Hello lovelies. As part of our Q&A and the resulting ticketing storm, you all have asked questions. A lot of questions. And some of those questions made us think. And some of those thoughts were super relevant to building characters and our next beta, and we’d like to give you as much warning of changes before game, so you’re all getting a surprise patch!
First of all, we’re going to change our character builder to be a bit simpler and easier to understand- the new link is up at the bottom of the character creation page, and it should walk you through your spends on the form itself. Thank you to Seth for her ongoing form wizardry.
Secondly, we’re making an official announcement in how starting XP works. Right now, the site says that “every character begins with 35 Experience points to spend as they desire within their Self-Teach List.” This wording implied that that starting XP could not be spent in attaining glory concepts, which is hard given that most glory concepts also cost xp. So effectively we were requiring that all glory concepts take a flaw in order to buy in- and that was not our intent! This has been changed on the site to read “every character begins with 35 Experience points to spend as they desire within their Self-Teach List or starting glory concepts.” We also made an explicit ruling on how much XP can be carried over from your starting XP or flaw XP, and the answer is that a character can reserve up to 3 XP from starting XP or flaw XP that can enter their XP bank, but all other starting XP must be spent on character creation. This note has been added to the website.
Thirdly, we’re changing how starter glory concepts work going forward- both now and in the game in the future. Previously, our rule was as follows: “It is only possible to enter play as one glory concept, although there is no limit to the number of concepts that can be achieved in play, assuming they are available after creation. Only the first level of any glory concept may be purchased at character creation, with the exception of dedicated Guild NPCs entering play after a year, and only at its most basic level- magicians come in with 3 spells, cultists come in with 3 rituals, dhampirs and seers get their first power, and paladins and rangers have their innate abilities.”
However, after much discussion, we have decided to adjust this. While Magicians still come in at Circle 1 with 3 spells, and Cultists come in at Rank 1 with 3 rituals (and any 0 level rituals), Rangers and Paladins will have the option to buy one level 1 Gift or Evocation of their choice, as if they had performed the unlocks required for those powers before the start of play. Dhampirs and Seers, meanwhile, now have the option to buy up to/including their second level power, and in the case of Dhampirs this means they are assumed to have performed their second level unlock before the start of play.
In the case of Magicians, we have added new sections to the magicians and spellcasting page that illustrate the options for starting spells available to new magicians for each of the Domains. It’s a lot! Magicians may choose their starting spells off of this list as part of their character creation process, as long as it falls in their school.
We have also had quite a discussion about Curse State versus Cursed Creatures versus Cursed flaw… and have adjusted terms for clarity. The Curse State is now called the Damned state, the Cursed Flaw is called Thrice-Damned, and Cursed Creatures remain as they were. Cursed.
This change was made on many pages of the website, including on the Lurite page where we have noted that Transference affects both the Damned state and Cursed creatures. Let me know if you find any vestigial versions, as long as you’re okay with the webthralls cursing you from afar.
Somewhat related, we have clarified on the Malefica page that for the purposes of Depravity, consuming Cursed essences and parts does not trigger deadly Greed, although they may trigger sins of Violence depending on how much the Cursed creature appears as human. We have also noted that occasionally, Specters and Cursed creatures will drop their essence upon their cure or resolution- if you can manage to resolve them.
On the depravity page we have made a note to venial violence that the sin does apply to humans typically, and that killing the monstrous bear who is rampaging through your village does not count- although as always, you are welcome to take the sin if you think it applies to your character.
And on the topic of sins, we have added a note to Mortal Degradation, saying that it includes the unintentional consumption of human flesh. This does mean that Deadly Greed, meanwhile, only includes the intentional consumption of human flesh. This change was made to the depravity page. Similarly, we have updated the Gothic Flaw Cannibal to include the word “intentionally.”
That’s it for now, but it’s a great example of how interconnected systems can be, and how making one change in a small part of it can affect a much wider conversation about balance and usability. Much love to you all.