How Norbayne Currently Stands

[Phoenixguard09]

Hey guys,

Reading through the Norbayne stuff here on Exilian, it occurred to me how little there really is.

I am going to, hopefully, give some updates on how the project is looking here in this thread.

OVERALL RULESET:
- I am meeting with Duke Dev right now to discuss the finalised beta ruleset. We've seen some pretty big changes since the very beginning of the Three Coins playtesting. An extensive changelog will be available shortly.

ARTWORK:
We've hit a snag here. Mainly because we've not got a dedicated illustrator. We've got some which Lady Darkmoon has been kind enough to do, and I have tried to do some work of my own, but I'm just not very good.

PLAYTESTING:
We are currently over 20 sessions into the Three Coins campaign, along with 3 sessions of Whispers and a good few solo games too. The playtesting has gone very well, and detailed narrative reports are available predominantly on Giant in the Playground, but will also be available in their entirety right here on Exilian when I get around to it.

WORLDBUILDING:
The world of Norbaybe is very much fleshed out. The cultures of the world are distinct and unique, with several contributors helping with this. Special note should be given to Duke Dev for his help with the Invarrian and Bruin cultures, Ladyhawk for her help with the Danann and Dunscarth cultures and Lady Darkmoon for her work on the Leathe.

I will add some links and other bits and pieces to this post/thread soon. I just wanted to get some things down now.

Cheers, 

[Clockwork]

Hell yeeh!

[Phoenixguard09]

We are hoping to have the ruleset complete by February next year.

Once complete we will launch the Kickstarter and will hopefully be able to get books printed. By that stage the 3 Coins group should have finished and we will be printing the collected stories, along with commentary and artwork and using them as incentives.

In addition to all this, I and probably Ladyhawk will be heading to the UK, where we will, all things going to plan, host a stall and probably run a game at ExiliCon. I've already started writing the session plan for it.

[Jubal]

Excitement! If I can be of help on eg KS planning, let me know, I've looked at a lot of them and I've got lots of contacts who've done successful ones who might be useful brains to pick.

I hope we can do a con this year, but it's a bit hard to tell at the moment. This year's was a bit flat and I'm worried that we'd struggle to get the stallholders back again - and then there's this big open question of "where am I even going to be" - it's looking increasingly likely that a PhD might take me abroad if I can get funding for it...

[Phoenixguard09]

I would definitely appreciate the help and advice regarding Kickstarte mate, thank you.

As for ExiliCon, we'll just have to wait and see. But hopefully we can make it happen.

[Clockwork]

Don't think I need to say it but just in case, anything you want: give me a shout.




NPC names, fictitious metals, socio-economical climates that aren't overplayed, critical eye at whatever you think isn't good or is too good to be true.


*All advice to be taken with the understanding that I know next to nothing but I seem to have a knack for random armadillo.

[Phoenixguard09]

Haha cheers mate.

[Phoenixguard09]

Currently we are pretty happy with the broad strokes of the system. The way skill checks are resolved, combat, magic, all of that is at a point that we are happy with. The specifics of certain spells, items and abilities is what we need to get right now, along with ensuring we have a wide variety of each.

As I said in the first post, an extensive changelog and overview of the system should be coming soon.

In other news, we're doing Session 6.2 tomorrow, and I haven't even finished 5.4... I am also working until midnight tonight, so I am resigned to the fact that we are not getting either 5.4 or 6.1 up before we play.

[Phoenixguard09]

So far things are progressing, but sadly a little behind schedule. I've been a fair bit busier than I thought I would.

OVERALL SYSTEM:
- The last month or so has seen a few changes here, the most important being two new classes, the first time we've had additions to the class list since 2012.

- We have considered cutting away some of the races too, joining the Dwergar and Geardarr, and perhaps the Selkye, Roanfaille and Midlanders. There has also been talk of cutting the Danann as a playable race, but I'm not a fan of this. My personal thinking though is that the races will remain as they are, but work will need to be done on the 'sub-races' such as the Woodsmen, Hillmenn and Enclave Feartarbh. The 'sub-races' are essentially the characters' cultural background.

- Magic. I've put together a proposal for the group. At the moment, Soulfire for Arcane casters is two things. Firstly, it provides significant limitations at lower levels, and secondly, while it ceases to be much of a limitation at higher levels, it does require a lot of annoying book-keeping.

Playing as a Mage, Ladyhawk has expressed her disappointment that sometimes she is forced by the game to  not use a magical action. Additionally to this, she has destroyed at least two character sheets with erasing trying to keep track of her Soulfire.

To combat this, my proposal is to cut down both the amount of Soulfire the caster has, and to markedly reduce the required Soulfire to cast spells. It hasn't been tested yet, but I do intend to quite rigorously.

- Still need to really nail down the effects of weapons and other pieces of equipment. For that matter, the encumbrance system needs to be nailed down too.

[Phoenixguard09]

After an awful lot of thought, the Geardarr have been dropped as a full playable race, and are now a sub-type of the Dwergar. As both races shared the same stat-line, there was not much point in splitting the two into full races.

This does leave us with a slot open for a race, which is currently looking like being something to populate some islands.

[Clockwork]

:O


Humanoids only?


Clay Golems created before the Bovus Empire fell, shunned by the victors they fled to a distant part of Norbayne. After all this time finally they are ready to re-enter the mainland.


Creepy painted faces to try and assimilate better
By simply creating more of themselves they have an odd way of looking at population control. There are always the same amount of golems on x piece of land they own.
Kind of fragile in the sense that they don't heal but can repair lost limbs with materials
Can't do magic

[Jubal]

I am in favour of Golems

[Phoenixguard09]

We do have golems of a sort, but for now at least, they're aren't playable. Maybe in the future though.

At the moment, we are looking at some kind of faun analogue with a very interesting culture, if it goes ahead.

[Clockwork]

Goat headed santa worshippers? Nice.

[Pentagathus]

Did you mean Satan there clock?
Goats are cool though. Goatman vs cowman would be super cool cool.