Over on
rpg.net there was a recent
thread asking about high fantasy games that could also be gritty as well. Of course, I offered Fantasy Express as a possibility. The response I got was both very unexpected and gratifying at the same time!
Rasyr Ok, bought and read quite a bit of FX. I think it's great. I love it. Your game does so many things right. And I can tell you've been around the block design-wise given how polished a lot of the mechanisms are. And what you've borrowed from Against the Darkmaster and iterated upon is superlative.
Love expanding vocations and then choosing two to form something unique.
You've streamlined combat, transitioning from all the phases of the tactical round sequence to an action economy that feels propulsive and dynamic. And a critical option sheet is freaking awesome - I love being able to spend success levels (and for skills and magic too! That's great!) to be badass.
I love skills and rpgs and think many modern games underplay them - I'm super glad you increased from vsD's list - gives more diversity of expertise, IMO.
Great job with magic, scaling spells is clean and spelled out.
Oh and Milestones and Revelations in character advancement -- what freaking terrific idea to bequeath cool traits to the character instead of just more XP!
Anyway, I'll stop gushing. Can't wait to get this to my table and try it out. I'm hoping it plays as good as it reads.
Great job.