Tuesday brings Guild updates and more GM hints.

I completed a Clan Roster update that arrived in my email from the hard working Councilor Ann. I also broke out more of the link buttons to make it easier to find information on the Guild pages. Go take a look.

Gamemasters and Multiple attack tracking in Second Edition.

Among the basic Universal cards Split Action and Kick both provide additional attacks in a combat round. For most creatures, and characters, these are the only ways to get additional attacks. Each of these cost 4 CP. This means that if you want a wakana to run up, kick and hit twice it will cost 8 CP to do so. If you are keeping track of extra experience on a scratch sheet you would write down 8 for later experience.

If a Character, or cast, gains the Warrior Anchor they will be able to access the Hit 'em Again card and get a fourth attack. This one is also 4 CP. The GM will want to be careful here, because giving our Wakana above a fourth attack costs the 4 CP and the 10 CP for the Warrior Anchor to make that fourth attack. You will need to add 14 to your scratch pad for extra experience.

Gamemasters can use these CP adds to create anxiety in the characters without having the cards actually with the bad guy. This should be used to heighten the game. Normally bad guys should be limited to three attacks, with the fourth attack being unusual and used only against higher CP characters.

The simple surprise of a Skeleton swinging twice can keep the characters on edge. Use this GM shortcut to keep the characters sense of danger and chaos ramped up.

As a side note, shape shifters will have a fourth attack built into each of them. The dragon's Tail strike is an example, and it also comes into 4 CP. The CP cost is being kept consistent across the game, making the GM's job simple.

A Dragon, or other shifter, who is also a Warrior will be able to attack five times. Within the design we will be trying to keep that as the top limit.

Tomorrow I will look at shortcuts deploying bad guy archers.

Good Morning Gamemasters!

Gamemasters have a lot of details to deal with during an adventure, and I have a tip to pass along.

Health Anchors. Making your bad guys tougher.

A GM should have a set of health anchors handy during the game. If the players are having to easy of a time running merrily through your bad guys, use your Health Anchors.

These cards are universal cards and they can be played as easily on the bad guys as they are for Players to buy for the characters. The only detail to be careful of is to make sure you add the card points for any of the Anchors you use to the players total experience gained for the evening's play.

Numbers.

With the new exploding dice numbers count in ways they never have before. Skeletons are low CP value and they have a chance at having an exploding dice attack. What difference does it make to you, or your necro, if the characters blast six, 12 or 18 skeletons. If your dumb skellies get one, two or even three exploding attacks in, they can do some damage before they are splinters on the floor.

Zombies are also nice for this, and they can take a few extra hits. If the zombies are not tough enough, add six CP and 12 HP to them from your handy Health Anchor.

A few Haskalad archers can always be fun to through into the mix. They like to hang back and fire at good guys, that is what they do.

A Scratch pad for Experience notes:

When I am running a bunch of easy to destroy bad guys I keep a piece of scratch paper handy. On that paper I simply write down the experience for the skeleton as they are destroyed and add it all up at the end of the night.

I also jot down the experience from the Health Anchors I used here. It all winds up in the same pot, so why not just put it all down together.

I like to keep experience points from scene changes on the same pad. When they enter a warp bubble, find a ruins, whatever they stumble across. Individually these events do not add up to much, but over the course of an evening they can add up to 30 or 40 experience for non-combat activities. When they are in a Hamlet or village these points can jump up to 80 to 100 points. Remember, we count for dealing with the surroundings.  Snitches, merchants, scouts rumormongers, beggars and a lot of other incidents can become experience.

 

Dragon Storm Second Edition Universal Cards Posted.

I have posted PDF's for the first two Universal skill sets for Second Edition DS. You can go download them, make proxies, and use them right now.

The Universal skills in these two sets are basic survival skills available to everyone in the Stormlands. They are excellent cards to add to young characters as they learn the world around them. As characters grow they will have access to more powerful versions that are "unlocked" by acquiring Anchors.

From a design point of view these skills give us a foundation on which to build the more powerful skill cards that are acquired through training and buying Anchors.

One question I know we will see is: "What happened to adding Characteristics to skills?" Skill cards unlocked by adding Anchors do add Characteristics.

I have several additional Anchor sets in hand that Sue has returned to me for final tweeking. You will be seeing them appear over the next 2-4 weeks.

Right now I will go work on the first nine Valarian Second Edition cards.

Friday DS Update

Sue has dumped a vast number of card sets back into my lap. That means I need to slowly go through all of them and get them ready for posting. So, new samples will be waiting a couple of days.

Talking Enhance Cards:

We are going to have to explain the Enhance cards carefully. People are still temped to try to play them as a stand alone card. Enhance cards never stand alone. By themselves they have no power. They need to be combined with an Action or Independent to be used.

We have always had that problem with people wanting to play Dragon Claws as an extra attack. The advantage of labeling the Enhance cards is that we can now point to a "Class" of cards that must be combined to be played.

That means that when you are studying the cards everything that says Enhance needs to be looked at closely.

This weekend I am going to assemble the press sheets for the starting character and for the Potion set and send them off. I will be putting up pre-order information as soon as they go off to the printer.

The Ring set is being printed and we will have them soon, then I ship the pre-orders and put the set into the regular listing at full price.

Now, back to work.

Thursday Update, More Potions and content update

I have added Second Edition card files to the content page. You can go and download them anytime you want. The Starter/Demo Character, Starter Item sheet, Magic Rings and Magic Potions are up now. Watch for more.

The Second Edition rules have returned from myself back to Sue. The first Appendix, The GM and Items, has been added for editing. We are making good progress. Next time I get them back I will be able to lay them out in publishing format to see better what we have.

Now, let us look at the next three potions.

In the new rules to be able to use your 8 Independents, you will need a card to play. This is a card and qualifies. So when you have no Ind ability cards to play, you can drink a potion.

We are also adding a way for characters to get experience when their enemies use Magic Items. Sue's idea is that we use a 10 to 1 ratio. So, if the necro drinks one of these during combat their will be an extra 7 experience points added to the players pool of experience.

Magic Meals. Now how much better can life get.

I really want to write an article about the starter character. I hope to do that this evening.

Tuesday DS Updates.

Today is a short update. We are continuing the potion set today.

In the Second Edition rules you will need a card to use to perform your eight Ind's. For young players that means they will have time to drink potions. Higher CP characters will have spells and abilities to use, so they will be drinking fewer potions than the kids.

Magic Coffee! Way to go.

The GM is going to have a number of different Tox cards to use, so expect a lot more need for these potions. Dragon Storms, warped lands, and occasionally the monsters will have the tox.

OK, that is it for today.

It is Monday! Again

Sometimes I feel like Monday comes every week. I know that can not be true, but what can you do. Anyway, I have posted the Weekly Familiar Place Web comic from the artist Susan Van Camp. Spread the word, tell people where to find Familiar Place.

Now, let me see what else is in the bag. All these scrolls here in the Secret Clanhold must have, ah yes.

The Farmers Spirit. Old Simpson Jebry had died. It was, by all accounts, a natural death of old age. Not a unique way to die, but not usual either. All of his life he had heard stories about the world "out there", and he had dreamed of seeing it.

His spirit lingered and he floated slowly along, taking in the sights on his way to the void, for he did not have the power to survive long as a spirit, he was just taking the long way to his final end. He spied a tigrean barbarian who was carrying a bone. The barbarian was treating the bone well. It had been very tasty meat.

Old Simpson thought that he would follow the barbarian for a time and moved into the bone. When the barbarian was looking for healing herbs, Simpson saw one. When the barbarian finally threw the bone away, Simpson guided it next to the Healing Herb. The barbarian was perplexed at the bones odd flight and investigated. He found the herb. Being a superstitious sort, he picked the bone back up as he gathered the herb. The bone thanked him in his mind.  This took the barbarian by surprise.

He proceeded to question his fellow travelers about the bone, asking them if they could hear it talk, they could not. He started to hand the bone to one of his fellows, and the bone spoke again.

"What? You are giving me away?" He snatched the bone back and finally asked the bone what it wanted. "Me, I want to see some of the world before I go on." So, the barbarian put the bone in his pouch and they travelled on.

As a GM I am always looking for ways to give players a little feel for the oddity of Grandilar and the spirits. In this case I watched how the player was role-playing the character, and he was doing a good job of it. So, I threw him a bone, literally.

Next, we have the new cards for the day. Potions will be the next set that we publish, so let us get a look.

The first thing we need is something to put the potions in that can be attached to a belt and allow for easy use. Yes, there will be magic versions coming along.

In Second Edition we are going to clearly distinguish between diseases and the Tox. They act the same, but they are not the same. The Tox needs different treatments than diseases.

This is another of those, "We need this in the game" cards that duplicates a Classic card. We recommend that Classic Vales of Refreshment use two IND to consume, because you get two cards back. It will be up to the players to track that. GM's already have plenty to do. If you forget, oh well, it is a game.

All right then, that is enough for today.