Hi Everyone!
Right now, I am going to take a moment to go over some rules related things with you all. Around a month ago we took polls to get a better idea of where the player base wanted us to take some of the rules for the game. It was always our intention to share the results with you, but we wanted to give enough time to make sure that anyone who wanted to respond did. It has been over a week now with no new responses on any of the polls and so I am posting the pie chart results of all the polls below. These charts will give you a general feeling of the way your fellow KR players have told us what they want in regards to the subject of the polls. For the last several weeks we have been working on the rules with the results of these polls in mind, as it is our intention to take the game in the direction that the majority of player’s desire in relation to these polls.
There is one poll that I did not include, which had to do with hybrids. I had put up the poll to determine if I could remove using hybrid class sources in alternative ways. I determined from the comments and through picking through the details of the responses that I could not, and so hybrid power sources will continue to be allowed to be used in alternative ways.
In addition to those polls, we also put a form out there for you to tell us what classes are important to you from an RP identity standpoint. We are gathering this info because we want to ask the right players, their opinions on specific classes while they are being worked on. If you have not yet filled out this form, you still can do so, by following this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZNrRQ7b7JUNMB967_o6-an0jDZUTU4r8QIYp5Ntz05Oew3w/viewform
We have already begun to reach out to some of you, but over the course of the next week we will be reaching out to many of you.
I also want to address the class Gladiator. When we first introduced it years ago, we switched the generic warrior class to this one. There was some initial discomfort with the class identity of the name relating to historical slavery and we have heard that some players still struggle with that issue. Beyond that we have had trouble nailing down the appropriate skillset for that class concept. Even further beyond that, no one identified with the class through our poll as anything beyond their tertiary interest. Because of all of those reasons combined, we have decided to cut the class Gladiator and replace it with the class Vanguard. The word Vanguard translates to front line fighters in an advancing army or navel unit. The class concept and skillset lends itself well to characters who identify as having been a soldier or part of an army in their characters backstory. If you would be interested in identifying as this concept as one of your characters, we can contact you for your opinions on the lists skill set.
I have made a few posts already in the past explaining the direction of the final rules edits. I will try to make one more in the near future spelling out as much of the details and thought process that I can. That post however may have to come a little bit later because there are several other important non-rules related issues that staff needs to spend time on in the immediate future.
Thanks for taking the time to read this post!
I cannot edit James post, so I apologize for the potential need to scroll back and forth. We were asked to make the questions related to each of the poll results easier to find again, so here they are listed below: Graph #1: For those that remember when Armor Points and Body Points were separate measurements, we are under the belief that our players vastly preferred it that way. Many have expressed both a role-play and rules dislike of the current way of treating armor stamina the same as body points. In this proposal, armor would grant Armor Points, and there would be skills to allow warriors to patch them on the field, and for smiths to repair them in between battles. There would then exist skills that do direct body damage, but those would be rare and spread out amongst all the archetypes, unlike before when body damage was the standard attack rule for one or two archetypes.
80 Responses
65% - Good idea
15% - Bad idea
12.5% - Indifferent
7.5% - Other Opinion
Graph #2: The armor cap rules have appeared to cause more trouble than the benefit they pose. We are looking to remove the Armor Cap rules and allow anyone to wear as much armor as they like. We would however reduce the number of armor types that can be stacked in this scenario. We would also adjust some master list armor rules to favor warrior style classes because battle stamina is supposed to be one of their main perks.
80 Responses
60% - Good idea
16.2% - Bad idea
17.5% - Indifferent
6.3% - Other Opinion
Graph #3: Originally latent spells (such as protective spells to cast on others) existed on caster classes. We removed them from caster classes in newer versions of the rules in order to give them almost exclusively to support classes. Many casters expressed dearly missing the latent abilities to cast on others. We are interested in giving some of them back to casters. If we do so, we will continue to evaluate and ensure that supports maintain a unique and useful skillset to their allies.
65 Responses
73.8% - Good idea
7.7% - Bad idea
18.5% - Indifferent
Graph #4: Originally it was that you purchased each spell/talents individually. We changed it to purchasing groups of spells/talents. Many players expressed that they felt it harder to role-play or care about the role-play of learning individual spells/talents in this format. We are looking to change this back to individual spell/talent purchases in order to both allow you to micromanage which abilities you have for individuality and also allow you an easier time role-playing the learning and teaching of individual spells/talents.
65 Responses
75.4% - Good idea
15.4% - Bad idea
9.2% - Indifferent
Graph #5: We wish to know your opinion about how challenging the game feels. We are not asking you if you want a hard game or an easy game. We are asking you if your general last year of live play seemed too easy and whether you believe your experience could benefit from it feeling more challenging?
72 Responses
36.1% - Lot more challenging
38.9% - Little more challenging
19.4% - Challenge level is good
5.6% - Indifferent
0% - Game too challenging
Graph #6: We do not foresee ourselves going back to a system where you can permanently have your character taken away from you through dying. That being said there can be an argument made about dying losing some of its impact as a result of not feeling that there are any meaningful consequences. Keeping in mind that permanent death against a players choice is not on the table, please choose one of the following answers.
72 Responses
58.3% - Lot more consequence
31.9% - Little more consequence
5.6% - Consequence level is good
1.4% - Less consequence
2.8% - Indifferent
Graph #7: Situational combat skills are skills that work really well in combat but only in certain situations. They may help a particular class feel more like their class but this boost in situational power would come at the expense of generalized power. Quick and fast example of these abilities could be “Destroy Undead” – Does a catastrophic amount of damage to an undead being, but is ineffective towards the living. ''Banish Elemental” – An elemental being is banished back to its home plane. Skill is ineffective towards all other beings. “Arterial Slash” - deals a lot of damage and/or statuses to a humanoid.
78 Responses
83.3% - Like skills
3.8% - Do not like skills
12.8% Indifferent
Graph #8: RP/Puzzle Solving Skills are skills that have no combat use whatsoever and no mechanical statistical effects, instead they describe narrative actions that can be performed by the character. These actions would be performed as personal role-play or an attempt to overcome a challenge presented by a story runner. We would still be encouraging some free form role-play but these abilities could be used as parameters for those who feel more comfortable working within a narrative framework. Quick and fast examples of these abilities could be: “Germinate” – Make a plant grow with great speed. “Mold Earth” – Displace three cubic feet of solid earth. “Deep Breath” – The character can hold their breath for five minutes. “Alcohol Tolerance” – The character can operate perfectly while drunk or can shake off the effects of drunkenness quickly.
78 Responses
80.8% - Like skills
10.3% - Do not like skills
9% - Indifferent