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Friday, November 30, 2018

Three Months Later...

Well, with G+ dying a slow death, the transporter beaming a lot of us to MeWe, and my weekly games, I have a lot of new material to incorporate or supplant older versions.

The new Character Control Record Sheet has made a lot of difference in the way the game is played, and with the change in the basic task resolution dice method (still hush-hush), the game system no longer feels derivative of anything in particular.

Injuries are brutal, and the Playtesters regularly comment on how they definitely feel as though their PCs are always moments away from death in dangerous situations.  Feature not bug, trust me.  I've been streamlining chargen to make this fact as playable as possible for when new PCs are needed.
This, however, requires a lot out of me: editing the [incomplete] 'Characters Without Class' section [towards completing it] will certainly be the capstone achievement of my chargen work.

Elemental Blood has really bloomed in this iteration of the rules, and now it has both a measured effect on stats, as well as meaningfully affecting character personality: figures no become much more like their Elemental Patron; suffice it to say that if one likes the Patron, this is much better than if one does not care for their outlook and behaviour.  This makes things more like the Thieves' World NPC traits sheet than the Elan of Stormbringer, but not very much like Pendragon or RQG.
Playing against type is very easy with non-Human PC species (another area which needs revision after the abandonment of more traditional RPG traits).

OK, so this is the part where I mention that I think I may be going the Patreon-based Zine route for 'pre-'release of the material.  That would allow some of the game to actually make it into the world, in case something untoward should happen to me, and I wouldn't breathe my last feeling like the whole thing had been just for me.

On another topic, I have to say that Pandora has been instrumental in introducing me to a great number of artists I'd no prior exposure, and this music has really fuelled my continued work.  Artists/Bands like Heartless Bastards, the Black Angels, Marie-Sioux, Allah-Las, Agnes Obel, Gemma Ray, GOAT (Sweden), Emily Jane White, Quix*o*tic, Marissa Nadler (:: love her lyrics, music, vocals ::), Alela Diane, Scout Niblet, Isobel/Gentle Waves, Mystic Scouts, Fern Knight, The Brian Jonestown Massacre (amazing), ...
Give them a listen, perhaps you will enjoy some of it.

See you then.