Thoughts On Version 0.3

[imported_Rasyr]

Regarding Talents -- I know that some of you guys have a small issue with including the word "skill" in their description. However, the whole reason that the word "skill" was used is because some of the talents basically are skills. Only they are what might be considered as "single purchase skills". They are things that can be learned (thus "skills"), but once learned, they don't need to be improved upon.

The Combat Moves and Spells definitely fall within this category of "single purchase skills"... The question is - Do we want to list them with the talents?

If I am putting master cost tables in the front of the "Spend Character Points" section, we may not need to add those 2 new talents.

Just something to consider...

[samwise7]

I still don't think we should use the word "skill" for anything that isn't a traditional RPG skill, but my opinion, and the opinions of my players have been noted.  I think I like the idea of making Combat Moves and Spells into Talents - since you really buy them like Talents anyway... 

[Darkmage]

I am playing a minstrel in Tim's play test and there weren't any instruments to buy for him in the equipment section as he mentioned above.  Maybe have them give a bonus to performance arts like the lock pick kit give bonus to gimmickry.

Matt

[samwise7]

Thanks for dropping in Matt. 

[Darkmage]

No problem Tim. I enjoyed the system overall.  I also liked the idea that the minstrel I made was sort of a social thief.  His music didn't have magical effects like most rpg's and I planned on using it to just make money in game.  I boosted his stealth/gimmickry/trickery/ and perception for his thieving.  But I also had enough left over for performing arts, streetwise, and influence not to mention my weapon skills which I took longbow and light blades.  Even with soft leather I was able to get a decent AR of 6 since the pieces were cumulative and since I had a speed bonus I had a DEF of 17 to start at 1st level.  I was pretty happy with the build I was able to do and even though the mod we ran was a dungeon crawl I turned from the social character to the party thief checking for traps and picking locks.  I would definitely play again.

Matt

[imported_Rasyr]

Welcome Matt, and I am glad to hear that you liked Novus.

[samwise7]

Does Novus handle the idea of Multi-classing, or is it assumed that the Classes are flexible enough to just pick different skills and such?  I don't remember reading anything about that in the rules, but once again, maybe I missed it.

[imported_jasonbrisbane]

ooh , hho, I'm gonna say it....


Quote from: samwise7 on March 08, 2011, 08:50:32 AM

In the Talent Section, the players said that it would be very helpful to list which Races and Classes get the Talents for free.  One of the players bought Combat Training even though he had it for his Class.  He figured it out and changed it though. 

Use the online character generator*. It will keep track of things like that!



disclaimer = coming soon to a website (http://chargen.firehawkgames.biz) near you, soon!

*soon = not as soon as you want and not as soon as Id like!


Regards
Jason Brisbane

[samwise7]

Hehe Jason,

With the rules in flux during the playtest I guess you have to be ready to change things.  I guess most of the rules probably aren't going to change too much though in the coming months though.

[imported_Rasyr]

Does Novus handle the idea of Multi-classing, or is it assumed that the Classes are flexible enough to just pick different skills and such?  I don't remember reading anything about that in the rules, but once again, maybe I missed it.

Novus currently does NOT include multi-classing. I was figuring on adding that in later as an optional rule. If I did add it in, the only thing it would do, however, would be to alter skill costs (I would add a third set of costs that is between the 2 current sets. And then if had a skill that was Standard in one class and favored in another, it would use this middle cost (favored in both would use the Favored costs, and standard in both would use the standard costs).

Multi-classing would also allow for a character to learn the special abilities of their second class (but they would still be required to pay for them using CP) even if those special abilities were not normally considered to be Trainable.

With the rules in flux during the playtest I guess you have to be ready to change things.  I guess most of the rules probably aren't going to change too much though in the coming months though.

The rules are actually unlikely to go through any major changes from this point onwards. Mostly typo corrections, clarifications, and other minor fixes.

[imported_jasonbrisbane]

Good thing I hadn't started on the opnline character sheet yet!

[samwise7]

My playtester Brian said this:

Here are some more comments I had on character generation.  I feel it is important to really explain character gen as much as possible.  Even going overboard.  This will be the 1st thing a new person to your system does and what may seem easy and obvious to someone who is familiar, will not to a noob.
 
On p10 the explaination about not putting more than 3 ranks from a background into a specialized skill reads improperly I think.  The word not is missing and I think the first 3 should be a 4.  It would then read like this:
 

Example: A given Background is allowed to give

4 ranks to the Stealth skill because that skill is not

specialized. However, if a Background gives 4 ranks

in Combat Skills, then the player may only place a

maximum of 3 ranks in one Combat Skill, and the

remaining rank in a second, or split them evenly

between 2 skills, or any other viable combination.

In reality there are no backgrounds that give more than 3 ranks into any skill besides Combat Skills.

The section on finishing your character is on p27, but buying Combat Moves is on p29 and buying Spells is on p36.  There is no previous mention of needing to save CPs for buying these items.  I can understand why the Combat Moves is in the Combat section and the Spell buying is in the Spell section, but there needs to be some mention of these items and their costs in the Character Generation section.  I had my charcter all made and then was confused by how the Combat Moves were to be used.  At first I though you needed to spend Action Points on them.  It doesn't out right say you must spend CPs, but it does mention reduced CP costs.  Once I figured it out, I went back and redid my Skills and Talents to fit in a Combat Move.  Somthing needs to be said about these sooner.

OK. That is it for now.

Brian

[gamewizard]

Lots of posts here, most of my questions have been answered.

I apologize if this has been covered, I am rushed at the moment so I am not sure if this question has been answered.

I play tested a game last night with my group and we addressed a lot of things covered here. One thing that we covered was:

How is Magic damage covered? Does armor reduce the damage? When we applied this, our Wizard was doing no damage. When I ruled that standard armor does not reduce Magical damage then the game was able to continue with no more problems. And it seemed to work. The Wizard was able to feel like he was contributing to the game with magical attacks instead of just standing around waiting to shoot his crossbow every three rounds or so.

Tim; can you address that?

[Darkmage]

Also I noticed there aren't any holy symbols or any divine focus items in the game.  Is that intentional or part of the setting that is coming later?  Do clerics use them for anything more than just a badge of office basically in Novus?

Matt

[imported_Rasyr]

Also I noticed there aren't any holy symbols or any divine focus items in the game.  Is that intentional or part of the setting that is coming later?  Do clerics use them for anything more than just a badge of office basically in Novus?

That is something that I would consider to be more of a "flavor" issue, in defining how casting spells for a given school actually works.

For example, you could have it where Clerics are required to use their Holy Symbol as a focus (much like how wizards in Harry Potter use wands) in casting. In most cases, the Holy Symbol does not impact (unless it is magical or made with special materials) the actual casting of spells, but if it is missing, the CTNs of all spells are increased by 2.

Thus, if your cleric has a pewter holy symbol, it will work just as well as one woven out of straw. However, if this is a cleric of a sun god, having a Holy Symbol carved out of a special type of yellow crystal may give a +2 to all spell casting.....