Epic Fantasy Role-playing is the result of many false starts and re-writes. It began as a comprehensive battle system called "Sword Arm" created in 1987 to add some realism to the fantasy battles -- this system had advanced hit locations and complicated charts and tables, but was slow and cumbersome to use. But even in those beginings there were a few (perhaps two) ideas that endured to stand the test of time (and playtesters). Andrew Billaway and Brian Warwow were actually the first to test play the system almost twenty years ago. I can still remember their thrill the first time they struck on a called shot and buckled an adversary at the knees.
Synchronicity - During University I started a campaign with some friends, as a background scenario I had the players start as athletes traveling to a distant land for a competition that was held once every four years. One of the events that I created was the game of Rott's Oarball -- a fantasy game played with paddles, oars, buoys, and nets where the object of the game was to knock a buoy into the net. I wanted to give the players the experience of working as a team before the eventual descent into a sweeping epic that has them battling for their lives across the land, being dragged into intrigue, and discovering ancient secrets. I created a hex game table with tiles, modified some miniatures to have paddles/oars, and created a set of rules for playing the game. This is where I first used the colour wheel for integrating action. Players had a forward colour and a backwards colour on which they could step. I was amazed at how quickly we could resolve action and move -- I immediate realized that this could be used in the role-playing context.
Blademaster - Blademaster was created as a synthesis between the orignal "Sword Arm" set of rules and what I had learned from the Game of Rott's Oarball. Armed with the concept of integrated action I was able to make a sensible model of combat. I re-visited my my school physic text books and calculated force diagrams for striking. From a martial arts perspective, I took an interest in "Tamashi-wara" or board breaking to see how things broke -- and what things don't. I was finished making the game (combat system) but I didn't feel like testing it with players. I knew something was wrong with it. Putting it on the shelf was one of the best things I could have done.
Dungeons and Dragons House Rules - For an ongoing campaign I needed to codify and adjust the rules that we were playing by. In doing so I ended up with a 500-page manual that I called the Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition rules. Not surprisingly, when Wizards of the Coast produced their rules re-write I changed the name to the ever descriptive "4th Edition." This process forced me to look at the strengths of a role-playing system that I had long considered inferior to Rolemaster, GURPS, Chaosium, and almost every other system out there. My campaign group wanted something familiar and easy and weren't concerned with trying to figure out just what exactly a "hit point" or "Armor Class" was. Although from the game master's perspective I wanted a set of rules that I could use to arbitrate unique scenarios and drive excitement, the player's weren't as concerned with the mechanics. Once I realized where the strengths of Dungeons and Dragons were I began the work of writing Epic Fantasy Roleplaying. I started it as a complete new project, re-visiting every concept of the game. Although the groundwork was laid by the "Blademaster" system, I was creating something entirely new.
