Greetings, Sabre enthusiast! For this month's update, the main focus has been on revising and updating the Bestiary's monster entries, mostly to replace the old tables with the new forms, but as the work went on, I noticed a lot of anachronistic or flat out wrong information, so it's all been brought up to the latest iteration of the system (and it looks a whole lot nicer!)

I also took the opportunity to add and update some monster art, as shown below:

 

I feel like I'm cheating a bit, as I decided to speed up the process by using some royalty-free stock images to fill out the backgrounds, but I think the result is much nicer and it's far cheaper than having a dedicated professional artist come in and do them, so it's a nice middle ground. Plus, I'm spread thin working on the system itself, so it's a big time saver. 

For now, it's just the monster entries that have been updated, which I just finished up today. I'll continue working on the NPC templates going forward, as most of those will crossover with the scifi Encounters manual too. I'll also do a few more pictures, as I think I can speed things up a bit in that regard. 

Oh, one more thing: I've disable the Sabre Character Sheets product on DriveThruRPG, as I didn't see the point in trrying to maintain that in addition to the fillable forms. 

It feels like the system as a whole is settling down, with fewer tweaks needed as we go. As such, there's not a lot done to the rest of the system, though the scifi books get a bit more love, as you'd expect (it's newer and more complex). So that's about all for this month, so until next time, peace out.

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Sabre Scifi Core Rulebook v1.13 

* Taser glove is now more expensive, only adds +1 damage, and has 3 charges per battery.

* Arborean ranged weapons count as Heavy Weapons (spore cannon) or Longarms (thorn gun) for modding.

* Medic talent now grants +1 HP gain to First Aid and Surgery skill results.

* LAW rockets and Mini-Missiles are now counted as Heavy Weapons.

* Solid shotgun slugs now provide 20/80 base range.

* Lift Fans robot upgrade now limits the robot to 2 armour plating upgrades.

* Mentioned that the human's Ambitious Effort manoevure can be used after the skill roll.

* Added 'Hydraulic Assist' option for the Hazard Suit invention.

* Dimensional Shunt now imposes a -20% skill penalty check if you can't see the target location.

* Noted that the sawn-off barrel mod can only apply to longarms of L size or less.

* Latent Mutation genetics mod has been revised with fewer negative results, the ones that are there are less onerous, and there are more positive ones.

* Added Antacid medicine.

* Fixed a few vehicle upgrade entries such as Armour Plating and Docking Bay.

* Added computer programming requirements for Bio-Analyser, Compact Nuke, Critical Shield, Fusion Generator, Gravity Gun, Hazard Suit, Invisibility Cloak, Microbe Filter, Mind Probe, Mini-Drone, Omnivisor, Phase Shifter, Powered Armour, Security Matrix, Sentry Turret, Signal Disruptor, Tactical Analyser, Temporal Compressor, Wormhole generator.

* Infopads in the high-tech era now also have a holographic display.

* Updated the base building section with correct information.

* Field Medic background loses Healing skill, gains Medicine. Loses extra damage bonus and gains a time bonus to perform First Aid in 1 round. Also gains 1 extra background event.

* Healing skill is now called Surgery.

* Surgery Talent is now called Advanced Surgery.

* Feline venator minimum height is now 110cm, Ursine venator minimum height is now 250cm.

* Off-road suspension and Tracked upgrades for ground vehicles now grant -2 movement, but don't halve their total movement off-road.

* The bonus from Academic contacts is now +10% extra accolades at the end of each session (instead of a flat +1).

* Machine Language can now only be written and read by non-machine characters, not spoken.

* Added 'Mind Link' psychic discipline.

* An Extended Period of Study now clearly outlines 8 hours is required for the check.

* 'Efficient Study' talent now allows a 2nd check if 12 hours are spent performing an Extended Period of Study.

* 'Signal Disruptor' invention is now modern era, altered components.

* Added 'Plasma Caster' modern nuclear invention.

* Vehicle Turrets specify they can only mount 1 weapon each. 

* Linked weapons have to by fixed mount (forward, rear etc).

* Added 'Omnivisor' modern electronics invention.

* Restored the missing 'mini-drone' invention (now new and improved!)

* Added 'Radiation Cleanser' modern invention.

* 'Annihiliator Warhead' is now called 'Compact Nuke', available in modern era.

* Weapon Turrets are now just Standard (max of 3 slot weapons) and Heavy Duty (up to 6 slot weapons). HD turrets add +10 HP to the weapon.

* Added Command & Control upgrade to allow leadership abilities to be used for vehicles. 

 

Starship Manual v1.03

* Updated the navigation and commander's sheets with space for more data.

* Added 'Repair Specialist' talent.

* Removed 'Emergency Procedures' talent.

* 'Cloaking Expert' talent is now listed under Engineering talents, also benefits Silent Running.

* Updated the engineer's character sheet with space for hull type and species design.

* 'Stealth Mode' is now called 'Silent Running'.

* Thruster upgrade now increases atmo speed by 25%, increases Max Lift by 1 ton per hull class, and reduces fuel by -1. Uses 20 parts per hull class.

* Expanded Drone Bay now uses 10 slots instead of cargo space.

* Ships Advanced Brig now uses only 20kw of power.

* Armour Plating now increases ship weight by 1 ton per Hull Part.

* Characters can use any ship's console without penalty so long as they have the Computers skill (they no longer need the Console Operation talent to avoid a penalty).

* The Console Operation talent now gives the character using it the bonus from that console (without this talent, there's no bonus).

 

Sabre Fantasy Premium Core Rulebook v2.94

* Healing skill is now called Surgery.

* Surgery Talent is now called Advanced Surgery.

* The bonus from Academic contacts is now +10% extra accolades at the end of each session (instead of a flat +1).

* An Extended Period of Study now clearly outlines 8 hours is required for the check.

* 'Efficient Study' talent now allows a 2nd check if 12 hours are spent performing an Extended Period of Study.

* Updated monster templates in the Sample Bestiary.

 

Sabre Fantasy Basic Core Rulebook v1.78

* Healing skill is now called Surgery.

* Surgery Talent is now called Advanced Surgery.

* The bonus from Academic contacts is now +10% extra accolades at the end of each session (instead of a flat +1).

* An Extended Period of Study now clearly outlines 8 hours is required for the check.

* 'Efficient Study' talent now allows a 2nd check if 12 hours are spent performing an Extended Period of Study.

* Updated monster templates in the Sample Bestiary.

 

Sabre Fantasy Bestiary v2.56

* Updated and revised all monster templates (NPC templates will be done next month). Added or updated art for Storm Crow, Celestial (minor), Demon (minor), Aethereal (minor), Astaroth, Virtue.

Hi, welcome to another monthly update for Sabre! This might end up being the longest blog I've written, as there's big things afoot for the system. Firstly, my publisher was shuttered by its parent company, so I'm back to being an indie author again. I'm disappointed how it turned out, but in the long run, it did wonders for the quality of my books so I can't complain. But I've decided to put aside writing for the rest of the year and focus on Sabre instead. So let's take a look at what's happening with this update, and coming over the next 9 months.

 

Bestiary Epic recalibration

Some of the high-end monsters such as ancient dragons didn't end up being as powerful as I'd hoped. I'll confess I never ran the numbers on just how much damage and AP a character can get, but when I farmed that task out to my beta team, the results were a little startling. I'm fine with those numbers, but I needed to crank up the power of the epic monsters a lot, and so, I have :) The biggest can have over 40 AP, and can deal around 60 damage in one hit, so you can expect a truly epic fight requiring the finest of equipment in order to tackle them. This is Sabre in hardcore mode ;) This of course means the Threat Level for these creatures has gone up quite a bit, which leads to:

 

Threat Level Table Tweak

I had originally set up the table to max out at TL 20, since in teh fantasy system it's almost impossible to get a player character that high. But there's no reason things can't go higher, so an ancient dragon hits TL 28 (epic) now, requiring a party of very well equipped end-game characters to win. The calculations have been modified for damage output, to make it easier - that first 10 damage was only worth 2 points, but now it's simply a matter of half your max damage = the addition to the calculation. Smoother! We've also added a section for the evade result bonus, as a slippery character can be extremely difficult to hit, and it's certainly worth counting it if they avoid damage altogether like that. Extra attacks and Luck Points are worth a bit more as well.

 

Streamlined Spirit Talents

Another idea from my beta testers was to streamline the way extra Spirit Points are gained through talents. So all those talents that gave +2, +3, +4 spirit etc, are now compressed into self-updating talents that you don't need to repeatedly take. This is an ongoing theme with sabre updates, as talents can get pretty expensive after a while and I really like the ones that automatically give a new bonus as the skill they're tied to increases. I've also allowed the spirit talents tied to the resistance skills to yield more at higher levels, and the primary greater magic/psychic talent is now "Transcendent", which results in more Spirit than before. A common comment from players using spellcasters/psychics is that they burn through spirit very rapidly, and while I'm reluctant to give out too much, it doesn't hurt to let those numbers go a little higher. This carries over to the bestiary and encounters manuals too, where caster templates will have more spirit as a result.

 

99% weapon talents improvement

Yet another tweak from my crack team of beta testers is to make the 99%, top tier talents more appealing and powerful. Some were already fine, but some others needed improvement, so you'll find them much more interesting to get once you hit that coveted 99% skill level. You can see more about the details of this in teh changelog notes below, and it affects both scifi and fantasy systems.

 

Drone System revamp (take two!)

On to more scifi-specific stuff. The drone system has evolved over the past few months, as the initial build was too complex and slowed down gameplay, and the recent change, while better, was still too complex. Basically the ability to make your own drones from scratch gave a little too much freedom, and we found that specific types of drones were very common, and thus, the system has been updated with new, pre-made templates, just like the vehicle and starship system. A drone being used on a combat grid must be directly controlled with an action, but they can be pre-programmed to operate outside of sensor range to perform tasks, too. Basically, one drone is used in combat, and drone swarms can be up to 4 cmbat drones slaved together at once (effectively acting as one drone). Burst weapons have been removed from their available weapon list, and instead, drone swarms use a burst dice to determine how many weapon hits they get during an attack. This streamlines gameplay and makes it easier for the Telemetry operator to keep track.

 

Veiran Tweak (take two!)

Ah, the Veiran, the most challenging species to balance and play! I've recently made a character that I'll be playing in one of our local games, and it became obvious that even after the recent overhaul, it was still a bit lacking. It only had one species talent, and its capabilities were a bit limited. So, you'll find their abilities greatly expanded now, and as I play-test it further, we'll see if I overcooked its combat abilities ;) *readies the nerf bat*.

 

Starship cost increase and unlimited hull size

Ships were too cheap in general, so their costs have gone up, especially for stardrives. But the upside of this is that there is no upper limit on hull class now, with a section on how to calculate a ship's capabilities of any size, even a moon! Wait, that's no moon...

Speaking of starships, let's talk more about what's coming up in the near future.

 

Starship section separation

When the scifi edition came out, it was around 370 pages, so I had no compunctions about putting the starship stuff in there too. But with the addition of inventions, base building and such, it's ballooned out to 436 pages, and that's a LOT of stuff. My mid-range tablet is having a little trouble navigating around now, and I think it's just become too big. So, I'll be taking out the starship section and putting it into its own manual, which comes in at around 60 pages. The Zacharial species will be moved over too, as this species relies on rules for ship boarding for some of its powers, and it's a starfaring species too :)

This will make both manuals easier to navigate, and give it more room for expansion for things such as pictures, and detailing specifics about equipment etc. The ship manual will be $2.50 US once released. Speaking of extra manuals...

 

Siege Warfare

This is something I shelved a few years ago to concentrate on getting scifi happening, but I was able to hand this off to my beta team (thanks Aidan!) to figure out how it'll work. The basics are done, but it needs layout and cover art complete of course. We'll also test it! I'll probably run a special siege session where the players will try to take my castle, and we'll see how it goes! 

 

Bestiary Art

I want to get back into finishing the artwork for the bestiary. My style has improved since the last batch I did, so I'm hoping to continue filling out this section, especially for the custom creatures unique to Sabre. 

 

Metric to Imperial Conversion

I had hoped that a metric system would be okay with most players in the US, but it seems it's still a stumbling block for many players. So I plan on adding imperial units to the system, alongside metric where possible. Object encumbrance (ENC) is basically pounds anyway, so that's easy, and there's plenty of places where both units can be placed alongside each other, such as temperature and speed. Yards and metres are pretty close, so the basic ground combat grid will be 1 yard squares, and vehicles will be in 10 yard squares. I know feet are more conmmonly used, but this is easier and I'm super lazy :P The starship grid is a little trickier, as kilometres and miles are out by more than half, but I'll figure something out. I hope this will help our American friends get a handle on the system and give it a try :)

 

Intro Modules

I've had a half-completed intro module sitting here for about a year, and now I'm actually going to finish it and get it out there, to help players understand the unique mechanics the scifi system has to offer. It'll be a two-part affair, with part 1 offering ground and vehicle combat, plus all the basics such as skill checks etc. Part 2 is when the party gets on board a starship, and covers all aspects of that part of the game. It should be fairly self-contained, so you won't even need the separate starship manual to see how it all works :)

 

Further Story Modules

Finally, after the two free modules are done, I'd love to do a bunch of premium modules for the scifi system. I'm thinking 3 high-tech stories with starships etc, 1 industrial era to show off the steampunk aspects of the system, and 1 modern era mod that will probably be vehicle-heavy. This will take the bulk of the rest of the year to complete. 

So, that's a lot of stuff! Some of these items are ongoing, others will be released when they're ready. I'm all typed out for now, so take care and I'll bring you another update next month :)

 

v1.10 scifi manual update

Threat Levels

* Damage on the Threat Level table is now calculated as +1 for every 2 points (easier calculation).

* Extra attacks on the Threat Level table now has a value of +5.

* Luck Points on the Threat Level now have a value of +1 each.

* Threat Level tables now include the calculation for every +2% evade or agility result bonus.

* Ramming Prow shares an entry with the Redundant systems value. 

* Added a new Threat Level table for calculating ship TL.

 

Industrial Era

* Expanded the capabilities of the Optical Pump steampunk (Industrial Era) invention.

* 'Improvised Ammunition' invention is now just 'Ammunition', also has some Industrial Era applications.

* Added 'Follow & Defend Ally' command for clockwork and steam golems.

* 'Steam Power Fist' invention has had its damage slightly reduced.

* Steam engines have their start-up time noted.

 

Veiran Species

* Added 'Animate Dead' veiran talent.

* Added 'Bioweapon' Veiran talent. Energy Field talent no longer grants Invulnerability to electrical damage.

* 'Coalesce' and 'Possess' Veiran manoeuvres now correctly use the Psychic skill.

* 'Energy Field' talent now also grants immunity to electrical damage.

* 'Conduit' talent can now also be taken by Veiran, also allows power to be transferred to a ship's capacitor. Improved basic function to make it more useful.

* 'Lightning Bolt' manoevure grants additonal damage with extra spirit spent.

 

General

* Added 'Nudge' drive manoeuvre.

* Added MIRV warhead ammunition option for missiles.

* Gaining a Luck Point from getting drunk only grants 1 per session.

* Splinter Arrows no longer have a +5 damage bonus.

* Weapons mounted on vehicles and starships in a fixed position are gimble weapons, able to hit anything in a cone 5 squares wide.

* 'Transcendent' talent now grants +4 spirit per tier. Total extra spirit available from talents is now 32 (16 psychic, 12 from resistances, 4 from martial arts), up from 22 (14 psychic, 6 from resistances, 2 from martial arts).

* Graceful, Resolute, Stalwart and Zen Master talents now begin with +1 spirit at 50% of their respective skills and auto update to +4 at 99%.

* Removed the 'Spirited' talent.

* Noted that the 'Partial Block' talent doesn’t work when blocking for others.

* 'Hold the Line' polearm talent now lets you automatically push targets back to maximum longreach range.

* Corrected the text for group rolls.

* Wheel Covers vehicle upgrade now has -3% Agility penalty.

* Removed the Move bonus from plasma jet vehicle upgrades, reduced the Fusion engine Move bonus to +1.

* Ground vehicle Turbine engine upgrade only provides +1 Move now.

* Transit plates now have only +1 Move, Angled plates have no Move bonus at all. Induction and Transit plates have had their Cruise and Max speed figures increased.

* Noted that Nitrous Injectors, Overcharge and Fusion Pulse upgrades use 1 fuel per round.

* Long Range fuel tanks and batteries also apply -1 Move.

* Added 'Extra Luck' leadership talent.

* Added 'Ironclad' armour talent.

* 'Savage Axes' talent now lets you roll on the lasting injury table.

* 'Bruiser' club talent is now 99%, stuns damaged targets.

* 'Armour Breaker' club talent is now at 70%.

* Added 'No Time to Bleed' general talent.

* 'Sword Specialist' talent's dice increase automatically goes up again at 90%.

* 'Deadly Swords' talent now grants Expanded critical to swords.

* 'Slayer of Legends' talent has been replaced with 'Counterstrike' at 99%.

* Increased the damage output from high-tech dual weapons.

* Added descriptions of high-tech ranged weapons.

* Added Plasma and Impact (bludgeoning) warheads for missiles, under 'Special Ammunition'. Upgraded that table with an 'Era' column.

* Added additional starbases for the base building system.

* 'Improvised Rocket' invention deals an extra +5 damage.

* 'Improvised Ammo' invention for Heavy Missile/At Missile requires 50 less parts.

* Fusion Generators are now worth 2mil each (4x previous cost).

* Android and Automatons have had their language clarified regarding their resistance to 'telepathy', now correctly states 'immune to mental attacks'.

* All dark matter theory inventions now also require graphene parts.

* Explained that a sentry turret can be vocally controlled, or via a Remote Control device or transmitter.

* The effective range of a Remote Control device is 1 kilometre.

* Clarified more details about the use of 'Dimensional Shunt' on a starship.

* 'Locate' psi power has had its object size increased.

* Added details for how 'Bend Light' psi power works on a starship. 

* Added 'One in a Million' pilot talent.

* Filled in the empty description of 'On the Move' acrobatics manoeuvre.

* Noted in the relevant armour sections that all modern armour is non-conductive, and graphene armour IS conductive (but silksteel isn't).

* Sentry Turrets now have a listed number of charges (20).

* Improvised Gun weapons with the Oneshot trait can switch firing modes if they also have a trait allowing multiple attacks, losing the +4 damage bonus.

* Improvised Laser weapons with plasma damage (and therefore the Oneshot trait) can switch firing modes if they also have a trait allowing multiple attacks, losing the +4 damage bonus. Plasma damage type now requires 90% skill. Added 'Disrupt' trait option. Added Capacitor use adjustments for when mounted on a ship.

* Improvised Laser energy cannon type now deals 1d10+12 damage as baseline.

* Added details of concentration abilities to the Manoeuvres section.

* Added a 'Bonus' column to the weapons list on character sheets. Some have extra space for weapon mod notes too (thanks Aidan!)

* Added a separate Research section in Game Mechanics to cover the use of libraries, encyclopaedia and databases. 

* Clarified the text under 'Learning new skills' concerning the use of Skill Manuals.

* Added 'Data Server' base upgrade.

* Any unit with a Positronic Brain upgrade is not limited in how many Talents they can remove, provided those talents were bought with accolades.

* Added 'Organic Editor' cybernetics mod that eliminates the 3 talent limit for removing talents you don't want.

* Folding Stock weapon mod now makes it clear the weapon can still only accept pistol mods.

* 12mm Sniper Rifle and modern era flamethrower are now Enormous in SIZ.

* 'Neural Programming' talent is now available with Electronics for turrets and mini-drones.

* 'Catalyser' heavy version now deals +4 damage.

* 'Dark Matter Gun' and 'Sonic Blaster' longarm upgrades now also provide +2 damage.

* Fixed the link to encyclopaedia from the base building & starship Library upgrade.

* Added 'Quick Grab' Melee and Martial Arts manoeuvre.

* Corrected the ENC of the 'Mechanised Armour' invention.

 

Starship Stuff

* Added 'Tunnel Rat' starship mechanic talent.

* Transfer Weapons engineering action now halves damage output from ship's main weapons.

* Corrected skill references on Telemetry actions to use the Robotics skill.

* 'Disrupt Shields' manoeuvre now lowers the AP of the target ship's shield AP.

* Added the capability to create starship hulls above class 7 in size(!)

* Adjusted the hit point advancement of starships to be +25 per class, which has lowered class 5 hulls and above. Class 7 hulls also have 3 less AP.

* Added a mechanic to increase the time it takes to get to ship systems when they are damaged, based on hull class. Class 1 and 2, zero travel time. Class 3 and 4, 1 travel time etc. Added space on Telemetry sheet to note repair travel time.

* Emergency Repairs no longer require a Part or Circuit, as these are temporary fixes.

* Ships above class 7 in hull size can't enter an atmosphere unless they have the streamlined hull configuration.

* The Heavy Weapons skill is now used for all tactical console operations.

* Mentari hull designs now have -3 to ship’s primary weapon damage per hull class.

* Stardrives are now 5 million credits per hull class.

* References to Psi Bridge have been corrected to Psi Console.

* Starship template costs now factor in the increased expense of fusion generators and wormhole generators.

* Removed 'Drone Control System', has been merged into sensor system on all hulls.

* All hulls start with a bay for 1 tiny drone.

* 'Drone Bay' upgrade is now 'Expanded Drone Bay', uses 500 ENC.

* Added drone and robot purchase prices.

* Drones no longer use Hull Parts, adjusted part requirement numbers. 

* Revised the starship drone section.

* Added extra drone character sheets for specific drone types.

* Cloaking devices now use 2 Capacitor per hull size.

* Escape Pods can now support life for 72 hours.

* Explained that a ship's sensor upgrade grants its result bonus to all sensor related opposed checks.

* Added a sensor bonus entry on the Defence station sheet.

 

 

v2.91 Premium Fantasy Manual

* Corrected the text for group rolls.

* Added 'Extra Luck' leadership talent.

* Added 'Ironclad' armour talent.

* 'Savage Axes' talent now lets you roll on the lasting injury table.

* 'Bruiser' club talent is now 99%, stuns damaged targets.

* 'Armour Breaker' club talent is now at 70%.

* Added 'No Time to Bleed' general talent.

* Streamlined 'Empowered Caster', 'Energetic Mind' and 'Transcendent Caster' psychic talents into one self updating talent called 'Transcendent', +4 at 50% skill and tops out at 99%.

* Graceful, Resolute, Stalwart and Zen Master talents now begin with +1 spirit at 50% of their respective skills and auto update to +4 at 99%.

* Removed 'Spirited' talent. 

* 'Sword Specialist' talent dice increase automatically goes up again at 90%.

* 'Deadly Swords' talent now grants Expanded critical to swords.

* 'Slayer of Legends' talent has been replaced with 'Counterstrike' at 99%.

* Threat Level tables now include the calculation for every +2% evade or agility result bonus.

* Damage on the Threat Level table is now calculated as +1 for every 2 points (easier calculation).

* Extra attacks on the Threat Level table now has a value of +5.

* Luck Points on the Threat Level now have a value of +1 each.

* Added 'Quick Grab' Melee and Martial Arts manoeuvres.

* Noted that the 'Partial Block' talent doesn’t work when blocking for others.

* 'Hold the Line' polearm talent now lets you automatically push targets back to maximum longreach range.

 

v1.75 Basic Fantasy Manual

* Corrected the text for group rolls.

* 'Armour Breaker' club talent is now at 70%, replacing 'Bruiser' talent in the basic edition.

* Streamlined 'Empowered Caster', 'Energetic Mind' and 'Transcendent Caster' psychic talents into one self updating talent called 'Transcendent', +4 at 50% skill and tops out at 99%.

* Graceful, Resolute, and Stalwart talents now begin with +1 spirit at 50% of their respective skills and auto update to +4 at 99%.

* Removed 'Spirited' talent. 

* 'Sword Specialist' talent dice increase automatically goes up again at 90%.

* 'Deadly Swords' talent now grants Expanded critical to swords.

* Threat Level tables now include the calculation for every +2% evade or agility result bonus.

* Damage on the Threat Level table is now calculated as +1 for every 2 points (easier calculation).

* Extra attacks on the Threat Level table now has a value of +5.

* Luck Points on the Threat Level now have a value of +1 each.

 

v2.54 Fantasy Bestiary

* Increased damage of Annihilator, Arboreal Behemoth, Astaroth, Basilisk, Grizzly Bear, Fel Chimera, Malefic Chimera, Dire Bear, Dire Wolf, Adult Dragon, Ancient Dragon, Old Dragon, Entropaal, Giant Shaman, Giant Warlord, Auldsteel Golem, Bone Golem, Dreadnaught Golem (also lost 4 AP and EC), Fey Cat, Flesh Golem, Iron Golem, Stone Golem, Horse, Kraken, Landshark, Leviathan, Linnorm, Malphas, Megalodon, Mummy, Paragon, Primordion, Revenant, Sa'quaarin, Sea Serpent, Seraph, Shoggoth (also lost 2 attacks), Skeletal Dragon, Titan, Umbral, Unicorn, Werewolf, Titanic Worm (also lost 4 AP), Fast Zombie, Giant Zombie, 

* Increase AP and TL rating of big monsters, with their own section in the 'Creatures by TL' section. Annihilator 16, Arboreal Behemoth 18, Auldsteel Golem 18, Dragon Ancient 28, Dragon Old 22, Dreadnought Golem 22, Entropaal  21, Kraken 20, Leviathan 27, Linnorm 14, Malphas 27, Paragon 27, Sa’quaarin 21, Shoggoth 26, Titan 24.

* Some creatures with an evade skill result bonus have increased in TL due to this addition to the calculation.

* Added manoeuvres to the Arboreal Behemoth.

* Added seduction manoeuvres to the Vampire and Nymph.

* Silver weapons now deal regular damage against undead instead of Vulnerability (+10).

Hi everyone, we've got a bunch of fixes and improvements for the scifi system, and of course some of them carry over to the fantasy system too! Let's get started:

Background Events have undergone an overhaul. I didn't find gaining additional contacts compelling (and tended to re-roll those ones) so I've replaced them with more skill buffs and other interesting effects. There are more negative background events too, though I've reduced the chance of them showing up from 11% to 7%.

I've brought the Healing skill into line with the scifi system, where it's a background-only skill. It takes years to learn how to do surgery! I've also adjusted it so it requires the pain-relief tonic (or anaesthetic in modern and high-tech settings) or it incurs a -20% skill penalty. It's hard to mend wounds when someone is screaming so much!

The tables listing cost and time for learning skills, spells, manoevures and inventions have all been revised to include higher levels of intelligence, and I felt that spells should be learned a bit faster so the cost for those has come down quite a bit. 

For the scifi system, I'm expanding information for pre-modern settings, under the new Industrial Era, which covers 19th century weapons, and other related things. I'll be running a steampunk campaign in the near future and this will give me a chance to see what I can do to improve this area of the system. I gave the clockwork and steam inventions an overhaul too, so I think it'll work pretty well :) I'll expand upon this further as the game gets underway.

Fear not, the starship system has had a lot of fixes too, with better information clarifying a number of mechanics. We've been having a blast with our current Bridge Crew campaign and it's been a great opportunity to tweak a number of issues. That's all for this month, check out the changelog notes below for more detail!

 

v1.02 scifi core rulebook

New Stuff!

* Added an Industrial Era, with its own backgrounds, weapons and inventions. 

* Added 'Mechanical Man/Woman', 'Revived Human', 'Living Engine', 'Steam Contraption', 'Game Hunter' and 'Explorer'  Industrial era backgrounds.

* Added 'Telemetry Lock' starship manoeuvre.

* Added 'Activate Cloak' starship defensive systems action.

* Added 'Focused Laser' upgrade for the Tactical Analyser.

* Added 'Stealthy' background event.

* Added 'Slow' negative background event.

* Added 'Unlucky' negative background event.

* Added 'Mini-Drone' and 'Signal Disruptor' electronics inventions.

* Added 'Steam Parts' and 'Clockwork Parts', specifically for use with low-tech (steampunk) inventions and adjusted these inventions appropriately.

* Added 'Ramming Speed' pilot starship manoeuvre.

* Added details about what masers are and how they work.

* Added 'Shell' weapon trait, similar to missile trait but doesn't count as a missile for modification purposes.

* Added '20mm Elephant Gun' and 'Punt Gun' Industrial era firearms.

* Added 'Cone' trait details to ranged weapon traits list.

* Added new 'Blast Shield' high-tech mechanical invention.

* Added 'Miner' prospecting talent.

 

Fixes and Improvements

* Ship hull sizes are now expressed in 'Class', so as not to confuse their size with vehicles. i.e. Compact hull is now Class 1, Colossal hull is now Class 7.

* Corrected a reference in the starship Drones section: drones do not need to be made of Auldsteel parts.

* Titanium is only usable to make ranged weapons (it can't hold an edge and is too light to deliver melee damage).

* The 'Disrupt' ranged weapon trait now has a number attached to it, designating how many spirit points or capacitor are drained on a successful hit.

* Added rifle-sized disruptors as an option for vehicles. 

* Disruptor clip size has been set to 5 for each type.

* Clarified how long it takes to arrive at a damaged system depending on your character's speed (under Emergency Repairs). 

* Anaesthetic now adds +4 Hit Points to the result when used with the Healing skill. 

* Some medicines and narcotics are now available in the Industrial era.

* Failure to use pain relief or anaesthetic with the Healing skill applies a -20% penalty.

* EMP grenades have increased in price.

* 'Z-axis Shift' starship  manoeuvre is now called 'Emergency Evade' for clarity.

* 'Flank Speed' starship manoeuvre and 'Ramming Speed' action have been replaced with the 'Afterburner' pilot action.

* 'Barrel Roll', 'Boost Defence' and 'Overcharge Shield' manoeuvres now provide a bonus limited by pilot skill. All only provide this bonus to one defensive action.

* 'Precognition' psi power now stipulates that its bonuses are for use in combat.

* If there is no system installed at a particular location during a critical hit, hull damage is done instead.

* Expanded starship Critical Hit table to explain what happens if a system goes down.

* Explained a little more about how dealing with emergency repairs, breaches and fires works.

* Explained that if the IRF is inactive, moving more than 1sq per round causes collision damage to the crew.

* Debris fields cause a Cloaking Device to reveal your position.

* Added a note that paying someone else to upgrade inventions costs double the listed cost of circuits/parts.

* The 'Hazard Suit' invention now correctly uses Computers as its control skill.

* Most invention upgrades now have skill level requirements.

* All ships can attempt to detect cloaked ships, but with a -40% result penalty to the scan. This is obviously mitigated with sensor system upgrades (There used to be a seperate system to add to detect cloaked ships, this was removed at some point though it is visible on some pre-made ship templates.)

* The 'Soldier' background event has been replaced by 'Brawler', giving you more Unarmed skill points.

* The 'Merchant' background event has been adjusted to give the Commerce skill instead of a contact, now called 'Trader'.

* The 'Priest' background event has been replaced with 'Energetic', reducing the duration of fatigue levels.

* The 'Politician' background event has been replaced with 'Driver', giving you the Drive skill.

* The 'Scholar' background event has been replaced with 'Learned', granting you an extra skill.

* The 'Cop' background event has been replaced with 'Runner', granting extra movement.

* The 'Criminal' background event has been replaced with 'Hauler', granting the Strong Back talent.

* The 'Gem' background event is now fixed at a stone worth 100cr.

* The 'Resistant' background event now offers Bludgeoning and Collision instead of Laser or Plasma damage resistance.

* The 'Talented' background event can now be any talent you qualify for, not just general talents.

* The 'Device' background event has been expanded to 6 possible items.

* Negative background events now have a 7% chance of occuring instead of 11%.

* The 'Stolen' background event has been tweaked so you lose half your starting money, and is now called 'Theft'.

* The 'Framed' negative background event stipulates that you lose the bonus gained from the contact you lost.

* The 'Guidance' weapon mod now only grants its bonus on targets 250cm or larger.

* Starship Thruster upgrades now use slots based on their hull class.

* The slot penalty for Streamline hull types is now -2 per hull class instead of -5.

* A ship's Fuel Reserve upgrade now grants +5 fuel instead of +3.

* Added baseline sensor stats to the sensor system section.

* The 'Networking' talent now also applies to mini-drones.

* 'Repair Bots' nanomed now use 2 Spirit or 2 Fuel to do their thing.

* The Maxim Gun now lists 7mm is its ammo type.

* The cost of plasma grenades and Demolex has been increased.

* The Disable weapon trait now does not require damage to be dealt.

* Gems of 200cr value can also be used to heal AP on a carapan.

* Revised 'Steam Exoskeleton' and 'Clockwork Golem' abilities.

* 'Machine Press' invention primarily produces Steam Parts, but can be used to produce regular Parts too if that's available in the campaign.

* The 'Steam Car' invention can now receive modern-era vehicle body upgrades.

* Adjusted Skill, Manoeuvre, Invention & Psychic tables to cover higher levels of INT. Normalised the Attribute score levels for each table to match.

* The Clockwork talent has been moved from Mechanisms back to Science.

* Added more detail to the Clockwork Robot invention.

* Increased the value of the property for the Landowner background.

* Vehicle 'Subsystem Armour' upgrade now just adds a flat 10 AP to a subsystem, reduced weight.

* Removed 'God of War' manoeuvre from the Threat Level calculation (just include extra damage from this as part of your damage calculation).

* Cleared up the language on 'God of War' manoeuvre.

* Altered the text on 'Enhanced Speed' nanomed so that xarani don't get 2 extra actions.

* Increased the encumbrance and damage of the high-yield explosive invention.

* Splinter arrows no longer deal fire damage.

* Maser stats have been tweaked - Maser cannon uses more cap, range for both reduced, fire damage instead of laser, damage output reduced.

* Adjusted how fires work on board ships.

* Updated the 'Powered Armour' invention construction details.

* Attacking drones with standard starship weapons incurs a -40% result penalty.

* Tweaked the language on the 'Wrist Radar'.

* The Compact Assault Weapon is now more expensive.

* A ship's Capacitor recharge rate is now based on the current maximum Capacitor, not the number of reactor upgrades.

* 'Twin Shooters' trait is now called 'Gunslinger', expanded with additional single-pistol Burst effects.

* Fabricators now use 1 Part per ENC instead of 2.

* Clarified that devices and high-tech weapons use circuits in addition to Parts when making them in the fabricator.

* Blast Shield is now called Battle Shield, to not clash with the blast shield invention.

* Corrected the text on Energy Armour description to note that this AP isn't reduced by weapons fire.

* Expanded the description of the 750cr gemstone effect for Crystal Alchemy.

* Linked the two nuclear inventions listed on the Devices page.

* Added a stealth result modifer to the robot size table.

* Silicone Sealant can now be used as much as needed if carapan is below half maximum HP, 1 use per tube.

* 'Rock Solid' carapan manoeuvre becomes Quick to use at 99% skill.

* 'Expert Forager' and 'Master Forager' talents now can also apply to Prospecting.

* 'Forager' herbalism talent now yields double the normal result for a success or critical.

* 'Diamondback' talent now grants its laser bonus against plasma weapons as well, and notes that a diamond worth 10000cr now counts as eating two 5000cr diamonds.

* 'Diamondback' talent now also grants its +1 AP bonus per diamond to Hit Points as well.

 

v2.84 fantasy premium edition core rulebook

* Corrected the currency type for herbal tonics (from cr to sp).

* Added 'Stealthy' background event.

* Added 'Slow' negative background event.

* Added 'Unlucky' negative background event.

* Added 'Miner' prospecting talent.

* Failure to use pain relief tonic with the Healing skill applies a -20% penalty. Pain relief tonic also grants +1 to Healing skill result.

* The Healing skill is now a background-only skill (surgery takes years to learn!)

* 'Precognition' psionic spell now stipulates that its bonuses are for use in combat.

* The 'Soldier' background event has been replaced by 'Brawler', giving you more Unarmed skill points.

* The 'Merchant' background event has been adjusted to give the Commerce skill instead of a contact, now called 'Trader'.

* The 'Priest' background event has been replaced with 'Energetic', reducing the duration of fatigue levels.

* The 'Politician' background event has been replaced with 'Driver', giving you the Drive skill.

* The 'Scholar' background event has been replaced with 'Learned', granting you an extra skill.

* The 'Cop' background event has been replaced with 'Runner', granting extra movement.

* The 'Criminal' background event has been replaced with 'Hauler', granting the Strong Back talent.

* The 'Gem' background event is now fixed at a stone worth 100sp.

* The 'Resistant' background event now offers Bludgeoning, Necrotic & Collision damage in place of the old selection.

* The 'Talented' background event can now be any talent you qualify for, not just general talents.

* Negative background events now have a 7% chance of occuring instead of 11%.

* The 'Stolen' background event has been tweaked so you lose half your starting money, and is now called 'Theft'.

* The 'Framed' negative background event stipulates that you lose the bonus gained from the contact you lost.

* Adjusted Skill, Manoeuvre,& Magic tables to cover higher levels of INT. Normalised the Attribute score levels for each table to match, and overall lowered the time for learning spells.

* 'Twin Shooters' trait is now called 'Gunslinger', expanded with additional single-pistol Burst effects.

* 'Expert Forager' and 'Master Forager' talents now can also apply to Prospecting.

 

* 'Forager' herbalism talent now yields double the normal result for a success or critical.

 

v1.69 fantasy basic edition core rulebook

* Corrected the currency type for many entries (from cr to sp).

* Added 'Strong Back' talent.

* Added 'Stealthy' background event.

* Added 'Slow' negative background event.

* Added 'Unlucky' negative background event.

* Failure to use pain relief tonic with the Healing skill applies a -20% penalty. Pain relief tonic also grants +1 to Healing skill result.

* The Healing skill is now a background-only skill (surgery takes years to learn!)

* The 'Soldier' background event has been replaced by 'Brawler', giving you more Unarmed skill points.

* The 'Merchant' background event has been adjusted to give the Commerce skill instead of a contact, now called 'Trader'.

* The 'Priest' background event has been replaced with 'Energetic', reducing the duration of fatigue levels.

* The 'Politician' background event has been replaced with 'Driver', giving you the Drive skill.

* The 'Scholar' background event has been replaced with 'Learned', granting you an extra skill.

* The 'Cop' background event has been replaced with 'Runner', granting extra movement.

* The 'Criminal' background event has been replaced with 'Hauler', granting the Strong Back talent.

* The 'Gem' background event is now fixed at a stone worth 100sp.

* The 'Resistant' background event now offers Bludgeoning, Necrotic & Collision damage in place of the old selection.

* The 'Talented' background event can now be any talent you qualify for, not just general talents.

* Negative background events now have a 7% chance of occuring instead of 11%.

* The 'Stolen' background event has been tweaked so you lose half your starting money, and is now called 'Theft'.

* The 'Framed' negative background event stipulates that you lose the bonus gained from the contact you lost.

* Adjusted Skill, Manoeuvre,& Magic tables to cover higher levels of INT. Normalised the Attribute score levels for each table to match, and overall lowered the time for learning spells.

* 'Twin Shooters' trait is now called 'Gunslinger', expanded with additional single-pistol Burst effects.

Hi all, hope your sabre games are running well! I'm mostly focused on getting this novel done (just a couple of weeks to go now) and continuning development of the scifi system, so there's no new art this month. Once that novel is done I'll be dedicating months to finishing off all the art before I start my next story :)

The scifi system is going well, although I've had to make some fairly substantial adjustments today. It's certainly fun though! More on this in the coming months.

For today, we've got a number of fixes to the core system to improve some issues:

* I felt it was too easy to use teleportation spells to get around, so I've added a 100sp gem cost each time it's cast. On the plus side, you can take as many people as you want, but get a penalty for each additional passenger (mitigated by spending more spirit of course).

* There wasn't much incentive to boost Charisma, Constitution or Willpower Attributes, since the rewards don't match the cost of raising them. So I've created a weighted table for Spirit Points and Luck Points which punishes lowered scores and rewards higher numbers, making it more worthwhile to put points into both.

* Ranged attacks of opportunity made when someone breaks cover was a novel experiment, but a little too punishing. This has been removed, so ranged AoO only occur when someone stands from being prone. You can still hold an action for when someone breaks cover, just that you can't do that AND have your regular action as well. 

* The Vanish manoeuvre was a bit over the top, so I've brought it down a little in power. You'll need cover to make it work now, instead of being able to do it right out in the open, but at least it's a quick action. On the upside, there's no opposed check so it's easier to pull off, if the terrain is favourable (smoke bombs and spells work too!)

* I've added optional rules for more severe maiming, if that's your flavour. I personally love consequences for taking Major Wounds, though my players usually don't! 

That's about all for this month, I'll be back on art duties soon and we'll get that bestiary finished! Peace.

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v2.29 Premium Edition

* Added 'Teleporter' artifice spell.

* Teleportation spells now let you take along as many people as you wish, but with a -10% penalty for every extra person taken. This is negated by 10% for each extra Spirit Point you spend. Most also require sacrifice of a gem of 100sp value to cast.

* 'Vanish' manoeuvure now requires cover to work, but is no longer an opposed check.

* The Deafened condition now also reduces the character's Initiative Rank by 5.

* Added optional Permanent Maiming rules for more graphic lasting injuries.

* Removed the 'Weapon Expertise' talent and changed 'Martial Weapons' to allow the use of all exotic weapons.

* 'Fire & Steel' pistol talent now requires you to spend a Reaction to make a melee attack.

* Added names to the background events.

* Changed the colour of resistance skills in backgrounds to black and put them in bold text, just to emphasise them.

* Split some Martial Arts manoeuvres into a separate Unarmed manoeuvres category. These can still be used with Martial Arts.

* Replaced 'Martial Focus' manoeuvre with 'Martial Fury'.

* Revised the Spirit Point progression which rewards higher CON and WIL.

* Revised the Luck Point progression which rewards higher CHA and punishes treating CHA as a dump stat.

* Ranged attacks of opportunity can only occur when someone is standing from prone (removed the condition of breaking from cover). 

* Added 'Heavy Mace' melee weapon.

* Removed Vanish from the TL calculation.

* Body Slam manoeuvre now simply deals your Damage Modifier to the victim.

________________________________

v1.59 Basic Edition

* 'Vanish' manoeuvure now requires cover to work, but is no longer an opposed check.

* The Deafened condition now also reduces the character's Initiative Rank by 5.

* Removed the 'Weapon Expertise' talent and changed 'Martial Weapons' to allow the use of all exotic weapons.

* Added names to the background events.

* Changed the colour of resistance skills in backgrounds to black and put them in bold text, just to emphasise them.

* Replaced 'Martial Focus' manoeuvre with 'Martial Fury'.

* Revised the Spirit Point progression which rewards higher CON and WIL.

* Revised the Luck Point progression which rewards higher CHA and punishes treating CHA as a dump stat.

* Ranged attacks of opportunity can only occur when someone is standing from prone (removed the condition of breaking from cover). 

* Added 'Heavy Mace' melee weapon.

* Removed Vanish from the TL calculation.

* Body Slam manoeuvre now simply deals your Damage Modifier to the victim.

Hi everyone, we've got a few small changes to the codex and a whole lot of art for the bestiary this month. As usual, we'll start with art!

Bestiary

The term 'practice makes perfect' is certainly true in this case, as while my animal pictures are mostly working from photos of animals, the techniques I'm using to capture the essence of the beasty has certainly evolved. LIke most artists, I shudder when I look at my earlier work and so have redone a few of the earlier attempts. I'm getting more confident with the style and easing back on the hard outlines too. So I've done all the small animals, beasts and dire beasts, taking a big chunk out of my to-do list.

Drawing animals is the easy part - some greater challenges are coming up but I think I'm up for it!

Codex

There's a few balance tweaks here to keep individual effects from breaking the system, discovered after certain players in my local groups kinda broke the system a little. I've also revised the bonuses for character age categories, and brought the age section forward in the creation process so you can find out the number of skill points you can spend in the background and career stages.

The 'Grit' talent has also been tweaked, making it harder to get and it doesn't keep a character conscious past th end of the fight. It's a cool talent but quite powerful, effectively doubling Hit Points, and as such it's now listed on the Threat Level calculator, raising your total TL by 1 step.

Contact poisons are now more effective in combat, kicking in almost straight away instead of two rounds later, and the human 'Highly Skilled' trait has been changed. It wasn't a great bonus before (+5 to three common skill results), but I found something better - Expanded critical on a skill of your choice, because everyone's great at something! 

Scifi

By strange co-incidence (and an unexpected party wipe), both of my local groups are starting new campaigns in the Sabre Scifi system, the cousin of the fantasy version you're familiar with. The backbone is the same, but with less magic (only 1 type, and it's "Psi Powers") and lots of cool equipment to use. It's really an equipment based system, with lots of things you can do such as salvaging wrecked vehicles, upgrade weapons, verhicles, armour etc, build robots, BE a robot or android, or a silicon-based alien etc. It's very cool :D

So when is it going to be released? I just need to finish a few sections regarding starship rules (yes it has those too), and it's technically ready to go, but I have this dream of finishing the artwork before I release it this time. There's 10 races, so that'd be 10 pictures. Sure, I could use the current human, corvid and saerid artwork (they're basically the same in this system too) but I think the system deserves new art. The only problem with this approach is that the bestiary is the top art priority and there's a LOT more art to be done before i can get to the scifi system. I suppose I could release it without the art? I'm reluctant to do that again. I'll think about it. There's no rush, probably another month until I've finished documenting things.

Anyway, that's all for this month, more bestiary art next month!

v2.28 premium codex

* Reduced the Accolades given for advanced age groups but added another column for skill points given at the career stage.

* The Age category section now comes before background so you can pick your age and apply the right amount of skill points later.

* Added 'Chirurgeon' background.

* The 'Grit' talent now requires 90% Endurance skill and only keeps you conscious until the end of combat.

* Stipulated in the Criticals and Fumbles section that a fumbled melee attacker can't attack next round. 

* Better clarified how movement in combat works in the combat section.

* The 'Unyielding' talent stipulates that concentration effects are still broken, but can be used round-by-round.

* Contact poisons now affect victims at the start of their next turn (within 6 seconds basically), and require a piercing or slashing weapon to deal damage in order to apply.

* Stipulated in Martial Arts and Unarmed skill descriptions that weapons and abilities requiring the Unarmed skill can also be used with Martial Arts.

* Spells that grant extra blast radius when increasing Spell Power now only grant 1 metre of extra radii instead of 2.

* 'Blood Mirror' sorcery spell now only inflicts 1 damage for every point taken.

* 'Angelic Transformation' sorcery talent healing ability has been tweaked, and it now notes that the sorcerer can carry 100kg while flying.

* 'Blighted Soul' undead sorcery talent now no longer provides healing.

* 'Ancestral Legion' shamanic spell now has a 1 minute casting time and 1 hour duration. 

* Tweaked the text on 'Mirror Image' wizardry spell.

* Added 'Pocket Dimension' spell to Summoning.

 

* Changed human 'Highly Skilled' trait to grant expanded critical to one skill.

________________________________________________________________

v1.58 basic codex

* Changed human 'Highly Skilled' trait to grant expanded critical to one skill.

* Reduced the Accolades given for advanced age groups but added another column for skill points given at the career stage.

* The Age category section now comes before background so you can pick your age and apply the right amount of skill points later.

* Added 'Chirurgeon' background.

* The 'Grit' talent now requires 90% Endurance skill and only keeps you conscious until the end of combat.

* Better clarified how movement in combat works in the combat section.

* Stipulated in the Criticals and Fumbles section that a fumbled melee attacker can't attack next round. 

* Contact poisons now affect victims at the start of their next turn (within 6 seconds basically), and require a piercing or slashing weapon to deal damage in order to apply.

* Stipulated in Martial Arts skill description that weapons and abilities requiring the Unarmed skill can also be used with Martial Arts.

* Spells that grant extra blast radius when increasing Spell Power now only grant 1 metre of extra radii instead of 2.

Greetings, sabre-liking people! I'd planned to put this update out at the end of the month with a couple of extra pieces of art, but I've come down with something and it doesn't look like I'll get much more done in the next week, so this will suffice. Let's take a quick look at this month's update:

Art!

As usual, there's some new character race art, though I only had time to get two done this month. I've settled into a style now and I feel really confident as I work on each one, so I expect things to keep on improving! Check out the Celestrel and Daemon races for the shiny new pictures, and I've tweaked both races to make them more useful and to fit the lore I had in mind when making them.

Templates

So instead of working on the siege warfare section, I did this because as a GM, it's good to have well-made character templates read to go, and the ones in the bestiary are old and not very well designed. I also wanted to see the NPC's arranged by combat style, since it's much more distinct in the modern version of sabre (but used to be much blurrier in the past). I ended up making 80 single-page templates, which was far too many to include in the codex, so I simply replaced the current ones with 20 for the premium edition (and 18 for the basic edition), ranging from Threat Level 2 to TL 5. The bestiary has up to threat level 9, with a more diverse selection of builds and they make running a game (especially an improv game) so much easier. 

Additionally, while making templates of the different styles, I found glaring gaps in capability for the lesser-used things, like thrown weapons or longarms. So as I went, I created (or modifier) a bunch of manoevures and talents to make every combat style count, as they should. There's nothing like building a whole bunch of characters to get a real feel of what they can do! This includes mounted combat and the used of shields as off-hand weapons, which makes more sense and works better than the previous iteration.

Magic

Both Alchemy and Psionic talents have been divided up into three catagories, fields of study for their respective areas, just like the other fields of greater magic. Artifice won't need this as the construct provides more than enough creative options for players, so this ends the update to greater magic! 

In closing

I've managed to figure out how to turn on visible bookmarks in the document, so I could see the missing ones and fix a huge number of broken or missing links, which should make navigation much less frustrating. Next month, I should have the character art finished (2 to go!) and I'd like to do pictures of all the weapons and armour, too. I'll finally get to doing siege combat, and make a start on the new field of magic, Summoning. This will bring to a close the frenetic development of sabre this year, and I'll drop back updates on the codex to once every six months (yay!) Then I'll focus on the Bestiary and Atlas to finish them off too. I'd like to make a few story modules too, as I have lots of notes from my sessions and some of them would make great stand-alone adventures. But enough of that for now, check out the notes below and enjoy your gaming!

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v2.26 Premium Edition

 

General

* Added art for the celestral & daemon races.

* Revised the celestral race abilities a little, allowing them to be not just half-human celestials, but half of one of many other races too.

* Revised the daemon race abilities. They lose their +3 CHA and deceit bonus, and gain Intimidate as a bonus skill and a +10% to intimidate checks, but they can also pick a special trait from their parent race.

* Revised the NPC templates and provided 20 of them here for the premium edition. 80 available in the Sabre Bestiary.

* Revised the gem value table to include higher quality varieties at 99 and 100 percent.

* Fixed many, many broken links throughout the manual.

* Added 'Reach', 'Longreach' and 'Mount' to the Threat Level calculator (+3).

* Added 'Climber' general talent.

* Clarified that Spirit regen rate is calculated from your current maximum Spirit Points, not the original amount if modified from a special ability.

 

Manoevures

* Added 9 Thrown Weapon manoeuvres.

* Added 'Sweep Kick' martial arts manoeuvre.

* Added 'Bullseye' bow manoeuvre.

* Added 'Hold & Shoot' pistol manoeuvre.

* Added 'Clear Barrel' pistol manoeuvre.

* Added 'Fusilade' pistol manoeuvre.

* Added 'Opening Salvo' longarm manoeuvre.

* Added 'Wrecking Shot' longarm manoeuvre.

* Added 'Assassinate' stealth manoeuvre.

* Improved 'Vanish' stealth manoeuvre.

* Moved 'Backstab' manoeuvre to the stealth category and improved how it works.

* Revised the 'Silent Kill' stealth manoeuvre.

* 'Forceful Strike' melee manoevure now grants +1 damage for every spirit point spent, limited by usual skill level progression.

* Lacerate and Pierce melee manoevures now only require 50% skill to take.

* 'Flying Kick' martial arts manoeuvre automatically renders the target prone if they take damage.

* 'Body Throw' martial arts manoeuvre now deals collision damage.

* 'Sucker Punch' martial arts manoeuvre has no skill level prerequisite.

* Improved 'Roundhouse kick' martial arts manoeuvre.

* 'Sweep' melee manoeuvre causes damaged targets to fall prone.

* 'Blistering Assault' martial arts manoeuvre can now apply to any martial arts weapon, requires 90% skill to gain.

* 'Crushing Impact' martial arts manoeuvre requires 99% skill to learn, improved effectiveness, renamed to 'Damaging Impact'.

* 'Point Blank Shot' pistol manoeuvre now ignores half target's AP on adjacent target, ignores adjacent penalty, 90% requirement.

* 'Diving Fire' pistol manoeuvre now requires only 70% skill, allows you to fire a pistol in each hand, and you travel out to your normal movement.

* Removed 'Sneak Shot' pistol manoeuvre (already duplicated with Deadshot talent).

* Removed 'Lucky Shot' pistol talent and replaced with 'Twin Shooters' talent.

 

Weapons, Armour & Combat Abilities

* Adjusted price and stats on the falchion and sabre.

* Added a new melee weapon trait: Agile. Agile weapons have -2 AP for their SIZ but deal +2 damage on a critical hit.

* 'Control Movement' talent can now be taken by the Martial Arts skill and clarified that a failed attempt means you can't try again against the target this turn.

* 'Medium Armour Training' talent now also requires 50% Endurance skill to take.

* 'Heavy Armour Training' talent now also requires 90% Endurance skill to take.

* The reload time of the Staff Sling has been reduced to 0 and its range has been improved.

* Culverin Explosive Balls have been renamed to Culverin Grenades, can also be used by Staff Slings.

* Shortspear can now be used 1 or 2 handed.

* Improved the stats on the Trident, which can now be used 1 or 2 handed (even when thrown).

* Improved the range on the Sling.

* Added 'Interrupt Loading' Reaction.

* Replaced 'Set weapon' Reaction with 'Counterattack' Reaction, allows the victim of a charge to attack someone charging them instead of defending.

* Added Nunchaku martial arts weapon.

* Added Light Lance weapon, old lance is now the Heavy Lance.

* Added Knuckledusters weapon.

* Added a dice progression diagram for size increases, under the Damage Rolls section.

* 'Shorten Chain' talent now lets the user have Reach or not until the start of their next turn.

* Mentioned under the Armour section that if an armour piece's AP is reduced to 0, it is destroyed.

* Mentioned that damaged Natural Armour regrows at a rate equal to your Heal Rate when you rest.

* 'Close Range' movements can now also use Parry, provided the weapon is no less than 1 SIZ smaller than the opponent's. 

* 'Cavalry Bane' polearm talent now increases dice size by 2 steps.

* Revised 'Guardian' polearm talent.

* Replaced 'Concussive Throw' talent with 'Disrupting Throw'.

* 'Spellbreaker' talent has been adjusted to function just like the 'Snap Shot' bow talent (a superior mechanic).

* 'Steel Wall' polearm talent now only grants 1 free 'Keep at Range' Reaction per round.

 

Archery

* Corrected the text of 'Snap shot' archery talent to read that the attack cannot be defended against.

* Baseline crossbow damage has been increased by 2 points.

* Bodkin arrows have tripled in price, from 1sp to 3sp and now simply give +2 damage (effectively the same as ignoring 2 AP in most cases).

* Broadhead arrows are now 2sp each.

 

Firearms

* 'Muzzleloader' pistol talent is now at 50%.

* The reloading time for a three-barrel pistol is now correctly listed as 2.

* Blunderbuss damage is now 1d8+8.

* Arquebus damage is now 1d8+10.

* Blunderbuss reload time has been reduced to 2 rounds, can now be reloaded on horseback.

* 'Age of Fire' firearms talent now increases damage dice by 2 steps (yes, culverin goes to 1d20+12).

 

Mounted Combat

* Added 'Trample' mounted combat talent.

* The damage bonus for flying or mounted combat now correctly says that this only applies to targets on foot.

* 'Cavalry Archer' now only requires 70% skill.

* 'Mounted Archery' now only requires 50% ride skill and completely eliminates the penalty.

* Removed 'Horse Archer' talent (no longer required).

* 'Warhorse Command' now requires Ride skill at 50%, and allows you to use the mount's manouvres or make an attack by spending one of your character's Reactions.

* Mounts cannot make attacks on their own during combat unless commanded via the Warhorse Command talent.

 

Shields

* Clarified that Shields use the Weapon table when crafting.

* 'Shield Bash' talent has been revised.

* Added 'Heavy Bash' shields talent.

* Shields with the 'Fast' trait now don't use a Reaction as part of a Shield Bash.

* Tower shields now have the proper Partial Cover bonus.

* Added 'Partial Block' shields talent.

 

Magic

* Added psionic 'Discipline' talents, with three categories to choose from.

* Separated Alchemy talents into three new categories called 'Sciences'. Added new talents to fill out each category.

* Changed the bomb creation system into a single batch mechanic. Alchemy materials are no longer listed as 'charges' - you use one batch of these materials when you attempt to make 10 bombs at once. 

* Failure to successfully throw a bomb raises your alchemy skill just like other skill failures.

* Corrected the text for alchemy 'Spirit Potion' effectiveness.

* 'Blight' druidry spell now deals 0 damage on a successful resist.

* Magic Resistance sorcery talent now requires 99% skill.

* 'Velocity' & 'Celerity' spells now have the option to gain addition Quick actions instead of Normal actions.

* Increasing an artificer construct's Attributes also increases related skills. 

* Corrected the text on the 'Augmentor' spell to show that doubling the power can only be used once, Attribute buff is +3 base now.

* Corrected the language on the Scroll Use table for a critical success.

* Tweaked the text on 'Dragon Warrior' sorcery talent, which is now has a 70% skill requirement.

* 'Dragon Companion' talent now requires 90% skill and requires 2 spirit to take instead of 3.

* 'Draconic Transformation' now also gives you +5 STR and the Breathe Fire effect is limited only by your Spell Power (Max output becomes 5d6).

* 'Storm Totem' now correctly lists as having a resistance check.

* 'Sleep' spell now correctly listed as 1 minute duration.

* Improved the damage for 'Gravity Well' psionic spell.

*'Control Weather' is increased to +200 metres per extra spell power, and gains the benefit of the 'Force of Nature' druidry talent.

 

Backgrounds

* 'Monastery Orphan' background now gets +2 Natural Armour.

* 'Ranger' background now correctly lists medium armour as part of its bonus.

* Added 'Field Scientist' alchemy background.

* 'Arcane Warrior' is now correctly listed as 'Arcane Blade'

* Escardi can correctly take the 'Shaman's Initiate' background.

* 'Dragonborn' background now gives +2 to damage from spells you cast.

* 'Gifted Artificer' now gets +2 to each of your constructs AP, HP and DM.

* Replaced the 73-75 background event with a new one that gives you a military contact.

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________

v1.56 Basic Edition

 

General

* Revised the NPC templates and provided 18 of them here for the basic edition. 90 available in the Sabre Bestiary.

* Revised the gem value table to include higher quality varieties at 99 and 100 percent.

* Added 'Reach', 'Longreach' and 'Mount' to the Threat Level calculator (+3).

* Clarified that Spirit regen rate is calculated from your current maximum Spirit Points, not the original amount if modified from a special ability.

* Moved 'Backstab' manoeuvre to the stealth category and improved how it works.

* Improved 'Vanish' stealth manoeuvre.

* 'Forceful Strike' melee manoevure now grants +1 damage for every spirit point spent, limited by usual skill level progression.

* 'Lacerate' and 'Pierce' melee manoevures now only require 50% skill to take.

* 'Sucker Punch' martial arts manoeuvre has no skill level prerequisite.

* 'Celerity' wizardry spell has the option to gain addition Quick actions instead of Normal actions.

* Corrected the language on the Scroll Use table for a critical success.

* 'Sleep' spell now correctly listed as 1 minute duration.

 

Firearms

* 'Muzzleloader' pistol talent is now at 50%.

* The reloading time for a three-barrel pistol is now correctly listed as 2.

* Blunderbuss damage is now 1d8+8.

* Arquebus damage is now 1d8+10.

* Blunderbuss reload time has been reduced to 2 rounds, can now be reloaded on horseback.

* 'Point Blank Shot' pistol manoeuvre now ignores half target's AP on adjacent target, ignores adjacent penalty, 90% requirement.

* Removed 'Lucky Shot' pistol talent and replaced with 'Twin Shooters' talent.

 

Weapons, Armour & Combat Abilities

* Adjusted price and stats on the falchion and sabre.

* Added a new melee weapon trait: Agile. Agile weapons have -2 AP for their SIZ but deal +2 damage on a critical hit.

* Added 'Control Movement' combat talent.

* 'Medium Armour Training' talent now also requires 50% Endurance skill to take.

* 'Heavy Armour Training' talent now also requires 90% Endurance skill to take.

* The reload time of the Staff Sling has been reduced to 0 and its range has been improved.

* Culverin Explosive Balls have been renamed to Culverin Grenades, can also be used by Staff Slings.

* Shortspear can now be used 1 or 2 handed.

* Improved the stats on the Trident, which can now be used 1 or 2 handed (even when thrown).

* Improved the range on the Sling.

* Added 'Interrupt Loading' Reaction.

* Replaced 'Set weapon' Reaction with 'Counterattack' Reaction, allows the victim of a charge to attack someone charging them instead of defending.

* Added a dice progression diagram for size increases, under the Damage Rolls section.

* Mentioned under the Armour section that if an armour piece's AP is reduced to 0, it is destroyed.

* Mentioned that damaged Natural Armour regrows at a rate equal to your Heal Rate when you rest.

* 'Close Range' movements can now also use Parry, provided the weapon is no less than 1 SIZ smaller than the opponent's. 

* 'Cavalry Bane' polearm talent now increases dice size by 2 steps.

* 'Steel Wall' polearm talent now only grants 1 free 'Keep at Range' Reaction per round.

* Updated the 'Grit' talent.

* 'Shield Bash' talent has been revised.

* Shields with the 'Fast' trait now don't use a Reaction as part of a Shield Bash.

* Tower shields now have the proper Partial Cover bonus.

 

Mounted Combat

* The damage bonus for flying or mounted combat now correctly says that this only applies to targets on foot.

* 'Cavalry Archer' now only requires 70% skill.

* 'Mounted Archery' now only requires 50% ride skill and completely eliminates the penalty.

* Removed 'Horse Archer' talent (no longer required).

* 'Warhorse Command' now requires Ride skill at 50%, and allows you to use the mount's manouvres or make an attack by spending one of your character's Reactions.

* Mounts cannot make attacks on their own during combat unless commanded via the Warhorse Command talent.

 

Archery

* Corrected the text of 'Snap shot' archery talent to read that the attack cannot be defended against.

* Baseline crossbow damage has been increased by 2 points.

* Bodkin arrows have tripled in price, from 1sp to 3sp and now simply give +2 damage (effectively the same as ignoring 2 AP in most cases).

* Broadhead arrows are now 2sp each.

March has been a very productive month, indeed, and I'm eager to show all the updates to Sabre! Let's get right to it.

Art

I've added two new pieces to the Codex, for the half-humans and raelani (along with expanding the flavour text for each race). This finishes off the standard races section which makes the basic edition look much more complete! Oh, I've also gone back over the forest elf picture and took another crack at the male. He was one of my first efforts and since my style has evolved since then, I felt he could look a little better. I'll probably redo the dwarves at some point as well, but I'll finish the exotic races from the premium edition before I swing back to give them another go. Later this year I want to do proper front cover artwork to really catch the eye with adventurous people, explosions, all sorts of stuff :)

 

Druidry

This skill was a little overpowered, as a druid could do just about anything in equal measure, so I've taken this opportunity to not only fix this issue, I've added more diverse choices for the type of nature priest you can play. Instead of gaining Animal Companion by default, you now choose a Sect, not unlike the Devotion a divine caster chooses, which grants you access to a set of talents which focus on a style of gameplay. Druidry also works well with the revised (and integrated) Animal Training skill, which lets you have trained pets. If you choose the Beastmaster sect, you get to choose one of those pets to bond with, granting enhanced abilities much like the old animal companion talents. So now you can be an animal trainer without needing to take the druidry skill too! 

Wizardry

Since the animal companion and familiar talents were merged together, I've also gone and revised the wizardry skill's special bonus from 'Familiar' to 'School'. Just like druidry, wizards can choose from one of four schools with talents to enhance certain aspects of their magical abilities. The capability to summon a familiar is now a spell, so every wizard can still have a familiar, but those of the 'Familiarist' school can have better familiars :)

Reaction Spells

Since greater magic spellcasters are unable to attain high levels of Armour Points without spending a lot of silver (and even then, fall short of heavy armour of similar cost), there are now some new spells designed to offer an alternative defence. These spells are cast as Reactions and are very economical for their cost, usually providing an excellent defense against one attack for only 1 Spirit Point, but can be boosted just like other spells. The shield spells in various fields of magic were modified to suit this new defensive method too. 

Armour

Just a little tweak here to the encumbrance of heavy armour, which was a little high. I've taken 1 point off each of the four pieces, so heavy armour is more appealing (and a bit more realistic I think).

Aside from these major updates, there's a bunch of little fixes and tweaks, as you've come to expect! Hey, at least I'm only doing this once a month instead of 5 times a week now. ;)

Finally, the Bestiary has been updated as well, and I even found time to add a few pictures, though I'm planning to finish the codex before really sinking my teeth into this.

 

Coming up next month...

Art for the escardi, corvids and possibly the saerid if I get the time. These are some of the more exotic races which need a picture to show how they look!

Shamanic talents.

Rules and equipment for siege warfare. 

 

So that's it for this month, keep an eye out for further updates down the road a little.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

v2.24 Premium Edition notes

* Added art for the raelani and half-human race pages.

* Revised and improved the forest elf artwork (practice makes perfect!)

* Fixed many typos and inconsistencies thanks to player feedback.

* 'Bodyguard' talent clarifies that you take the place of your ally against that attack.

* The 'Close Range' action can be attempted using the Shields skill in place of Evade.

* Added 'Hover' Corvid talent.

* The 'Ranger' background is now available to escardi.

* Herbalism skill now tells you how you can apply poison to a weapon.

* The 'Poison Weapon' talent now lets you avoid poisoning yourself by accident and can apply poisons as a Quick action.

* The background event which grants you a suit of heavy armour has been changed to simply give you +1 Natural Armour (heavy armour is very niche).

* Added Corvids to the Human age table.

* Removed reference to the Career stage when determining starting points for older (or younger) characters, and increased the background points for older characters by 5 at each stage. Reduced Accolades for age categories slightly.

* Added 'Spell Synergy' and 'Greater Synergy' talents for combining spell power.

* Mercantile and Military contact bonuses have been modified to be more useful.

* Changed the text for the 'moving house' player contact backstory (bonus is unchanged).

* All divine magic devotions have one of their 90% talents raised to 99% (getting tier 5 spells used to be a reward for 99% skill but that's no longer applicable, so these talents are falling into line with other skills).

* Renamed the 'Re-attempting Skills' section to 'Skill Spamming' to clarify how 'out of combat' skill improvements work.

* Removed artifice and 'permanent' spells from the Magic Services section - I don't want to promote the concept of the 'Magic Shop' (magic items should be acquired from adventure, not a store!) GM's can still use the permanency spell and the artifice section to create magic items as needed.

* 'Adrenalive Surge' is no longer a manoevure - it's an action anyone can use and it's name has reverted to 'Spirit Surge' as it's a more descriptive name for what it does. It no longer affects undead or constructs.

* 'Deep Reserves' sorcery talent no longer removes fatigue penalty.

* 'Bully' requires the target understand your language.

* 'Enduring Luck' talent now only gives its benefit on failed skill checks.

* Half-humans now gain the Culture skill and their free talent is no longer limited to 'general'.

* Half-human's 'Linguist' trait now allows them a chance to understand any language.

* Revised 'Corrupting Aura' sorcery talent.

* Modified the rules for mounted combat, which also includes rules for flying and attacking from height.

* Updated and linked the GM Reference Sheets.

* The Wounds section has returned to its rightful place on the contents page.

* Improved the numbers on the Recovering Ammunition table for spent arrows and bolts.

* The 'Commander' leadership talent now uses that character's initiative instead of the party's best.

* Druidry 'Regeneration' spell is now correctly listed as being Quick to cast.

* 'Crossfire' and 'Blindside' talents now work with each other to grant damage bonuses.

* 'Dual-Wielding' and 'Two Weapons' combat talents allow escardi and other large humanoids to wield a Medium sized weapon in their off-hand.

* On a critical success, 'Control Movement' also takes away the target's action for the round.

* Reduced the encumbrance of all heavy armour pieces (not barding) by 1 point each.

* 'Giant Slayer' sword talent has been replaced by 'Sword Specialist'.

Accomodation

* Revised and cleaned up the tables for easier reference.

* Revised the healing bonus from staying in quality housing: +1 to Heal and Spirit regen for Reasonable, +2 for Superior.

* Meals and trail rations of quality now also provide a +1 or +2 bonus to Heal Rate and Spirit Regen.

* The food section notes Escardi eat twice the normal amount of food, while Raelani and Corvids eat half the normal amount.

Wizardry

* The 'Familiar' ability is now a spell.

* Instead of 'Familiar', the Wizardry skill now grants the 'School' ability which allows you to choose a style of wizardry.

* Talents related to scrolls, illusions and familiars have been moved to the 'Wizardry School' section. 

* Added new talents for the 'Wizardry School' section for Librarian, Familiarist, Illusionist and Scrivener schools. 

Druidry 

* Druidry now has the 'Sect' ability instead of 'Animal Companion'. This provides 16 talents in 4 areas that allow druidry to specialise in different aspects of the skill.

* Druid's 'Beastmaster' talents now simply enhance one of the pets you acquire through the Animal Training skill.

* Revised the Animal Training skill which is now based around an animal's threat level.

* Added the 'Extra Pet' talent.

* Added 'Speak with Nature' spell to cover communicating with animals and even plants.

* Revised the 'Animal Form' druidry spell to better clarify how it works and what you can do.

Reaction Spells 

* Added a new concept for Reaction spells to give spellcasters some more defensive options other than just getting more AP, as listed below. 

Alchemy

* Modified 'Smoke Bomb' & 'Flash Bomb' to use Reactions.

* Added 'Wild Magic' spell. 

Artifice

* Modified 'Security Matrix' for more flexibility.

* Added 'Forcefield' area of effect natural armour spell.

Divine

* Modified 'Holy Aegis', 'Salvation' & 'Soul Shield' to use Reactions.

Druidry

* Added 'Guardian Sprite', 'Magnetic field' & 'Solidify Air' spells.

Psionic

* Modified 'Control Magic' & 'Precognition' to use Reactions.

* 'Deflect Missile' is now 'Deflect Weapon', uses Reactions.

Shamanic

* Modified 'Shield Totem' & 'Soul Shield' to use Reactions.

* Added 'Guardian Spirit' & 'Aethereal Shift' spells.

Sorcery

* Modified 'Force Barrier' & 'Incinerate Missile' to use Reactions.

* Added 'Blood Mirror' spell.

Wizardry

* Modified 'Block' to use Reactions.

* Added 'Reverse Momentum' spell.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

v1.54 Basic Edition Notes

* The 'Close Range' action can be attempted using the Shields skill in place of Evade.

* The background event which grants you a suit of heavy armour has been changed to simply give you +1 Natural Armour (heavy armour is very niche).

* Herbalism skill now tells you how you can apply poison to a weapon.

* The 'Poison Weapon' talent now lets you avoid poisoning yourself by accident and can apply poisons as a Quick action.

* 'Adrenalive Surge' is no longer a manoevure - it's an action anyone can use and it's name has reverted to 'Spirit Surge' as it's a more descriptive name for what it does. It no longer affects undead or constructs.

* Half-humans now gain the Culture skill and their free talent is no longer limited to 'general'.

* Half-human's 'Linguist' trait now allows them a chance to understand any language.

* Added art for the raelani and half-human race pages.

* Revised and improved the forest elf artwork (practice makes perfect).

* Updated and linked the GM Reference Sheets.

* Improved the numbers on the Recovering Ammunition table for spent arrows and bolts.

* Reduced the encumbrance of all heavy armour pieces (not barding) by 1 point each.

Accomodation

* Revised and cleaned up the tables for easier reference.

* Revised the healing bonus from staying in quality housing: +1 to Heal and Spirit regen for Reasonable, +2 for Superior.

* Meals and trail rations of quality now also provide a +1 or +2 bonus to Heal Rate and Spirit Regen.

 

So ends the most prolific month of Sabre development I've ever done, and hopefully, will ever have to do. Basically, there were a number of issues that came up only when new players tried out the system, which is why none of this was done before the initial release. But as of version 2.18, those issues have been dealt with and I'm happy with how it's all sitting. So happy, in fact, I won't be doing any more updates until at least February, and any that do happen will be once per month, usually towards the end. So, please accept my apologies for the crazy update schedule! I was concerned that parts of the system were too broken for it to be easily understood and was rushing to fix them.

This month has been so dense with work on Sabre that I can't remember everything, except to say that the manual is much more refined, easier to navigate, has less broken links, spelling errors and incorrect references. Just as importantly, the character creation process is much simpler and results in a nicely balanced character ready for adventure. With no more adjustments in the near future, you're now free to actually read the damn thing and get a handle on how it works (with new GM reference sheets too)! So what's next?

Atlas

I've been working on the Feydwiir Atlas, adding a few more countries to the list of those completed but hadn't quite managed to finish off when the time came to fix the Codex (the new name for the main manual). I just need a couple of days to finish off what I have there, then I'll get that online. It should be worth noting that I removed specific references from the Codex concerning the campaign world, to make it a bit more generic and therefore adaptable to other campaign worlds as needed. 

Bestiary

As part of the 2.18 update, I revamped the monster tables in the Sample Bestiary section of the basic Codex and added it to the premium Codex too, giving new GM's some templates to use without having to bother with the separate Bestiary. Further to this, I added the Threat Level calculator which helps determine the overall power of a creature, so GM's can figure out how powerful their party's characters are, and provide (and make) adequate challenges. I'll be looking at a sort of custom template that might make it easier to create an NPC on the fly, a sort of modular concept but this isn't my highest priority just yet.

To get the new monster tables done for the Codex, I began revising the relevant entries in the Bestiary to closely resemble the new character sheet, making it much easier to find out what you need to know about a monster's abilities. Since the ruleset has settled into place, I need to go over each monster's abilities and make sure they're accurate too. So that's coming up after the atlas, basically going through and updating each monster, with quite a few of them already done. It'll probably take a couple of weeks to get this completed, hopefully before the holiday season hits. And next year, I finally get started on...

ART!

I've been eager to get on to this part for weeks now, ever since completing the cover art to my novels (click the novels tab on the menu above to take a look, also some of tha art has been splashed around the site's background). I have a pretty good handle on digital art now, having developed a few techniques to aid the process and getting some practice. The character art for each race will come first, and it'll be challenging but I think I'm up to it now. I'm determined to get it looking good so the first couple of pictures might take me a little while. 

You see those 'placeholder images'? I was originally going to do just a little portrait around that size, but I've decided to go bigger, devoting two pages to each race with the image covering almost all of one page. I will depict a man and woman of each race, in a scene suited to their culture. i.e. forest elves will be in a misty forest (I'll probably do this one first, I love doing fog and distance effects!), acadian elves will be in a library etc. I can't wait to get started but the basic functioning of the system has always been more important, which is why I've waited this long in the first place. There will be more flavour text, and I'll make each race's page more 'visual' and easier to read at a glance. 

A new intro module

I almost forgot, I've started making a 2nd intro module. I'm basically taking one of my game sessions and turning it into a story that helps explain game mechanics, but this one is practically all underground in the search for loot. The players enjoyed it thoroughly but I doubt I'll get this online before the holidays.

Enjoy!

That's it for this month's update, thanks for taking the time to read this and of course, for your patience with my scattershot development schedule - it's all good now, all settled down, no more updates I promise (and I'm sticking to my once-per-month update plan from now on).  So go have a proper read-through and test it out. Sign up to our forums and give us some feedback, as I'm very interested to read how it's working for other groups and you may have noticed that I'm always keen to iterate and streamline processes (but not until February!) Peace out.

Well it's been a busy month for me, finishing my current novel and working towards revising my first book as well. Since I shelved development on Sabre Scifi, I've been able to focus some more on actually finishing the fantasy system first, and it's nice to have less projects hanging over my head. The system has had a lot of little errors corrected and a few additions I developed for scifi, including increased Spirit Points through a revised calculation and some new talents. 

The Saerid race, also a development from the scifi game, has received some balance as well. An exotic four-armed race was challenging to balance, but I think it should work out well. I'll be starting a new local playing group soon too, and naturally we've got a couple of players using the new race so it'll be good to give it a thorough test run.

I've also been painting new cover art for those first six novels, which is giving me a lot of experience for when it comes time to create more art for Sabre! 

 

I'm getting more confident working with silhouettes, which as it turns out, is important for creating character pictures. As soon as I'm done with these new covers, I'll be done with novel-related work for a while and will turn my attention to Sabre full-time for a month or two.

Atlas: I've nearly finished two countries for the atlas, done in my spare time, but I decided to wait until I had my current work out of the way and make it a decent update, wherein I add four new countries instead of two. Most of the data is done already, I just need to lay it all out properly and add flavour text as needed.

Sabre manual additions: I want to add some more talents, specifically to sorcery and divine magic, and probably add one to each of the weapon catagories too. Unarmed combat has seen a lot of development recently (8 talents!) and I want to improve capabilities with other combat styles as well. Right now I'm doing an overhaul on Alchemy too, as it's a little convoluted and probably not powerful enough - this is the only magical system in the game that hasn't had a proper test until now. Edit: Just updated the system with revised Alchemy!

Website: We need to modify the site to allow people who have bought premium versions of the game to get the new updates for free. Currently, this is only possible if you purchase Sabre RPG products from DriveThruRPG.com and we need to do that here too. 

Portraits: I like to mix writing with art, so I plan to begin work on the race portraits for the main manual very soon. I'll also add a picture or two in places where there's space in the manual, as this sort of art is simply an extension of what I'm doing now with novel covers. We'll finally get the sabre manual looking professional!

I'm a little late on my monthly update, 'things' happened over the last week that took precedence. You see, Sabre is based in part on the Runequest 6th edition rules, specifically to do with skills and some basic mechanics. Sure, a *lot* has been customised but I'd accidentally left some of their text in the manual and I needed to fix that, and acknowledge the origins underpinning the system. 

That's all resolved now, and for the better, as I found some old and indistinct rules in the system I'd forgotten to correct before release, so that's been fixed too. Win/win!

I've been thinking about my work schedule of late regarding all of my projects, and concluded I have too many plates spinning at the moment, so I'm having to trim down on a few of them in order to actually get the more important things done.

* I've nearly finished writing my current novel so that's of course the highest priority. The cover art for that is well under way too, so this should all be done by the end of October. 

* I had planned to revise my first series of novels a bit more and redo the covers. Most of the cover redesign is done, but instead of redoing the art, I'm just going to take better pictures of the current work and use some subtle touches to improve them a little. This will be a big time saver, allowing me to do more Sabre things.

* I'd like to do a burst on the Feydwiir Atlas, and get the entire northern end of the island finished.

* I have a lot of ideas for portrait art for the races for the main manual, and I'd really like to get started on those. They're not huge pictures so I think I could one done per week without too much trouble. I'd like to take another crack at some dramatic cover art too, but take a different approach this time. Not a high priority though. One factor to getting this done is to make sure people who have tried the system actually like it, and therefore make it worth the effort to get the artwork done. I'm starting to see some positive feedback (presumably after people have used it for a while) so I'm thinking about this more and more now.

* Once those are done, I'll take some time to create audiobooks for my novels, as many people have requested this for some time and I'm eager to give this a shot. 

* I've had a bit of a resurgence of interest in my canvas art, and had hoped to produce some more but I'm deferring this project until some time next year. 

* The Scifi version of the Sabre RPG is pretty much done, but I don't really have time to support another system while the first one is still incomplete. So I'm going to delay release for this until next year while I finish up these other things. Besides, the starship rules are slowly becoming detailed but again, I don't think it should be my highest priority right now. 

So that's my revised plan for the near future. I definietly will be supporting and working on Sabre over time so it's by no means been abandoned or anything like that. Oh, and my immediate gaming group had to shut down due to lack of players (some of whom had to travel some distance to get there), but I'll be starting a new one up in the near future, so Sabre Scifi development will undoubtedly continue! This campaign will actually be very low-tech, treating technology with the rarity of magical items, should be interesting!