Wednesday, September 4th

The Daily Report

So, my dilemma of what to do with my afternoon yesterday was answered when my poor sleep the night before caught up with me and I ended up napping/dozing through a lot of it.

I did the first bit of packing yesterday morning and then did an honest assessment of how much work it's going to take. It seemed overwhelming until I realized that it would probably take almost no time to just box everything up that's loose with no thought to organization. A more able-bodied person could probably manage it in less than an hour. Given that, the idea of getting it done the right way in 10 days (the Tuesdays and Thursdays between now and moving day, inclusive of yesterday) seems perfectly manageable, even if some of them have restricted hours in which I can work.

And while I'm setting aside those specific mornings for packing and packing-related activities, that's in the sense that I will definitely be doing those things on those days, not that I will only be doing them on those days. If I have a burst of energy some other morning or time to kill on a cool, cloudy weekend, I might get a lot further a lot faster. I'm just setting aside ten days to do approximately 10% of the work on each so that I don't end up scrambling at the end.

The State of the Me

Definitely slept better last night. Also, the sky is clouded over today and is expected to stay that way all day. The projected high temperature is still pretty high, but less sun means the attic will stay cooler, so yay.

Plans For Today

Today's a writing day.

Sellfy update.

One of the main things that this DIY e-commerce site has been missing is any kind of way to automatically list all of your products in one place. They just added that today with their "profile" feature, which doesn't have any options for customizing or organizing the layout, but it's a step forward.

Here's mine. I've also added an HTML version of MU book 2.

AWW: Agents with SHIELDs

Okay, so the next preview to be shared is kind of a "workhouse" CQ, Signature Shield. Nothing too flashy or original about this one, it simply fills a niche and fulfills a need.

* * *
SIGNATURE SHIELD
Basic Abilities
[A] Signature Shield: You have a shield worth 3 GP and the shield training Martial Combat Training detail. When you are using this shield, its Block score is treated as being 1 higher. At levels 1 and 4, this increases by 1 more. Against any attack that can be blocked, you have resistance to knock effects equal to twice this bonus.

[A] Shield Bash: You can make attacks with a shield that aren't clumsy or weak, and you have a +1 bonus to effect when you do so. At levels 1, 3, and 5, this bonus increases by +1.

Standard Abilities
Phalanx Defense: Each round when you aren't moving, any ally who is close to you and also not moving gains the defense bonus of your shield as well. When you use a Block Check to protect from a sudden hazard, you can share your success with one ally close to you.

Shield Reflexes: Once per round, you can defend against an attack by both attempting to block it with your shield and using another defense. Alternately, you can defend one subject of your Phalanx Defense ability against one attack with your shield as a reaction.

Shield Expertise: Add your level to block attempts with your signature shield, and half your level when using another shield.

Shield Throwing: You can throw a shield as if it were a weapon with the throwable trait. If it does have this trait, you can automatically recover it at the end of a round in which you throw it. By throwing your shield, you can defend allies at a distance. If the shield has the throwable trait, you can defend multiple allies in the same round as a single action, but the range penalty for all the blocks is equal to the total distance the shield would have to travel.

With It Or On It: You have resistance to being disarmed either of your shield or anything held in your other hand equal to twice your level. If someone else has your shield, you have this bonus to effect for attempts to disarm them of it. When using another shield, it's half your level to resist disarming and no bonus to disarm others.

Advanced Abilities
Level 2 In The Shade: You can roll twice to block ranged attacks and use the better result.

Level 4 Phalanx Assault: When at least one ally is benefiting from your Phalanx Defense, you and they can add the shield's defense bonus to close physical attacks.

Level 6 Laconic Reply: Once per round when you block an attack, you can immediately make an attack with the shield against your attacker as a reaction.
* * *

I considered putting more of a focus on offense, but if the attack abilities associated with this CQ were the equal of those associated with weapon expertise/signature weapons then there would be no reason for the shieldbearer to also carry a weapon. If somebody wants to play a Captain America type character who literally fights with a shield (or a throwing disk that functions as a shield), they can develop their offensive abilities more through other channels, but the main iconic function of a shield isn't to make weapons redundant.

On the subject of Captain America, the one thing I'm not 100% satisfied with in this the shield throwing ability. It's iconic enough an image that it needs to be accounted for, but it's mainly iconic for that one specific character so I'm not certain it should be part of the default Signature Shield list. The solution would be to off-load it into a Technique (so players who want it can take it), and I'm almost certain I'm going to do that... but I'm leaving it in the preview anyway because a treatment of signature shields seems incomplete without acknowledging what is probably the single most signature of signature shields in fantasy fiction.

AWW: Where things stand.

I'm no longer at all planning to have new versions up before I move, but I don't think it's unrealistic to aim for October with a fallback goal of November. I'm not going anywhere in November.

A while ago... basically, before the heatwave hit and pushed me out of the attic... I went through a huge period of expansion of the scope of the Basic Character Guide. At the same time, I began to refine the idea of character advancement/progression. The heatwave was good for bringing that latter idea more sharply into focus, less good for actually accomplishing the expansion. Not terrible, but it stole some of the momentum.

So what I'm doing now is being a bit more selective with the expanded list of qualities. I want as many as possible to be filled out in the new full page format with the Basic/Standard/Advanced progression I've been previewing before I move, but I know that realistically that's not going to be all 100. Some of them... including some I was really excited about... just aren't "there" yet, even in draft form. The enchanter ones in particular aren't looking likely. Poisoner. A lot of the signature item ones.

That's not to say that they're being cut. Just that they're not likely to be in the version of the BCG that goes up in October or November.

The combat section of the Player's Guide is going better than ever. Basically, I've split the basic rules for attacking and defending off from the chapter about combat rounds and it made both a lot easier to write. It seems a little counterintuitive, but I think it might also make it easier to understand.

It might seem weird that the rulebook teaches players how attacking and defending works before the combat rules, but 1) this game doesn't require the equivalent of an initiative roll every time you take out a guard and 2) the subjects are complicated enough without trying to figure out how to weave them together into one thing.

So now you've got one chapter that explains how attacking and defending works, and then the next chapter explains how a fight scene works with an explanation of how the previous chapter's rules fit into it.

The magic section needs a little revising because of the concept of substitute Spell Checks, which is when a magical specialty CQ lets you do magic with a different attribute from Magic. It's not really a heavy rewrite, I just need to re-write some of the "safety clauses" to make sure it works consistently, so that a character who can (for example) reroll Agility Checks isn't able to use that in Spell Checks. Again, not hard. Just something that requires a certain amount of deft handling.

I've also refined my understanding of the Player's Guide a little. Like, it's always been a little bare bones but I'm more and more convinced that's the way it should be. The rules are skeletal because the "meat" of the game is in character creation and open-ended because they're meant to facilitate what the Storyteller and group want to do, not restrict it.