A Major Refactoring

The title might seem bad, but I'm actually very happy. After scrambling like mad last week to get ready for my playtest, I was left feeling like I didn't actually accomplish what I set out to accomplish. But after Friday's pre-alpha game, I'm feeling confident in heading a new direction.

The first thing I got out of the playtest was that the core mechanics are still solid. The dice, the stats, and skills all worked how I intended them to. There were minor discussions about secondary mechanics: expertise, status effects, pockets, and encumbrance, but really more looking at clarification than any major changes.

The second major thing I got out of the playtest is that it's time to dramatically step up the content of the setting itself. Hostargo, while an interesting idea, really isn't fleshed out enough and felt very familiar in terms of a modern cyberpunk world. Now that the focus is shifting off of the mechanics, I need to start pouring more effort into making Hostargo feel unique and awesome - making players want to play in it.

Lastly (at least that I'll be recording here), is that my classes failed to deliver any sort of real addition to the game. Sure, they gave you some expertise and a new ability, but it didn't focus the one thing that this genre is about: roles. What ended up happening, which I kick myself for being so cliche about, is that the Animancer spellcaster was able to overshadow everyone else simply because they had an option for everything. Class, unfortunately, didn't come into play much at all (the Animancer is a "calling", or special ability, not a class).

But this hit me like a truck, probably because I hit my forehead with my palm so hard. Of course. I was so focused last week making everyone cool that I forgot to balance any amount of utility. And just like that we have 8 pretty much brand new classes. From here on out, my design goals for the class/calling pair are thus:

• Class: What your character does.
• Calling: How they go about doing it.

This should have been obvious, but it's always 20/20 in hindsight. Now, I can define very specific roles I want my characters to have in the game: the hacker, the healer, the investigator, etc. And, now I can make the special abilities gained from one's calling directly correlate to each class's purpose. The final goal of this being that anyone can play any combination of class & calling, and they will be a unique and interesting party member.

6 * 8 = 48 combinations

Six is already stretching my limit of categories for special abilities, so that's pretty final. And remember, the calling is aimed at pleasing the player's playstyle, not filling a specific character role. Eight classes feels right, so that different parties of 3-5 people can have wildly different games depending on their party makeup.

Add on top of that that these new classes allow me to completely strip away the necessity to play as SEA agents (you still can of course), and you open up the possibility for 3 additional "group templates"! More gaming styles, more stories, more adventure. I may have another mountain of work ahead of me, but I couldn't be happier to climb that mountain.

Cheers!