Minor Tweaks

Spring play testing has concluded, sadly with the death of 2/3rds of the party.  Oops.  Players and GMs a like still have some trouble accessing risk/threat it seems.  Oh well that is why we do playing testing!  Some conclusions were made based on the latest round.  

Combined Actions

The combined actions worked.  The penalty is steep but balanced and it played out fairly.

Strength Bonus

This was significant change from the previous version, it also played out well.  More often then not it had little effect, however on  a few occasions it had tremendous impact.  In a way its like a critical hit from D20, but with a much broader range of results and higher rate of occurrence.  BEWARE THE STRONG FOE ;-)

Magic in Melee

Weather by design or by omission (no one is quite certain),  the rules stated that spell cast failure did not count as a spell action.  This made for some very interesting melee which all agreed was entertaining.  For example a man charging down a hill, holding out sword & shield while screaming like a banshee and casting Magic Missile every second.  He failed every second but the last one (combined action: casting and double move) but afterward all agreed that at Magic Missile level 1, he was game-ing the system a bit.  So now a failed cast counts as a spell action.  See Magic in Melee. 

The summer has been busy, new family members, a cross country move and vacations.  However play testing continues just at a slower pace.

This has been a slow month

While this month has been slow.  Play testing has been a lot of fun.  The new magic rules are very interesting tactically.  Balance wise, no one is quite certain where it should go.  It could easily become a sort of Harry Potter style melee where everyone uses magic, because it is so much more powerful then melee weapons alone.  However none of the play testers nor designers really want that to happen.

One obvious difference is that melee which was already more hazardous then D20 variants, really requires tactical thinking.  If you just stand toe to toe, and your opponent takes advantage of movement rules your not going to do well.  In short there is a lot more moving around in melee then anyone really expected.

Recently in play testing a low power party encountered a giant crocodile.   The monster ambushed the party at a broken down bridge, where the party had little freedom of movement.  The crocodile attacked, nearly killed a horse and was trying to drag it away.  The party went after the crocodile, but the crocodile retreated, then ambushed again and nearly killed a party member.  The party hacked away at the beast but to little effect.  Finally the character who was ambushed and being crushed by the crocodile, successfully put the beast  to sleep with a spell.  However the spell was an area of effect spell.  They were all of them clustered together, and half the rest of the party went down too.   It was tremendous fun!  Read some detail about it here.

Otherwise, rules review is proceeding more slowly then anyone would like.  Hopefully DRAFT2 by the end of the month.

The Updates Continue

The good news is that the methodology is resolved. The mechanics are resolved. All that is left is some adjustments to both cost and potency and its all done. We are still cleaning up the context a little too.

So whats the new methodology?

The same methodology has been applied to magic, missiles and melee. Previously we had variations in each major category. Each round consists of 10 seconds. In each of those 10 seconds a character can take an action or move. The maximum number of actions is determined by the categories basic skill.

For melee weapons, the Basic Melee skill level determines the maximum number of actions the character can make it melee. There is a cheviot though. The character can not take more actions then they have skill level in the weapon they are using. For example if the character had Axes & Hammers level 4, but only Basic Melee level , the character could only make 3 attacks/defends per round. The character would still get the +20 bonus, 5 points per skill level.

For spell casting, it works exactly the same way. The Basic Spell Casting skill determines the maximum number of spells cast round. There is a cheviot though. The character can not cast a spell more times then they have skill level in that spell. However the character can cast different spells in the same round, so long as they do not cast any spell more often then the skill level in that spell and the total number of spells cast in the round does not exceed the Basic Spell Casting level. This gives the caster a great deal more flexibility and more power. This is why we are play testing the casting so heavily, seeking the balance between cost and potency. It is worth mentioning that spell's skill level sets how often the spell can be cast per round. There is no longer a daily limitation on any spell. You can read the revised PUCS magic rules on its site.

Missiles are skills unto themselves. There is no base skill for bows or crossbows. Bows can be fired as many times per round as the skill level. Crossbows are slow to load and their rate of fire is defined by each device.

That is enough for today. Check out the PUCS website and please post any comments or questions you might have here. I'm happy to answer them as best I can!