I picked up Fantasy Craft at Gen Con, and in the few days since, I've managed to read or skim almost the whole book. I have to say that the more I dig into this system, the more I like it.
Fantasy Craft builds on Crafty Games' more venerable property, Spycraft 2.0, using a streamlined set of rules called the Master Craft system. (Crafty intends to use this system for later releases as well, including the modern crime game Ten Thousand Bullets.)
Fantasy Craft is built on the core of the d20 system, and it stays truer to its roots than other d20 variants like Mutants & Masterminds. It's still class/level-based, you still gain feats and skills in much the same way. But Crafty Games presents everything in a strongly modular, toolbox style, offering options that all seem to fit together seamlessly.
Unlike its fantasy-d20 forebears, Fantasy Craft doesn't just focus on combat and physical conflict. There are strong gamist systems for tracking stress, dispositions, social contacts, renown and reputation, dramatic pacing, personalized subplots, and countless other narrativist activities.
Note about art: Crafty went with a black-and-white ink art style that I have missed tremendously in the last 5 years (or so) of gaming products. The illustrations in this book really take me back to my earliest gaming products.
As I read this book, I'm leaning very strongly toward making my next fantasy campaign a Fantasy Craft campaign.
400 pages; color cover, B&W interior. $49.95 (Print); $29.95 (PDF)
