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pagnabros
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Re: Designers' Journal

Thu 22 Oct 2020, 01:00

Good stuff. Looking forward to the next installment :)
Cannot wait too, more infos on magic traditions and rituals are gonna be very juicy!
 
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Jacob Rodgers
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Re: Designers' Journal

Fri 23 Oct 2020, 17:30

Corruption. It is the one constant among all mystics. Each tradition has their own ways of explaining the darkness that creeps in when the various folk work magic. Only the Trolls seem somewhat immune and even that is not for certain. The world is changing and the darkness is growing.

Various classes in Ruins of Symbaroum have access to magic, the most prominent of which is the Mystic class. We have already previewed two different approaches for the Mystic: both the Theurg and the Wizard. We hope to offer a full set of approaches that will represent other traditions, such as Sorcerers, Troll Singers, and others. We also want to introduce approaches for other classes like the Former Cultists for the Scoundrel and the Templar for the Warrior that know some magic but must balance it with their other features and thus are not as powerful as the focused Mystics.

Corruption — how you gain it, how it affects you, how you can mitigate it or make it work for you is one of the primary ways that differentiates the various approaches to magic. We've already shown off things like favored spells, unfavorable spells, and rituals. Other approaches will include other things like runes, songs and others.

We are still in the process of building out the final spell list — as you perhaps saw in the sampler product, many of the existing spells of 5e fit into Symbaroum quite easily and might be newly discovered magics or ancient arts now just returned to human knowledge. But we are also looking at every source of magic in the original setting and finding ways to fit it into the Ruins of Symbaroum (either as a regular spell, a ritual, or some other effect). The final result will allow 5e players to learn a recognizable magic system but still build the right feeling. After all corruption and darkness are always right there, waiting.

Next time, we'll talk about Boons, Burdens and Feats.
 
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Jacob Rodgers
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Re: Designers' Journal

Wed 11 Nov 2020, 16:44

We expect the full rules for the Ruins of Symbaroum to have Feats as an option. While some Feats surely will unlock mechanical capabilities that didn't fit into the standard structure of classes and approaches, most will be inspired by Boons and Burdens from the Advanced Player's Guide for Symbaroum. Boons will provide some sort of bonus mechanical effect and allow you to raise one of the character's ability scores by 1, while burdens provide another entry for a character's flaws (to serve as a source of inspiration and roleplaying) and allow you to raise one of the character's ability scores by 2 instead. You'll notice that nominally using the base ability score increase option is strictly better, but if you're planning to increase a score by 2, selecting a burden also gives you chances for inspiration and roleplaying that the basic ASI never will. What do you think of boons and burdens for RoS?

Next time, we'll talk about new spells and old ones and how we're going to figure out merging them, plus perhaps a bit about what magic CAN'T do in Ruins of Symbaroum.
 
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pagnabros
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Re: Designers' Journal

Mon 16 Nov 2020, 15:50

I think that Burdens and Boons should be something that strictly enhance roleplaying potential without asking you to trade things like ASI.
Imo, one of the flaws in 5e is the fact that there are some feats like Keen Mind or Linguist which are strictly suboptimal but at the same time they are nice for roleplay reasons, and I don't think is fair or fun to ask a player to choose between being optimal in combat or focus more on developing your character RPG potential.

So my advice is to make Burdens and Boons something separated from feats while at the same time make them almost non-influencial in combat, so that the general power of PCs will stay roughly the same, while giving players some new tools to personalize their characters
 
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Jacob Rodgers
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Re: Designers' Journal

Tue 17 Nov 2020, 15:47

I think that Burdens and Boons should be something that strictly enhance roleplaying potential without asking you to trade things like ASI.
Imo, one of the flaws in 5e is the fact that there are some feats like Keen Mind or Linguist which are strictly suboptimal but at the same time they are nice for roleplay reasons, and I don't think is fair or fun to ask a player to choose between being optimal in combat or focus more on developing your character RPG potential.

So my advice is to make Burdens and Boons something separated from feats while at the same time make them almost non-influencial in combat, so that the general power of PCs will stay roughly the same, while giving players some new tools to personalize their characters
.
Awesome, thanks for the feedback. Let me run something by you, just to make sure that we're on the same page. There will (likely) be some feats in Ruins of Symbaroum that are strictly mechanical. But for Boons, you'd rather have the equivalent of 'Keen Mind'* by itself, rather than 'Keen Mind' and a +1 to Intelligence? Assuming that it had to fit into the feats subsystem?

— • —

*Of course we can't actually use Keen Mind due to OGL restrictions. And its applicability seems to vary wildly, in one VERY popular streaming show it has been effectively weaponized ('My character, of course, remembers the exact conversation/the path out of the maze/the precise arrangement of the runestones/the person's appearance well enough to create an illusionary duplicate', etc.)
 
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pagnabros
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Re: Designers' Journal

Wed 18 Nov 2020, 18:12

But for Boons, you'd rather have the equivalent of 'Keen Mind'* by itself, rather than 'Keen Mind' and a +1 to Intelligence? Assuming that it had to fit into the feats subsystem
I mean the Keen Mind features without the plus +1 to Intelligence (maybe something more like an ability to communicate basic ideas or concept even with creatures that don't share a language with you), but I used Keen Mind as an example not as a specific Boon request. And while players will always find a way to weaponize or exploit what they have, I'm okay with that as long as it doesn't bring discussion or tension at the table and require some good old creativity.

That being said, I think of Boons and Burdens as a standalone feature, not included in the feat system. Sometimes like "you can choose one boon at character creation, or 2 boons and one burden". Then, your DM can give them to a player as reward as DMG Charm or Blessing, which you gain through roleplay or specific situation (or a punishment in the case of Burden). For example, if a player make ripetude offences against Prios to the point of becoming famously "blasphemous", you can give a Burden Pariah connected to the Church of Prios
 
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Jacob Rodgers
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Re: Designers' Journal

Fri 04 Dec 2020, 16:54

Alright, while we continue to weight the possibilities of adding a new subsystem for Boons and Burdens or integrating them into the existing Feat subsystem, we have continued to make progress on things, and we will have some very exciting news on that front very soon. But for the moment, let's look back on a few different things and some changes that we've made as some alpha playtesting has highlighted opportunities in the system:
.
  • Corruption Threshold: Some of the Approaches under development fit what folks who think about 5e mechanics call 'half casters'. In order to make them work smoothly, and also to make sure that low level casters have a bit of 'room to grow' we're changing up the Corruption Threshold calculation just a little bit. It will become (Proficiency Bonus + Spellcasting Modifier) x 2; meaning the average 1st level caster has a threshold of 10. That's a little generous to low-level casters, but they're also limited by the spell levels they can learn, so we anticipate that it will work out. Let us know what you think!
    .
    Battle Wind: We've got a lot of feedback on this feature and we've been looking at that carefully. We want to make sure that lower level warriors (especially from a goblin origin) have a way of proving themselves resilient in battle as true warriors, but we also want something that truly reflects the rush of combat and won't be used simply because it's there. So we've changed the language of Battle Wind a bit, making it a reaction that a warrior takes in response to being struck by a weapon. That way it will get used when the warrior is surely in danger.
    .
    Many Other Small Improvements:Working out various classes and approaches has given us a chance to clarify language on several other features and make sure that we're using the natural language of 5e to be as evocative of the Symbaroum setting as possible. Also, we've been writing new spells and massaging spell lists to make sure that everything casters can accomplish in the world of Symbaroum is included and also that those things that don't fit into the setting are not present.
.
Next time: Equipment and Artifacts — how to bring physical items across the game systems.
 
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pagnabros
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Re: Designers' Journal

Tue 22 Dec 2020, 14:56

I agree with pretty much all the changes, and I happily noticed that the Ruins of Symbaroum document was also update with the changes and also the addition of a new converted adventure, which is a very glad Christmas gift indeed!
 
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Jacob Rodgers
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Re: Designers' Journal

Tue 22 Dec 2020, 16:59

I agree with pretty much all the changes, and I happily noticed that the Ruins of Symbaroum document was also update with the changes and also the addition of a new converted adventure, which is a very glad Christmas gift indeed!
Thanks, and you're welcome!
 
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pagnabros
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Re: Designers' Journal

Sun 14 Feb 2021, 04:02

Any news on the developing of the core rules?
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