More Art: Vark Slaver, Terror-Cactus, a Wrinkled Cave Rat, and a Malusian Guard

A Vark Slaver and its Helpless Captive

A Deadly Terror-Cactus!

A Wrinkled Cave Rat

Malusian Guard

Development Update, 12/10/13

I have finished designing and writing and am proceeding into layout. I am about 40 pages in and I am about 25% done. The process of layout will reveal odd paginations and spacing issues that will neccesitate new illustrations and new text requirements to insure a good look and feel as well as maintain consistency.

The biggest challenge, however, is applying the styles to all the bloody tables! So many tables!

I have already begun the first stages of writing the Sorcery of Cydoria sourcebook. I've got some powers defined for the Guardians of Adhara as well as a few powers for the Saahir (Sorcerers).

Play-test Update 8/14/13

I just uploaded a new version of the play-test document to Google Docs. This is the 8/14/13 revision.

This revision has several big changes.

1. I introduce a new kind of "Pre-Hit Points" called Luck Points. I got feedback that there weren't enough hit points for a heroic game, so I added Luck Points, which represent NOT getting hit (what D&D hit points are technically supposed to represent). You can also spend Luck Points on modifying your attack rolls. Once you run out of Luck Points, you take damage to your Hit Points as wounds. Luck Points are also easily recoverable in between fights. The basic idea originated in d20 Star Wars Vitality Points and Wound Points, but it was something I've been thinking about for D&D Hit Points for a long time.
2. I introduce two new "character types", essentially frameworks for spending skill points. I could just open it up and say "you have 16 skill points, buy whatever you want". Instead, I like putting structure and restrictions. The original "character type" gave you one primary skill, max level 4-8, four secondary skills, max level 2-6, and unlimited tertiary skills,  max level 1-4. I have now introduced the "specialist" which has one primary skill, max level 5-12, with no secondary skills, and the "Jack-of-all-trades" with no primary, but eight secondary skills, max level 2-6.
3. I removed the hard cap on Reactions. Now you get a number of Reactions equal to your Agility bonus with no penalty. Every reaction you take after that suffers a cumulative -2 penalty. 
4. I added teratic potions to the equipment list.
5. I listed all the specialties in the skill list for ease of reference.
6. I changed the name of the genetic engineer alchemist. I know, AGAIN! I like the Arabic origin and exotic sound of this new name.
7. I changed how I express heroic tasks to be a bit more formulaic and shorter.
8. I re-expressed the combat rules to be a little clearer, making use of the new standardized format.
9. A few other minor revisions, changes. 

As always, I appreciate comments, feedback, and suggestions. I can't wait to play-test these changes on Friday night. 

Playtest Update, 7/30/13

We played a second playtest session last Friday. Two new players made characters: a brux scoundrel and a cyberdroid hunter/tracker.  Chargen went well and quickly for them.

I ran the group through a randomly-generated dungeon I made online. I substituted Cydorian equivalents for the D&D monsters and used my quick-and-dirty opponent rules.  The story was that they had to recover a stolen item kept in a bandit stronghold located in an ancient bunker dug under a mesa. 

The first character who opened the door rolled initiative and failed and took three crossbow bolts (I rolled two 19s to hit and another high number). He backed up and said, "I'm out. I'm walking back to town."

The other characters had a devil of a time digging the four Jinx crossbow snipers out of their cubby holes and killing them. The players only had to roll a 12 or better to hit them, but they just couldn't! The Brux wound up killing almost all the jinxes. They finally got them out but they were hurt bad!

Lesson learned: my jinxes had WAY too many hit points. They each had 16 HP, which is 3 more than the average 13 of a player character. Minor NPCs should not have the same hit points as player characters. That has been adjusted. Though I'm considering giving PCs more hit points instead. 

I gave them morphic potions which gave them regeneration for 1d8 turns. They were back up to full and able to continue.

After that, the PCs were a little more circumspect regarding rushing into rooms. They set off two traps, one of them poisoned. They also avoided a room and the fight therein because it wasn't a part of their mission.

So, not too many changes as a result of this session. I made bruxes large creatures, which gives them more hit points but makes them easier to hit, and likewise jinxes and deru are small creatures with less hit points but harder to hit. I also clarified area effect attacks and re-worded some other small bits here and there for better clarity.

I added a first draft of some gadget rules for guild technicians and techno-heretics. 

I converted the rules for creating forgeries from the original game.

I also added a first draft of the opponent creation guidelines, which won't be in the final rules but are useful for creating bad guys and creatures to fight. 

I still need to finish the wilderness survival rules, then add morphic potions and convert the artifacts.

Check out the PDF of the current revision of the playtest rules up there to the right. I welcome feedback and suggestions. It's a living document and will be updated weekly.

Edit to Add: I am considering removing the limited reaction rule and welcome opinions about that.

Playtest update

Ran my group through the first playtest of the new rules last Friday. The playtest went well overall. The group found some things I needed to iron out.

1. Some Advantages need to be removed.
2. Some other Advantages need to be revised.
3. Lots of bits were left in from earlier iterations of the rules that needed to be changed/removed.
4. Some combat actions need to be revised.
5. Remove Stun/Shock Threshhold as a thing.
6. Clarify some minor bits.
7. Rearrange and clarify the Character Concept chapter.
8. Give the humans something to make them stand out from/better than the other races.

Overall, combats with the system went VERY smoothly. I especially liked using tokens to keep track of limited immediate reactions and the tactical choices having limited reactions creates.

I will finish updating the rules and post a new updated PDF tonight.

The playtesters created three characters:
A human martial artist focused on Unarmed Fighting.
A human techno-heretic focused on Guildcraft.
A human artifact hunter with a focus on Awareness.

They were all prisoners in an Erisian prison camp, dumped in the middle of the desert. They slept during the day and hiked eastward at night. On one night, they fought a large lizard predator. That fight went fairly well for them. On another night, they fought three other freed prisoners who were trying to steal their stuff. That fight went poorly and the techno-heretic was knocked unconscious. We cut that fight short when we realized we forgot the stun/shock rules. After that, I decided to excise those rules for being stupid.

Then they got picked up by a Zephyr-ship. Next week, they'll be level 2, buying some equipment, and going on a real mission.
The techno-heretic is forcing my hand a little because I hadn't converted the invention/gadget rules yet from the BRP edition. I worked on some guidelines for that today. I'll see how they work this Friday.

Map of Acik-Sehir (Work in Progress)

Here's the current state of the map of the Free Trade City of Acik-Sehir. This is a work in progress.

Update: re-did the warehouses, moved the landing pads outside the city walls, added a garrison, then added text.

Up next: adding scale, a grid, and a compass rose.

Map for Exiled in Eris

Here is the first draft of the regional map for "Swords of Cydoria: Exiled in Eris". It's zoomed in on southwest Markania, centered on the Free Trade City of Acik-Sehir where the game takes place. The little X's in squares are Vrildarian prison camps. The scale of this map is 1100km E/W by 850km N/S. Each grid square is 100km on a side.

Next up: a city map of Acik-Sehir.

Playtest Updated 6/24/13

I just updated the playtest rules document with some minor revisions. I added terrain/movement rules and also added how many GP  you start with (kind of important). Also, I added a lot more background info to the glossary and provided a regional map of Eris.

I did a lot of brainstorming and fleshed out the city of Free City of Ragava where the game will take place. Don't get attached to that name, I keep changing it and I'm still not happy with it.

Playtestable Version of Exiled in Eris Now Available for Download

The first draft of the play-test version of the new rules system for Swords of Cydoria: Exiled in Eris is available for download.

edit: I'm learning how Google Docs works. The document should be available to the public now.

I'm looking for feedback and comments and suggestions.

Be aware:

1. These rules are heavily inspired by d20, 4E, Savage Worlds, and BRP.
2. Don't expect a lot of ground to be broken or innovative game design. I wanted a simple utilitarian system.
3. This is not the final product! There's no art and rudimentary layout.
4. The final product will include more setting, intro adventure, monsters and opponents, artwork, layout, etc.
5. I'm not looking for proofreading. That will come later.

I'd like to hear feedback from people about character creation. What was it like? How easy was it? How intuitive? Is the power level right?

How about the combat rules? Any comments?