Beta Release Notes

Beta! Finally!

And it wouldn't be the same without a 2:30 am release. I've never cared about engagement and reach and I'm not gonna start now, hehe.

This marks the point where the game is fully feature-complete, tweaked and updated to better standards and wholly ported over to a good layout. For those of you who have been around since the early days of the alpha, you'll find a myriad improvements and QoL changes made compared to the last Alpha version that was available on this page some time ago. For those of you who are only now finding out about this game, hopefully you find this game interesting. It took a whole lot of planning, testing, trial and error to get to this point, and you've arrived at probably the most polished the game has ever been.

Instead of focusing on changes, like I usually do for dev updates, let's review the content of the game as a whole. The game is divided into four major sections: one small introductory section (Prologue) and three "Books" that serve as the major groups for the chapters:

Prologue

• Chapter 1: Core Concepts
  A brief chapter focused on giving players the basics of the game and the terminology used, throughout the book.

Book I: Wanderers

• Chapter 2: Forging Your Path
  The character creation chapter, which goes into detail about character concepts and the mechanics that will help them become tangible entities in the hands of the players.
• Chapter 3: Belongings
  Everything related to items, prices, and other considerations. Weaponcraft rules to create your own weapons, and various freeform items.
• Chapter 4: Companies and Clans
  Creation and management of player groups, their identity, and their relationships with other factions and followers.

Book II: Rules of Play

• Chapter 5: Core Mechanics
  A chapter dedicated to the primary dice mechanics and rule dynamics that govern the rest of the game.
• Chapter 6: Skirmishes
  Combat rules, as well as any and all rules that relate to combat, including but not limited to injuries and death, and displaying the four Martial Disciplines: melee-oriented Warrior, ranged combat Marksman, brutal Brawler, and cunning Tactician.
• Chapter 7: Sorcery
  Rules for Magic and Magic users, divided into their Arcane Disciplines: elemental Evocation, ritualistic Mysticism, scholarly Warding, and spirit-binding Theurgy.
• Chapter 8: Arktech
  Lore and mechanics related to technological artifacts and its applications, as well as rules for technomancy and an in-depth look into vehicles.
• Chapter 9: Journeys and Wanderings
  An in-depth system for travel and exploration, featuring content that relates to timekeeping, measuring space, keeping track of activities and routes, and facing threats and obstacles of the environment. The great engine that allows campaigns to function as intended.

Book III: The Arbiter

• Chapter 10: Running the Game
  A brief look into the basics of playing as the Arbiter, preparing for campaigns, mediating conflicts, rules of thumb for creating content, etc.
• Chapter 11: Monster Workshop
  A structure of tools and methods for creating monsters using their own array of mechanics which allow Arbiters to create interesting adversaries and what goes into their presentation within the campaign.
• Chapter 12: Short Bestiary
  A rather brief (and admittedly incomplete) chapter to showcase a few examples of what can be created using the previous chapter.

Dev Notes

This certainly took a while. I made a promise that I would release the beta in 2022, and I intend to keep that promise to the bitter end.

Does this mean that the game is finished, in a perfect state, and I'm content with it? Hell no, this game will only stop receiving tweaks and edits when I die and have failed to become an eternal PDF-editing robot that will continue to write garbage until the heat death of the universe finally releases me.

Jokes aside, there are various things that will require my attention going forward. Numbers, mostly, but also minor rewrites of content that was practically ported over 1:1 from the alpha and not given proper revisions. Namely, Chapter 10 will have a few changes in the future, and Chapter 12 will be expanded/reworked to showcase more and better monsters that truly exemplify the monster creation rules. For the time being, however, the game will remain in Beta 0.1 for the foreseeable future. I really wanted to focus on getting this version out of the way so I can safely move onto other stuff for the time being, which is why the page disappeared for a while.

The main thing that I will focus on going forward, however, will be on Playtesting and creating Art. I haven't yet decided whether I will be doing the art myself or if I will pass it onto a local artist, but I will leave content aside for a moment and focus on getting rid of the placeholder art as soon as possible. The cover features an Ancestry that's no longer in the game, damn it!

As for Playtesting... It's been a rough couple of years lately, and I haven't had the time to just sit down and enjoy my own game. I'd like to take the opportunity to just enjoy myself for a while instead of focusing on whatever the next content update will be, you know?

So... I'll see you next time!

WAIT WAIT WAIT

What?

"THE VAGRANT PATH"???

Oh yeah. Placeholder title, as always. There's no Vagrant Star on the lore anymore, so... I'll decide on a proper title when I release the final version. As in, the First Edition. Whatever the name will be, I'm sure I will be happy with it. For now, The Vagrant Path will do.

I'm open to suggestions.

Oh! Which reminds me.

Forum!

The itch.io page will have an open forum from now on. Feel free to post in it in lieu of bothering me via discord. Use it as much as you want!