Forge Engine is out now on DriveThruRPG:
Forge Engine - Universal Role-Playing System
The Forge Engine universal RPG system puts full control of your character and your game into your hands. The system supports fantasy, sci-fi, historical, and modern settings, and delivers tactical play while remaining streamlined and fast.The Forge Engine - Universal RPG System contains:
- Core Rules: Forge Engine core system rules cover character creation and development, and attribute tests and skills, adventuring, and combat.
- Player Content: Everything players need to create, develop, and run their characters: traits, general skills, martial skills, magic skills, and equipment.
- GM Support: Instruction for game mastering Forge Engine games, advice for creating custom Forge Engine content, and adversary templates.
Forge Engine has the following features:
- Attribute and skill system gives players freedom to build their characters
- Support for medieval fantasy, historical, modern, and sci-fi play
- Opposed d10 dice pools for attacks with degrees of success
- Attribute tests against static difficulty numbers for simplicity
- Energy system gives players control of number and strength of characters’ actions
- Increased power gives larger dice pools with higher chance of multiple successes
- Combat rolls combine attribute, skill, weapon, evasion, and armor in one step
- Tactical combat system with meaningful decisions in critical situations
- Concurrent combat turns allow fluid and dynamic battles
Forge Engine for players, game masters and creators:
- Players: Forge Engine does one thing really well. Forge Engine gives you, the player, complete control of every aspect of your character and your character’s actions.
- Game Masters: Forge Engine allows you to use the same system and content for historical, fantasy, modern, and sci-fi campaigns, and even those that combine all four.
- Creators: Forge Engine text content is released under a creative commons license, and will have a compatibility license for 'Forge Engine Compatible' branding.
Forge Engine has undergone and extensive development and playtesting to ensure the game is as accessible and rewarding as possible. But don't just believe me, listen to the actual people:
"Its better than, say, GURPS. I would absolutely rather play FORGE than GURPS. Or HERO."
"This RPG has clearly been well thought out and whilst you might think 'who needs another RPG system?' I can assure you that you need this one!"
"Just finished my first readthrough AND I LOVE IT! I've been looking for a new system to fit a custom setting I've been working on and this looks like it could do what I want to do with it!"
"FORGE is like the D&D 4e of universal games. It has interesting mechanics I could really have fun playing with..."
3 thoughts on “Forge Engine released!”
Your game looks very interesting and I very much like your Energy pool dynamic for keeping combats interesting. However I noticed your example species don’t seem to quite add up. According to Custom Species Traits, each species should add up to approximately 3 CP. However, looking through your extensive examples, most seem to be around the 5 CP cost:
Human (3 CP) Medium (0 CP), Muscular, Lithe, Vigorous, Sensitive, Incisive or Astute (3 CP)
Dwarf (6 CP) Small (0 CP), Sturdy (3 CP), Dark Vision 3 (3 CP)
Elf (5 CP) Medium (0 CP), Lean (-1 CP), Dark Vision (3 CP), Acute Vision (3 CP)
Halfling (3 CP) Small (0 CP), Lithe (3 CP)
Half-Elf (4 CP) Medium (0 CP), Lean (-1 CP), Lithe (3 CP), Low Light Vision (2 C CP)
Lizard -Kin (5 CP) Hide (3 CP), Tail (4 CP), Uncoordinated (-1 CP), Obtuse (-1 CP)
Orc (5 CP) Large (4 CP), Dark Vision (3 CP), Uncoordinated (-1 CP), Insensitive, Obtuse or Dull (-1 CP)
Tengu (5 CP) Medium (0 CP), Lean (-1 CP), Obtuse (-1 CP), Flyer (7 CP)
Android (5 CP) Medium (0 CP), Insensitive (-1 CP), Incisive (3 CP), Sturdy (3 CP)
Bot (5 CP), Tiny (2 CP), Lean (-1 CP), Feeble (-1 CP), Repulsor (5 CP)
Cyborg (5 CP) Medium (0 CP), Carapace (7 CP), Lean, Uncoordinated or Feeble (-1 CP), Insensitive, Obtuse or Dull (-1 CP)
Felinian (4 CP) Medium (0 CP), Lean (-1 CP), Lithe (3 CP), Claws (2 CP)
Insectoid (5 CP) Medium (0 CP), Carapace (7 CP), Scrawny (-1 CP), Dull (-1 CP)
Kurgian (4 CP) Medium (0 CP), Muscular (3 CP), Sturdy (3 CP), two of Insensitive, Obtuse or Dull (-2 CP)
Pandian (6 CP) Large (4 CP), Dull (-1 CP), Hide (3 CP)
Robot (5 CP) Medium (0 CP), Uncoordinated (-1 CP), Insensitive (-1 CP), Hide (3 CP), Heat Vision (4 CP)
Titanian (3 CP) Large (4 CP), Uncoordinated (-1 CP)
Valusian (3 CP) Medium (0 CP), Astute (3 CP)
Xin (7 CP) Tiny (2 CP), Lean (-1 CP), Feeble (-1 CP), Obtuse (-1 CP), Particulate (8 CP)
Perhaps, since the traits have been fully costed, the best way would be just to have a cost compared to the human baseline (3 CP), so
Human (0 CP)
Dwarf (3 CP)
Elf (2 CP)
Halfling (0 CP)
Half-Elf (1 CP)
Lizard -Kin (2 CP)
Orc (2 CP)
Tengu (2 CP)
Android (2 CP)
Bot (2 CP)
Cyborg (2 CP)
Felinian (1 CP)
Insectoid (2 CP)
Kurgian (1 CP)
Pandian (3 CP)
Robot (2 CP)
Titanian (0 CP)
Valusian (0 CP)
Xin (4 CP)
Hey Justin,
Thanks for doing the math! You’re right, the numbers don’t add up.
There’s a little bit of a secret adjustment for the species, where the hindrance traits are costed at -2CP, rather than the listed cost of -1CP. This is used to balance the species.
You can check out all of the math here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yrIaU0qRBF9VLz4_ArqQwhxByEB5vhGFxfAa27q7ChI/edit?usp=sharing
Justin
Hi Justin, thanks for that. Yes I can really see the benefit of a secret adjustment otherwise every player would choose the negative traits. That will really help me build my own races for upcoming Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy adaptations I would like to work on. I also noticed that in the core rules, dwarfs are missing the Insensitive trait, which makes a lot more sense (otherwise they are a little overpowered).
Incidentally, have you considered using a more narrative range system rather than the more tactical approach the rules cover? I was thinking of using 5 narrative range bands such as close, short, medium, long, far and have an Energy cost to move between each (1/2/3/4/5).
Justin