Re: General Discussion

**Genisisect** Sat Sep 26, 2015 1:24 pm

A purely fluff release. The eagle eyed viewer will notice the inclusion of two new deities in the pantheon and a new race; The Naga. Ill be releasing their stats soon (I hope).

That's all for now,

The Gamaester

**Genisisect** Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:25 pm

Sorry for update spamming, I should have been more organised and did this all at the same time. I've reposted the races information, there were some small changes to the Dwarf, Drow, Duergar and Chitine races. I also have add the stat block and description of the Naga.

The fluff that I have pressented in the Races section is rather simple, I hope to eventually get around to fleshing it out and making it more like the descriptive stuff from the 3.5 or 5th edition hand book. That said if anyone (*cough* Knifey *cough*) wants to contribute you are more then welcome.

We should be getting graphical representations of the gods soon enough, courtesy of my sister.

**Genisisect** Tue Nov 17, 2015 3:46 pm

I've been pretty quite for a little while, but I thought I would share what I've been working one. The first upload is the racial fluff for dwarves in my world, and the second is a draft map of Theril. I would appreciate feedback on both, particular the dwarf fluff. Is the dwarf fluff so detailed it's restricting, or insufficient to help people make there characters, or is the style of this just all wrong. Would really like to get some feed back on this as I am currently also working on a similar fluff set for Changelings and Naga and I would hate to over commit to a bad format.

That's all for now,

The Gameaster.

**KnifeytheWanderer** Wed Nov 18, 2015 4:13 am

Just wanted to give you a heads up, I've had feedback to your dwarf fluff (and the creation/history lore) sitting almost complete for a while now! I'm really sorry about that (I'll try to get it to you as soon as possible, I honestly feel terrible at having left it sitting for so long).

But feedback will be on the way soon! Apologies for the delay!

Will take a peek at the map in the morning!

**Genisisect** Wed Dec 09, 2015 4:12 pm

A preliminary deities list is up. Ive still got to write the sections for the Younger deities, probably fix up some of the stuff in the other sections, but I'm pretty sure this will be the difinative list at the very least.

**Genisisect** Fri Dec 25, 2015 11:46 pm

The younger gods have finally got their descriptions up!!! Huray!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and Merry Christmas Everyone.

Next goal is to dive into some divine politics, and I'm sure that I will need to do a similar thing for the Demi-Gods that survive all the way up to MnM times at some point, but for now the labour is done....

**Genisisect** Sun Dec 27, 2015 12:21 am

It's been a busy period of time for me, as I'm planning to begin recording for the podcast the rate of world building has began to increase. Though the 'storyline' (let's face it I hardly write stories, and if I did you guys would go of the rails of it any way) is pretty well sorted, as are the locations that you are likely to visit, but I still would like to get as much of this content done, if at the very least to assist you guys in creating your characters.

Latest entry is the stuff on Changelings. I don't feel that this content is as refined as the dwarf stuff was, and I plan to come back and add to it later, but for now it should give you a sense as to how this race works in my world.

THe eagle-eyed reader of the stats entry on the new thread will observe a change in the the base stats. This is indicative of a larger change in MnM as a whole. I have decided to switch from the d% being the primary determinant to using the d20. Why? I like d20s, it also make advantage and disadvantage simpler and I found myself doing everything in increments of 5, so why not simplify the whole thing and divide by 5. I have already updated all the rules in my copy of the rule set, and at some point will get around to making this change on the forum as well, but for now I want to get the fluff blocks for the races the PCs will be using in the podcast done.

Next up the Naga fluff block. I'm hoping to have them done by Wednesday, following them the Drow and Ferals, in some yet to be determined ordering.

**Genisisect** Thu Dec 31, 2015 12:04 am

I met my self imposed deadline! (Just...)

That was a bit harder then I was expecting, I was suffering from a bit of writers block I guess, luckily I had been pondering the naga for some time thanks to lawless's character which allowed my to just push through it. I am somewhat worried about how long it may take for the next one.

The Naga are here, I felt might have gone a bit over board on this one, including alot of terms from the naga language, it was my intention that the words I included would be used by naga even when they are communicating with non-naga, thus I put them in, but I'll be more then glad to take them out again.

I think I'll start on Ferals tomorrow, as I have a bit more of an idea on what I want to do with them then the Drow.

Feed back always appreciated,

PS. I'm pretty sure there is some stuff in the fluff that need to be fixed up, but that can wait for later.

**Genisisect** Fri Jan 08, 2016 2:37 pm

Feral fluff is finished, and I've already made a start on the Drow stuff.

I wasn't particularly happy with how this one turned out and will probably need to revisit it later. I've decided that after the Drow fluff is finished I'll stop working on the races stuff, instead finishing of the geography of Theril and then returning to work on the mechanics of MnM for a little while. In particular I've been fiddling around with designs for the character sheet and would love to be able to get a finished version of that up, and it's been a while since the classes received some love (I think there 2 or 3 development versions behind at this point).

**Genisisect** Mon Jan 11, 2016 9:29 pm

Sorry guys, I lied; completed the map work before the Drow stuff. It still needs some work, but I'm now sated and perhaps I can return to writing.

**Genisisect** Wed Jan 13, 2016 6:52 pm

Drow almost finished, but I'm putting up now becouse it should be all we need in the near future. I'm going back to working on mechanics at this moment, as I'm a bit burnt out from the intensive fluff output I've put myself through recently.

**Genisisect** Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:21 pm

I've recently encountered some really good advice for people making RPGs, and that's to try and decide what the core concept of your game is, and why is that not available in a more common platform. You should be able to summarise this in only a sentence or two, and referring to other games is allowed, you shouldn't need to refer to mechanics.

I've thought long and hard and I finally realised the answer:

"Machines and Magic is DnD but without big damn heroes. The lives of each character is fickle, and the longer they live the more endangered they are."

I realised this because all of my design choices up until now support this. Every character starts of with with essentially normal stats, with about a 30% chance to achieve success in skills that they are untrained in and is unlikely to achieve above a 50% success. As they level up they get more abilities, some which make it safer to perform actions, or can spend their xp to improve their core stats, and thus success chances but they lack a diversity of skills. But as they level, it is likely thier sanity and corruption will undoubtedly increase, and they will also likely take battle damage that will irreparably reduce their stats if they get hurt too often. An average character has 6 hit points. The average weapon deals d6 damage, and though most attacks are reduced by their CON bonus (on average 3), an unarmoured PC could be downed by two lucky hits. Even the setting supports this feel, with the world being harsh, unforgiving, broken and under attack from forces well beyond their kin.

With all this in mind, I've been working on the combat rules, and hopefully will have some of the core combat rules up tonight, and mayby a broad over view of how it works.

I'm curious to see if you guys agree with my interpretation of what experience my rules are trying to deliver, or if you have any suggestions on how to enhance this feel.

**JohnTheRanger** Mon Feb 01, 2016 4:25 pm

That sounds like a pretty accurate description of the game.

When playing it before, I was thinking off it as being something like "Warhammer 40K/Dark Heresy in the Forgotten Realms", in terms of game play, mechanics, and tone, and setting and classes, respectively.

Our characters feel fragile and vulnerable and (at least when starting out) borderline incompetent. Which was quite similar to how it felt with Dark Heresy, for me, anyway.

Also, the mechanics of character generation and class progression felt similar. It was a matter of rolling dice for the key stats and so on rather than calculating out and allocating skill points. This was easier in some ways than in DND and means that losing a character or having something horrible happen to them might not be as agonising, as they can be more readily replaced. Which is extremely important in a high casualty type game. Spending hours generating a character who can get (and is not unlikely to be!) taken down by a well-aimed half-brick in one round would be immensely frustrating. A more procedural approach works well for this: pick class, roll dice, pick stats/abilities, buy a couple of things, and you're good to go. [Not that I feel I have a full grasp on how to make a character yet - I would have to be talked through it, at least the first time.]

And the tone and setting definitely feel gritty and dark. It feels like the world could fall apart and the people in it are struggling to live lives that could ultimately be snuffed out by all manner of wretched circumstances, with not much they can do to really improve it through their own agency. There are crazy powers in motion, but we can't fully perceive them, and our characters are just out to survive however they see fit (even though they probably won't *grins*).

EDIT: Looking over the rules quickly, I have one small very 'fluffy' improvement to suggest: Consider distinguishing between 'Unnatural' bonuses and 'Extraordinary' bonuses to the races. E.g. for Dwarves, they would have Extraordinary +1 STM, as being high stamina is a natural but notable part of being a dwarf - it's not like they're on steroids or using magic for it or something, which would be 'unnatural'. They're just naturally tough, as I see it. As I said - a purely fluffy matter.

**Genisisect** Wed Feb 03, 2016 2:37 pm

in regards to the "unnatural x +y" mechanic, that's actually legacy stuff from when MnM was more of a DH re-skin, I've already moved away from that concept, calling it either 'improved x' or 'heightened x' in various locations (yet to be standardised as I've flitted between the two at various writings, the working rules are currently a jumble and I really need to go through them and standardise my language, suggestions on which term to settle on is appreciated) and also changed the function, the original mechanic was in some way special, characters with Unnatural Strength +2 was somehow better than a character who simply had an ability bonus two higher, I didn't like that in the setting and am changing the function slightly, providing a static boost to ability bonus.

Other legacy stuff which I'm trying to get rid of are things like using the combined 'Adjective +/-modifier' method of listing checks (ie. a Difficult -2 Check), as I don't feel it adds anything.

Currently the Degrees of Success/Failure Mechanic is still included, but I'm beginning to question if I still want it there. It's certainly changed from the original incarnation, but when shifting from the d% to a d20 system it's become a bit complicated to compute (halve your roll plus any modifiers and then subtract it from your ability bonus) and as a mechanic is hardly ever invoked (only in opoposed checks and at this stage initiative).

These are the systems that are currently included which I'm questioning, but I'm pretty close to the work and alot will have slipped pass me. If there are any systems that are currently on the forum (like the Unattural x +y trait) which you think 'feels wrong', or needs to be rephrased definitely bring it to my attention. I'm hoping to go through all of my current notes and make sure their all consistent by the end of the week and then re-update the forum, and this is the time to make sure a legacy item gets removed before I forget about it.

**Genisisect** Thu Feb 25, 2016 7:29 pm

I've been going over the rules and one thing keeps striking me; for a game where you are supposed to have multiple characters, character generation is kinda time consuming.

I can't help but feel unsatisfied with the characteristics and how they work, particularly how many of them keep being written down in new places etc. I also feel that the system is putting heavy emphasis on combat, with minimal risks involved outside of combat. Is this really a smart idea with fragile characters? Call of Cthulu has a large amount of its system devoted to non-combat for the simple fact that if your fighting your kinda doing it wrong.

I'm currently considering a change to how the system currently works, it involves reducing the number of core stats substantially (21 down to 12-14) and reducing the complexity of combat, while allowing for non-combat risks beyond simply pass/fail.

I'm going to let these ideas bake for w little while, as the rules thread is becoming full of half baked ideas that I never got back around to fixing.

Any thoughts?

**Genisisect** Tue May 31, 2016 7:51 pm

Jobs Done.

With the posting of the orcs I've now finished putting up the crunch for all the races. Phew, not looking forward to the fluff, but that's some time in the future.

Next up is crunching out the classes/specialisation for the worldbook.

I also am feeling good about putting the changes to the MnM system, but that might have to wait for a bit longer... I'm pretty happy with how it turned out though, it feels super gritty and dangerous and that's just the raw mechanics!

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