v0.07 is now up!

Playtest 2 was the social drama game. It was more of a mixed bag, and went long, so we are running part 2 of the game tomorrow. It has a slower start and ramp up, but I think the social drama game does work in the system, even if it took a bit longer to get going. There are duels and grudges and social slight happening all over the place, so largely working as intended.

With that said, Changelog for v0.07:

• Small numbers game becomes even smaller. Tweaked values and added caps for Resolve and Will.
  • Max 5 Resolve
  • Max 5 Will
  • Recover gives 1 Resolve
  • Resist reduces consequences by 1 level of severity
  • Inspiring another player grants them 2 Will
  • Make Trouble has been changed to allow you to gain 1-3 Will and suffer corresponding consequences.
• Doomed and Lost work differently now.  Shoutout to Monsterheart for the inspiration!
  • When you drop to 0 resolve, you are Lost. To avoid becoming lost, you may become Doomed.
    • When you become Doomed, gain 4 Resolve. Bold Actions now cost 2 Will.
• Advantage has been codified into the rules
  • Advantage gives you +1 to the result of your actions. So if you have +1 Advantage when taking the Recover action, you gain 2 Resolve instead of 1.
  • There are several ways to gain Advantage
    • Having the right asset for the job
    • Consuming an asset
    • Having special knowledge
• Consequences have a maximum severity level of 3.
• Added section outlining which actions provoke consequences.

The sum total of these changes should be as follows:

• Smaller numbers means that all actions effect things by 1. More straightforward, few exceptions
• Advantage was loosely in the rules previously, but codifying it should make it easier for the GM to run, and make it more clear to the players why they should seek out advantages
• Doomed now provides an interesting choice, rather than a discouraging penalty
  • Hopefully the penalty feels like it is able to be pushed through, while still being meaningful
• Making Trouble allows players to make a lot of trouble at once. This is just a gut feeling for why you can do this, but can't spend multiple points of will to increase the effectiveness of actions. That wouldn't feel right. I think this does. That's what playtesting is for.

Potential future changes, need more playtesting:

• Should the numbers be even lower?
  • Should resolve and will be capped at 4 instead of 5?
  • If so, should consequences be capped at 2 instead of 3?
• Should Resolve be inverted?
  • Rather than having 5 resolve that you tick down, should you have 5...uh... stress? that counts up?
  • This is a tactile thing. Putting pips on the character sheet makes it feel like the blank default should be the correct state. So starting with a blank character sheet is the 'correct' starting position.
• Should Advantage be a binary state - you have advantage or you don't?
  • This might discourage consuming assets if having an asset gives the same benefit as consuming an asset
• Should Recover, Add a Facet, and Introduce an Element be combined into a catch-all "Gain Resource?"
  • I think almost certainly not. But it's worth examining.

Regardless, it feels as if the game is circling the bullseye. It is becoming closer to the game I hope it will be. To those few who read these posts, thank you!  v0.07 is up now. I think v1.0 will happen soon.