Major Changes

From Sagataflwiki

Revision as of 12:59, 6 March 2012

The purpose of this article is to list only major and important changes. Sagatafl has been in development for quite a number of years, and some people may not have kept up with even very significant changes.

The order is somewhat arbitrary, neither based on absolute importance nor on chronology (any order originally present has also been diminished, due to the changes now being sorted into three categories...).

• Name changed from "FFRE" to "Sagatafl - the Free Fudge-light Roleplaying Engine".

Charcter Creation

• Flaws introduced as a whole new mechanic, similar to "mental disads" or "psychological limitations" in other RPG systems.
• Attribute Points and aDvantage Points changed to no longer be separate pools: Unified into aDvantage Points, DP, which are used to purchase all intrinsic/biological traits, both Attribute, Sub-Attributes and Advantages. In this way at character creation, the Goodie Points are distributed between three categories, Advantages (DP), Skills (SP) and Perks (PP) instead of four (AP, DP, SP and PP).
• A new 4th Goodie Point category was added, Special GP, for buying special traits that don't fit into the Advantage/Perk framework. Eventually most of these Special traits were renamed into Backgrounds (but are still bought with GP) and only the remainder traits (such as Luck) are still called Special Traits. The category as a whole may be called the Special/Background or S/B Category, or just the Special Category or 4th Category.
• Luck system changed: it is no longer an Advanage but instead bought as a Special (4th Category) trait, but is still derived from the Faith Attribute.
• The Cost Factor for Primary Attributes for Humans raised from 4 to 5, in a pre-emptive attempt to ensure balance between players who want to create Attribute-heavy characters and players who want to create Skill-heavy characters.
• Also, as per the above goal (but done much later), the exponent in the formulae used to convert Goodie Points to Skill Points and to Perk Points changed from 2.5 to 2.75.
• The Difficulty value for Normal Difficulty Skills increased from 6 to 10. Other Difficulty values increased roughly proportionally.
• The base cost (before Learning Speed) of the 1st Level of any Skill now equals 20 times Difficulty, not 10 times Difficulty. Combined with the previous change, this makes Skills about 3 times costlier. The Skill Point Goodie Point formula has been modified accordingly.
• Perks have been made (or should be made) twice as expensive, in an effort to avoid decimal costs (e.g. a Perk that costs 4.5 PP per level now costs 9 PP/lvl). The Perk Point Goodie Point formula has been modified accordingly.
• Advantages can now only have integer value costs, i.e. no more prices such as 8.5 DP.
• Some Attributes demoted to Secondary Attributes: Strength and Hardiness, and also Size which will be renamed to Frame, with a new Size value denoting gross size (3 is human-sized, 2 is large child, 5 is a horse, and so forth). Two new Secondary Attributes added: Vocal Control, Face Control. An explicit ruling that Primary Attributes cannot be trained, and that Secondary Attributes work differently from each other (some can be trained, some can't, they're bought at different prices).
• As a necessary consequence of the above, Strength can no longer feature in Skill Aptitude Blocks (APT Blocks).
• The Intelligence (Thinking Speed) Sub-Attribute can not feature in APT Blocks.
• The maximum for the Hardiness Secondary Attribute for Humans is 4.5. In many fantasy settings the maximum is 5 for Dwarves and 4 for Elves. Also, Hardiness is bought up and sold down during character creation in increments of 0.5.
• Professions introduced, including the OmniSkill (and there was much rejoicing?) and the Profstat Secondary Attribute. Later Special Professions (such as Musical Versatility and Linguistics: Practical were added, replacing the old Versatile Training mechanic).
• The Martial Arts training system changed, replacing "enhancers" (xD, xDD, xC, xI...), which give a multiplier to the skill cost, with Stunts, Lores that cost Stunt Slots, meaning that the more Stunts you want to add to a specific Skill, the higher the SP cost.
• A similar "it costs extra if you want a lot" subsystem added for Genius Traits, and a whole new character creation unit, the Archmage Point, introduced (to make it more expensive to have multiple magic-enhancing traits).
• WillPower Points changed to be a more generic mechanic, with everyone having a very few (an amount equal to Will per 12 Moons), but some characters having many more.
• The costs of Addictions, Distinctive Feature and Contacts have been simplified, to use a somewhat simpler additive cost progression per level (reducing the need for table lookups) rather than the old multiplicative cost progression.
• Veteran Traits added to system. They're bought with Goodie Points directly, as Backgrounds (in the 4th Category).
• Beneficial Linguistic Backgrounds (Bilingual, semi-Bilingual, Trilingual, et cetera) are now Backgrounds, and purchased directly with Goodie Points as 4th Category items.

Magic Systems

• Life Force renamed to Essence, to avoid misleading people into assuming that characters are hurting or crippling themselves when they spend Essence to render magic permanent.
• The Enchanting Skill renamed to Endowing, so that Endowing is now just one of several ways in which one can render an item permanently magical (Enchanting an item).
• New item creation methods introduced, alternatives to Endowing, most being inborn ones (not learnable Skills), such as Artificer and Charm-Maker, Divine Bless Item, and Royal Imbue and Heroic Imbue.
• The system of supernatural Alignments changed and unified so that there are only three Alignments: Divine, Pagan and Satanic. This list can obviously be modified or enlarged to fit specific worlds, but ought to work surprisingly well without modifications in most fantasy worlds.
• Mage Factor introduced, to calculate appropriate compensatory points for magic-related disadvantages (such as Incompetences), trying to estimate how much they suck for the individual character.
• Mysteries added to the magic system, including Mystery Slots bought at character creation. Some things that used to cost Essence now cost Mystery Slots instead (e.g. having Forms for use with Shapechange Magic), which makes somewhat more sense.
• Forms introduced as a special kind of "routine" shape that characters can shapechange into.
• Divine Magic is no longer Spell-based, but is instead based on the Powers system, levelled Advantages bought at character creation, fuelled with Power Energy Points (PEP), and in most cases non-random to use (i.e. they always work). As such, the White Category, with its 3 Realms of Aid, Bless and Healing, was removed completely.
• Active Powers sorted into tiers. Divine Powers are high-tier and so have large PEP totals but recharge them slowly ("save your PEPs in case you meet a Balrog!"). Low-tier Powers have small PEP totals but recharge them quickly. Mid-tier Powers are, as the name may suggest, in between these two extremes. (Bardic Powers and Lunar or Nature Powers are examples of low tier; while Royal Powers and Virgin Powers are examples of mid-tier).
• Instead of complex varieties of "intervalled" abilities ("twice er 3 Years, at this Power Level, you may Resurrect a recently deceased person"...), Active Powers get Mega Power Points that recharge very slowly, and the even rarer (an non-recharging) Ultra Power Points, this being more flexible. Abbreviated MP and UP.
• Two small Spell Categories with 4 Realms each combined into the Grey Category with 7 Realms. This change happened so long ago that the names of the original two Categories are no longer remembered, but they each contained a Realm of magical detection, so these were combined into the Divination Realm in the Grey Category, making for a total of 7 Realms rather than 8.
• Greater Spells introduced. These are very flexible Spells, and thus are harder to learn, and more dangerous when Fubmled. Some existing Spells, primarily the Illusion I to V Spells, and the Control [Element] I to V Spells, are now Greater Spells, while more purpose-specific non-Greater versions should be made, e.g. an Invisility II Spell, a Disguise Self I Spell, a Move Air III Spell and a Destroy Fire IV Spell.
• Spells can be cast even when Partially Learned.
• Spell Safety introduced as a concept; it's a beneficial modifier on Spellcasting Fumble Outcome Rolls.
• Spell Force introduced as a concept; used to Push Spells for increased Range, RI or Duration.
• The Strong Magic Advantage introduced, giving a similar feel as a Spellcasting Talent but through different means (trying as best it can to make the character's magic "feel more powerful").
• Spell Investments changed to use a more flexible Investment Level system.
• Investments of non-Spells no longer called Item Powers or just Powers, but instead Item Abilities.
• The Spellcasting Focus Enchantment made more flexible, so that it can give an RD bonus to a Realm Pair, or to a sub-Realm, or a single Spell.
• Weather Magic and Shapechange Magic were made into more-or-less Prestige Realms, that are completely or nearly useless on their own. To control weather it helps a lot to have Skill with Air Magic and Water Magic, and Shapechange Magic is completely useless without either Body Magic or Animal Magic (depending on the kind of shapechange desired).

Other

This section is mainly for important changes to how in-play resolution subsystems work.

• Roll mechanic changed from using ten-sided dice to using twelve-sided ones. The Fumble scale expanded so that the worst possible Fumble is F-6 Disastrous Fumble, instead of F-5 previously. The worst several types of Fumbles got new formal names. All Roll Difficulties incrased by 2 (since a ten-sider generates results in the 0 to 9 range, and a twelve-sider generates results in the 1-12 range).

• Drastic changes to the fatigue system, changing from using a Stamina Point system, where characters with high cardo-vascular fitness would routinely have triple digit Stamina Point totals, to a divided system where fatigue is accounted in discrete Combat Fatigue Points (CPF) represent intense brief effort, and Exertion Intervals mainly used for long-term travel and -labour. Fatigue recovery is somewhat simplified in the process, and the new system allows the simulation of characters with unusual muscle fibre types (white fibre or red fibre prevalence).
• The combat system switched from using Blows to using a more fluid and flexible Action Point system.
• The unit of monetary account changed from d to f, from penny to farthing. 1d equals 4f. This is to remove the need for decimals.
• Etiquettes changed from regular Skills (which Cap social Skills) to Lores. Each missing situation-pertinent Lore results in a cumulative +1 RD penalty on social Skill Rolls.
• Normal (or Human Average) Fleetness is 3, not 0.
• Movement based on the Move Factor stat, which is modified by Fleetness, but is itself based on the Pace derived stat. Human average for Move Factor is 3.
• Similarly, Climb Factor, Jump Factor and Swim Factor average 3 for Humans.
• Complementary Skill Rolls (CSR) added to system. If you get 4S or better with the Complementary Skill, you get a -1 RD bonus to the Core Skill (the Skill you're trying to Complement), but if you get F-4 or worse you instead get a +1 RD penalty. Choosing to do a Complementary Skill Roll usually adds to the time an activity requires, and even more so if the CSR is done by a different character from the one rolling for the Core Skill.
• Terrain Skills can now be used for Complementary Skill Rolls.
• Precise Strike, Power Strike and Tactical Strike added as combat options. Precise Strikes attempts to hit the chinks in the target's worn armour, or weak points in natural armour. Power Strike involves a Strength roll to attempt to increase damage by brute force, and Tactical Strike is a fast re-action used against an enemy who tries to run past the combatant, in this way empowering characters to control ground (a bit like the "en passant" rule in chess).
• Feints added to the combat system. These are used to add "Feint Points" ("combo points"), FEP, on a target, representing the Feinter gaining abstract combat advantage and/or confusing or tricking the target. Feint Points can be "collected" with "finishing moves" which inflict potentially devastating effects on the target.
• Item Quality added as a formal term, 3 being the average value for a good-but-not-unusual item (based on materials and craftsmanship). Abbreviated Qx, as in Q3, Q-1, Q11 or Q6 (values below 0 and above 9 are rare, but often possible). Some items can only have certain Quality values, for instance armour may not be able to have even-numbered Quality values. For some items, such as Skill Kits, Weapons, Armour and clothing, Quality above average may be used to select "picks" that give specific benefits, e.g. +1 Durability on a metal-bladed weapon may cost 1 pick, or 2 picks on a very short (dagger) or long (two-hander) blade, or on a non-metal-bladed weapon, such as an axe.