July 4, 2013

You guys used to missed deadlines yet?

So I know I said I’d have version 2 up by the end of May. As it turns out, things weren’t that simple. a combination of being stuck (I say stuck, but it’s actually a great job) on a peach orchard with crap internet access, no InDesign, and barely even cell phone reception made things take a bit longer than I’d anticipated. However, though a combination of could software and visits home I’ve managed to finish up the core rules, which are now posted in the sidebar!

The two major rule differences from the rough draft:

Resolve and Reflex are now just (TOU + WIL) and (AGI + PER) respectively. I dropped that business of adding a four because it caused all kinds of headaches when it interacted with magic, the Intimidate skill, or other non-derived bonuses. Resolve and Reflex can be bought up by spending 2 XP on the “Tough as Nails” or “Lightning Reflexes” talents. This can be done up to four times each (thus making the total possible bonuses of Resolve and Reflex range from 0 to 10 and fixing the aforementioned headaches).

and

Aiding others in combat: when multiple characters are attacking one defender, the defender rolls twice and takes the worse result for every defense roll after the first. This can be negated by taking the new “Group Fighter” talent for 5XP.

Other than that, there were a few cosmetic changes, like taking out the grapple flowchart, removing the image placeholders in favor of white space, alphabetizing the talents and skills, and a bit of proofreading. There’s also a new item quality, and the “Fearless” talent works a bit differently. The spiffy new character sheet (and Bryan W. Schuder’s name in the credits) were integrated in as well.

Torata is still in development, though I may or may not have a nice fat landscape-orientation map to release soon, and I’m writing the first of many pre-made campaigns that I’ll be playtesting in the near future.

Other than that, keep a weather eye on the horizon for updates and keep on keepin’ on!

– Josh