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.

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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).

It's time for a Sabre update, and this month we've got a few major revisions to refine some mechanics to cover. 

 

Encumbrance

This mechanic has been a bit clunky for a while, and it recently came to a head when a character's squire (a young venator girl) in a recent game was running around with a 12mm (.45cal) sniper rifle without a care in the world. It's always annoyed me that ENC is worth 2kg each, plus the general size of the item, and whenever I wouldn't get into detail with the Encumbrance system for a long time, I'd automatically assume that ENC = Kg + size, which makes more sense. So I've gone and flipped it, and adjusted all the ENC in the system accordingly. A bonus effect of this is that ENC is now roughly twice kilograms, and therefore is in the ballpark of imperial pounds, which is useful for our American players! Items like armour and big guns are now more realistically calculated, and the amount a character can carry has been altered too, with just STR + CON the calculation (no longer halved). My apologies for not fixing this earlier, and for making everyone redo all their Encumbrance calculations! I've also softened the penalties for being encumbered, so it's not so bad to be carrying a huge weapon and armour anymore. 

 

Alcohol System

Something I've wanted to add to the system since the beginning (and never got around to) is a system fro getting drunk. Thanks to farming this one out to my beta team, it's now a reality! It provides some intriguing modifiers for those who like to go into battle drunk, or who jst like to have a tipple to fortify their minds against psychic attack. 

 

Zacharial Species

Space dragons. Yes! This species looks much like mythological dragons, but they're smaller and walk upright for the most part. They're intelligent, but not overly so. Their core bonus is tied to their high charisma, as they are both beautiful and terrifying to behold, and they're also extremely arrogant. In fact, this massive ego is a source of their toughness! Their unique capability revolves around their space travel powers, specifically, they can fly through space, much like a ship (a drone would be a closer example). They can hold their breath for many hours, and as their skill improves, they can even space fold to other parts of the solar system or even to another star. They're basically ship boarding experts, and will prove extremely nasty in this role.

 

 

Veiran Overhaul

This species was a bit 'out there' to begin with, and I was extremely conservative when it came to their abilities. Finally realising this, I've overhauled their abilities to give them more HP (and effectively Spirit), a native electrical attack, and more efficicent use of their other powers. Should be a big improvement :)

 

Starship Movement Scale

The 100km square system gives a good impression of high-speeds capable in space, but with a movement of 6, a starship is actually going 360,000(ish) kph, which is a tad fast. Also, the 100km spacing makes it harder to get up close, fly in formation etc, so after a discussion, we've reduced the scale of the space combat grid to 1km per square. This makes a fight much more intimate and bruising, and better covers the range of these fights. All related scales have been reduced for weapons etc, so it plays the same, but with a better scale.

 

Starship Boarding Actions

I've been trying to avoid direct teleportation mechanics (although you can now do that with the Psi Console), but another option is directly boarding another ship in space. Powered Armour, Robots and now the Zacharial species can all fly through space better than before, grab onto the side of a ship and burn their way through the outer airlock, to then climb aboard and start attacking the crew directly. This is under the Starship Combat section, and covers how it all works. We had a simultaneous starship combat with a boarder coming on our ship in a recent game, and it was... quite bracing (actually terrifying but also super fun)!

 

Starship Drones

Instead of having to control multiple drones, which is a real impost on time, the starship drone capability is being condensed into one single drone for active control. Consider the roboticist using a big robot on the ground, and now having a big robot buddy in space. The drone can be just as big and powerful as a robot, with multiple weapons, lots of armour etc. So the drone is less disposable, and worth investing time and resources in to make it awesome. Additional drones can be carried in the hanger, if the first one explodes, or you can pre-program them to operate outside your ship's sensor range for specific missions. Oh, and drone swarms are still available, only with tiny drones of course.

 

Starship Engineering

Finally, this is something that needed fixing for a while, but I only just got around to it (coincidentally just as I'm starting to play a starship engineer in one of the groups!) The active 'Coax Reactor' function is being removed and replaced with a passive effect, and the engineer can now divert power from systems to enhance other systems. Need more speed? Take power from the guns etc. It results in much more engaging outcomes for the player, and the ship.

 

The Encounters and Bestiary have been updated too, with a few tweaks to related mechanics. That's about all for this month, so enjoy the new content :) 

 

v1.09 Scifi Manual Update

Encumbrance Revision

* Changed the Encumbrance system so that half a kg = 1 ENC, reversing it from its previous calculation. This is because it's more instinctive to have weight+size=ENC (which should be bigger than just it's weight), and also because the minimum weight of something in the system was 2kg, which is actually the weight of an average sword. Now it's .5kg, which is much better for something like a dagger. ENC is now also very close to imperial pounds, making it easier for American players to understand. 

* The Burdened condition now imposes -2 Movement, and any attempt to move faster by any means results in an unopposed Endurance check to avoid a fatigue level (or spirit point loss for machines).

* The Heavily Burdenened condition now doesn't impose a -20% to skill checks, and characters cannot move faster than half Movement by any means. Have to check every round for fatigue gain if they move.

* Overloaded characters cannot move at all, gain fatigue if they act.

* Added 'Conditioning' talent to remove need for encumbrance fatigue checks in combat.

* Unencumbered ENC is now STR+CON (no longer divided by 2), with Encumbered and Heavily Encumbered at x2 and x3. 

* Added these new details to the character sheet next to Encumbrance, and the GM reference sheets.

 

Veiran Species Revision (They were underpowered and needed a boost)

* Veiran Spirit Points are now equal to their WIL+CON divided by 2.

* They are Invulnerable to collision damage.

* Veirans now have a native 1d6 electrical damage attack for their unarmed weapon.

* 'Shock' manoeuvre is now called 'Lightning Bolt', now lets you add range to your Unarmed attack.

* 'Coalesce' manoeuvre is now Concentration/10 in duration.

* 'Possess' manoeuvre now also allows control of electronic devices, is C1 in duration.

* 'Recharge' manoevure has been removed.

 

General Changes

* Added 'Zacharial' species and associated talents & manoevures.

* 'Diamondback' talent is now three times more efficient, granting +3 AP and HP per diamond, with a maximum of 5 diamonds. Same result, but cheaper.

* Revised the 'Clockwork Limb' invention. 

* Removed the 20mm cannon from personal heavy weapons (it's a vehicle weapon).

* Improvised Cannons under the 'Improvised Gun' invention now have 1d10+4 damage (reduced from 1d12+4).

* 'Improvised Gun' 12mm and 20mm ammo options now gain +4 and +10 ENC and Parts respectively.

* Added 'Discarded Prototype' android modern background.

* Added 'Failed Experiment' automaton modern background.

* Added 'E.S.P. Agent' modern background.

* 'Project Bot' automaton background begins with no upgrades, but gets an additional upgrade slot.

* 'Explorer' background is now also available in Modern era settings.

* Added 'Lazy Axle' vehicle upgrade.

* The 'Junk Droid' background now lets you install most robot upgrades as if you were a medium robot. Removed +3 Parts starting bonus and adjusted the starting Attribute adjustment.

* Fixed the overpriced industrial era robot upgrade costs.

* Silver weapons deal -1 damage, silver armour is -1 AP (fantasy system note).

* Fixed incorrect links and clarified information about the Teach skill.

* Added 'Quick Parry' Martial Arts manoeuvre.

* 'Salvage Upgrades', 'Expert Salvager', 'Recycle Tech' talents can now be taken by Salaving skill as well.

* 'Recycle Tech' talent now works like 'Expert Salvager', providing its bonus to a successful result. Language of both changed to reflect use from different skills.

* Solid shotgun shells now lose the Scatter trait.

* FMJ round deals -2 damage, but gains Perforate trait. Longarm and Hvy Weapons only.

* Penetrating Arrows now deal -2 damage.

* Hollow Point bullets are now x3 cost, pistol only, 1/2 range and +2 damage.

* 'Blast Shield' invention now costs 15 Parts to build.

* 'Power Boots' invention is now more accurately called 'Kinetic Boots', can also be made of graphene.

* Dice size progression can now use a 1d16 instead of 2d8.

* Robot body size table now has absolute size increases instead of an adjustment to the baseline number.

* 'Psychic Focus' talent can now also effect electrical damage.

* Added 'Genetic Abomination' background.

* Corrected pricing on extra arms and plasma jet robot upgrades.

* Updated the material bonuses on the powered armour invention.

* Added 'Clear Barrel' manoeuvre for heavy weapons.

* Weapons with the 'Shell' trait now correctly bypass energy AP.

* 'Improvised Gun' invention SIZ adjust has been reduced to prevent heavy weapons going above colossal in size.

* Altered the build requirements of the Fusion Gun and Pocket Reactor. 

* Powered Armour invention is correctly listed as High Tech, now also requires an AR Visor and Halo to assemble.

* Dedicated Teacher talent now lets you also teach up to 10 people at the same time, reducing costs.

* Clarified that Industrial era weapons also ablate armour, just like modern and high-tech weapons.

* Ancient armour now loses AP for each point above AP it takes from Industrial era weapons and beyond.

* Added 'Target' Trait for blowgun and dart weapons, to target specific body locations.

* Interface and Radar robot upgrades now don't use additional onboard power to function.

 

Alcohol System 

* Added a separate table for alcohol under 'Food and Drink'.

* Modified 'Intoxicated' condition, added 'Tipsy' Condition.

* Added 'Getting Drunk' to the Game Mechanics section.

* Added 'Reliable Drunk', 'Epic Drinker' and 'Iron Liver' general talents.

 

Starship System Changes

* The size of starship combat grid squares is now 1km, resulting in more realistic manoeuvring speeds and closer range combat.

* Starship weapon space range has been adjusted slightly for the new system.

* Cruise missiles now deal 1d8+60 base damage, but with 1000km range.

* Noted that cruise missiles have their own on-board combat lock system that allows them to target things out to 1000km. They move at 10km per round.

* Particle accelerator damage has been reduced. 

* Explosive weapons used against ships now deal half damage even on a successful Evade.

* Mass driver, particle accelerator and cruise missile launchers now take up more slots.

* Class 1 and 2 starships have gained +1 movement each.

* (re)Added the missing information on scan and combat locking range.

* 'Overload Sensors' starship manoeuvre has been clarified.

* Psi Bridge ship upgrade is now called Psi Console.

* Added 'Tactical Pivot' pilot reaction.

* 'Empower Weapon' and 'Empower PDS' manoeuvres now require 70% skill, increases in +2 increments.

* 'Focus Targeting', 'Barrel Roll', 'Defensive Roll', 'Boost Defence' manoeuvres now doesn't use extra cap as skill increases.

* Removed 'Defender' starship talent.

* Added 'Offensive Flying' ship pilot manoeuvre, tweaked language on 'Defensive Flying' to remove reference to penalty/bonus affecting ship defences. Both are now 1 Action to use, last 1 round at a time.

* Added a section for Boarding Actions to the ship combat section.

* Catalyser, Cryo Gun, Fusion Gun, Gravity Gun, Energy Deflector, Improvised Laser, Repulsor, Power Leech and Tesla Gun have details for how the function if mounted on a starship.

 

Starship Drone Overhaul

* 'Precision Drones' talent now requires 99% skill.

* 'Formation Defence' talent is now 'Utility Action'.

* 'Swarm' telemetry manoeuvre is now called 'Rapid Fire'.

* Most drone weapon ranges in space have been set to 1.

* Removed 'Robotic Networking' talent.

* Modified the 'Drone Bay' upgrade for starships to allow space for larger drones.

* Removed 'Upgraded Telemetry' starship upgrade.

* 'Drone Control System' starship upgrade now takes only 1 slot.

* Micro Drones are now called Tiny, to bring them into line with the system's size terminology.

* Only one drone can be used now, but it has a lot more size options and is tougher, much like a robot. Repair Bots are unaffected.

* Drones only have the Robotics skill now for all their skill checks.

* Drone weapons are no longer limited to one per drone.

* Added 'Linked Weapon' drone upgrade.

* Drone 'Thruster Upgrade' takes 2 slots but can be taken multiple times.

* Drone Stardrive upgrade takes 1 less slot.

* 'Scanner' upgrade for drones now requires a Tactical Analyser.

* Added 'Ram Plate' drone upgrade.

 

Starship Engineering Revamp

* Removed 'Coax Reactor' action.

* Engineering console bonus is now 'Gain +1 Capacitor/rd while at console'.

* 'Conserve Power' reaction can now also be used on a crew member skill failure.

* Added 'Transfer Shields', 'Transfer Weapons' and 'Transfer Thrusters' actions.

* 'Overload' manoeuvres are now Quick to use.

* 'Reactor Expert' talent now boosts capacitor recharge by 1/round, requires 90% skill.

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v2.90 Premium Fantasy Manual

Encumbrance Revision

* Changed the Encumbrance system so that half a kg = 1 ENC, reversing it from its previous calculation. This is because it's more instinctive to have weight+size=ENC (which should be bigger than just it's weight), and also because the minimum weight of something in the system was 2kg, which is actually the weight of an average sword. Now it's .5kg, which is much better for something like a dagger. ENC is now also very close to imperial pounds, making it easier for American players to understand. 

* The Burdened condition now imposes -2 Movement, and any attempt to move faster by any means results in an unopposed Endurance check to avoid a fatigue level (or spirit point loss for machines).

* The Heavily Burdenened condition now doesn't impose a -20% to skill checks, and characters cannot move faster than half Movement by any means. Have to check every round for fatigue gain if they move.

* Overloaded characters cannot move at all, gain fatigue if they act.

* Added 'Conditioning' talent to remove need for encumbrance fatigue checks in combat.

* Unencumbered ENC is now STR+CON (no longer divided by 2), with Encumbered and Heavily Encumbered at x2 and x3. 

* Added these new details to the character sheet next to Encumbrance, and the GM reference sheets.

 

General Changes

* The armour table now features separate columns for small, medium and large characters.

* Silver weapons deal -1 damage, silver armour is -1 AP.

* Fixed incorrect links and clarified information about the Teach skill.

* Added 'Quick Parry' Martial Arts manoeuvre.

* Dice size progression can now use a 1d16 instead of 2d8.

* Dedicated Teacher talent now lets you also teach up to 10 people at the same time, reducing costs.

* Added 'Target' Trait for blowgun and dart weapons, to target specific body locations.

* Altered how the 'Incorporeal' condition works.

* Wyvern skin now grants +1 AP when used for leather armour, value increased.

* Dragonskin now grants +2 AP when used for leather armour, value increased.

Alcohol System 

* Added a separate table for alcohol under 'Food and Drink'.

* Modified 'Intoxicated' condition, added 'Tipsy' Condition.

* Added 'Getting Drunk' to the Game Mechanics section.

* Added 'Reliable Drunk', 'Epic Drinker' and 'Iron Liver' general talents.

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v1.74 Basic Fantasy Edition Manual

Encumbrance Revision

* Changed the Encumbrance system so that half a kg = 1 ENC, reversing it from its previous calculation. This is because it's more instinctive to have weight+size=ENC (which should be bigger than just it's weight), and also because the minimum weight of something in the system was 2kg, which is actually the weight of an average sword. Now it's .5kg, which is much better for something like a dagger. ENC is now also very close to imperial pounds, making it easier for American players to understand. 

* The Burdened condition now imposes -2 Movement, and any attempt to move faster by any means results in an unopposed Endurance check to avoid a fatigue level (or spirit point loss for machines).

* The Heavily Burdenened condition now doesn't impose a -20% to skill checks, and characters cannot move faster than half Movement by any means. Have to check every round for fatigue gain if they move.

* Overloaded characters cannot move at all, gain fatigue if they act.

* Unencumbered ENC is now STR+CON (no longer divided by 2), with Encumbered and Heavily Encumbered at x2 and x3. 

* Added these new details to the character sheet next to Encumbrance, and the GM reference sheets.

 

General Changes

* The armour table now features separate columns for small, medium and large characters.

* Fixed incorrect links and clarified information about the Teach skill.

* Dice size progression can now use a 1d16 instead of 2d8.

* Added 'Target' Trait for blowgun and dart weapons, to target specific body locations.

Hello, and a belated happy new year! This month, we've got a huge amount of additions to the system, thanks to help from some clever people who did the heavy lifting on this stuff (thanks to Aidan, Ahria, Mark and Libbi!) 

Genetics Science

This has been on the backburner for a long time, but now it's done. It's another way of adding buffs to your characters, in a way that's balanced pretty well, but let's face it, it will increase a character's power, though not in a huge way. When you combine it with cybernetics and powered armour, you can get some serious late-game power! 

Ophidian Species

This one is something I had in the back of my mind for the past few months, but didn't really have time for. So I handed this off to my crack support team and we put together a water-friendly reptile species with some cool abilities. And I found some time to get the artwork done this week :) (Oh, and yes it was designed so that you can use Yuan-ti miniatures!)

Venator Species Modified

Another suggestion was to split the venator species into different types of animals, so now you can choose feline, canine or ursine 'uplifted' creatures to play. This doesn't affect the old feline venator, except they gained a little speed. I may or may not change the artwork at some point, as the current one does show the upright/all fours nature of the species, and I'm not going to fit 6 variations onto the picture anyway ;)

There's one more species I have in the pipeline, but it's pretty 'out-there' so I want to parse it over the next month and of course, find some time to get a picture done. Rest assured, it's pretty awesome :D

Aside from all this new content, there's plenty of fixes and tweaks here and there as we shake the hell out of the system. We're currently running a high-tech starship campaign, and an industrial era steampunk game, so both of these eras are getting a lot of attention. Anyway, check out the patch notes and I'll probably have more for you in the next update! Peace.

v1.08 Scifi Encounters Manual

* Updated Robot templates, and all manoevures have been checked and corrected.

v1.08 Scifi Manual

New Stuff!

* Added 'Ophidian' species and associated talents and manoeuvres.

* The Venator species now has three subspecies, feline, canine and ursine to choose from.

* Added starship hull variations for the new venator subspecies.

* Added Genetics science under its own section. 

* Added 'Expert Navigator' starship talent.

* Added 'Psibreaker' combat talent.

* Added 'Alien Lover' and 'Addictive' Xarani talents.

* Added 'Inventor' and 'Legend of Science' Mentari talents.

* Added 'Dimensional Shunt' psi discipline.

* Added exotic wood to the crafting section.

* Added 'Power Boots' mechanic invention.

* Added 'Arclight Armour' industrial era steam invention.

* Added 'Folding Shield' industrial era invention.

* Added 'The Art of Seduction' talent.

* Added cost for kevlar and silksteel bowstrings in the weapon modification section.

* Added 'Doctor's Orders' First Aid manoeuvre.

* Added 'Knee to the groin' Seduction manoeuvre.

* Added St. Mary's Thistle to the herb chart.

* Added 'Detoxification Tonic' to reduce addition and intoxication duration. 

* Added 'Cyber Warrior' and 'Computers Expert' computer talents.

* Added 12mm Revolver industrial era weapon.

* Added Lever-Action Shotgun industrial era weapon.

* Added 'Weapon Mount' upgrade for vehicles to clarify installing weapons, removed earlier text.

* Added 'Drive Hard' manoeuvre.

Tweaks

* 'Psychic Healing' now has an option to extend the range.

* The Species Talents section now has its own heading.

* Removed 'Staunch Wound' from the list of uses for Luck Points (I thought that had been removed years ago!)

* Altered the language of 'Sleep' psi discipline to clarify that the target wakes up upon being attacked, and can defend themselves.

* 'Strong Back' talent now automatically updates to let you use heavier backpacks, so you don't need to take it multiple times anymore.

* 'Focused Fire', 'Powerful Shot', 'Forceful Strike', 'Martial Fury' manoeuvres have been altered to be more efficient with spirit point cost and extra damage gained.

* 'Compact Explosive' now has a 'gas grenade' upgrade option.

* Added some colour variation to the armour table headings to help legibility.

* 'Flexible' venator species talent is now 'Venator Expertise'.

* 'Night Owl' venator species talent is now 'Venator Power'.

* Adjusted the Drive manoevures to accomodate the new vehicle mechanics.

* The Compact Assault Weapon has regained the 'Gatling' trait, lowered its damage and increased its price and range.

* Corrected the height and weight range for xarani characters.

* 'Damage Control' manoeuvre now gives +1d4 Hit Points, clarifies what it can be used on.

* Removing a talent now gives back half the current cost of a talent.

* Only one spirit boosting remedy of any type can be taken in a 24 hour period.

* Limited the 'Enhanced Speed' nanomed to two actions per round.

* Revised 'Plasma Jet' robot upgrade, renamed to 'Plasma Jetpack'. Also revised Plasma Jetpack upgrade for powered armour.

* Advanced characters now gain a +% to secondary skills instead of setting the number to an amount.

* 'Inside Reach' talent now also applies to Unarmed skill.

* 'Blistering Assault' Martial Arts manoevure is now listed under Unarmed, can be used by both.

* 'Casanova' talent now requires 90% Seduction skill.

* Added 'Return' trait to the ranged weapon table.

* Increased damage of the Steam Cannon invention.

* Steam engines now only list their hourly operating cost, extra coal and water must be carried separately. 

* 'Gen Warrior' background now gains +1 to all Attributes.

* The human 'Ambitious' trait now also applies to manoevures.

* 'Universal Tonic' now also requires 2x St Mary's Thistle.

* Topical remedies such as antiseptic have limited effectiveness - using more than one topical remedy of any type, whether its herbal or medicinal within 24 hours has no additional effect.

* 'Second Skin' is now a topical remedy.

* 'Medic' talent now only applies to Healing skill results.

* 'Improvised Armour' invention is now Industrial Era, renamed to 'Mechanised Armour', altered stats.

* 'Acrobatic Dodge', 'Acrobatic Attack', 'Honed Reflexes' now start at 50% skill with a 4% bonus to bring them into line with other similar talents.

* 'Resuscitate' manoeuvre is now under First Aid skill. 

* 'Sawn-off' barrel modification now applies -1 damage to weapon.

* Altered Addicted condition to read "You must avoid failing another addiction check for this specific drug or nanomed for 14 days to remove this condition."

* Tweaked the language on the Martial Arts skill.

* 'Courage Under Fire' manoeuvre now also removes the frightened condition.

* Removed 'Resuscitate' medicine talent.

* Updated the 'Dirigible' and 'Difference Engine' invention details.

* Robot upgrades made from exotic materials don't get the benefits in the 'Other Benefits' column.

* 'Targeting Upgrades' now provide a +5% result bonus to ranged weapons instead of a damage bonus.

* Updated the text for vehicle combat to better explain how it all works. 

* Updated the Steam Car invention for the new system.

* 'Power Boots' invention now provides AP, but replaces other leg armour.

* Updated robot templates in the Encounters manual.

* 'Swerve' manoeuvre is now 'Defensive Driving', improved ability.

* Added a Move stat for Transformed robots, listed in the upgrade.

* Robot 'Plasma Engine' is now Plasma Jet, requires a plasma jet invention to install.

* 'Sealed Body' robot upgrade is now specifically only for operating underwater.

* Split 20th century firearms table into early and late era weapons.

* Micro Missiles and LAW rockets are now all correctly listed as 'Rocket' not 'Missile'.

* Corrected build prices for missiles under 'Improvised Ammo' invention.

* Clockwork Golem and Steam Golem inventions now also let you take the 'Expanded Chassis' talent.

* 'Crank Gun' Clockwork invention now offers more options in terms of size and skill.

* Molotov Cocktail and Dynamite are now industrial era weapons.

Starship Stuff

* 'Polarise Armour' and 'Boost Defence' starship manoeuvres are now 1 action to use, but Boost Defence lasts the entire turn now.

* 'Drone Slayer' talent now allows you to attack drones using Reactions either on your turn, or when drones approach or leave the range of your weapons. Only requires 50% skill to take.

* Added 'Overload Weapons', 'Overload Shields' and 'Overload Engines' engineering manoevures.

* 'Power Shunt' and 'Reduce Signature' engineering manoeuvres only use 1 Cap regardless of skill level.

* Drone swarms with the Forcefield upgrade can now provide shields for a ship. Also tweaked the language of the Forcefield upgrade. 

* 'Break Lock' action now prevents being re-locked for 1 round.

* Reduced system damage from engineering manoeuvres to 1d6 on a failure.

* A starships systems do not go down individually on reaching 0 HP on the hull. Pointed out that Damage Control manoevure can be used to get ship back into the fight.

* Updated the GM sheets for starship emergency repairs.

* Explained how to repair ship systems that have been destroyed.

* The Compact Assault Weapon is now available as a point defence system.

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v2.89 Premium Fantasy Manual

* 'Psychic Healing' psionic spell now has an option to extend the range.

* Removed 'Staunch Wound' from the list of uses for Luck Points (I thought that had been removed years ago!)

* Altered the language of 'Sleep' wizard spell, 'Somnolence' divine spell to clarify that the target wakes up upon being attacked, and can defend themselves.

* 'Strong Back' talent now automatically updates to let you use heavier backpacks, so you don't need to take it multiple times anymore.

* Removing a talent now gives back half the current cost of a talent.

* Added 'The Art of Seduction' talent.

* Seduction talents have been moved to their own sub category under General Talents.

* Advanced characters now gain a +% to secondary skills instead of setting the number to an amount.

* 'Inside Reach' talent now also applies to Unarmed skill, requires 50% skill.

* 'Blistering Assault' Martial Arts manoevure is now listed under Unarmed, can be used by both.

* 'Casanova' talent now requires 90% Seduction skill.

* The human 'Ambitious' trait now also applies to manoevures.

* 'Acrobatic Dodge', 'Acrobatic Attack', 'Honed Reflexes' now start at 50% skill with a 4% bonus to bring them into line with other similar talents.

* Added 'Knee to the groin' Seduction manoeuvre.

* Tweaked the language on the Martial Arts skill.

 

* Updated the Bestiary with corrected manoeuvres on the NPC templates.

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v1.73 Basic Fantasy Manual

* Removed 'Staunch Wound' from the list of uses for Luck Points (I thought that had been removed years ago!)

* Altered the language of 'Sleep' wizard spell, 'Somnolence' divine spell to clarify that the target wakes up upon being attacked, and can defend themselves.

* Removing a talent now gives back half the current cost of a talent.

* Advanced characters now gain a +% to secondary skills instead of setting the number to an amount.

* The human 'Ambitious' trait now also applies to manoevures.

* 'Acrobatic Dodge', 'Acrobatic Attack', 'Honed Reflexes' now start at 50% skill with a 4% bonus to bring them into line with other similar talents.

* Tweaked the language on the Martial Arts skill.

Just a quick note that v1.07 of the scifi manual was put out yesterday, with an improved and simplified vehicle combat system. It now works a lot like being on foot or in a starship, with clear movement instructions. I wish this had occured to me earlier, but oh well! Basically, you use a 10 metre grid scale, and each Movement of a vehicle moves 1 10 metre square. A vehicle with 12 Movement is going around 72kph, (45mph) which is a decent clip of speed on an area style map. I intend to use z scale (1:220) vehicles in coming games, which I can't wait to try! Enjoy the holiday season everyone :)

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.

 

Hi, it's been a little while since I've done an update, andso of course there's plenty of fixes and new stuff! 

One of the most important changes is the reduction of time used for learning new abilities. If you're paying for skills, talents, manoevures etc with Accolades, there's no time cost at all now. This helps reduce down time for characters and allows for faster paced campaigns.

Another improvement is that skill manuals now have expanded use, to speed and improve learning of related skills. 

For the scifi edition, there's an overhaul of the Telemetry station for starships, with expanded drone capabilties and damage control using repair bots, which helps spread the work around the ship more. Plus, there's the usual balancing of the system :)

I have been developing a base building system too, but it's not ready for release yet. It'll cover the ability to make bases of all kinds, in all eras, so that includes castles, warehouses, starports etc. It's been tested as I tweak things, so maybe it'll be ready to go for the holiday season! Anyway, that's all for now, peace out.

 

v1.05 Scifi Edition

Starship stuff

* Revamped starship hull species modifiers, and moved them to the starship design section for easier reference.

* Added 'Micro' sized drone.

* Drones now can only be made with Hull Parts, not regular Parts.

* Adjusted the cost of buying drones.

* Expanded details on how drones use fuel and capacitor.

* Added 'Stealth Mode' to drone actions.

* Added 'Stardrive' drone upgrade.

* Added 'Mag Clamps' drone upgrade.

* Added a separate weapons table for drones, including demolex and plasma grenades for suicide drones.

* Replaced 'Drone Slaving' upgrade with 'Drone Swarm' upgrade, and added a section on how drone swarms work.

* Removed 'Drone Swarm' talent, and put its abilities into the upgrade.

* Added electronic warfare and jamming/amplifying communications to the list of functions handled by the defence operator.

* Added 'Lock Target' as an action for defence operator.

* Removed 'Partial Shields' starship manoeuvre and replaced it with a talent.

* Added 'Jam Communications', 'Overload Sensors' and 'Amplify Sensors' defence systems manoeuvres.

* Removed 'Study' on starships, replaced with improved 'Library' upgrade.

* Updated the engineering and telemetry ship sheets.

* The console bonus for the Telemetry station has been changed to +2 movement for drones and repair bots.

* Added 'Precision Repair', 'Extensive Repair' and 'Transfer Power' Telemetry/DC manoeuvres.

* Added a 'Worn-Out' condition for starships.

* Altered 'Emergency Battery' ship upgrade to instantly provide 20 Capacitor Points.

* Altered 'Cloaking Device' to provide the ship with a +40% result bonus to a Stealth Mode action, and allows going stealth in plain sight of enemies. Requires 1 slot per ship hull size.

* Added clearer information to the ship combat section (defence and damage) about the order defensive actions should be taken.

* Emergency repairs to a ship now last 1d6 hours. 

* 'Remote Operations' talent is now listed under Telemetry systems.

* 'Targeting Expert' talent now called 'Fast Targeting', can also be taken by defence operator.

* Clarified that weapon linking cannot be applied to point defences.

 

Steampunk (Industrial Era tech)

* Added details to the individual invention sections on how Clockwork and Steam robots function.

* 'Neural programming' talent can now also be taken for Clockwork and Steam robots.

* Added 'Steam Golem' industrial era invention. 'Clockwork Golem' invention now only requires 50% skill to take.

* Added 'Clockwork Part' invention, necessary for making clockwork parts!

* Revised the components for making clockwork engines.

* Added 'Clockwork Engine, Medium' and 'Steam Engine, Medium' inventions.

* Reduced the cost of 'Science Goggles' invention.

* Mechanic and Scientific toolkits are now listed as being available in the Industrial era.

 

Age Category

* Modified the skill bonus to age categories.

* Veiran are now listed on the age table.

* Age categories and advanced character templates now also gain additional professional skills.

 

New Stuff!

* Added 'Inspiration' leadership manoevure.

* Added 'OmniTool', 'Sonic Ratchet', and 'Laser Scalpel' devices.

* Added 'Auto-defib' high-tech device.

* Added 'Crush' shifter species manoeuvre.

* Added quick links to the header of the weapons section.

* Added 'Battery Pack' modern era device.

* Added a table for robots showing the size of power source they need for each body type.

* Added 'Macro Link' robot upgrade.

* Added 'Repair Bot' robot upgrade, converting a robot to integrate with a starship's telemetry station.

* Added 'Lip Reading' to the skill list.

* Added an 'encyclopaedia' system for researching using the Knowledge skill.

 

Changes

* Stipulated that Antiseptic can only be used once per 24 hour period.

* 'Substitute' evade manoeuvre has been altered.

* Removed 'Energy Drink'.

* 'Coca Wine', 'Pinpoint' and 'Race' narcotics now remove all fatigue levels for their duration.

* 'Coffee', 'PowerAid' and 'EnergyX' now also remove some fatigue levels.

* Verified that 'Crouch' is in the list of special movements in the actions and reactions section (altered from 1/2 movement to 1 movement cost).

* Removed 'Reinforced Servos' robot upgrade, combined its ability into 'Heavy Suspension'.

* 'Tracked' upgrade now also increases ENC score by +10, reduced climb penalty to -20% and replaced loss of a Reaction with -10% to Evade results. Removed difficult terrain bonus.

* 'Quadruped' robot upgrade now ignores difficult terrain altogether.

* Adjusted prices on modern era heavy weapons to reflect actual costs (i.e. costs came down a lot).

* Altered the 'Worn Out' condition for weapons and equipment to make it less onerous.

* Energy AP now stacks with itself, but stipulated that only one forcefield can be active on a person, vehicle or ship at a time.

* 'Second Wind' and 'Adrenaline Surge' have no effect on robots/automatons.

* Modified 'Aimed Shot' longarm manoeuvre.

* Antiseptic now heals 1d4+2 instead of 1d6.

* Created a new subcategory of devices for high-tech toolkit devices. 

* Reduced battery life on medi-lab, nanobot lab and science lab devices.

* Added Mechanic to the list of possible Robot Programs.

* Revised Medi-labs and Science Labs to function just like toolkits but with a +10% skill bonus, and reduced their size to 2 ENC.

* Mini-drones and sentry turrets now also have a Hit Point figure.

* Robot 'Power Link' Upgrade is limited to 10 ammo per spirit point.

* Clarified that 'Automated Worker' robot upgrade can be used for repetitive tasks.

* Added Mounts to the Livestock section.

* The Manoeuvres section now includes a column denoting the activation time for each manoeuevre. 

* Added a note in the herb section that fully grown plants can be bought for 10x the listed value.

* Expanded upon the use of skill manuals, and adjusted their prices.

* Spending Accolades on a new skill, manoeuvre, psi discipline, invention etc doesn't take any time (you're applying learned experience). Revised all the tables related to this.

* Lowered the minimum Intelligence requirement for most Science talents.

* Cybernetic designs now use the same learning cost table as other systems.

* Improved the companion sheet layout.

* Space Cadet background has Astronavigation instead of Science, gains 'Space Pilot' talent for free but loses a Background Event. Has Academic contact instead of Nomadic.

 

v2.87 Fantasy Premium Edition

* Spending Accolades on a new skill, manoeuvre, spell etc. doesn't take any time (you're applying learned experience). Revised all the tables related to this. Spell costs have gone up, if learned from a teacher.

* Added a note in the herb section that fully grown plants can be bought for 10x the listed value.

* Expanded upon the use of skill manuals, and adjusted their prices.

* The Manoeuvres section now includes a column denoting the activation time for each manoeuevre. 

* Modified 'Aimed Shot' longarm manoeuvre.

* 'Substitute' evade manoeuvre has been altered.

* Added 'Inspiration' leadership manoevure.

* Added 'Lip Reading' to the skill list.

* Added an 'encyclopaedia' system for researching using the Knowledge skill. Manuals and Encyclopaedias are available under the tools section.

* Added a number of Drive skill manoeuvres.

 

v1.72 Fantasy Basic Edition

* Spending Accolades on a new skill, manoeuvre, spell etc. doesn't take any time (you're applying learned experience). Revised all the tables related to this. Spell costs have gone up, if learned from a teacher.

* Added a note in the herb section that fully grown plants can be bought for 10x the listed value.

* Expanded upon the use of skill manuals, and adjusted their prices.

* The Manoeuvres section now includes a column denoting the activation time for each manoeuevre. 

* Modified 'Aimed Shot' longarm manoeuvre.

* 'Substitute' evade manoeuvre has been altered.

Hi everyone, I hope you're doing well! We've got a nice update for the scifi system, but nothing for the fantasy manuals for once! This will probably be the last update for the year as we had a game today and only a couple of things needed tweaking, so the scifi system is running really well and I don't see the need for any other major changes after today. Plus, I'm now officially working very hard on my novels so I don't really have the time for sabre anymore, at least for now. I'm pleased to leave it in a stable state for the future though, and I'll probably tweak it a little from time to time. We're still playing it every week though!

Here's a shot of the finale to my grand space epic. The long grey ship on the left is the players, the TNS Pegasus, and the grey ships on the right are the rest of their rag-tag fleet, coming to assist. All the funky purple ships are the high-advanced enemies. It was a spectacular finale and the party's ship and crew even survived! Clearly I wasn't brutal enough ;) The background grid is something I put together from space images and had printed out in time for the last fight, so they went out with a bang. Every square is 100km.

So, here's what's shakin' this time around:

Perforate

Representing armour-piercing weapons by halving all AP on the target sounded like a good idea at the time, but in practice it's too math intensive. The party's poor defence operator was having a meltdown trying to keep up, so I've changed Perforate to bypass all non-energy armour on a critical hit. This way is much easier to use, and if you get a crit with a gauss weapon or missile, the target certainly knows about it! This can result in one-hit kills, but you can use a Luck Point to remove the crtical effect so it balances out nicely. Works a lot like real armour-piercing rounds too, where most hits deflect or do superficial damage, but a spot on hit will penetrate armour and do a ton of damage. The new version is working really well.

Drone Improvements

Something we didn't use a lot during the big space campaign was drones, which we found were a bit weak and tricky to use, so they've had a big overhaul in this update. They pack more of a punch, able to mount railguns and plasma cannons, and they're more agile, but have lost some armour. The rules are clearer on how they operate outside of ship sensor range (where they go autonomous) and defence console operators can take a talent to specialise in having multiple attacks to take out drone swarms. It's a much more energetic battle now!

Worn Out

The first campaign I ran with scifi was a post-apocalyptic setting where a lot of the old technology they found was run-down or worn-out. The mechanics of it were a bit uneven so I eventually eliminated most of those, but I've put Worn-Out back in under specific conditions, as I missed having the option to get old junky gear and either use it til it breaks, or rebuild it into a new weapon. 

Starship Command Abilities

Since the starship system was put together, I kept thinking of new ways for a commander to have input on a space battle in a way that doesn't use the ship's capacitor. I've now come up with a series of cool actions a leader can take to boost one of the bridge crew's abilities for that round. We've used them in a couple of sessions now and they're fantastic, you have to make a real choice on who gets the bonus :)

Nanomeds

After the update to the new medicine/narcotic system (which is also working out really well), I felt nanotechnology as it's currently represented in Sabre really functions as advanced medicine, so I moved it over to the Medicine skill at 90%, the next step after mastering regular meds. Many of the treatments have been brought into line with medicines and narcotics, so it all fits together beautifully. 

And of course there's a bunch of other smaller fixes, additons and tweaks, so check out the changelog to see what's what. Thanks for playing, and although I'm not sure when the next update will be, I'll be keeping an eye out for improvements to make during each game and I'll make sure its a worthwhile update. It'll probably be in the new year unless something major needs doing. Fly safe (or dangerous, if you prefer!)

_____________________________________________________________

v1.04 Sabre Scifi manual

* Lasers blind only if the critical hit causes the target to lose any Hit Points.

* Drones now use the telemetry operator's Robotics skill for all checks when within ship sensor range, and their own skills outside of sensor range.

* Robots and saerid with 4 arms can make a second action at a starship console if it uses the computers, heavy weapons or science skill.

* Added 'Neural Programming' robotics talent.

* Added 'Worn-Out' vehicle and item condition for extremely old or neglected items.

* Updated the Item Condition section with current mechanics. Removed the 'Run-Down' condition and modified 'Worn-Out', simplifying the system. This affects second-hand equipment too.

* Encounters manual now features a generic loot table free from game breaking loot finds. It has also been updated with correct data on templates, including the range of fusion vehicles.

* Divided robot upgrades into eras.

* Ship AI's computer skill (as part of Positronic Brain upgrade) starts at 50%.

* Mentioned under the Computers professional skill that large AI systems can operate turrets, robots and drones based on the level of Computers skill.

* 'Crystal Alchemy' effects now only take 1 action to use instead of 1 minute. Adjusted stats for Onyx, Zircon, White Pearl & Flawed Diamond to bring it in to line with medicine/narcotic system.

* Added a section in Ship Combat describing target locking and electronic warfare.

* Adjusted the starship hull tables to include Ram Damage.

* Updated the GM reference sheets with current herb/medicine info and salvage info.

* Corvids cannot use Powered Armour.

* Added 'Tiny Thrusters' mini-drone invention upgrade.

* 'Nanobot Gun' is now called 'Medical Gun', can shoot medicines, narcotics and nanomeds.

* Human species hull varient ships now gain +10 slots per hull class.

* 'Cutting Beam' laser modification now allows a starship to hit two subsystems instead of one.

* 'Drone Bay' is now 'Drone Control System', more compact and only contains electronics for controling a ship's drones. Drones contained in new version of 'Drone Bay' upgrade.

* Added 'Drone Slaving' drone upgrade.

* Ship-mounted gauss weaponry now use capacitor (Mass driver always did, others now comply).

* Flamethrowers now use a d12 as their base damage dice.

* Added a table for easier viewing of all modern & high-tech weapon mods. Altered skill requirements for some mods, mostly downward.

* Added 'Improvised Laser' electronics invention.

* 'Starship Control' robot upgrade now only requires 50% skill, and allows the robot to control multiple console functions during the same turn (dodge, block with shields, coax reactor etc). Robot doesn't gain console bonus, and cannot share a console's functions with a crew member during the same turn. Ship's AI (Positronic Brain upgrade) now shares this same functionality.

* 'Industrial Bot' background now grants the Sealed Body upgrade.

* 'Psi Amp' invention is now fitted to a silksteel helm which allows psychic abilities to be used. Its upgrade option now requires a Halo device.

* Graphene helm AP has gone from +3 to +4.

* Torpedoes and Recoilless Rifles have gained the 'Perforate' trait.

* Only high-tech weapons with the 'Impact' trait damage high-tech armour. 

* Nudged the damage numbers for gauss and plasma pistols and rifles a little higher.

* Modern ranged weapons can no longer damage high-tech armour on penetration.

* Silksteel vest AP has been increased from +4 to +5.

* Added prices for trap kits to the toolkits section.

* Subsystems on ships and vehicles now have Hit Points instead of Armour Points, to simplify the calculation. Also, on targeted hits, subsystem HP replaces hull/body HP so this works a lot more intuitively).

* Perforate weapons no longer halve armour. Too much math involved! Instead, they bypass non-energy AP on a critical hit. Thus, perforate missiles bypass all AP on a critical hit. 

* Adjusted damage numbers for perforate weapons. 

* Removed outdated 'fast' trait for shields.

* Removed the restriction on spending career skill points on species skills. 

* Masers now ignore Partial Block effects.

* Multitasking talent now strictly allows vehicle or starship drivers and pilots to fire forward-mounted weaponry without penalty.

* 'Gauss Specialist' gives ship gauss weapons expanded critical.

* Auldsteel no longer protects against effects that bypass half armour (such as old Perforate).

* Reduced baseline armour on drones.

* Added 'Weapon Mount, Compact' for drones.

* The Point Defence System defence result bonus now also applies when shooting at drones.

* Added 'Drone Slayer' defensive systems talent.

* Improved the description of 'Reckless Flying' starship pilot manoeuevre.

* 'Cloaking Expert' talent now allows a ship to move at full speed while cloaked.

* Renamed 'Ramming Speed' to 'Targeted Ram' to avoid confusion.

* When ship life support systems stop functioning, crew members requiring air will start to suffocate immediately, 1 fatigue level per round.

* Reduced the bonus from point defence systems a little.

* Added 'Empower PDS' defence manoeuvre.

* 'Empower Weapon' starship manoeuvre now grants weapon the Impact trait.

* Added 'AI Construct', 'Unknown Origin', 'War Machine' and 'Bionic Man/Woman' modern era backgrounds.

* Added 'Radioisotope Thermal Generator' nuclear science invention.

* Modified 'Analyse Tactics', 'Brace for Impact', 'Focus Fire'(now called 'Concentrate Fire) and 'Decisive Command' starship commander actions/reactions.

* Added 'Vigilant Defence', 'Emergency Power' and 'Flank Speed' starship commander actions.

* Added 'Cybernetic Hacking' computers talent.

* Clarified 'Impact' trait that each hit from a burst, gatling or suppression attack reduces AP by one each time.

* Fixed the definition of 'Impact' trait for ranged weapons.

* Added 'Alpha Strike' powered armour upgrade.

* High-tech shields are now made of steel by default, adjusted their stats accordingly. This makes it easier to craft them from exotic materials.

* Added 'Hardlight Shield' electronics invention.

* Nanomedicine is now under the Medicine skill, starting at 90%. Removed the Xarani ability to use Medince in place of Electronics for this ability.

* Removed the % skill requirement from nanotech - all are available at 90% skill.

* Removed the 'Enhanced Constitution' nanomed, rolled its function into 'Adrenal Overload'.

* 'Adrenal Overload' now gives +3 DM and +20 Hit Points.

* 'Enhanced Speed' now gives 3 fatigue levels upon ending.

* Using 'Fiery Wreath's' flame blast ability ends the duration of the nanomed.

* Increased the circuit cost of 'Reanimate Dead', 'Reverse Aging' and 'Adrenal Overload'.

* 'Repair Bots' do their thing at the start of the subject's next turn.

* All nanomeds require 1 action to use.

* Tweaked (corrected and clarified) the wording on Matter Alignment psi power.

* Starship drones now use weapons of 1, 2, 3 and 4 slots in size for small, medium and large drones. This means plasma cannons, railguns etc.

* Removed MLRS from the starship weapons table (was replaced by mini-missile pod earlier, forgot to remove).

* Made mention in all longarm and heavy weapon talents that these abilities only apply to those weapons when used as hand-held. 

* 'Mounted Weaponry' talent now clarifies a little more about how weapons are used.

* Changed 'Gauss Specialist' starship weapons talent to instead grant Impact to ship mounted perforate weapons (that aren't missiles).

* 'Naval Gunnery' talent now also reduces clip change time for ship weapons to 1 round.

* 'Laser Attunement' now applies to lasers, masers and disruptors.

* Increased the agility bonus of drones by +10% each.

* Added 'Repair Bot Injector' robot upgrade.

* 'Sky' narcotic now imposes a penalty on use of the Psychic skill.

* 'Short Jump' starship manoevure requires 1 round to spin up, and 1 round to cool down afterward.

Nanomed balance (to bring it in to line between medicine and cybernetics).

* Corrected price and circuit requirements for nanomeds.

* 'Adrenal overload' grants +2 Damage Modifier instead of +5, but also grants +5 Hit Points. Androids lose Spirit at the instant of using this nanomed.

* 'Attuned protection' grants +5 DR not +10.

* 'Enhanced Speed' is now Quick to use but lasts for 1 minute.

* 'Forcefield' now grants +5 AP instead of +10, useful against all ranged attacks for 1 round.

* 'Latent Power' can increase the damage output of its psychic attack by spending more spirit points, and can now also probe minds. 

* 'Refractive Skin' now lasts 1 hour.

* 'Radiation Protection' now provides +5 AP vs radiation.

* 'Mental Resilience' is now correctly named in the nanomeds table (instead of Instil Courage).

Hello everyone, I hope you're enjoying Sabre! This month is probably the last chance I'll have at a big update as my other committments are pulling me away from further development. I'm about to start a steampunk campaign so I've had a chance to go over the system and make some improvements (many of them suggested by other players), so let's get down to it.

Backgrounds

Background events recently received a big overhaul, and I've added a couple more options here. These are so good now that I've gone through and tweaked the balance of many backgrounds to compensate for the cool stuff you can get from background events. There's also some improvements to the abilities you get from Contacts, some of which were awesome and some which were not. Now they're all great!

2%

Many of the bonuses you'd get from abilities such as manoevures or talents would entail gaining +5% to a skill result, but in practice, this can add up to some crazy numbers. So I've pared back most of these bonuses were appropriate (mostly from talents) to 2% increments. To make up for this, most of those talents now only need to be taken once, and the bonus automatically increases as your skill goes up. I find the smaller increments to work in more subtle ways, and if you're using the scifi system you'll notice this effect a lot more.

Herbalism and Medicine

I needed to add some period-specific medicines for industrial era campaigns, so I reworked the medicine, narcotic  and herbalism system accordingly. It's now more balanced and comprehensive, and covers medicines throughout the ages, from low-tech to high-tech. Narcotics are handled better too, with more powerful options usually with a hefty cost if you get addicted! (remember kids, winners don't use drugs). Fantasy players only get the herbalism stuff of course, but there's some more options available here for strength and healing.

Spaaaaace

The other campaign I'm running is heavily starship-oriented, so naturally there's a lot of tweaks for this end of the system. There were too many attacks available for gunners, sentry drones etc, so things have been tamped down a bit. It's running a lot smoother so I think you'll enjoy the changes. Anyway, that's all I have time for this month, future tweaks will most likely be very minor! Peace.

 

v1.03 Scifi System

* Removed the brawn bonus from cybernetic arms.

* Starship hulls require 10 hours per hull part to build, reduced further by garage tools and toolkits. Only 1 garage tool is required to get started on construction.

* Vehicles and robots with pocket reactors that allow the recovery of fuel or spirit points use 1 charge of the reactor for every unit of fuel or spirit regained during the 8 hour rest period.

* Honed reflexes now grants its bonus to all types of evade skill checks.

Medicine/Herbalism overhaul

* Stipulated that the Diseased condition typically lasts for 7 days.

Herbalism:

* Lowered the cost of a glass vial to 5cr.

* A critical success on searching for herbs now yields double the normal result.

* 'Kahve' is now used in Spirit tonics.

* Added 'Coca' to the herbalism table, used for energy-related treatments, replaces 'Liquorice Root'.

* Added 'Passion Flower' to the herbalism table, used in sedatives.

* Added 'Tribulus' to the herbalism table, used in strength formulas.

* Added 'Relaxation Tonic' and 'Strength Tonic'.

* 'Pain Relief Tonic' now grants immunity from in pain condition and +1 natural AP.

* 'Energy Tonic' now uses Coca herb, ignores 1 fatigue level and gives +2% to all opposed skill check results for 1 hour. 

* 'Universal Tonic' now uses Passion Flower instead of Liquorice Root.

* 'Anti-Bacterial Tonic' now reduces the duration of illness from 7 days to 5.

* Adjusted prices of herbal tonics to factors of 10 (to include coverage of profit margin etc).

 

Medicines:

* Added 'Syringe' to the modern tools table.

* A critical success on creating medicine now simply increases results by +1.

* Removed the addiction chance of regular medicines - only narcotics have this chance now. 

* 'Firm Resolve' talent now lowers addiction chance to 5% at 90% Resolve skill, and removes it completely at 99% skill. 

* Removed 'Regen Stim'.

* 'Anti-Rads' are now high-tech.

* Medicines now operate in similar but increasingly effective ways through the eras in Sedatives, Healing and Antibacterial. 

* Narcotics now operate in similar but increasingly effective ways through the eras in Pain Killers, Spirit Restoration, Stimulants and Strength. 

 

* Added 'Occult Scion' industrial era backgrond to replace 'Lab Experiment'.

* Modified the android and automaton backgrounds to note that computers and robotics skills are replaced in the Industrial Era.

* Repair Bots nanomed now only repairs 1d6+1 per use.

* Some ship systems now have varying components and build time based on the hull size.

* Added 'Thrusters' core ship system.

* Adjusted weapon masterwork bonus to be +2%.

* Medium drones can use 2 slot weapons, and large drones can use 3 slot weapons.

* 'Mechanical Aptitute', 'Design Sense', 'Grain of Truth' and 'Subtle Threat' talents have been adjusted with the new +2% system.

* Clarified that starship armour plating upgrades made from exotic materials add that AP bonus to each side.

* 'Missile Precision' talent is now called 'Missile Power' as it was conflicting with a starship upgrade.

* Added Telemetry Station actions and reactions to the relevant section under Starships.

* Added 'Afterburner' action for starship drones, removing the manoeuvre of the same name.

* Removed 'Inspire Crew' and 'Stay Alert' starship command actions.

* Added 'Double Time' starship command action.

* Added 'Decisive Command' starship command reaction.

* Added 'Concentrate Fire' starship command action.

* Removed 'Lock Target' option from starship command actions.

* Masers are now blockable by shields.

* 'Laser Attunement' starship talent now also applies to masers.

* Added space for 'Perforate AP' lines to the starship defence sheet.

* Added a space for cloaking device details to the starship defence sheet.

* Added space for noting console AP on each sheet.

* Added 'Activate Cloak' action for the starship defence sheet.

* Added more space for ship upgrades on the engineering sheet.

* Doubled the cost of buying pre-made nanomeds in the Services section.

* Removed the skill % requirement column from powered armour upgrades. 

* Added 'Multi-Grenade Launcher' modern longarm weapon.

* Reactor upgrades add 100kw per upgrade instead of 200kw.

* Increased the cost and reduced the power of Demolex.

* Clarified the Tactical Surprise starship talent allows you to get the damage bonus on the same round as attacking on stealth, provided you quick lock or someone else gets a target lock for you.

* Revised the result bonuses from all abilities across the board. Instead of increments of +5%, they are now +2%.

* Removed 'Combat Mastery' talent.

* 'Combat Expertise' talent now grants +2% to a combat skill and automatically increases this bonus to +4% at 90% skill, and +6% at 99% skill.

* 'Ranged Defender', 'Honed Reflexes', 'Acrobatic Attack', 'Acrobatic Dodge', 'Fencer', 'Shield Bash', 'Commodities', 'Firm Resolve', 'Haggler', 'Organic Systems', 'Sharp Eyes', 'Robust Health', 'Stealthy', 'Hidden Power', 'Commanding Presence', 'Signature Damping', 'Shield Expert' talents now give automatic incremental bonuses as skill increases instead of needing to take the talent multiple times. This offsets the lower overall bonus.

* 'Missile Precision' talent has its bonus changed to +5 damage.

* 'Compensator', 'Laser Sight', 'Power Assist' weapon mods and 'Laser Pointer' and 'AR Visor' devices now have a +2% bonus instead of +5%.

* Clarfied that 'Guidance System' weapon mod only provides its bonus when a round is taken to lock the target properly (yes, even on starships).

* Reduced 'Shield Push' manoeuvre bonus to +2% per shield size.

* Adjusted bonus for 'Boost Defence', 'Reduce Signature', 'Power Shunt', 'Focus Targeting', 'Barrel Roll', 'Defensive Roll' starship manoeuvres.

* 'Empower Weapon' manoeuvre now grants +1 damage per point of cap instead of +2.

* Lowered bonus to 2% for 'Psychic Aegis', 'Rebellious Spirit'

* Lowered the additional penalty for 'Sap Morale' and 'Taunt' to -5%.

* Added costs for buying and implanting cybernetics to the Services section. Linked it from the Cybnernetics section.

* Radiation suits now have a listed duration time for their air supply.

* 'Strong Back' talent now simply lets you wear heavier backpacks, moved its bonus complete over to the backpacks.

* Added 'Reckless Driving' and 'Reckless Flying' manoeuvres.

* Added details on how to make Hull Parts to the Industrial Fabricator.

* Added 'Cybernetic Hybrid' android background.

* Lasers now blind their target on a critical hit for 1 round only.

* The 'Burn' trait now also lets the weapon ignore cover penalties. 

* Flamethrowers have gained the 'Burn' trait.

* Revised the Vehicle Condition table and effects. Now links to Hit Points directly. Androids and Robots/Automatons are no longer subject to this table.

* Added a separate Starship Condition table.

* Vehicle and starship turrets no longer have more space inside than out.

* Added Weapon Turret (HD) to vehicle & starship upgrades.

* Officer Academy can choose a political contact.

* Pleasure Droid can choose any contact.

* Monastery Orphan loses its Military contact option.

* Landowner can choose any contact.

* Informant correctly has 4 background events.

* Apprentice Mechanic loses Military contact option in favour of Craft.

* Street Urchin and Student can now also choose an Ecclesiastical contact.

* Adjusted the bonus for some Contacts (which were a bit lacking).

Political+1 Luck Point

Criminal +1 Reaction

Academic+1 Accolade at the end of each game session.

MercantileGet 10% more for things you sell (1/2 price + 10%)

Craft10% discount on materials also extends to invention components.

Nomadic +1 to Movement AND Hit Points.

* Commerce contacts will now also give you the Commerce skill if you don't have it.

* Added 'Clever' background event (gain 2 free manoeuvres).

* Adjusted some backgrounds for better balance (due to background events being more powerful and desireable now):

Street UrchinLoses Resolve, gains Locale

PerformerLoses EC on Acrobatics, +1 event

Art School+1 event

Brothel Orphan+2 events, loses Resolve gains Influence

Con Artist+100cr

Shop Assistant+1 event

Informant+2 events

Cat Burglar+1 event, criminal OR mercantile contact, not both

LabourerGains Mercantile contact option, +100cr

Pub Worker+1 event

Police Cadet+1 event

StudentAcademic contact instead of mercantile

Scavenger+1 event, loses Endurance, gains Insight

Space NomadSpaceship OR +2 background events.

Stranded Alien+1 event

Trader-1 event

Crafter’s Apprentice+200cr

Inheritor+1 event

Psi AcademyLoses Ecclesiastical contact option

Science InstituteMoney increased to 750

* Added 'Fire Everything' gunner manoeuvre at 99%.

* The range of all leadership manoevures is now 5 metres.

* The 'Decisive Leadership' talent now also doubles the range of leadership manoevures.

* Added 'Forced March' leadership manoevure.

* Added 'Never Surrender' leadership manoevure.

* 'Rallying Cry' leadership manoevure is now at 90%.

* 'Assault Formation' and 'Defensive Formation' leadership manoevures now last 1 round.

* 'Sawtooth Edge', 'Spikes', 'Stabilised' and 'Armour Piercing' low-tech weapon mods can be applied to low-tech thrown weapons.

* Added 'Proximity Trigger' grenade modification.

* 'Balanced' weapon mod can be applied to modern era thrown weapons.

* 'Disruptor Field' high-tech weapon mod can now be applied to high-tech thrown weapons, and simplified its bonus to add the 'Disrupt' trait, reduced time to implement this mod.

* 'Remove Safeties' mod can be applied to thrown weapons, and now deals damage in a 2 metre radius and damages the weapon for 1d6 AP.

* Added 'Maximum Firepower' gunner manoeuvre.

* 'Barrage' gunner manoeuvre now requires only 70% skill.

* 'Empower Weapon' gunner manoeuvre now has no minimum skill requirement.

* Added 'Overload Reactor' engineer manoeuvre.

* 'Power Shunt' and 'Reduce Signature' engineer manoeuvres have no minimum skill requirement and can be increased with addtional capacitor spent.

* 'Convert Fuel' engineer manoeuvre now requires only 70% skill to take.

* Removed EMP Grenades. Shock Grenades now have the 'Disrupt' trait.

* Stun Grenades now deal collision damage.

* Demolex is now 5 ENC

* 'Officer Academy' background has been tweaked. 

* Added a result table for when creating cybernetics.

* Clarified that installing or removing each cybernetic component requires a separate operation.

* Micro-Missiles now correctly have 0 ENC.

* The Augmented Torso now provides +4 Spirit instead of +2.

* The Augmented Skull now prevents the use of psi powers.

* Added details for making masterwork cybernetics to the crafting section, and the Advanced Design talent can be taken with the Electronics skill.

* Heavy missile pod and mini-missile pod for vehicles now have a clip size of 3 and the Burst trait. These weapons have also been added to the starship weapons section.

* Removed the MLRS (replaced by heavy missile pod).

* Stipulated that the Drive skill also provides knowledge of road rules, and is needed for driving in a city or other complicated location.

* Disruptors now need to damage their targets to drain Spirit Points or Capacitor.

* Increased the towing weight of the grappler and tractor beam upgrades. Also added a top speed for when towing ships.

* Added 'Teleporter' starship upgrade.

* Ship's cloaking device uses 1 slot per hull class size. 

* Added 'Collision Buffer' starship upgrade.

* 'Sentry Networking' and 'Robotics Networking' are now limited to one extra minidrone, sentry or robot each. Now requires 90% skill to take.

* The Annihilator Warhead invention can now be adapted for use on a variety of high-tech missiles.

* Added 'Breach Pod' ship upgrade.

* Most Electronic Engineering inventions that used the Computers skill to operate now use the Electronics skill to operate.

* Sentry turrets and mini-drones now use the Electronics skill for their attacks, and their skill advances on failures.

* Expanded details on using mini-drones, and added 'Armour Plate' upgrade.

* 'Networking' computer talent has been removed, replaced by 'Sentry Networking' for electronics, 'Robotic Networking' for robotics and 'Weapon Networking' for heavy weapons on starships and vehicles.

* 'Linked Weapon' upgrades for vehicles and starships now clarify that the linked weapons are treated as a single weapon, but damage is rolled separately.

* 'Encryption' computers talent now requires 70% skill to obtain. 'Advanced Encryption' now requires 90% skill.

* 'Demolition Rig' robot upgrade now gives a damage modifier bonus instead of raw damage.

* Updated the reference to vehicle ram damage to 'collision' instead of bludgeoning.

* Altered the language on the 'onboard power' automaton manoeuvre.

* Chalcedony or Moonstone gems now also allow a carapan to restore 1d4 armour points.

* 'Gunsmoke' longarms talent is now called 'Low Profile', because lasers don't use black powder. 

* Corrected the title of 'Lightning Riposte' blade talent (had accidentally renamed to 'Electrical Riposte').

* Added 'Precision Strike' longarm manoeuvre.

* 'Target Subsystem' and 'Precision Strike' manoeuvres have been altered to work just like the starship version, where you still have to get through vehicle's AP to hit the subsystem.

* Focused Shooting manoeuvre is now called 'Focused Fire', adds Impact trait in addition to dealing extra damage.

* 'Balanced' and 'Circuitry Calibration' weapon mods now only require 1 hour per weapon ENC to apply.

* Added some upgrade options to Steam Exoskeleton invention.

* Updated the starship ramming damage table with new Class size designations.

* Altered the vehicle combat system to use the same critical damage system as starships for greater detail and realism.

* Lowered the AP on engines and some propulsion systems.

* Added 'Extension' modern era Barrel Mod. Reduced build time for all barrel mods. 

* Added 'Magnetic Resonator' weapon mod.

* Updated the character sheet with space for weapon reload time and SIZ in the weapons section.

* Creating starship hulls using the Starship Design talent require 1 Hull Part per 10 Hit Points, not 2.

* Increase the time to use Hull Parts from 1 hour to 2.

____________________________________________________________

v2.85 Fantasy Premium Edition

Herbalism:

* Lowered the cost of a glass vial to 5sp.

* A critical success on searching for herbs now yields double the normal result.

* 'Kahve' is now used in Spirit tonics.

* Added 'Coca' to the herbalism table, used for energy-related treatments, replaces 'Liquorice Root'.

* Added 'Passion Flower' to the herbalism table, used in sedatives.

* Added 'Tribulus' to the herbalism table, used in strength formulas.

* Added 'Relaxation Tonic' and 'Strength Tonic'.

* 'Pain Relief Tonic' now grants immunity from in pain condition and +1 natural AP.

* 'Energy Tonic' now uses Coca herb, ignores 1 fatigue level and gives +2% to all opposed skill check results for 1 hour. 

* 'Universal Tonic' now uses Passion Flower instead of Liquorice Root.

* 'Anti-Bacterial Tonic' now reduces the duration of illness from 7 days to 5.

* Adjusted prices of herbal tonics to factors of 10 (to include coverage of profit margin etc).

 

* Stipulated that the Diseased condition typically lasts for 7 days.

* Removed 'Combat Mastery' talent.

* Adjusted weapon masterwork bonus to be +2%.

* 'Mechanical Aptitute', 'Design Sense', 'Grain of Truth' and 'Subtle Threat' talents have been adjusted with the new +2% system.

* 'Combat Expertise' talent now grants +2% to a combat skill and automatically increases this bonus to +4% at 90% skill, and +6% at 99% skill.

* Honed reflexes now grants its bonus to all types of evade skill checks.

* 'Ranged Defender', 'Honed Reflexes', 'Acrobatic Attack', 'Acrobatic Dodge', 'Fencer', 'Shield Bash', 'Commodities', 'Firm Resolve', 'Haggler', 'Sharp Eyes', 'Robust Health', 'Sneaky' talents now give automatic incremental bonuses as skill increases instead of needing to take the talent multiple times. This offsets the lower overall bonus.

* Reduced 'Shield Push' manoeuvre bonus to +2% per shield size.

* Lowered bonus to 2% for 'Rebellious Spirit'. 

* Lowered the additional penalty for 'Sap Morale' and 'Taunt' to -5%.

* 'Strong Back' talent now simply lets you wear heavier backpacks, moved its bonus complete over to the backpacks.

* Monastery Orphan loses its Military contact option.

* Landowner can choose any contact.

* Street Urchin and Student can now also choose an Ecclesiastical contact.

* Adjusted the bonus for some Contacts (which were a bit lacking).

Noble+1 Luck Point

Criminal +1 Reaction

Academic (replaces Arcane) +1 Accolade at the end of each game session.

MercantileGet 10% more for things you sell (1/2 price + 10%)

Craft10% discount on materials also extends to invention components.

Nomadic +1 to Movement AND Hit Points.

* Adjusted some backgrounds for better balance (due to background events being more powerful and desireable now):

Street UrchinLoses Resolve, gains Locale

PerformerLoses EC on Acrobatics, +1 event

Brothel Orphan+2 events, loses Resolve gains Influence

Con Artist+100cr

Shop Assistant+1 event

Cat Burglar+1 event, criminal OR mercantile contact, not both

StudentAcademic contact instead of mercantile, 100cr instead of 200cr

Crafter’s Apprentice+200cr

Inheritor+1 event

* 'Sawtooth Edge', 'Spikes', 'Stabilised' and 'Armour Piercing' low-tech weapon mods can be applied to low-tech thrown weapons.

* The range of all leadership manoevures is now 5 metres.

* The 'Decisive Leadership' talent now also doubles the range of leadership manoevures.

* Added 'Forced March' leadership manoevure.

* Added 'Never Surrender' leadership manoevure.

* 'Rallying Cry' leadership manoevure is now at 90%.

* 'Assault Formation' and 'Defensive Formation' leadership manoevures now last 1 round.

* Added 'Chosen' background event.

* Added 'Clever' background event.

* 'Gunsmoke' longarms talent is now called 'Low Profile'. 

 

v1.70 Fantasy Basic Edition

* Stipulated that the Diseased condition typically lasts for 7 days.

* 'Mechanical Aptitute', 'Design Sense', 'Grain of Truth' and 'Subtle Threat' talents have been adjusted with the new +2% system.

* 'Masterful Dodge' is now correctly called 'Swift Movement'.

* Honed reflexes now grants its bonus to all types of evade skill checks.

* 'Ranged Defender', 'Honed Reflexes', 'Acrobatic Attack', 'Acrobatic Dodge', 'Shield Bash', 'Firm Resolve', 'Robust Health', 'Sneaky' talents now give automatic incremental bonuses as skill increases instead of needing to take the talent multiple times. This offsets the lower overall bonus.

* Reduced 'Shield Push' manoeuvre bonus to +2% per shield size.

* 'Strong Back' talent now simply lets you wear heavier backpacks, moved its bonus complete over to the backpacks.

 

Herbalism:

* A critical success on searching for herbs now yields double the normal result.

* 'Kahve' is now used in Spirit tonics.

* Added 'Coca' to the herbalism table, used for energy-related treatments, replaces 'Liquorice Root'.

* Added 'Passion Flower' to the herbalism table, used in sedatives.

* Added 'Tribulus' to the herbalism table, used in strength formulas.

* Added 'Relaxation Tonic' and 'Strength Tonic'.

* 'Pain Relief Tonic' now grants immunity from in pain condition and +1 natural AP.

* 'Energy Tonic' now uses Coca herb, ignores 1 fatigue level and gives +2% to all opposed skill check results for 1 hour. 

* 'Universal Tonic' now uses Passion Flower instead of Liquorice Root.

* 'Anti-Bacterial Tonic' now reduces the duration of illness from 7 days to 5.

* Adjusted prices of herbal tonics to factors of 10 (to include coverage of profit margin etc).

 

Background Stuff

* Landowner can choose any contact.

* Street Urchin and Student can now also choose an Ecclesiastical contact.

* Adjusted the bonus for some Contacts (which were a bit lacking).

Noble+1 Luck Point

Criminal +1 Reaction

Academic (replaces Arcane) +1 Accolade at the end of each game session.

MercantileGet 10% more for things you sell (1/2 price + 10%)

Nomadic +1 to Movement AND Hit Points.

* Adjusted some backgrounds for better balance (due to background events being more powerful and desireable now):

Street UrchinLoses Resolve, gains Locale

PerformerLoses EC on Acrobatics, +1 event

Brothel Orphan+2 events, loses Resolve gains Influence

Con Artist+100cr

Shop Assistant+1 event

Cat Burglar+1 event, criminal OR mercantile contact, not both

StudentAcademic contact instead of mercantile, 100cr instead of 200cr

Crafter’s Apprentice+200cr

Inheritor+1 event

* Added 'Chosen' background event.

* Added 'Clever' background event.

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

v1.02 scifi core rulebook

New Stuff!

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

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

* Added 'Telemetry Lock' starship manoeuvre.

* Added 'Activate Cloak' starship defensive systems action.

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

* Added 'Stealthy' background event.

* Added 'Slow' negative background event.

* Added 'Unlucky' negative background event.

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

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

* Added 'Ramming Speed' pilot starship manoeuvre.

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

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

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

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

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

* Added 'Miner' prospecting talent.

 

Fixes and Improvements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* EMP grenades have increased in price.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Most invention upgrades now have skill level requirements.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Added baseline sensor stats to the sensor system section.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Added more detail to the Clockwork Robot invention.

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Splinter arrows no longer deal fire damage.

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

* Adjusted how fires work on board ships.

* Updated the 'Powered Armour' invention construction details.

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

* Tweaked the language on the 'Wrist Radar'.

* The Compact Assault Weapon is now more expensive.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

v2.84 fantasy premium edition core rulebook

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

* Added 'Stealthy' background event.

* Added 'Slow' negative background event.

* Added 'Unlucky' negative background event.

* Added 'Miner' prospecting talent.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

v1.69 fantasy basic edition core rulebook

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

* Added 'Strong Back' talent.

* Added 'Stealthy' background event.

* Added 'Slow' negative background event.

* Added 'Unlucky' negative background event.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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