Running Darkest Hour Tonight - PC Class suggestions

[Nyarlathotep]

Afternoon all,

I'll be running Darkest Hour tonight for my group and need to generate some characters for the players. Since the Pregens haven't been released yet and I'm not super-familiar with the FC system, what would you all consider to be the 4 most useful character archetypes for this adventure as written. I'm looking for something that would be good as an introduction to the system for relatively experienced d20 players who are unfamilier with FC/SC.

Baseline character notes: only traditional PC races (Dwarf, Elf, Human, Pech)

[Morganti]

Go with the traditional, Fighter, Mage, Burgular, and one more, (since the FC priest is not the d20 cleric)

Human Fighter
Dwarf Keeper
Elf Mage
and Pech Burglar would make a pretty normal party of 4.
if you are running 6, add an explorer, and a scout.

~D~

[Crafty_Alex]

If you want to highlight how FC's mechanically different without forcing the players to go outside their comfort zones for roleplaying, I'd stick with the big 4 (burglar = rogue, soldier = fighter, mage = wizard, priest = cleric) who also stay within the general boundries for those classes in DnD (priest who uses the Path of Healing, mage without healing spells, burglar with knives and crossbow, sword and board soldier). You can always toss in a Scout for a barbarian type (simple to play and fun). That will allow you some direct side-to-side comparisons for the players without them having to get lost in the woods with the details ("How do I play a rootwalker swashbuckler, again?")

Now, I don't know that's what *I* would do if I wanted to sell a group on Fantasy Craft, as you might be selling the game short as another D&D ripoff. Here's a slightly different idea - build a character based on the art found in Chapter 1. That gives the player an easy point of reference, and lets you mix it up a bit even if you stick with the big 4 (goblin priest, elf mage, ogre fighter, saurian burglar). Moreover, it highlights how you can play familiar concepts in new ways - we deliberately chose art that took the fantasy basics and twisted them to make them more memorable. In my experience, players see those new races and get pretty excited about playing "monsters" from That Other Game and can also see how things work differeint with the game at the same time.

[Nyarlathotep]

So I've been running through the adventure marking it up with a ton of notes. Regarding Falthane's broadsword, does the massive quality do another aside from increasing the complexity of the weapon by 2 and increasing it's weight? The massive description states that the weapon is "... hard to use but generating temendous impact with a hit". Is there any mechanics effects to this?

Edit: On a related note, is there summary sheets anywhere of NPC & Weapon Qualities anywhere? Conditions would be handy too . The Bleeding quality took awhile to locate....

[Nyarlathotep]

Regarding healing: Without a mage to cast whatever 0 level spell it is to provide 2 pts of Vitality, use of action dice, potions of healing or vitality the only way to recover damage (vitality or wounds) is to rest for hours+ right? (assuming 1st level, recovering 1 vitality point/hour).

[Agent 333]

Weapon Qualities are described before the weapons section in the Forge chapter (the opposite side of Weapons than the Upgrades that can grant said qualities). Massive requires a 15 strength to use, but can knock smaller opponents on their asses.

[Daedalus]

Regarding healing: Without a mage to cast whatever 0 level spell it is to provide 2 pts of Vitality, use of action dice, potions of healing or vitality the only way to recover damage (vitality or wounds) is to rest for hours+ right? (assuming 1st level, recovering 1 vitality point/hour).

Don't forget the mend action under the medicine skill and the bandage feat to improve it.

[Rhishisikk]

To showcase FC for Darkest Hour, I'd use the following classes:

Captain
Sage
Scout
Keeper

To showcase:
1)  You don't need a Mage or Priest
2)  You don't need a dedicated meat shield
3)  Burglars are NOT essential (Explorers do just fine with traps)
4)  This isn't DND, the archtypes are completely different

FC is a low-magic setting.  Not every village of 100 is going to have a mage or cleric.  AND I have to hammer into the characters the differences in armor and healing.  Once they get past that hurdle, they do pretty well.

[Gentry]

So let us know how it went, Nyarlathotep.

[Forcegypsy]

Will be running Darkest Hour with the following (Campaign world is Midnight/Baden's Bluff City):

Unpredictable Fist Soldier 3
Svelte Swindler Assassin 3
Striking Merchant Courtier 3
Pech Acrobat Burglar 3
Savage Archer Scout 3

I'm actually curious how they'll handle the relative in your face nature of the Darkest Hour...

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Zombies!!!