When last I looked at my Just the Rules series (i.e. April last year, almost nine months ago), I’d reached a point where I had the general shape of what I wanted, without being able to fill it in. I know what I want the level progression to look like. …
Normally when I do the A-Z Blog Challenge, I wrap up with a ‘Z-A Index’ of the posts that month. I’m tired, and it’s an easy title and basically mechanical post. This year I could have used the post title ‘Zounds! Almost 40,000 Words!’ In fact, that was the working …
Yesterday I examined existing drawbacks in Ultimate Spheres of Power, and one of them really stood out to me. Twenty-four of the twenty-five drawbacks I examined could be modeled in Hero System as Limitations. Almost all would be considered -1/2 Limitations and some were worth twice as much (and would …
As usual, cheating a little on ‘X’… but I’m being more or less alliterative so it’s all good! I am not a purist, nor am I proud. Yesterday I went through Mutants & Masterminds and Hero System core books to look for new drawbacks for use with Ultimate Spheres of …
A couple days ago I starting applying Ultimate Spheres of Power to build variant casting traditions. It was a start, but I’m going to dig into a couple of my favorite design resources to see if I can get some more options. Mutants & Masterminds I’m going to tackle Mutants …
On further reading, it becomes evident to me that Ultimate Spheres of Power will indeed meet my needs, with a bit of mechanical refitting. The spheres and talents fit my plans quite well, but tonight I’m looking at the drawbacks and boons, and how they are used to build magical …
Here I was, brainstorming ideas for a ‘U Day’ post, and I see a book holding my night table down, Ultimate Spheres of Power from Drop Dead Studios. Two days after I come up with a scheme for spell casting, and here I’m looking at a book with all the …
Long ago, while working on the Echelon Reference Series, I decided that I really wanted to separate ability definitions from the game elements that granted them. For instance, I didn’t like to see ‘evasion’ defined in the rogue class, and then other classes (monk and ranger) saying “gain evasion, as …
Actually nothing to do with loot and other PC rewards. I’m still trying to figure those out. Rather, I think I might have found a solution to another problem. Basic, expert, and master paths are all reasonably gelled in my mind, but champion paths have eluded me a bit. Until …
Hopefully a quick second post for ‘S’, because I need to get onto ‘T’ (either ‘Tiered Abilities’ or ‘Traditions’, and knowing me probably both). Skills hold a conflicted place in my mind. I like the idea, but they’ve never really been interesting. They offer some useful abilities and options as …
