I'm talking about the edge!
That brings us to the somewhat happier question of the engineer, a "niche" character much as has been suggested. I was planning
to put an island somewhere south of the boot of the peninsula, more interesting than most of the rest of the islands in the
archipeligo. This island shall be more or less a version of the lost island of Atlantis, from historic mythology.
Atlantis in antiquity, in the heyday of distant Steinal, Atlantis had indeed done a better job of preserving some technology
from the pre-Rajatine epoch of halfling rule.
In particular the Atlantans, or perhaps we should call them Murians, had done a decent job at preserving some steam technology
of reasonable efficiency. The Murians had been purged years ago by wiser humans than are found on earth today, ludites who
prudently slew most inhabitants, burned their hamlets and edifices, and threw most of their devices down a volcano. Anyone found
to have technical knowledge was summararily slain in an action that would have drawn Pol Pot's envy. An Atlasian Butlerian Jihad.
Fields were cursed and then salted. What few survivors could be found were soon chatelized and sold up the Peninsula to the fields of Draj.
A penal colony set up on Mur was relocated from the larger Murian isle because colony guards wouldn't stop complaining about
the nighttime wailing of the souls of the murdered, the genocided of the once high-tech Murian civilization.
Overall that part of the archipelego is unlucky, some 70,000 souls (including many elves) sent through the penal colony
of which only about 30,000 survived. These convicts were generally acquired during wars. But don't worry, give me some
time and I'll plot horrors untold near the southern reach of the archipeligo.
Anyway so the engineer class won't be super useful during the first quarter of the game, especially not right after kick off.
They ostensibly exist as a brotherhood (/sisterhood), dedicated to the preservation of the knowledge needed to resurect the
steam engines of the ruins of Muria. All without generally knowing how to read or write.
Neither engineer nor mage, by the way will play through the game with gimped stats or anything. Combat wise and stat-wise,
I only plan about a 10% capabilities gap between fighters (and/or slaves) or Everyone Else. That means that if you are playing
a mage or an engineer or in fact Everyone Else, you will have decent stats and combat skills.
The implied goal would be for some warlord or templar or other to set up a beach head, and eventually a colony upon the Lost
(and now Reclaimed) Isle of Mur. From there they would need to restore one of the factories as well as provision, I suppose
a supply of coal.
It would take an especially dedicated sociopath to maintain the wages of the mercenaries needed to set up all of this, mind
you. A worthy goal of the aspiring war lord. But my assumption would be that players would not be interested in maintaining
a full time presence on Mur. This is one thing that our sister game did well...when they bothered to do it. Was to make
seasonal things in the game like Luir's Fest. I plan to continue that tradition and to have an annual game Calendar. It
should make the game feel a bit more cozy. But one result of that is that places like Mur won't be inhabited full time.
Anyways so that's my point about Engineers, is that they will indeed be a niche class because their specialty will be niche.
And now we reach the matter of the Bushman. I wanted to call barbarian bushman, because I felt that simply renaming them would
help players to do a better job at staying in character. I felt that when most players pictured a barbarian, they would be
picturing a Cimmerian.
But I honestly wouldn't want to take Conan out of the Tablelands. If I was going far enough off of the trail I would want to
take this guy:
As mentioned it's easy to see that I was not that enthusiastic about barbarians in the first place so I am quite happy to
pull them.
I think I did a poor job of explaining psionics, and will now try to clarify. By this point there is a difference in our thinking
that I think reflects that I have spent a slightly larger time actually playing and so I'm talking about multiclassing from the perspective
not only as someone who is thinking of multiclassing an existing character, but as someone who traditionally disliked multiclassing and
viewed it with skepticism. It was banned from any campaign I ran for something like twenty five years. So I would want you gentlemen
to trust that mine is a conservative perspective upon all things multiclass, but believe that indeed multiclassing would be right for
the game. I don't even ask that my judgement be trusted, merely that my priorities be trusted. As far as judgement goes, it would be
better for me if people logged in and provided independent data about whether multiclassing should be allowed in the game.
Don't rely solely upon my judgement.
Edit:
So having played a bit, what I've come to see the classing/multiclassing system as, as a class/point hybrid that will give us 100% of
what we need in terms of minimum specs, and 95% of any wish list. But the way that I view each individual per level decision, is
"what did my character spend the last six months of his life doing? What was he training on when he was not out storming the castle?"
In fact the somewhat excellent skill system encourages this view. Learning a skill will start you off with something like a 9% at that
skill. You have to then *PRACTICE* that skill in order to improve. So playing a character feels more flexible than it did on the last
game, because you have more input on the skills you can get, and there are indeed alternatives to the grind for those that want them.
A word about algorithms. The way that I'm going to control multiclassing for you guys is to have a diminishing return on changing
class. For example the first time someone changes class it will cost them either two build points or three action points, which is
basically no trouble at all. The second time people want to multiclass I can charge them more.
I plan to have rotating management in game in order to reduce executive authority. This means that I plan to implement initial settings
for many game controls but accept that these will tend to change over time. That was one of the manifestations of the hysteria bubble
that is the GDB. The normies never seemed to see that most of their arguments didn't matter. There was not clear correlation between
the things that the talking heads tend to argue about, and the changes that go into the game. For some reason, they were in like some
Wes Craven dystopia. The GDB is a dystopia filled with lost souls who can't seem to grasp that none of what they talk about matters.
So we'll make psionics cheap. There will be two or more psionics build. A wild psionicist will get a lot of ...for lack of a better words,
psionics for each build point. But the career psionicist, the student of one of pysyxypher's precious psionic madrass, is a more
sustainable choice in that it will actually come with slightly less raw psionics than the wildman's path, but it will also produce
more well rounded adventurers as the schools serve as gymnasium, guild and will be accelerated gateways for those interested in
a career as a Templar or in the less legal magic avenues.
Ergot two psionics classes.
While we're under that heading, one of the results of my meditations was that I am coming to envision psionicists as the "tanks" of
Athas, especially in the peninsula rather than fighters which end up tanking in nealry any other enterprise.
My rationale is that I feel like bands of psionic (nonhuman) animals would form around the city states, so unless one wanted to live
life in terror of these particular vermin one would need to equip oneself psionically. In other words, not only should it be easy to
meet your dual preference to have psionics as more accessible to players, but if we drop any pretenses that PCs are normal
dudes and instead role with the theme that PCs are adventurers by the harsh standards of Athas, we can set psionics as a
core requirement for desert survival. To me it will pleasantly shape the game. Does that sound like a supportable decision?
Further Edit:
The class of scholar I'm adding...because this was always supposed to be a role in table top games? A group of adventurers weren't supposed
to charge wantonly into a wasteland without direction or purpose merely in order to avoid bowing to the latest Templar. If anyplace should
be viewed as a place where the compromises necessary to interface with civilization are worth it, that place be the Peninsula. So before
Amos investigates old Steinal, he should talk to such scholars as are available in the safety of town. The opinions of scholars shall
be so valuable in my game that in some cases travel to dangerous and distant areas will occur for the primary purpose of reaching
a particular scholar.
This will solve two problems that long plagued the old game. This policy shall solve the problem of, "Hey we had an HRPT, but all of the
players are confused about what just actually happened." In my game you can just pay your local scholar, and it will more or less be
his full time job to figure out answers to these very basic sorts of questions, for the entertainment and satisfaction of other players.
But this shall also solve the problem of a player that complains that he isn't able to get involved in anything going on in game. If
you're playing a scholar, nearly all information will be flowing through you. You will find it easy to find out what's going on
in game and to get involved in it.
I didn't want to sneak in full sorc without saying something...but I think that this is what Azerbanjani secretly wants. Is it that
which you want, Azerbanjani? To have full sorcs in the game.
That brings the menu to:
Fighter
Gladiator
Ranger
Thief
Bard
Preserver
Defiler
Slave
Air Cleric
Earth Cleric
Fire Cleric
Warter Cleric
Magma Cleric
Rain Cleric
Silt Cleric
Sun Cleric
Druid
Tame (Academic) Psionicist - Goes to school like a good little boy
Wild Psionicist - More free-spirited psionicist, doesn't try to fit himself into a Myer's Briggs Category, uses Apple products, brews his own meade
Scholar
Engineer
Templar
Merchant
Full Sorc