Posts from 2017-06-22

June update and 2.27 change notes

I had planned to leave this update until next week, to add more art to the bestiary, but decided that since the manual is basically done (wooo) it'd be good to get it 'out there', especailly since it has a lot of cool stuff inside. So without further ado, let's get to it starting with...

ART!

With this release, the character race art is complete! 13 pictures in all, not a bad effort for an 'enthusiastic amateur'. I had thought of adding weapon and armour art, but I figure people know what swords look like, but they don't really know what a lot of the monsters in the bestiary look like so it'd be prudent to get on with that instead. 

Summoning Magic

I've added another style of magic to the system, allowing a caster to specialise in the summoning of monsters and other critters to do your bidding. I've been informed that summoning in certain other game systems is redonkulous (thought I've never looked into it closely), but I've got a pretty good idea of how to balance this concept alongside pets and squires in Sabre. We've done a few tests and they seem powerful enough without being broken, so we'll see how it goes over the next few months, but I reserve the right to tweak things as needed of course :) 

The biggest part of this change was the overhaul to the Bestiary it required. That's where you'll see the biggest improvement, and that manual is required to make summoning magic work, naturally. I've given the Bestiary an overhaul in appearance, and added a bunch of new pictures to it as well. Mostly just animals for the time being, but once they're done I'll delve into proper monster art and see what I can manage ;)

Damage Reduction

Part of this month's development has been ironing out old mechanics that were clunky and caused difficulty during a game. The old Reduction concept, which halved damage taken after calculating through AP always bothered me, but thanks to some player discussions we came up with a simpler way. 

Damage Reduction now adds to Armour Points versus certain types of damage, such as "+5 AP of Damage Reduction vs. fire". It helped iron out a lot of issues and allowed me to bring in my high-end fantasy metal, Auldsteel. This is probably the only area that will need balancing (fingers crossed), but I think it's a big improvement on how it was handled in the past. Spells that grant DR now give it in a disposable, "ablative" form so it provides more protection for a short time, usually only one big hit, and then disappears. 

Traps

I love the concept of playing a trapper, but since I've never actually had the chance to play Sabre (GMing doesn't count in this case) I've never given that part of the system a proper test until now. The system is much more flexible, easier to use and understand, and just plain fun. There's no need to fabricate a trap from various components, it's all done in the form of 'trap kits', or 'fixed traps', and there's even some new talents to improve your capabilities. 

So the manual is done?

For the time being, yes. I even went to the trouble of running the spellchecker, which is a pain in the backside as 80% of its results are false positives, due to so many abbreviations and uncommon words. Still, a lot of errors were fixed too so it's looking much better. I'm even going to print myself a copy, that's how confident I am!

What about Siege Warfare?

I made a start on this, then decided it was a huge undertaking but with the potential to essentially be a stand-alone sub-game. So I want to do this properly when the time comes and make it a separate supplement for the system. The codex is over 400 pages now and I think it needs to just, you know, stop growing! I don't have a specific timeframe for tackling siege warfare or invention, but given the amount of art I need to make for the Bestiary, I think it'll be next year. I'll make it worth the wait though.

So what's next?

Mostly, Bestiary art. It'll take me a while to get it all done, but I've made a start on the easier ones and formulated plans for the more challenging works. I'm happy to let the codex sit as-is for a good six months, barring any error or balance fixes that may be required, of course. In the meantime, one of my local groups is eager to try out the scifi version of sabre (called Sabre Sci-fi!) so I've dusted off the manual and are currently bringing that up to speed with the core rules from the fantasy system, so I can run a campaign. 80% of this work will involve expanding the fledgling campaign world I drew up about 2 years ago, because when you have a gravcar capable of over 300kph, you can cover a lot of ground very quickly!

I do intend to release the scifi system eventually, but I thought it'd be nice to get the race art done for it before I put it up for sale, so I might aim for getting this out by the end of the year. Lots of art in my future!

Anyway, signing off for now so enjoy the system confident in the knowledge that its finally come of age and won't be significantly altered anytime soon, if ever again.

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v2.27 Premium Codex (system stable!)

 

New!

* Added 'Flexible', 'Wanderlust' and 'Night Owl' race talents.

* Added 'Vial of Holy Water' thrown weapon.

* Added Investigator's Kit to the tools list. 

* Added art for the Feylin and Dracari races, completing the race art.

* Added 'Exorcise' divine spell.

* Added the 'Summoning' field of magic spells.

  -'Affinity' talents for summoning.

  -'Warlock' and 'Summoner's Pupil' backgrounds.

  -'Summoning' professional skill.

* Added 'Foil' blade weapon.

* Added 'Conflagration Bomb' alchemy spell.

 

Damage Reduction

* Adjusted the Damage Reduction system as follows:

  -Damage Reduction now grants a bonus to AP vs. specific damage types, usually in increments of +5.

  -Dracari and Daemon races now have +5 AP of Damage Reduction to their respective damage types. 

  -Revised the text for the 'Damage Reduction' section which now also covers how Invulnerability vs Mundane Weapons works. 

  -Adjusted the Incorporeal trait.

  -'Freeze' now gives Invulnerability while frozen.

  -Protective Potion, Stoneskin Potion, & Barkskin no longer have the option for Reduction.

  -Added 'Elemental Potion' alchemy spell, 'Ablative Armour' wizardry spell, 'Elemental Sheath' druidry spell, 'Soul Shield' divine and shamanic spells, and 'Fortified Body' psionic spell.

  -'Elemental Aura' sorcery spell now grants some Damage Reduction against that damage type.

 

Magic

* 'Whispering Voices' charm spell now uses a Reaction to cast.

* Altered the way summoned creatures are maintained - the Resolve check is only required if the caster is damaged.

* Summoned creatures now require 1 Reaction to command (just like pets).

* 'Fireblast', 'Brimstone', 'Combustion Energiser' and 'Eruption' spells now deal 1d12 base damage instead of 1d6+6. Eruption's continuing damage is now half the original amount.

* 'Ancestral Legion', like 'Mirror Image', now only protects against direct damage (not aoe damage).

* Clarified that only Quick spells can be effectively used from stealth.

* Corrected the text for 'Adapt Weapon' shamanic talent to explain that all damage from that weapon counts as the new damage type.

* 'Blighted Soul' sorcery talent only provides its healing bonus against necrotic spell damage.

* 'Wrack' Sorcery spell can now increase the penalty with additional Spell Power.

* 'Arc Lightning' sorcery spell now correctly deals 1d8 as its base damage.

* Spells which grant flight now let you carry 100kg of extra stuff above your body weight.

* Added Cold Iron and Silver material entries for the artificer's construct.

* Artificers can now remove enhancements and reclaim materials from their construct.

* Added 'Exotic Weapons' enhancement to allow a construct's fists to be composed of a different material.

* Shields larger than a Buckler prevent the use of Greater Magic, or Stealth, Acrobatics and Swim skills.

* Backgrounds which allow casting Greater Magic while wearing armour also allow the use of shields up to Heater in size.

* The material cost of ressurection-type spells is now 5000sp

 

Traps

* Rewrote the Lockpicking and Mechanism skill text to clarify how they work.

* Removed reference to making little gadgets with the mechanisms skill - I will expand upon this 'invention' concept at a later date.

* Removed the Locks & Traps section from 'Game Mechanics'. Pertient rules have been moved to individual skill descriptions, and the traps themselves are detailed under a new Traps section.

 

Talents

* 'Spell Synergy' stipulates that spell stacking and concentration spell limits apply to all involved characters.

* 'Firm Resolve' and 'Robust Health' talents can now be taken 4 times, bestowing +5% to relevant results each time.

* Replaced 'Twin Blade Defence' talent with 'Fencer' talent, which adds x2 your Damage Modifier when using a single blade.

* 'Animal Bond' talent now requires 1 Spirit Point per baseline Threat Level of the creature to be bonded with, and it earns Accolades just like any other party member. It no longer requires you to use your Accolades to advance it (it has its own) and can now also access the General Talents section for more to chose from.

* Squires obtained through the 'Squire' talent can no longer themselves take the Squire talent, creating a never ending line of plucky young go-getters to delegate tasks to.

* Squires now gain their own Accolades just like player characters.

* Improved the 'Quick Draw' general talent.

* Psionic 'Two Minds' talent now only benefits psionic spells.

* A character can remove a known talent at any time, but can only do this three times over the character's life. Accolades spent are considered lost.

 

General

* Revised and improved the Advanced Characters section under Accolades and Advancement.

* Split race talents into their own table under the General Talents section.

* Expanded the usefulness of 'Sawtooth' weapon modification.

* Tweaked the Threat Level calculator so that it now covers all negative conditions a character can inflict.

* Correctly calculated the SP per year earned as part of character income between adventures

* Added a 'Magical Practitioner' entry as a profession's income for spellcasters who offer services to the public.

* Expanded the Random Encounter tables I'd started but totally forgot about.

* Adjusted the damage modifier for falling damage's weight calculation. Dragons will no longer explode when falling more than 3 metres.

* Slightly adjusted the falling table's spread.

* Pets need 50% endurance to wear Medium Barding, and 90% to wear Heavy Barding, just like people.

* Corrected the tincture and poultice healing amount to 1d4 (in line with other references to these items).

* Silvered armour now makes metal armour non-conductive and can't be damaged by acid, reduced AP penalty to -1.

* Cold Iron armour gives +20% resist bonus to Resolve check results vs magic, removed AP penalty.

* Dragonscale AP bonus now correctly reads +2 instead of +5.

* Shurikens are now Thrown Weapons but kept on their own little table in the Exotic Weapons section.

* Added information about Auldsteel to the crafting section, glossary and expanded the 'Auric Weapon' section to cover details of this material.

 

v1.57 Basic Codex

* Revised and improved the Advanced Characters section under Accolades and Advancement.

* Removed an eroneous link to the old 'Arcane Warrior' talent in the magic talents list.

* Rewrote the Lockpicking and Mechanism skill text to clarify how they work.

* Removed reference to making little gadgets with the mechanisms skill.

* Removed the Locks & Traps section from 'Game Mechanics'. Pertient rules have been moved to individual skill descriptions, and the traps themselves are detailed under a new Traps section.

* Tweaked the Threat Level calculator so that it now covers all negative conditions a character can inflict.

* Added 'Shuriken' thrown exotic weapon.

* Added 'Foil' and 'Knuckledusters' weapons.

* Separated Lance into 'Lance, Heavy' and 'Lance, Light'.

* Adjusted some numbers of the cost and ENC of weapons.

 

Damage Reduction

* Adjusted the Damage Reduction system as follows:

  -Damage Reduction now grants a bonus to AP vs. specific damage types, usually in increments of +5.

  -Revised the text for the 'Damage Reduction' section which now also covers how Invulnerability vs Mundane Weapons works. 

  -Adjusted the Incorporeal trait.

  -Added 'Ablative Armour' wizardry spell, and modified the 'Soul Shield' divine spell.

* Altered the way summoned creatures are maintained - the Resolve check is only required if the caster is damaged.

* Summoned creatures now require 1 Reaction to command (just like pets).

* 'Brimstone', spell now deal 1d12 base damage instead of 1d6+6. 

* Spells which grant flight now let you carry 100kg of extra stuff above your body weight.

* Shields larger than a Buckler prevent the use of Greater Magic, or Stealth, Acrobatics and Swim skills.

* Backgrounds which allow casting Greater Magic while wearing armour also allow the use of shields up to Heater in size.

* Added 'Templar' background.

* The material cost of ressurection-type spells is now 5000sp

* Adjusted the damage modifier for falling damage's weight calculation. Dragons will no longer explode when falling more than 3 metres.

* Slightly adjusted the falling table's spread.