Took most of December as a break for family, holidays and work. Started January back at editing Anima of Andrus. It’s coming along smoothly. Project creep is a real thing.
Our group has been playing Tiny Dungeon 2e from Gallant Knight Games for about a year now. We’ve noticed, from our perspective, that there were some rough spots. We had to choose whether to stick with TinyD6, shoehorning mechanics in to fill gaps, or shift gears and write our own core mechanics to address the various issues.
We have generated a 12-15 page core rule system that handles much of the fundamentals in similar fashion to TD6. We decided to take it further when it came to character professions and the associated skills/talents/traits. What are the differences you might be asking.
There are definitely expansions on the core mechanics but we’re working to make sure there isn’t an “I Win” character build or mechanic. Much of the changes involve things we were missing from AD&D but simplified for faster play. We’re going to start play testing the new mechanics in March.
Refinement and Expansion (a bit more crunch)
No fear, it’s still based on up to 3d6. Roll Difficulty is still base 5 sliding up or down by 1 based on circumstances and GM call. We’re experimenting with each success on an attack roll being 1 point of damage. At our last session it was pointed out that health would need to be increased to avoid one or two shot kills.
We embraced the idea of weapon groups and expanded on them similar to 2nd Ed AD&D’s Fighter’s Handbook. You can still specialize in a weapon from the one group with which your are Proficient but only Warrior Archetypes are provided Specialization at generation. We also created a Combat Style Talent modeled after those in the same Fighter’s Handbook but tailored to our system. Anyone can take a Style but Warriors gain Proficiency with one at generation.
Heritages still establish health, suggest up to three weapon groups appropriate to the culture and grant a Talent Proficiency.
Archetypes grant another starting Talent Proficiency and some associated, role-specific abilities to make it clearer for players. The three Archetypes at the moment are Warrior, Mystic and Trickster. Beneath those can be more specific designations. Mystics, for instance, break into Arcanist (wizard-ish), Maje (sorcerer-ish), Mender (cleric-like) and Warden (druid-like) each with their own method of casting spells and specialties.
You may notice we’re referring to what used to be Traits as Talents. We decided to scale these with Untrained, Proficient and Specialized. Any character can use a General Talent untrained by rolling 1d6. Characters trained in a Talent usually get another d6 and specialization usually grants another d6. Each stage of a Talent focuses the usage allowing a player to become very good at a few things. Each step of a Talent can also provide things other than dice or in addition to dice.
Characters can have up to 8 Talents (including Heritage and Archetype). Talents granted by a Heritage or Archetype cannot be retrained. Players can eventually use experience to buy one more Archetype to diversify a character or specialize in a Talent the character already knows. We’ve setup XP so that, at the end of each session, a character could specialize in a Talent or save the points to purchase other things.
We’ve currently designated talents as either General or Mystic. Mystic Talents are obviously limited to the Mystic Archetype meaning a Warrior wanting to cast spells will have to cross train into a Mystic Archetype. We’re pondering Martial or Warrior Talents but most of those are better as General, thus the Weapon Spec and Style Prof for starting warriors.
We’re designing spell casters with a little more focus. We don’t want to draft exhaustive spell lists like D&D, believing that players can imagine better themed spells based on a still loose casting influence. Arcanists will have Schools. Maje will have Spheres and Wardens will likely have nature focused Spheres (plant, animal, weather) depending on their play style.
The Andrus setting overall is also progressing, if at a slower pace, because the mechanics have slowed us down. I’m dividing time between magic and Anima at the moment. I wrote a lengthy dissertation on Dragons the other day for some reason. Just when you think you’ve wrapped a topic, inspiration hits.
Anima of Andrus will be the first source book released under our new mechanics. It should be easy to convert to TD6 for those interested in expanding their Heritages. I may even swing around and create a ‘TD6 compatible’ version for DTRPG if there’s still interest. I apologize, no ETA yet.
