Initial Thoughts and Questions

[Tywyll]

Okay, I've taken a quick scan through the PDF and I have to say, I like a lot of what I'm seeing. As much as I love MERP, RM, AtDM, I find the combat system just makes running the game too slow for my tastes. FE looks like it might be the ticket to give the vibe of those other games, while making things run more smoothly.

In no particular order, some initial thoughts and/or questions. Apologies if the answers are in the book, as I said, this is an initial scan through and fast thoughts.
1) I love, love, love the Vocation combo thing. That's so cool. I was curious if you could take the same vocation twice but I see in the example characters that that is the case.

2) I love the heroic path/milestone mechanic from AtDM and think it is great here.

3) I think initiative is far too complicated. The modifiers seem so high that they make dex not really important. Honestly, I think you could simplify it by giving a +/- 5 to a character if they have advantage/disadvantage and then have a small list of examples of things that cause it.

4) Ball and Cone spells...these require you to give up your action to make a Save, correct? What about when you turn spells that normally inflict effects (like Stun) into a Cone? Do they still need to give up their action to make a save?

5) Critical effects...I love this in theory. I wonder how complicated it will be in play though...especially with analysis paralysis on the part of players who are scanning the list everytime they get a crit. I will probably give players a cut down list of effects to pull from based on skill ranks/weapon and let them open it up over time.
My other concern is that not all of them seem particularly balanced. Like, for SL1 I can add my Str or 1/2 my skill levels to my damage. Or for 2 I can add a +2 to hit next round? That seems kinda weaksauce. I'm sure there will be lots of other examples but I haven't gone through it deeply yet.

6) Damage doubling. In the section on determining damage, you add +1 per point over 20, up to double the max of your weapon. I am unclear if this ONLY applies to this particular bonus, or if weapons are hard capped at twice their base damage (barring crits). For example, if I rolled well enough with a weapon who's base damage was 6 and rolled a 26 for 12 damage, could I also use a SL1 crit to add half my skill ranks (10, so +5) to do 17 damage? Or is 12 the absolute max?

7) Does armor limit casting? I didn't see anything about in the spell casting section. If it does, I hope it depends on 'school' of magic.

The Diagram shows 8 types of magic. But we only have 3. Will those appear later?

9) When will the rules on race creation come out? I want them now!!!!

[Rasyr]

Okay, I've taken a quick scan through the PDF and I have to say, I like a lot of what I'm seeing. As much as I love MERP, RM, AtDM, I find the combat system just makes running the game too slow for my tastes. FE looks like it might be the ticket to give the vibe of those other games, while making things run more smoothly.

In no particular order, some initial thoughts and/or questions. Apologies if the answers are in the book, as I said, this is an initial scan through and fast thoughts.

From your comments here and elsewhere, I presume that you have only the Fantasy Express Lite version, which is not the full game. And there may be things I need to change in it still (hence why it is in Open Beta).

1 ) I love, love, love the Vocation combo thing. That's so cool. I was curious if you could take the same vocation twice but I see in the example characters that that is the case.

Yup, taking the same Vocation makes you essentially an archetype of that Vocation. Just keep in mind that Vocation combinations can never give more than 4 ranks to any one skill.

2 ) I love the heroic path/milestone mechanic from AtDM and think it is great here.

I do too!

3 ) I think initiative is far too complicated. The modifiers seem so high that they make dex not really important. Honestly, I think you could simplify it by giving a +/- 5 to a character if they have advantage/disadvantage and then have a small list of examples of things that cause it.

Hence why the game is still in Open Beta, in case I do need to change things. 

4 ) Ball and Cone spells...these require you to give up your action to make a Save, correct? What about when you turn spells that normally inflict effects (like Stun) into a Cone? Do they still need to give up their action to make a save?

The descriptions for Balls and Cones and Lines are written with physical attacks in mind. Thus, the losing of actions is only for spells against DM (i.e. cone of fire, cold ball, etc..). Spells that are normally against a Save do not require losing actions to Save against if they are scaled into an area effect of any type.

5 ) Critical effects...I love this in theory. I wonder how complicated it will be in play though...especially with analysis paralysis on the part of players who are scanning the list everytime they get a crit. I will probably give players a cut down list of effects to pull from based on skill ranks/weapon and let them open it up over time.
My other concern is that not all of them seem particularly balanced. Like, for SL1 I can add my Str or 1/2 my skill levels to my damage. Or for 2 I can add a +2 to hit next round? That seems kinda weaksauce. I'm sure there will be lots of other examples but I haven't gone through it deeply yet.

Not every result is equal. Some will get more use than others, it all depends on the situation.  Yes, some may need tweaking. This is why the game is in an Open Beta. I need all the feedback I can get, so that I can adjust things before finalizing the system.

6 ) Damage doubling. In the section on determining damage, you add +1 per point over 20, up to double the max of your weapon. I am unclear if this ONLY applies to this particular bonus, or if weapons are hard capped at twice their base damage (barring crits). For example, if I rolled well enough with a weapon who's base damage was 6 and rolled a 26 for 12 damage, could I also use a SL1 crit to add half my skill ranks (10, so +5) to do 17 damage? Or is 12 the absolute max?

Extra Damage from a good roll is capped at double the weapon's base damage.  Critical Results are completely separate additions.

Note: Weapon Focus gives a +1 to the Damage Ratings of a weapon, so, while an Arming Sword (10s/8p) can normally max out at 20s/16p from the roll. But if they have weapon focus for the Arming Sword alters that Damage Rating to 11s/9p with a max of 22s/18p.

I have plans on doing a Combat Example, I will need to get it done soon.

7 ) Does armor limit casting? I didn't see anything about in the spell casting section. If it does, I hope it depends on 'school' of magic.

Yes, Armor affect Casting, but not in the manner that it does in some games.

On page 53 of FX Lite (page 88 of FX), look at the description of the Move Penalty.  This is the Penalty applied against Spell Casting and other movement based skills, including Reflex Saves. The Armor skill reduces these modifiers.

Should I add Armor Adjustments to casting?  This sounds like a conversation to have in the FX Playtesting forum.

8 ) The Diagram shows 8 types of magic. But we only have 3. Will those appear later?

They already appear in the full version of the rules that were released a month or two ago. I either need to add a note to that effect, or to remove that image.

9 ) When will the rules on race creation come out? I want them now!!!!

I actually do not have any rules for Race Creation.  I used the Against the Darkmaster races as my starting point, and just tried to roughly balance the races I added accordingly.

[Dimirag]

They already appear in the full version of the rules that were released a month or two ago. I either need to add a note to that effect, or to remove that image.

Or make a new image with the Lite schools