players like character creation

[Charlie D]

I'm just getting my FC campaign started after finishing a Pathfinder campaign. and my players like the options so far. One player wants to play a snake oil salesman and the swindler specialty works great with the courtier. Another likes the complexity for characters.

I'm really looking forward to less paperwork as the GM. I'll have more time to help the newer players with that complexity.

Looking good so far.

[magustoad]

FC has an amazing char-gen system.  Any class can be molded into a theme you like with fair ease.  Badass great-sword wielding mage?  Done!  Covert-ops commando-style sneaky soldier?  Done!

This is the first class-based system that I have really dug on.  

[Reef]

The char-gen played a huge part in allowing me to sell FC to my group.  Class-based, and yet with seeming-less infinite possibilities is a great combination.

[Krensky]

A few gotchas for those new, especially coming from Pathfinder, in no particular order.

High stats are not as important. Three 12s and three 14s before talent is my usual spread unless concept dictates otherwise.

There are no dump stats. I would never recomend an 8 unless strongly dictated by concept, and would never go below that.

When the game says something is equal to X, it is always equal to X, even when X changes. This is particularly important with the Spell Library feat.

Unless your GM is nice the vast majority of a arcane casters spells are chosen at first level. Plan accoedingly. You will get new spells whenever you put ranks in Spelllcasting or bump Wisdom (or gain Lifestyle if you have Spell Library) though, so you will get some as you level.

I highly recomend the Adventurer's Companion. More feats and the Martial Artiist and Emissary are awesome. Just don't think of the MA as a Monk, that's another (Expert) class with it's own schtick.

Lastly, if you miss some of the AP and UC classes, look in the end of the Pathfinder AP conversion thread where I posted Specialties for the Witch, Gunslinger, Summoner, and Alchemist.

[tfwfh]

Unless your GM is nice the vast majority of a arcane casters spells are chosen at first level. Plan accoedingly. You will get new spells whenever you put ranks in Spelllcasting or bump Wisdom (or gain Lifestyle if you have Spell Library) though, so you will get some as you level.

On the topic of advice to new players, this is actually a symptom (for lack of a better word) of a larger aspect of Fantasy Craft.  FC leaves a number of things undecided so as not to limit the GM's options in any way.  One of those things is how and when mages gain new spells.  FC gives a minimum rate, but that's really all it is.  If you want mages to gain new spells faster, go for it.  Another similar aspect is Alignments.  There are lots of abilities, spells, and monsters that rely on something having an opposing alignment, but FC doesn't actually include any alignments for you to use.  Unlike DnD which has the Good/Evil/Law/Chaos alignments enshrined in the basic rules, FC lets you decide for your self what you want the alignments to be.  However, that does mean that you do have to decide.

There's many threads around here talking about these two particular subjects, and I'll let you look them up if you want inspiration.  My advice on this topic is to sit down with your players and discuss what kind of feel each of you wants for these things and how it affects the game.  For example, if you decide that mages can't learn spells from each other and can only cast the ones they have gained from their various feats and abilities, then it might make sense that there wouldn't be big wizarding colleges in the setting.  Basically just make sure that you and your players are on the same page about how these things work so they can make characters that fit in the setting and rules that you're using and you're not constantly having to correct their assumptions from past experience with dnd/pathfinder.

My other piece of advice is to not be afraid to tell your players no if you're uncomfortable with what they're doing.  For instance, the first time I ran an FC game, one of my players made a near invincible six-armed robot killing machine for his character.  Now, it's really cool that FC supports that kind of thing, but it was very inappropriate for the game we were playing and I shouldn't have allowed it.

[Krensky]

Actually, that's one of the single biggest misunderstandings I see.

The game does tell you when a caster learns new spells. When their Permanent Wisdom score or Spellcasting ranks go up (ignoring Spell Library for now).

What t. It doesn't tell you is how. Study, trial and error, little angels, whatever. That's world design. The number of spells you know and when you learn them is explicit in the rules.

Also, the GM makes the Alignments, as they're also part of World Building.

[tfwfh]

Ok, I had another look at the rules and that's fair.  Even so, I think there's plenty of room for interpretation.  Either way, my larger point still stands.  Other d20 games make a lot of assumptions about the setting and the kind of game you're looking for that FC doesn't.  New GMs need to be aware of that, decide how they want to fill it out, and then present it to their players before the players start making assumptions.

[Charlie D]

Great advice everyone, thanks. I want to get away from magic shopping malls (shudder) and do everything casters. I've let me players know that before but in PF it was hard to overcome the built in assumptions. With FC, I'll be clear right up front about what the world is like and build it accordingly.

Of course, I'll listen to ideas my players have as well. But I have a base already in mind to start with and the players are fine with it so far.

[Desertpuma]

Something else to keep in mind. With FC, you can run entire monster hunting campaign and never have a single magic item in your campaign at all. FC characters can hold their own because of the design of the game as good if not better than their D&D counterparts at equivalent levels w/o magic items of any kind.