The Hardboiled GMshoe's Office: [Review] Swords of Cydoria

The Hardboiled GMshoe's Office: [Review] Swords of Cydoria: Introduction The name’s Davenport. I review games. So the other day I'm walkin' to the office when a beaked purple four-armed gor...

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).

This animated music video is pretty much what I'm trying to capture in Swords of Cydoria

C2C - Delta from CRCR on Vimeo.

Development Update 10/1/13

I just wanted to give an update on what I've been working on since the play-test ended.

I've been statting up opponents!

Here's what I have written up so far.

Creatures

• Anator
• Bula-Kaa
• Cobalt Catamount
• Dankana
• Darth-Thorn Bush
• Devil-Wolf
• Vorm of Flame
• Flesh-Worm Swarm
• Girah
• Go-Atan
• Ko-Lop
• Ku-Bawa-Mavu
• Larvae
• Mutoran Serpent
• Oso
• Sand Squid
• Spiny Spider
• Strangle Vine
• Swamp-Worm
• Terax
• Tonbo
• Toxic Ant Warriors
• Trapactus
• Tyrant
• Viper, Giant
• Warhawk
• Wolf Locusts
• Wooly Munglor

Aya

• Ith
• Aya Zombie
• Cin
• Sikinti
• Shabeeha
• Jann
• Gravel Ghost
• Marid
• Blade Guardian
• Celestials
• Primordials

Intelligent Humanoids

• Bakari Traveler
• Nilian Deathstalker
• Dakazi Outcast
• Deru Scout
• Guzi Warrior
• Knorr Hunters
• Loracz
• Malusian Overlord
• Malusian Soldier/Guard

Here's what I still have to finish.

• Naxarian Brood Mother
• Brux Laborer
• Feral Brux Smasher
• Jinx Pickpocket
• Feral Jinx Bandit
• Slimeskipper Warrior
• Orix Warrior
• Feral Orix Raider
• Kronk Hunter
• Targ Savage
• Trox Rampager
• Phanosian Agent
• Quorian Diplomat
• Roshu Scavenger
• Tintazi Scout
• Tintazi Warrior
• Ts'emekwes Savage
• Vark Slaver

All the Human NPCs

• Aero-Pirate Captain
• Aero-Pirate Crewman
• Barbarian Chieftain
• Barbarian Warrior
• Barbarian Shaman
• Savage Cannibal
• Cult Acolyte
• Cult Leader
• Guardian Healer
• Guardian Sage
• Guardian Warrior
• Guardian Shaper
• Military Officer
• Military Soldier
• Personal Guard
• Artifact Hunter
• Zephyr Pilot
• Bandit
• Constable
• Drifter
• Drover
• Gladiator
• Hunter
• Inquisitor
• Kataris Assassin
• Noble Adventurer
• Al-Muahat
• Evoker
• Saahir of Kahn
• Spy
• Techno-Heretic
• Thief
• Thug

Phew! That's it, assuming I don't think of more creatures. I'm already thinking of having different ecological "theme zones" in western Markania. The deserts of Eris and Narvus are home to reptiles, lots of giant reptiles. The poison jungles of Dushan are filled with giant insects. The icy wastes of Sakata are the home to wild robotic creatures and artificial life forms. The plains east of the Loka Loka mountains are where you find the mammals. There is some bleed over of course. You're going to find giant insects and robot bears in the deserts of Eris too. 

Anyway, here's a sample.

Spiny Spider

Spiny spiders are man-sized tarantula-like spiders covered in needle-sharp quills. Spiny spiders are carrion scavengers like hyenas or vultures. They follow other predators hoping to let other creatures do the hunting. They move in after a kill has already been made and hope their quills keep the other carnivores away.

Level:	2	Size:	Medium
Physical:	+3	Dynamic:	+3
Mental:	+1	Psyche:	+1
Armor Value:	4	Hit Points:	12
Move:	12m (6)

Skill	Bonus	Specialties
Athletics	2
Awareness	1
Evasion	2	Evasive
Influence	1
Insight	1
Resistance	1
Subterfuge	2
Unarmed Fighting	5	Bite
Wilderness	2

Characteristics

Unarmed Parry: The spiny spider takes no damage from performing the Unarmed Block reaction against a melee attack.

Quills: The long body quills of the spiny spider make it difficult to fight in personal combat. Anyone making a hand-to-hand or melee attack must succeed at a skill test [Agility + Evasion +1d20 vs 15 (Difficult)] as a free reaction to avoid the quills and make the attack. Failure means the attacker could not get close enough to make the attack or made the attack and took 1D6 damage (attacker’s choice). Alternatively, the player may ignore the skill test and make an attack anyway but will take 1D6 damage.

Attacks

Bite: Major; 2m (1); +7 melee attack; 1d8+3. 

Final Play Test Revision

I finished my last play test last Friday and it was fantastic! We played the same scenario three times with different conditions. We made some final tweaks to the rules in the first run-through so that when we went through the last two run-throughs, the rules worked flawlessly!

Special thanks to my play testers: Scott Demars, David Olsen, Jeff Low, Jeff Mason, and Jeff Dodd.

The play test draft is available in the upper corner or from this link.

This revision includes:

1. removing multiple actions advantage 
2. revised martial arts advantage 
3. revised how reactions work (now allows defender to choose between active defense or passive defense, whichever is higher)
4. revised base target numbers (now equal passive defense) 
5. lowered parry bonus for shields 
6. changed Luck recovery to over-night instead of 10-minute rest. 
7. re-wrote grab/grappling (now two different actions) 
8. added some new passive defenses (Defiance, Endurance) 
9. added new reactions (defy, endure) 
10. re-wrote and clarified how Hide/Sneak/Search work and how Stealth/ambush works.
11. changing how Dive and Duck work; 
12. changing how ranged attacks work; 
13. changing all attack modifiers to affect difficulty; 
14. clarifying surprise rules; 
15. adding damage to a grab attack; 
16. change evade to "cautious move"; 
17. added a "bluff" and "feint" maneuver to gain surprise; 
18. dodging away from two opponents provokes a free attack from the other opponent; 
19. added a "Skepticism" defense; removed reference to "Power Points" in this document, adding all reference to Power Points to the powers supplement; 
20. moved all opponent ability rules to the creatures "sourcebook".

My next step is to finish writing up all the creatures and opponents. After that, I will be moving into layout. 

More New Aero-ship (Zephyr) Designs

Throughout the week, whenever I was waiting for a query to populate or during lunch, I drew some more zephyr-ship designs on scratch paper.

A small tranport, very fast with three propeller nacelles and four internal lift pods the bulges on the hull).

A slow transport with six lift pods but only two propeller nacelles, armed with three gun turrets.

A small transport, like a greyhound bus, with four lift pods and two propeller nacelles with humongous propellers.

 A big modern transport with a four propeller nacelles and an unknown number of lift pods concealed inside the long horizontal cylinders, perhaps a new kind of lift pod that circulates anemoi along the length of the ship. The cockpit is located high atop the bow.

 Another new design with eight lift pods and four nacelles with no propellers, perhaps a form of impeller? Jet engines would be terribly inefficient in Cydoria since the Oudh has increased the amount of energy needed to approach the sound barrier.

A wide-bodied transport with four lift units and four propeller nacelles.

New Aero-Ship (Zephyr) Designs

I was in a two-and-a-half-hour long meeting yesterday, roughly 25% of which required me to speak. The other 75% required me to listen quietly and respond if asked. Whenever I have to sit and listen quietly, I start doodling. Here is the end-result of my doodles.

What you're not about to see are the 20 pieces of scratch paper with unused design ideas, vague shapes, and design-dead-ends. What follows is what I finally came up with. New aero-ship designs. When I finish the new version of the game, they will be called Zephyr-ships, powered by anemoi (instead of zephyrium).

Visible on the outside of the hull are the lift-unit pods, strategically placed along the hull to provide lift while maintaining structural integrity. I tried to go for a 1920's era aircraft design, with a little bit of Chris Foss inspired hull shapes.

Up first, a light transport. Small, with six lift-units. 

Second, a medium transport, roughly the same size and shape as the Serenity. It's got eight lift-units and a wider hull. Visible in the second view are some improvements, a little flat ledge that runs around the hull. You can also probably tell that the first design was originally much more rounded and curved on the bottom, which I didn't like, so I tried to straighten it out and flatten it more.

Finally, the heavy transport, the air-liner/heavy lift cargo plane of the Cydorian era. It's got ten lift-units and ten in-line propellers on two nacelles. It is the most intentionally Chris Foss-ian. 

If I ever get time, I'll model these in DOGA.