The Train is on Track

It is almost the end of the month and I am glad to report that the game is with in a few days of being in a playable state. Or playable enough for me to see what needs to be changed and edit it.

A few more changes has happened in the 3 weeks since I have last posted. First, I got rid of averaging. My reasoning is due to thinking back when play testing the older versions in the morning before my first cup of coffee and trying to figure out averages of many many stats. Now, the unlockable parts of the skills will open when the category accumulates a certain amount of points. Which is like saying the average of but none of that "dividing by x amount" nonsense I thought was so stellar when first making this RPG system. I hope this will speed along the game play.

I have noticed from the skills and stats that fights/battles are going to go a lot faster. Depending on the player and how they have their stats/skills, a character could essentially knock out another player in 2 or 3 blows. I am not concerned with that, as I prefer to role play more then do tactile war games. Then again, some tactics and planning are not so bad.

Another thing I have been chomping at the bit to do is to write some plots down for the first gaming session. Though, I am not sure who is going to show up nor what they will want to do. I have plots for campaigns for thieves, mercenaries, air pirates, explorers, and also dramatically themed games. Of course, all of these are abstractly floating in my head.

Another idea I keep kicking around is to play the game myself and have someone else GM. I love Gming, but playing a game which I created is always a little different and then some of the blaring ticks are more apparent. Also, each person interprets rules and wording of rules differently. This may give me insight on how others would GM this game.

Hopefully, the next post is about how game play is going.

An Unfortunate Stop but a Favorable Start

With a heavy heart I stopped writing the game play which was happening weekly. Frankly, I fell behind and then got too busy with certain things in my life. Then there also hasn't been game play for a long while due to people having lives themselves. I may write again on the Case of the Manor's Curse someday and write some of the other adventures which Morgan, Maxwell, and Oswald had. For now, I will try to make updates on what has been happening since it is exciting!
The news so far is I am working the the Hepian Tales version 1.6. Yes, this is the sixth and hopefully last version before I start calling it a finished and done game. So what does 1.6 have in it that the other versions did not? First, the skills are more laid out for the players and also better balanced. There are certain ways to counter skills with the stats already given. The skills also have 3 unlockable attributes which characters can get as they progress their characters through adventures. So, even though a character will start out with 4 Skills (yes, that changed too) it is really like they are getting 12 skills. This also leads a player to specify their character more since they can choose to unlock that attribute or not. In my opinion not unlocking the attributes would be a little short-sited of that player.
Also, I changed it so Stats and Skills are categorized under one of four categories. The Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Fisticuffs Categories. I did this to help out explain the stats more and also to make for better character customization.  I did away with averaging stats to make new stats. That old was a cool concept but when playing the game 11 in the morning in a cafe before my anxiety pills kick in and trying to average a character's stat in my head just wasn't working. Instead, we're using categories, a little more stats, and letting the player divide a certain amount of points into these categories. Simple enough.
Here is the list of the old Main Stats:

• Accuracy
• Brawn
• Elegance
• Fleetness
• Intelligence
• Luck
• Stamina
• Wisdom

And this is what they helped average out other then skills.

• Prestige
• Pummel
• Resistance
• Sway
• Toughness

It turned out, and I think anyone who played the game can attest to this, that Intelligence was the go to stat with thinking, viewing, smelling, or anything that had to do with a judgment call. I decided to change that and the categories helped me greatly. Now the skills and the categories go as so:

• Physical Category
• FLEETNESS
• BRAWN
• STAMINA

• Mental Category
• SAGACITY
• WISDOM
• ELEGANCE

• Spiritual Category
• LUCK
• SKEPTICISM
• WILLPOWER

• Fisticuffs Category
• ACCURACY
• DODGE
• TOUGHNESS

Intelligence got split into Willpower, Skepticism, and Sagacity. Though, I wonder how heavy I am going to use these in game play. That will probably be determined by the group.
I mentioned that the skills have changed as well! This is the list of the older skills which three has to be chosen and then averaged out from the old main stats.

• Blend
• Burgle
• Chemistry
• Curse
• Dazzling Dukes
• Dexterity
• Disguise
• Distraction
• Evade
• Focus
• Graceful Pardon
• Heal
• Hypnosis
• Intimidate
• Intrepid Fighter
• Marksman
• Pick Pocket
• Pyrotechnics
• Recall
• Sabotage
• Seduce
• Silver Tongue
• Sleuth
• Sneak
• Swift Hook
• Tinker
• Tripped
• Workhorse

This old was was fun, but a player could be at a disadvantaged when they wanted an awesome character but they lacked one of the stats, like luck. Instead of having these skills averaged out the players are given a certain number of points to split between four skills to choose from. Once again, they are separate by category to not only help the players what stats they may deal with but it was also easier for me to rebuild the stats and determine what was appropriate for them.

• Physical Stats
• BLEND
• DEXTERITY
• EVADE
• MOXIE
• SNEAK
• SWIFTNESS

• Mental Stats
• BURGLE
• CHEMISTRY
• DISGUISE
• INVESTIGATE
• PICKPOCKET
• PYROTECHNICS
• SABOTAGE
• TINKER

• Spiritual Stats
• CHARISMA
• DISTRACTION
• HEAL
• HYPNOSIS
• MYSTICISM
• STUBBORNNESS

• Fisticuffs Stats
• AVERT
• DEAD-EYE
• IMPROVISED WEAPON
• MARKSMAN
• MARTIAL ARTS
• SWORDS PLAY

There are fewer skills now but I also mentioned unlockable attributes making it seem like more skills. The unlockables are nice because they unlock when the stats of the category they are in reach a certain number of points. It is very simple and spelled out in the section called Skills in Detail.

I will get everything to get this game playable this month sometime. I will keep trying to update this blog as things progress. There is so much I could tell you folks, but so little time to write it all!