The gift of the Magi

 

My wife finished the cover for the Magi Carta!

She is about half done with Cauldron #1 cover as well.  

Now I am under the gun to get it all done!

Players handbook?

Originally I discussed releasing a "Players Handbook" version of the rules with just the non referee bits.

 Per a request I had, I'd like to invite you to opine on revisiting it. 

I am considering a $6 PDF only version, and it would be an art free, just the facts ma'am version of the player's portion of the HOW rules.

Alternatively a print version of the first section,with art, at a higher price is also a possibility.

Thoughts and opinions are solicited and welcome.

Your Kingdom to Dust

The awesome contributions going into Cauldron #1 continue to amaze me! E.P. Donauhue's art and adventures are going to be outstanding as are Sean "Geordie Racer" Wills adventures.

In fact Sean just dropped a an incredible "one on one" adventure on me entitled "Your Kingdom to Dust."

This is quite an incredible little adventure with lots of potential creativity for a Referee to play on and its a head to head with a single Player! Opportunity is there to expand it to more players, but my wife is already having her character Valeria sharpen her blades and make ready to explore it tomorrow! Lots of new creatures and  I think it could be very re-playable.

With Sean and E.P. creating such great material, I am feeling a bit under the gun to insure my own contributions don't stink on ice!

Cauldron #1 should be a hell of a brew! Image Source

Bricks are heavy

So  I am wrestling with a quandary.  I have additional character bits that flesh out players from backgrounds with starting skills and potential "career relationships" to faults and favors which allow players to pick advantages (ambidextrous) or disadvantages (Missing hand).  This further makes characters unique, adds options for players and in general adds more fun. I always think of character building like laying bricks, you are making something.  So while I feel HOW gives you some mortar and a basic start, I think these additional sections really add creativity and individuality.

I've been holding these back for Blades & Black Magic, I am considering adding some of these in the first couple issues of the Cauldron, then expanding them, combining them and adding them into B&BM.

Thoughts?

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New Review

Jeffro has just posted a very detailed review of Heroes & Other Worlds.  He does an excellent job of of highlighting differences of HOW and Legends of the Ancient World as well as other incarnations of this system. It is well written and a very thorough breakdown of the game.  Well done Jeffro!

and now more...

I feel like that cat with the shovel today, IQ 14 & IQ 15 spells now complete as well.  

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Lucky 13

Lucky IQ13 spells are complete, now its all downhill from here. With IQ14-IQ18 the spell lists get shorter by each higher IQ...but the spells get a bit more complex.  I am really excited to get the spells completed so I can work on the other bits like spell books, casting colleges and such.

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Cauldron is coming

Here is a work in progress sneak peak from my wife of the Cauldron #1 cover!  Also a quick Magi Carta update, IQ8-IQ12 spells are done..and the cover is 98% done!!

Now just IQ13, IQ14, IQ15, IQ16, IQ17 & IQ18 to do...holy cow almost halfway done!

Things & Stuff

What a busy week.  Spent most of it traveling then 4 hours sleep, a shower and back in the office.  All of it worth it though as I finally (after 6 years) got to spend Valentines day with my wife and had today off to spend with her. No work on Magi Carta on my end, but while I was traveling my wife almost finished the cover and has started the cover of Cauldron #1! Clearly I need to get my stuff together and get cracking again on spells!

A personal recommendation from me to you, DUNGEONSTONE!  I have, as ducats allowed, built up quite a bit of dungeon bits.  It is very hardy resin, and damn easy to paint!  I just ordered some additional bits and really need to keep painting up what I have already...man I need more hours in the day!  Anyway, it's good solid material and at some point, maybe when I am play testing Grim Venture, I'll post some picks of it in action.

A bit about Grim Venture.  Not sure if you've played the video game Dark Souls (see my take here) or know much about it, but it is very unforgiving.  While I do not plan on making it Grim Venture an unplayable, room 1 your dead experience, I do plan on making it tough.  Bad or dumb decisions will kill.  Exploration and searching will be important.  In all honesty its probably a 2014 project at this point, but I look forward to making it happen and my wife's already done the cover, so I am on the hook to make it happen.

Game on!

Sneak Peek

 

This is the initial sketch my wife did that is fast becoming the Magi Carta cover!

Jabberwocky

Well it seems like, for the better I hope, there is much to discuss for Heroes & Otherworlds.  To that end I created a pro board forum so we can discuss stuff and track it more easily than through this blog.

I hope you will join me there so we can talk about HOW, Magi Carta, Dark City Games, Brett's Tekumel work, Redwald, Geordie's adventures, Stonewerks maps and a lot more great stuff!

It will be as interesting as you make it!

Link to the forums here.

And a handy link to the forums can be found by clicking the forums image to your right as well.

Quick hits

I have had a couple questions about additional game options being published. They will be in Blades & Black Magic.  This will be an "Expert Rules" addition for Heroes & Other Worlds.

It will include things like character backgrounds, faults & favors, endurance use in melee combat and chases and a lot of other optional rules. In addition wilderness/hexplore rules, more terrors and other stuff.  Why is it in a separate book and not in the core rules?  Because they are not strictly necessary to play the game.  You may want to add them into your game which is great, but I did not want to overload the core rules nor create so many options one was left not knowing what to do.  Putting them into a separate book clearly defines and I think clarified the idea that they are additions, not mandatory.

Also responding to a quick question on Breath Weapons.  Below is an assortment of options:

Stream breath weapon
Their range (distance) is 1/4 creatures current ST in spaces, rounded down. This assumes a 5 foot wide, straight line shot, breath weapon.

Examples:
A ST20 has a 5 spaces (25 feet breath weapon range)
A ST40 has a 10 space (50 feet)
A ST60 would be 15 spaces (75 feet)
A ST80 would be 20 spaces (100  feet)


Cone Breath Weapon
The range (distance) is 1/4 creatures current ST in spaces, rounded down. A cone shaped breath weapon sacrifices 10 feet in distance for every 10 feet in width. Maximum width is 30 feet. breath weapon must travel 10 feet before growing 10 feet in width as shown below
5
5
10
10
20
20
30
30

Cloud shaped Breath Weapon
A cloud shaped gas breath weapon is 1/2 the creatures current ST in L x W.  It is a 10' cloud in height. 

Examples
a ST20 cloud breather would be 10 feet long but 10 feet wide
a ST40 cloud breath could be 20 feet in distance, but 20 feet wide
a ST60 cloud breath is 30 feet long but 30 feet wide
a ST80 cloud breath is 40 feet long and 40 feet wide

Hope that helps!

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Bubbling Brew

Lest you think Cauldron #1 will only focus on Swashbuckling (which it does not) the contributions by E.P. Donahue (2 new illustrated creatures+an adventure) and the Gone to Ground adventure from 'Geordie Racer' should let you know the Cauldron will always have a number of different ingredients to insure it is a successful brew!

Follow up question though, Is the Magi Carta better as one large tome, or as two separate books:

Vol 1: IQ 8-IQ12
Vol 2: IQ13-IQ18

Thoughts and opinions are welcome, back to scribing...

Fix the fix

...and from adversity comes opportunity.

Let's consider this:

IQ18 Spell Shape Change remains as written in book

NEW SPELL

Paper Tiger   IQ16  (T)  EN6  R:Self
Caster changes form into a creature it has seen at least 3 times before. The Attributes of the caster remained unchanged but the special abilities, movement and AR of the creature are conferred (flight, fire breathing, webbing etc.). The caster assumes original form if knocked unconscious, killed, or the spell effect ends.

Honey I broke your spell book

Over on RPG geek is a good discussion regarding Wizards, magic and a spell flaw.  Below is the newly edited version of the flawed spell from page 35 of the HOW rules:

Shape Shifting IQ18 (T) EN8 R:Self

Caster changes form into a creature it has seen at least 3 times before. The Attributes of the caster remained unchanged but the special abilities, movement and AR of the creature are conferred (flight, fire breathing, webbing etc.). The caster assumes original form if knocked unconscious, killed, or the spell effect ends.

Why the change? Read the thread here.

I appreciate the critical eye shown by the poster. From what I gather, it seems like thoughts/opinions based upon a reading of the rules, not necessarily through playing them.  While playing may not change ones opinion to the better, I think too often we read rules for the sake of reading them and may miss what the actual applications are and thus the true aspects of them by playing.

Both Robert St. John and Rob from Vargold  are working on play test reviews and I look forward to their thoughts and opinions. 

Back to crafting a spell book.

Magi Carta Progress

Spell conversions and text completed for IQ8, IQ9 and IQ10 spells. 

"Only" IQ11-IQ18 left to go!

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Meh

I hear you and I understand that swashbuckler stuff is "meh" for some of you, and that's cool.  Some stuff I make you will like and no doubt some stuff  will make you say..meh.

No one is going to make stuff you like as well a you can! If you'd like to see something you really dig in Cauldron #1 feel free to write it up and send it to me! I am sure there will be other folks that would like what you do and I probably would too.  Either way, thanks for giving the game a go, and while swashbucklers may not be your favorite, maybe something in the future will grab you..like the Magi Carta maybe?

I'd like to point you Rob's VARGOLD blog.  He is going to play test and review Heroes soon, so start reading now and let's see what he thinks!  He may think its good...he may think its meh!  Back to Magi Carta scribing.