Hey Mark,
Thanks SO MUCH for looking through it and giving us so much to think about! I really appreciate that you seem to care about this game and want everyone to have fun!!!
I've included my answers following your text below:
Are we continuing the campaign we've been on, or starting something totally new?
We're attempting a very new style. The game will utilizing the new system with some old system flair The current world on which you are all living will be known as Homestead. In Homestead, Andrew will be using the power of the Vault to create portals to various planes. Some will go back to your old worlds, and one, very important one will be going to Xarxes. Xarxes is where this new system takes hold.
It is not a rewrite. The new system will take hold as soon as you walk through the portal (providing you do so), EXCEPT for Minions, races and death. Minions, races, and death will hold the same flavor they still do when not in Xarxes. When you step through the portal to Xarxes, you will discover you have the knowledge of the build that we will be sending you. We've attempted to use logic to correspond levels of the old system to the new Xarxes system for that but certain things will change based on inherent changes in the system.
A few game questions:
Can Traits be purchased? If so, what is the cost?
Each player gets 3 traits to begin. There will be a skill called "Gifted" which when built up will allow more Traits.
Willpower: how many do PC's start with?
How do you lose willpower (other than spending 1 to resist X if you have the Trait to do so)? I notice some powers only affect a target if their Will is 0.
Male characters begin with 10 WP. Females with 13 WP. There are certain abilities (see Seduction as an example) that will remove WP, like damage removes vitality.
I'm not enthused by the food, hunger, shelter, and clothes system. When i come to an event I want to be roleplaying with PCs and NPCs, and adventuring, not doing inventory management and survival-based activities (buy food, eat it, or gain Hunger Tokens). And I'm open to trying it out!
I understand. Most of that is background logistics for when people try to do things such as swim under long lengths of water or try to travel two weeks in the desert. Some spells affect it but honestly, the majority is for logistics and not for players to worry about. The exception is food. And although it does commit players to remembering another "pool", it accomplishes two things from our mindset[ one, it makes cooks and food valuable, instead of just a throw away resource. And two, it forces the player to view this more realistically. Knowing that if they haven't eaten, it WILL affect them. Both of which, we are strongly behind.
Training each other in skills is a cool RP mechanic. Unfortunately, I've done a fair amount of this in DR, and even with training/learning being 30 minutes at DR, it can start to drag after 15-20 minutes depending on how much talking and acting it out is needed for the specific skill. For your mechanic to be 1 hour, I don't anticipate it being fun most of the time, but rather a grind and a distraction from more fun larp activities. I recommend dropping training to 15 minutes.
I agree with you. An hour per training is tedious and almost not worth it. We viewed this as a way that players could take a break, go to town, help NPC, or get to know each other. You will have time slots in your Between Function Action sheet which will allow you to train or learn so that you don't need to use valuable in game time if you prefer. We just know there is quite a bit of down time and wanted to give players a reason and functionality into sparring and showing each other what they can do.
Death: losing skill points off of every skill - yikes. that makes it a deadly skill-draining system. Not fun. Even just after the second death, if I have 15 skills, that's losing 45 skill points. 3rd death, that's losing 90 skill points! New PC's only start with about 75 skill points! Appears very punitive!
Yeah, dying sucks. We highly recommend not doing it.
Look, I get it. But we considered tons of options on death. The trick is to make characters fear death without having them have to lose a beloved character. We felt this was the best course as it doesn't penalize you to a point you cannot recover but is an OBVIOUS detriment.
Magic Allowance: "most characters begin game with an ER of 5..." Do you mean an MA of 5?
"this can be modified by race, traits, or skills" (I didn't see any traits that modified ER or MA; there is the one skill of Magic Allowance that increases MA).
ER stands for Ego Rating. It is the same as Magic Allowance. We will go through and make it all one thing for the final Rulebook. But they are the same.
Cool concept the Tasjni Passion pool. Is it possible to increase that pool from 3 Passion? Is it possible to pay for more than one Tasjni Gift?
Thanks! Nope and nope. In so much as we want characters to be unique in skills, we want the same in Tasjni. If one character was allowed to grab 2-4, then other Tasjni are no longer as valued or needed.
Traits: sleight of hand: are there limits to how often this trait can be used? Or is Willpower spent to activate?
There is no willpower requirement nor limit. However, you must have a free hand to do it so, in essence, they are limited to 2 plus time to get rid of the objects.
Trait of chosen: "may purchase skills: Miracles." But Miracles lists the pre-req of Divine Dedication. Shamanism lists the prereq of Chosen.
I'm not sure what the question is here, bud. You have to have Chosen to use any divine magics. Miracles requires Divine Dedication. Divine Dedication requires the Trait Chosen. So Shamans need a trait, priests need a Trait and a Skill
Skills:
Gambler: how often can they do this?
Until they are lynched for cheating everyone.
Meditation: Rank 2 in Martial Arts grants more Willpower (+5 will) than Rank 3 in meditation (+3 will, no other skills). Intentional or typo?
Intentional.
Weapon style: Swashbuckler: Swashbucklers must spend one full minute between offensive attacks when using this style. I assume that means a PC could take one sword swing per minute? Most larp combats with 1 NPC don't last 1 minute...
I believe you implied statement is that you think that is too long between swings. There are many other styles that do not have a time limit. If this one doesn't appeal to you, choose another. It is written as we want it.
Weapon Style Adaptive: this style also says "Swashbucklers must spend one full minute...." I assume the mechanic is the same as with Swahbucklers, and it's a typo and should read "Adaptive duelists must...."
True! Typo. We will update. Thanks!
I assume people only gain skills or points in skills by training, teaching, or BFAs, right?
Correct.
Using BFAs to advance a skill: if I'm Journeyman in Stealth with 15 points, and I need another 15 points to reach Master, am I reading it correctly that I can apply 4 time slots of BFA to gain 1 skill point towards Master?
Negative. Unless you have Self Taught, it works like this:
I have 10 in Staff. I want to train myself to 11. I must spend 11 time slots to get to level 11 in Staff.
If you have the Trait Self Taught. You need only spend 2 points in Staff to raise it to 11.
Is Leadership in the last edition of the game now Bureaucracy? are there minions?
Leadership from the last game will change to Bureaucracy in XARXES ONLY. The old Minion system will exist in Homestead. In the new world, you will have to get Minions and pay them.
I can see that it will take a lot more xp to learn divine or magic spells now than in the 2013 version of the game. And I think, probably the same compared with the 2018 version of the game, but that's harder for me to determine.
There is no XP in the new system. If you're referring to levels of the skill, yes, you're correct. However, unlike Homestead, you don't get 2 build and have to decide where to spend it, you could advance 20 skills or more if you have the time slot and desire.
That's all for now!
Mark
