Cut of My Jib," "Childlike Wonder," and yes, a "Certain Je ne Sais Quoi," and build your character. It is a point spread, so you are given 10 points to fill in each attribute. Minimum 1, max 3 with 2 as the human average. Then can go all the way up to 10 with experience.
You have your skills, 13 of them, and another 10 points to spend. Obviously, some of these are going to be 0.
Rolls are a number of d8s equal to Stat + Skill or sometimes Stat + Stat or Stat x2. So, it is a d8 dice pool mechanic. Rolls of "6," "7," and "8" are called "Fist Bumps" or successes in other games. An "8" counts as having rolled 3 "Fist Bumps," and a roll of 1 takes one away.
Let's say that you want to cast a spell. That would be your Childlike Wonder stat (we will say that is a score of 3) and your Magicking skill (say a 2) for a total of 5. Roll 5d8. You get 1, 3, 5, 8, 8. That two "8s" counts as 3 fist bumps instead of 2. But the die roll of one takes one away, so you have a total of 2 fist bumps. The God of Me (GM) says you need 2 fist bumps (above average difficulty) to cast the spell, so you got it!
That's it. That is the entire system! Granted, the next couple of dozen pages have more details, but you can learn the game that fast.
There are options to change the die from a d8 to something else to adjust the difficulties. There are options for fantasy species ("Elves and Dwarves and other Crap?") and examples of various monsters.
Given this is an Elf Lair Games product, there are also conversion notes for Wasted Lands.
To give your characters more depth or variety, there is an appendix on Benefits and Bugs, an advantage/disadvantage system.
Honestly, it is a really fun game and simple to pick up.
Characters
Characters are terribly easy to make in this game. Over the weekend my oldest and I decided to try out the new D&D 5.5 system and make some characters. I will come back to that in a bit, but on the average it took about 15-20 minutes to make a character.
With Cd8, I can create a character in about 5 minutes. This year, I will spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting a few characters. So here are a couple of my iconic characters.
Johan Werper VII
For these experiments, I am going to start a new Johan. This guy is the son of Johan VI and Lana, mine and my wife's D&D 5.0 (2014) characters, respectively. I did do a version of him for D&D 5.5 that I will detail later on.
Name: Johan Werper VII
Species: Human
Attitude: Do good things
Gumption: 1
Moxy: 2
Chutzpah: 2
Childlike Wonder: 1
Cut of My Jib: 3
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 1
Life Points: 12
Armor: 3 (Heavy)
Speed: 30 ft
Skills: Doctoring 2, Fighting 3, Magicking 1, Mythologizing 1, Running 1, Shooting 1, Sporting 1
Honorable: 1 (-3pts)
Sword: 3 + FB
Not bad, really. I like it, a great starting character.
How about a much more powerful one?
Larina Nix
Of course, I am going to try my witch in this.
Name: Larina Nix
Species: Human
Attitude: Do witchy shit
Experience: 440
Gumption: 5
Moxy: 6
Chutzpah: 2
Childlike Wonder: 8
Cut of My Jib: 2
A Certain Je ne Sais Quoi!: 4
Life Points: 15
Armor: 1 (Light)
Speed: 30 ft
Skills: Doctoring 4, Fighting 1, Herbalizing 5, Magicking 8, Mythologizing 6, Performing 2, Researching 6, Running 1, Shooting 1
Prodigy (Magicking): 1 (3pts)
Psychic
- ESP
Resist Magic
Everyone I Care About Dies: -1
Staff: 1 + FB
Spells
Again, very quick, and I like the results. I gave her 440 experience to spend. No idea if that tracks well with a 20th-level Wasted Lands character, but it feels right.
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