Hello everyone, I hope you're well and staying safe in this difficult time for the world. This is just a short blog to cover some of the updates for the scifi system, with the fantasy system only needing the slightest tweak at this stage. You can find the changelog notes below.

GM Tips

One thing I never really covered in Sabre was some tips to help Game Masters get rolling with their own sessions - until now! It's just a couple of pages, but the GM tips towards the back of the manual do cover what I believe to be the most important core aspects to know when running a game. It's tricky for me to know for certain, since I wrote most of the system and have been running it for years, so I might add to this in the future too. 

Encounters

This is the final manual in the core set, and it's getting close to completion as of writing this blog, with only 49 templates left to create (out of 175 total!) When running games, especially improvised on-the-spot sessions, I've found it super helpful to have pre-made bad guys to draw from, and this 2nd edition of the Encounters manual now covers each era for the scifi rules. This includes post-apocalytpic chainsaw-wielders, industrial era fencers and boxers, modern era combat troops and thugs, and high-tech powered armour-clad soldiers. And of course, there are vehicles for each era too, including (for the first time) steam cars, boats and dirigibles to challenge your Victorian era adventurers! I hope to have it released by the end of May.

Bestiary

The artwork has gone very well of late, and by that I mean I've found nice stock images suitable for a wide range of monsters :D  There's now only 10 left to do, but they're the sorts of monsters that are hard to find images for, so I'll have to do more work to make them happen. Still, the finishing line is in sight, at long last.

That's about all for this month. Once Encounters is out, I'll just finish up the artwork jobs next month and then take a long break. I don't intend to be making any modifications to the system for a while yet, so sink your teeth into tha manuals and get a handle on 2nd editions mechanics :)  Stay safe and peace out.

 

Scifi Core Rulebook 2e v1.03

* 'Cop Training' talent no longer requires the use of a shield. (also in fantasy system)

* Added some Game Master's tips to the reference sheet section. (also in fantasy system)

* Added 'Junk Armour' mechanical invention.

* 'Mechanised Armour' steam tech invention's Heavy Plating upgrade now makes the armour Heavy.

* Corrected the bonus from 'Imposing Aura'.

* 'Focus Fire' heavy weapons manoeuvre now has no minimum requirement, provides more damage at higher skill.

* Added the missing 'Close Shot' talent.

* Narcotics that increase result bonuses now have a listed duration.

* Improved some details on the steam exoskeleton invention.

* 'Junk Droid' profession is now available in Low-Tech era campaigns.

* 'Damage Control' manoevure can now be used on any weapon.

* Sentry Turrets now have listed Charges for use with manoeuvres etc. The builder's Intellect Attribute bonus applies to its skills.

* Sonic Blaster invention now correctly lists Firearms as it's skill.

* Added 'Tuned Emitter' upgrade for Sonic Blaster.

* Improved the Optical Pump industrial era invention.

* 'Improvised Gun' Invention now lists slot requirements for mounting on vehicles. .50cal and 20mm ammo options now double base range.

* The Industrial Era 'Steam Car' invention can now also be built into a boat. 

* 'Sideswipe' manoeuvre no longer deals collision damage, and applies the vehicle's ram damage to the target.

* 'Side Spikes' now boosts 'Sideswipe' damage by +5.

* Vehicle weapon ranges are now listed in 10 metre/yard squares for the vehicle grid.

* Blast Wave manoevure is pegged at +1 radius range for weapons, but gains additional effects as skill increases.

The premium fantasy manual of Sabre 2e is out, and I think it's about time I updated everyone with a blog about what's happening with the other manuals! 

 

It's been somewhere around 6 months to get to this point, and the fantasy system is chugging along nicely. My local group wants to switch from scifi to fantasy, so my next campaign is going to be just that, though I might have to learn how to use Roll20 given the situation around the world at the moment! The core mechanics are much more alilgned between the scifi and fantasy systems, so they integrate even better than they used to.

What I'm working on next is the Bestiary, which I've really only just started on, but the good news is the job basically entails redoing all the template data, but keeping the format for the most part. I'll be getting a few more pieces of art done for it too, though I've spent my limited art budget on stock images to spruce up the core rulebook so there won't be a lot just yet. Still, that project is ongoing and one of these days, I'll have all of those images done!

We've had great success with the random looting table system I developed for the Scifi game, so I'll be making a version of that for the fantasy system too, so you can look forward to that as well. 

Then I'll be looking at making a new intro module for the fantasy system, to show off how the new mechanics work. They're not too difficult to be honest, and have actually been designed to be smoother and more refined than the old version, so they're not hard to learn. That was the whole point of this 2nd edition exercise, to streamline the playing of the game and help newer plays wrap their heads around it all. 

Scifi

Technically, the scifi core rulebook is ready to go, as that was the primary development system we've been using for the last four months. I just want to go over it a little more and check a few things before I release it, so that should be online next week. The Encounters manual needs the same treatment as the Bestiary though, so I've got plenty of template making in my future (that'll certainly keep me indoors!)

I'll be making a new intro module for Scifi too, and I think for both modules I want to make them longer and with a heavier story element. I had made those original ones to just demonstrate mechanics, but I think they're a bit dry and having a better story will make them more engrossing in general, so I'll put on my writer's hat when the time comes and make something interesting ;)

So, a timeline of releases: 

Scifi Core Rulebook: The week of the 24th of March.

Fantasy Bestiary: 2nd week of April.

Scifi Encounters manual: 1st week of May (possibly sooner, we'll see how it goes).

Fantasy Intro Module: 3rd week of May.

Scifi Intro Module: 1st week of June. 

All of these times are just estimates of course! Subject to change, and of course I like to avoid punishing deadlines to give myself creative freedom, so I sometimes get the work done much sooner than expected.

Oh, and we have a Discord server now too, in case anyone has questions about the system etc. :)

That's about it for now, I'll go back to posting a new blog every month around the 20th, as usual. Stay safe, stay well, and look upon this time as an opportunity for some gaming, even if it has to be done remotely! Peace.

You've probably noticed there's no update this month, which I think is a first! Instead, I'm well into development on Sabre 2nd Edition, a series of sweeping changes to the core system to make it easier to learnand play. Let's go through some of the things I'll be introducing, but first:

 

Why?

About two weeks ago, as of the writing of this blog, I had an epiphany - I could see the whole system as a quilt, stitched together from all sorts of bits and pieces. It's whole, it works and we're familiar with it, but it's pretty rough when you get right down to it, and could be smoothed out a lot. 

Every now and then a system like this needs to be cut back and refined, and now is the time. This will actually be the 4th edition of sabre, as I've been here before, armed with a nerf bat and the delete key long before it was released to the public. For the purposes of the public release version it's the 2nd edition though, to prevent confusion :)

 

Uniform Rules

After using and developing the system for the last few years, I've got a good sense of what's working and what's not. At the moment, you've got to learn and deal with separate rules for different parts of the system. Just the Attributes and their bonuses are a hassle - Damage Modifier is +1 for every 3 Strength. Reactions come at 1 for every 5 Agility. Spirit Points equal half your Willpower Attribute and Luck Points are on a sliding scale.

Then your ability to learn new talents is on a compounding scale, but everything else is a flat scale that varies between skills, manoeuvres and psi/magic. It's a mess :(

I also don't like how detatched Attributes are to other aspect's of a character's abilities, so I want to tie them together in a better structural way. 

And while I like the freedom of the Background system, allowing you to be more fleixible with how your character is created, I feel there's too much crossover in skills which muddies the roles everyone is playing. So while I think Backgrounds are like 50% of a Class (referencing the class system of something like D&D), we're going to lean into it a bit more with 75% of a class :D 

Finally, the layout and style of the manuals is too harsh on the eye, with heavy, dark headings on all tables (meant to highlight important bits) contributing to a challenging read. 

 

Solutions

Firstly, I'm combining Willpower and Intelligence into 'Intellect', as Intelligence didn't have any impact on a character's combat abilities, and was mostly used for faster learning. Now it'll also be Spirit Points, and it's one less Attribute to keep track of, and one more that you'll need to consider for any character build.

Then I'm taking a leaf out of 3rd edition D&D's ruleset by having each Attribute have an Attribute Bonus, starting at 10 and advancing +1 for every 2 in the Attribute. So a score of 18 gives a +5 bonus. We'll be using this number as a bonus to skill results, as I really like how the Result Bonus works in the system so we'll be using that a lot more. This number will also dictate Damage, Reactions, Heal rate and Spirit Point bonuses, as well as Luck points. 

Instead of Backgrounds, we're going with Professions, each of which has more in the way of unique abilities, but more than that they present a character's capabilities in a modern context, speaking about what you can do now as opposed to what you learned growing up. It's a subtle distinction that makes a profound difference in how we think of characters, and now you'll be able to say what you're playing, as each profession has a title not unlike a character class. I doubt anybody ever took the Fisherman or Farmer backgrounds, and they were more thematic for roleplaying purposes than character ability. Now you'll have Hunter, Soldier, Gladiator, Thief, Doctor and so on. The total number of these professions is less than the backgrounds system, but there's still a huge variety.

Some skills have a companion tied to them as well, such as Leadership and Artifice/Robotics. I'm developing this further with professions that have a specific companion ability baked-in. The Inheritor profession gets a butler/bodyguard, Wizard gets a familiar, Hunter gets a pet (which can be a beast or dire beast once you're skilled enough), Roboticist gets a robot etc. For scifi, the ability to make a whole lot of robots is being removed. Sure, if you can build one you should be able to build a hundred and have them do the adventure for you, but that's bad gameplay, so restrictions are coming in. These companions will also not be counted as separate characters, requiring your own Accolades to advance, so a player's abilities are split over two characters, essentially, using the power of teamwork to achieve victory!

Now that talents, skills, manoeuvres and psi/magic are all going to cost the same to 'buy', manoevures are being revamped completely, bringing them up to the same value as the others with better abilities that advance automatically as the related skill increases. I should also mention that the Quick action is being removed too, with Reactions being used in its place for things that are 'quick'. This also means that you can use more than 1 manoevure in a round, but they're each being pegged to a particular action now. So your Action, Movement and Reaction(s) can each have a manovure attached to them, requiring only a Spirit Point with no other dice rolls required. It's a cleaner system with more freedom and will produce faster play :D

The current system to roll critical hits is easy to use and elegant, but the result is basically a 10% critical chance by default (10% of your skill level, no matter what it is), and 20% on an expanded critical. In our last game, the players (who are playing very experienced characters) rolled a LOT of criticals, more than 12 combined. It's just too many, and the system doesn't allow for any granular adjustments, it's either 10% or 20%. So I've come up with a new system which gives a 5% critical chance on all skills by default, and I can incrementally boost that with talents etc. It's the top 5 points from your skill score, basically. So if you've got a 55 skill, 51-55 is your base crit range. It should fix a LOT of issues, and of course the ability to use Luck Points to "de-crit" an enemy's roll will be removed. Mmm, balance!

Finally, the entire layout of all manuals is getting a facelift, with those heavy lines being removed and a lighter, fresher look to make it easier to follow. I'll do new cover art too, something that really captures the adventurous feel we're going for here. Wish me luck on that one!

One of the new manoevures:

A profession n the new layout:

And the race/species new layout, single page!

When will it be ready?

No idea! I'm making excellent progress on the scifi edition, as both of our local games are scifi and well, the squeaky wheel gets the grease! The next campaign I'll start will be Sabre 2e, and I'm wrapping up my current campaign before the end of the year so we can switch to the new system. That should give me enough time to get all of the manuals done and some of our experts can analyse my work. The good news is that most of the core system will simply copy over to the fantasy version, but there's still a lot of work updating all of the spell system too. Plus I have to do the bestiary and encounters guide as well, so there's a fair bit of work to do there. I need to run a few sessions to verify it'll all work on paper as well as I think it'll work in my head, and then I can get it out there. So, tenatively, I'm thinking the end of the year at the earliest, but more likely it'll be sometime early next year, depending on how well the cover design goes. Oh, and if all goes well, I'll make sure the new manuals are set up for print publishing, which is something people have been requesting for a while now! I never got around to it because I didn't like the look of the manual, but this new one is shaping up very well indeed. So, keep an eye out here for any further news :)

 

Hi everyone, it's time for the monthly Sabre update and we've got some extensive core fixes to tell you about, thanks to playtesting done by my local groups. Let's get to it!

 

Advanced Characters

It's been tricky to find a nice balanced way of making an character from scratch that has some experience. Adding points to skills over the course of playing is more art than science, and replicating that is very difficult. So I've had another pass on this, both to bring more even results to start from, and to simplify the process. Adding dozens of Accolades to skills can be tedious at this level, so that's been made redundant for starters. I'm moderately confident this will be a big improvement!

 

Animal Training

At the request of one of our players, the Animal Training skill has been expanded to allow the teaching of Combat and General talents to beast and dire beast pets. This greatly enhances their utility and durability in combat.

 

Robotics Overhaul

This is a big one. The robotics system has been evolving over the last few years, with rules tweaked, rewritten and patched on until the whole thing was rather messy. We've gone over it carefully to refine the methods for making and operating robots, in a clear and concise manner that we believe is a big improvement!

 

Parry Overhaul

Let's face it, Parry as a defensive style has been pretty ordinary since the start. Especially compared to the other methods: 

* Evade is great, because if you succeed, you avoid all damage and it works against ranged and melee attacks. Restricted by light armour only.

* Blocking with a shield is great as it lets heavily armoured (i.e. non-agile) characters have a powerful defence against ranged and melee attacks.

* Parry was only really useful if you're using a very large weapon, and you were too heavily armour to take advantage of Evade bonuses. Smaller weapons were useless for Parry as the damage from larger weapons could still get through, and you can't parry Ranged attacks.

So there are a number of improvements here to make it much more viable. The size of the weapon no longer matters. A short sword can Parry a greatsword with no damage coming through. Think of it more as deflecting the attack rather than taking the brute force of the blow. Some small weapons, such as daggers and whips, specifically say they cannot be used to Parry. So while it still can't be used against ranged attacks, at least you can be assured that you can Parry larger weapons if you need to.

 

Weapon Balance Tweaks

Another thing that's been bothering me for years is weapon Armour Points. Using an attack that damages weapons was convoluted and not very useful, so I've taken the big step to change weapon durability to be represented by Hit Points, which also makes it work really well on vehicles and starships. This was a big step as it required fixing every single character sheet, as well as bestiary and NPC templates, a process that is still ongoing. The end result is that the tweaked 'Sunder Weapon' type manoevures now deal damage in an easy to understand way.

This has also allowed me to add wear and tear on weapons and equipment, where on a fumbled roll with that equipment it loses 1 HP. This way, you'll eventually have to do some maintenance to keep it in top condition.

One of our players (Hi Luke!) crunched some numbers on the difference between Longarms and Heavy Weapons, and while it was pretty well balanced, I felt that the roles of these weapon types should be a little more divergent. So, Longarms have lost a bit of damage (via talents) and gained more accuracy, while Heavy Weapons have dropped a talent or two and picked up some extra damage talents instead. I finally feel like all of the Heavy Weapon talents are useful and desireble, even if I do have to go through the NPC templates again to update everything :)

 

Bestiary and Encounters Updates

Yeah this is going to take a while. I've completed the Bestiary monsters (and added some more stock images to get rid of those awful placeholders), and I've done most of tne Bestiary's NPC templates, but the rest (spellcasters, mounted enemies and all the scifi templates) still need doing. It'll be a couple of weeks :)

 

Space Dragons

The Zacharial species has lost its space folding ability. It's a little disappointing, but the GM in charge of a campaign with these things flying around made a great case for it. Being on a starship keeps a party together, but if a Zacharial can just jump out of an airlock and fold to another star system on a whim, it makes the GM's job a lot harder. They can still focus on boarding actions in space combat and fly around for a while in a vacuum, but they need their own ships to fold to other star systems. In this regard, they've gained their own species starship designs too.

That's about all for this month, which should be plenty to digest for now! One of these days, the system really will settle down and the changes should be far fewer, but it's all worthwhile as it's slowly paring back the system into more readily understandable chunks. All good! Peace.

 

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Sabre RPG Scifi Core Rulebook v1.16

 

General 

* Revised the Advanced Characters section for what I hope is more uniform numbers.

* The medical scanner now lists Surgery as one of the skills it can be used with, and has a bonus to first aid as well.

* 'Barrel Extension' weapon mod doesn't work on missiles.

* 'Coca Wine' narcotic duration is now correctly listed as 2 hours.

* Combat Talents & Manoeuvres can be taught to Beasts and Dire Beasts using the Animal Training skill.

* Squires cannot learn the Animal Training skill.

* Sentry Turrets now require a remote control to use, cannot use voice commands by default, and require an action to start them shooting at a target.

* Heal Rate is now calculated as Hit Points/6.

* 'Efficient Crafting' skill now increases the hours per day that you can use craft or tech skills such as Robotics to 12 hours instead of 8.

* Arborean species is no longer Vulnerable to fire damage.

* Xarani skin colour now varies according to their mood.

* EVA suits now provide +5 ap vs radiation damage.

* 'Leap' and 'Sprint' manoeuvres can only be used during your turn. Leap no longer ignores difficult terrain.

* Devices with the Worn-out condition now also have half the normal charges.

* Added 'Xen' medicine.

* Listed how long it takes to make medicines.

* Morphine now provides a -5% Evade penalty instead of losing a Reaction.

 

Robotics Changes

* Removed 'Massive Fists', 'Colossal Fists' and 'Mighty Fists' robot upgrades (buy a power fist!)

* Revised 'Battering Ram' upgrade.

* 'Saw Blades' robot upgrade now increases Damage Modifier bonus for each body size increase and damaged targets bleed, but it cannot be augmented with Unarmed weaponry.

* 'Transform' upgrade now notes that Armour Plating also lowers transformed Movement.

* Rewrote the sections on how to build robots, repair robots, and operate robots.

* Robots can be be programmed with skills and talents, no longer requiring the expenditure of Accolades.

* Reduced the Circuit cost for building robots.

* Added 'Robot Avatar' talent.

* Added 'Expanded Memory' robot upgrade.

* Robot Program devices now allow the robot or Automaton to take talents related to the skill learned. Talents and skill points are lost if the program is removed. The price of Robot Programs is now much higher.

* Positronic Brain upgrade now grants +10 INT.

* 'Broad Application' Robotics talent now also allows the roboticist to use Mechanic and Electronic manoeuvres on robots.

 

Parry Changes

* The effectiveness of parrying attacks is no longer limited by weapon SIZ.

* Many Tiny and Small weapons such as daggers cannot parry.

* The Parrying weapon trait now grants a +5% result bonus when Parrying.

* The 'Impact' trait now also mentions that Parrying weapons are affected.

* The Martial Arts skill no longer increases weapon SIZ, but allows you to Parry with empty-handed and Martial Arts weapons.

* Charge no longer increases weapon SIZ.

* 'Solid Defence' and 'Swift Parry' manoeuvres now grant +5% to Parry results.

* Removed 'Stronger Parry' melee manoeuvre.

* 'Fight Dirty' Unarmed manoeuvre now specifies it is a result penalty.

* 'Fencer' talent now grants its result bonus to the skill in general, not just for feint etc.

* 'Lightning Riposte' is now just called 'Riposte'. It now gives a free melee attack on a critical Parry.

* 'Reciprocating Strike' shield talent now gives a free attack on a critical Block.

* Added 'Iron Wall' shield talent.

* Removed 'Skewer' blade talent, replaced with 'Duellist' talent.

 

Weapon Stuff

* Modern melee weapons with the Perforate trait instead have the Bleed trait.

* Added upgrades for 'Powered Weapons' invention.

* 'Weapon' background event now provides a weapon of 500cr or less in value, but it has the Worn-out condition.

* Weapons and devices now all have Hit Points, including weapons which always had Armour Points in a convoluted kind of way. Hit Point numbers on weapons are much higher in some cases, and all devices also have Hit Points.

* When using equipment or weapons, a fumble reduces its Hit Points by 1.

* Improv Laser and Improv Gun inventions now list slots for installing on vehicles and starships. 

* Improvised Laser has less charges and uses modern batteries. High-Tech batteries double charges as usual.

* The Martial Arts skill now allows the use of all Martial Arts weapons by default.

* Removed the 'Martial Weapons' talent.

* Some high-tech weapon mods are now available in the modern era.

* Replaced 'Shrapnel' heavy weapons talent with 'Heavy Hitter' which grants damage, increases with skill level.

* 'Practiced Aim' longarm talent now gives +2% result bonus, increases with skill level. Skill requirement is 50%.

* 'Defensive Swing' heavy weapons talent is now at 70%.

* 'Low Profile' longarms talent is now at 90%, 'Braced Shot' is now at 70%.

* 'Haymaker' Unarmed manoeuvre now also grants Reach.

* 'Faultless Aim' Small Arms manoeuvre now grants EC only on single shot attacks.

* 'Improvised Laser' invention is now Modern era.

* Gatling trait for 'Improvised Gun' and 'Improvised Laser' can only be used on heavy weapon configurations. Accurate trait has been removed from Improv Gun.

* 'Blast Shield' invention is now Modern era.

* Added a note about cover gained from smoke and fog, noting that AoE effects work normally and night vision sees through it. Noted this difference in 'Low Profile' talent.

* 'Sniper' talent now only applies its bonus on single-shot longarm attacks.

* 'Hail of Arrows' talent now grants the Burst ability.

* 'Opportunist' sword talent now makes it so Swords don't reaquire Reactions to make opportunity attacks.

* Removed Particle Accelerator vehicle weapon, replaced with Hvy Plasma Cannon.

* Mass Driver vehicle weapon now has a clip size of 1, takes only 12 slots.

* Improv laser invention's electric damage option now halves the damage figure.

* Corrected the text for 'Powerful Throw' talent.

* Added 'Switch Bow' and 'Powered Crossbow' high tech weapons.

* Added 'Close Quarters Specialist' general combat talent. 

* Added 'Martial Finesse' talent. 

* Added 'Blade Finesse' talent, Removed 'Agile Defence' blade talent.

* Added 'Ammo Feed' upgrade for Hazard Suit invention.

 

Starship Manual v1.06

* Zacharial have gained a species starship design bonus, and lost their 'Fold Space' talent.

* Added 'Weapon Turret, Capital'.

* Zacharial's unarmed attack is a bite, not claws.

* Zacharial can take the 'Ravenous' talent.

* Added Heavy Plasma Cannon.

* Mass Driver now has a clip size of 1, takes only 12 slots.

* Cruise Missile takes 15 slots.

 

 

Sabre RPG Premium Fantasy Core Rulebook v1.16

 

General 

* Revised the Advanced Characters section for what I hope is more uniform numbers.

* Combat Talents & Manoeuvres can be taught to Beasts and Dire Beasts using the Animal Training skill.

* Squires cannot learn the Animal Training skill.

* Heal Rate is now calculated as Hit Points/6.

* 'Leap' and 'Sprint' manoeuvres can only be used during your turn. Leap no longer ignores difficult terrain.

 

Parry Changes

* The effectiveness of parrying attacks is no longer limited by weapon SIZ.

* Many Tiny and Small weapons such as daggers cannot parry.

* The Parrying weapon trait now grants a +5% result bonus when Parrying.

* The 'Impact' trait now also mentions that Parrying weapons are affected.

* The Martial Arts skill no longer increases weapon SIZ, but allows you to Parry with empty-handed and Martial Arts weapons.

* Charge no longer increases weapon SIZ.

* 'Solid Defence' and 'Swift Parry' manoeuvres now grant +5% to Parry results.

* Removed 'Stronger Parry' melee manoeuvre.

* 'Fight Dirty' Unarmed manoeuvre now specifies it is a result penalty.

* 'Fencer' talent now grants its result bonus to the skill in general, not just for feint etc.

* 'Lightning Riposte' is now just called 'Riposte'. It now gives a free melee attack on a critical Parry.

* 'Reciprocating Strike' shield talent now gives a free attack on a critical Block.

* Added 'Iron Wall' shield talent.

* Removed 'Skewer' blade talent, replaced with 'Duellist' talent.

 

Weapon Stuff

* 'Agile' weapon trait critical damage bonus increased to +3, no longer lowers weapon HP.

* Weapons now all have Hit Points instead of Armour Points. Hit Point numbers on weapons are much higher in some cases.

* When using equipment or weapons, a fumble reduces its Hit Points by 1.

* The Martial Arts skill now allows the use of all Martial Arts weapons by default.

* Removed the 'Martial Weapons' talent.

* 'Practiced Aim' longarm talent now gives +2% result bonus, increases with skill level. Skill requirement is 50%.

* 'Low Profile' longarms talent is now at 90%, 'Braced Shot' is now at 70%.

* 'Haymaker' Unarmed manoeuvre now also grants Reach.

* 'Faultless Aim' Firearms manoeuvre now grants EC only on single shot attacks.

* 'Hail of Arrows' talent now grants the Burst ability.

* 'Opportunist' sword talent now makes it so Swords don't reaquire Reactions to make opportunity attacks.

* Corrected the text for 'Powerful Throw' talent.

* Added 'Close Quarters Specialist' general combat talent. 

* Added 'Martial Finesse' talent. 

* Added 'Blade Finesse' talent, Removed 'Agile Defence' blade talent.

 

 

Sabre RPG Basic Fantasy Core Rulebook v1.16

 

General 

* Revised the Advanced Characters section for what I hope is more uniform numbers.

* Heal Rate is now calculated as Hit Points/6.

* 'Leap' and 'Sprint' manoeuvres can only be used during your turn. Leap no longer ignores difficult terrain.

 

Parry Changes

* The effectiveness of parrying attacks is no longer limited by weapon SIZ.

* Many Tiny and Small weapons such as daggers cannot parry.

* The Parrying weapon trait now grants a +5% result bonus when Parrying.

* The 'Impact' trait now also mentions that Parrying weapons are affected.

* The Martial Arts skill no longer increases weapon SIZ, but allows you to Parry with empty-handed and Martial Arts weapons.

* Charge no longer increases weapon SIZ.

* 'Solid Defence' and 'Swift Parry' manoeuvres now grant +5% to Parry results.

* Removed 'Stronger Parry' melee manoeuvre.

* 'Fight Dirty' Unarmed manoeuvre now specifies it is a result penalty.

* 'Lightning Riposte' is now just called 'Riposte'. It now gives a free melee attack on a critical Parry.

 

Weapon Stuff

* 'Agile' weapon trait critical damage bonus increased to +3, no longer lowers weapon HP.

* Weapons now all have Hit Points instead of Armour Points. Hit Point numbers on weapons are much higher in some cases.

* When using equipment or weapons, a fumble reduces its Hit Points by 1.

* The Martial Arts skill now allows the use of all Martial Arts weapons by default.

* Removed the 'Martial Weapons' talent.

* 'Practiced Aim' longarm talent now gives +2% result bonus, increases with skill level. Skill requirement is 50%.

* 'Low Profile' longarms talent is now at 90%, 'Braced Shot' is now at 70%.

* 'Haymaker' Unarmed manoeuvre now also grants Reach.

* 'Opportunist' sword talent now makes it so Swords don't reaquire Reactions to make opportunity attacks.

* Added 'Blade Finesse' talent, Removed 'Agile Defence' blade talent.

Hi everyone, time for the monthly Sabre update, and this time we've got some more streamlining of character creation and a bunch of other tweaks. Let's get to it! 

Core System changes

This applies to both fantasy and scifi systems. I've been looking for ways to pare back the system to make it easier to get into, and this is what I've come up with this time: 

* All skills are now calculated by one Attribute score, times 2.

* All Characteristics are now calculated from only one Attribute score.

* Four Common Skills, namely Boating, Conceal, Dance & Sing, have been removed (they ain't that common).

* Pistols and Longarms skills have been combined into the new Small Arms skill (scifi), or Firearms skill (fantasy). 

* Pistol and Longarm Manoeuvres have been merged into one Small Arms/Firearms category. 

Our beta testers have confirmed this makes things much easier and a bit quicker during character creation, so it's totally worthwhile! The upshot of this is you can get more Hit Points, Spirit Points and Initiative Rank too. I've gone and updated NPC templates for the Encounters manual, but I haven't had time to do the Bestiary templates yet. I'll try to get to that next month, but the numbers are pretty similar anyway.

There's plenty of other adjustments and improvements done to the scifi system, mostly as a result of the modern era alien fighting campaign I'm running. The vehicle system works really well, and we're having a great time with it.

One last thing, I've taken the sample bestiary out of the premium fantasy edition, it's taking a lot of space and it's extra work to maintain it. Those templates can be found in the basic edition, or the bestiary anyway :)

I've added some more bestiary art, from stock images of course, but we're past the halfway point now! Anyway, that's all for this month, play on :)

 

 

Sabre Scifi Core Rulebook v1.15

Core System

* All Common and Professional skills are now initially calculated by 1 Attribute number x2. This makes it much easier to do the initial skill calculations. 

* Revised calculations of Characteristics based off 1 Attribute instead of 2.

  -Damage Modifer is based only on Strength.

  -Hit Points are equal to Constitution.

  -Initiative Rank is equal to Agility.

  -Reactions are based on Agility.

  -Spirit Points are equal to half Willpower.

* Android, Automaton and Veiran Spirit Points are now equal to their WIL Attribute.

* Increased Buff Points for character creation to 23 standard (up from 22).

* 'Roboticist' background now gets 2 background events. 

* 'Medical School' and 'Science Institute' backgrounds now gets 2 background events.

* 'Prodigy' background has no contacts.

* Pistols and Longarms skills have been combined into the new Small Arms skill. 

* Pistol and Longarm Manoeuvres have been merged into one Small Arms category. Modified Diving Fire, Opening Salvo, Double Tap. Removed Rapid Fire, Hold & Shoot, Pistol Whip. 

* All backgrounds have 1 less common skill to freely choose from.

 

New!

* Added 'Epic Driver' and 'Epic Pilot' manoeuvres.

* Added 'Burn' trait option to Pyrokinesis.

* Surgery skill can now only be used once per day.

* Added 'Major Operation' surgery talent that allows the operation to last much longer, and heal more Hit Points.

* Added B.A.D. Lever longarm modification.

* Added 'Double Smash' Unarmed manoeuvre.

* Added 30mm Chain Gun vehicle weapon.

* Added 20mm Chain Gun vehicle weapon.

* Added 20mm Cannon to the ranged weapons category (for personal use).

* Added 'Detoxatol' modern era addiction relief medicine.

* Added 'Stinger Launcher' modern era vehicle weapon.

* Added '40mm AA Cannon' modern era vehicle weapon.

 

Everything Else (Sorry for the disorganised list, I'm pressed for time).

* Revised the 'Commander' leadership talent - it is no longer tied to anyone's initiative skill, you can just arrange your party initiative as you wish, but only for your party (the GM's inititive roll stays where it is in the sequence.) 

* Removed 'Expanded Cartridge' crossbow modification.

* Added modern 'Multi-Shot Crossbow'.

* 'Vanquish' crossbow talent only affects ancient armour AP.

* 'Deep Wound' bow talent now functions on any hit, doesn't have to be a crit.

* Increased damage on modern bows.

* Serpent Combat Bite Option loses it's Perforate attack, begins at 1d6 and gains a special extra attack.

* Serpent Combat Grapple option now deals its Unarmed damage as collision damage each round.

* Corvid beak attack is now 1d6 damage base, cannot be used with unarmed weapons.

* Ravenous talent can also be taken by Corvid and Aleerata, grants Perforate and double damage modifier bonus instead of additional attack.

* 'Martial Warrior' talent can now be taken with the Unarmed skill.

* 'Psychic Shield' now grants +10 AP as a baseline, and gains +5AP and +5% result bonus for each spirit point put in after that. 

* Veiran Lightning Bolt manoeuvre now requires only 50% skill, deals +1 damage for each spirit point used.

* Characters with the Amorphous trait (Veiran and Shifter) get "Your Unarmed/Martial Arts attacks can gain or lose Reach & Longreach as desired."

* 'Thunder Fists' Unarmed manoevure now only affects your baseline Damage Modifier.

* Plasma Caster and Improvised Flamerthrower inventions now have a clip size of 30.

* Diamondback talent no longer gives a bonus against plasma or laser damage.

* Electronic Engineering and Mechanical Engineering talents now also require INT at 12+. 

* 'Narcotics' and 'Xenobiology' talents now require 12+ INT.

* 'Advanced Surgery' talent requires INT at 15+.

* 'Nanotech' and 'Implant Cybernetics' talents now require INT at 17+

* 'Renowned Surgeon' talent now requires INT at 19+

* Mentari Attribute penalties are now -3 for STR, -3 CON, instead of -6 STR.

* 'Dimensional Shunt' now has a base range of 10 squares, and it and 'Circuit Spike' can increase by increments of 10 squares.

* 'Howl' intimidate manoeuvre now called 'Roar', because it's more awesome.

* 'Thunder Fists' Unarmed manoevure is no longer limited to empty-handed attacks.

* 'Animate Dead' veiran talent now works with a Concentration or 1 minute duration as normal.

* Corrected short description for 'Archery Master' talent.

* 'Martial Fury' manoeuvre has been moved to Unarmed manoeuvres.

* Noted for Skill Combo and Skill Mastery talents that manoeuvres of different activation times are still limited by when you can use them. i.e. 1 action still must be used on your turn etc.

* Replaced 'Hardened Systems' and added standardised 'Composite Armour' upgrade for Powered Armour, Vehicles and Robots.

* Composite Armour heavy tank option now grants invulnerability to electrical damage. 

* Powered melee weapons all have 10 charges.

* Electrical Foil, Taser Glove and Shock Baton now deal bludgeoning (or piercing for the foil) damage, but separatly add +3 electrical damage. Taser Glove cost reduced.

* Psychic Shield is an opposed check against incoming damage rolls, thus it works like a shield.

* Removed Acting and Oratory Professional skills, and Boating, Dance, Customs and Sing common skills. Boating is now under Seamanship. Acting and Dance are under Art. Sing is under Musicianship. Customs is under Culture. Oratory is under Influence.

* Semi-Auto shotguns are now Huge in SIZ.

* 'Renowned Speaker' talent now applies to Influence skill, 90% requirement.

* 'Artist' talent now only applies to art or musicianship skill, 90% requirement.

* 'Renowned Musician' talent now only applies to musicianship skill. 

* 'Researcher' talent now applies to either Knowledge or Science skills.

* 'Thunderous Report' applies to longarms mounted on vehicles now.

* Removed the 'Mounted Weaponry' vehicle talent.

* Fully auto shotgun has lost suppress trait, clip size is now 12, damage is 1d8+8.

* 'Redundant Organs' genetics enhancement only gives +5 HP now.

* 'Enhanced Senses' genetics enhancement no longer makes you unsurprisable.

* 'Precision Circuitry' talent now only applies to building or repairing robots.

* Fixed erroneous instances of 'Organic Component' references.

* 'Dragon Strike' and 'Double Slice' manoevures now only apply the damage dice of off-hand weapons. 

* Removed 'Fast Reload' heavy weapons talent and replaced with 'Firepower' at 90% skill.

* 'Shrapnel' heavy weapons talent is now at 70%, and can apply from heavy weapons mounted on vehicles or starships.

* Setup weapons trait no longer requires weapons to take 2 rounds to reload.

* SUV's and Light Trucks have an extra slot and +1 Movement.

* Shell-type weapons can use Explosive and HESH warheads.

* Added Depleted Uranium shell ammunition.

* FMJ rounds can only be used on bullets up to .50cal in size.

* Suppress attacks no longer use the Perforate trait.

* Stinger Launcher is now 3 slots.

* Added details for making special shells and warheads to Ammunition invention.

* AI Construct can now learn any talents using its Computers skill to qualify. 

* Taking a nose injury using the Maiming rules also results in -1 CHA.

* 'Medic' talent can now also be taken with the First Aid skill.

* Missile trait now only gives +10% to hit larger targets.

* 'Guidance System' weapon mod now gives +10% to both rockets and missiles, but is now specifically listed as High-Tech (as it requires a Wrist Radar).

* 'Inspiration' and 'Forced March' leadership manouevres are now C1 duration.

* 'Fusillade' pistol manoeuvre now simply gives you the gatling trait for 1 round.

* Fixed the listed ammunition bonuses for FMJ, Hollow Point and Solid Slugs in the ammunition invention. Also added extra time cost for some special ammo.

* AI Construct invention only gains extra actions and reactions if attached to a turret, starship or base at 99%. 90% ability lets it learn talents with its Computers skill. Invention takes 64 hours to program now.

* EVA suit now stipulates it can be worn over armour, and suffocation rules apply once it is breached.

* The 'Possess' veiran manoevure now states that you use your Psychic skill for all skill checks while in possession of another entity.

* 'Rebellious Spirit' is now listed as Quick.

* 'Signal Disruptor' is now called Signal Jammer.

* 'Repair Bots' nanomedicine is now called Repair Meds (to prevent a clash with actual starship repair bots).

* Added 'Faultless Aim' longarm manoeuvre.

* 'God of War' hvy weapons manoevure now lasts for the entire round.

* Explained that direct piloting of a robot (or using an AR visor) allows you to use the robotics skill by default for all robot tasks, or use your own specific skills and talents if you have them.

* Starship Control robotics upgrade now correctly states that you use the Robotics skill to control ship functions instead of Computers. They can also gain the benefits of a console if they have the appropriate skill and talent.

* 20mm Cannon now has a clip size of 5, matching the vehicle mounted version, and costs 25k instead of 30k.

* Further refined Anti-Air weapon trait to "Weapon has +10% to skill result vs flying targets, -10% skill result vs ground targets."

* Added 'Airborne Tracking System' heavy weapon mod.

* 'Heavy Lifter' manoeuvre now requires only 70% skill and allows wielder to ignore Setup requirement of weapons.

* 'Airborne' weapon trait has been changed to 'Anti-Air'. "Against flying targets, weapon ignores standard -10% penalty & gains +10% to skill result instead."

* Tweaked the language on 'Airborne' ranged weapon trait to remove penalty for shooting at flying targets.

* 20mm Cannon and 20mm Autocannon now deal 1d12+15 damage.

* 30mm Autocannon now deal 1d12+20 damage.

* 40mm Cannon clip size is now 5, slot requirement is also 5.

* Stinger Missile has a range of 5km, deals 1d8+20 fire damage and has Explosve trait. Reduced cost of Stinger/Skyshield ammo.

* Interceptor Missile deals 1d8+25 damage.

* Removed 'Bunker Down' heavy weapons talent, replaced with 'Weapon Training'.

* Revised 'Linked Weapons' vehicle and starship upgrade for a more efficient mechanic, can now also be once again used in turrets.

 

Starship Manual v1.05

* Docking Bay upgrade is now 15 slots instead of 25.

* A ship's Length is now listed as it's Size, which is in cubic metres/yards.

* Hardened Subystems upgrade is now 'Armoured Subsystem'.

* Added 'Composite Armour' upgrade.

* Added a section about Repairing a Starship to the manual (better late than never). 

* Hull repairs now take 5 hours per hull part.

* Added 'Interdiction System' upgrade.

* 'Intense Flame' talent now gives Invulnerability to fire damage instead of a plasma damage DR bonus.

* 'Fearsome' talent is now an opposed check to be frightened.

* 'Fold Space' talent now requires only 70% skill, can travel to other star systems at 90% skill.

* Doubled the movement in space from 'Psychic Travel'.

* Tweaked Zacharial 'Breathe fire' manoeuvre to be deal damage more efficiently, with a lower maximum. 

* Fleet Command talent now extends to 10 space squares by default, 20 squares if you have the Decisive Leadership talent.

 

 

Sabre Fantasy Premium Core Rulebook v2.97

* Raelani now have -3 to STR and -3 to CON, instead of -6 to STR.

* Separated Common Skills and Resistance skills.

* Added 'Double Smash' Unarmed manoeuvre.

* 'Thunder Fists' Unarmed manoevure is no longer limited to empty-handed attacks, but only affecst baseline Damage Modifier.

* 'Martial Fury' manoeuvre has been moved to Unarmed manoeuvres.

* Removed Acting and Oratory Professional skills, and Boating, Dance, Customs and Sing common skills. Boating is now under Seamanship. Acting and Dance are under Art. Sing is under Musicianship. Customs is under Culture. Oratory is under Influence.

* Pistols and Longarms skills have been combined into the new Firearms skill.

* Pistol and Longarm Manoeuvres have been merged into one Firearms category. Modified Diving Fire, Opening Salvo, Double Tap. Removed Rapid Fire, Fusilade, Hold & Shoot, Pistol Whip.  

* All backgrounds have 1 less common skill to freely choose from.

* 'Renowned Speaker' talent now applies to Influence skill, 90% requirement.

* 'Artist' talent now only applies to art or musicianship skill, 90% requirement.

* 'Renowned Musician' talent now only applies to musicianship skill. 

* All Common and Professional skills are now initially calculated by 1 Attribute number x2. This makes it much easier to do the initial skill calculations. 

* Revised calculations of Characteristics based off 1 Attribute instead of 2.

  -Damage Modifer is based only on Strength.

  -Hit Points are equal to Constitution.

  -Initiative Rank is equal to Agility.

  -Reactions are based on Agility.

  -Spirit Points are equal to half Willpower.

* Acadian Elf Spirit Points are now equal to their WIL Attribute.

* 'Dragon Strike' and 'Double Slice' manoevures now only apply the damage dice of off-hand weapons. 

* Taking a nose injury using the Maiming rules also results in -1 CHA.

* 'Inspiration' and 'Forced March' leadership manouevres are now C1 duration.

* Added 'Faultless Aim' Firearm manoeuvre.

* Removed Drive manoeuvres.

* 'Howl' intimidate manoeuvre now called 'Roar', because it's more awesome.

* 'Thunder Fists' Unarmed manoevure now only affects your baseline Damage Modifier.

* Removed the sample bestiary, as it's a lot of extra upkeep.

* 'Martial Warrior' talent can now be taken with the Unarmed skill.

 

Sabre Fantasy Basic Core Rulebook v1.81

* Raelani now have -3 to STR and -3 to CON, instead of -6 to STR.

* Separated Common Skills and Resistance skills.

* 'Martial Fury' manoeuvre has been moved to Unarmed manoeuvres.

* Removed Acting and Oratory Professional skills, and Boating, Dance, Customs and Sing common skills. Boating is now under Seamanship. Acting, Dance and Sing are under Art. Customs is under Culture. Oratory is under Influence.

* Pistols and Longarms skills have been combined into the new Firearms skill.

* Pistol and Longarm Manoeuvres have been merged into one Small Arms category. Modified Diving Fire, Opening Salvo, Double Tap. Removed Rapid Fire, Hold & Shoot, Pistol Whip.  

* All backgrounds have 1 less common skill to freely choose from. Adjusted skill options after removing the 4 less desirable ones.

* 'Renowned Speaker' talent now applies to Influence skill, 90% requirement.

* 'Artist' talent now provide expanded critical to an art-related subskill. 90% requirement.

* 'Renowned Musician' talent now only applies to musicianship skill. 

* All Common and Professional skills are now initially calculated by 1 Attribute number x2. This makes it much easier to do the initial skill calculations. 

* Revised calculations of Characteristics based off 1 Attribute instead of 2.

  -Damage Modifer is based only on Strength.

  -Hit Points are equal to Constitution.

  -Initiative Rank is equal to Agility.

  -Reactions are based on Agility.

  -Spirit Points are equal to half Willpower.

* Acadian Elf Spirit Points are now equal to their WIL Attribute.

* 'Double Slice' manoevure now only apply the damage dice of off-hand weapons. 

* Removed 'Inheritor' background as it contained abilities not present in the basic edition.

Hi everyone, we've got a bit of an early release this month, as all of the updates I had ready to go are... ready to go. Plus, I'm shifting my work focus to another project as I'm starting to feel a little burned out from this 6 month Sabre sprint. So for now, let's take a look at the shiny things for this month!

 

Encounters templates finished

After a herculean effort from myself and an associate (thanks Aidan!), we got the Encounters templates completed. When it came to doing the psychic, inventor and vehicle templates, I had to do some customisation work on the layout, and revised the system as I went. There were a lot of errors and old informaton in there, but now it all looks great, and is current with the system. The fantasy bestiary was updated a couple of weeks ago, though there's an update now for a few errors with the melee npc templates.

 

Aleerata

Space rats! I've been wanting to do a tiny species for quite some time, but after some discussion (and recalling how vicious a tiny melee robot had been in the last campaign I ran) we resolved to keep it as a small species. Usually the smaller species are best used with magic or psi powers to make up for their lack of physical ability, but this one is different. They can carry a lot more than their small size would suggest, including the ability to use large weapons normally excluded for smaller species. This frees them up a lot more for other roles. They're also able to make mechanical and electronic inventions without the need for those exact skills, and although the resulting gadgets tend to be unreliable, it frees them from taking backgrounds with the right technical skill too. So they're very flexible, and downright adorable :)

Miniatures

I've added a section to the scifi manual in an appendix to show how to use miniatures with Sabre, primarily about the vehicle and starships. Lots of cool pictures to look at from my own collection :)

Pilot manoeuvres

With the revision of the aircraft templates, I felt the pilot manoevures had been neglected long enough. So, now they match up with the manoevures in the starships manual, and can be used for vehicles or starships as required. There's more of them, and work better with how the vehicle system now functions. Some of the driver manoeuvres have been tweaked too, as with the system settled into a nice boardgame style environment, some adjustments needed to be made. 

 

Space vehicles vs starships

There's been a bit of a crossover between vehicles and starships, as with a plasma engine, some grav plates and a life support system, you could get a flying car into space. How it worked out there was never made clear. After some discussion, we've decided to remove this ability and keep vehicles primarily planet-bound. Now, shuttles and space fighter craft will be handled as class 0 hulls - half the size of a class 1 and with a few other limitations, but ideal for high speed dogfighting action (or carrying people and cargo). This is accompanied by a modification of the drone swarm rules, which allow a squadron of up to 6 identical fighters to operate as a single unit, perfect for larger hulls with multiple docking bays for launching fighters - carriers. We had a preliminary test this last week, and it seems to work well, but the system may evolve a little more in coming months. 

 

Other bits

The siege warfare system has been always just over the horizon, with other things constantly getting in the way. Since I'm easing back on development for a while, I've handed the current pre-alpha build back to my crack beta team to revise and improve, and then we can have a test play at some point. So it's still bubbling away :)

My current campaign is an x-com style "modern era vs aliens" thing, with a heavy emphasis on vehicle combat, and it's going very well! But the next campaign I run (which was going to be a mad max style vehicle campaign) is being changed to a waterworld sort of scenario, but with more guns and ships. As such, something I had wanted to do from the start of the starship system is adapt it for larger sea-going vessels. So when the time comes, I'll add a section to the starships manual on how to do that (it'll probably be next year sometime). 

There is actually another species in the pipeline for the scifi system, but the artwork is proving to be very challenging, so I'm giving myself more time to get a handle on it. Expect it probably next month. I plan on continuing the work on the bestiary too, as time allows. I do enjoy the artwork, though it can be demanding when I have too much going on at once. Otherwise, all the usual little updates, fixes and tweaks will continue as we delve further into the system in our local games, and find things that need work.

That's all for now. Peace :)

 

Scifi Core Rulebook v1.14

New Stuff!

* Added 'Aleerata' species. 

* Added a Miniatures appendix showing the kinds of miniatures players can use with the system.

* Added Reinforced modular plate inserts. Non-Conductive plate inserts now grant +10 AP vs electrical. Move its plasma bonus over to Refractive plates. 

* Added 'Grav Plate' high-tech upgrade for robots.

* Added 'Airborne' weapon trait for anti-aircraft specific weaponry.

* Added 'Stinger' and 'Skyshield' portable anti-aircraft missiles.

* Added 'Weapon Mount, External' vehicle upgrade.

* Added 'Cut Off' drive manoeuvre.

* Added 'Change Course' drive manoeuvre.

* Revised all Pilot skill manoeuvres and added a few. They are now matched with Pilot manoevures in the Starships manual.

 

General

* Student background now only has 1 Background event.

* Noted in the Contacts that when you lose one for any reason, you lose the benefit as well.

* The Psi Rank table now shows rank 1 (i.e. baseline) effects and requirements.

* Reduced the damage on AA Missiles and Interceptor Missiles.

* Noted under Suffocation rules that these fatigue levels cannot be ignored or reduced like other fatigue levels.

* Life Support vehicle upgrade can no longer allow a vehicle to go into space.

* 'Repulsor' now gains +5% per extra charge used, and has 10 charges. Updated details for how it operates when mounted on a starship.

* Removed 'Extra Turret' vehicle upgrade. Extra standard turrets can be added at 3.0t weight, and 10m/11y length. Only 1 HD turret can be mounted per vehicle.

* 'Reckless Flying' Pilot manouvre is now called 'Danger Zone'.

* Offensive Flying is now called 'Aggresive Flying'.

* Corrected the body text for 'Psychic Leech'.

* Vehicle docking bays now correctly list using 5 slots.

* Corrected the Long Range Fuel Tanks and Lightweight Vanes turbine option data.

* Revised how materials are used with the vehicle system. Ground, Air and Sea vehicles now have their own table with available materials suitable to that vehicle type, with correct bonuses and penalties.

* Clarified that a Major Wound now happens at or below negative maximum Hit Points, and if damage is equal to or more than twice this number, death cannot be avoided with an Endurance check or Luck Point use.

* Arborean ranged and longreach unarmed attacks now let you take Chain Weapon or Heavy Weapon talents and manoevures. 

* 'Furious Ram' drive manoeuvre now deals +5 damage instead of 1d10.

* Tactical Analyser invention now uses small batteries.

* Corrected missed instances of Healing (the skill) to Surgery.

* Suppression now applies a -5% skill penalty per level instead of -10%.

* 'Defy Gravity' psi discipline now grants +2% to starship agility instead of +5%.

* Added the mention of Expanded Fumbles to the criticals section, and mentioned that a 99 is still a fumble even if your skill is 99%.

* Second Skin now heals 1d4+2 HP, but works instantly.

* The Arborean Vine Limbs ranged penalty now states that this only affects hand-held ranged weapons.

* Canine Venator's Pack Hunter trait now grants +1 Damage instead of +1 Damage Modifier, so it affects all damage done, but is limited to +3.

* Genetics no longer requires a medical scanner to use.

* Vehicle 'Extra Turret' upgrade now allows a third turret on vehicles over 10m/11y in length.

* 'Fortify' vehicle upgrade gains +5 AP instead of +10, notes that it affects all sides.

 

Starship Manual v1.04 beta 4

* Expanded Cargo upgrade can now also convert cargo hold into precious, precious slots.

* Reduced the amount of default cargo space on all hulls.

* Sensor Upgrades only give +2% per level, but are no longer limited to 4 per ship.

* 'Empower PDS' manoeuvre now also gives the Impact trait.

* Added 'Fleet Command' talent.

* Added 'Manual Firing' talent.

* Added Class 0 starship hulls.

* Barrage Cannon PDS systems firing in Suppression mode can leave a small gap in their defences to allow drones, fighters and missiles to leave or enter from either the front or back of the ship. This compromises the system's ability to destroy incoming targets along that vector for the round.

* Added details in the combat section on using class 0 hulls in a squadron.

* Modified 'Docking Bay' upgrade details to suit class 0 hulls, and added 'Launching Tube' upgrade to complement large scale carrier vessels.

* Added 'Dominator' starship template and modified Falcon and Runabout templates.

* Primary starship weapons now incur the -40% skill penalty attempting to shoot targets of 10 metres of less instead of 20 metres or less.

* Added 'Rapid Launch System' and the 'Salvo' weapon trait.

* Suppression now applies a -5% skill penalty per level instead of -10%.

* Added a weapon traits table to the starship manual.

* HD weapon turret now provides +10 AP.

* Mentioned that at 0 Capacitor, no system, weapon or ability that requires capacitor to function works.

* Reduced the damage bonus from the Zacharial's 'Breathe Flame' manoeuvre from +2 to +1 per spirit point.

 

Encounters v1.14

* Completed all NPC templates.

 

Fantasy Premium & Basic Core Rulebooks v2.96 & v1.80

* Noted in the Contacts that when you lose one for any reason, you lose the benefit as well.

* The Spell Power table now shows rank 1 (i.e. baseline) effects and requirements.

* Noted under Suffocation rules that these fatigue levels cannot be ignored or reduced like other fatigue levels.

* Clarified that a Major Wound now happens at or below negative maximum Hit Points, and if damage is equal to or more than twice this number, death cannot be avoided with an Endurance check or Luck Point use.

* Corrected missed instances of Healing (the skill) to Surgery.

* Added the mention of Expanded Fumbles to the criticals section, and mentioned that a 99 is still a fumble even if your skill is 99%.

 

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.

______________________________________________

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 everyone, we've got a few big things to talk about today so let's get straight to it!

The Split

I've completed separating the scifi manual into the core rulebook and starships supplement. This entailed some cover art work, as well as making sure the right information ended up in the right book, but the results are excellent. Originally, I was advised by a friend that they should be separate books to begin with, but even with the starship stuff in the core system manual, it came to about 370 pages - perfectly fine. 

Since then, we've added the full set of science inventions, and then the genetics section, and more detail on other parts of the system and the manual size was just blowing out. This change has reduced the core rulebook down to about 382 pages, with the starships book coming in at 72. This makes it easier to navigate, and gives both room to grow as we continue to add bits a pieces of information to both. I've moved everything starship-related over to the new book, including the Zacharial species, as most of their special abilities are space-based.

 

New Character Sheets

I'm really excited about this! Since the beginning, I've wanted to do graphical character sheets instead of ones made in MS Word with tables, and with some new advice I was inspired to get it done. So all character sheets have been remade, with the aim of making them easier to follow, easier to look at, and more informative. I've also created fillable PDF forms for them, available for free on DriveThruRPG. I tried them out at my local game this past weekend, only using my tablet to maintain my character sheet, and it worked really well - I highly recommend them :) 

 

Demo Module

The Scifi demo module is pretty much done - I just have to finish its cover art, (re)make the character templates with the new system and it's ready to go. I've decided I won't be going ahead with lots of story modules, as I feel most GM's prefer to make their own stories so they're not limited to the scope written in the story. Plus, I like having all of the world I'm running the game in within my mind so I don't have to look things up, and I suspect a lot of GM's do this ;)  So I'll get this demo mod out, and probably one for the starship system too, and that'll be it. I'm actually eager to write a scifi novel, which I want to start in a couple of months, so I'll do that instead. 

 

Bestiary and Encounters manuals

Okay, so with the new-look character sheets done, I'll be going over alllll of the templates using the new look, and refining things as I go. I've done a few for the bestiary and it looks fantastic, but there's a lot to do so I'll just peck away at it and get them all done at some point. I'll do the Bestiary first, then the Encounters manual.

I might get on to doing more artwork for the Bestiary, but I think most of my time for now will be spent on this update. We'll see what happens.

Otherwise, there's just the usual refinements and additional information for the system with the rest of this update. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the new content :)

 

v1.12 Scifi Core Rulebook

* Added 'Spore Cannon' Arborean talent.

* 'Rain of Thorns' Arborean talent now grants up to 360 rounds per day at 99% skill.

* Venators have wider ranges of fur colour.

* Added 'Synergy Link' psi talent.

* 'Telepathy' psi discipline now has stats for use with a Psi Console.

* 'Rad Gun' invention now requires uranium and lead instead of a pocket reactor.

* 'Security Matrix' requires 10 laser pointers instead of wrist radar.

* Vehicles and starships now take half damage instead of immunity to collision damage with a ram plate.

* Critical hits on starships now go through subsystem HP, then onto ship hull. Noted that a crew member fumble will damage their system 1d6 hit points.

* Added 'Ram' action to ship pilot list.

* 'Bio-enhancer' invention is now correctly listed as High Tech era.

* 'Tactical Analyser' invention is now a modern era invention with different material requirements.

* 'Serpent Combat' talent's bite option now deals 1d4 damage, but gains the Perforate trait.

* Clarified that moving to any square takes 1 point of Movement by default (there was no mention of diagonal costing 50% more!)

* 'Polarise Armour' manouevre only works if you have at least 1 AP of armour.

* The Teach skill now provides 10% extra based on the skill being taught, not the Teach skill itself.

* 'Overcharge Shield' manoeuvre now lasts for the entire round.

* 'Barrel Roll' and 'Defensive Roll' manouvres are now a Reaction to use.

* Offensive/Defensive flying now grants 10% bonus/penalty instead of 20%.

* 'Decryption Engine' invention is now called 'AI Construct', with new abilities.

* Point defences now consist of a pair of weapons, mounted top and bottom, and can engage in a 360 degree sphere.

* 'Fire &  Steel' talent now also allows unarmed and martial arts attacks.

* Clarified the text for Sentry Turrets that using a Reaction to command it allows it to us its own action to attack.

* Added 'Weapon Strap' longarm mod.

* Clarified that 'Control Movement' also prevents the use of manoevures or other abilities that provide movement.

* All manoevures that involve an attack bonus and are used as 1 Action, now clarify that you get to attack as part of using them.

* Added 'Blind Fighting' and 'Blind Fury' Perception manoevures.

* The core rulebook now has new artwork, and the old artwork has been updated and used for the starship manual.

* Added 'Quick Reflexes' general talent for acrobatics.

* Updated all primary and NPC character sheets with new version. 

* 'Muzzleloader' pistol talent has been renamed to 'Rapid Reload'.

* 'Pistol Whip' talent has been replaced by 'Gun-Fu' talent.

* Removed 'Stock Slam' talent.

* Added 'Pistol Whip' and 'Stock Slam' manoeuvres for Pistols and Longarms respectively.

* Revised wording of 'Point-Blank Shot' pistol manoevure.

* Removed the Starships section and the Zacharial species, along with related talents, and moved them to their own manual to free up space.

* 'Bioweapon' veiran talent no longer grants additional lightning damage, but allows a successful hit to chain onto another target.

* Fixed the duplicated upgrade name for Power Leech invention.

* Mentioned under the Insight skill that it can be used for memory checks.

* After sleeping off the Intoxicated condition, the subject is now Nauseated for 4 hours.

* Reactor Upgrade is now called Capacitor Upgrade for clarity.

* Beam Splitter and Sawnoff weapon mods prevent any other range mod from working.

 

Starship Manual v1.0

* Added details of fuel scooping, and the cost of buying standard and military fuel at stations.

* Added 3 console varients for each crew position, listed under the crew section.

* Skyflash missile now takes 3 slots.

* Vehicle Docking Bay upgrade now uses 5 slots (no cargo) and limits vehicle by length.

* Ramming prow is absorbs collision damage on targets that are the same size or smaller than the ship, and ship takes 1/2 damage from anything larger.

* Scanning Specialist talent has been replaced by Stardrive Expert, allowing you to send other ships through the fold.

* 'Positronic Brain' upgrade for ships is now 'AI Construct', uses the invention of the same name to gain its benefits for the ship's computer.

* Added starship templates here and removed them from the Encounters manual.

 

v2.93 Fantasy Premium

* The Teach skill now provides 10% extra based on the skill being taught, not the Teach skill itself.

* 'Fire &  Steel' talent now also allows unarmed and martial arts attacks.

* Clarified that 'Control Movement' also prevents the use of manoevures or other abilities that provide movement.

* All manoevures that involve an attack bonus and are used as 1 Action, now clarify that you get to attack as part of using them.

* Added 'Blind Fighting' and 'Blind Fury' Perception manoevures.

* Added 'Quick Reflexes' general talent for acrobatics.

* Updated all primary and NPC character sheets with new version. 

* 'Muzzleloader' pistol talent has been renamed to 'Rapid Reload' (for clarity).

* Removed 'Stock Slam' talent.

* Added 'Pistol Whip' and 'Stock Slam' manoeuvres for Pistols and Longarms respectively.

* Revised wording of 'Point-Blank Shot' pistol manoevure.

* Mentioned under the Insight skill that it can be used for memory checks.

* After sleeping off the Intoxicated condition, the subject is now Nauseated for 4 hours.

* Added 'On the Move' acrobatics manoeuvre.

 

v1.76 Fantasy Basic Edition

* The Teach skill now provides 10% extra based on the skill being taught, not the Teach skill itself.

* Clarified that 'Control Movement' also prevents the use of manoevures or other abilities that provide movement.

* All manoevures that involve an attack bonus and are used as 1 Action, now clarify that you get to attack as part of the manouevre.

* 'Muzzleloader' pistol talent has been renamed to 'Rapid Reload' (for clarity).

* Updated all primary and NPC character sheets with new version. 

* Removed 'Stock Slam' talent.

* Added 'Pistol Whip' and 'Stock Slam' manoeuvres for Pistols and Longarms respectively.

* Mentioned under the Insight skill that it can be used for memory checks.

Hello, I hope you're well! It's time for our monthly update, albeit a little early to get ahead of the Easter weekend, and we've got a few interesting items to cover this time. 

 

Character Creation Streamline

The system to create characters has been gradually pared back over the last few years, as we looked for an easy way to cover the process, and we're doing it again! 

Firstly, the Buff Points system to determine Attributes is being simplified. No longer will you have the diminishing returns of the current system to contend with - instead, you gain 1 Attribute point per Buff Point you spend, but with a maximum of 10 points to one Attribute, and a default amount of 22 Buff Points to spend. I went over the numbers to ensure this was a reasonable amount, and for humans, it yields 4 13's and 2 12's, if one was to average out the numbers. This new system does make it easier to min/max, but because most characteristics and skills require the combination of 2 Attributes, maxing one out isn't as dominate as you might hope, and of course the other Attributes suffer as a result. I've updated the character build example to reflect this change.

Next, there's a revision of the Background system. There are currently two stages (really three, if you count the baseline race bonuses), which are Background and Career. They each received separate skill points, usually 30 for Background and 20 for Career, to show that some skills weren't as developed as ones you'd learned earlier in life. 

The Career stage has been removed, and the ability to pick custom skills to flesh out your character is now folded into each Background. All skills at this step get 30 points (assuming the standard adult age category), eliminating the need to add separate numbers to separate skills. To balance the backgrounds better, they now have fixed skills (as before) bolstered by a varying number of freely chosen skills. Some backgrounds are more fixed than free, and some are very free indeed, but suffer for this in other ways.

So you just pick a Background, pick a few freely chosen skills (if offered), and add 30 points to everything. Done! This system will yield slightly higher starting numbers, which is a good thing as the lower numbers at the start meant a lot of swing-and-miss fights. Characters start out a little more competant now, which isn't a bad thing at all.

 

Imperial Units

One requested feature for Sabre has been the addition of imperial units, which are commonly used in the US and UK. I quite like using metric myself, but can see this would be an impediment to the system being enjoyed in those countries, so instead of creating a separate manual with imperial units, I've opted to put them alongside their metric versions throughout the manual. 

Anything with a metric unit will be followed by an imperial unit, usually in brackets. In the scifi system, vehicle templates have separate kph and mph areas, and all conversion tables list both types side by side. But there's a little twist to this alteration, to do with the combat grid. 

Typically, one square has been equal to 1 metre, but instead of having some realistic but increasingly complex conversion process, I've opted to list most combat-related measurements in 'squares'. Squares represent 1 metre of you're playing metric, and 1 yard if you're using imperial. This way, the grid stays easily understandable, and special effects, ranged attacks etc. all have their listed range in Squares instead of metric or yards. You just think of Squares as whatever suits the system you're using. Easy (I hope!) 

 

Threat Levels

We've added some more nuance to the Threat Level calculation in the scifi system, as after extensive playing we've found that plasma damage, perforate effects, and damage that bypasses AP altogether are more powerful than first thought. So, they have specific calculations that are added to the table, along with an easier way of calculating the effects of baseline damage - the first 10 points was awkwardly calculated as +1 for the first 6, and another +1 for the next 4, before settling on +1 for every two points. Now it's just +1 for every two points of damage you deal in one attack - halving makes it easy!

 

Separating the Manual

I still plan to put the starship section in its own manual, but decided to get the previous items out of the way first. It'll need cover art and I want to expaned on some of the details within. My apologies to those suffering slow loading times on their tablets, I'll get to it next month :)

 

Scifi Intro Module(s)

I've completed the module, including a nice cover, and I'll be playtesting it next week with my usual group. After we see how it goes, I'll make any changes it needs and then it'll be online shortly thereafter. The 2nd module, dealing with starships, is now under way, and I'll be test-playing that the week after the 1st module, and once I've made a cover for it, it'll go online as well. These are both free mods that should go a long way to explaining more of how the scifi system works, now that development is slowing as systems fall into place and prove themselves both fun and usable :)

That's all we have this month, I hope to have both intro modules released before the next update. I hope you give the character creation system a whirl and see what you think about the change! Peace.

______________________________________________________________________________________

The Besiary and Encounters manuals have been updated with imperial conversions and general corrections of old or erroneous data.

 

v1.11 Scifi Manual

Core Changes:

* Revised the method for applying Buff Points to Attributes during character creation. 22 Points, no more tiered point calculations, just add straight on (max of 10 per Attribute).

* Removed the Career stage of character creation, and simply folded extra skill options into each background.

* All backgrounds have been revised with the new system, some with more fixed skills than others. Some other bonuses have been revised as required.

* Added Imperial units alongside metric units. Revised some of the numbers along the way, such as boat speeds, some species height etc. 

* Added the concept of 'Squares', used to denote either metres or yards on a combat grid map, and for abilities which list a range, whichever is preferred.

* Technical Skills are now simply referred to as Tech Skills.

 

Threat Level Calculations

* Adjusted the Threat Level table to better reflect Perforate, Plasma and Psychic damage, as well as a separate entry for collision, radiation and electrical damage.

* Added calculations to the ship TL table for perforate & plasma damage, and raiation/electrical/collision damage.

* Half of Energy AP also counts along with Partial Block bonus on TL table.

* Veiran joins Shifter on the Threat Level table for being able to function below 1 HP.

 

Other Stuff

* 'Power Spike' is now a modern era powered melee weapon under the Swords category.

* 'Laser Sword' is now called 'Light Blade', under the Blades category.

* 'Plasma Sword' is now Huge in SIZ, damage increased.

* 'Laser Blade' is now called 'Laser Scythe' under the swords category.

* Concentration effects are now re-rolled every time the subject tries to break free of the effect, instead of going back to the original roll.

* Mentioned that the Seduction skill usually has a -20% penalty when used against members of the same sex, subject to GM's determination on a case-by-case basis.

* Added 'Lockbreaker Bomb' to modern explosives.

* 'Sleep' is now correctly listed as C1 duration in the quick detail table.

* Weapons with the Explosive trait now have their range listed with them.

* After posession, veirans are dazed for 1 minute.

* 'Suggestion' psychic power has had its short description text corrected.

* Compensator Barrel Mods no longer reduce range.

* Silencer and Suppressor Barrel Mods no longer reduce range, impose -2 damage instead.

* Clarified that a Remote Control device requires the use of Robotics or Electronics for robots/turrets/minidrones.

* Powered armour now has an in-built Computers skill for resisting hacking attempts. 

* 'Neural Programming' talent can now also be applied to powered armour.

* Bioweapon 'Contagious' option now stacks its bleed effect with each success. Which is really gross after a few rounds.

* Removed old 'Magnify' psi discipline entry.

* Replaced missing text on streamlined starship hulls.

* Added 'Extra Command' robot upgrade for clockwork and steam robots.

* Circuits only take 8 hours to make each in an Industrial Fabricator.

* Mentari hull bonus is now +10% to stealth and halves the round by round capacitor cost for cloaking devices.

* 'Bend light' discipline now correctly lists its activation as 1 action.

* 'Psi Shield' now grants +5 AP per spirit spent.

* 'Brawler' background event now gives the option to add skill points to Martial Arts.

* 'Hardlight Shield' can now be mounted on a longarm or heavy weapon, allows Block reaction with a penalty.

* 'Remove Viewing' discipline now specifies it doesn't reveal a target's location, only that you can see them.

* Added 'Psychic Mastery' talent.

 

v2.92 Premium Edition Fantasy Manual

Core Changes:

* Revised the method for applying Buff Points to Attributes during character creation. 22 Points, no more tiered point calculations, just add straight on (max of 10 per Attribute).

* Removed the Career stage of character creation, and simply folded extra skill options into each background.

* All backgrounds have been revised with the new system, some with more fixed skills than others. Some other bonuses have been revised as required.

* Added Imperial units alongside metric units. Revised some of the numbers along the way, such as boat speeds, some species height etc. 

* Added the concept of 'Squares', used to denote either metres or yards on a combat grid map, and for abilities which list a range, whichever is preferred.

 

General Tweaks

* Added a table near the start of character creation to show how to lay out your skills on the character sheet.

* 'Wall of Ice' spell no longer has invulnerability to mundane weapons.

* 'Brawler' background event now gives the option to add skill points to Martial Arts.

* 'Sleep' spell is now correctly listed as C1 duration in the quick detail table.

* Mentioned that the Seduction skill usually has a -20% penalty when used against members of the same sex, subject to GM's determination on a case-by-case basis.

* Concentration effects are now re-rolled every time the subject tries to break free of the effect, instead of going back to the original roll.

 

 

v1.76 Basic Edition Fantasy Manual

Core Changes:

* Revised the method for applying Buff Points to Attributes during character creation. 22 Points, no more tiered point calculations, just add straight on (max of 10 per Attribute).

* Removed the Career stage of character creation, and simply folded extra skill options into each background.

* All backgrounds have been revised with the new system, some with more fixed skills than others. Some other bonuses have been revised as required.

* Added Imperial units alongside metric units. Revised some of the numbers along the way, such as boat speeds, some species height etc. 

* Added the concept of 'Squares', used to denote either metres or yards on a combat grid map, and for abilities which list a range, whichever is preferred.

 

General Tweaks

* Added a table near the start of character creation to show how to lay out your skills on the character sheet.

* 'Brawler' background event now gives the option to add skill points to Martial Arts.

* 'Sleep' spell is now correctly listed as C1 duration in the quick detail table.

* Mentioned that the Seduction skill usually has a -20% penalty when used against members of the same sex, subject to GM's determination on a case-by-case basis.

* Concentration effects are now re-rolled every time the subject tries to break free of the effect, instead of going back to the original roll.

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).