Manacite

I been wanting to give out little teaser portions of my Clashlands game setting that I am developing the DDRPS for, and this is going to be the first of those little teasers. To save on explaining how the details of my magic system, I'll just give a brief summary in explaining this game element. I have noted before that I have never liked the Vancian style of magic. Fact is, I much prefer a Niven flavor of magic, such as in Larry Niven Magic goes away series. In it, magic doesn't work for nothing, but actually consumes a type of mystical energy known as mana (or manna as it is spelled in the latest of Niven's series), that is usually ambient in the environment. In my setting it is also available from an internal source, or various ways of channeling and storing it, but there is still a minimal amount of ambient mana required for a magical effect to actually manifest. In a Mana dead zone, magic simply will not work at all.

In my system there won't really be spell levels, but rather a combination of minimum mana level to manifest it and the total amount of mana points it takes to activate a type of magical effect. Once started, there may be a steady drain to maintain an effect as well. In addition, most magic items will be powered by mana, some directly by tapping it from their wearers and others from mana storage devices.

In the Clashlands setting, the most common sort of mana storage device is going to be Manacite shards. Manacite is made alchemically by mixing various chemicals with ground crystals and salts and then simmering it in large vats to grow manacite crystals which are not charged when created, but can be charged once grown. They are very uniform in shape, size and storage capacity and have a full charge life expectancy of about 1 earth year. After about 10 years without use they would drain completely. As long as they aren't actually used, they are rechargible. It is my vision that there will be combat mages marching around with bandoliers of charged manacite crystals to power manacite powered magic items and their quick spells. When a Manacite crystal is tapped, it burns out, and dumps enough mana to power the equivalent of about a 3rd or 4th level standard D&D spell or effect. Any mana not used is wasted and discharged into the local ambient mana flow, with negligible effect on the local ambient mana strength, and the crystal burns out at which point it can't be recharged but can be used for other useful purposes in a recycled fashion.

A charged crystal of manacite would weigh about an ounce, and would put out a steady blue glow with a luminessence equivalent to a typical blue LED. In the Clashlands setting, a brightly glowing one is usually accepted in barter at a straight trade rate when insufficient coin isn't available, because they are usually very easy to resell if not useful to the merchant accepting them.

And now, second section

Alright. A few days later than I was originally aiming for, but section 1.0 of the DDRPS RD is posted on the net. In addition I did a few more edits on section 0.0. My delay is a combination of multiple re-edits. Also took the time to put bookmarks in the two sections posted, so that I can actually put together a proper table of contents or index next. May get the beginning of that posted tonight. If not, by tomorrow night. May not be accompanied by a post. May just appear as a new link on the sidebar.

When caffiene doesn't work...

Wow.. I didn't ever get back to stuff last night, after the last post. Instead, I was doing other stuff for about an hour, went and made that coffee, and then promptly passed out and slept a winkless 8 hours in my computer chair. I didn't think I was that tired. Still haven't gotten anymore game related writing done, but I am winding down to do today's work soon.

Still Writing 4Real!

Decided to set myself the honest minimum goal of 2 hours of project related writing a day. Editing of stuff I've already done counts. I'm currently about halfway through the next section of the DDRPS RD, which is what I've decided to call the document, instead of an SRD... I mean, longhanded, DDRPS SRD would make System redundent, since DDRPS is already the Dystopian Destinies RP System. I did most of that work last night. Today, I did a little polishing of the first section, then a second draft of the work I'd already finished on characteristics, then had a few other things to do.

While I was off working on some other stuff and walking around between locations, I got to thinking and decided to make a few last minute revisions and additions to the first sections, to reorder some of the material from other sections or to swing a little wider out from the original d20 rules. Like, for the section on Adding Multipliers, I decided I'd just change the way multipiers are expressed and make adding them more straight forward as a result.

I still have a few more tweaks I plan to make to that first section. I plan to add some stuff to the dice checks section about general conventions on conditions were a degree of success is considered or the concept of a critical success and a couple other concepts I want to lay have understood to avoid confusion later, like autosuccesses and the difference between a critical roll, or a roll when under pressure, in combat and so on, and a casual roll, which is when the outcome of a failure at most means it will take longer and there is no stress or pressure for time. In casual rolls, I got an optional rule (it's a core rule a GM can ignore if they don't like it) to roll a d10 and add a base modifier of +10 instead of rolling a d10 and make the action take extra time... It's my version of a take 10 rule and is automatic. I don't plan to make a take 10 rule or a take 20 rule, in the sense the Wizards of the Coast D&D rules part of my system. I only plan to make references to them as an alternative, if someone doesn't like my versions and not in the SRD.

In the name of the OpenGaming concept, one of the ways I plan to make commercial versions of my system smaller and more affordable to print is to not dabble in the novice stuff too much, but only suggest one read some of the original material mine is based off of, if they need a more laymen perspective. In addition, the core RD rules I plan to keep SFTO and clean, but the published version of the rules will come with a warning that it's examples and some of it's subject matter will address mature subject matters not in the RD, like seduction, STDs and recreational drugs. My actual setting will come with the cover warnings that they are seriously intended JUST for mature audiences, because frankly, I like mature subject matters. I expect a player of my game to be mature enough to just ignore and not use a section of a campaign setting they don't like rather than get offended by it. Some of the subject matter I plan to cover in Clashlands will be intentionally offensive. I plan to deal with subject matters such as slavery, racism, sexism, etc. in the settings and they will not be utopian or politically correct. I am not outright calling the system Dystopian because doom and gloom will necessarily be built into the core rules, but because Almost every setting I plan to use it for, in my publishing and what I am intending it for are settings with very dark and ugly Dystopian elements. If I ever get any of the MUDs or MMOs I really want to do out there, they would be Adult Only as well.

Anyway, I've wasted enough time on this and still haven't gotten to making the coffee I was originally pausing to get. That was before I had to get up in the middle of this to run to do potty. At this point, I'm not so sure I really need the coffee right now, anyway... I still have green tea, which I do up by the gallon, so it's not a thirst thing and I'm not about to dose off anymore. I'll probably get on the net to do a few other things decide between something on video or my goofy station on Pandora as multitasking background noise, then get the coffee before getting back to writing. When I get back to writing, I'll finish up the additions on section 0.0 of the RD and then get back to drumming out the second section and posting it. I'd ETA that in a couple more days at the rate I am going. After that I'll add in the new links an unframed version of the index which I plan to replace with a framed version when the RD is finish. After all that, I'm not sure if I'll be still writing several hours each day, or if I'll have other crap to deal with. My life is pretty unpredictable more than a few days out, other than the certainty that it is not going to get better anytime real soon.

Oh, and for those that are too new or two infrequent in visits to notice it, I've been doing a little bit of tweaking on the layout of the blog too. Might be doing a bit more of that here and there too, as I am getting back into paying attention to the blog stuff. My full time high stress I been dealing with for the past two years has ebbed a bit with the biggest portion of my legal matters being settled. Now I am just waiting for procrastinating bureaucrats to turn the judge's decision into the 'settlement' I am due. Then we get to worry about other funds I am also owed that were ignored by the first judge. Not dismissed so much as completely ignored and that is a much larger chunk of funds than I am already due, but when I get the funds I am already due, it would at least take the majority of my current financial pressures off and give me breathing room. It would also give me enough capital after catching up on my must pay, overdue debts to get some more adobe tools I want, and other tools I'd want to start working on the actual page design elements of publishing as well as the tools for being efficient at starting a MUD like engine I hope to make a first taste of and playtesting platform for the Clashlands setting. I would start with just the main capital city location as the playing grid, and not in terrible detail as my idea of a Capital city would make the city of Rome look small. It's more like A modern major city, but with most of it's levels underground instead of above ground.

Wasn't I saying I was going to get to stuff other than this rambling post?... Well, I think it's about time I get to it.

A first peek at DDRPS

Alright. I been writing on and off since my last post that said I'd gotten back in the grove. My longest downtime was from christmas till around the 8th of this month while the screen on my laptop was on the fritz. I'm a multi-tasker and with only one working computer with only 1 working screen at the time, I was feeling like a zombie in a mono-tasking world, and I was doing other things with my computer time than just writing. Most writing was dedicated to other purposes than my game plans.

Most of the writing I've done so far is first draft Intellectual Property in the Clashlands setting that I'm not ready to share with the public yet. Only parts of it am I willing to share with anyone at this point. I taking the time to throw out this post because I've gotten enough of the notes, details, balances and what not that I need to hammer out in my Dystopian Destinies Role Playing System, or DDRPS for short that I started writing the SRD tonight and, partially following the guidelines of Wizard of the Coasts original d20 SRD, finished the first section - 0.0. It's the basic Mechanics and concepts section, and attributes, abilities, or characteristics as I'm calling them will be in their own section, along with some of the other scores that will be used in the game and will be the next section, which I will post when I finish it. Can't say how long it will be. If I can stay in my current headspace, it could be as soon as tomorrow night, but more likely by the end of the week. It's a bit more work than this little first taste.

I welcome feedback on it. If you don't feel like posting it as a comment, I will, I can be contacted at the email address: vizhon@vizhondesignstudio.com , though that isn't an email address I check every day, so may not be immediate on any replies and won't promise them for email that doesn't look like it needs it. You can read the first document here, and it will be worked into the links table when I get another index page made specifically for it and work it into the index I already have as well as give it it's own link.

As far as what I am looking at currently for actual publishing is to finish the SRD first and get it posted up, through goggle docs and this blog for free to start with. Once I have that done, I plan to focus very heavily on hammering out the Clashlands Player's Guide and the Clashlands GM's Guide as the first products I hope to actually publish. It will be based on the DDRPS SRD, but at the same time be an example of being DDRPS compatible but not exactly DDRPS as presented in the SRD. The classes and races in the SRD will be very mainstream fantasy of d20ish, while in Clashlands they will be much more setting specific and not so mainstream. Only once I have put out the Clashlands setting do I plan to turn back around to focus on the DDRPS core rules. At that time, I might publish d20 compatible versions of some of the sections of the SRD in much more verbose terms with more examples and samples (the difference of which will be explained when I get my licensing document done).

At that time, I will also, definitely, work on putting out a published, more verbose version of the DDRPS rules as a whole, and contrary to what I said in the past posts, I'll follow the example of Pathfinder and release the game system as one big book instead of two. I'll do the individual setting in the Player, GM combination. I'll do Monster Manual type books too for the settings, but later. For the DDRPS core rules, they will be mixed in, in brief, samples, format into the core rulebook, and in the settings, like Clashlands, they will be mixed between the player and GM handbooks. For setting player handbooks, examples of domesticated and pet creatures will be given, as well as examples of some common undead, and the common monsters and NPC type stuff will have it's place in the GM book. All the critter stuff will be formated in a way that it can be 3 ring bindered in it's own sections, in a Monster Manual type format. Additional critter content would likely come in campaign and adventure material first, then show up in manuals as enough content collects to justify it.

For anyone interested in TAGE, it's kind of on hold right now. I'll get back to it some time after I've managed to make an market imprint with Clashlands and DDRPS.

link: DDRPS SRD section 0.0