01-14-08 Update: State of the System
Rather than a small set of “here’s what I did last week"s, this update is meant to speak to where the system as a whole currently stands, what’s left to do, and where to go from here.
What’s Done
So far, the actual meat and potatoes of the system are done. The game is about 90% complete right now. Character creation is finished, and there are only a few things left to revise in Part II: Action. The GM chapters are all that really remain. As the game stands now, a group has everything they need to take the system for a test ride.
Also, the game is currently being playtested by Benicus, Cameron, BlackPlague, Zachol, Lune, and Talae, which is proving useful in clarifying the rules.
What’s Left to be Done
Right now, the following sections of the game are on my “to do” list (right below trying desperately to memorize my cadaver for Anatomy):
- In Part I, Chapter I, there’s a missing subsection on “Bigger Guns and PL”, which will show how GMs should handle things like PL 4 heroes picking up the huge cannon that the PL 8 villain was using.
- In Part II, Chapter VII, the section on Maneuvers might be undergoing a revision to make maneuvers even more straight-forward, particularly informed by what speculation I’ve heard about 4e’s “Combat Advantage” mechanic (this will also play into how I intend to handle Attacks of Opportunity). Essentially, rather than try to replicate condition-inflicting FX (which won’t exist after the next revision of the system other than the general Inflict (Condition) FX), maneuvers will serve to grant you a temporary trade-off (to represent things like swinging wildly or aiming for a head-shot or going on the defensive) or attempting to gain combat advantage over a foe (by throwing sand in his eyes, or knocking him off his feet, or gut-punching him). At the moment, I’m considering precisely how to handle combat advantage itself, but I’m leaning towards it rendering the enemy flat-footed until they spend an action to recover.
- As conditions are being revised, Part II Chapter VIII will similarly see some revision in this regard.
- In the interest of being more clear, Part II, Chapter IX will have more sample Dramatic Interactions added, along with adding some more meat to the Corruption and Mutation samples of taint.
- Part III, Chapter XI is still the one most in need of work, and it’s here that I think I can actually go out to the boards and request some assistance in putting this together. This chapter is about building actual campaigns and settings with the ruleset. While I certainly feel up to the task of writing up the checklist for including/disallowing certain options in a game of a given genre, I would like to extend an invitation to board members who might be willing to help in the following areas:
+ A discussion about different eras of gameplay. These would be written with more “broad strokes”, discussing the historical basis of the genre (including subdivisions like Early Stone age, Iron Age, etc.), important new technologies, how people lived, and (most importantly), ideas for adventures. These would not have to be very long… each entry for the different eras would probably only need to be about a page. If you’re interested in contributing, let me know.
+ Scaling the “stuff” of the world to different campaign feels. For example, a very bleak, grim world is likely to have fewer and thinly-populated settlements than a very happy, shiny four-color story. So I want to go through and try to look at how to scale demographics, population wealth, and the like. I think Black Plague’s Demographics articles are up somewhere, and I need to look into those.
+ Writing out description, resources, and inspiration for different genres of gameplay in (relatively) short blurbs. Genres I have so far include: Animated/Comedy (Genre Examples: Abbot and Costello, Looney Toons, The Three Stooges); Crime/Caper (Genre Examples: Ocean’s 11, The Sting, The Sopranos); Cyberpunk (Genre Examples: Bladerunner, Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix); Gaslamp/Steampunk (Genre Examples: HG Wells, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Girl Genius); High Fantasy (Genre Examples: The Lord of the Rings, Record of Lodoss War, The Wheel of Time); Occult/Horror (Genre Examples: Alien, HP Lovecraft, The X-Files); Space Opera (Genre Examples: Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Star Wars); Superheroes (Genre Examples: Heroes, Superman, X-Men); Sword & Sorcery (Genre Examples: Conan the Barbarian, Elric, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser); Urban Fantasy (Genre Examples: Harry Potter, Men in Black, The Vampire Chronicles); War (Genre Examples: A Bridge Too Far, Saving Private Ryan, Tora Tora Tora); Western (Genre Examples: The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Unforgiven, The Wild Wild West); Wuxia (Genre Examples: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers).
+ Folks who are able and willing to help out will be listed as “Additional Contributors” in the final product in recognition for their work. People who have published before, or who are more familiar with the gaming industry: if there’s a more appropriate credit I can give, lemee know.
- Part III Chapter XII is also getting a little work with an introductory section.
Beyond that, it’s really just a matter of going through and editing now. If there’s enough interest for this to become an actual product, formatting and preparation become a whole ‘nother matter.
So as of 01-14-08, that’s the state of d20 Advanced.
