Posts from 2018-12-20

December 2018 Devblog and system update

So we've got a pretty big update to finish off the year. I hadn't really planned to do this much, but here it is anyway! 

New Species!

First, let's have a look at a new species put together by some of my beta players. I tweaked a few things and signed off on it before adding, as I think it's a cool addition to the game. It also comes with my standard Adequate™ artwork :D

They're called the Arboreans, and they're big, slow, tough and also plants. They get bonuses to melee combat or their own unique ranged combat abilities, but need to keep an eye out for fire weapons (as you'd expect). It hasn't been play tested yet, but all the concepts it's built from have, so I'm pretty confident it's fine. What could go wrong?

Oh, and so far, it's just for the scifi system. Sure, it'll work just fine in a fantasy setting, but I didn't feel the Perforate and Gatling traits would fit well in the fantasy setting for now. Nothing stopping you from blending them together if that floats yer boat :)

Vehicle System Redesign

I wanted to put costs on all vehicles in the Encounters manual, so players could just buy one off the showroom floor, as it were, but in doing so, I broke my brain from all the math. It was then I realised the system, although mathemathcally accurate, was cumbersome to use, and that's putting it mildly. The actual playing of vehicles is fine, it's just building them that's a pain. 

So I've opted to rebuild the system with specific templates built-in to the core manual, with optional extras for specific vehicles, and then the usual upgrades you can put on yourself. It's much easier to use as the templates are all pre-calculated and costed, so you can indeed buy them from a shop, or build them yourself. 

This also allowed me to add tires, which was lacking as a separate item before. Tires! Also, for high-tech flying vehicles, grav plates. These cover all of the hovering/flying vehicle designs of the previous build, and the templates in the Encounters manual reflect this. They've even got some cool product names for a touch of class ;) 

Building Starships

While I was at it, I did the same treatment for starships. On at least two occasions over the last year, our beta group has built a starship from scratch, and it took a whole session each time. A little too arduous, I think, so now starships also have pre-made templates, like vehicles. And to build them and everything else, now we have...

The Foundry

This is an optional add-on for a starship with a docking bay, or a base (see below!) A roboticist makes a few tiny robots (up to 10) and slaves them to the foundry computer, and then you just dump in the components, set it going, and when the work hours are all gone, there's your ship or vehicle! 

Base Building

This was an idea from one of our testers, and adapts the starship system to make stand alone bases. It's still a work in progress, but it's quite useable and looks good so far. It uses the same slots system as starships, but there's indoor and outdoor slots for things like runways or garages. It can also be used in any era, though for the moment we've only got the Industrial and High-Tech eras available. Some point next year I'm going to run a modern era campaign and will probably flesh this out more then.

Manoevures

A smaller but important tweak is that Manoevures now list the Activation Time for each one, which in cludes 1 Action, and some have been converted to use a Reaction instead. This brings the use of manoevures into line with spells/psi powers.

Carapan & Minerals

Another idea from one of our beta players was for carapan to not only gain benefits from gems and jewels, but from minerals too. Now they can absorb a piece of a material such as coal or iron, and gain a bonus and penalty to alter how their character does things. It's a semi-permanent change for a character - they can remove the mineral at any time (it takes an hour), and can eventually have three mineral pieces provide their benefits. It covers abilities such as extra load carrying, influence and charm skills, damage resistance and movement. Nifty!

There's plenty more in the patch notes, but these are the major items. Lots of tweaks and fixes here and there! I'll leave you to check it out, and enjoy the festive season!

v1.06 Scifi Core Rulebook (and Encounters Manual) 

New Stuff!

* Added 'Arborean' species, along with 'Rain of Thorns', 'Spikes', 'Wild Growth', 'Starship Bond', 'Force of Nature' talents. 'Increase Mass', "Chameleon' and 'Thick Carapace' can be taken by Arboreans.

* Added 'Weapon turret, huge' for vehicles.

* Added 'Wheel Covers' vehicle upgrade.

* Added 'Plasma Jet' Nuclear Science invention.

* Added 'Grav Plate' Gravitic Science invention.

* Added 'Electric Motor' Electronic invention.

* Added 'Fusion Engine' Nuclear Science invention.

* Added 'Psi Bridge' starship upgrade, and a section under Psi Powers on how it works. Some Psi Powers have special effects when used with this system.

* Added 'Multi-Grenade Launcher', 'LAW Rocket' and 'AT Missile' to vehicle weapons. 

* Added 'Rocket' ranged weapon trait. Just like 'Missile', but unguided. Missile trait gains native +20% bonus to hit. Guidance System mod gives Missiles an additional +5% bonus.

* Added 'Enticement' Seduction manoeuvre.

* Added 'Broad Appeal' Seduction talent.

* Added 'Bedroom Eyes', 'Distracting Pose' and 'Raw Sexuality' Seduction manoeuvres.

* Added 'Disrupt Shields' ship defence manoevure.

* Added 'Radar' vehicle upgrade.

* Added 'AA Missile' modern era vehicle weapon.

* Added 'Skyflash Missile' High-Tech vehicle/starship weapon.

* Added new 'Automated Foundry' upgrade for ships and bases. Has it's own section under base building. 

* Added 'Tachyon Cannon' starship weapon.

* Added purchase costs for starship upgrades.

* Added 'Absorb Minerals' carapan species talent.

* Added 'Training Room' for bases and starships, for use with manuals.

* Added 'Stardrive Calibration' upgrade.

* Added 'Adaptive Defence' shifter manoeuvre.

* Added purchase costs for drone upgrades.

 

Starship Specific Tweaks and Fixes

* Explained under the Starship weapons section that primary ship weapons have -40% result penalty to attack moving targets smaller than a class 1 hull.

* Xarani ship hulls now also take half the time to repair.

* 'Overload sensors' manoeuvre can now deal additional damage. 

* Ship subsystems now have 5 HP per hull class.

* Breach pod robots can be remotely controlled by the Telemetry operator.

* Removed 'Sealed Body' and replaced with 'Life Support System' modern upgrade.

* Fire Suppression System is now simply a ship upgrade, works fast but requires recharge time.

* Reinforced Structure upgrade now uses 2 hull parts per ship class.

* Removed starship systems section, all those abilities are simply folded into a standard hull.

* Adjusted the power grid output of ship's reactor, and added a kw rating for some ship upgrades.

* Starship weapon upgrades only affect primary weapons (not PDS, drones etc) unless noted otherwise.

* Added numbers for the cost of exotic hull parts to the starship design section.

* 'Thruster Upgrade' for ships now use 2 slots per hull class.

* 'Ramming Prow', 'Hardened Subsystem', 'Fuel Scoop', 'Fortify Hull', 'Drone Bay', 'Docking Bay' upgrades use Hull Parts instead of smaller Parts.

* 'Emergency Evade' starship pilot manoeuvre is now 'Quick Evade', requires 90% skill.

* Barrage Cannons now also have Burst mode to give a +5% bonus.

* Barrage Cannon PDS can now fire in single-shot mode with no result bonus.

* Added further detail to what's required to build a ship in the Starship Design talent. 

* Corrected the components list and time required to make Hull Parts in an Industrial Fabricator.

* Hull Parts are now the only way to build or repair a starship hull. Regular parts do not work. Hull parts cost 5000cr each.

* Changed the amount a Hull Part repairs (10 HP standard, takes 1 hour just like regular parts). 

* 'Repair System' drone upgrade now requires circuits instead of parts.

* Stardrive slots, components, build time and price is based on hull class.

* Barrage Cannon shells are now 3cr each, with 30 in a clip.

* Removed the no longer needed 'Lock Bonus' entry from the pilot sheet. 

* Corrected prices for PDS weapons to comply with other entries for those weapons.

* Reduced the penalty for streamline hulls to 1 slot per hull class.

* Stardrive upgrades now take only 3 slots.

 

General Tweaks and Fixes

* Lowered addiction penalty to -10% per addiction.

* 'Efficient Formulas' talent now also applies to Medicine skill.

* Reduced the cost of 'Anaesthetic', 'Procaine' and 'Drift'.

* Increased the cost of 'Second Skin'.

* Removed 'Distracting Display' psi power (falls under seduction abilites now).

* Vehicle 'LAW Rocket pod' and 'AT Missile Pod' weapons have gained Burst trait.

* 'Interceptor' missile is now modern era, 1d8+30 damage.

* 'Battle Hardened' talent has been renamed 'Alluring Presence', now requires Seduction skill and CHA 15+.

* Updated the character sheet with a revised vehicle table.

* 'Increase Mass' talent now correctly mentions that a height increase is also gained.

* 'Improvised Ammunition' invention now allows for making missiles.

* Auldsteel parts are now 2000cr each instead of 5000cr.

* Weapon turrets now require 1 slot for themselves, in addition to the weapon.

* Altered 'Fortified Body' psi power's effects and duration. AP counts as Natural Armour.

* 'Psychic Shield' psi power now works against all damage types for +2 Energy AP.

* The 'Muzzleloader' talent now allows Slow Load pistols to load 2 shots as a Quick action.

* Upgrade and body materials for ships, vehicles, robots and powered armour no longer need to match.

* Fusion generators have had their output reduced, and the power requirements of devices has been reduced.

* Aluminium & Titanium now also have +5 AP vs electrical damage (it's not very conductive).

* Auldsteel also takes 1/2 damage vs collision (it's very dense!)

* 'Luxury Appointments' upgrades now also require 10,000cr of luxury furniture.

* 'Counterpunch', 'Dervish', 'Evasive Attack', 'Vanguard', 'Brace for Impact', 'Punishing Reprisal', 'Mind over Matter', 'Tower of Will' manoeuvres are now used as Reactions. 

* 'Library' base and starship upgrade now uses only 5 slots.

* Inventions that used Energy Drinks now use PowerAid or EnergyX.

* 'Crush' manoeuvre now does Damage Modifier as damage instead of 1d4. Must be used on a target your size or smaller.

* Reduced the material cost of medicines and narcotics.

* Clockwork robots now have half standard spirit points instead of a quarter.

* 'Active Suppresion' talent now gives missiles & shells the suppressed condition on targets they affect, and cleaned up the language for this talent.

* 20mm round for the improv gun (as well as 20mm cannons in general) now also gives the Shell trait, but lowered skill to 90%.

* 20mm Autocannon now uses 1 fewer slots.

* Added prices to vehicle and robot upgrades.

* High-tech vehicle upgrades now require circuits.

* Increased the speed from plasjets for transformed robots.

* Revised the benefits of exotic materials.

* Defibrillator is now used with the First Aid skill. Needs to be used within 2 minutes of character death.

* 'Replace Arm' robot upgrade now requires parts based on body size, can swap back to old arm in 1 minute.

* Fusion Generator inventions now have higher build requirements, and 500k value.

* Added Lead to the prospecting table.

* 'Reinforcement' and 'Weapon Brace' cybernetic upgrades now better accomodate heavy, burst and suppression weapons.

* 'Nuclear Powered' robot upgrade only takes 1 slot.

* Robot weapon mount upgrades now clearly state no clip change time, and no need to set up 'Setup' weapons.

* Corrected corvid species hull variant text.

* Corrected the price for steel hull parts for starships, vehicles, robot bodies and crafting.

* Androids, robots and automatons use extra Spirit Points when encumbered.

* Increased the number of slots robots get at each body size (usually by +1).

* Explained that automatons start with 2 slots already used by a pocket reactor and positronic brain.

* Modified saerid 'Chrysalis' talent to offer either wings, or +10 AP.

 

Encounters Manual

* Updated looting and invention loot tables.

* Removed the looting list sheet (too cumbersome to maintain).

__________________________________________________________________________________

v2.88 Premium Fantasy Core Rulebook

* Added 'Enticement' Seduction manoeuvre.

* Added 'Broad Appeal' Seduction talent.

* Added 'Bedroom Eyes', 'Distracting Pose' and 'Raw Sexuality' Seduction manoeuvres.

* 'Battle Hardened' talent has been renamed 'Alluring Presence', now requires Seduction skill and CHA 15+.

* 'Counterpunch', 'Dervish', 'Evasive Attack', 'Vanguard', 'Brace for Impact', 'Punishing Reprisal', 'Mind over Matter', 'Tower of Will' manoeuvres are now used as Reactions. 

* Modified saerid 'Chrysalis' talent to offer either wings, or +10 AP.