What Is This Game?
Farstrife is a tabletop roleplaying game. It is a game of imagination. A shared imagination. A collaborative form of storytelling. But, unlike most other systems, this ain’t a world of high fantasy fireworks, golden paladins, or dragons posing for your convinience. It is not a padded playground, it is a game of stories that come with mud on your boots, of wild moments and close calls that you will laugh about later on.
System
Farstrife is built on a system called dice-pooling. Every risky move, every meaningful action, you grab a fistful of d10s. Your dice pool is almost always attribute + skill. Sometimes, it’s two attributes. Sometimes, theres some miscellaneous bonuses or minuses. Whatever gets the job done, that’s what you roll. Each die that lands a 7 or higher is a success. If you are versed enough in a skill, it’s a 6 or higher. Game is leaning heavily on (historical) realism. Actions, combat, wounds, economy – everything is thought of and based upon excesive research by our team.
This game is inteded to be a a sandbox — a real, open-world frontier where everyone is both player and GM, and where every player juggles a few characters at once, as each adventure is different and calls upon a different set of skills. It shouldn’t be a single-hero story. It’s a messy, rotating saga — sometimes you’re the star, sometimes the DM, but always a part of the story.
Combat
In Farstrife, fights usually start ugly and end fast. It isn’t about trading blows until someone falls over. It is about slipping a knife through a weak seam, landing that first arrow before they even draw, or holding the damn line long enough for your friends to get clear. It's not balanced. It's not fair. It shouldn't be. If you are a scholar, and you see a fully armored knight coming with mean intentions.. Well... Run.
Positioning matters. Timing matters. And reactions? They save lives.
Combat is broken into rounds, and what you can do in your round depends on how many Action Points (AP) you have. Each action costs a certain number of points, depending on how complex or time-consuming it is. What’s important is that your Action Points replenish at the end of your turn – so, if your intiative comes, and you already spent your APs on reactions – tough luck.
Weapons aren’t equal. A flail in a hallway is death. A spear in open ground is law. Your gear, your stance, your nerve — they matter as much as your skills and attributes.
Lore
Game of Farstrife is set in the world of Rodovitia. The Empire. A rotting, bureaucratic behemoth, spanning the whole continent, Rodovitia was landlocked for a millennium, open seas an uncrossable obstacle. But all of that changed 60 years ago, when a way across the vast water was found (again). What was waiting on the other side wasn't one shore, it was dozens of uncharted coasts, islands, forests, and entire landmasses the Empire never knew existed, each one a fresh shot at something the old world's nobles and bureaucrats hadn't already ruined. You are one of those colonists, those pioneers, opportunists, who went (or was sent) to the new frontier, looking for freedom, wealth or fame. Or, simply, fleeing from something back home, he he.
The world of Farstrife is cruel, gritty and unforgiving. A colonial shitshow. Settlers, criminals, dreamers, outcasts, and even poshy nobles, all chancing their lives at the edge of nowhere, fighting for a patch of ground and the right not to starve. Good and evil are for the poets and priests, and a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to survive.
Settlement Building
Farstrife, being mainly a colonial setting, makes settlements, towns, and outposts pretty important in the new lands. Places where you live, prosper, and advance. We've made a game inside a game - a set of fun and detailed rules on how to run your settlement on the frontier. Maybe you thought heroics stopped at slaying bandits or hauling vast treasure out of some half-collapsed ruin. Wrong. The real endgame is right here: making sure a hundred half-mad settlers don't starve, riot, or burn the council longhouse down. Again. You want "epic"? Try rationing grain after the stores rot. Want "adventure"? Try negotiating with a mob whose best argument is a pitchfork. Whole campaign arcs can be built around a settlement — solving its problems using wits, politics, diplomacy, swords, or cunning.
Gallery
Images, maps, and artefacts from the world of Farstrife. More to come as the world takes shape.