Working on the Book

[Child of Flame]

Clearly, the revisions are in the 0.7.1 book. Good. I always like reading the revisions as they come along, however slowly that may be.

Hey, here's an idea: now that the book being revised is being made public, would it be too much to ask for the updates to be in a different color? And maybe a quick legend at the top explaining

Black- What's been there
Red- What needs to be discussed/worked on
Blue, maybe? I like blue- NEW UPDATES! WOOOOoo...

Anyhow. I think magic wouldn't be just an ability. A mage is more of a class, but I agree it wouldn't take much to make a rudimentary class for mages for the Corebook (that TAC would expand upon). I really like the idea that mages could specialize in a certain element, but I think if they wanted to be well-rounded and learn all the elements, they should be able to.

So while a Frost Mage could max out Frost to Level 6, a mage specializing in fire, ice and lightning may only reach up to level 2 or 3 max, and thus wouldn't be as powerful. Like a Red Mage. They would also need a separate ability for each element as well.

Also, what elements? Fire, ice and lightning are a must, but perhaps there'd be mages that specialized in healing and/or debuffs/buffs or something. Perhaps we can do something with dark magic, at the cost of the mage's health or sanity. That's getting complicated, though. But to make things easy, a Red Mage of sorts would be limited to just fire/ice/lightning.

Now that I think about it, a healer could just be a different class all on it's own, like a priest or something. Hmm.

[Lurid Sorcerer]

I've already implemented the red and black colors. :-p Previously, I've attempted to include green to show new changes, but for some reason I just decided not to do that. I suppose I could do that again. I wouldn't be much trouble, actually.

Magic wouldn't be it's own ability, but rather would be more like a category of abilities. (I think this is the same thing you were saying, actually.) It would be analogous to the weapon proficiencies; you don't write "Weapon" and give yourself points, you write a type of weapon and give yourself points with it.

As for the specifics of how the magic would work and the types of magic available, I think that's something that would be better suited to a real-time discussion. We do have a good list going, though:

Fire
Cold
Electricity
Buff (AKA Support)
Debuff (AKA Curse)
Healing

I'm sure there are hundreds of magic types we could add, but I don't want things to get -too- out-of-control and complicated in the core book.

[Lt. Pwnage]

Magic is actually a school not an ability so yeah.

As for learning different magics you could put a maximum on how many points you can put in magic.

I recommend 18 and also put a limit on three schools. (Kinda like World of Warcraft)

Example Mage/Wizard
Magic School: Fire Lvl 3
Magic School: Buff Lvl3
Magic school: Healing Lvl 3
Total points: 18

[Lurid Sorcerer]

I was thinking that magical abilities would work similarly to how weapon proficiencies do. For instance, you have the ability to use a sword, and that ability has a particular level. You can know how to use more than one type of weapon, and each weapon type has its own associated proficiency level. For each school of magic, the character has a skill level in much the same way.

[Lt. Pwnage]

That's true A weapon master is a master of many weapons

Archmage is a master of many schools but to make sure they are not broken, cheap, god like
they should be limited to three schools of magic

[Lurid Sorcerer]

Time for a few more revisions!

• Ability and flaw descriptions have been broken up into paragraphs for clarity. Also, lists have been used where appropriate.
  
• New/changed content is in green so that it can be reviewed quickly.
  
• Tracking sub-ability moved from Survival to Hunting.
  
• Pickpocketing now included in new ability Thievery.
  
• Firearms temporarily removed. We need a new, less complicated system for them.
  
• Spelling errors corrected.
  
• Document is Valid as XHTML 1.0 Strict.
  

Also, there's concern of mine I'd like to voice: I have included the Seven Deadly Sins among the Flaws. However, I'm unsure of exactly how they'd work game-play-wise. I'm not exactly sure how they'd affect the game's "numbers", and without a solid way of doing that, they're just part of a character's personality, not something the player should be rewarded with points for.

[Child of Flame]

This is almost sounding like the Mage Book (and incidently, Werewolf) from White Wolf, where perhaps instead of making these traits a flaw, they'd just be a personality trait you would list on the character sheet. If we want to completely rip off their system, why not incorporate a paralleling virtue to go with the character?

Or make one house rule that you made us do long ago an official, where we'd have to list three things they like, and three things they hate.

I'm aware your post wasn't trying to come up with rules to force role-playing into the game, but since we kinda established how not all seven vices work well as an actual flaw, it seems strange to put it in as a flaw. Also, without the presence of virtues, this kinda makes creating a character a little negative, focusing on what's wrong with the character, what can't he/she do, etc. We're not required to put a sin in our flaws, but we're not officially being given an option to make a virtue an 'ability', either.

Anyway, my point is, putting point-less (literally, no points go into these) traits into flaws and abilities are wasting space. Why not dedicate a part of the character sheet just for personality that can be completely optional, ranging from things like jobs, hobbies (as we've discussed before), to virtues and vices, to even foods they like?

[Nocturnal Angel]

I have to agree. Using the sins is pointless people are just using them to get extra ability points. well some not all. but i do like the house rule idea of three and three. charactor delvlopment is very important to the game. there are also more specific ways to do a 'deadly sin' flaw anyways. like insted of plain old wrath have.. tempermental.... but as a conter part to it have helpful.

[Lurid Sorcerer]

A lot of work has been done on the proposed magic system for the core book. It's long and complicated, but I like how it's shaping up. I've decided to make a new thread for specific discussion on it.

[Lt. Pwnage]

Skipping Lurid's notice on magic (GO CHECK OUT THREAD)

The personality portion would help define a character and make it easier for the player to slide back into those shoes. I would know Im the King of Off-Topicness. Some flaws I feel should not give points "Short temper", "Prankster", SHY!!!!!!(DC , Peril, and NAngel will get the joke) just to name a few.

[Lurid Sorcerer]

There's some more revisions I've been meaning to post, but my FTP clients have been a bitch lately. Anyway, here's a short changelog:

• Some Ability mechanics redefined or edited
  
• All remaining Flaw mechanics defined
  
• Flaw "Envy" removed
  
• Level Up summary added
  
• Thrown weapons removed (as with Firearms, we need a better system for them)
  

I probably did a couple of other things, but I can't exactly remember. Check the green text for what's new.

ALSO: There are very few things left to do in the book. Most of what needs written is stuff that we already know (such as combat), I just need to go type everything out in nice prose. As soon as I get off of my lazy ass and do it, version 0.7.1 of the book will be done!

[Lt. Pwnage]

YAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PROGRESS, SWEET !!!!!!!!!

[Lurid Sorcerer]

GAHH!

Been working on the book, but I'm getting a little uncertain of the book's layout. I think I'm going to end up just going with the current layout and filling everything in, and then for 0.7.2 all I'll do is change the way the chapters are arranged.

I haven't posted my progress yet. All I've been doing is writing the instructions for combat, but it's difficult to explain when you know exactly how it works. (Try it: explain Kalarsys combat to your mom without demonstrating it. You'll see.) The big stumbling block here is that magic is going to require an ENORMOUS amount of explanation, and I'm not really sure how best to break it up. I'll figure something out temporarily just to get it done, though.

So, despite the glacial pace of progress, things are still moving, damn it!

<edit> I had a couple of ideas about changes to the game, but I've created another thread about that ("Outstanding Issues"). Please read that thread if you haven't already and weigh in.

<edit2> The combat section has been written. Please read check the latest version of the book if you have not. Kthnx. kalarsys.exofire.net/documents/kalarsys_0.7.1.html

[Child of Flame]

Flowchart please. Or formulas. For those just learning the game, it's awesome! It's very detailed. For those of us who already know the game and just want to refresh on a few things, putting some words into numbers or something would help. Like a Kalarsys Cheat Sheet!

Oh, and the layout? I don't like how the text stretches from one side of the screen to the other. Oddly enough, the stretching isn't happening with the combat section. It's still too long, though. Make it wrap halfway down the screen? Otherwise, I don't see a problem with the layout.

[Lurid Sorcerer]

Been doing some minor work on the book again. I'd like to thank all of you for sharing your opinions on the Outstanding Issues thread. I'm not just kissing your asses, you guys have been very good about sharing your opinions and remaining civil.

Anyway, here's a rundown of what I've accomplished this time:

• Fixed up the look of the tables and made them all consistent. Here's an example of the changes:
  
  
• Various code cleanups and W3C validation checks
  
• The abilities Bartering and Charisma have been explained
  
• Tie-Breaker Rolls have been added and integrated where appropriate
  

I've left the Combat section marked as new because I'd like more feedback on it. I'll probably continue working on the book on-and-off the next couple of days, but that's what I've gotten done so far.