OPEN BETA revision #26 November 2013: DISCUSS IT HERE (SUGGESTIONS, COMMENTS...)

Let's hear you!

A few things I've seen so far.

Samurai of Eo, path of Ki
Kiai.
Says -1 to any Defence roll.

There is no Defence roll in the Combat section...



Several times, you make reference to Innate Defence, which is never defined. I assume, by the formula of Defence Score, its you're Awarness bonus BUT, the description of Agility says you add your Agility bonus to your Physical Defense Score (which I assume is the same as Defence Score)...so there is at least one problem here...

There might be a misunterstanding between Power Level and #of abilities, because of the levels you gain 2 of them. If you gain 2, your Power Level is incresed by 2 or by 1 ? My view is : if you want both of them to be equal, then either skip the 2 abilities levels, they give one, or adjust the Power Level/# of Abilities in the chart, 'cause they increase by 1 at the moment. My preference if for first.

In the same way, Intelligence score for Skill Points should be just once. Or else, a Character with a good Int will quickly max its most important skills and be more than good at a great number of other ones. More skills might aid for this, also...

I must say I'm not a fan of leveling systems, especially with special different levels (for no reason ?) which give more/less than others. Too DD4 like...AFAIK, leveling is not a bad idea overall, if it's quick for little boni (representing an overall improvement), rather than a path to huge bonuses (oh, wait, let me sleep and BAM, now a can change face and spiderwalk while being unable to climb a rope or put makup yesterday...). And, of course, always same benefits. My view, of course, mine.

Will there be a full description of all the Gods ? I just love how they are nicknamed : Kwon who knows the sacred power words, Vile who drives peoples of power to oppress the weaks...etc...

Anyway, I think the idea of Black/Red dice for boni/mali is a pretty good thing. I just hope it won't slower the game (there is a hell of a lot of dice to roll everytime, this might rebuke some players, but attract others). We'll see it in the beta .

The use of Piety for spells is just perfect. Though there is no spell described yet...Are they supposed to be Abilities ? 'cause spellcasting characters don't seem to use it at the moment. If not, how will you balance it with other character classes who get only Abilities ?

I know I know, lot of things, just enthousiastic...

Another thing : you use IFO and INN for Inner Force.

And...as far as I want to understand, there still are to many ways of calculating your Attack/Defense. One page 109 (character sheet), one p79 (combat roll), one p77.

My guess is : you use the method on the character sheet (but then, choose between INN or IFO and replace Base Attack/Base Defense by Power Level) for Attack. For Defense, as welle but add you Agility and Awarness boni. And you roll the dice as described p79 just for Attack, against a Defense score only.

I suggest :
- adding Power Level to Initiative rolls. An old warrior is not as easily surprised as a rookie.
- possibility to spend Skill points in Initiative and/or Attack/Defense to add Fate Dice ?
- limitation to Agility Bonus to Defense for armors (with a full plate, an Agility bonus to Defense of +1 is the max you can use)
- Using IFO and Piety for Magic Defense instead of INT and IFO. INT is already used for skills, and your good may protect you from the magic of other gods.
- Maybe using Charisma for Magical Attack instead of Int...Wizards always seem pretty charismatic in Orb, and subjugate your enemy is a key for casting a spell. And this would prevent the Charisma = dump stat. Intellect gives Skill points and might be used in more Skills if you add more. And used for Magical Attacks. Gaining Spell points might be a mixed of Charisma and Int, so a spellcasting character has at least 4 stats to be concerned with, like a non-spellcasting one.

The Chain Hauberk for Knight Errant is useless, since you will always at least repleace it by a Half-Plate. I'd say give the Half-Plate in Base starting, Tower Shield for 0/2 FS, Full Plate for 3/5FS and both for 6/8.

Another thing :

Taking the skills from DD3.5 is by far not the best idea I think. 2 skills for Discretion, 3 from Spotting...If you really want to take the idea from a DD-like, those from Pathfinder are, IMO, far more balanced and well-thought.

Athletics for any physical feat is good though, keep it that way

Great to get your input, folks. We'll see about getting all this to the people who need to hear it. For a broad response: a lot of the development is going in waves. Some things are set up so we know their general form within the ability trees and game mechanics, and when something is finalized on one side we know we'll have to revise the entirety of the rest. Thanks to all of you for your bravery in checking it out!

Some specifics:

Yes, Acrobatics MIGHT be a little more difficult than Cooking. That looks like a placeholder bit there.

"Innate Defence," looking through my records, appears in older versions of your character's Defence score. It was originally something to implement in the abilities but now appears to be floating around a bit. That needs attention, so thanks!

Absolutely, there will be full details on the gods. There are whole chapters waiting to be added for gods, history, monsters, and so on.

And speaking of gods, we also like having Piety connect to magic. It fits very well in this world! However, as you can see, it still needs to be implemented properly: the spells in question are, in fact, those things in your abilities. This is another of the upcoming change "waves."

Heh, glad you noticed the Inner Force abbreviation. Personally, I've wondered whether Piety really should be abbreviated "PIE."

And your other specific concerns/suggestions are well-reasoned and we'll see what folks think over here. Thank you!

I've always seen PIETY abbreviated PIE in video games.
I recall it was the case in WIZARDRY in the early 80s.

Maybe we can have our PIE day as well like in the US.
Well we had it this weekend (our Piety day) as it was Easter.
And it was eggs, not pies. Oh well...

Ah yes, Wizardry. I was thinking about that again recently. They had good naming conventions: this same gaming series was more honest than most about where we got "halflings" and so called them "hobbits" straight out.

(It was also the era when people naively used the Red Cross logo as-is, instead of turning it green. Ah, the times before lawsuit threats shaped the landscape of gaming.)