Development of the Majestic Fantasy RPG, Part 4

Sandbox Campaigns often fail when players feel they lack information and that their choices are little better than throwing darts at a board in the dark. In the decades I have been running Sandbox Campaigns, one key tool I use to combat this issue at the start of a campaign is working with the player to establish their character's initial context. This helps them make informed choices as their characters the moment the campaign begins. 

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Creating Characters

Creating characters for the Majestic Fantasy RPG involves deciding on an initial context, rolling attributes, picking a character class, choosing a character background, allocating skill points, and finally choosing equipment and spells. The following outlines each of these in detail.

The Initial Context

The players’ choices as their characters propel sandbox campaigns. However, to make choices, the player has to understand the circumstances and the character’s context. Otherwise, the options are no better than making a random dice roll.

The Initial Context is particularly important at the start of the campaign, when there are no past events for the players to reference when making decisions as their characters. The Initial Context establishes the character's circumstances at the start of the campaign, enabling players to make informed choices from the outset.

The Initial Context doesn’t have to be elaborate. It only has to be sufficient. What is sufficient varies from player to player. I have had players come up with detailed histories and backstories, as well as those who found a single sentence sufficient. “Max likes to hang out at bars in Eastgate and likes to get involved in trouble.” This player decided to make a Human Thug in a campaign set in the City-State of Eastgate.

Most players find a paragraph or two of personal background sufficient, along with a handout of the region or city they will be starting out in.

Ideally, with the Initial Context, the players should know or have created:

• Where is the character starting?
• Who does the character know?
• What are the character’s immediate goals?
• What kind of trouble is the character in at the start?

The Pre-game

I encountered this in HârnWorld, released by Columbia Games in 1983. The basic idea is that you sit down one-on-one with each player before the first session to flesh out the character’s background. Mostly, this is some discussion intermixed with a bit of light roleplaying.

This technique effectively minimizes the write-up required for handouts. The discussion and roleplaying often work better and are more fun than reading a document, particularly for players or groups who want detailed backgrounds at the start of the campaign.

If this feels too formal or you don’t have the time, that’s OK. The key is that the Initial Context fits the group’s time and interest.

Definition Note

Initial Context: The circumstances, location, and relationships that define where the character is at the beginning of the campaign.

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Development of the Majestic Fantasy RPG, Part 3

I find it useful to include a brief note on the assumptions behind why I design things the way I do. In the case of the Manual of the Three Adventuring Arts, I help the reader with information so they can weigh the benefits of the different options I write about for character creation and adjudication.

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Rule Assumptions

The following is a summary of the assumptions used by the rules of the Majestic Fantasy RPG. They are useful to know as you work your way through the various lists of available options, such as classes, backgrounds, skills, and spells.

Combat Actions

In combat, every character gets two actions during their six-second turn. Each character rolls a 1d6 initiative roll to determine the order in which they act. The character’s Dexterity bonus and other abilities may modify the initiative roll. Monsters may use half of their Hit Dice as an initiative modifier.

The basic principle is that characters can take a half move as a regular action and make an attack as an attack action. A character can only take one attack action per round, whether it is melee, missile, or spell casting.

If the character chooses not to use an attack action, they may take another regular action instead. For example, they may take two half moves in succession to move their full modified movement during a combat round. See the Combat chapter for further details.

Skills

When the odds of success are uncertain due to limited time, such as during a combat round, limited resources, or when the consequences of failure are significant, such as climbing a great height, make a skill roll. The basic chance of success is 15 or better on a 1d20 roll. Add a relevant attribute bonus to the skill bonus to modify the roll. 

Two other basic principles of the Majestic Fantasy RPG are that any character can attempt any skill and that if a character has sufficient time and resources, they will succeed. When failure is a remote possibility, the player still rolls 1d20, but it only fails on a natural 1.

Experience

In the Majestic Fantasy RPG, characters earn experience in one of two ways. The first is by defeating or overcoming opponents in combat or other forms of conflict. The second is by achieving the goals the players set out for themselves. Tougher opponents and more difficult goals award more experience.

Backgrounds

A character’s background consists of inherited traits and culture. Inherited traits determine physical and, in some cases, mental characteristics. A character’s culture reflects the social environment that shaped them and may modify their attributes or grant bonus skill points.

Roleplaying

Generally, campaigns in the Majestic Fantasy RPG begin with the referee describing the circumstances in which the players find themselves as their characters. The players then, as their characters, describe or roleplay their responses. The referee decides what rolls, if any, are required and adjudicates the results. Following that, the referee either roleplays the non-player characters or describes how the circumstances change.

Repeat this process throughout the session and the campaign.

The Living World Sandbox chapters of the Tome of the Mundane, Strange, and Arcane provide specific techniques and advice for managing this process.

Spellcasting

The Majestic Fantasy RPG centers the bulk of spellcasting on the traditional Vancian system of spell memorization. However, two major additions extend how magic works: Rituals and Focused Arts.

Rituals

In the Majestic Fantasy RPG, a spellcaster can cast spells as 10-minute rituals without memorizing them, but must first inscribe them in a ritual book or spell book. Rituals also incur costs in their components. Each type of spellcaster has its own rules regarding rituals. Ritual Casting represents an older, less developed form of magic.

Focused Art

Spells are more effective when cast by a cleric or magic-user with a focus in that art. The spell description provides the details at the end of each entry in the section labeled Focused Art.

These rules categorize spells into nine arts of magic. Nine of these arts are associated with one of the chromatic crystals used to seal the entrance to the Abyss. The tenth is the original ambient magic of the Majestic Fantasy Realms.

Viz

Viz is a magical substance that takes many forms, from a flask of pure spring water to a newly blooming flower or an iridescent rock. All these items share one trait in common: pure magic infuses them. Viz is typically harvested, refined, and measured in units for spellcasting. When casting spells or creating magic items, spellcasters can use units of Viz to assist the process. See the entry for Viz in the Treasure chapter for further details. 

Vim

Magic permeates everything throughout the Majestic Fantasy Realms, including the souls of sentient beings and various creatures. Intertwined with a sentient being's soul or spirit is a form of Viz known as Vim. For most, the amount of Vim is not enough to manifest any magical effects. Some creatures or individuals can create magical effects by having more than the usual amount of Vim as a result of birth or training.

Rob’s Note: Unlike Viz, Vim has no explicit mechanics unless specified by a class or ability.

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Development of the Majestic Fantasy RPG, Part 2

 The Manual of the Three Adventuring Arts

Foreword

Welcome to the Majestic Fantasy RPG. What is it, and what sets it apart? It is meant to do a few things. It supports my setting, the Majestic Fantasy Realms. It is built to run sandbox campaigns. And it is written to be useful for people running fantasy games regardless of edition, setting, or rule system.

The Majestic Fantasy Realms grew out of the fantasy campaigns I have been running for my friends for over four decades. I kept the same setting across successive campaigns, with different groups and even different systems. Over time, that produced a fair amount of original material. The Majestic Fantasy Realms is the setting portion of that work. The Majestic Fantasy RPG is the rules portion, adapted to classic Dungeons & Dragons.

What makes this a sandbox RPG? In a sandbox campaign, the players act as their characters and decide what matters. The direction of the campaign comes from the choices they make. The referee builds the setting and serves as a neutral arbiter. My book How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox explains how to build a setting. The Majestic Fantasy RPG focuses on how to describe that setting in game mechanics, how to adjudicate the players' choices, and how to keep the world in motion. What it does not do is tell you how the campaign ought to go or what choices the players ought to make.

I have always kept my campaigns grounded in the medieval fantasy of classic Dungeons & Dragons, no matter what system I was using at the time. Decades later, medieval fantasy and D&D tropes still sit at the heart of most fantasy roleplaying games.

Throughout the text you will see Rob's Notes. These are short comments explaining why I wrote certain sections the way I did. By laying out the thinking behind the rules, I hope the material remains useful even if you do not adopt the system as written.

Over the years, and after reading more about how Dungeons & Dragons developed, I came to believe that most campaigns are hybrids to some degree. By including Rob's Notes and structuring the Majestic Fantasy RPG as four books, I want this game to be useful even if you only use parts of it.

Thank you for reading. Let's step together through the door and see what kind of world you and your players will build.

Introduction

The Majestic Fantasy RPG consists of four books: The Manual of the Three Adventuring Arts, The Doomsday Codex, The Legendarium of the Fantastic, and The Tome of the Mundane, Strange, and Arcane. The book you hold, The Manual of the Three Adventuring Arts, is the player's handbook of the Majestic Fantasy RPG.

Here you will find the rules that govern the Martial, Mundane, and Magical Arts as they apply to creating characters and adjudicating their actions. This includes the classes they may pursue, the workings of arcane and divine magic, the equipment available to them, the resolution of combat, and advice for players exploring the Majestic Fantasy Realms or any setting your referee creates.

Everything here assumes a medieval fantasy setting. Its historical foundation rests between the fall of Rome and the Age of Reformation and Exploration, when firearms and long ocean voyages began to appear. Onto that foundation are added the familiar elements of Dungeons & Dragons: Vancian magic, dragons, and the strange creatures found across its various editions.

With modest work, these rules can also support campaigns set in earlier periods or later ones up to the first industrial revolution.

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