Hi there! Wanted to think out loud about how attributes work. It’s been awhile since I thought out loud about design stuff.

Attributes: A history

So Attributes (or Approaches) are a standard LUMEN feature: they usually describe the way you’re going to tackle some obstacle and you roll that number of dice. In a typical LUMEN game that’s usually where they start and end. There are typically three of them.

Hi there!

v0.1.1 is out! Most importantly in this updates is the fact that it now has an epub release. I also tweaked a few things across the board though - typos, oddities, inconsistencies, and one or two “feels better” style changes.

I’ll be doing more substantial changes over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Until next time!

Hi there! As you can guess by the title, I’ve got two sets of news. I’ll start with the fun one, some minor updates.

Core Updates

• Arc Mortar got a clause stating that its Harm isn’t reduced by anything that isn’t Armor or Shields. This is because of edge case interactions that came up such as Long Range Optics or the Interfering tag reducing Harm when used with it. (It also has Piercing by default so it typically ignores Shields in most cases, but that’s worded as such so there’s no confusion about interaction with things like Praetorian’s Tyrant Trait.)
• Colossus type enemies got some clarification and additional guidance, and the indicators for number of parts are labeled as such now.
  • World Serpent got buffed and should be far more in line with the Consul.
• Tangible rewards are suggested for each mission type instead of just being implied.

ACES HIGH updates

• System Breakthrough got a wording fix (it said third instead of second because of how System tags used to work).
• Tyrant Traits are explicitly noted to override wording of Ace traits, tags, or Systems when in conflict. Normally conflicts like this are biased towards Aces but Tyrants are supposed to be a special case that forces Aces to change tactics and this goes along with that.

Price update

APOCALYPSE FRAME is now $15 instead of $10. This is a reflection of how much more polished it is compared to its original release in addition to the free expansion bundled with it, which was not originally considered in the price. I’ve been considering doing this for awhile and finally decided to go for it. I’ll likely raise the price again later once it’s at v1.0 as well.

(Updated 5/13/22)

Hi there! Not a development log for once. This is just a thread about how to run AF online on roll20. (There’s no character sheet for roll20 yet, but making one is on my backlog.)

After running this in person for months, my home group has gone remote again, at least for now. This isn’t a problem - we’d played remote for about a year and change until everyone was vaccinated - but last time we played remote, we weren’t playing something that needed a grid. We are now.

Hi there! A few minor changes now that I’m getting some new eyes on the game (and now that I’m actually playing it instead of just running). v0.3.6 was the first 3 of these only so I figured it wasn’t worth a devlog, but the others are enough to justify.

• A bunch of typos and copy/paste errors were fixed.
• I still had the 0-Tension rule in (gain 1 if you end the turn at 0), which was supposed to be taken out in favor of build traits. It’s removed now.
• Charge and Charge+ have been improved to not care about other Armaments with them. This gives a lot more flexibility and allows a lot of Armament combos that weren’t really viable before.
• Impulsive now gives +1 Harm only at 0-1 Tension instead of under half. (Impulsive+ is the same.) The way it was made perfect sense when players didn’t start combat at max - 3 Tension but now that they do the “under half” condition was basically always on until they took Frame Damage. 0-1 still makes it valuable (especially for heavies) but it’s not quite as good as it was.
• Some Armament tag swaps. After doing an inventory of tags, I found I was overusing a few.
  • Gatling: Loses Burst, gains Invigorating. Burst doesn’t really make sense at low dice and I wanted it as a default tag for the more “assault rifle” build weapons. Invigorating gives Gatling a good reason to be used even if you’re not leaning on Spin Up.
  • Recoilless Rifle: Loses Piercing, gains Near. Recoilless Rifle and Rocket Launcher are kind of swapping positions. Now, Recoilless is a bit more versatile range-wise while still gaining a benefit at longer range. It didn’t really feel like it had a role before, now it feels like a heavier scout rifle and that’s a good place for it. (For now, anyway.)
  • Rocket Launcher: Loses Near, gains Incendiary. Rocket Launcher now feels more like a proper long-range explosive to tie in with Grenade Launcher and doesn’t overlap so much with Marksman Rifle.
  • Kinetic Cannon: Loses Piercing, gains Impulsive. Piercing was a bit of an oddball on this one to begin with, and it felt like it needed something extra to be in the conversation with other heavier Close Armaments.

That’s all for now. Until next time!

Hi there! Just released an update that covers a few things.

Wording

Updated wording in a few places for clarity. Thanks very much to False Idol Workshop for help with this!

Tags

Some changes to mostly Armament but some System tags:

• Charge is now +1 die instead of +1 Harm, and only counts from the start of the round. This gives it more of a reason to exist, the every other round situation hasn’t made sense since the v0.3 changes. (Charge+ is now +1 die and Harm.)
• Sighted now gives +1 die and +1 Harm because its condition is more difficult than Scoped.
• Mobile+ now gives +1 Harm if you’ve moved 2+ spaces or +2 Harm if you’ve moved 4+ spaces. This makes it more worth two tags/1 Harm.
• Polished+ now gives +2 Harm if you’re at full in addition to +1 if you’re at greater than half. Again, this makes it more worth two tags/1 Harm.
• Overheat has been changed: now it’s a chance to not be able to spend Tension next round. This differentiates it better from Straining.
• Charge Up is now Intensify because it was way too close to Charge and I don’t know how I thought that was a good idea.

Armaments

This is kind of granular, so feel free to skip forward. Short version is a lot of Armaments got buffed.

Hi there! I’m going to highlight something that I think turned out pretty well with BURNOUT: the Fade check mechanic, which is the “primary” mechanical system of BURNOUT. It’s the thing that controls, well, the burning out of the Sunwell. I don’t think I’m anywhere close to the first person who’s done something like this, but I want to highlight something that worked because I think it’s a neat twist on the existing LUMEN dice mechanic as well as something that can produce a lot of interesting and diverse outcomes.

Hi there! At long last, ACES HIGH is out! In it you’ll find:

• 6 Experimental Armaments, 6 Experimental Modular Systems, and 3 Experimental Frames (which include new Integral Systems, Integral Traits, and Build Traits).
• Some notes on running APOCALYPSE FRAME as a campaign, including Crisis Advances (making your enemies stronger over time, including 3 new standard enemies) and Ace Advances (new benefits and functionality to improve your Aces over time).
• Tyrants! These are dangerous prey for a Strike Team - they’re nasty boss enemies you can use for special occasions that are meant to be treated as equals. 10 Tyrants are included, as well as advice on making your own.

Best of all, it’s free to anyone who has APOCALYPSE FRAME. You’ll see it in your downloads: if you have the base game you should have ACES HIGH. This is because these are all things I wanted to be part of the core experience but would clutter up the game significantly if you’re not already at least a little familiar with it. It didn’t feel like a complete experience in the way I’d envisioned it without their inclusion. That said, each of those 3 sections is also largely independent/modular, so you can pick and choose what you’d prefer to use or not use to your satisfaction.

Hi there! Some minor changes prior to ACES HIGH releasing.

Look and Feel

• Everything has been revamped a bit visually. I have a real bold font now!
• Fixed a few typos/similar.

Armaments

• Grenade Launcher swapped Splash for Close. Splash only operates on a 6 now so it’s not nearly as helpful on a Grenade Launcher. Close/Near with Incendiary, however, is situationally very useful.
• Default loadout switch: Gatling on H1-VANGUARD was switched with Electrolaser on L3-GLADIATOR. Gatling didn’t make much sense on the VANGUARD because Focused+Spin Up really wants something with decent Tension. This switch also makes VANGUARD more Far oriented and GLADIATOR more Close/Near oriented, which both make a lot of sense.

Tags

• Distracting now does something else and is consistent between Armaments and Systems.
• Burst’s enemy version is now improved (it activates on any attack-as-consequence as sort of an opposite Deliberate).

Systems

• Afterburner no longer has Efficient. It was a little too obvious of a choice.
• Pulse Laser can optionally hit Far for 1. It needed something to distinguish itself from Plasma Cannon.

Please let me know if I missed anything. ACES HIGH is coming soon! I’m testing a few things still. In the meantime I’ve been churning on NOVA: BURNOUT, so keep an eye out for that - it’s right around the corner.

Hi there! This time, I’m talking about Druid and Necromancer! Two weird 13 True Ways classes that I did weird things to. Both are (in my opinion) way more interesting than their initial incarnations.

The Original Druid

The original druid is almost certainly the least functional class in 13th Age. It’s hard to summarize the ways in which it’s a mess, but in short: tons of spells, separated spell lists/progressions, no class features/default spell list but it used two-tier Talents. I liked the general thrust of each set of Talents - it really did its best to try to pull together the million different things Druids are associated with in fantasy games - but the end result was deeply incoherent and you could easily make a useless character.