Optimus Character Sheet

In between working on other areas of the project, I decided that it was time for a new character sheet. The old one just didn't represent the way the game works anymore and frankly it looked awful. I named the file "Character sheet I don't Hate", but honestly I don't see how.  I mean seriously, look at this thing... 

Garbage!

...What in the fucking fuck was I thinking? "Yeah lets half-ass an attempt at reflections on the stat box and just glue a piece of notebook paper into the goddamn middle!" and "Hope you don't mind arbitrary lines fucking everywhere!" It's like I had an idea and got Michael J Fox to do the actual work on it. I am honestly disappointed and a little embarrassed that I ever posted this.

That's just mean to Michael J. Fox!

With that out of the way, I put a bit more thought into it and decided that a modular design would lend well to both aesthetics, functionality, and the ability to mix-and-match based on feedback.
So what do I mean by "Modular design" in relation to a character sheet?
I mean that I build and design it in blocks, the stat block is all one image, the ability block is another, the skills are another, and so on. Then, these blocks are all merged together into one larger image to make a complete and customizable character sheet. What I came up with was this:

New Hotness!

As far as character sheets go, I do intend to make more of them that are specialized to character builds (mages, fighters, telepaths, etc), as well as others that simply address a certain gripe or complaint. In my experience, there is no one character sheet that can satisfy everyone 100% of the time. Some want simplicity, others want detail, others want a balance of both, others want none. Personally, most character sheets just annoy me and I end up resorting to notebook paper. Let me know what you think about the new character sheet, and what you'd like to see in future ones.

New Arena Maps and more!

In this update we're looking at 3 new maps added to Arena, and two new weapon enchantments added to character creation.

Arena
The arena book now has three new maps in chapter three: Breakpoint, Simplex, and Reactor. The idea for all three was to just keep it simple and not add many rules past the basic ones.

All three are team objective-based maps. Breakpoint and Simplex are capture point maps while Reactor is Capture the Flag.
Breakpoint is a fairly basic control point map with a single point in the middle of a walled-in area.
Simplex takes the idea of breakpoint and condenses it, then adds a twist. There are two control points in this map with one tuned to each team. Gain points by being on your point or steal points by being on an enemy point.
Reactor is intended to the basis on which capture the flag maps will be built. Long run-routes, and extremely defensible positions can ensure a long game.
All three maps are symmetrical in an attempt to maintain balance, but none have been actually tested.


Character Creation
Character creation saw the addition of two new weapon enchants: Vengeant and Indestructible.
Vengeant allows you a free attack every time you take damage. the attack is made with your full attack bonus and does full damage, and the action is specifically tuned so that it cannot be denied to you, making this an extremely powerful enchant if you can stay in melee range.

Indestructible is exactly what it sounds like... with a caveat. the weapon can never be destroyed by any means, but it can never be modified again either, making it the last enchant you put on a weapon before calling it complete.

What's Coming
Currently, a friend and I are building a lore overhaul that's about as extensive as the combat overhaul was. these changes will have large and far-reaching effects that will change the Theory universe in a lot of really big ways... oddly enough by making it smaller. you'll just have to check back and see

An Early Look at Theory: Arena

I have added the Theory Arena document to the Theory Docs. The work is far from finished, but I felt that I posted too much about it and not actually delivered anything. For the most part, the first two chapters (general/game modes, and premade characters) are complete. I expect to expand on terminology as questions and comments come in. The chapter that will see the most expansion will be Maps. Currently there is only one: Crossfire. but there are plenty more in the works. while we're here, lets talk about crossfire

The basic premise is simple: Be the last man left alive. But then i throw you a curve ball: Everyone re-spawns  So, how exactly are you to be the last man left alive in a map where everyone re-spawns? By using the literal curve-ball. Each player is assigned a colored section of the map, every 3 rounds the ball will explode. If the ball explodes in the same section 3 times (not necessarily consecutively), the section falls out into a pit and the player will no longer re-spawn. While I could go into a meta-game discussion about how to win or take the upper hand in this one, I could also tell you that there MIGHT JUST BE HINTS IN THE META-GAME ANALYSIS OFFERED IN THE BOOK. But what are the chances of that actually happening?

Oh, and i almost forgot..

Another Iamevo wallpaper...

 Enjoy!

More new abilities

I've simplified metamorphosis to reflect both what is actually happening and the speed at which it is happening. Before, you would take "non actions" to turn your health into mana and cast a spell. This way you can passively cast spells from your health pool, which can also add an element of surprise to combat when your opponent expects that your out of mana.

I've also added a new school of telekinesis: Mindcrush. I had always admired the ability to think "I really don't want that guy to have a brain anymore" really hard. And then making it happen and watching them fall to the ground bleeding from the nose.

The damage on this one is low, but it ignores damage reduction, making it extremely powerful against heavily defensive enemies. It also fills another role I've always greatly admired: The ability to take your opponents mind and force it to do your will.

Insta-kills are nice too if you can pull them off.

Defensive martial characters got a new ability too: Sanctuary

Defending yourself against an incoming foe is nice when you know you can. But when you're outmatched you need a contingency plan, and that plan is sanctuary.

Magic characters got a group of new abilities called spelltricks, one for each school. The intention with these was that they could be use offensively or defensively on your own spells and on those of others. I could see future expansions on the mage archetypes having TONS of these.

In the up-and-coming side of the project, I am still working to add more lore as well as a new marskman archetype based around flamethrowers, grenades, and wreckless abandon for ones own safety and well-being.

The Biggest Theory Update Ever

Normally when updating part of theory, I like to use screenshots of the section to give a preview. If I did that here, I would have to post the entirety of character creation as screenshots in a blog post that would likely exceed 160 pages. I have chipped away at this update every day for 3 weeks. So, what specifically have I been working on?

Introducing the new Theory Combat system
To introduce the new, we must first understand the old, and the logic and decision making behind both.
The basics of the old system went something like this: do a lot of math to determine whether or not you can take an action before you can even decide if it's a good idea or not.
Specifically the differences between the old system and the new can be broken down into a few questions

Can I take that action right now?
Old system: subtract AP, Subtract Mana, do I have enough? good, Add attack/Defense modifiers and resolve action
New System: Do i have an action left? good, Add attack/Defense modifiers and resolve action

Should I take that action right now?
Old system: Try to guess each opponent's build and how to counter it while tracking how much AP each opponent has spent in an attempt to guess their maximum and catch them over-extending while managing your own AP and keeping yourself from over-extending or getting tricked into over-extending.
New System: You have an offensive and defensive action, and a number of speed actions equal to your speed mod. so does everyone else.

Do I have the resources to take that action right now?
Old system: Subtract AP in multiples of 5 from 100+ and remember that number constantly. Cant remember? take 10 minutes rebuilding your entire turn and try not to get it confused with previous turns.
New System: You have an offensive and defensive action, and a number of speed actions equal to your speed mod. so does everyone else.

How many resources will I have left afterward?
Old system: Subtract AP from a total that may vary from round to round and instead of dealing with multiples of 1, deal with multiples of 5 for some reason...
New System: You have an offensive and defensive action, and a number of speed actions equal to your speed mod. so does everyone else.

In case you can't already tell, Action points are gone. There are no actions that require Action points, restore action points, or damage action points. The replacement is simply: Actions. Everyone gets an offensive action, a defensive action, and a number of speed actions equal to their speed modifier.

Well thats neat, but what does that mean for combat and abilities? 
Offensive actions and defensive actions still behave the same way, and are still used to interrupt eachother (but not themselves).  nothing has really changed here except that you have one less resource to manage.

So what about this speed action thing?
A speed action can be used in place of an offensive or defensive action.

So what's the downside to a speed action? 
Many abilities and weapons are stronger when used with your offensive or defensive action, instead of with a speed action.

But what about Chronomage that class was built around abusing AP?? 
Chronomages now abuse speed actions.

What about movement? since you only move 5ft on a move, doesnt this mean you only get to move *maybe* 15ft a round?
Your movement speed is now inherited from your race. when declaring a move, you get to move that amount of distance.

What about Meta-magic skills? does EACH one now take a speed action?
No, meta-magic skills are now only limited by your spell matrix and available mana. This means that all your spells, regardless of the complexity, require the same amount of time to cast.
IMBA IMBA IMBA!!!!
When you looked at the math from before, most mages had enough AP left over (that they were saving to defend themselves with) that these small, incremental increases really had no effect on decision-making in combat.

Overall, this update has simplified the game and it's abilities, without losing any of the tactical decision making, or skill investment. For the most part, everything even works the same way but has been simplified and streamlined. check it out.

New Metas, New Stat Progression, New wallpaper, and a shift of focus

This time around, we have 3 new metas: Supercharged, Overcharged, and Nova. I didn'd feel there was enough progression as far as metas go (and still don't). There should be small meta's for starting characters with a clear progression into more powerful versions. This is something I intend to improve in small increments while I work on other things.

The progression starts with charged, its a simple meta: 5ap, 5mana, 1 more damage. While it is arguable that this meta isnt worth the investment, that extra point works to overcome damage reduction, and could be the difference between a kill and a wounded foe. The next step is Supercharged:

As you progress, this meta levels with you, and is never useless. But when its time to bring out the big guns, look to Overcharged:

Overcharged is all about being a big, scary spell that does big scary numbers (and costs big scary numbers). while the explanation for it is a little lengthy, the simplified math works out something like this. N^2 where N= the number of times you overcharged the spell.

And then somewhere, somehow, I overlooked a mage's staple:

Unleashing large torrents of energy that can shear the flesh from an enemies bones and blow him to hell-- How is that not what mages are all about?

The new stat progression uses set numbers instead of variables. I really felt that there was just too much variation in the old way of paying experience to roll dice and not know exactly what your'e getting. Plus, the natural progression in the dice themselves (d4 to d6 to d8 etc) could yield numbers FAR too high. In addition, this made it possible to reverse engineer a character and figure out how much experience someone spent and where.
Basically, a stat purchase will give one of thee values:

• A +2 represents something a race is sub-average at
• A +3 represents something a race is average at
• A +4 represents something a race excels at 

Experience costs are still 50 with a x3 progression, and all modifiers are still calculated the same way.

I made another "I am the evolution" Wallpaper with a more grungy feel this time. And again, thanks to everyone out there for reading, contributing, subscribing, thinking, feeling, or talking about Theory.

I encountered yet another shift of focus again today. For some people this is gradual, their interests change and they move on. For me its like a brick wall in two ways: the old fashoned "it hit me like a brick wall" and that my interests seem as stable as the wall itself. In a way I am not sure i can explain, my interests didnt change at all but my focus did. I suddenly feel driven to make massive amounts of historical detail about the races from their own perspective, I think each might end up with its own chapter in the Lore book but I haven't decided yet.
The Arena book will still happen, and still soon(TM), but I am currently chewing on massive amounts of potential historical lore.