Here’s another one to add to your White Box arsenal. Don’t let the art fool you.

Let me get the slightly confusing bit out out of the way first. Yes, Far Away Land is a stand alone game with its own system and, yes, I think it’s pretty cool. But there’s also an OSR version based solidly around White Box. For this post, I’m going to focus on the OSR version.

As I said in the intro, “Don’t let the art fool you.” Dirk Stanley does the art and writes the material. In on old post somewhere I remember him mentioning that he likes the dichotomy of cartoon style art but brutal and dangerous combat. Just because the art looks cartoonish, the underlying game isn’t a comedy game. Now the setting is a bit gonzo, so you can run with that if you want to.

FAL-OSR has a slightly different take on the standard classes. The base ideas are still there but there’s a few little switches. The best are when it comes to spell casting. Heck, I even adapted it for my old Swords & Wizardry campaign. It’s pretty simple and works. Magic-User knows a spell then they know it. They can cast a number of spells each day equal to their INT Mod+Level. That’s it. You don’t have to worry about spell/level and all that. The spells are familiar plus there’s some new one’s.

Sure there’s a few other minor tweaks to classes so DM’s can do what they want. Of course, with a new setting, it also means new races and monsters. This is probably where most DM’s will get the most mileage. They may not use the races but who doesn’t want more monsters? Some of them may be a bit silly or gonzo for some but you know, I kind like the idea of psychic nuns riding grizzly bears into combat.

But wait there’s more. There’s also the addition of “Powers” . This is a simple little system for magical or otherwise weird powers that the DM’s can dole out to characters. There isn’t a set system of characters getting Powers or how they get them. That’s your call if you even use it all. It also includes suggestions for doing that good old 0-Level Character Funnel, an adventure, and, of course, the setting information for Far Away Land.

If you’re running a fantasy campaign and what to throw in a few things that are unexpected at the players. This is a really good resource. Yes, the PDF is a bit pricey but IMHO it’s worth it.

You can grab that in PDF or POD on DrivethruRPG. And you get more information on the website.

Keep rolling those dice folks.