Revolution in 2019: International Edition and Medievalia D100

[RosenMcStern]

On 3/14/2019 at 2:50 PM, Jakob said:

Okay, this may be ranting, but I'll still take the opportunity to mention the one thing that truly bugs me about RD100. I first have to say that I never quite read the rules through, even though I love a lot of the concepts, and I'd be very happy about a more accessible version 2.0. But there's one actual, very minor rules thing that I can't wrap my head around: Why do so many creatures must have damage bonuses like +5d2? I know that a lot of people don''t mind or even enjoy rolling buckets of dice, but D100 systems are traditionally relatively free of such things. Furthermore, it's just not that glamorous to roll a lot of d2s ... is there any reason why this isn't converted to, say 16d+4, which has the same range?

Jakob's observations deserved a reply, but it took some time for me to find a spare 10 minutes to do so. 

Yes, there is a reason why it is not translated into something less clumsy than a "bucket of dice". The number of dice represents the sheer impact, the "kinetic energy" of the blow, which is different from "damage", which takes into account also the ability of sharp weapons to cut deep into the target flesh and bone. In classic D100 games, a sharp weapon is more likely to overcome a parry than a blunt one because it does more "damage" - the kinetic and the sharpness factor being inseparable. Mythras does not have this problem because it adds a "size" factor to all weapons, and uses it, and not "damage", to check wheter a parry can be overcome. However, this does not take into account the strength of the weapon wielder, and requires one extra variable for all weapons and attacks - and sometimes you can forget to compare sizes, particularly for creatures.

Revolution uses the number of dice - which summarizes the nature of the weapon, the hands used to wield it and the wielder's Might into a single factor - to determine how "strong" an attack is, and how difficult it will be to block its impact. Several combat effects (MIghty Blow, Overwhelm, Bypass Defense, Stun) and at least one power (Absorb Kinetic) operate on the number of dice rolled for a blow. This is quite straightforward and intuitive (each point of Might = 1d2) , and it could not work if different die sizes instead of a different number of dice were used.

[Jakob]

36 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:

Jakob's observations deserved a reply, but it took some time for me to find a spare 10 minutes to do so. 

Yes, there is a reason why it is not translated into something less clumsy than a "bucket of dice". The number of dice represents the sheer impact, the "kinetic energy" of the blow, which is different from "damage", which takes into account also the ability of sharp weapons to cut deep into the target flesh and bone. In classic D100 games, a sharp weapon is more likely to overcome a parry than a blunt one because it does more "damage" - the kinetic and the sharpness factor being inseparable. Mythras does not have this problem because it adds a "size" factor to all weapons, and uses it, and not "damage", to check wheter a parry can be overcome. However, this does not take into account the strength of the weapon wielder, and requires one extra variable for all weapons and attacks - and sometimes you can forget to compare sizes, particularly for creatures.

Revolution uses the number of dice - which summarizes the nature of the weapon, the hands used to wield it and the wielder's Might into a single factor - to determine how "strong" an attack is, and how difficult it will be to block its impact. Several combat effects (MIghty Blow, Overwhelm, Bypass Defense, Stun) and at least one power (Absorb Kinetic) operate on the number of dice rolled for a blow. This is quite straightforward and intuitive (each point of Might = 1d2) , and it could not work if different die sizes instead of a different number of dice were used.

Thanks for the explanation - it actually makes a lot of sense, though it doesn't alleviate my irrational dislike of rolling a handful of dice ... but knowing the reasons behind it will at least make it easier to look past it.

[pansophy]

BTW: a list of all Traits in the book categorised by Skill would be a helpful resource for the GM during play.

Please include the Power Traits of the mail rule book, too.

Just yesterday I found myself looking up Traits in the rule book many times, which was irritating.

Oh, and is there a Trait like 'Library use' or 'Research' ? If not, would that be a Knowledge Trait?

Cheers!

Rob

[pansophy]

On 3/21/2019 at 9:21 PM, Jakob said:

Thanks for the explanation - it actually makes a lot of sense, though it doesn't alleviate my irrational dislike of rolling a handful of dice ... but knowing the reasons behind it will at least make it easier to look past it.

You know, the amount of dice rolled for Might is actually really frightening for players, once you have used the Mighty Blow Damage Effect as a GM. Players will never ever underestimate the size of a creature thereafter ...

And the best thing: if using the effect, you do not roll the dice for Might at all ...

[RosenMcStern]

And unlike Maximize Damage, Mighty Blow requires just a simple success....

[pansophy]

BTW: I use different d6 for Might Damage. Usually I use numbered d6, but for Might I use pips on d6'es. That way it is easy to destinguish the weapon damage from might damage. 

On a narrative level it is fun to explain how the damage comes together and with the different dice it is easy to visualise it 

Anyways, just a bit of chit chat along the way ...

[soltakss]

On 4/23/2019 at 10:46 PM, pansophy said:

BTW: a list of all Traits in the book categorised by Skill would be a helpful resource for the GM during play.

Please include the Power Traits of the mail rule book, too.

I tried that in a draft of Merrie England:Robyn Hode. It should be fairly easy to do for the main rules, but might be better as a fan-thing.

On 4/23/2019 at 10:46 PM, pansophy said:

Oh, and is there a Trait like 'Library use' or 'Research' ? If not, would that be a Knowledge Trait?

The thing about Traits is that you can just add them as and when you want.

Yes, Library Use/Research would be a good Trait under Knowledge.

[RosenMcStern]

On 4/27/2019 at 12:03 PM, soltakss said:

The thing about Traits is that you can just add them as and when you want.

Yes, Library Use/Research would be a good Trait under Knowledge.

Exactly. This is how you should use Traits: if it fits your game, add it even if it is not official. I will try and add a small sidebar about the "Do it yourself" technique for Traits and Stunts, too. 

 

[RosenMcStern]

It is appropriate to post an update about this year's schedule. It is evident that the International Edition is not being kickstarted anytime soon. We are indeed still progressing with it, and should have the new Quickstart available next week. You might wonder, though, which is the reason for yet another delay when we were so enthusiastic about the new edition and the new Medievalia supplements. The fact that I moved to Belgium again has probably something to do with it, but it is not the only reason.

A few weeks after the announcement in this thread, we started negotiations for a licensed setting. It was one of those tasks which you start with a "Not gonna happen, but it would be unforgivable to not give it a try" attitude. And yet it turned out that it was doable, after all.

Once the thought of acquiring this license became more and more concrete, we realised that it made sense business-wise to produce this supplement before the new edition. It is a standalone game using a modified Rd100 engine, so it does not require the International Edition to be published in order to incorporate elements from the revised rules. It then turned out that it would be a good plan to :

• Release the revised Quickstart
• Crowdfund and release the new "Project Z"
• Release the International edition (with or without crowdfunding)

in this exact order. Which in turn means that the International Edition could be postponed to 2020, as it is now too late to undertake two big projects by the end of the year.

We will announce the new timeline as soon as we have green light for the new project.

[Jakob]

While after reading the new Quickstarter, I'm very much looking forward to the international edition, I'm also quite curious about that license ... so this new stand-alone RD100 game will incorpate the revisions, anyway, right?

[RosenMcStern]

Yes. Please note that the revisions are not a revolution of the rules (pun not intended), just a simplification of some points where the crunchiness was unnecessary or applied in the wrong way. Things may look different because we renamed several variables and moved away from the classic "hit location table" approach, but the core rules are always the same.

[Jakob]

Sounds good - I'm pretty happy with the core rules from what I've read, I just want to see them spelled out more clearly (I'm a lazy role-player - if something seems to complicated in reading, I usually never try it out, even if it might be simple in practice ...).

[RosenMcStern]

We had the same feedback from many people

[ThornPlutonius]

I am bummed that the "International Edition" is being pushed back.  I am more interested in the clarified core rules than in any supplement or setting material.

That written, congratulations on the new license!  I hope that it brings much success to your team.

[RosenMcStern]

You are absolutely correct that clarified and improved rules are important. However, a lot of players (maybe not the majority here, but most likely the majority of those who actually play games) attribute less importance to the rules and more to the availability of interesting settings. It is thus important to roll out new supplements, too. We will try to proceed in parallel as much as possible (and this statements includes Red Moon Rising, too), but resources are scarce.

[Zit]

Does the "international Edition" covers only the rules NOT in English ? When do you intent to actually publish the new SRD in English ?

[soltakss]

2 hours ago, Zit said:

Does the "international Edition" covers only the rules NOT in English ? When do you intent to actually publish the new SRD in English ?

According to a SciFi series from way back when, Americans think that International means Americans Abroad, so the International Edition could well be in English.

Even I don't think that there is one version of "foreign" that everyone understands.

[RosenMcStern]

The International Edition will be in English, too. The new SRD is not complete yet. At this stage we know 90% of the rule changes we wish to introduce, but clarity is the main goal to achieve for the English text, so there might several more iterations to pass.

[Lloyd Dupont]

15 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:

but clarity is the main goal to achieve for the English text

Kudos to that!
 

I love the supplements BTW, merged some ideas for my campaigns! 😛 

[theodis171]

On 9/7/2019 at 12:57 PM, RosenMcStern said:

The International Edition will be in English, too. The new SRD is not complete yet. At this stage we know 90% of the rule changes we wish to introduce, but clarity is the main goal to achieve for the English text, so there might several more iterations to pass.

Can I make a wish? The Roll for Effect table on p.48 in the original RD100 is wrong.

This bugged me since I bought it. If this would be corrected, I'd probably buy two of the international edition. 😉

Kind regards,

Stephan

[RosenMcStern]

4 hours ago, theodis171 said:

This bugged me since I bought it. If this would be corrected, I'd probably buy two of the international edition. 😉

 

Do not worry, we will cross check the headers of all opposed matrices at least twice this time. 

[RosenMcStern]

Dear fans,

I have received an inquiry about the status of the Revolution D100 International Edition Project. It is a good time to post a little update about it.

The editor, Ben Monroe (yes, Ben is back to D100 – hooray) has just sent in the last chapters of the Dynamic D100 manuscript. The implications for Dynamic D100 is that the product is now in its final stage of layout and soon will be sent to Go Nagai’s staff for approval. However, there are implications for the general purpose edition of Revolution D100, too.

I now have a trimmed, streamlined and reviewed version of chapters three, and parts of chapters four and five. We can use them as a basis for the new version of the SRD. I am assuming here that chapters one and two do not need much review, as most questions and perplexities were about running the game and not creating the characters. And in fact, the only chapter I have published of the new SRD is Basic Combat, that is exactly what is in Dynamic D1OO for Personal Combat. So, we have reached an important milestone.

This is not all, though. There are two more important points to take into account. Three if we mention Red Moon Rising, too.

The first one is that there are still many crunchy points of the rules that need rewriting. The section about wounds and armour, for instance, is completely absent from the DD100 rules, as mechs have a different kind of Toughness. And not all rules for equipment have been revised. More important, chapter six needs a serious revision, too, which is underway. So there are other milestones that must come before the text is finalised and can go to translators.

Second point: while we really want to make the International Edition in 2020, there are strong hints that the Coronavirus will interfere again with the chain of supply for physical products. Therefore, we are considering a “digital first” release method. The big advantage is that we would be able to release “incrementally”, providing for instance a PDF which is missing a section of a chapter (a power system, the rules for creating armour, etc etc) without extra cost for early adopters. This is probably the only way of releasing at least the parts which are ready in 2020, leaving the rest and the physical edition(s) for 2021.

Bottom of the line: expect to see a couple of RD100 events for GenCon online. These will be the preview of what is about to come. And if anyone is willing to volunteer for GMing, just ask and we will give you as much support as possible.

Last but not least, Red Moon Rising. It is high time that we deliver this overdue Kickstarter. If anything is to come within 2020, it must be it. Those parts of chapters five and six that are necessary for RMR are ready, so now it is just a matter of reordering everything and writing the three chapters of “fluff” that are missing. At this point, I am considering to release RMR integrated with a stripped down version of the new rules, not unlike Dynamic D100 (more details will be posted on the RMR KS private area). This means that we would have two stand-alone settings using a variant of the core rules that precede the general purpose edition. This sounds sensible to me: two examples that are not “yet another vanilla fantasy game with dwarfs and elves”, and then the generic rules.

I hope this is enough as an explanation. Feel free to ask for more details.

[ThornPlutonius]

Thank you for the update!

[Whisker89]

All these are great news, especially the one regarding RMR. I deeply regret missing the kickstarter, but I'll get it as soon as it is available (I'm waiting for the game since the time I played with you Paolo).

I'm eager to see the rules for Basic Combat ad Equipment redone, since I've mainly used those (felt more like my old loves Stormbringer and OpenQuest).
I hope armor gets to be more useful now.

And if you read proofreaders for the italian version...