Dev's Thoughts

You know what I think? This whole thing is headed in the right direction and has the right content, but goddamn does it need a complete rewrite. So many of these sections are riddled with confusing paragraphs, terribly distributed information and other fiddly bits that make working on it increasingly difficult. Not to mention the entire magic chapter, which doesn't quite fit the rest of the game to me.

Oh also, I'm advancing with the new Journey rules - not in this update, of course - and they're coming along quite fine. If you wanna kinda get what I'm going for, it has a lot more in common with Pointcrawls than it does with Hexcrawls, based on three things: Landmarks, Trails, and Zones. There's a few things about Obstacles in the background that I may want to tackle as well. But for now, enjoy your ill-fitting Hexcrawl.

Changelog

General Changes, Cleanup, and Renames

• Redesigned the visual identity of the game’s logo and cover design. 

Not much to say here. As I'm paving the way to design my own cover, I decided that one of the first things that needed an update was the visual identity of the logo, and a choice of placeholder art displayed front and center.

• Renamed all Parts to Chapters, and revised various Chapter names. 

Parts to Chapters was simply a matter of style. I wanted to change Chapter names to better reflect what the sections were about, as the names had a kind of generic and vague vibe to them. Introduction became Core Concepts, Core Mechanics became Narrative Tools, Characters became Vagrants, Combat became Skirmishes, and Magic became Witchcraft.

• Changed placeholder art banners in various chapters, and updated visuals of Chapter headers.

This was a fun one. I felt like the chapter headers needed a bit of love, if only because I was getting tired of looking at them. They're snazzier now, and the placeholder art choices represent the vibe of the game way better than before. It's the kinda thing I never really thought about until quite recently because everything's been in use for so long that I forgot to ask myself if the images I chose were still representative of the game at hand. Obviously, the Art Credits section was updated as well to reflect these image changes, so make sure to check the original artists out.

• Renamed magic traditions to reflect the type of sorcerer rather than a broad category, and renamed Elementalism to Evoker. 

The naming of magic traditions as if they were magic schools that could be categorized was ill-representative of the way magic works, in the same way as the Magic chapter being renamed to Witchcraft, the names now represent people rather than studied deeds. Also, "Evoker" sounds a lot better than "Elementalist" to me.

• Renamed Checks to Tests, and revised text throughout the section.

Test sounds better than Check, and it represents their utility much better. The text beneath it sounded like an ad aimed at grognards rather than an indicator of what it was and how it worked, too. This section, which currently only hosts the Success Test section, will be expanded later on to accomodate things like outlining roleplaying concepts, the use of scenes and elements, and the role of the Arbiter.

• Renamed Career into Profession. 

A simple change that represents its intended use better. This was actually the original name for the trait, and I'm not entirely sure why I changed it to Career at some point.

• Added Chapter VIII: ARBITER’S TOOLS. 

Just a sneak peek of what's in the works for Adversaries, through an incomplete section.

Character Stuff

• Added Languages to Skill Subgroups, and some Example Languages.

This was a really fun thing to work on! Languages are now in, with their own subset of learning rules depending on various factors that define them, as well as some example languages that can be found in the world.

• Added Narrative Features to Chapter II. 

Four optional but helpful parameters that may help you out when fleshing out your characters: Identity, Purpose, Flaws, and Roots.

• Updated Goblins yet again.

Not that important, but I really wanted to add this bit to the changelog because it was too funny not to. Goblins are weird. The way I envision Goblins is kind of different thematically and aesthetically than most of the goblins in fantasy, so trying to outline that they are not deformed and destructive little critters but rather healthy little people with funky proportions and colors that are fully integrated in society is really, really hard. Maybe once I start making my own art for this I'll be able to illustrate this point better.