Just a short blog post this month, for the main part of this update is in the form of pictures!
My style is slowly evolving, and I'm starting to push the boundaries a little further each time. I'm very proud of the little hedge dragon picture, I actually managed to capture both its cuteness AND dragon-ness!
I'm almost halfway through now, having just hit 51 out of 117 pieces. Yeah, there's a lot to do but I'm enjoying it immensely.
Codex
As usual, there's a few tweaks to the core rules which develop over the course of running my local games. The beauty of Sabre is the fantasy and scifi systems interlink almost perfectly, so issues that pop up on one can be addressed in all.
One of these was swapping out weapons during combat, which wasn't written very well and made the 'Quick Draw' talent pointless. That's been addressed in a way that I feel adds to realism, where lighter weapons are much easier to draw and sheath than heavier ones (very important when wielding a minigun!)
Corvids
This is a little embarrassing. The corvid race was always supposed to be more intelligent than others, and it even says this in the flavour text, yet I'd used the raelani pages as a template for the corvids and forgot to move the listed attribute bonus from willpower to intelligence! All fixed now, sorry for any inconvenience.
Stealth
More and more people in my games have been using stealth much in the way invisibility would work, which isn't right. So I've clarified the skill description to ensure players understand that even if you make a successful stealth check, moving right in front of someone is going to result in you being seen *unless* they're distracted, or looking the other way. So there's a few things in there to address this, such as the 'Distract' manoeuvre, and a 'Quick Spot' manoeuvre for Perception to make it easier to spot them. Still powerful, but now has to be used intelligently.
Advanced Characters
In a modular system like Sabre, it has been a little tricky to implement a system for creating more advanced characters to begin with, those with more experience under their belt. Just adding big blocks of skill points sometimes resulted in starting with maxed out skills, so a better way has been created and my numbers people tel me it looks good.
Scifi!
My two gaming groups are still playing the system and enjoying it greatly. I've made good use of this time to tweak things as we go, even as I work towards completing the manual. I'm not far off finishing the starship design system, at which point I'll be making NPC templates for vehicles and starships, testing it all out in-game and see how the numbers look. Then my groups will be facing suitable challenges to really give it a test run.
So until next month, farewell!
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v2.5 Premium Codex
* Corvids now correctly have Intelligence as one of their bonus attributes instead of Willpower.
* 'Haggler' commerce talent now gives a 5% bonus to opposed haggling checks each time it is taken.
* Added 'Commodities' talent to give haggling bonus and information about trade.
* Clarified that the Stealth skill primarily reduces noise, and requires shadows, cover, or avoiding direct line of sight in order to work. It's not an invisibility spell!
* Added 'Quick Spot' Perception manoeuvre.
* Added 'Distract' Stealth manoeuvre.
* Sheathing or drawing a weapon is now an action.
* 'Courage' manoevure now stipulates that it removes the frightened condition, so you need to have it before using this ability.
* Added a maximum age in the age categories section.
* Revised the method of creating characters of higher experience, under 'Advanced Characters'.
* Death Blow action can no longer be used on Stunned creatures.
* Quick Draw' talent is now listed under Combat Talents, and has no effect in surprise rounds.
* 'Twin Shooters' talent limits the size of the off-hand pistol to Medium.
* 'Stock Slam' talent now allows any sized ranged weapon to be used.
v1.62 Basic Codex
* Clarified that the Stealth skill primarily reduces noise, and requires shadows, cover, or avoiding direct line of sight in order to work. It's not an invisibility spell!
* Added 'Distract' Stealth manoeuvre.
* Sheathing or drawing a weapon is now an action.
* Added 'Quick Draw' talent.
* 'Courage' manoevure now stipulates that it removes the frightened condition, so you need to have it before using this ability.
* Added a maximum age in the age categories section.
* Revised the method of creating characters of higher experience, under 'Advanced Characters'.
* Death Blow action can no longer be used on Stunned creatures.
* 'Giant Slayer' sword talent is now 'Sword Specialist'.
* 'Twin Shooters' talent limits the size of the off-hand pistol to Medium.
* 'Stock Slam' talent now allows any sized ranged weapon to be used.