Howdy all!
This channel has been rather quiet lately, so let me start off with some information regarding v0.3. I’d have updated you folks sooner since the project’s largely my responsibility, but I’ve had other obligations that required my attention and I wanted some proper news to show you folks.
So, here’s some of the stuff that’s currently implemented:
– We’re modifying Drives to have a Key-style “when you act in contrast to one of your drives, mark XP and replace it with another” counter-function. This provides incentive for players to let their characters grow out of old habits or change their ways.
– We’re merging Strength and Constitution. While Con certainly had its uses, it was mostly a passive stat that wasn’t very interesting or deep on its own. This should fix that.
– We’re looking into replacing Bonds with more traditional PbtA-style Introductions – questions between the players (and GM) to determine relationships and world details. We’ll be adding some extra meat to the Make Camp and/or End of Session moves to promote growth in a similar (but hopefully more organic) way as Bonds did.
– We’ve brought over the Thangs system from Spirit of ’77 as a way to organise and provide access to non-playbook-specific moves, of a sort. Stuff like Followers, or a tweaked version of the Reputation move.
And here’s some of the stuff that we’re looking into, but haven’t figured out quite how to implement in their entirety.
– Less extraneous bookkeeping. For one, either removing Rations and Ammo or unifying them under a “Supplies” mechanic alongside Adventuring Gear. For another, replacing Coin with Wealth, which will work similarly to Barter from Apocalypse World and co.
– How to handle Dex-based melee combat moving forward. While the Precise tag is nice, it’s a little fiddly to apply to each weapon individually, with a fair few corner-cases cropping up; perhaps the ability should just be a playbook move instead?
– We might rename or shuffle about the other stats – the mental stats in particular – but we haven’t found a grouping that really plays all that nicely with the current class lineup.
– Descriptive damage as a replacement for rolled damage dice. While rolling damage does make combat unpredictable, I find that it really messes with the flow of combat in games, even with the smaller (but more reliable) damage dice of Worlds of Adventure. I think a mechanic similar to the Descriptive Damage Hack for Dungeon World (https://bit.ly/2M8pLvl) could be a meaningful and functional replacement for rolling damage dice; after all, the combat move involved already determines its effectiveness.
Your input on any of these points is, as always, welcome and appreciated.
