[7:32 PM]BASHMAN: Hi, I’m Chris Rutkowsky from Basic Action Games. I’m the author of the BASH! superhero RPG and Honor + Intrigue Swashbuckling RPG that I’m here to discuss today. (done)
[7:34 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Thanks, @BASHMAN! The floor is open to questions!
[7:34 PM]Dan the GMshoe: I suppose the most obvious question is: What is Honor + Intrigue?
[7:35 PM]BASHMAN: Honor + Intrigue is a swashbuckling RPG that focuses on emulating the action and romance of the swashbuckling genre.
[7:36 PM]LaSquida: I loved H+I when it came out, but it feels like there wasn’t a huge amount of material for a long time…and then a sudden explosion! When did you return to the game, or am I just a poorly informed ol’ biddy?
[7:36 PM]BASHMAN: It uses the same core resolution mechanic as the Barbarians of Lemuria (BoL) system, but has been adapted specifically to emulate swashbuckling genre tropes, like you’d see in a Three Musketeers or pirate film.
@LaSquidaI loved H+I when it came out, but it feels like there wasn’t a huge amount of material for a long time…and then a sudden explosion! When did you return to the game, or am I just a poorly informed ol’ biddy?[7:38 PM]BASHMAN: My first Kickstarter for Awesome Powers supplement for BASH! (which is now fully complete and available as an Omnibus book in print and PDF via Drivethru now) ended up growing far beyond my expectations in terms of size and scope of the project; but I had an obligation to see it through. So I tried to put most of my creative effort towards that project until I could get it finished.1
[7:39 PM]BASHMAN: Here’s a link to the finished product from that; it was a long time in the making, but the finished product ended up being worth it, I think. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/419118/Awesome-Powers-OmnibusAwesome Powers Omnibus – Basic Action Games | BASH! Ultimate Editio…Attention Heroes! Awesome Powers is here to help you fight the latest evil peril to threaten the planet! Awesome Power
[7:40 PM]BASHMAN: But once I had that finished, I was suddenly free to work on other projects again, so I decided it was time to give Honor + Intrigue some more much needed love and attention.
[7:41 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Does H+I have its own setting?
[7:44 PM]BASHMAN: It is set on 17th Century Earth largely in Europe, but it is not perfectly historical in its approach. The motto is that when you have to choose between Hollywood and History, lean towards Hollywood. It is meant to be a reflection of how the 17th Century appeared in films from the Golden and Silver Age of cinema, or in more modern classics like Richard Lester’s Three Musketeers films, The Princess Bride, Zorro, or Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.
[7:44 PM]BASHMAN: But you could easily choose to focus your game in the 16th century (matchlock weapons are statted up in there) or the 18th Century really through Napoleonic times.
[7:45 PM]BASHMAN: Though one of the things that Intriguing Options is made to do is break away from it being set on Earth.
[7:46 PM]BASHMAN: As for the setting of the original book, it also allows you to incorporate magic and monsters (the optional final chapter is Mysteries, Horrors, and Wonders and adds magic, monsters, clockwork punk inventions, etc.).
[7:46 PM]Ducky: What is the “killer app” of H + I? (the thing that would make me want to use H+I over other RPG systems)
[7:47 PM]Silverlion: What is this book going to let us do with H+I?
[7:47 PM]BASHMAN: How it handles swashbuckling duels. There is a system called “Advantage” that is used when you are in a fight.
[7:48 PM]BASHMAN: In a swashbuckling film (or just about any film) the combat does not entail two people standing adjacent and taking turns hitting each other.
[7:48 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Actually, before we discuss what H+I does, perhaps you should give us a high-level overview of the Barbarians of Lemuria system?
[7:50 PM]BASHMAN: Well the gist of that system (that was created by Simon Washbourne of Beyond Belief Games) is you roll 2d6+Attribute+Career to accomplish something outside of combat. If you get a 9 or better (after subtracting difficulty) you succeed.1
[7:50 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Careers being very holistic skills?
[7:51 PM]BASHMAN: Careers are what it uses instead of Skills. So a Thief can do anything a thief can do (move silently, pick locks, fast talk a guard, climb a wall, fence stolen goods). They add thief to all those checks but may use a different attribute with them.
[7:51 PM]Dan the GMshoe: As in “Pirate” = “everything a pirate can do”?
[7:51 PM]BASHMAN: Yes
[7:52 PM]BASHMAN: One point of distinction between BoL and H+I is the names of the Attributes; BoL has Strength, Agility, Wits, and Appeal. Honor + Intrigue has Qualities of Might, Daring, Savvy, Flair
[7:54 PM]BASHMAN: Mechanically I wanted to make it so every single stat is useful for combat (and this is leaning back towards @Ducky’s question) and I did not want any “one stat to rule them all”. I was afraid that an Agility stat would be too overwhelming over the other ones. Actually that goes back to before the game had any connection to BoL; it was a completely separate game originally using the same four qualities for that reason, and I wanted to keep that part.
[7:55 PM]BASHMAN: So Daring is useful for doing high-action type stuff, and resisting the effects of fear, while Savvy is good for things that require quick thinking (like Parry and Initiative rolls) or great subtlety and skill (like moving silently, picking a lock, or aiming a firearm).
[7:55 PM]BASHMAN: But if I can get back to the question of the Killer App– the Dueling System1
[7:56 PM]BASHMAN: In a swashbuckling film (or just about any film) the combat does not entail two people standing adjacent and taking turns hitting each other. They constantly are moving around the battlefield. You get pushed back and driven up the stairs or into the rails of the ship.
[7:57 PM]BASHMAN: Combat is always moving about. The way this works is through Advantage. Heroes and Villains each have 3 Advantage to start. You can get more by mastering Dueling Styles, and also being a Musketeer or Cardinal’s Guard also gave you an extra one.(edited)
[7:58 PM]BASHMAN: So when you get hit with a Melee attack, you have 3 options.
[7:58 PM]BASHMAN:
Take the damage. 2. Attempt an active Defense like a Parry or Dodge. 3. Yield Advantage.
[7:58 PM]BASHMAN: When you choose to Yield Advantage, you are driven back (I usually have the opponent get to decide which direction)
[7:59 PM]BASHMAN: If you are down to 0 Advantage, you are “Defeated” in a manner narrated by your opponent.
[7:59 PM]Ducky: When you yield advantage, does the opponent’s advantage go up?
[7:59 PM]BASHMAN: This could mean being run through and killed, captured, etc.
[7:59 PM]BASHMAN: No
[7:59 PM]BASHMAN: But it can go up from other things
[8:00 PM]BASHMAN: Like if you get a Mighty Success on a roll that isn’t an attack, you gain a point of Advantage
[8:00 PM]Ducky: ok, thanks!
[8:00 PM]Dan the GMshoe: (Just a quick note to those who joined us late that everyone is free to ask questions! )
[8:01 PM]BASHMAN: @Ducky there is one more aspect of Duelign that really adds to it and that is the Action Economy.
[8:01 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Why would someone want to take the damage rather than parrying or dodging?
[8:01 PM]LaSquida: So, from the new book: What’s the rule or rules module you think is the killer app for a group playing in the default (probably low if any) magic section? What about more fantastical/”we want the setting to be about this now!” options?
[8:02 PM]BASHMAN: Heroes and Villains get a Major and Minor Action each round. The Major is usually used to attack, but the Minor is usually used with various fancy moves you see in swasbhuckling films, like trying to Bind the other guy’s sword up with your own, or trying to feint or shove them to the ground before you attack.
@Dan the GMshoeWhy would someone want to take the damage rather than parrying or dodging?[8:02 PM]abquintic: Drama
@Dan the GMshoeWhy would someone want to take the damage rather than parrying or dodging?[8:02 PM]BASHMAN: Dodge is not a contested roll; the way Dodge works is it retroactively increases your Defense +2
[8:03 PM]BASHMAN: So if you are just barely hit, you can Dodge (and it is good for more than one attack; either every attack that phase if you are using the Initiative rules from the original book, or for 2 attacks if you are using the alternate initiative rules from the Tome of Intriguing Options).
[8:04 PM]BASHMAN: Parry is a Contested roll where you have to roll equal to or higher than their attack roll. If you fail, you then get the choice of Take Damage or Yield Advantage.
[8:05 PM]BASHMAN: So sometimes Parry or Dodge won’t work. But if you are down to 1 Advantage, you might decide to take the damage. You might also decide to take it if you don’t expect it to be very much damage.
[8:06 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How is damage determined?
[8:06 PM]BASHMAN: You roll based on the weapon. So a rapier does 1d6 damage + Might. A Musket does 2d6 damage.
[8:07 PM]BASHMAN: A claymore does 1d6+2 +Might.
[8:07 PM]BASHMAN: The Tome of Intriguing Options does give an optional rule so you don’t have to roll for damage
[8:08 PM]BASHMAN: Basically based on how much you hit by, a hit might be a Graze, a Hit, or a Telling Blow
[8:08 PM]BASHMAN: A Graze does minimum damage per die, a Hit does medium damage per die (so 3 on 1d6 or 2 on 1d3) and a Telling Blow is max damage per die.
[8:08 PM]Dan the GMshoe: I like that.
[8:08 PM]BASHMAN: But for firearms I recommend rolling damage because 17th century firearms are a bit more chaotic
[8:09 PM]Dan the GMshoe: That makes sense.
[8:09 PM]BASHMAN: I personally use that rule for Pawns (minions) attacking but the Villains, Retainers (less impressive than villains, far more impressive than Pawns), and larger monsters roll damage.
[8:10 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Does the game offer any disincentives to wearing armor?
@Dan the GMshoeDoes the game offer any disincentives to wearing armor?[8:11 PM]BASHMAN: Yes; if you are untrained, wearing Armor costs you a point of Advantage.
[8:12 PM]BASHMAN: If you are trained, Light Armor (like a buffcoat) doesn’t cost Advantage, but has some other penalties to certain checks. You also get a social penalty for wearing armor when not in a battlefield situation.
[8:12 PM]BASHMAN: Heavy Armor costs you an Advantage even if you are trained in its use, but because it gives 1d6 Protection (damage Reduction) it is worth the tradeoff
[8:13 PM]BASHMAN: Heavy Armor Untrained means you cannot Yield Advnatage at all
[8:14 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Aside from the aspects that you’ve already mentioned, what are some of the new elements introduced in the Tome of Intriguing Options?
[8:15 PM]BASHMAN: I was just going to address @Silverlion’s earlier question regarding Intriguing Options. It does give new options even for a historical campaign in the first two chapters where the first is rules alternatives and random story ideas, and the second is specifically related to new Dueling Styles.
[8:18 PM]BASHMAN: Chapter 3 is Blasters + Intrigue where the focus is on using this game for Science Fiction stories, largely Space Opera, but there are sections discussing other subgenres where the swashbuckling action of the system might work well, like Sword + Planet (think John Carter), Rockets + Rapiers (Flash Gordonesque space pulp), Neon + Intrigue (either Cyberpunk or if you add the fantasy ftuff, too, you could do a Shadowrun type setting with it).
[8:18 PM]BASHMAN: Steampunk gets its own section in that part, too.
[8:18 PM]Dammit Victor 🐙: Yeah, Blasters + Intrigue is really what I’m backing the whole package for.1
[8:19 PM]BASHMAN: We also added Dogfighting, rules for different modes of fire (suppressing fire, concentrated fire, etc.) you can Yield Advantage to ranged attacks (dive for cover)
[8:19 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Wow… How big is this book?
[8:19 PM]BASHMAN: Adjust the Ship to Ship rules from Age of Sail to big capital ships out in space
[8:20 PM]Dammit Victor 🐙: So the dogfighting rules are based on the same dueling rules as H+I? How do the maneuver rules translate?
[8:20 PM]BASHMAN: 260 pages approximately. If there are so many backers that their names won’t all fit in the closing credits, I might extend it to 261.
[8:20 PM]BASHMAN: @Dammit Victor 🐙 not quite, but similar.
[8:20 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How would you handle swashbuckling cyberpunk?
[8:21 PM]BASHMAN: Pilots do have something called “Pilot Advantage” When they are in a small craft
[8:21 PM]BASHMAN: But when you Yield Pilot Advantage your opponent gets to add a condition to you
[8:22 PM]BASHMAN: This might mean that you are caught in a spin, flying towards an obstacle, losing an engine, picked up another bogey on your tail, etc. The GM will determine the consequence for this condition
[8:23 PM]BASHMAN: The Pilot then has to make a Test to undo the condition. Some example conditions are included as well as example penalties. o Unable to a�ack o Take a Penalty Die on next Pilot Roll o Lose 1d3 Integrity from grazing an obstacle o Take -1 to one of your ship’s Qualities o Confer a Bonus Die to an enemy ship’s next roll
@Dan the GMshoeHow would you handle swashbuckling cyberpunk?[8:25 PM]BASHMAN: You’d be surprised. But the gunplay of people diving across a hallway, firing a gun in each hand does work pretty well with the mechanics added into Blasters + Intrigue and the style of course, is always important.
[8:25 PM]BASHMAN: But this is only Chapter 3 we’ve gotten to….
[8:26 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Interesting. So you consider John Woo-style “gun fu” hijinks to be a type of swashbuckling? I suppose it is, at that…
@Dan the GMshoeInteresting. So you consider John Woo-style “gun fu” hijinks to be a type of swashbuckling? I suppose it is, at that…[8:26 PM]BASHMAN: Yes
[8:27 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Do you introduce rules for nonhuman PCs, like elves, robots, and aliens?
[8:27 PM]BASHMAN: Blasters + Intrigue also adds a lot of tech gadgets and vehicles to the game
[8:27 PM]BASHMAN: Yes, that is in Chapter 4: Nonhuman Characters
[8:28 PM]LaSquida: I may have asked you this before, but what’s the weirdest thing you can play?
@LaSquidaI may have asked you this before, but what’s the weirdest thing you can play?[8:28 PM]Dan the GMshoe: World of Synnibarr?1
[8:29 PM]BASHMAN: So we have your standard elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, etc. But also a number of different aliens that you can incorporate like Lunarians, Martians, Venusians, and some that I made up like the Durax. Likewise you might be a robot or a Synthoid, a synthetic person.
@LaSquidaI may have asked you this before, but what’s the weirdest thing you can play?[8:29 PM]BASHMAN: Some of my favorite things are the weird ones1
@Dan the GMshoeWorld of Synnibarr?[8:29 PM]abquintic: Braver man than I am. I think I stopped at Senzar
[8:29 PM]BASHMAN: I especially liked the Rosmar (Walrus Folk) that I added in
[8:29 PM]Dammit Victor 🐙: Do you include rules for designing your own?=
[8:30 PM]BASHMAN: I basically designed this chapter around 3 campaign concepts: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Nautical Fantasy– so there are a number of aquatic and semi-aquatic folk you can play as which would be condusive to a fantasy campaign mostly at sea
[8:31 PM]The GIT!: As an avid fan of Honor + Intrigue I really do recommend that people take a close look at Chris’s work. Also, Barbarians of Lemuria is a terrific system, and Chris has done a fantastic job of adapting it and expanding on it. Honor + Intrigue is one of my favourite RPGs in over 40 years of gaming.11
[8:31 PM]BASHMAN: But I do give a mention to Sword + Sandal, Gothic Horror, or Celtic Myth focused campaigns, too
@The GIT!As an avid fan of Honor + Intrigue I really do recommend that people take a close look at Chris’s work. Also, Barbarians of Lemuria is a terrific system, and Chris has done a fantastic job of adapting it and expanding on it. Honor + Intrigue is one of my favourite RPGs in over 40 years of gaming.[8:32 PM]BASHMAN: That made me feel pretty special11
[8:32 PM]Dammit Victor 🐙: I know I’m not the only fan of wuxia space opera in here…
[8:32 PM]BASHMAN: Regarding the rules for building your own fantasy folk or aliens, yes you can.
[8:32 PM]Rated Aargh: Celtic mythic campaigns? Like Sláine?
[8:33 PM]BASHMAN: It explains how I designed things and what you need to do to design your own. There is also a master list of Ancestral Boons and Ancestral Flaws you can choose from to design your own.
[8:33 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Have you or anyone you know tried a mega genre mash-up using all of these new setting rules?
[8:33 PM]BASHMAN: Yes
@Dan the GMshoeHave you or anyone you know tried a mega genre mash-up using all of these new setting rules?[8:33 PM]BASHMAN: Very gladd you asked about this one.
[8:34 PM]Dammit Victor 🐙: Yeah. how many of the new options can you practically play at once?
@BASHMANVery gladd you asked about this one.[8:34 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Oh? Do tell!
[8:34 PM]BASHMAN: So here is a kind of an off-the-wall idea I have for a setting. Red Suns over Rubicon 4 is a swashbuckling science fantasy setting. The characters find themselves on a strange and hostile world with two red suns in the crimson sky. It is the world of Rubicon. To have any chance to escape, they must band together and seek out the great gates, which lead to yet other worlds. They must cling to the hope that one of the gates will bring them home. Starting PCs: Players may make characters fit for nearly any genre of historic, science fiction, or fantasy campaign, so long as it fits the swashbuckling milieu of the campaign. A party might comprise an elven wizard, a French musketeer, a police robot, an Atlantean alchemist, a cybernetic starship pilot, and a dieselpunk archeologist. The idea behind Red Suns Over Rubicon is essentially a gonzo “kitchen sink” campaign setting where I can mix sci-fi, fantasy, and historical stuff at will. The planet Rubicon 4 t is full of derelicts and people who’ve been marooned here from other worlds called the “Vanished”; people and things that disappeared from different points in time and space. So a pilot who disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in the 1930s could end up with in the same party as a 17th century pirate whose ship was lost at sea (or an elven pirate from another world entirely; or a space pirate for that matter). Essentially Rubicon is at a rift in the space-time continuum that draws things to it. The planet also has a special metal called Orichalcum that is used to fuel magic items and technology with different colors of Orichalcum having different special properties.1
[8:34 PM]The GIT!: Chris may want to correct me, but I think one of the strengths of H+I is how modular and felxible it is. You can choose to some or all of the rules and it works just great. It really depends on how your gaming group likes to play.
[8:34 PM]BASHMAN: I pasted this from discussing it on my own Discord earlier; I don’t type that fast
[8:35 PM]The GIT!: Damn…I can’t even talk that fast LOL
[8:35 PM]BASHMAN: I did run a coupl games set on Rubicon 4 at KublaCon in May and I had a blast with it. It all began with that Dungeon23 craze at the start of the year.
[8:35 PM]Dan the GMshoe: What are your magic rules like?
[8:35 PM]BASHMAN: I began building a dungeon that would use fantasy, sci-fi, and historical characters all at once
@The GIT!Chris may want to correct me, but I think one of the strengths of H+I is how modular and felxible it is. You can choose to some or all of the rules and it works just great. It really depends on how your gaming group likes to play.[8:36 PM]BASHMAN: True; one of the complains the game often gets is it is too light-hearted and not gritty enough. Those are dials you can adjust. (Chapter 1 addresses how to do that in a few different ways).
@Dan the GMshoeWhat are your magic rules like?[8:37 PM]BASHMAN: Okay so in the core rules, spells are magic used by Dark Sorcerers. Heroes don’t do that; they do alchemy, make talismans, tell fortunes, etc.
[8:38 PM]BASHMAN: Chapter 5: Spells + Spellcasters lets you play wizards, paladins, clerics, druids, telepaths, etc.
[8:39 PM]BASHMAN: The way that works is there is a Career called Spellcaster which you have to define as what type you are (see the list above) but you can also just create one with the GM (so @Dammit Victor 🐙 might have Wuxia as a “Spellcaster” career to represent their various supernatural abilities).
[8:41 PM]BASHMAN: But Spellcaster also has a Connected Career. So a character with Mage/Wizard would take Scholar or Magician as a connected Career. Your rank in Spellcaster cannot exceed the connected Career by more than 1.
[8:41 PM]BASHMAN: So a character with Scholar 2 could have Wizard 3, but not Wizard 4 (not until they raise Scholar, too).
[8:41 PM]BASHMAN: This helps handle the “Linear warrior vs. Quadratic caster” problem
[8:42 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Hmm! Interesting.
[8:42 PM]The GIT!: How do you decide on the connected career, and what is the thinking behind it?
[8:42 PM]BASHMAN: Also Spellcaster is just a measure of the character’s raw magical power– not their knowledge; that is what the connected Career is for.(edited)
[8:42 PM]The GIT!: Ah…makes sense
[8:42 PM]Dan the GMshoe: What are the actual spellcasting rules?
@The GIT!How do you decide on the connected career, and what is the thinking behind it?[8:43 PM]BASHMAN: They all have suggested ones. So Cleric/Paladin has Clergy or Healer, Druid/Shaman has Apothecary or Woodsman
[8:44 PM]BASHMAN: Where this gets a bit dodge is Psionicist/Telepath because depending on the universe your game is in, it could be all sorts of different things so there it is best for the GM to decide what careers make sense. So a Babylon 5 type Psi-Corps character would have to take Soldier or Detective as a connected Career while a “Psi Knight” type would take Mystic.
[8:45 PM]Dammit Victor 🐙: So what is Mystic besides a connected Career?
@Dan the GMshoeWhat are the actual spellcasting rules?[8:45 PM]BASHMAN: So you roll a Test using Savvy + Spellcaster. The Difficulty is 1 for Spells of the 1st Circle, 2 for 2nd, and 4 for 3rd.
[8:45 PM]Silverlion: That’s cool.
@Dammit Victor 🐙So what is Mystic besides a connected Career?[8:46 PM]BASHMAN: A philosopher who studies esoteric mysteries; but you could easily have it be Martial Artist or something like that instead depending on the needs of the setting.
[8:47 PM]BASHMAN: If you roll a Mighty Success, you get some extra effect out of the spell (usually doubling it) and pay half the Arcane Power cost normally needed.
[8:47 PM]Dammit Victor 🐙: I remember BoL has penalty rules for characters with alchemy or magic backgrounds. Do you have anything like that in H+I?
[8:47 PM]BASHMAN: If you get a Calamitous Failure, you roll on the Spell Calamity Table… that is special and fun
[8:47 PM]Silverlion: Will there be martial arts/HTH rules?
[8:47 PM]Dan the GMshoe: I seem to recall that magic in BoL is basically freeform. Is that the case here as well?
@Dan the GMshoeI seem to recall that magic in BoL is basically freeform. Is that the case here as well?[8:48 PM]BASHMAN: No; there are spell lists with set spells. But there are a lot of them.
[8:49 PM]BASHMAN: Over 140
[8:49 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Nice! What led to you deciding to go that route with magic?
[8:50 PM]BASHMAN: One more thing that is pertinent to spellcasting is you can Master a spell, just like you can master fighting manevuers. Mastering a spell lets you roll a Bonus Die to cast it, permanently increases your Arcane Power by 1, and each spell has its own special effect that happens when it is mastered.
@Dan the GMshoeNice! What led to you deciding to go that route with magic?[8:52 PM]BASHMAN: Because the design goal here was for a more high fantasy style of magic like you might use in some dungeon crawling or set psionic powers you could use for a space opera campaign. I wanted players to have a lot of options without having to be too concerned about “choice paralysis”.
[8:53 PM]BASHMAN: That said, there are guidelines on how to do custom spells, too. And also a number of variations on how to handle magic. So variant rules for casting without tracking Arcane Power, how spells/powers might work at epic scale like in space (Telekinetically stopping a ship from taking off, for instance), as well as “improvised magic” verses set spell lists for characters.
[8:53 PM]Dan the GMshoe: How powerful can magic get on the high end of the scale?
@SilverlionWill there be martial arts/HTH rules?[8:54 PM]BASHMAN: A bit; there are unarmed fighting styles in the Duelist’s Guide section and also in the Spells + Spellcasters section because one of the other things this introduces besides magic is Sword-Casters which combine Magic with physical combat for some very unique magical dueling styles.
[8:55 PM]BASHMAN: One of those is called “Dancing Wind” that uses wind magic along with kick-based attacks. There is another called “Stone Fist” that uses earth magic and toughens and strengthens the user’s punches.
@Dan the GMshoeHow powerful can magic get on the high end of the scale?[8:56 PM]BASHMAN: Spells of the 3rd Circle for a Spellcaster are not as epically powerful as they are for a Dark Sorcerer from the regular H+I book, where you could cause a plague that wipes out an entire city, or raise a ship of the damned from beneath the waves. But they are still pretty powerful.
[8:56 PM]Silverlion: Nice. I like that, I am a huge fan of martial arts.
[8:56 PM]LaSquida: Got an example of one of the big spells?
[8:57 PM]BASHMAN: Like you can animate an automaton permanently
[8:57 PM]BASHMAN: Enchant items of greater enchantment
[8:57 PM]BASHMAN: Change the weather
[8:58 PM]BASHMAN: Fly, place a Geas on somebody
[8:59 PM]BASHMAN: Heal permanent crippling conditions (like regrow limbs)
[8:59 PM]BASHMAN: Raise or lower water levels
[9:00 PM]BASHMAN: Nullify other magic, become nearly invincible
[9:00 PM]BASHMAN: It might be easier if I show:
[9:02 PM]BASHMAN: I’ve got all the spells bookmarked
[9:03 PM]Silverlion: Very nice!
[9:04 PM]LaSquida: Nifty!
[9:04 PM]Silverlion: Is there anything you wanted to include but couldn’t/can’t?
@Dammit Victor 🐙I remember BoL has penalty rules for characters with alchemy or magic backgrounds. Do you have anything like that in H+I?[9:04 PM]BASHMAN: No. The only real “penalty” for becoming a Spellcaster is opportunity cost. You have to take a Boon to be allowed the Spellcaster Career and you have to have that connected Career to go with it. So it is less resources you could put into being a better warrior I suppose.
@SilverlionIs there anything you wanted to include but couldn’t/can’t?[9:06 PM]BASHMAN: I wanted to squeeze in Satyr as a specific Ancestry but didn’t have room for it. I do suggest how you can make satyrs by “reskinning” goblins (my goblins are not Pathfinder goblins more like tricksters) but I’d have liked to be able to give a full writeup.
[9:06 PM]Silverlion: I like Satyrs! Darn!
@SilverlionI like Satyrs! Darn![9:07 PM]BASHMAN: Well the section with the Reskin advice will let you make a pretty passable Satyr; and the master list of Boons and Flaws can help take care of the rest.
[9:08 PM]BASHMAN: For isntance there are Boons “Horns” and “Hooves” that they might take along with the Atypical Body flaw because they cannot wear a helmet with the horns (unless it was specially made for them) and cannot wear boots, etc.
[9:09 PM]BASHMAN: A lot of the Boons and Flaws from the Goblin list relate to them being some what trickster-y so that seemed like a pretty decent overlap once you add the horns
@LaSquidaNifty![9:09 PM]BASHMAN: the Spells of the 3rd Circle is also the smallest list of the three
[9:10 PM]BASHMAN: Cantrips, btw, also exist, but those are totally freeform; I don’t have set cantrips
[9:14 PM]BASHMAN: Something I did not get to mention when we were discussing the Ancestries is that you don’t have a set list of traits. There are some that are required, but in general, a given species has a lot of leeway over what Ancestral Boons and Flaws they take. Like all Minotaurs have Horns and Atypical Body, but they have a wide range of other Boons and Flaws they can pick from; so two Minotaurs may be rather different from one another.
[9:14 PM]BASHMAN: Essentially the Boons and Flaws here represent tendencies rather than rules (unless it is something inherint, like having horns or a tail, etc.).
[9:15 PM]BASHMAN: Also most fantasy folk have an explanation of how to adapt it for Sci-Fi and most aliens have a suggestion of how to adapt it for fantasy.
[9:16 PM]Silverlion: That’s cool.
[9:16 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Does the Tome come with a bestiary?
[9:16 PM]Silverlion: I like seeing that as opposed to fantasy races reskinned entirely for Sci-fi (a few games do that.)
[9:18 PM]BASHMAN: Two small sample Bestiaries are included; one for Aliens and Robots in Blasters + Intrigue and a sample fantasy bestiary in the Spells+ Spellcasters, this is in particular for if someone wants to make an animated carriage or bind a creature for summoning spells, or give sentience to a tree…
[9:19 PM]BASHMAN: But as for Stretch Goals, one of the things that just broke today was a draft of the Horrifying + Fantastic Creatures
[9:19 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Give sentience to a tree? What fir?1
[9:20 PM]BASHMAN: This is a bestiary I’ve been working on alongside Intriguing Options; the current draft is 106 pages with over 200 monsters in a smallish font.
[9:20 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Wow!
[9:21 PM]Silverlion: Nice! Lots of monsters!
[9:21 PM]Dan the GMshoe: So it sounds like you’ve set out to create a multigenre game for all things swashbuckling.
[9:21 PM]BASHMAN: What the KS unlocked today was that I will send backers an exclusive copy of the current draft for playtesting and use in their Honor + Intrigue campaign. It isn’t “publishing” ready, there is no art for instance, but it is definitely good enough to use at the table (it’s what I’ve been doing for a year and a half or so).
@Dan the GMshoeSo it sounds like you’ve set out to create a multigenre game for all things swashbuckling.[9:22 PM]BASHMAN: That is the plan; a lot of people suggested online using H+I for Star Wars for instance because of the dueling rules. Then one of my players decided to run that for us, and I was totally hooked at that point and decided to make it a thing.
[9:22 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Cool!
[9:23 PM]BASHMAN: It was; I got to play a Mandalorian!
[9:23 PM]Dan the GMshoe: That is the way.1
[9:24 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Given that no game is flawless and that no game is for everyone, (1) what is your least favorite aspect of H+I and (2) what sort of gamer is the game definitely not for?
@Rated AarghCeltic mythic campaigns? Like Sláine?[9:25 PM]BASHMAN: That is a reference I don’t recognize, actually.
@Dan the GMshoeGiven that no game is flawless and that no game is for everyone, (1) what is your least favorite aspect of H+I and (2) what sort of gamer is the game definitely not for?[9:28 PM]BASHMAN: Hmm. I would say it isn’t for people heavilty favoring realism in the campaign; I definitely go for a more dramatic and cinematic playstyle. You can play a grittier style of game, but it isn’t going to out-grit a game that was designed specifically for that, like a dungeon crawl where you die instantly at 0 HP, for instance. Even playing in a grittier style, you still get till -6 Lifeblood before you die.
[9:30 PM]BASHMAN: Least favorite thing about H_I is I wish I had done it in color the first time around. A lot of the paintings that are featured are absolutely beautiful pieces of art and in greyscale it isn’t quite the same. I just couldn’t afford color the first time around.
[9:30 PM]BASHMAN: I think this was before color POD was even an option
[9:31 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Excellent answers!
[9:31 PM]Dan the GMshoe: In the time remaining, is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to bring up?
[9:33 PM]BASHMAN: I just hope people will enjoy using this for their own campaigns as my group has with ours. Whether it is across the stars or across the seas or hacking your way through a jungle or crawling through a dungeon.
[9:35 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Awesome!
[9:35 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Thanks very much for joining us, @BASHMAN!
[9:35 PM]BASHMAN: Thank you very much for having me.
[9:35 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Thanks as well to all those who showed up for the Q&A!
[9:35 PM]Dan the GMshoe: Usual reminder: If you’ve enjoyed this Q&A and would like to treat me to a coffee or two, you can do so at https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe. Anything’s appreciated! Ko-fiBuy Dan Davenport a Coffee. ko-fi.com/gmshoeBecome a supporter of Dan Davenport today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love with no fees on donations.
[9:36 PM]Dan the GMshoe: If you’ll give me a minute, I’ll get the lost posted and link you!
[9:36 PM]BASHMAN: Should I post a link for the KS?
[9:36 PM]BASHMAN: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/basicactiongames/tome-of-intriguing-options