Thursday, April 12, 2012

Progress Update

Well, progress continues to be slow, but hey, that's how it is with me.  I'm easily prone to distraction, so I don't usually get things done quickly.  I've done everything from play through Corpse Party (good game, by the way; highly recommended), to trying my hand at baking bread. 

But, what's the state of my homebrew?  Well, a few steps forward, a few back. 

Fluff:
The game fluff continues to be lacking, although I now have a good set of starting points to flesh out.  I'll make another post soon to go into greater detail on what I do have.  It's on a lower priority than some of the other things I could be working on.  I also need to create a world map, and names for the various countries.  Neither is something I am good at.  Worst-case scenario I'll use a map of Earth, with the continents moved, and the sea level changed. 

Rules:
Playtesting with the current DitS system has shown it may have some issues which need to be addressed.  The system of separate movement and attack/action phases may make the game far too slow to play, and movement/weapon ranges need to be changed to  grid spacing to make things easily accessible and lower the number of times people need to ask if they're in range.  So, in many ways, I'll have to go back to the drawing board to deal with the core system, most likely moving it back toward the sort of action economy seen in most games, and dropping an independent movement "phase" altogether.  This is fine by me, as the general system leanings more toward people behaving like people rather than like vehicles suits me just fine.  The last possible gripe is that skills are a bit too open, or at least easily bought to high levels, notably in the case of attack skills and defenses.  Characters are too "safe" and need little strategic thought, in other words.  So, I'll have to examine that again and consider a few fixes. 

On the plus side, I've made some progress.  Characters have been switched over to a wounds and critical damage system, which should be a bit more interesting and mesh well with the idea of fancy cyborg characters.  PCs can shrug off losing an arm or a leg as a temporary inconvenience.  Progress has also been made toward adding additional weapons and equipment, in a more robust system. 

Character Advancement:
I haven't even gotten around to this one yet, however, I can give a sketch of how it will work.  Characters earn Credits from doing missions (i.e. going on adventures, playing the game).  Credits are spent to purchase new weapons and equipment, and may also be used to upgrade current equipment or even improve a character's attributes.  If I can, I'll put a system in place in which a character's reward is penalized for things such as taking sever damage or losing limbs, to possibly even paying for ammunition expended.  

I also need to work on a name for this semi-new system, as it's no longer just planelegs and flying.  The working name is Mecha Musume System (MMS), although something a little more poetic may be in order. 

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