It's time for an update on some current tweaks and upcoming stuff! 

With the pandemic going on, we haven't had a chance to play a game until last week, when we managed to get a small group together (with all the precautions neccesary) to play some of the fantasy system. I had some concerns about the power of some spells, so I've done a little tweaking on the numbers, which you can see in the changelog notes below. But overall, the second edition game is running really well, and the easy to use character creation system is much better than before. 

While I do want to make a print-on-demand version at some point, I really like having this flexibility to iron out some of the kinks in a digital format, before committing to a papery version. Speaking of such...

Bestiary

I messed up the list for NPC's available, with a mix of the old version and the new in there, so I've fixed that up. I've also add a picture for the Vorax, which has been vexing me for quite some time. But I'm really happy with it, so it's all good! The remaining pictures will need to be done by me - I've enjoyed "cheating" with stock art images, but these last few are rather unique so I'll get them done eventually.

And now, for what's next:

Atlas

What started out as a reformatting and spellcheck has turned into a fully fledged overhaul. The old atlas weighed in at around 2mb, but the new version I'm working on is already up to 30, with a big, high-res map that you can zoom in on with a table, and new stock art pieces at the start of each country, to add some flavour. I've also completed some new cover art!

I'm redoing some of the information in a nicer (and familiar) style, and expanding detail of each city now that I'm alloting additional space. I'll also be adding two new regions, the democratic Free States of Lyden, and the quasi-steampunk Grand Duchy of Kurhain into the mix. Anyone familiar with my novels will know of these countries, and I'm excitied to finally add details of them to the atlas. I'll be releasing this as a new product for the usual $3.99, as it's a big facelift and second edition-izing of the old tiny book.

I've decided I'll be removing the magical relics section from it, as I want these to be more radily available to any setting, not just my campaign world. So, once the Atlas overhaul is done, next comes...

Legends

Getting to 99% skill in sabre is quite an accomplishment, but it feels like the end of the road too. So this book will cover new legendary talents, manoeuvres, spells and magical items for high-level adventures! It'll include the basic magic items from the old atlas, as well as the sa'quaarin "space magic" stuff too, but with a lot more. Each item will have a full page entry and some artwork, and like most sabre material, it should be quite compatible with other d100 systems too. 

There's lots to be done, so I'd better get back to it. Stay safe and healthy, everyone.

v1.05 Sabre 2e Premium Fantasy Core Rulebook

* Shields used as weapons can't be used to block on the same turn, except with the Shield Bash manoevure or Light shields.

* The Thief profession gains an extra background event, and has better special ability options.

* Armour of Faith, Arcane Armour, Amulet of Armour, Psychic Armour, Spectral Armour, Gargoyle's Skin spells are now an Action to cast, but provide better AP at higher skill levels. 

* Traps you set can be recovered if they haven't been set off.

* Spirit, Pain Relief and Energy tonics are now considered addictive due to their potent ingredients.

* Planar Guardian divinity spell now requires you to be adjacent to it to transfer wounds back and forth.

* The casting time for Empower, Vampiric and Vorpal Weapon, as well as Fortified Shield spells is now 1 Action.

* Vorpal Weapon spell now has a chance to kill the target outright when cast at 99% skill.

* Added 'Vengeance Aura' divinity spell.

* The result bonus for the Empower Weapon spell has been doubled.

* Disintegrate, Dragon's Breath and Fireball spells have had their damage reduced.

* The addiction chance is now 5% instead of 10%.

v1.05 Sabre RPG Basic Fantasy Core Rulebook

* Shields used as weapons can't be used to block on the same turn, except with the Shield Bash manoevure or Light shields.

* The Thief profession gains an extra background event, and has better special ability options.

* Armour of Faith, Arcane Armour spells are now an Action to cast, but provide better AP at higher skill levels. 

* Traps you set can be recovered if they haven't been set off.

* Spirit, Pain Relief and Energy tonics are now considered addictive due to their potent ingredients.

* Planar Guardian divinity spell now requires you to be adjacent to it to transfer wounds back and forth.

* The addiction chance is now 5% instead of 10%.

Scifi Core Rulebook 2e v1.05

* 'Fast Repair' manoevure now greatly reduces the repair time.

* Shields used as weapons can't be used to block on the same turn, except with the Shield Bash manoevure or Light shields.

* The Thief profession gains an extra background event, and has better special ability options.

* Traps you set can be recovered if they haven't been set off.

* Spirit, Pain Relief and Energy tonics are now considered addictive due to their potent ingredients.

* The addiction chance is now 5% instead of 10%.

After sorting out some software issues with the site, we've finally managed to get the Sabre RPG online. That took a bit longer than I initially thought, as I'd planned for an early January release! Still, the extra time has served it well, for I tweaked and modified a few things while waiting for the site to get fixed. Mostly, the work has involved streamlining things, as smooth play is one of the aims for the system. 

So it's ready for public use, though I don't consider it 'finished' as such. Consider it a very advanced public beta, and based on feedback, I'll tweak and modify things as needed. But after three years of development and play, I have to say it's pretty solid. 

The core rules settled down some time ago, after a big streamlining effort in the middle of last year. During the first two years it had accrued quite a bit of system bloat, and it really benefitted from being pared down. The aim was to keep a good amount of detail, while making sure it played well. Hopefully it's straight-forward enough for beginners to use (let us know!) yet with enough depth to satisfy veteran players.

Art

Now, a word about art - the manuals don't have a lot. Sure, it has a nice watermark, cover and little graphical flourishes, but my plan to personally create all the internal art, such as race portraits, monster portraits and such, hit a stumbling block. I'm predominatly a landscape artist, and relatively new to the field of fantasy art, so I wasn't happy with the results of some of my work. I plan to keep practicing, but that'll depend on how many people try it out, too. In an extreme case, if it garners a large following, I might just end up paying a real fantasy artist to do the work.

Atlas

In its current form, the atlas depicts the primary location of the game, the Kingdom of Aielund. It should be more than enough to provide a starting place for your adventures, should you wish to run them in the campaign world of Feydwiir. I have preliminary work done on the rest of the world, it's really just a matter of formatting and checking to make sure it's all correct, so releasing expanded editions should be straight-forward. Speaking of updates...

Update Schedule

The initial plan is to provide a system update every six months, but I can step that up if demand increases. Each update will require re-purchasing a given product, but I plan to make it worth your while! I'll be sure to include a few more pictures, plus additional spells, talents and tactics for the manual, plus some more beasties, NPC templates and whole countries for the atlas. I won't be releasing errata sheets, as I plan to simply update the primary PDF to make sure any rule adjustments are fully integrated, so you won't have to chase any changes through separate files.

Hardcover

The likelihood of creating a hardcover print version of the manuals depends on demand, and of course the amount of art that's been added to the system - we can't have "placeholder images" dotted throughout the bestiary! But yes it's something that's being considered for the future. 

For now, check out the system and see if it's to your liking - we're quite proud of the result and we think you'll enjoy it!

Science!

As for the sci-fi version of the system, that's still in development. Converting the fantasy system over was pretty easy for the most part, but has yet to be tested. We'll get on to that in May and have an early release up in June for you to try out. I've crunched the numbers and it should work out fine but these things rarely pan out in practical tests, so we'll see.

There will be a system for space combat too, ship-to-ship, but the rules will be slightly different to ground battles so it'll come in a separate release. I'm pretty excited about what I've done so far and can't wait to try it. You'll be able to salvage, build or upgrade your own robots, vehicles and advanced weapons using a very elegant methodology. The system will be good for modern combat too, as I've been sure to categorise equipment into 'Modern' and 'Advanced' lists. So, this varient of the system should cover modern or futuristic settings very nicely.

I'm planning a campaign world that blends a medieval-style setting with 'relics' from the before-time, i.e. pistols, machine guns and other more advanced systems. Oh, and the only magic available is a Psychic skill, so it's more of a hard-science approach instead of a full blend of magic and science. Still, you could absolutely combine regular Sabre with the sci-fi system to create your own science-fantasy setting, as the core rules are exactly the same. Yes, I'm having a lot of fun putting this together!

That's all for now, peace out.