Faraway Land Totally Awesome Revisted


Not only am I thinking about what run next for my group but it’s a good time talk about some pretty cool games that you may not be hearing much about.
Faraway Land is a rules lite and pretty darned gonzo and original fantasy RPG. If you’re a fan of Adventure Time then you’ll probably enjoy Faraway Land. The important thing to note is that Faraway Land isn’t Adventure Time with the serial numbers filed off. I see that way too many times. It has it’s own original setting but still has that some quirkiness and odd factor. I mean two-faced psychic nuns who ride grizzly bears into combat and worship the ancient robo-bear. Yeah, that kind of stuff. Way cool. But heck if want some more “normal” fantasy dungeon fare then you can do that too. No problem. The rules are lite and flexible.

Grizzle bear riding telepathic Agnun

About the rules. Just grab a few d6’s. That’s it. Characters have three stats: Brute, Dexterity, and Wits. Roll a number of d6’s equal to your stat and take the highest number. Boons let roll more d6’s. That’s it. Quick and simple. Characters are simple enough they could fit on an index card. This is one of those non-d20 based games that has a real old school vibe to it. COmbat can be very dangerous. Character creation and mechanics are quick, simple, and flexible. Monsters are weird and unique. It’s a game you could play with your kids, new gamers or grizzled grognards. This one gets a big thumbs up from this grognard any way.
You can grab it up at Drivethrurpg. Yes, pdf is a little on the expensive side for me but I thinks it’s worth it in this case.

But wait you want to stick to something that’s more OSR. Something with rules that you’re already used to. Got you covered.
So in case you missed it, there was a Kickstarter for an OSR version of Far Away Land. Far Away Land has been out for quite a while and uses it’s own system which is pretty cool.
It’s pretty sweet. Setting-wise it’s still the same but many of the creatures, races, and spells have been converted over to an OSR system. And yes I know there are many OSR systems. In this case, Dirk used White Box or more specifically Swords & Wizardry Continual Light as a base for the rules. So most of the rules should be pretty much familiar to many.
The biggest change for FALOSR is the magic system. It’s pretty simple in a useful sort of way. First, there technically aren’t clerics in the game. There are Light Mages which are sort of like clerics and Chaos Mages which are more like your standard blow-stuff-up Magic-User. Spells are broken down into three categories White, Gray, and Black. Gray spells either of the classes can cast. However, a Light Mage casting a Black Magic spell takes a penalty to casting. And vice versa for the Chaos Mage casting White Magic. They can do it but there’s a penalty. Also, the number of spells a mage may cast is simplified. It’s Level+3. And no preparation of spells. If you know it then you can cast it. Basically. Once again there is a little exception and difference. Spells are broken down by level which corresponds to character level. This makes what level a spell is totally different than other OSR games that mimic the original sources. So a 2nd level character can safely cast second level spells. They can try to cast higher level spells but it’s pretty dangerous. Like I said, the actual spell levels have changed because of this and FALOSR’s own internal logic. A prime example is that Sleep is an 8th Level spell. You read that right. But there’s plenty of new and interesting spells to play around with.
So in case you were wondering, the other two classes are Fighter and Thief. That’s it. Just the classic four classes. For races, you have the standards less Halfling and then the Far Away Land specific races: Agnun, Blonin, Clockwork,Exions, Glacerian, Numan, Orka, Poomkin, and Simian. Plus there’s a few of the monsters you can easily convert. FALOSR has a whole host of little rules tweaks and mini games as well. Want to do 0-Level funnel. No problem. Collaborative wording building? It’s there too. Plus there’s vehicles and naval combat. Special weird powers and training montages. There’s a ton of little useful bits in there.
And yes. It’s on Drivethru too.

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