MACE

I've managed to run one demo game this morning, with Travis and Dave from The Game Musketeers They had a good time and we had a good discussion about the game afterwards. I have spent the rest of the time here writing and playing Carcassonne. I have a scheduled game of RoboRally tonight (my wife is insisting, since she's running it) and I have one more game scheduled for tomorrow morning, if anyone shows up. :-)

In other news, the BayonetGames forums are now directly linked and managed by Wargamer.com. It keeps Brant from having to kick off trolls and spammers.

Amara and Rone

Here is a little preview of the area of Amara and Rone, both lands in the New World.

AMARA
The shining beacon of civilization in the New World, Amara was founded by a joint expedition of Boyden Cartel and several influential Villus noble families. Following several scouting expeditions, the main force made landfall at the mouth of the mighty Storn river, where the city of Amara now sits. The expeditionary force quickly conquered the local peoples and spread along the Storn planes. The fierce warlike people of Galedon have remained unconquered by the Amarans to this date. Rone had fought with Amara for close to a century before a delicate peace was established. The region continues to be difficult on the governors and threatens to reopen hostilities at any time.

RONE
A fairly new province of the powerful Amaran Empire, Rone is divided into four geographic regions, two in the lowlands and two in the highlands. Rhoswen is the easternmost duchy of Rone, the lowlands on the Shattered Sea directly west of the Rose Pass – the gateway into Rone. It is the most accommodating duchy with respect to Amara. It is also the richest. Kell is the northernmost Duchy, just west of Rhoswen, and is the historical capital of Rone. A heavily forested area with rich soil and resources, the other regions of Rone look to the ancestral families of Kell for guidance. Greer covers the eastern highlands, south of Rhoswen.

The Highlands are much more difficult for the regional governors to control, however. Although Greer is technically part of Rone and is technically under Amaran control, you will find no garrison or governor in the heart of this land. The land is very self sufficient and independent, but not violently so. Breen, on the other hand, has been very troublesome for Amara. Located in the remote Western highlands and separated from Kell by an inlet, Breen is the heart of anti-Amaran sentiment. After multiple assassinations, no Amaran diplomat will take the position of governor anymore. The last governor, a cocky general named Carnissus, thought he could control the region with brute force and managed to be kidnapped and sacrificed in some fearsome rite. The acting governor of Breen resides in Rhoswen.

Update

It's been a while since I have updated this and I've been working feverishly to get most of this done before MACE in November. Several portions of the game have passed the Alpha stage and are on hold, preparing for Beta. I am brushing up some of the other sections and writing as much as I can before then.

I'll be updating this site regularly as I add more and more content.

MACE

BayonetGames will be present at the MACE Gaming Convention in High Point, NC on November 10th - 12th.

We will have a table in the dealer room set up and the World of Esaene will have three sessions available for anyone interested in taking a first look. Here is the schedule:

Fri 08:00 PM - 12:00 AM World of Esaene d20 - World of Esaene demo
Table: 5

Sat 09:00 AM - 01:00 PM World of Esaene d20 - World of Esaene demo
Location TBA

Sun 09:00 AM - 01:00 PM World of Esaene d20 - World of Esaene demo
Table: 2

Thinking too much

You ever get into a train of thought that leads you into redesigning large chunks of the system? It's very dangerous and I'm trying to keep it in check. I am of two minds - The first is to keep it similar enough to d20 so as not to turn off those consumers; the second is not to try and out-D&D D&D. I mean, I want something simple and easy to use that keeps the strong gamist and narrative elements that I like in my game.

Alternate skills

I saw an interesting thread on ENWorld that matched my goals of overall simplification and streamlining of the system. How does this strike you?

There are three states of skills - untrained, trained, and mastered.

• Untrained skills have a base roll (either the base attribute, or base attribute/2 for difficult skills).
• Trained is the base + (level +3)/2
• Mastered is base + level + 3.

The masteries are like specialties - so someone can be trained in Craft [Blacksmith], for instance, and be a master weaponsmith.

Lets take Sven, our level 4 Expert.
Str 12 (+6), Dex 14 (+7), Con 12 (+6), Int 14 (+7), Wis 10 (+5), Cha 11 (+5).

Craft is an Intelligence/2 skill, so the base value is +3.
If Sven is a trained Blacksmith, his Blacksmith value is +6.
If Sven later spends an additional skill point to gain mastery (weaponsmith), the skill would read: Craft [Blacksmith] +6 (Weaponsmith +10). Note that Sven could have mastered general blacksmithing, but other specialties would be unmastered.

There are very few skill points to keep up with (0 = untrained, 1 = trained, 2+ = mastery) so there is much less math involved with upkeep.

What is the world of Esaene?

Esaene is a world in turmoil. The people of the land are just starting to see the light at the end of a thousand years of darkness. A long and costly war with mythical beings brought ruin to the land, shattering mighty cultures and laying waste to everything it touched. The fey races have retreated to the darkest corners of the land and new cultures have risen from the ashes of old.

Still, old enmities and fears linger beneath the surface. Old religions are beginning to chafe at a new sect, the Prelacy of Light, who seek to spread their gospel to all living beings. Feuds dating hundreds of years or longer still simmer, waiting for an opportune chance to strike back.

The role of race

How would you all feel to having all player characters be human, with distinctions for locale and culture, instead of the variety of fantasy races that fit that role right now?

This would, in turn, make some of those other races more mysterious and primal, for one, and eliminate some of the stereotypes that exist for them in all FRPGs.

In this scenario, the Akknals would be human (or demi-human) with some traits that make them stick out. In this particular case, Akknals have "giant blood" which makes even the smallest ones larger than an average human.

The elves are already free in this ubiquitous presence that threatens the world sort of way, but it could free the dwarves to be much more mythologically inclined in the same manner, being one with the earth and the secrets therein. The "races' therefore are all byproducts of the mystic sundering of the spirit world from the physical world, left behind - a mythological figure without a narrative, so to speak. The races in FRPGs are all derived from myth anyway, so it would be interesting to bring them back to that root again.

Alpha Game 5 - Fight Night

The intrepid band of adventurers encountered the mysterious Akknals for the first time in the form of a hunting party. Both groups realized the other was out there, but some on both sides managed to be surprised nonetheless. The skirmish set up the night's festivities well and got them into the spirit of it. They found the secret passage into the former dwarven citadel and encountered a large party of Akknal warriors and a Shaman trying to batter down a door.

First off, the fight was fabulous. I have to make some minor adjustments here and there, but it flowed quickly and had a good rhythm. I modified how critical damage is done to not make it so punative over the long haul while still keeping its short term kick in the pants. Now it is something that could very well end your combat, but if for whatever reason you do recover from it, you will not be completely out of everything afterward.

The players had a lot of fun and the system was able to accomodate narrative combat actions quite easily, such as when the (foolhardy) wizard decided to run after the fleeing Akknal hunter and tackle him before he could alert others, or when the sorcerer transformed back to human form from his animal shape under the Sorcerer, knocking him over. The players had some suggestions and I saw some things that needed fixing, but overall it was a resounding success.

New toys

I was browsing ENWorld's store and came upon a book that caught my eye. I bought it on a whim and was glad for it afterwards.

MonkeyGod Presents: From Stone to Steel from Highmoon Media Productions is definitely worth the money. If you are at all interested in weapons from different historical ages and how they fit together, check it out. You won't regret it.

Combat thoughts

Combat has been going pretty well, but something about the feel just isn't right yet. I'm going to play around with a few more variants and possible changes at the next game; there should be plenty of combat on a larger scale, as opposed to the few small scale tilts the characters have been involved with the past few weeks.

I actually took a few days off to clear my head and I went through some variants in Unearthed Arcana and other places and I may have sparked some further ideas on keeping the combat grim (which the players have responded to favorably thus far) and keeping it within the right feel that I'm looking for. I've spoken with Ryan Nock (of Elements of Magic fame) recently about the magic system and he said he'd look at it after GenCon (which ended today). I definitely have to make it up there next year. Hopefully I'll have a new game book in tow too.

Alpha Game 4

We were missing two participants on Monday - Brian (Isaac the fighter) and Rich (Demetrius the Hunter) which was good and bad. The three spellcasters were in attendance, so we used the time to come up with tradition feats for each - one wizard, one sorcerer, one spellsword. After that was done, we had a side-plot that happened sometime in the night.

Jess, the Wizard, was on watch when he noticed a fog roll in and the strange sound of bells. He tried to wake everyone up, but only the sorcerer, Aren, and the spellsword, Capernius, would wake. They encountered a young girl singing to herself while sitting on a rock, brushing her hair. They approached and were immediately caught in the snare of a charm spell, making them feel happy and friendly towards this strange girl.

Meanwhile, her friend was looking through the camp until he found an old curved blade made of strange metal. The three spellcasters noticed this and started to move his way when the girl, bored with her song, threw a knife at Aren. The three spellcasters got into a solid fight with the Elves. Capernius was gutted pretty well by one of them while Jess the wizard got into an extended grapple with the girl. Aren managed to barely take care of the elf who nearly killed Capernius before Jess was finally able to overpower the girl and stab her to death.

The grapple test went really well and it was a nice magic test too.

Magic Preview: Cure

CURE

The Cure magical skill can cure afflictions, heal wounds, and even bring back the dead. Unwilling creatures are allowed a Will save to negate.

CURE AFFLICTION (VARIES). The following conditions can be cured. Casters may not spend more MP on a Cure Affliction effect than their ranks in the Healing skill.
• Blindness (2 MP): This spell allows a target to get a Fortitude saving throw in order to cure blindness. If the effect is magical in nature, the original DC is used. Naturally occurring blindness is a DC 30. If the target’s eyes are missing, they must be regenerated first.
• Deafness (2 MP): This spell allows a target to get a Fortitude saving throw in order to cure deafness. If the effect is magical in nature, the original DC is used. Naturally occurring deafness is a DC 30. If the target’s ears are missing, they must be regenerated first.
• Disease (2 MP): This spell allows a target to get a Fortitude saving throw in order to cure disease. If the effect is magical in nature, the original DC is used. Naturally occurring disease is a DC 30.
• Fatigue (2 MP): The spell suppresses fatigue for the duration of the spell. At the end of the spell’s duration, the target must make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 20) or become exhausted. Fatigue can only be eliminated through rest. The duration of the spell does not count as rest.
• No Pain (5 MP): If there are any magical effects reducing one of the subject’s ability scores, the effect is suppressed. This does not cure ability damage or permanent ability drain, but it can sober a drunk without giving them a hangover. While under the effect of this enhancement, creatures have a -2 penalty to Dexterity, Vitality damage does not cause wounds and the affected creature does not suffer the affects of any trauma failure except death. At the end of duration, the affected creature must immediately make a trauma save with all applicable penalties and wound carryover.
• Paralysis (3 MP): This spell allows a target to get a Fortitude saving throw in order to cure paralysis. If the effect is magical in nature, the original DC is used. Naturally occurring paralysis is a DC 30. If the creature’s Strength or Dexterity had been drained, they are restored to at least 1.
• Poison, Negate (3 MP): This spell allows targets to get a Fortitude saving throw in order to negate poison. The original DC of the poison is used. Creatures with natural poison abilities that succeed their saving throw can keep their poison stores and use their poison to harm creatures outside the area of effect.
• Poison, Slow (3 MP): For the spell’s duration, poison in the area of effect has no effect. Once the spell elapses, poison takes its usual course. The caster must be able to use Time effects in order to use this enhancement.

HEAL (VARIES). These spells help the healing of wounds. Casters may not spend more MP on a Heal effect than their ranks in the Healing skill.
• Enhance Healing (+1 MP): Affected creatures gain a +2 bonus to Fortitude saves for purposes of healing only.
• Endurance (4 MP): Affected creatures gain a +4 bonus on the following checks and saves for the spell’s duration: Swim checks made to resist vitality damage, Constitution checks made to continue running, Constitution checks made to avoid vitality damage from a forced march, Constitution checks made to hold your breath, Constitution checks made to avoid vitality damage from starvation or thirst, Fortitude saves made to avoid vitality damage from hot or cold environments, and Fortitude saves made to resist damage from suffocation. Also, you may sleep in light or medium armor without becoming fatigued.
• True Healing (+3 MP): Affected creatures heal 1 wound and take 1 point of vitality damage. Creatures with no vitality get no benefit from this. This damage cannot be soaked.

REGENERATION (VARIES). These spells restore atrophied or missing body parts. These effects must be used in conjunction with Craft Permanent Spell. Casters may not spend more MP on a Regenerate effect than their ranks in the Healing skill.
• Regenerate, Lesser (12 MP): Regenerates lost body parts no larger than an eye or finger. The target takes 12 points of vitality damage. This damage cannot be soaked.
• Regenerate, Moderate (15 MP): Regenerates lost body parts no larger than a hand or foot. The target takes 15 points of vitality damage. This damage cannot be soaked.
• Regenerate, Greater (18 MP): Regenerates lost body parts no larger than an arm or leg. The target takes 18 points of vitality damage. This damage cannot be soaked.

REVIVE (VARIES). These spells restore the dead to life. The body must be complete in order to be revived. No being can be revived after 1 week. Reviving a body causes the target to permanently lose a point of Constitution. A body with a 0 constitution cannot be revived and this loss may not be restored by magic. These effects must be used in conjunction with Craft Permanent Spell. This often does not work without a No Pain or Slow Poison effect on the corpse allowing the caster to heal any lingering wounds and maladies. Casters may not spend more MP on a Revive effect than their ranks in the Healing skill. A revive enhancement may not be used more than once on the same corpse, meaning a caster who fails a Lesser Revive must use a Moderate or Greater Revive on his next attempt. A corpse failing a Greater Revive cannot be raised at all. Revived creatures are exhausted, have 0 vitality, and whatever unhealed wounds remaining from their death.
• Revive, Lesser (10 MP): This spell attempts to revive someone who has died within 10 minutes. The target gets must make a successful Fortitude saving throw (DC 25) to be revived.
• Revive, Moderate (15 MP): This spell attempts to revive someone who has died within a day. The target gets must make a successful Fortitude saving throw (DC 35) to be revived.
• Revive, Greater (20 MP): This spell attempts to revive someone who has died within 1 week. The target gets must make a successful Fortitude saving throw (DC 45) to be revived.

Alpha Game 3

The characters got to explore some more of the Shattered Sea as they were retained on an expedition to find some ruins in the north. On their way, a storm forced them to take shelter in the city of Mara, a now-decaying port that was once the jewel of the sea.

There, in a small tavern called the Goddess' Arms, they met a small contingent of dwarves - the first they had ever seen. The dwarves had more gold than the party members had ever seen too, which got them greedy. They learned a little bit about dwarven culture in some pretty funny bits of dialog and discovered the dwarves were refugees - fleeing from their stronghold in the north from a tribe called the Akknals. They entered into an agreement with the dwarves, via a dwarf named Garek, to retrieve a blackwood chest from within the vault of the stronghold in exchange for a reward. The party was headed that direction anyway, so they agreed to the quest.

They went north and docked their ship in a small hidden cove, making the all-day trek to the ruins. Demetrius got to show off his survival skills by providing for the party with some hunting and keeping them from freezing to death. In the ruins, they found an ancient hill fort and what looked to be a temple complex. Area transformed into a bird and scouted the area, noticing magic in the hill fort. The party examined that area while the sailors looked at the temple.

At the hill fort they encountered a large horned giant (a troll) with a club. Half the party and the troll were surprised - Demetrius and Capernius downed him with two pin-point shots with their bows after doing nothing to him in the surprise round. Jess detected silver under a large stone and moved it over with Isaac's help, finding a silver medallion with an iron spike driven through the center. They also discovered the stone was somewhat magnetic.

After knocking down an additional stone (number 13), Ares warned them to not touch the stones any further and not disturb the medallions. They reluctantly agreed and headed back to the temple, where the sailors had uncovered a cache of treasure and were busy gathering it up. They plan to approach the dwarven fortress the next morning and retrieve the darkwood box.

---

The characters all advanced up to third level and I'm still messing with the magic system. If I can get the rules cohesive enough in one week's time, I may attempt to make it up to GenCon and run some demo games at the Matrix booth. Right now, I'm not comfortable with them to really do that at all, so we'll have to see.

Magic Magic Everywhere

This continues to be the main source of concern for me so far. I do need to enforce Brian using signature spells, because he has a tendency to try and magic anything that pops into his head. Still, it needs work. I've been brainstorming this evening trying to come up with some alternate strategies to deal with it and make it interesting. If anyone has suggestions, feel free.

Alpha game 2

Everyone had a blast tonight. I made some changes to some basic premises of the game - ability scores always give a positive modifier, so I had to raise the DC of just about everything by 5.

In tonight's story, Isaac - the son of a rich noble, but weak and gullible in his eyes - was conned not once, but twice by the beautiful Zatina. Jess was arrested for running out on his debts after Isaac unwittingly led a bounty hunter back to the inn. His debt was paid off by the mysterious Mr. Haron, who now holds the key to Jess' future. Capernius "the Just" (aka Capernius the Gullible after the situation with Zatina) made some inroads with the Templars of Valar and the group found work - the first job being an elaborate con by Zatina that made them the patsies for her crime, the second a boat headed north for an expedition into newly discovered ruins. Luckily, the boat was leaving the morning after the Zatina situation.

The mysterious deaths of clergy continued and they finally put a name to the threat - a bean sidhe, legendary harbinger of death native to the Breen highlands, Demetrius' homeland.

The high point of the evening from a gaming perspective was the beliefs. I'm going to work on them some more, but right now the group is using the concept right out of Burning Wheel.

Isaac believes his father was a weak man and a failure, even to the point where he believes he may be illegitimate. He also believes greatness can be achieved through daring a guile and he must do everything to escape his father's shadow. The temptress and grifter, Zatina, was a good tool to bring forth Isaac's own shortcomings and force him to face it. It worked really well and he is really engaged with the character and his love/hate interest, Zatina.

Demetrius also has father problems - he is trying to escape the long shadow his father casts over him and prove that the sins of his father do not reflect on him. His problems stem from his homeland and he is being dragged deeper and deeper into who his people are, their strange beliefs, and the mysteries going on through two siblings, Haldis and Kaelin, that he keeps seeing all over town.

Jesseldar Gianas, or Jess, cannot see beyond the shine of the coin. He believes he can run from any debt and that money is the end, not just a means. The bounty hunter with an Imperial Warrant immediately brought him into a situation that was close to his character's center and the paying off of the debt by a mysterious crime lord embroils him further into dangerous territory.

Capernius is consumed by the church and has, almost on his own, been investigating the murder of the priest and several other clergy members since he has been in town. He believes that he has been chosen by God for some special purpose and is pretty self-driving in that respect. His interactions with church members are always very interesting from a story perspective.

Aren has been the most difficult so far, but I think that has been more of a timing issue than anything else. He is another character who believes he has been "chosen" for greater things - instead of the Lord of the Valarian church, it is by the spirits of Silea, his homeland. He is actively searching for the culprit who is trying to destroy his home at the behest of his spirit guides.

It's a nice mechanic that really brings the characters in the game and it really worked out well from a storytelling perspective. I had a few ideas of things I wanted to do tonight, but mostly it was working with the various beliefs and getting them on a roll.

Alpha game 1

The game went OK. These are the characters as of right now:

• Capernius (Scott), an initiate of the Prelacy of Valar from Amara. He is a level 2 Spellsword loosely in the service of the church (he believes he has been chosen by God, although the church doesn't actually recognize him as such).
• Jess (Matt), a wizard of the Guild Moryan, traveling to avoid his various debtors and seeking his fortune by any means necessary. He is a level 2 wizard.
• Demetrius (Rich), a lvl 2 hunter from the outlands of Breen who is seeking his past by finding out who, and what, his father was.
• Isaac (Brian D), a brash nobleman from the Empire who is seeking to overshadow his father and make a name for himself. He is a level 2 fighter.
• Aren (Brian C) is a level 2 sorcerer from the Silean wilds who believes the spirits of the forest chose him as a savior from those who are currently seeking to destroy his homeland.

We went through some basic combat and magic as they were aboard a ship headed to the free port of Tycho. I have a few adjustments to make before next game:

• Lower the magic DC from 15 to 10.
  
• Go over the alpha rules to clear up some text and eliminate some errors.
  
• Clarify the magic rules a bit. Tighten them up.
  
• Maybe fiddle with the combat mechanic - perhaps introduce a vitality threshold where damage goes into wounds.

Alpha Playtest

The rules are to a point to where I am now playtesting them with my gaming group.

It's funny, because I have advanced beyond so many of my previous posts and ideas that they seem kind of alien at this point. Anyway, I'll keep a log of how the playtest is going.

We did some basic character stuff this past Monday (the 10th of July) and the guys are getting used to the changes in the rules. I'm talking with a very talented artist right now and I hope to have some headway in that arena soon. More later.

Origins

The Con went well. I had a lot of fun and met lots of interesting people. The coolest game I saw and played was Artesia, which won the Best RPG Award at the show. The game is gorgeous and the author/artist, Mark Smylie, is really cool. I also managed to pick up a copy of Burning Wheel from Indie Press Revolution. Brennan Taylor, the guy who runs IPR, played Artesia with me on Friday night. I met him the year before and he's a pretty cool guy.

I also met Aaron Acevedo, Andy Hopp, and Sean Preston at a party thrown by Sean Patrick Fannon (who I know from back when he was trolling around Raleigh). A good time was had by all. I also came away with some good ideas for changes in my design, so that is moving forward as well. I hope to have the Alpha rules done by the end of the month.

Life

Real life has taken precedence for a while. After tonight my time should start to clear up a bit. I've made significant progress, but haven't had the time to update. I plan on rectifying that, especially after Origins at the end of the month.