Saving Throws

I've been dissatisfied with saving throws as normally presented for a while now, primarily because their progression curve is just so confusingly uneven - in LotFP, for example, they generally jump up by two every three levels, but sometimes it's three, and sometime's it's five. Secondly, the periodization - if saves are another method of making characters more survivable the more player time is invested in them, I'd prefer them to scale up in tandem with that time investment, rather than at every third level.

I also really liked Gus L.'s idea of decreasing Death Saves. It's a crutch that helps out starting characters but automatically falls away as they (and the player) gets more experience, it telegraphs the idea that you can't expect to be saved from the consequences of your mistakes as you keep playing, and finally, it works pretty well as an implied aging mechanic. 

So, thinking about it further, I decided to go with a four-save system - Body, Reflex, Mind, and Luck. The first three is the basic three-save system. Body protects you from poison and exhaustion. Reflex protects you from triggering traps. Mind is rolled against magical effects, both live and device-based. Luck is your "Save vs. Death."

Here's the basic progression:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
Body	17	16	15	14	13	12	11		10		9		8		7		6		5
Reflex	14		13		12		11			10			9			8			7
Mind	15			14			13		12		11		10		9		8		7
Luck	8			9			10		11		12		13		14		15		16

In the same vein of a decreasing Luck score, I wanted each save to behave differently. All of them slow down after level 7, in keeping with the general idea of higher levels providing diminishing returns. (Originally I tried slowing down after level 10, but the progressions I used lined up better at level 7, with all four saves lining up for levels 7, 13, and 19.) 

Therefore, the Body save starts high and rapidly increases - +1 every level, followed by +1 every other level - reflecting your character starting a bit doughy but quickly becoming much tougher, in time to protect against the more powerful poisonous monsters they're likely to face at higher levels. 

Reflex starts high, but only gets +1 every other level, followed by +1 every third level. This way, you start out comparatively well-protected against traps, but it doesn't increase as quickly as the dangers you face - you'll be forced to rely more on your own wits and attention to your surroundings than the saving throw. 

Mind saves take the opposite tack - starting fairly high, but getting a +1 only every two levels at first, then increasing to +1 every other level. I wanted this to reflect the relative rarity of magic-using enemies in the early levels, but with an accelerating scale of improvement as they become harder for players to simply avoid. It also makes in-game sense to me, with the characters gaining better abilities to fight magical effects as they are brought in more direct contact with them.

Luck takes the same scale as Mind, but decreases. -1 every third level, then -1 every other level. 

With a basic progression figured out, I whipped up four specific save progressions:

	Lucky						Physical
Level	1	7	13	19		Level	1	7	13	19
Body	16	10	7	4		Body	14	8	5	2
Reflex	12	9	7	5		Reflex	13	10	8	6
Mind	14	12	9	6		Mind	16	14	11	8
Luck	6	8	11	14		Luck	8	10	13	16
	Divine					Arcane
Level	1	7	13	19		Level	1	7	13	19
Body	17	11	8	5		Body	15	9	6	3
Reflex	10	7	5	3		Reflex	15	13	11	9
Mind	15	13	10	7		Mind	12	10	7	4
Luck	9	11	14	17		Luck	10	12	15	18

Divine, of course, can be used for clerics, paladins, etc. Arcane gets applied to magic-users and illusionist types. Physical for fighter types. "Lucky" for thieves and halfling types. I'm working on a seven-class system for Veil, which applies the Lucky progression to the Pioneer (a frontier-styled Specialist), the Arcane to the Magus and the Illusionist, the Divine to Assassins and Clerics (due to Assassins being based on the original religious Hashishin order) and Physical to Fighters and Barbarians. 

Lineup 2014

It's a new year, and I've resolved to get some regularly scheduled programming up on here. There are a few small side projects I've been working on, and my Qelong campaign is starting to pick up steam, but 2014 is really going to be held up by a few tentpole projects. In order:

The province of Acacia has been the only safe domain on the New Continent for over a decade, enriching its citizens and its rulers through a steady trade in wondrous furs, exotic herbs, and tough lumber. Now, however, the mercenaries of the Union Charter have set up competing forts, and inciting the natives to make war on the Acacians and on each other. As the balance of power whirls out of control, once-human things stir in the darkness, and the prehistoric forests begin to reveal exactly how they can stand the test of time...

Archive here.

For centuries, the Dark Continent has lain in state. Exoticized, exploited, or ignored by oceangoing imperiums, the Dark Continent is known as exactly that - a broad curlicue of unknown land, a rudimentary coast, a mockery of both cartographic authority and royal power. But there will soon be bands of human adventurers spilling across the Dark Continent's baking hills and steaming jungles, erecting coastal forts and way stations, penetrating deep into the ancient Elven homelands and the tropical cradle of Dwarven civilization. Will your band be swallowed up by its trackless hinterlands, or will they stumble to the coast, heavy with looted gold?

Archive here. 

It's 1931 in the Tennessee Valley. Herbert Hoover is President, lending his name to shantytowns all across America, and Henry Hollis Horton is Governor, embroiled in scandals following the bankruptcy of his political allies, and the loss of $6,000,000 in corrupt endeavors. The law is largely in its own hands, and nobody important is interested in investigating those "haunted" woods up the river, or the "cursed" treasure hidden deep within a local cave...

Forgottenland is what happened in my head when the Old School Renaissance got run over by the Drive-By Truckers. Outside the Valley, society grinds on much as we know it. Inside the Valley, crooked cops hunt backwoods moonshiners, lynch mobs ensure white rule with institutionalized terrorism, and mythical beasts guard buried treasure in shadowed forests.

Archive here.

Veil

The Faith rules the world, and God rules the Faith. But who can ever know how God wishes to be served?

Veil is both my main campaign setting and what I'll call the gaming system I'm currently using. This is a grittier adventure fantasy, where rewards are swift, but death is swifter, clinging to your heels like an ancient cobweb.

Influences

I get vibes from a lot of different things, and I like to write about them. I'll review anything that has something I'd like imprinted into my projects, and put it here.

Veil, a Cubic Dystopia

Once upon a time, there were many deities.

All were equal, though some, of course, were more equal than others. As with any power structure, the weak soon aligned with the strong, or with each other, creating alliances and pantheons in competition for the souls and riches of the world below. They warred.

Constantly.

Eventually, when the sky was filled with fire and smoke, the land smashed and broken, and the seas choked with holy power, the war met its end. Few mortal creatures survived, and those that did were irrevocably scarred with the terror and pain of generations of divine battle. It was plain to see that the world was in its death throes, and such constant hostilities might soon cause even gods to perish. Without an end to the war, there would be nothing but blood, and dust, and Void.

So the gods convened. A truce was formed, and the task of rebuilding the world begun. The gods called into existence a great Veil, one that no sight nor sense could pierce. The Veil concealed all knowledge of each god's ultimate whereabouts in the new world, hiding from them nothing except their own ultimate place in the world's foundation. With the Veil in place, there could be no hierarchy, no intrigue, no sabotage - every god, save the insane ones, would naturally desire a world where none among them would risk annihilation, or deprivation, or injustice.

So, in the final phases of the world's construction, they decided to merge. There would be but one God, they said, intrinsic to the structure of this new existence, and there would be no rivalries, no contention, nothing but an eternal Peace. And as the dissenters felt their powers drawn inexorably into this thing, this singularity of energy, they broke the agreement.

There was a pop, and a tear, and the Veil tore, and the new earth wrapped itself around the old, and all the old idols crumbled with the shock of rebirth. Dissenters, malformed and shrunken, fled to deep and hidden places. A new Humanity rose up and began slaughtering all the creatures from Before. And there God stood, and saw it was good, and said, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

The new Deity could be called the Primarch, they decided. He - she - it - had dominion over all the beasts of the land and air, the strange creatures of river and sea, and the weather, and the rocks, and everything between and beyond. It could be prayed to, but would not respond except in whispers, or subtle signs. And it wished nothing more than the killing of those "traitors," hidden everywhere in Veil. These demons, it said, were weak and atrophied, wanting nothing more than the plunging of the world into brutal Chaos, or to enslave it a grip of iron, or imprison it in soulless Order.

It was nothing if not vague.

As the Faith spread, adopting nonhumans and barbarians under its wing, it changed, then flexed, then split entirely. Now there are three Faiths, each with their own great city, and client kingdoms, and millions of worshippers.

The Western Faith believes that the forces of evil will bide their time, gathering strength and plotting a single, crippling blow against all holy order in a coming Armageddon. In the fires of the Last War and among the tsunamis of gore will be born an Anti-God, an avatar of nihilism, and the cosmos will return to the hell that was Before. So followers of this Faith hone their blades, building tall fortresses of stone and faith, stockpiling food and gold, all to serve as bulwarks against the Reckoning.

The Eastern Faith instead wishes to fight fire with fire, and use the tools of the Enemy against it. Their great Prophet, Aloysius the Tall, was even an accomplished diabolist, who habitually summed great Terrors only to bind and destroy them, so as to always be practiced at the art. Eastern priests are well-known evangelists, everywhere using the power of negotiation and commerce to bring new lands into the fold. Many Eastern holy sites are built atop known ruins of the old order.

The Southern Faith is composed of the Primarch's Chosen, every one of them, in the flesh. People of other faiths are, of course, welcome to their doubts, and welcome also to live and work in southern lands. Of course, they are obviously unqualified to hold office, or lead armies, or cross any borders or travel long distances.  Southerners believe that their souls, Chosen as they are, can never leave the world - usually, they are recycled as newborns in families of loyal Chosen, but sometimes they appear far afield, in foreign lands known not to the men of Faith.

There are, of course, a few things all three Faiths agree upon:
That there is but one true God.
That It has a Plan.
That It hates the traitor Demons.
That those Demons have many tricks and many disguises.
And They could well appear to be Prophets of the Faith.