Some questions answered, some changes, progress report

A glimpse into the process of LARP design, into the minds of the creators, and a chance to interact on a design level with the GMs--basically what we're thinking and why
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GM-Mike
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Some questions answered, some changes, progress report

Post by GM-Mike »

At our weekly meeting, we discussed player questions, made some tweaks based upon player feedback, and discussed the progress toward the new rule set. I'll start there. Much work has been made toward disciplines, economy, perks/specializations, and spells/potions. We are not quite ready to release any of those sections but we're getting closer. Next week, we will either have a new rules release or we'll step on the breaks a little. Although I think we are still on track for our April 1st deadline, the closer we get, the more cognizant we need to be of our progress. As a tease, one of the things we've wanted to do is to increase customizability. One way we have shown you this is in the master level heroic skills. A second way we are looking at this is through second level discipline swap out skills. Every discipline would have two skill choices at second level, of which you would only be able to get one. This will dramatically increase the number of character builds that we have on the field, which I think would be more dynamic and more fun.

Now for some questions answered:

Shields: We agreed to continue to omit shield destruction except by shatter. This was done for simplicity and realism. In the current rules, the only people who could deal enough damage to destroy a shield are Empaths and Rogues. We don't feel a rogue should be able to destroy a shield--it goes against the feel of the path as a whole. Empaths have a skill that can destroy shields so the damage requirement is redundant. We discussed again the passive damage reduction for large shields and we again feel that a penalty for large shields is appropriate so that will be staying. We would like to see smaller shields on the field. However, the current measuring system or shoulder to shoulder and shoulder to knees is the fairest way to measure someone so that will continue to be the standard for judging large shields.

Magus: Sense Essence will work like Sense Magic, 15 second charge time and then you tell the target you are sensing essence. The target must give you their current and max essence. Durable components will remain the same--they will not be used up in spells. Speaking of spells, a little more information as to how those will be introduced. Most spells will be first introduced as Scrolls. Scrolls are basically one shot magic items and will burn up when used. They will likely not have an essence cost or a component cost but will be a way for us to playtest the effect. When we are happy with the effect, we will assign an essence and component cost and create a spell tag for that spell. These spell tags can be collected by anyone and may be kept in a spell book. There is no limit to the number of spells a person can have on their person. A Magus can then learn the spells, essentially taking the spell tag out of game--meaning it cannot be stolen. This will work along the same lines as magic attunement (see below) in that it will take 30 minutes to learn a new spell. It would also take 30 minutes to unlearn a spell. Learning and unlearning spells can happen between events. When you learn a spell, you will get a learned spell tag to replace the unlearned spell that you had previously. You ARE limited in the number of spells you can learn and that limit is equal to your essence pool (so if you have 8 essence, you can learn 8 spells). Negate magic will utilize the call "lash resist" to quickly communicate that skill's effect.

Magic Item Attunement: Item attunement, like spells, takes 30 minutes and can be done between events. You can attune yourself to an item even if it is unidentified but you will still be unlikely to be able to use it until it is identified. An attuned cursed item may have negative effects. Magic item attunement slots will continue to increase over the life of your character. You will start at level 0 with one, gain another every 20 levels until level 80, gain another at level 200 and then every hundred levels thereafter.

Warrior: Imbued Armor will remain as written for the time being

Empath: Administer will continue to impact both healing and essence. This was done for simplicity

Rogue: Deadly focus will include the verbal "Focus" when the skill is used to alert people that the rogue was not interrupted.

Healer: Extend life will not cost a life point and will not be able to be passed off to another character. However, this ability may be put back into the skill through an advanced specialty skill. First aid will also speed up essence recovery

Sage: Disenchant will continue to be in sage for the reasons explained in an earlier post. Sages understand magic on an intellectual level and know how to shut it down. Utilize resource previously only impacted basic upkeep, not wealth levels and therefore is no longer relevant and will not be put back into the system. Research will remain as the second sage skill. Power of the ancients can be used on any master level skill. There are no master level skills at this point that have a prerequisite except for the empath channel ability, which will be reworded so that you get the channel skill--if you have the channel skill then you can increase damage to 30. Battle Tactics will give the sage the ability to give out one of the following options when the trigger word is heard in battle: 2 Crush, 2 Vorpal, Resist Fear, Press/ResistPress.

Retirement: When you retire, you will be able to keep hero points earned through roleplaying, but you will not retain hero points gained through leveling.

Empirical buffs: Empirical buffs are no longer limited to one. You will not be able to have more than one from the same skill, however. You can't have two augments, but you could have one augment, one battle tactics, and one wisdom of the ages, for example.

That's it for now. I will try and answer additional questions as they come up.
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Ark
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Re: Some questions answered, some changes, progress report

Post by Ark »

perfectly fine with everything posted.

though I would terribly love to know the ratio of essence points to armor gained on imbued armor?
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Phinkis
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Re: Some questions answered, some changes, progress report

Post by Phinkis »

GM-Mike wrote:Empirical buffs: Empirical buffs are no longer limited to one. You will not be able to have more than one from the same skill, however. You can't have two augments, but you could have one augment, one battle tactics, and one wisdom of the ages, for example.
Will transmutations and talismans continue to remove Empirical buffs?
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Kaylan Chargeender
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Re: Some questions answered, some changes, progress report

Post by Kaylan Chargeender »

Just a reminder in case no one thought of it, with the new components, spells, and gear the new rules will include....the starting gear list and values should be updated also.
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Phinkis
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Re: Some questions answered, some changes, progress report

Post by Phinkis »

I think I saw somewhere that wizards who switch to magus will get to keep the spells they had before, as long as they still exist. Is this correct? What about wizards who diversified and had potion skills as well? Will we be allowed to choose spells from the old list to take in their place?
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Re: Some questions answered, some changes, progress report

Post by GM-Mike »

Yeah, we will work with people to minimize any damage from the transition to new rules.
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