A new chapter of character creation

The new chapter of character creation focuses on "mental" characters. It's a battle of wills and only the strong survive. More aspects of mental characters will likely show up later, but for now there are two: Telekinesis and Nanotech. It starts on page 29 of character creation.

Telekinesis is focused into four schools of  telekinetic unlocks:

• Telekinetic push
• Focused around throwing your enemies like ragdolls
• Telekinetic crush
• focuses on crushing your enemy under the weight of your will
• Telekinetic Blade
• Create a blade of energy and become a martial supremacist
• Telekinetic Barrier
• Defend yourself and your allies

You may unlock any one of them for 500xp, the next will cost 1,000xp, then 2,000xp and the final will cost 4,000xp. They are further improved with MetaKinetic abilities that extend the functionality, reach, and lethiality of these abilities.

Nanotech is focused on controlling microscopic robots to wreak havoc on the battlefield. The section also boasts a lot of utility.

It too, has four schools:

• Dualism
• Create, convert and sieze every opportunity
• Dominance
• enhance yourself and manipulate your enemies into winning the battle for you
• Espionage
• Remain undetected and make the battles win themselves with sabotage and subterfuge 
• Warfare
• Emulate martial and magical prowess to break worlds

Your main resource is colonies. these hives of nanobots enhance your abilities as you invest more of them to your tasks. And, as with every other character, managing AP is critical to success.

Here's a look at the final unlocks. While all the mechanics involved may not be readily apparent (without reading the section of the chapter), the general idea of what they do should get across. While telekinesis is focused on meta-abilities, nano-tech's meta-abilities are sparse and limited. That's because many of the meta-abilities are built in to nanotech and are unlocked by using more colonies. While this isn't a philosophy I intend to employ with the entire game, it seems to give this particular section its own unique feel. While that feeling is more class-centric (something that I have worked for years to get away from) it seems to fit, and the abilities seem to synergize well with other abilities outside of chapter 4.

The "Triune" shape meta now has an experience cost. Apparently I forgot to add that part when I created the ability in the first place.

Tonight, we feast on the blood of the innocent

The Heretic Cabal
The Heretic Cabal is a cult of people who have willingly handed their minds over to Ural, and now work to spread his influence throughout the universe. You can find them on page 52 of character creation.

The faction opens up some of my favorite abilities that I've ever created. By the time I'm done overhauling the mage colleges, they should all have abilities that are at least as interesting as these. To begin, the entire mechanic is centered around vampirism:

From there, you can choose to specialize in a vampiric state: Either feral or Heightened.

Each has state has sub-abilities that make your character a killing machine, and for maximum carnage you can specialize in both. However, you will have to manage your HP wisely so not to fall out of your desired vampiric state or kill yourself outright.

Theory Arena
The fourth installment of Theory is still work in progress, but here is one thing that I think will make it useful even to those who care nothing for PVP combat.

I have added pre-calculated tables for the most common costs of experience in the game. Want to buy that next rank of the skill but don't want to do the math? That's okay, I've done it for you. Want to buy multiple ranks of a skill but don't want to go through the math to determine how much experience that would be in total? Look no further than the right section of the table. Each row includes the experience costs of the ranks before it. so if you wanted to buy the 4th rank of a 100xp skill that you have no ranks in, it would cost you 1,500xp. Man, that was easy.

Currently, the PDF also has a lot of in-depth discussion of strategy in all types of strategy games. This helps you narrow down your strategy and hone your mental skills for victory. This strategical advice is not limited the Theory either: it is presented as a broad, overarching guide to strategical thinking for all types of strategical thinkers.

Up and coming, the PDF will contain maps and game modes that will test your strategical thinking and planning and hopefully throw a few wrenches in your gears.

The document will likely be available next weekend, but keep an eye on the blog this weekend as more updates may squeeze their way out!

Fourth Theory Document Coming Soon

The fourth document for Theory will be "Theory: Arena" and will focus on the Player Vs Player aspect of the game. In the doc, I will showcase custom PVP maps and game modes which alter the tactics beyond simple death-match and capture the flag. The document will be free and available (like the rest of theory) here on the blog. Got an idea, comment, or thought for Theory: Arena? Email me or leave it in the comments below.

New Terramage Ability:
Altruism allows the terramage to sacrifice his own HP to heal an ally. you may also notice that it's a defensive action, which provokes offensive actions from anyone within range. This ability is intended to give the terramage an external form of healing that is in line with the "Regeneration of self" theme. A terramage's healing isn't as effective as a light mage's healing, and I don't feel that it should be (since a primary aspect of light magic is healing).

New Metamagic Ability:
Dual allows the mage to fire two spells simultaneously. However, the sum of the metas for both spells cannot exceed the mages spell matrix, and the spells don't share power metas, making them weaker than if they were cast individually, but more effective in terms of cast time. When I first envisioned this meta, I imagined a robed figure entering hostile territory and quickly getting surrounded, then throwing two fireballs in opposite directions and unleashing hell.

New Weapon Enchants:
Arc-strike should provide some interesting Area damage and potentially modify where players choose to stand when fighting each other. Get close and be ready to strike back, but take damage. Or, Stay back and attempt to reduce that damage but have less AP to use on the offensive.

Who doesn't like turning your enemies to stone?

An angry weapon for an angry wielder: the furious enchant will likely become a staple for melee characters due to it's well rounded bonuses and the fact that it removes the chance for you to fumble your weapon.

While knocking enemies back might not be useful for all melee archetypes, it puts others in the perfect position for their next move. Not to mention the extreme usefulness to ranged archetypes.

New General Abilities:
I have also added new general abilities to the "Hit Points", "Mana", "Initiative", and "Action Points" sections. These abilities should allow more flexibility within character creation and allow players to fine tune their characters in a very specific way. Many of these abilities are simple inherent bonuses or regenerative augmentations.

Equipment Update!

The Spell Matrix

Before, I would refer to this as "The number of meta-magic abilities you may use on a single spell" now I refer to it as a "Spell Matrix." This not only simplifies terminology but also allows some additional functionality in that items or other abilities can increase your "spell matrix" instead of "the number of metas you may use on a single spell" or increasing your intelligence modifier which would also increase your chance to hit with spells.

Weapon Training And Weapon Damage

Weapons have all had their damage normalized (they no longer deal variable damage). So instead of 1d8, a weapon now simply deals 4 damage with bonuses from your strength and any skills you may have taken as well as any maneuvers you may be using. Damage dice with weapons now come from overarching weapon training abilities:

Weapon Modifications

12 new weapon enchantments are finally in the game! these enchantments should add some serious lethiality to all characters.

Elemental Control- Tying it all together

Elemental control adds a new functionality to mages, allowing them to become a support class for melee and ranged combatants, while still maintaining their own ability to bring the pain.

What's to come

I printed off the character sheet recently and noticed that it needed a lot of work. I expect that it will still have the same overall look, but with some changes in spacing and some new elements.

From here, I also intend to expand the lore, but in a different way: instead of adding new races, and new conflicts, i intend to add more detail to what is already there.

This update brought to you by:

I wanted to take a second to send a big "thanks" to Freddy Meyer from the German group. This update  was mostly motivated and brainstormed by him. After coming out of the more nebulous part of the internet and knowing nothing about the system, he has helped in a lot of big ways.

so thanks, Freddy

Oops!

Apparently when i reformatted recently i lost the last revision of Theory Character Creation. But not to worry! between backups and the online-hosted PDF version I have managed to put everything back together.


New martial abilities
Recoil:

Recoil should greatly improve a defensive player's ability to move quickly and defend themselves simultaneously. More ranks means more movement for the same amount (or lower amounts) of AP.

Swiftstrike:

Swiftstrike should greatly improve an offensive players ability to move quickly and deal massive damage at the same time.

Changes to existing abilities:
All Proficiencies are now 3 rank skills (instead of 5 ranks)

I felt that a +10 bonus to hit from a single skill was just too large (especially with a 100xp progression). instead, +6 should be more in line with the bonuses granted by other skills and the low experience cost should still make the skill attractive.

Arcane Shards no longer have an attunement

This means that if your mana is unattuned, it will remain unattuned. If your mana is attuned to fire, it will remain attuned to fire. If your mana is attuned to Fire and terra, it will remain attuned to fire and terra.

Clarifying defensive maneuvers

The battle to clarify the way that offensive and defensive maneuvers function continues!

One does not simply march into more lore!
In the future I expect to increase the amount of lore provided in the game. In the past I have created additional factions and conflicts as well as counter-factions. Next I intend to add more detail to the political, economic, and roleplay aspects of these factions and the places that they live. I have sketched a map of the universe and intend to turn it into a more comprehensive map which will be featured in the lore book.
also, I may or may not be getting a googledoc soon with more lore detail from one of the original co-creators of the universe and the system.

New additions and a change of pace

The New Stuff
The new additions in this update include another new faction: The Duranthian Initiative. Man has not been content to be scattered among the stars and hunted like dogs by the droids who took our home-world.  The Initiative fights the Revolution of Steel at every turn, seeking to take Earth back from the droid menace.

Mana shards are back in the game! These shards of pure magical energy are used by a wide range of combatants (not just mages). In addition to providing a bonus to a player's mana pool (at the cost of health) each shard provides a unique ability, or enhances an existing one.

A new defensive maneuver is available: Recovery. This ability should alter the tactics of combat slightly by adding an unexpected twist to the strategy of melee vs (any) combat. It's two sub-abilities: Balance and Equilibrium should keep enemies off balance and never knowing what to expect next.

A Change of Pace
Fall semester begins on the 29th. Meaning that my 40 hour work week becomes a 55 Hour work week (not including homework). Updates to the system will likely slow down, but I will still be watching my email and the blog.

Telekinesis joins the fight!

Telekinesis added
Telekinesis is now available to characters in the 'skills' section of character creation. In theory there are four schools of telekinesis: Push, Crush, Blade, and Deflection, as well as 3 meta-abilities to modify and enhance each one. A special thanks to my friend Chris (FatManInTank) for helping me flesh these skills out!

How to calculate hit added for telekinesis, melee and spells
I have added a small table to the beginning of each relevant section on how to calculate hit with telekinetic attacks, spell attacks, melee attacks, and ranged attacks.
For reference:
Telekinetic hit = wis mod + any abilities that boost telekinetic hit
Spell hit = int mod + any abilities that boost spell hit
Melee hit = str mod + any abilities that boost melee hit
Ranged hit = spd mod + any abilities that boost Ranged hit

Disturbance shadow skill fixed
an oversight on my part, the shadow mage skill 'Disturbance' Referenced an ability that no longer exists! the skill now simply contains the correct information and hasn't really changed.

The Revolution of Steel joins chapter 5
The Android faction that forced Man to flee earth has joined chapter 5 as a playable faction. Join them in their  endless march to scourge the human race to oblivion

Theorycrafting Take 2

I have finished re-recording the first episode of theorycrafting and it's now up on youtube. Theorycrafting will be a web series that will visually explain the theory system to players and give them a better understanding of how to do the things that they want to do. In the future, we will make 3 characters in an episode focused on character creation. Then, we will take those characters onto the battlefield in an episode that highlights combat.

Creatures of Our Galaxy by, Dr. Jessix G. Fellin

"I have spent the better part of my life searching the universe for some of the most exotic, strange, and dangerous creatures that habitat the many different planets. These writings contain some of smallest animals to the largest monsters that I, and my team, have found across many different systems. My hope, our hope, is that this will be a field guide to fellow scientists who are examining the animals and foliage or the systems we examined."


A friend has begun writing and creating a bestiary of some rather interesting creatures to add to the Theory universe. I definitely look forward to these new additions and will begin adding them to the lore document as they arrive. so keep an eye on the blog for new updates and new threats!

Theorycrafting Episode 1: Overview

If you managed to catch the video while it was up, you probably noticed the horrible audio quality. this is an issue that i believe i've resolved, but it means that i have to re-record and re-upload the video. this should happen in the next couple of days.

Updated character sheet

I have updated the character sheet to reflect the changes in skills, and done some cosmetic work on it as well. the whole thing should be much more readable and easy to use now. you can view the character sheet and the other Theory Docs in the links the right side of the page.

In other news, another faction will be joining chapter 5 soon: the revolution of steel

Factions are up!

Chapter 5: Factions is now in character creation. these factions allow you to tie your character to the universe in a much stronger way, and give you access to some abilities that aren't available anywhere else. there are many more factions to be added in the future, so here's your chance to found one of your own.

Chapter 5: Factions

I have furiously been working on chapter 5: Factions for character creation (which is why i havent updated to blog). This chapter will give the players the ability to tie their characters to the universe in a new way by choosing   a role. A role will give you bonuses to abilities, skills, and many other aspects of character creation, and in addition it can give large bonuses when roleplaying. Watch the blog for more info!

Just gonna leave this here

"Their leader ###NAMETHISGUY### is rumored to ride on the outside of their flagship, firing an automatic weapon as it screams into battle."

New cover and New race

Ive designed a new cover that is now on the character creation portion of theory, and im also working on a new race: The Asiri. here's a preview:


The war between Ural and the forces of the altay had been a raging stalemate for years. The altay began doing research into kez artifacts to try and find a way to turn the tide in their favor; To end the war once and for all. In time, they discovered an ancient kez process in which they took volunteers from their society and put them on an uninhabited planet. Then, using chronomagic they accelerated time on the planet so that years were passing in seconds. The inhabitants would then breed their strongest and smartest to create a society of extremely powerful mages and warriors in only a matter of months. The altay attempted this feat on a neigboring planet known as ###NAMETHISPLANET###. They sent a colony of 100 people, including warriors, mages, and history keepers, then began the process. The planet sank into a monochrome darkness as time began to accelerate. Immediately, all attempts to contact the planet or its inhabitants was lost and any attempt to physically move through the time rift ripped ships apart. The colony was alone in the dark as 1700 years passed every month. Within the first 100 years the history keepers were lost, and the altay on the planet forgot who they were or why they were there. They began to form their own society, their own culture. After three months of real time (4,100 years colony time), the Chronorift dissipated and the planet came out of its accelerated state. Attempts to contact the people from space were met with radio silence, so a reconaissance ship was sent to the surface. The altay discovered a much different type of colony had spread and consumed the planet under a single flag. They called themselves The Asiri. Their physicality was drastically different from the altay. Their skin ranged from grey to ashen, they had two rows of teeth and sunken hollow eyes. They had about twice the muscle mass of an altay. They were hostile. None of the reconaissance troops made it back alive, they were ripped apart upon first contact. Study of this race from space showed that these Asiri lived in a Theocracy, ruled by a line of God-Kings known as the Viscer. Punishment for even the smallest crime was met with ritualistic mass murder known as Excoriation. Attempts to meet the asiri with diplomacy were met with such a fate. Finally, the altay determined that the asiri presented more of a threat than a promise, so the decision was made to scrap the project; To assassinate the viscer and allow the society to crumble from the inside. The operation was initially a success, altay forces got on the ground and managed to infiltrate asiri society. However, the viscer's elite guards known as the Extinerate slaughtered the assassins without quarter. Survivors were excoriated; and the project was abandoned entirely.

Reformatting complete... almost

The major reformatting of character creation is complete! you can view the new layout by clicking "character creation" to your right. I'd Like to add some more crisp textures as well as some character art, but the meat of the thing is already way better.

Reformatting... in progress

The reformatting of character creation is going well and I'm already liking the new layout better than the old one. things are already much easier to find, and much easier to read. ETA on Reformatting completion will be this weekend! (pending psionics)

Psionics, New meta and formatting changes

First, the new meta:

Surge- 10ap, 10mana. 250Xp to learn. The spells critical strike range is increased by 2. in addition, if the spell successfully confirms critical, you may immediately cast another spell that costs 0 mana and 15 less Ap.

this meta allows a mage to cast spells back-to-back more effectively. another change on the way is the way metas are used and categorized. Metas will now be split into two categories: Shape Metas, and Power Metas. you may only have one Shape meta on a spell at a time, but you may have as many power metas as you like. This change should simplify spellcasting and streamline spell creation and resolution. In addition you will now be able to add a single meta multiple times and cause its effects to stack. so, with our surge meta here, a double shot of surge means that our spells critical threat range is increased by 4, and if we confirm a crit, our next spell costs 30 less mana, however the double shot of surge would cost us 20ap and 20 mana.

Psionics:

Psionics are now being looked at more critically and will likely make it into character creation sometime soon.

Formatting Changes:

Ive decided to split the Character Creation book into chapters with abilities first and meta abilities in the latter part of each chapter. the chapters will likely begin with equipment, then move into martial, then magic, and finally psionics.

The character sheet is complete!

ive finally completed a character sheet i dont hate every ounce of, and here it is:

New offensive maneuver

The new offensive maneuver to replace precision strike is complete!

First Strike- (attack Ap + 20) 500xp. You may only use this maneuver on your first attack of a combat scenario. For every 5 points your attack roll beats the opponents defense roll by, you may deal an extra 1d6 damage.

Exact Revenge- upon spending 5 points in metamartial maneuvers to improve first strike, you gain exact revenge. you may use first strike on an opponent any time they cannot spend Ap to defend against you.

Conspiracy- Upon spending 7 ranks in metamartial maneuvers to improve first strike, you gain conspiracy. your first strike damage bonus is increased from 1d6 to 1d8.

Paragon Strike- Upon spending 10 ranks to improve first strike, your first strike ability becomes "Paragon Strike." You your extra damage dice for every 2 points you beat their defense roll by.

Master Conspirator- upon spending 15 ranks in metamartial abilities to improve first strike you gain the Master conspirator ability. Any time an opponent chooses not to spend Ap to defend against one of your attacks you may retroactively call that attack a first strike. your first strike AP costs will replace the Ap costs of the original maneuver.

New Stuff in the works!

Been working on some new material, on my own and with the group. these are a few of the highlights of what's coming thus far:

• Precision strike will likely fall out of the game and be replaced by a new, much more interesting, offensive maneuver.
• Expansion on ranged weapons and their abilities in the works
• A character sheet I dont totally hate
• Comprehensive map of the Theory universe as well as an update (and expansion on) the lore document including new conflicts, new races, new allies and new adversaries.
• New weapons master ability to add some signature to your sessions.

Theory now has a blog!

And this is its first post, letting you know that you can always check here to follow the current thoughts, ideas, processes and shenanigans that are going into designing the Theory universe. To your right you will find a handy box of links that will always contain the most up-to-date versions of the Theory PDF documents. If you have questions, comments, contributions, or concerns about theory feel free to contact me at Deathprophetik@gmail.com