Tequendria update

Oh god, I'm tired. But we must press on for the work we love. Tequendria is nearly complete and it's turning out to be the biggest book I've created so far.

I wanted to share some further details about the game as I edge closer to the finish line.

Tequendria started off as Halberd Second edition. I've never really been happy with Halberd and there was a lot I wanted to change with a new edition. But as I was creating it I found that the game I was writing was entirely different. At the beginning I had some light Dunsanian elements, but that evolved into a pretty Dunsany-heavy game.

I didn't want to have the standard archetypes that Halberd had so I borrowed from Troika! - having a list of 20 that players can just roll randomly if they choose. So rather than having human, elf, dwarf etc, you can be a construct created from the bones of a god, a desert- dwelling griot, a warrior born of the moon and plenty more. It's fantastical, the way Dunsany liked his worlds, but with my own stamp on it.

The USR combat system has been overhauled. I had a comment saying that this might remove the 'USR-ness' of the system, but I don't think that's the case. What the updated system brings is balance and gives the GM an easier job of making encounters. What I was finding is that a high level warrior with weapon specialisms and someone who essentially could barely hold a club could be at the same level. This didn't sit well with me and made balancing a nightmare. After all, a big bad monster tough enough to challenge a high level warrior would make mincemeat out of someone with a lower Action and no weapon specialisms at the same level. I didn't think that was fun, so a slight tweak has meant that even if you're not a combat orientated character you can still hold your own.

There's setting material also in the book. Actually, everything is setting material really. There are 25 locations detailed (though fairly briefly - with enough information to fire the imagination). All of this has been taken from Dunsany in some way. There is a city that is actually alive and in mourning, another that is constantly besieged by centaurs, and one full or greedy oligarchs who are under the threat of a god emerging from the sea and destroying it. Gibbelins make their home in desolate places, the Tower Unvanquishable is in there, and there's a city full of 8ft tall wizards. I wanted to spread flavour throughout the book, through archetypes, magic items, monsters and locations.

One thing that has remained from Halberd and might seem a little weird to traditionalists is that everyone can cast spells. Some are better at it than others, of course, but because this is a fantastical game I wanted magic to run through everything. Magic is also a risk. Generally, of you're not a particularly intelligent character you're more likely to screw up and also less able to cast harder spells in general, so some characters will dabble in some spells but it's less likely they will focus on it. But if times get desperate a magic novice could pull it out of the bag.

I'm hoping to get everything completed for mid April. I'm excited about the project and it's taken over everything else I've been working on. I hope you like it.