Chronica Feudalis (CF) presents as a translation of a found document written by a 12th century monk. It's actually a rather clever modern indie roleplaying game by Jeremy Keller. Mr. Keller tells us quite openly that CF is derived from concepts he liked in D. Vincent Baker's Dogs in the Vineyard, Rob Donoghue and Fred Hick's FATE, and Luke Crane's The Burning Wheel - three of my personal favorite indie RPGs. It is written first person as if the reader is listening to the monk himself describe a role-playing game he and his fellow monks enjoy playing there at the abbey back in merry olde England. Thus presented, CF is pretty well grounded in historic reality, perhaps as would be seen through the eyes of a medieval monk.
CF starts with the word "Imagine", a fitting start to any pen & paper RPG. He goes on to describe a story, "not written by one person, but created in the moment by several people in unison". The vehicle for creating, imagining this story, is the setting or "stage" and a cast of characters. CF uses dice with different numbers of sides, the standard polyhedral dice, to represent character abilities. Characters are created by picking three mentors who have taught you certain skills and provided you with tools for your chosen lifepath(s). Each skill, tool, and Aspect is assigned a separate die value, d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12. This game borrows the "Aspect" idea from FATE which are statements which are true about your character. They can describe skills, character strengths or flaws, beliefs, fears or anything else the player can imagine. Aspects can be invoked to add a bonus die or endured to suffer a penalty. The referee may use an Aspect to compel a character to act and thereby earning a reward, but the player can always decline at a cost.
The conflict resolution mechanic in CF is similar to that of Dogs... A dice pool is assembled made up of a die for each skill, tool, and invoked Aspect up to the number of Vigor points you currently have. Penalties hamper you by requiring the removal of a die. Rolling the dice pool, one looks for the highest score on any die and compares that score to a target number or an opposed roll result. Loss is assessed in terms of Vigor unless the player decides to give themselves an injury instead. Injuries can be physical or emotional and can be invoked for a penalty by the referee similar to an Aspect. Injuries are removed by healing. Conflicts can be combat, a chase, or social in nature. Character advancement is through improving skills by training, experience (using the skill), and learning (succeeding on an advancement roll). Aspects can also be advanced along the dice chain.
CF is a game firmly planted in an historic setting and as such magic is very limited. Witches are described as casting curses (and maybe other "spells"), but there are no white box magic users or wizards in the game. Like the systems that influenced CF's development, the game seems like it would be easy to hack and one could add more magic if desired (perhaps borrowing from a game like Fantasy Wargaming). Likewise, monsters in CF are limited to evil humans and animals, but again there is no reason why the referee can't add to the milieu.
I like Chronica Feudalis despite the fact that I generally prefer more magic and supernatural elements in my game. I feel I can easily add those if I ever referee CF. I do wonder about a couple things about CF, like why given the deceit that it is written by a medieval monk for monks it doesn't have a more detailed mechanic for religion, something akin to a piety system? Again something I might add. I like that CF draws upon other games for clever mechanics that deserve a more widespread audience. I also appreciate that the author, Mr. Keller, has an Open Game License for CF allowing others to publish freely using his system as a basis. That together with his borrowing from and building upon the good ideas of others is the spirit of a friendly (amateur?) hobby that I am eager to support.
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