Teaser 11: Short and Sweet

[higgins]

I must have pulled an old version of the chart when I made the character sheet.

Yeah, I found that exact configuration from my dropbox archive folder. It was literally from May 2011.

Besides: I would offer to translate it to German if you like

Duly noted, but remind us of this when we have the print out!

[EinBein]

Just noticed that education and engineering sound like skills with a vast scope.

Especially compared with Legerdemain, Larceny, Intrigue, Manipulation, Impersonation, Politics, ... Of which some seem to overlap partly.

One could deduct a certain focus on truly bastardly skills

[higgins]

Just noticed that education and engineering sound like skills with a vast scope.

Well, yeah. A game has got to have a focus. Basically we looked at the stories our engine was meant to be telling and went on from there. Can't do much worse if you want to tell dynamic stories, but the rules include an engineering/farming/etc sim.

It's kind of a theme we keep coming back to. We build up rules to make things logical and realistic, and then one of us goes: "Did we build a farming sim again?" and we end up cutting ton of the fat off again to drive home the intended focus.

[thirtythr33]

But what about my beloved naval warfare codex?

[higgins]

Alas, any in-depth naval codex/rules-set has to be an expansion for us to push any kind of realistic release date. I'm a huge fan of Napoleonic naval warfare, but the era modeled in 'Bastards is quite a bit eariler and significantly different. I have a bunch of scale drawings of all kinds of ships as covered by The Story of Sail, but other than that I need to improve my library to even tackle the subject with any kind of authority.

[Agamemnon]

We definitely have a certain focus in mind for the game. That said, we also explicitly state that the GM should add/shift focus as is suiting for their game. A good example is nautical things. The core book covers it all under Trade (Sailor).. but if you were running a nautically-themed pirate game, you could very easily decide to split this up into Navigation, Piloting, Rigging, or whatever you saw fit. We're certainly going to be redistributing the skills some for our naval expansion.

But what about my beloved naval warfare codex?

That is such a huge swath of territory to cover, man. I've been itching to dig into naval rules since we started this bloody project, but it'll take weeks if not months of raw research just to educate ourselves on the particulars to pull it off in a convincing fashion. This is doubly so when you consider the way the focus would have to work. The primary focus would obviously be on renaissance-era naval warfare, because that's the setting implied by the core book. Of course, what everyone is very likely going to want to use the book for is Age of Sail pirate shenanigans - so the book has to convincingly portray two very different styles of naval warfare and technology (to say nothing of possible earlier naval stuff - viking longships, greek triremes).

It's something I'm extremely excited to work on, but it is definitely something that needs some time and care put into it.

[EinBein]

Wanted you to know that I/we are still checking daily

Even without the promise of naval rules

[higgins]

That's good to know!

Fair warning though. This weekend is doomed for dev work. DOOMED!!!



In other words, we're re-visiting the "metal gig meets medieval fight club" event format from the last year.

[Korbel]

So... Base Combat Pools for both melee and ranged weapons will be AGILITY + CUNNING, or am I missing something?
I'd expect something like...
MELEE: SPEED + CUNNING
RANGED: AGILITY + PERCEPTION

"TN10v" - what does it mean?

I must say I really like this character sheet (yeah, I know my Reflex is very, very low, commenting only now).

[higgins]

RANGED: AGILITY + PERCEPTION

Perception is already a derived value, composed of Acumen and Cunning.

"TN10v" - what does it mean?

That, my dear friend, is Agamemnon's way of spelling TN9. And yes, it's long been fixed.

I must say I really like this character sheet (yeah, I know my Reflex is very, very low, commenting only now).

No need to feel bad about it. Feedback is always such a motivational boost. And a motivational boost is never late, nor is it early, it arrives precisely when it means to.

[Korbel]

Can I ask for synonyms and in-game uses (briefly) for "Cunning" and "Acumen"? I want to be sure I understand these concepts correctly.
If it's not a problem.

[higgins]

Acumen represents a character’s intelligence, reasoning and the ability to learn.

Cunning represents a character’s quick thinking and mental resourcefulness. It governs awareness, intuition, and speed of thought.

So, essentially, when you combine general awareness with the ability to put pieces together, you get Perception.

[Korbel]

The same question for Agility and Speed?
(I know I should wait for Beta, but just can't wait...)

[higgins]

Agility is a measure of a character’s nimbleness, balance, and hand-eye coordination.

Speed represents the character’s ability to both project fast-twitch muscle force for motion as well as a measure of how quickly their body responds to and can carry out commands.

Essentially, when you combine general awareness with the ability to react, you get Rexlexes. In turn, when you combine general awareness with hand-eye coordination, you get Balance.

Although now I notice that "balance" has crept into the Agility description as well.

[Agamemnon]

Ripped directly from the current draft:

Strength (St)
Strength represents a character’s overall physical power and muscle mass. It plays a part in many physical skill checks as well as determining damage dealt in melee combat.

Agility (Ag)
Agility is a measure of a character’s nimbleness, balance, and hand-eye coordination. It is a frequent component in physical skill checks that require any kind of precision and plays a significant role in calculating a character’s combat prowess.

Stamina (Sm)
Stamina represents the general health and physical ruggedness of the character’s physique. Stamina governs everything from the ability to resist damage or toxins, to the capacity for healing, recovering from illness, and length at which a character may undertake strenuous activity before experiencing adverse effects.

Speed (Sp)
Speed represents the character’s ability to both project fast-twitch muscle force for motion as well as a measure of how quickly their body responds to and can carry out commands. It’s obvious uses plug into the Athletics skill, but it also is a key figure in reaction time, and plays a role in combat as well.

Acumen (Ac)
Acumen represents a character’s intelligence, reasoning and the ability to learn. Acumen is useful for any character type, but it is of particular importance for those who rely on knowledge-based or scholarly skills. Acumen also directly affects Perception.

Cunning (Cu)
Cunning represents a character’s quick thinking and mental resourcefulness. It governs awareness, intuition, and speed of thought. Cunning plays a part in many skill checks, but is also of particular importance in calculating Perception rolls and the character’s combat ability.

Willpower (Wp)
Willpower represents a character’s mental fortitude and self-discipline. It plays a key role in many resistance or discipline based checks, as well as some skill rolls.

Social (Sc)
The Social attribute covers a number of related, but often hard to define elements. It is an overall representation of a character’s charisma, bearing, personal appeal and social intelligence. The Social attribute is invaluable for skill checks to influence, lead, bargain or manipulate. As well, a character’s interactions with others in the world may be influenced by their Social attribute, just as people tend to form opinions and biases quickly in the real world.