I am sorry for the long absence. The
Real World TM intervened and I spent a long while not working on anything. However, I am slowly getting back into the swing of things, and I figure that I should update folks on what is currently in the works.
Simply put, Novus 2.0 is currently in development. I have been, still am, and will remain very excited about Novus 2.0.
Over the next few weeks, I will be posting bits and pieces in more detail, but today, I thought that I would just give a general overview of sorts.
- Levels - In the original Novus, there are levels, but they are more of a guide than anything else. Novus 2.0 will lose levels completely. Instead it will use a point based system for development of your character.
- Classes - Classes in the original Novus were more along the line of starting packages, granting a specific set of features and skills to a given character. In Novus 2.0, there are 4 classes of characters (Casters, Fighters, Rogues, Mixed). Theses are nothing more than generic methods of classifying a type of character. Each of the classes has a number of what are called Training Paths. While they resemble the Classes from the original Novus, they are built differently and much more balanced. The current manuscript currently has 40 Training Paths available.
- Cultures & Backgrounds - In addition to select a Culture and a Background. Culture is basically the type of society that the character grew up in. Backgrounds describe more about how the character was raised and the things they did as a young adult, prior to settling into their Training Path. Some Cultures and Backgrounds may not seem to fit together very well. It is up to the Player to determine a backstory for the choices made and how they work together. Personally, I think this makes the player more invested in his character overall. The current manuscreipt contains 11 Cultures and 56 Backgrounds
- Skills - Skills are at the heart of the game. There are about 24 or so core skills, but many of them have either sub-skills (each is developed separately and the bonuses for the skills are completely separate) specialties (specialties allow for focusing on a specific aspect of a skill, other specialties may be used with a negative modifier). Spell casting is a skill still. And individual Spells are still learned separately as before.
- Talents - These are special skills (that do not follow normal development) and/or abilities that help define a character more fully. The Training Paths make use of them quite well. There are nearly 90 Talents in the manuscript right now. Some are listed as Trainable, while other are not. Those that are not Trainable may only be acquired during character generation, or by acquiring them through a package of some sort provided by the GM. For those that are Trainable, that means you
can save up Character Points and purchase them for your character. - Monsters - Currently there are about 50 monsters in the manuscript and the current plan is to about about 50 more. The Monsters are all built the same way as the characters, even non-intelligent ones. Each monster contains a point rating (how many points used to make it), that can be used as a guide for whether or not the players can or even should try to face off against them. There are guidelines on how to judge this as well.
Well, that is enough for now. I figure that I may go ahead and start posting examples to whet the appetite, the closer I get to being done.
