Age of Heroes 5.0.4 Released

 It's been a while, over five years in fact.

While I'm sure that Age of Heroes has been well and truly forgotten by now, my OCD prevents me from not listing this latest version: 5.0.4 is now available at Lulu here. 

This is the never ending effort to get what we played in reality into print, and correct a few things that time have shown wasn't as good an idea as I thought.

Pricing has sadly increased, such is life. The paper and printing quality are however improved.

Lulu had a new cover creation tool so there are differences there. The most striking is the cover being darker, not sure I like that. The tool doesn't reflect the actual printed color very well and as a result I got what I got. I didn't feel fixing just that was worth an entire new revision, so I left it. If anyone cares enough to hate it, let me know and 5.0.5 will change it back to something closer to the original.

So what's different about this edition? 

Unlike before, I didn't keep a running errata of the changes. And over these five years, I completely lost track.

So... in general. Some things were made clearer and easier to understand. More typos were corrected. I accepted some grammar fixes suggested by Word (and ignore others, my style may suck- but it's mine). 

And as normal for a new version, things were moved closer in some cases to how we actually play while a few loopholes where closed because things weren't fully detailed.

A few examples:

• The disconnect between how talent duration was defined and how it appeared in the spell description was fixed.
• Mounted Combat was clarified, and the mounts in the bestiary updated to match
• It was noted the Heroic Level qualification should take into account any CS bonuses from gear and the effect of magic.
• A number of the Bestiary entries were updated. Dragons for example

All in all, it's the same game, just cleaned up a bit. Previous errata likely give a good feel for the type of changes one can expect. 

If you have and older version and are intending to play it, I'd suggest getting this version to avoid some things that ended up not working or reading as they were intended.

What is Age of Heroes

Age of Heroes is homegrown set rules for table-top fantasy role-playing designed for my gaming groups. It was available in a very incomplete form for free download around the turn of the century, and most recently a completed version at Lulu in hardcover.

The latest version is 5.0.4, available at Lulu.

Interested in a review? The most recent one for version 5.0.2 is found at The Bedrock Blog.

Age of Heroes Now Available

Ok, it's finally finished, up on Lulu and available to anyone willing to spend a few bucks on it.

What do you get for your $25 plus shipping?

The core rules (complete enough for a beginning campaign) for a fantasy setting of your choice. These home grown rules have been in continuous play for 32 years now (hence the 5.0 version label on the cover).

This is a 80s style RPG with some rather uncommon features:

1. The game play focus is on maneuver rather than the more common resource management.
2. That focus allows mixed level adventurers to an extent almost unheard of. This in turn allows for Generational Campaigns when one's own offsprings might adventure with their parents.
3. Balanced armor and weapons selection making the choice of what to use a matter of style instead of effectiveness.
4. A somewhat open Class/Level system that allows for great variety creating characters while still protecting classic fantasy niches
5. A unique advancement system that avoids endless power growth while encouraging mixed level adventuring.
6. Combat is similar in some ways to BRP, but is more scalable and with greater options.

Age of Heroes uses d100 as it's core resolution mechanic, and the full range of polyhedral dice for damage.

I've also made available a 6 page GM Screen PDF to use with game. I use it with the Savage Worlds Customizable GM Screen to wonderful effect nearly completely eliminating page flipping during games.

Also available is a basic character sheet (also a PDF).

Lang's Rules and Age of Heroes

Last time I mentioned that Rob Lang was running a series of articles with suggestions (let's call them Rules, because it's easier to argue about rules than it is suggestions) for writing your own RPG. Very worthwhile articles they are.

I thought it would be fun to compare the development of my own Age of Heroes game with what's there. It will go a long ways to explaining why I expect to sell a dozen copies and those who follow Rob's Rules will sell... well more. Rob is free to comment on whatever I say here...


His first article was a Prologue defining his intent, Not many rules here, in fact only one. If you've played an RPG you're ready to design one. I'm hitting 100% so far, Age of Heroes was started after a number of years of gaming.

Chapter 1: Inspiration
 
Age of Heroes is doing well through this chapter. It was a design intended to more faithfully recreate various source fantasy works (all listed in its appendices) more faithfully than any of RPG published back then while providing niche protection, combat style balance, generational campaigns while providing highly tactical play along the way...

Oh wait. That isn't true. That's what it ended up being.

The truth is that it was basically a house rule replacement combat system, followed by a house rule replacement magic system, followed by a house rule character generation system, followed by...

In short it grew on its own and suddenly (one remembered day) became a its own game (IT LIVES!). There was no planing for the game as *whole* until perhaps a decade later.

However each individual section did in fact follow much of what's in the Chapter 1 article, but with a very narrow focus. It has however never been pitched, and I don't think it's possible to describe it in five words.

Result: Age of Heroes mix success


Chapter2: Research is better.

A huge amount of research was done with respect to the original source materials. And I was very familiar with basically *all* the games of the era for the simple reason that there wasn't that many. Some sections of the rules were based upon the real world, and that required its own research.

However at the time research was much harder, some things assumed weren't really true. Thus the game includes armor types that are more 'what's expected in an RPG' than 'Real'. But I'm giving that a pass since it's a fantasy game created in a era of more difficult research restraints

Result: Age of Heroes flawless victory


Chapter 3: Writing and Style

Now we're completely off the rails. In part because I'm a terrible writer, and in part because it was a the piecemeal design I spoke about above.

I almost did none of this 'right'. I have extensive Design Notes in the appendix. My pose sucks.The thing is a freaking textbook (if only a 262 page textbook). Optional Rules are just presented, it's explained why you'd want to use them (and why you wouldn't). I've lost track of the number of Rob's Rules I've broken here.

I did keep copies of basically everything written, there are examples- but not enough.

Most people who see it scream, drop the book and flee rapidly.

But my groups and I still love it. So goal achieved. Everyone else can just jump off some bridge somewhere.

Result: Age of Heroes utter failure



Chapter 4: Setting

Did this completely wrong too. The game doesn't include any setting. The bestiary is a good place for hints as to what it's aimed at (as are the Designer Notes), but the system is made to be a generic fantasy RPG, and intended to be paired with a campaign supplement.

Basically the same approach as GURPS and HERO. The problem here is that such an approach doesn't work now days. People don't want generic rules, they can't deal with them. They want setting first.

Result: Age of Heroes utter failure


So that means that of the 4 chapters I'm batting 50% + 100% + 0% + 0% or a total of 37.5%

Not bad for baseball, rather rotten here I think.

Rob of course is still writing the series, and I'll keep pace to find out my final score.

Play Test Update

The play test for the version 5.0 core rules of Age of Heroes continues. Some more typos corrected, interesting what people miss.

From a true rules perception, the only significant change requested was to the mounted combat rules. That sort of cascaded through the rulebook touching two of sections as well to keep things consistent.

Otherwise it's been typos, one request that I swap a bit of art, copying a table in one part of the rules to another and adding a modifier mentioned in the text to a table. All easy stuff.


I imagine this will continue for another couple months just to make sure it's the best it can be.

The Age of Heroes Proof Copy Is Here

Just a bit more than 31 years after I first wrote down the core combat rules, I finally have a hardbound copy of the Age of Heroes rules.

We're considering this a playtest copy, a final shakedown of the rules to spot any last typos, remaining page layouts I can do better on, and one last pass to make the written rules match what we actually play.

This last point is more difficult than one might think. About a week after I put in the order I caught one rule concerning Huge Creatures and their parries that was missing- and a rather key one it was at that. It's far from easy to capture what's become second nature to us over the years. It's like writing an book on how to walk or breathe.

Oh well. That's what this copy is for. On the other hand it's close enough that I could stop here, once I put up what will hopefully be a short errata webpage. Others however want an even more perfect copy, and want it posted to Lulu for sale.

Using Lulu for the first time was quite the experience.

The book looks quite good and more professional than I am. The only compliant I've gotten so far is that the color of the cover is bland (that suits a playtest copy IMO) and they want it changed for the final version.

Lulu's printing and shipping times vary greatly. One copy I sent to KC arrived within a week, while my own took twice as long to reach me. The price was acceptable for a 260 page hardback, at least for me.

I wonder how the binding will hold up, only time will tell. If anyone has experience in such things, I'd be interesting in hearing it.

From here we'll spend the next couple of months doing playtest and final proof readings with my group, and with the much larger one in KC.

October 2011 Random Thoughts

Noticed  this little coming product, basically a mini-supplement for a Black Witch. It sparked off a few thoughts...

• A class per supplement, at $5. I wonder how that will work as a business model. More expensive per class than the traditional supplement idea
• Looks like all he's doing is evil classes. Not all that useful to me even if I was running some flavor of D&D
• Does D&D have a official non-evil witch version this days?

Little questions in passing.
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Meanwhile the proof reading is done, the order is in for a proof and play test copy of Age of Heroes. One going to KC and one to me. Should be about a week or so. Exciting times.
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Speaking of Age of Heroes, put together a little six page GM screen for version 5.0. Using it with this wonderful Customizable GM Screen. Expensive but worth it.
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Are GameScience dice really more random? They certainly are ugly and more expensive. I bought one set to try them out. Right off the bat, the 5 sided dice is worthless, as is the 3 sided one. But I have use for the d14.
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I must finish the Claymore Supplement before we finish our Claymore campaign. It will be a nice race.

Well Then, What Next?

I'm still on a bit of high after finishing Age of Heroes. Just completed the appendices that include designer notes, and a short overview of the history of RPGs and where AoH fits in. So nothing left to do but await the proof readers.

Dang slow proof readers. But we love them.

So I'm sitting here trying to decide what to do next. I think I read a book first, yet another Urban Fantasy novel looking for something as good as the Dresden Files. It will likely be horrid, so far only the October Daye books have been worth any effort at all (mix lot those, but good enough).

After that I'll likely finish up the Claymore Campaign Supplement. It's rather far along.

And then... beats me. There's not like there's a demand for this sort of stuff. But I'll likely work on the Magic Expansion next. Or maybe the Firearms Expansion. It will likely be driven by what we're playing after we finish our current Claymore campaign.

And It's Done...

Finished the play test draft of Age of Heroes last night. The wonderful wife did her proof reading, I created the PDF and sent it off to my other two proof readers.

But I'm counting it as effectively complete, the first time ever that *all* the core rules have been assembled in one place and formatted for prestentation and use. Previously there was a spiral bound copy of the very most imporant core rules. Nice but about half the size.

It ended up a bit longer than planned, 242 Pages with 116,030 words. Nearly all of it rules although a bit of our settings got in the Bestiary with the creature descriptions.

From here I'll let my two remainingg proof readers point out any lasting typos they can find (knowing they'll never find them all of course) and then order a couple of bound copies for final playtest. I'll give it a few months mostly to make sure I didn't screw up something mechanically as there is some new stuff (in detail, not in concept) in there before I call it really really done, remove the playtest stamp, add the designer notes and handout hardcopies to the players in our groups.

Interesting feeling to be here, even with something I don't intend to market. Likely due to my never imagining that I'd write anything that would result in a bound hardcover. When I was born, it was just something out of the realm of possiblity for the typical person, and is only reasonable now due to Print on Demand.

Just a Few Pages More

Still working on Age of Heroes, and it's looking like I'll finish the proof and play test draft this week and send it off to Lulu.It's currently at 230 pages with only five more creatures to write up (and a few paragraphs in the intro).

Exciting times, well at least for my gaming groups. It only took 31 years, although before print on demand there was almost no reason do it.

An Example Age of Heroes Creature

I've made a number of comments about working on my Bestiary, and this post is for Roequard who asked to see what one of the write-ups look like.

So here it is. It's a draft of the Goblin Chieftain, a not uncommon foe in our campaigns by any means. I converted it to PDF and from there to PNG so it's a bit blurry, hasn't had its final edit (I just completed this draft today), and is likely rather cryptic given all the game speak specific to Age of Heroes in it.

I picked it due to a lack of references to special rules and abilities, well beyond the morale effects anyway.

Looking at this I notice that I use a lot of white space, which certainly increases my page count. This for example takes up an entire page and most entries take up a half page.

On the other hand I think it results in a clean appearance so I'm sticking with it.

Up to My Elbows in Creatures

Been busy, putting most of my free time into working on the Bestiary section of the rules. So not much time for posting on the blog.

I had originally intended for that section to be short and sweet. maybe a dozen pages. As usual I couldn't keep it from growing beyond that. It's currently up to 25 pages, and I'm about half done I think.

The goal is to provide a good overview of what's possible in the system, while breathing some life into the various creatues so that enounters are more than just a stack of hit points to be degrades as is all too common in the gaming world. I hope to make each entry a springboard and inspiration for entitre adventures. Likely didn't succeed, but what the heck.  Worth the try.

Age of Heroes Status

Work continues on getting my homegrown rules into a form that I can use for Lulu.

I'm basically in the last section of the rules proper with 191 pages complete. This last part is the Bestiary, a short selection of sample creatures and people. It's going well, and even with my limited time I think I'll finish it up well before the end of the month.

I suppose I should admit that the last section isn't really the last section. Rather it's the last section of rules. There be a pages talking about what goes into a campaign setting. But that's just a couple of paragraphs so who cares.

Also after the rules are done, I have plans for appendices that will have a few items in it including some extensive designer notes. But that's for later. I'll order my first hard copy before the end of the month without the appendices. It will be used for final play test and one more proof reading.

Home Grown Rules Update

Things are going well with my attempt to get Age of Heroes into a printable form. I've recover from LuLu format changes, the first 152 or so pages have been proof-read twice by different people (which will only reduce the errors by 80% or so, but perfection isn't the goal).

Another 20 pages need to be proof read but are otherwise complete.

Just need to take a deep breath and push through the last of it. Getting a bit weary and I've been distracted by visiting friends and family.

Age of Heroes: and on to the boring stuff....

With only a couple of minor details, I've finished the layout and updates for the main rules for Age of Heroes. That is character generation, combat and the magic section. Those must make up 99% of  typical rule use.

The remainder is what I've always thought of as the boring stuff. Travel time, determining when characters naturally die, herbal lists, travel times, sample bestiary, doing the layout for the character generation example, etc.

It will be a bit of hump to get over, but it's going well so far.

Wasn't as bad as I feared

Only took me the weekend to redo the layout after Lulu changed their paper size and requirements. Went from 138 pages to 155 due to the change. Oh joy.

At least now I'm back to doing new stuff. Got the disease rules in. Progress once more.

And a Good Swift Kick in the Backside from Lulu

Well, this is something of a disaster.

Was trucking along and doing rather well on getting my homegrown rules together and the layout done so I can order myself a bound copy. Decided to review all my various options, candy store like you know...

...seems the template I download so long ago for letter sized books is out of date. Changed margins and all, and not in a good way. They want larger ones now. Worse, you can't get letter-size in hardback anymore (could one ever? maybe I didn't read it right back in the day). Nope, you're stuck with something smaller overall.

So the whole layout is blown. Have to redo it all. A number of the tables will have to be rebuilt with few columns. Sets me back about a month I think. Just about on the edge of giving up on it, thinking it's no longer worth the effort. Never really was truth be told, hell of a time sink just to avoid using binders.

It's really all my fault. I should have finished this back when I started it.

Sigh.

This Week I"m Enjoying Working on My Rules

More prep work is going into our new campaign than I've done in a long time. This is due to our selecting Age of Heroes (a home grown set of rules) for it. Much of that is clean up, as I insisted that I get our notes and draft rules into shape so I can toss it up on something like Lulu and get myself a hardback copy of the (core) rules. I'm done with binders, it's time to have a real book.

The other part is doing the campaign supplement. Age of Heroes is a game first, but still a rather strong simulation second. It was originally created for Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Prydain style gaming. That's a long way from Claymore. So it needs significant rule additions to manage that.

What has been gratifying is the fact that no rule additions have been needed. Back when I did a test for using these rules for Star Wars, I found that they were far more adaptable than I would have given them credit for. Right now I'm trying to work out the core mechanical concept for the setting- Yoki.


So far things are going well, and everyone is looking forward to the first play test of the supplement. Currently it looks like we can do the first of those this weekend.