[19:31] <+Bones> Hey there, this is Taylor, and my colleague is Jimmy. We are developers for Song of Swords, a tabletop roleplaying game that puts a heavy emphasis on tactical combat, and historically inspired fantasy.
[19:33] <+Bones> Currently the Beta rules for Song of Swords are out, it uses a dice pool system based off of d10s, and lets you pick where you’re attacking your enemy, and how much effort you’re putting into that attack. Currently it is mid Kickstarter campaign, with about 16 days to go.
[19:34] <+Bones> Jimmy is the lead designer, and myself the project manager. So we welcome any and all questions about the system, our Kickstarter, our setting, or beyond!
[19:34] <+Bones> (That’s all from us!)
[19:34] <~Dan> Thanks, guys! The floor is open to questions!
[19:34] <+Motulev> John Galt is that you?
[19:35] <+Crazy-Cabal> Who?
[19:35] <~Dan> Does the game have its own setting?
[19:35] <+Motulev> I’ll take the silence as a no
[19:35] <+JimmyRome> (resist the urge to make the joke)
[19:35] <+Bones> Motulev I believe Jimmy can speak more to that. Last I heard he was out of country.
[19:35] <+Motulev> but that name does ring a bell?
[19:36] <+JimmyRome> Yeah, he’s down South. He’s supposed to be back sometime this week, we’ll keep you posted.
[19:37] <+Bones> Dan: Yes it does! The setting is a dark, low fantasy one, with a lot of inspiration from history. JimmyRome will be able to give a good overview of the races and the nature of the world.
[19:37] <+JimmyRome> Anyway yes, the game definitely has its own fantasy setting. We call it Tattered Realms. It was an attempt to sort of reclaim a lot of traditional fantasy elements, and combine them with our love of history and real-world mythology to create something new and interesting, but also classic and familiar.
[19:38] <~Dan> How did you go about that?
[19:38] <+Will> (Maybe this is related, but curious if there is magic/supernatural of some kind)
[19:38] <+JimmyRome> It’s a bit hard to genre, in terms of low, high, dark etc. fantasy because the elements are very disparate, but the fans have dubbed it “Realpolitik Fantasy” which I like. A large part of the effort was sort of imprinting a realistic and down-to-earth political perspective onto a lot of fantastic elements.
[19:40] <+JimmyRome> So you have a lot of very high fantasy stuff, magic, huge monsters, elves, powerful magical artifacts, flying islands, etc, but there are no high fantasy attitudes, if that makes sense. It’s something not a lot of settings do that we really wanted to experiment with.
[19:40] <+JimmyRome> (Done)
[19:41] <~Dan> How would you describe a “high fantasy attitude”?
[19:41] <&Silverlion> what kind of mechanics does it use?
[19:42] <+JimmyRome> The high fantasy attitude is what I’d characterize as a lot of “well it’s magic, don’t think about it,” and a glossing over of political and human realities in a fantasy setting. The things that are important to the high fantasy attitude are the dragons and the high adventure and the magic, but not so much the taxes and the political landscape,
[19:43] <+Will> Like ‘isn’t it awesome we all venerate and do everything the pureblood king says’?
[19:43] <~Dan> Ah, I see what you mean.
[19:43] <+JimmyRome> and the ethnography and so on and so forth. These were things that we wanted to do in great detail, and so we structured the setting around those things, while still including elements that we might call very high fantasy.
[19:44] <+Will> So, there are toilets
[19:44] <+JimmyRome> Yes, that’d be a great example. Though I don’t mean to say that people all have modern sensibilities and such, but the romantic lens isn’t there and subjects like feudalism and war and cultural conflict.
[19:45] <~Dan> Sort of like Game of Thrones, but with more high fantasy tropes?
[19:45] <+JimmyRome> Also yes, there definitely is magic, though it’s very much not the sort of magic that is utterly ingrained into everyday life. You know, people do not go down to the store and buy a magic rake to clear their lawns more quickly, that sort of thing.
[19:45] * +Will laughs out loud
[19:45] <+JimmyRome> There are indeed toilets, yes. Of many varieties I’m certain.
[19:46] <+JimmyRome> At some point I’m sure someone will ask me that and I’ll have to explain it across multiple cultures before they put it in the wiki.
[19:47] <~Dan> What fantasy races are present?
[19:47] <+JimmyRome> And yes, that might be a good way to describe it, though I think Game of Thrones even went a bit too far on the sliding scale of cynicism, we are perhaps a bit cynical from time to time but we try not to only show things at their worst.
[19:48] <+Will> Sepia not staring through gauze
[19:48] <+JimmyRome> Well, at base it’s a very familiar lineup, but the fun is in the details.
[19:49] <+JimmyRome> You’ve got humans, of course, and then Goblins, and then Dwarves, and then you’ve got “Din,” which are essentially elves. A lot of people in-setting call them elves in their languages.
[19:49] <~Dan> Well, by all means, dazzle us with details. ๐
[19:49] <+JimmyRome> The key with each of these is that we’ve worked very hard to make the concepts our own. Nothing is exactly as it seems, for example, the Dwarves:
[19:50] <+JimmyRome> On the surface you have what you’re expecting, short, sturdy, compact, diligent, excellent miners, live underground, etcetera. But the twist is that there’s something a bit wrong with them. They have a sort of racial knowledge that they aren’t “from” here, they don’t belong on this world.
[19:51] <+JimmyRome> And they feel a compulsion to dig. It can start anywhere, if they so much as scuff the ground with a boot, and do not deliberately stop, they will find themselves scraping a hole. Once actually digging, this can prove overwhelming, and they’ll simply dig until they die of thirst or exhaustion.
[19:51] <+JimmyRome> The only way they’ve found to stave off this irrational compulsion is alcohol. Intoxication quells the desire to dig. So, the Dwarves almost always have a drink on hand, just in case they start digging.
[19:51] <~Dan> Huh.
[19:52] <+Motulev> I can dig that
[19:52] <~Dan> That’s certainly different.
[19:52] <+JimmyRome> And hence comes the stereotype of dwarves as being fond of their liquor. They’re actually all lightweights, but it’s a matter of survival for them. A Dwarvish Hold that runs out of booze could easily wipe itself out.
[19:52] * ~Dan golfclaps for Motulev
[19:52] <~Dan> I was resisting the urge to say that. ๐
[19:52] * +Motulev bows
[19:53] <+Motulev> you have your alcohol at hand, I do not
[19:53] <+JimmyRome> Nice. But yes, this is called the “Call of the Deep,” and they can all feel it. Some of them can even hear voices, but they pretend that they can’t because that’d mean they’re crazy.
[19:53] <+JimmyRome> And that’s just the dwarves, the twist for each of the races is a bit like that. The Din, or Elves, for example, are divided up into sort of sub-species who each have a different “Focus.” The focus is what allows them to live forever and retain their youth.
[19:54] <+JimmyRome> The Ohanedin, or the Wood Elves, cannot touch metal, cannot break promises, and cannot eat the meat from any animal that cannot speak.
[19:55] <+JimmyRome> If they violate any of these, they age for a certain amount of time, which will eventually kill them. So they associate being old with being a liar. This also plays a lot into their society. Imagine a culture where keeping promises is a matter of life and death.
[19:55] <+Motulev> wait, cannot speak, as in speaking ‘animals’ is fine?
[19:55] <+JimmyRome> It must be a language. So they can eat people, and maybe parrots.
[19:55] <+Motulev> now that is metal
[19:56] <~Dan> No, they can’t touch metal.
[19:56] <+Bones> Haha.
[19:56] <+JimmyRome> That’s debatable. They probably haven’t experimented with it much. The Ohanedin are good times.
[19:56] <+JimmyRome> The parrots thing I mean.
[19:56] <~Dan> I’m intrigued. What are the other elves like?
[19:57] <+JimmyRome> So they you’ve got other kinds. The Burdinadin, or Iron Elves, are sort of the Ohanedins’ bookish cousins, they have the opposite problem, nature kills them. They’ve hold themselves up in these vast steel fortresses called “Iron Glades,” where they are safe from what they call “Spirit Contamination.”
[19:57] <+JimmyRome> Holed rather.
[19:57] <~Dan> Huh. Weird.
[19:57] <+JimmyRome> And they can’t go outside, except in sort of environment suits. They’re a lot more advanced than the rest of the setting though–guns, electricity, etc. They don’t really have the resources to abuse it much but when they do go outside, they stand out a bit.
[19:58] <~Dan> What sorts of guns? How advanced?
[19:58] <~Dan> And what can they eat, if nature kills them?
[19:58] <+JimmyRome> It’d depend on the glade, but the most advanced we have in the book are multi-barreled arquebus types.
[19:59] * ~Dan nods
[19:59] <+JimmyRome> They can handle it in small doses, but they’re a bit paranoid about contamination at this point, so no doubt they overcook everything.
[20:00] <~Dan> Heh. ๐
[20:00] <+JimmyRome> You know, steam those vegetables, render everything down into sterile protein bars, that sort of thing.
[20:00] <~Dan> (Howdy, JamesGillen!)
[20:00] <+JamesGillen> howDEE
[20:00] <+JimmyRome> Hey m8.
[20:00] <~Dan> Are there other elves?
[20:01] <+JimmyRome> So there’s a lot of fun to be had with those guys, and a lot that can go wrong with their arcologies, an abandoned Iron Glade would be a really cool adventure opportunity. You know, like maybe there was a contamination leak or an experiment gets loose and kills them all,
[20:01] <+JimmyRome> medieval dead space yo, the best.
[20:01] <+Motulev> you can honestly say ‘our elves are different’
[20:01] <+JimmyRome> Ah, there are.
[20:01] <+JimmyRome> Words to live by! And we haven’t even gotten to the fun stuff yet.
[20:01] <~Dan> Motulev: Indeed!
[20:02] <+JimmyRome> So the next are the Zells, which are a bit of a fan favorite, these guys, their focus is being part of what they call a “Dream.” A Dream is like a gestalt consciousness that forms when enough Zells occupy a boat, or a vessel, or even just a chunk of wood floating in the ocean, to turn it into a “Zellislava.”
[20:02] <+JimmyRome> Not like a child’s game “the zell is lava,” which would probably be a form of tag, but like a living, semi-sentient vessel that grows and changes on its own.
[20:03] <+JimmyRome> The ship itself is part of the dream, and the Zells become part of it. They sail around doing Zell stuff together. Making skrimshaw, eating fish, occasionally robbing people. What you would do if you were an ageless elf on a sentient boat in the 15th century.
[20:04] <~Dan> Oh, if I had a dime for every time I’ve pondered that.
[20:04] <+JimmyRome> A lot of them end up stranded on land and stuff of course, and they just live like normal humans, but most would go out to sea if they could. Chill sea elves. Most of them. Some of them don’t like humans, and a lot of humans probably don’t like them, so there’s conflict there.
[20:04] <+JimmyRome> You know, Zells, coming into our docks, drinking all our ale, stealing all our life preservers.
[20:04] <+Bones> Dan: Right?
[20:04] <~Dan> (Howdy, Velociengineer_Bill!)
[20:05] <+JimmyRome> The devils. And Zells, no happier about humans invading the ocean with their “boats.” If you can even call them boats. Really demeaning to the concept of a boat.
[20:05] <+JimmyRome> It isn’t even alive. It doesn’t even talk. It’s like a dead boat. And they can’t even drink salt water. It’s like a giraffe trying to rollerskate.
[20:05] <+Bones> Imagine. Non-sentient boats. Pshaw.
[20:05] <+JimmyRome> Get back on land corn-people. You don’t belong here.
[20:06] <+JimmyRome> Unthinkable.
[20:06] <+JimmyRome> And that’s the basics, there are a few more still in the works, but these are the guys we have rules for.
[20:06] <~Dan> What are your goblins like?
[20:06] <+JimmyRome> You’ve got one more kind of elf who shoot lasers out of their eyes, and then like ascended humans, but those are classified.
[20:08] <+JamesGillen> LASERS OUT OF THEIR EYES!
[20:09] <+JimmyRome> Goblins are a bit more traditional, they live underground, where there are a lot of dangerous monsters, they can eat just about anything, they can regenerate lost limbs like geckos, aside from that they’re not super different from what you’ve seen from gobbos before. They’re our centering point.
[20:10] <+Bones> Keep in mind these are all playable races. So if you want to be an awesome (potentially cannibalistic) honor-driven wood elf, or a goblin that can regrow limbs, you can!
[20:10] <~Dan> Nice.
[20:11] <+JamesGillen> [thumbup]
[20:11] <+JimmyRome> Yeah, that’s the beauty of it. We wanted to avoid having sentient races that you couldn’t really play, so to speak, avoid that “evil guys” syndrome.
[20:11] <~Dan> Well, they aren’t cannibals unless they eat other wood elves, right?
[20:11] <+Bones> Fair point. And I’m sure many would agree with you.
[20:11] * ~Dan nods sagely
[20:12] <~Dan> How powerful is magic in the setting?
[20:12] <~Dan> What can it accomplish on the high end?
[20:13] <+JimmyRome> Well high high high level stuff, conceptually, could do world-shaking things, but that’s magic on the scale of a government or an empire. Destroying a city, burning the land, that sort of thing.
[20:13] <+JimmyRome> But individual characters, certainly the sort of people you see in a campaign, their abilities would be far more modest. The power to float a short distance through the air would be a very high level ability.
[20:14] <+Motulev> so more Conan and Elric, less D&D?
[20:14] <+JimmyRome> And there are different kinds of magic, each of which covers a different sort of school of abilities. Pyromancy deals in life and energy, Thaumaturgy deals in spirits and communicating with otherworldly beings, and Sorcery deals in simple forces. Each has a different set of mechanics and is fueled by a different source of energy.
[20:14] <~Dan> So when you say government-scale magic… Are you talking about a bunch of court wizards working together? That sort of thing?
[20:15] <+JimmyRome> Yes to Motulev,
[20:15] <+JimmyRome> And yes, an entire country of sorcerers working together could blow up a city or something like that, I think there is a calamity on that scale in the lore, the Helians blew up a country because they were up to magic shenanigans they didn’t like.
[20:16] <+JimmyRome> Magic is still in development of course so the exact abilities of magic-users are still in flux, you’ll see more of that as the game develops.
[20:16] <~Dan> Intercontinental ballistic magic!
[20:17] <+JimmyRome> Another thing–magic items.
[20:17] <+JimmyRome> This is actually a big subject, one we haven’t talked about a lot before, but magic items should always be a big deal, and making them that way is very hard for games to do while still having the ability to make them open to the players.
[20:18] <+JimmyRome> Our solution is that magic items require something from the person who creates them. So if you want to make a sword that cuts really good, you have to put a part of yourself into it, that (allegorically) makes you less good at cutting. Perhaps your strength, or your reflexes.
[20:18] <+JimmyRome> So making a magic sword permanently diminishes the creator. It’s not something you do lightly, and the weapons produced are precious indeed.
[20:19] <~Dan> What’s the incentive to make one, then?
[20:19] <+JimmyRome> Well that’s the million dollar question, and probably the reason why magic weapons are rare.
[20:19] <+JamesGillen> suppose so
[20:19] <+JimmyRome> Magic costs something, and permanently gifting a tool with magical powers costs something permanent.
[20:19] * ~Dan nods
[20:20] <+JimmyRome> Shoot other-James.
[20:21] <~Dan> Do you have a character sheet posted?
[20:21] <+JimmyRome> Oh wait, that wasn’t the prelude to a question.
[20:21] <+JimmyRome> We’re working on refining the sheet, there was an old one at some point but the rules are taking new shape, and a lot of changes are necessary to make it work.
[20:22] <~Dan> No problem. It just helps focus system discussion sometimes.
[20:22] <~Dan> Speaking of which, can you tell us a bit about the elements that make up a character?
[20:23] <+Motulev> also, was Silverlions question about mechanics answered?
[20:23] <+JimmyRome> I might’ve missed that.
[20:23] <+JimmyRome> Let me go back and see
[20:24] <+Motulev> 03:41 <&Silverlion> what kind of mechanics does it use?
[20:25] <+JimmyRome> Just in general, the kind of mechanics it uses, it’s a D10-based system, we use dice pools thrown at a Target Number (TN) to try and get “successes” that represent how well the character did at whatever the action was.
[20:26] <+Bones> So the way combat works for example as a player you have a “Combat Pool”. This pool is a number derived from your physical ability along with your competency with a weapon. You dedicate dice form that pool into offense and defense each round.
[20:28] <+Bones> (Combat Pool is a number of dice). So, that means as a playery ou need to make the choice “Do I want to hit him really hard, and do I dare commit all my dice to doing so?” Because if you do, and miss you won’t have any left to defend yourself with.
[20:29] <+Bones> Damage itself is done through a Wounds system. So when hitting someone you pick where you’re attacking (say an arm, or a leg). If you succesfully hit and deal damage you will wound that limb, which in turn makes it harder for them to fight.
[20:30] <+Bones> So there’s a bit more to consider when in combat, than say, D&D, but we think the added elements of getting to control what your character’s doing and where they’re attacking go a really long way.
[20:30] <+JimmyRome> It’s also not super complicated, but it flows just fine once you’ve got the hang of what you’re doing.
[20:30] <+JimmyRome> Er, no but there.
[20:31] <+Bones> Yeah we’ve found that for people who play often combat is about the same length as it would be in D&D if not shorter due to some wounds proving lethal.
[20:33] <+JimmyRome> Very lethal game. One of the selling points. Fights usually end in a couple of blows unless you’ve got a lot of armor or evenly matched high level people.
[20:33] <~Dan> On a scale of 1-10, 10 being over-the-top cinematic and 1 being Saving Private Ryan brutal, how swashbuckling is the game?
[20:35] <+Bones> Interesting question! I’d say that depends on how advance players are. So with high Combat Pools (advanced characters) you’ve got a lot of dice to swing around. This means you can do some pretty epic action-movie stuff. That being said sometimes fights get bloody and muddy. JimmyRome, what kind of rating would you give it?
[20:36] <+JimmyRome> I’d say that’d depend on whether I was the one winning the fight or not. And that does play into what Bones says, it’s all about the level of challenge the PCs are facing.
[20:37] <+JimmyRome> So probably from 1 to 7, depending on what kind of campaign you’re doing.
[20:37] <+JimmyRome> Maybe a 3. Let’s go with a 3.
[20:37] * ~Dan nods
[20:37] <+Motulev> sounds like a knife fight in a dark alley to me
[20:38] <+JimmyRome> It does get that way a lot. The fans love it, they run whole tournaments that are just people fighting in crazy situations.
[20:38] <+JimmyRome> You know, make a bunch of characters, throw them into the pit. It’s lovely.
[20:38] <+Motulev> I’ve read something like that
[20:39] <+Motulev> hence my question about John Galt
[20:39] <~Dan> How does ranged combat work?
[20:39] <+JimmyRome> Your suspicions are probably accurate.
[20:40] <+JimmyRome> So, ranged combat is one of the things getting a big update, we’ve made it a lot simple than it used to be, it’s essentially just an attack roll against a “Defense Number,” which is modified by cover, range, and movement, and if you roll over, you hit.
[20:40] <+JimmyRome> Then it’s just weapon damage vs your armor and stuff. Easy peasy.
[20:40] * ~Dan nods
[20:41] <~Dan> Just to clarify, armor reduces damage?
[20:42] <+JimmyRome> Yes, your armor reduces damage. A lot of weapons have a hard time penetrating it, so unless you have something like a chunky firearm, you’re better off hoping for a hit to a vulnerable spot, or aiming for one.
[20:43] * ~Dan nods
[20:43] <~Dan> What sort of armor is state-of-the-art?
[20:45] <+JimmyRome> The most advanced stuff would probably be the plate that the Burdinadin produce, but plate armor technology in general has advanced to the point in-setting where plate armor, and even thickened armor capable of resisting some firearms is available.
[20:46] <~Dan> So that would make the overall tech level akin to Rennaissance?
[20:46] <+JimmyRome> Though, at that point you’re dealing with a pretty profound amount of weight, so I imagine that unless you expect to be facing a bunch of guys with blunderbusses most adventurers wouldn’t wear too much of that stuff.
[20:46] <+JamesGillen> so near Renaissance
[20:47] <+JamesGillen> Which raises the question of whether technology is pacing armor development as it did historically
[20:47] <+JimmyRome> I’d say our chief level of technology is 15th century, but with certain elements slightly more advanced. Early renaissance/late medieval would not be inaccurate.
[20:47] <~Dan> How common are monsters?
[20:48] <+JimmyRome> That’d depend on where you go, but there are enough of them that they’re considered a social problem. The world periodically suffers “Eclipses,” where dark forces can influence the world directly, and that often comes in the form of “Spawn,” otherworldly monsters.
[20:49] <+JimmyRome> But more mundane beasts that are native to Vosca (the primary continent) also exist, and have their own biomes and habitats. A lot of them have been wiped out by humans at this point but there are always more in the hinterlands.
[20:50] <+JimmyRome> Also, there are some which can blend into human-occupied territory pretty easily, like Bisclavrets (werewolves) and Vampires. Some pretty big ones can sneak up near human settlements through waterways, like the Dobarcuu.
[20:50] <~Dan> What’s the latter?
[20:51] <+JimmyRome> A Dobarcuu is an aquatic mamallian horror, imagine a hairless dog’s body the size of an elephant, with a long neck ending in an oversized, eyeless human head with a distended jaw and sharp teeth.
[20:51] <+JimmyRome> And no eyes. The eyes are just holes.
[20:52] <+JamesGillen> ugh
[20:52] <+JimmyRome> They prey on travelers and the like, creeping out of lakes and rivers and bogs to surprise them in their sleep.
[20:52] <~Dan> Man, that’s creepy.
[20:52] <+JimmyRome> Of course nobody wants them around, so they set up nets and screens and such at the mouths of rivers, but some of them always slip through when young.
[20:53] <+JimmyRome> Looking out over the water and seeing one’s head just sticking up on that neck would be an unpleasant experience.
[20:53] <+Will> Inspired by Pooka?
[20:54] <+Will> Now I find myself contemplating how to render that. Heh
[20:54] <+JimmyRome> The Dobhar-chรบ, in fact.
[20:54] <+JimmyRome> Pooka sounds too cute for something that ugly.
[20:55] <+Will> Sounds, but the originals were horses that would grab people and drown them
[20:55] <+JimmyRome> wew
[20:55] <+Will> Irish have a lot of evil magic horses. Oddly.
[20:55] <+JimmyRome> Don’t trust magic horses.
[20:55] <~Dan> You should get this guy to do your art: (Link: https://johnkenn.blogspot.com/)https://johnkenn.blogspot.com/
[20:56] <~Dan> So how large of a bestiary do you have?
[20:56] <+JimmyRome> This guy’s stuff is horrifying.
[20:57] <+Bones> (In a really cool way)
[20:57] <~Dan> I know, right? I immediately visualized the Dobarcuu as one of his creatures.
[20:58] <+JimmyRome> I can see it, definitely.
[20:59] <+Catseye> hi
[20:59] <~Dan> Howdy, Catseye!
[20:59] <+Catseye> Q&A?
[21:00] <~Dan> Yup!
[21:00] <+Bones> Dan: Right now our Kickstarter is focused on the core rulebook as opposed to supplemental products like the bestiary. That being said, all of our stretch goals have been unlocked, with the exception of the last mystery stretch goal… we’ll be announcing what that is soon, and it may very well address that very question.
[21:00] <~Dan> The core rulebook doesn’t contain any monsters?
[21:00] <+Motulev> dun dun duuuh
[21:00] <+JimmyRome> Aye. We’ve got all sorts of ideas for monsters, but there’s only so much space in the core rulebook.
[21:01] <+Will> Though some of those wacky PC races make good antagonists. Heh
[21:03] <+Bones> We’re keeping things as low-cost as possible. So the Core Rulebook will be focused on rules, character creation, combat, items and equipment etc. We are offering NPC card decks for backers (60 uniquely made NPC statblocks on cards to be used as enemies or for characters to play as). But no bestiary rolled in to th ecore rulebook.
[21:04] <+Catseye> congrats on exceeding your project goal so soon
[21:04] <+Bones> Similar to what you could expect from D&D in that regard.
[21:04] <~Dan> Welcome to #rpgnet, Guest94!
[21:04] <+Bones> Thanks! We’d been playtesting the game for a while, and had a community of people ready to jump in and support it–without them the game wouldn’t be as fun as it is, nor as successful.
[21:05] <+JimmyRome> No kidding. Gotta love the fans.
[21:07] <~Dan> Complete this sentence: If you like ________, you’ll love Song of Swords!
[21:08] <+JimmyRome> Ooh ooh, thrilling bouts of swordplay!
[21:08] <+JimmyRome> Or no, wait,
[21:08] <+JimmyRome> Bleeding to death!
[21:08] <+JimmyRome> How about History and Swords.
[21:09] <+Catseye> fantasy has so many colors and expressions.
[21:10] <+Motulev> Dan: I cannot, it would involve channel inappropriate words
[21:10] <~Dan> Fair enough, although I was thinking more in terms of other RPGs.
[21:12] <~Dan> Is there anything obvious for PCs to do in the setting?
[21:14] <+Bones> Hard to say in the terms of other RPGs. I’d say that if you love RPGs or any reason, be it story-driven character development, or crunchy, tactical combat, you’ll love Song of Swords.
[21:15] <+Catseye> what does its tactical combat bring to the table that things like D&D and Pathfinder don’t?
[21:15] <+JimmyRome> Oh definitely. There’s no end of political conflicts, wars, and clashes of cultures and peoples in the setting, and there are all sorts of weird magical things to pursue. We’ve included a lot of plot hooks in the setting for GMs to build their games around.
[21:16] <+xyphoid> so one issue with tactical combat games is that you need the GM to be playing the tactical combat game too – how do you manage setting up fights and running things when you’ve got one GM vs X players
[21:16] <+JimmyRome> You know, cursed towns, missing relics, abandoned glades (mentioned that one earlier) if you’re looking for something more fantastical, but we’ve had a lot of success with games rooted in politics and wars too.
[21:17] <+xyphoid> do NPCs and PCs use all the same tactical complexity?
[21:17] <+Bones> Good question Catseye. So let’s say you’re a Barbarian in Pathfinder. In combat you’re going to Rage, and then attack. The choices you’re ultimately making is: Do I rage or not? And which enemy do I attack? For us, and I think a lot of people, that ended up feeling stale.
[21:19] <+Bones> So by giving players control over their choices of offense vs defense, along with allowing you to target say, weak spots on enemies, we’re opening up your decision making. Ever want to go after the dragon’s wing in particular? Or the eye? Now you can.
[21:21] <+Bones> And the exciting part ocme in in making those choices, and deciding how hard you want to commit to them. If you have a combat pool of 15 dice, it’s possible you could end the fight in one awesome samurai style showdown.ย It’s also possible the enemy is faster than you, or you roll poorly. The system creates a lot of drama that way.
[21:22] <+JimmyRome> Yeah, as Bones says, that opens up the combat system to a lot of depth, and it gives the players a lot of dramatic potential because it feels a lot more like the individual choices they make in combat impact their character and the flow of the game.
[21:22] <~Dan> In the time remaining, is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to bring up?
[21:23] <+JimmyRome> At the same time that does, as xyphoid says, potentially open us up to a lot of complexity, but because the combats don’t tend to last a whole lot of moves, and are resolved pretty quickly, unless you have a whole metric ton of disparate characters fighting at once it doesn’t get too cumbersome.
[21:24] <+JimmyRome> We’ve been streamlining the rules for precisely that reason, to make it as easy for the GM to run things as possible. Additionally, most NPCs are probably not going to be using super-complex moves and such, unless they’re plot-centric. The Players will generally care more about their PCs than a GM does the NPCs.
[21:28] <+JimmyRome> I think I’m about good. I think our game has a lot of potential to run some pretty sweet campaigns. That’s been my experience anyway. I hope any of you guys who play it come to a similar conclusion. It’s shaping up to be a really cool game. Bones?
[21:28] <~Dan> Thanks very much for joining us this evening, guys!
[21:28] <+Bones> The only thing worth really mentioning is character advancement. You advance as you complete goals or role-play your character development. So there’s rich lore (even a fan-made wiki) some pretty amazing combat, and a real story-driven style of advancement. So if you find any of these things appealing, I’d encourage you to visit our website and download the
[21:29] <+JimmyRome> Down to the wire now
[21:29] <+Bones> beta rules! (free). And of course more than welcome to ask us any follow-up questions on here or Kickstarter ๐
[21:29] <+JimmyRome> Thanks for having us Dan.
[21:30] <~Dan> Cool. ๐
[21:30] <~Dan> If you’lll give me just a minute, I’ll get the log posted and lin k you. ๐