Has it really been over a year since my last blog post? Wow, that's shameful!
The PhD is going well! I'm currently editing and formatting the final document ready for submission. If any reader here is doing or applying for a PhD, get your formatting down straight away. Going back through this epic beast and correcting every citation and formatting error is not a fun soup day.
Employment is still tough, as is publication, but that's the game. On a similar note, I haven't done anything to forward the publication of Providence, but for a very good reason.
Over the past year, Providence had its second edition run. Skills grow in points, the number of said points are determined by the Class Abilities chosen. Combat handles pretty much the same, though a few of the Abilities have had a few tweaks. Hunter's Quarry has a range of 20 up from 5, Sneak Attack now deals double damage instead of single dice damage increments, Sorcery has had a few Spell Slot upgrades, and a whole plethora of other minor tweaks.
The Spell lists were completed, albeit to a minimalist standard. Spellcasting works on a basis on the number of Spell Slots you spend on a spell, rather than just which spell you cast. This means that one spell can have numerous different effects based on how you cast it. Fireball, for example, can be a high-damage focused blast, or a huge zone of lighter fire. With enough Spell Slots poured into it, Fireball can do both to deal huge damage in a large area.
I took the game to Indiecon (google it, it's great fun), where it met with positive response. There was some feedback, in that it looked different to a standard tabletop game, some of the lingo and terminology made it smell of its D&D origins. That, and the generic fantasy setting I had tried to tailor the game to left it without any stand-out originality.
So, I've decided that Providence is going to enter its third phase of drafting. The original campaign setting, The Glory of the Shining King, is going to be scrapped and set into the history, and the setting will move on a few hundred years.
To balance out the existing issues between attacks, defences and skill checks, every number is now being tied into a skill. Certain articles and stats will be renamed, and the character sheet will have an overhaul.
For example, if one were to attack a creature with a Sword, you add your STR modifier to your Heavy Blade skill, plus any additional bonuses.
Currently, the spell lists work as they are. However, I do want to experiment with a more freeform system, where you create spells as you learn them. This would be done in a similar manner to the original draft of Sorcerer where certain effects could be tailored to spell templates. However, each spell list would have their own selection of options to keep the spell lists unique.
I've taken an extensive hiatus from the writing the game, and it's about the time I got stuck back in.
So, over the next few weeks i'll do my best to give you all information about the new direction of the game. I may or may not dip into some PhD stuff, and I guarantee you'll like that too!
I'm going to finish up this post with a quick dip into the land of cinema; Advanced Wizards and Warriors is a movie about four middle-aged men embarking on their own adventures, both in real life and on the tabletop. It's a project that looks fantastic and has great potential. Check out the video below, and hit them up on CineCoup to support them. Voting for them puts them a little bit closer to the goal of $1,000,000 to fund and create a movie that speaks to me, and is sure to speak to the rest of the tabletop community!
