Polar Opposites: Tactics and Untrained abilities

This update includes an entirely new school of abilities for the marksman: Tactician

Tactical shot  and tactical aggression allow the marksman to get more use out of every shot based on tactical positioning while tactical repositioning makes lining those shots up quite a bit easier and magic bullet brings the aggression to an entirely new level. The idea here was to increase mobility based combat, i have always enjoyed games in which shaping the battlefield and tactical positioning are key and I feel that this school directly emphasizes both of those realms of thought.

You may now use many martial maneuvers untrained by taking a -5 to the attack roll, or for skills with no attack roll (but a strength check instead) you take a -4 to the strength roll. Each skill denoted this change individually. The problem came up: "why can't i attempt to shoot two pistols at once, even though I'm not trained in it." This is a valid question, and I agree, you should be able to at least  attempt a martial maneuver untrained. While I don't see this spilling over into something like magic or telekinesis, for martial it makes good sense.

Scattered update!

This update to the Theory Roleplaying game has been all over the place. To begin, I updated the lore document for the first time in almost a year. You can now read more about the various mage colleges, which i expect will add quite a bit more depth to the universe. Available colleges are: The Catricarch (Terra College), The Academy of High Artisans (Arcane College), The Heretic Cabal (Shadow College),  The Alternate Interim (Chrono College), and The Helioseminary (Light college). You may notice that I didn't mention a Fire college or a Frost college. These are still in development and will be added when I feel they are ready (and I don't at this point). Each college brings something unique to the table, something for players and GMs to interact with and use in more than one way, and I don't feel that I have gotten the Fire or Frost colleges to this point yet.

Grapple has been replaced with a new set of maneuvers called "Brawling". These abilities allow you to create a character entirely around this fighting style. It begins with the opening brawl: 

Once in a brawl, you have access to three new abilities: Pin, Subdue, and Throw.

Pin allows you to lockdown an opponent, maybe for later questioning, or maybe for a tactical advantage (like taking a healer out of the fight temporarily then dealing with him later). this type of play is focused on the long-term combat scenario.

Subdue allows you to do a medium amount of damage in a brawl without having to release the opponent. This type of play is much more focused on the mid-game of a combat scenario.

Throw allows you to toss your opponents around like ragdolls for your amusement. This ability releases your  hold on the opponent to deal massive damage.

Move has a new metamartial unlock called "Run". This ability allows you to directly increase the run speed of your character.

Everyone likes more stuff, right? Along that vein of thought, I have added Accessory items to the game, these include items like rings and necklaces, as well as expendable items like health and mana charges.

I have never really been a fan of the standard "chug down this potion in the middle of combat and get healed magically". it just never sat right with me. maybe it was something about ingesting the massive amount of liquid in such a small amount of time, or that it healed almost instantaneously even though most things you consume take time to get into the blood stream. there's also just something so "unmagical" about chugging a bottle of Robitussin in the middle of combat. And to that I say: "Health and mana charges." these items are like small healing grenades that explode with healing energy when cracked or smashed, affecting everyone in the area in a violent explosion of "feel-bettery-goodness". 

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.