Introducing the Game Master’s Toolkit for Fantasy AGE 2nd Edition
It feels like Fantasy AGE 2nd Edition just came out, but here I am to tell you about a new Fantasy AGE release—the Fantasy AGE Game Master’s Toolkit. So, what does the Game Master’s Toolkit have to offer? Let me tell you—it’s packed with tons of stuff to make life easier for GMs and lots of helpful information and ideas to add to your FAGE adventures. Are you ready? Let’s get into it.
The essential feature of the Toolkit is the Fantasy AGE 2nd Edition GM’s Screen. This thing is beautiful! It’s a 3-panel screen. The player-facing side has three gorgeous pieces of art by Andrey Vasilchenko. The GM-facing side has charts and tables to help your games run faster and smoother without the need to look things up. You’ll find all of the ability focuses, combat modifiers, spell and combat stunts, and weapon stats.
Next, we come to my favorite part: 5 player reference cards and a dry erase initiative tracker. Personally, I find the player reference cards invaluable when running AGE games. If you haven’t seen them before, similarly to the GM’s Screen they provide quick references for everything you need to play, including combat, spell, exploration, and social stunts, detailed descriptions of all of the focuses, details on major actions and minor actions, common conditions, as well as information on mounts, flying mounts, and grenades. No longer will your players need to flip through pages looking up stunts or to figure out if something is a major or minor action. Everything is right at their fingertips!
Finally, the booklet with the Toolkit is jam-packed with new hazards for GMs to throw at their players to make life more… “interesting.” There are disease hazards (bone aches, market crud, blood-soaked plague), environmental hazards (smoke, extreme heat and cold), social hazards (blunder, obligation, reveal), poison hazards (adder’s sting, king’s bane, illuminous mold), supernatural hazards (curses, baleful energies, spell hazards), and everyone’s favorite—trap hazards (pits, snares, escape rooms)!
The booklet also has new adventure, set in Breakwater Bay for beginning characters (although it’s easy enough to scale it up), called The BreakWater Curse, written by the talented Steve Kenson. This adventure is a perfect introduction to the Breakwater Bay setting, ranging from comical to horrific. The story takes the PCs from a humorous encounter on the docks of Breakwater Bay to exploring a haunted manor house that is deeply entrenched in the lore of Breakwater. The story of The Breakwater Curse also ties in directly to the upcoming Fantasy AGE adventure series, The Lost Island of the Pirate Queen, and could serve as an introduction to that adventure or be inserted as part of the overall arc.
Thats all for now. We hope you enjoy this addition to the Fantasy AGE 2nd Edition line. Safe sailing, and keep your eyes peeled for new releases on the horizon!
