Catchup

It's been a while, unfortunately posting here has slowed down significantly along with progress at the end of the summer, but things picked up the last month and most notably many mechanics have been completely overhauled and smoother.  Lets focus on some of the initial changes:


Dice Rules:

The same three concepts explained before remain - Stitching, Weaving and Fraying all are main mechanics and are relatively unchanged.  However, how the dice pools are dealt with and interpreted have been rewritten and redesigned.  Additionally how successes (called stitches) interact with skills and scale in effect have been completely overhauled and simplified.

A sample below will discuss how a dice pool would work:

Weaving: 7
Fraying: 2
Stitching: 9

This is a moderate challenge with average risk and the user is fairly skilled.

They get the following dice:

1, 2, 4, 6, 6, 9, 10

The player then looks and sees that they have two dice meeting or below their Fraying, and two meeting or beating the Stitching, leaving them with:

Frays: 2
Stitches: 2
Others: 4

They may expend two of the others to cancel the frays, and then they have two stitches they may spend toward success.

Simple, and easy. However, a new mechanic was created to help control optimizations effect, and to add an interesting element.  Thematically, when a character succeeds really well all the time, they tend to get overconfident and are more likely to not foresee the consequences of their action.  How that is resolved mechanically is that the first stitch spent on a roll is always free, but each stitch after the first adds a fray to the next roll they make.  This means if someone spends 5 stitches, they automatically add 4 frays to their next dice pool.  This can add to high risk rather quickly, especially if the player doesn't plan right, or has a tendency to max one skill, and not any other.

---------------------

Character Creation:

Character creation has been dramatically simplified.  The point buy had all scaling removed, and now features a simple token purchasing system.  Its easier for new players and far less intimidating while still allowing for flexible character creation.  Additionally the entire skill list was overhauled, and 10 skills where cut from the game, bringing things down to currently 50 skills. Skill 'groups' or categories of skills where completely excised as they where confusing and limiting from a design perspective.  Instead a new flexible Background system was created to encourage skill spreading during character creation.

Backgrounds allow a character to create blurbs of their history, assisting them in building who they once where, and also making the skill selection portion of character creation more interactive and story based without being overly dense or confusing or intimidating for newer players.

--------------------

Resources:

The resources have been overhauled, condensed and a few cut.

There are now the following resources:

Physical Fortitude
Mental Fortitude
Spiritual Fortitude

Lifeforce

Destiny
Flourish
Alignment
Waken



Resources provide a management system to the gameplay, and allow for selective risk versus reward in design.  The basic mechanics of resource management are easy for players to grasp, and the strategies interesting as long as they aren't heavily complex.

The Fortitudes are Dreamcatcher's form of a health system, and the three separate pools are simultaneously a way to reduce optimization effects, as well as allow for significant flavor differences in the way characters play.

Lifeforce measures the character's life.  This resource is never returned, is very powerful and critical, and if lost in entirety means the character dies.  They are sort of a cat's nine lives in this game world which features permanent death.  They prevent Dreamcatcher from feeling as harsh as some worlds with permanent death, without removing death as a threat and real possibility from the game world entirely like many systems tend to do.

Destiny is this system's most flexible resource, similar to other 'Action Points' in D&D or 'Edge' in Shadowrun.  They allow for storytelling and luck override.  They allow for a player to have the right tool at the right time to make what they want to have happen in story, regardless of Dreamweaver input.

The other three resources are gameplay based, interact with skills and abilities in different ways, and are very limited so something the player needs to make significant choice over using.  The average player will only have 1-3 points per long rest (or day in game terms) to work with and can be very powerful when used right.

Flourish allows for one to make use of a really good roll, and not suffer a lot of fray penalties.  Very simply, the resource being spent allows any number of stitches to be spent on the roll without incurring fray penalties.

Alignment allows for a 'redo'.  Very simply, they allow a player to pick up all dice, and rethrow though they lose weaving when doing so.  This can help make up for really bad luck or a bad roll at a critical time.

Waken allows for the character to make use of the strange magics of Dreamtime, including Evoking the power inside Dreamcatchers, or changing the shape of their body through the Shift ability.


--------------------

Skills:

Skills got significant overhaul in this draft.  Beyond cutting 10 skills in order to condense everything so every skill feels useful, they have been expanded, rethought, streamlined due to the changing underlying mechanics.  'Passive' effects on skills where moved, and instead a new system currently being called Expertise was added.  In order to allow for some differentiation and flavor for two players who specialize in the same skill, and allow more flavor and personality, the expertise system was added.  Upon hitting maximum rank in a skill, the player gets to choose an Expertise from a list of choices and this is a permanent choice and may not be changed.

An expertise can change how the skill works, add new effects or expand a skill, or change how another skill interacts with the one specialized in.  An expertise may also add static bonuses, like increasing the Weaving of another skill, or increasing a maximum resource.

Concept art for Raven. Weeeeeeeee~

Big mechanics changes

There were some flaws and some of the design features in the first draft did not fit the design goals for the game itself. One of my friends and colleagues helped to work out the knots in the mechanics.

Now, the main concepts explained in the blog haven't changed dramatically, but there have been significant changes to the printed dice mechanics and character creation since the first draft.

Character creation has been dramatically simplified, while keeping the main elements of point buy in place. One physical stat has been removed, and three rethemed. Two resources have been combined, another two redesigned entirely. The entire concept of 'Force' has been removed from the game entirely, removing a layer of unnecessary complexity.  To allow for power scaling, more than two hits (stitches) may count, unlike before, but now each extra stitch adds an increasing risk to the action afterward.

This continues the design goal of allowing for simple strategic choice on how to deal with a dice pool, and also keeps optimization in check by adding significantly more risk with each stitch used in a success, keeping player power levels more in balance with one another.

This simplifies the way skills will react to successes, and does mean major overhauls of nearly every aspect to the original draft, but in a positive way. It has the added benefit of moving it further from typical game mechanics, eliminating possibly some confusion or assumptions made on similarities with other tabletop RPG systems.

Things are looking up overall, and progress has started again on getting Dreamcatcher into a playable shape.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Current Draft: 2nd

The blog has gone quiet for a couple weeks since the first draft was completed. The author has taken a mental break for a bit of recovery after the long process, before the hefty revision work begins.  Some major mechanics changes are happening that will affect balance of numbers, though nothing systematic on the dice front, most relating to character creation to bring it more in line with design goals.

Some very limited playtesting has occured, though nothing of significant consequence.

The first large piece for Dreamcatcher has been commissioned, contract will be signed tommorrow delivering a nice two page spread for the book involving Entropy, the artist's choice for most interesting thing in the book to illustrate that fit her tastes and style.

http://hanmonster.deviantart.com/ is the artist, she's very talented and great with color and mood, but this is one of the more dramatic and complex commissions she's had to do.

This artwork is a pretty penny, and hopefully will be made back up in kickstarter, but it'll be great for promotional material for the kickstarter campaign.

Design Discussion

One problem with the traditional tabletop game is the inaccessibility of it.  While game systems have always existed on both ends of the spectrum of heavy math, and light math, the popular and successful ones that a majority of people play have some fundamental flaws with the design of the system that make it difficult for a few critical things.

Game Masters are necessary and fundamental in design for the success of a tabletop game, and the feasibility of a system without one is quite limited.  But the GM position in a game can be quite stressful for new people to pick up, and most games aren't conducive to learning.  Additionally, GM burnout in general is a factor, and games are always healthier when different people in the group take turns GMing, and understand what goes into the process.  Healthy groups can last a very long time and be the source of friendship and socialization, and are one of the very best parts of tabletop gaming.

However, few systems on the market are really focused on encouraging that kind of development.  It's sort of an accident of happenstance, or a sign of good friends when it does.  Most systems are designed mechanically to reinforce the Game Master as an enemy.  It encourages players to try to beat the GM, missions and plots and fights are about winning the game, rather than about telling story.  A GM by nature, must be of a certain personality type to be willing to have that kind of control and in that environment only certain kinds of personalities will even have fun.  Not every game will play like this, but the very base systems of D&D and Pathfinder very much treat the GM as the enemy.

World of Darkness did a great job with it's storyteller system of trying to focus on the storytelling aspect of the GM instead of the mechanical functions.  It has a very light set of mechanics to reinforce story as the main aspect of the game, and it had plenty of thematic elements to back that up.  WoD though requires an intense amount of plotting, and is very focused and limited with each separate module not being very compatible.  In addition the thematic elements at the time of release made it difficult to appeal beyond a very niche audience.  Furthermore, the underpinning mechanics that did exist where very broken and actually had problems with scaling backward, where the more dice one had, the more chance of catastrophic failure there was.

In both D&D 3.5/Pathfinder, and WoD, the GM has the added issue of having to fudge dice and re-balance the game on the fly.  Due to Pathfinder's ridiculous class and system imbalances with many different rulebooks and synergies that scale exponentially, the power imbalance in a game of unequal skilled players means significant difficulty for a GM to balance encounters.  With powerful players it can be a challenge to even present a moderate amount of difficulty without catastrophically wiping the party, or making less skilled players feel useless.

So what purpose does Dreamcatcher serve in this discussion?  Many systems provide enough of a good experience that any existing tabletop group can have plenty to choose from.  And newer systems have come out more recently to make the games more mechanically balanced that allow newer GMs to pick up the dungeon crawling portion of traditional tabletop, like D&D 4.0, but they miss the primary point.  With the advent of video games it becomes a challenge for a tabletop game to offer the level of mechanical interest, and strategy found in video games.  In addition, Massive Multiplayer games offer a few of the social elements that drew people to tabletop.

What is the primary unique factor that tabletop games cannot have replicated in video games?  Collaborative storytelling.  A common derogatory term for GMs who force a specific set of actions and plot on players as 'railroading', which is to say, the GM that does not adapt the story and seeks to tell a plot like a movie.  This eliminates the largest part of the interaction in story for the players.  Dreamcatcher seeks to mechanically offer a cooperative experience that while maintaining the model of GM and player, sets up the entire system mechanically and thematically to reinforce the players and GM on the same side.

Dreamcatcher calls the GM a Dreamweaver, for they help to navigate and inject plot, come up with situations to challenge the players, but the entire focus is different.  There is no combative rolling in this system, rather the Dreamweaver does not roll dice against the players.  Instead, players roll for both offensive, and defensive situations.  It creates a unique dynamic compared to existing systems in play, and makes it immediately less combative on a subtle psychological level.

The rules themselves are designed to inherently discourage the traditional optimization of games in numerous ways, that don't inhibit design of character, or fun or flexibility.  There is logarithmic scaling instead of exponential scaling of power, allowing for characters who dabble to still have use.  Skills are flexible and broad in use, so creative players may be more effective by thinking through how to solve a situation rather than picking attacks or skills from a list in front of them.  That isn't to say the system is without mechanics, as there have been many that have come out before to strip a system bare to focus entirely on storytelling.  But rules play a roll in helping new players learn how the world works, and a robust system can help in allowing shy players to be eased into role playing instead of just being thrown in.

What strategy exists in Dreamcatcher was carefully selected.  The three fundamental sources of strategy this rule set incorporates are:  Resource Management, Luck and Risk Management, and Problem Solving.  Resource management is something pretty much anyone who has ever played a game instantly grasps and is able to understand and use.  This game features different resource pools to manage during the course of play.

All resources recharge after periodic breaks, in this case taking inspiration from one of the better design elements of D&D 4.0, the rest system.  While many games have used 'days', or 'sessions', to describe the period in which things recharge, both are arbitrary, and harder for players to understand on a mechanical level, and neither element is within the control of players.  Long rests as defined in Dreamcatcher are periods of rest or break, long enough to have a full eight hours of sleep uninterrupted.  When players choose to do this, is under their control instead of the Dreamweaver, so they can retain they can plan how they use their resources based on when they know they will be able to recharge.  In addition, there are short rests, which allow for some resources to recharge during a break or breather.  This adds another element of depth, choosing when to use these resources so that recharge is not wasted.  Spending a lot of resources in one encounter, may prove problematic later down the road as the resources that do recharge do so slowly.

Resources include three separate pools of Fortitude, each of which represent a different part of a players well being.  Physical, Mental and Spiritual Fortitude are calculated differently, and expended on failure or occasionally consumed on use of certain abilities.  A character is only as strong as their weakest Fortitude, as if any should hit zero, they become Vulnerable.  The reason for the different health pools is it discourages optimization by design, as a character is only as strong as their weakest Fortitude.

Another major resource is Destiny.  Destiny is a stat that lets players write their own story.  They may expend Destiny in order to override dice, assure successes, or replicate any function they need to.  They are very powerful, and if spent together can stack up to create game changing actions.  Destiny is the single most powerful effect a player can have in storytelling, allowing them to determine the outcome of a situation, but being a resource they must be careful to decide how they use it.

The next big element of strategy is Luck and Risk Management.  This is presented in some ways with the Destiny resource, but also applies to the fundamental dice system.  Many games in the past feature little thought beyond rolling a dice or dice on the player's end and seeing what falls.  As described in a previous chapter, Dreamcatcher features a mechanic called Fraying, which is secondary consequences to an action. While failure and success are the two primary measures most consider in an action, consequence is far less considered in design in most systems.  Consequence is expressed in the form of Frayed Actions, situations in which a Fray goes through that may occur regardless of an actions success.  When players roll, a specific number called Fraying determines what dice that come up count as Frays.  Frays may be removed from a roll by any other non fray dice.  This means that excess dice may be used to cancel frays out.  However, there will be situations where a player must choose between success while leaving a Fray in the action, or failure, or between a huge success with a fray or a minor success.  These considerations are up to the player, who has the choice of deciding between the options and determining how the action concludes.

The dice don't determine what consequences are though, and the system leaves enough flexibility to make it sensible rather than mechanical.  A Dreamweaver may use one of the many Frayed Conditions to represent a story element, or may come up with far more elaborate consequences for the frayed action, but regardless it becomes a choice the player makes that integrates them with the story being told.

The last big source of strategy in the system is problem solving.  The game does not differentiate combat with any other form of encounter.  It treats every system by design as a skill challenge, or puzzle to solve regardless of the conditions.  It is mandatory that a Dreamweaver present multiple paths to conclusion for players, and is given tools in encounter design to allow for creating these multiple paths and determining conclusion in a mechanical way that will reinforce the storytelling.

Character skills are expansive, and designed around a guideline of potential, but leaving open the option of using skills in ways not quantified within the book.  The skills allowplayers to think outside the box and approach encounters in ways that aren't prescribed directly by the rules if they make sense from a story perspective.  The design does not inhibit the story, but reinforces it.

That is the most fundamental part of Dreamcatcher, rules that are simple enough to grasp, have good depth but reinforce the story instead of limiting it.  It is the hope in the long run that more people get to experience role playing, and GMing and creates an inclusive experience for both experienced and newer players.

First Draft Get

Draft #1 is officially completed.  An arbitrary designation, as there is still original content to write, and some sections already been revised pretty heavily, but none-the-less this is a milestone.  Play-testing will begin soon, and alpha players are rolling up characters, though honestly a significant and major overhaul to the way character creation works is already being designed for draft #2, to bring the unnecessarily complex and intimidating process down to something far more manageable without losing flexibility.  This is not a small change, but a complete and total overhaul of the character creation process that brings the design goals far closer to a reality.  This should not be overwhelming or intimidating for new players, unlike the current design.

The first draft was 138,500 words, without either of the unfinished vignettes, though there may be additional content written in the forms of Dreamcatchers, Traits and Flaws as character creation happens during play.

What does this mean?  Dreamcatcher is on track still for a December or January Kickstarter still, and hopefully will not slide too far, though the art portion of the equation must be to a certain point first.  In addition the author must hire a lawyer to help with art contracts so that progress on artwork can happen, and needs to start working on simple Layout design in order to assist with draft #2's structuring process.

Even so, its good news for anyone who is interested in the project.

Current Progress

Draft: 1st

Current Word Count:  138,000 + 2800 Unfinished Vignette

The progress in the last month has been unfortunately slow, though I am this last week making some much better progress.  I've settled some campaign matters, written some more functional things and finished making examples for significant thematic aspects to the game to give a better idea and guideline for creating more, and visualizing the concepts within the setting.

I invested a lot of time on an important vignette sequel I've been struggling to finish, but it's almost done at the very least.  The first draft is getting ever closer to being completed, after which playtesting shall begin.

Completed -

8 Vignettes

31 Contracts

3 Godstones, 19 Minor Dreamcatchers, 13 Major Dreamcatchers, and 10 Oracle Coins

150 Traits and Flaws

30 Husks

5 Common Runewords 9 Rare Runewords

6 Penumbra Examples

3 Wild Examples

12 Dreamtime Examples

18 Metropolises

4 Pathways

6 Crossroads

Character creation

Character growth

Setting history

Skills thoroughly created, expanded, detailed

To do list - 

Two more vignettes

More Minor Dreamcatchers

Guidelines for Husk creation

More Husks

More Pathway examples

Mock Play Sessions

Pregenerated characters with stories

Rules to Play By: Tapestries

The mechanics of this game are intentionally designed to remain robust while attempting a level of simplicity that new players can pick up. Most importantly, the game is focused on storytelling so the mechanics support, rather then provide a distraction from the story.

This post will discuss the three key controlling factors of the game's dice rules. Each named for the concept of creating a fabric, or tapestry of a story or plot. They help to decide the luck factor in fate, instead of leaving the judgement entirely up to the Dreamweaver.

Weaving -

The first number describes the process or skill in weaving threads. The number represents knowledge, experience, innate ability and influence from other parties on a character's capability. This number is determined by a character's stat, and the skill rank associated with the task they are trying to complete, plus a possible bonus from a Dreamcatcher, or Contract. Weaving is generally static for each skill, only rarely featuring temporary modifiers. The player may determine this number on their player sheet while not in play, giving them opportunity to not need to do math on the fly.

What weaving does is determine how many D10s are thrown when attempting the task, and the skill associated controls that weaving. Skills are designed to be flexible and accommodate the creativity of players, and at the same time it is highly discouraged for players to just use a skill mechanically. The actions should be decided based on the story, and the appropriate skill chosen. However, the skill list is descriptive, covering exact mechanics for many different ways of using the skill to give guidelines to both players and Dreamweavers on how to interpret the actions for each skill.

Weaving is the most static of each of the three base mechanics, and is the one character creation and the player has the most control of. The numbers may range from as low as 1 to as high as 15, meaning quite a few dice may be thrown during skill use.

Fraying -

The fraying number represents the number at which consequences may become part of an action. Any dice that rolls that matches the Fraying number or is lower than it counts as a fray in a roll.  Frays can be problematic to any weave, but a skilled weaver can fix them without leaving permanent damage, though the few that do stick become a permanent part of the fabric.  

All actions baseline start off with a Fraying of 2, though some traits may lower Fraying, and many flaws raise it. Umbral Effects, nasty environments of the penumbra often raise fraying or react directly frays that occur within them. Fraying is significantly more reactive than Weaving, altering throughout the course of an adventure for even the same skill.

Frays themselves don't determine success or failure of a weave, rather they are nasty side effects that carry on if not properly dealt with. Any dice that is not a fray, may be used to cancel a fray, so a character has control over eliminating them. The risk of a fray being part of a completed action is much lower under normal conditions, and far higher in nightmarish places and places of high stress.

When an action completes with a fray, a frayed condition may be placed on the character, or other unintended consequences of the action may happen. This is to say, someone may still strike with a weapon, but break their bone in the process of doing so. An unintended consequence while still succeeding at the primary action, as the two concepts are independent. Sometimes it might be better to fail an action outright than suffer a more lasting condition.

Below is an example of a more complex Frayed Condition, as currently described in the book. Not all frayed conditions are progressive or increasing, but many are problematic and hard to ignore, and they are not simple to remove.

Corruption -It might be slow, or it might be fast, but something is corrupting deep into the character’s psyche, affecting their moral decisions and perhaps even their physical shape.  Long term exposure is more progressively effective and becomes more difficult to remove as the character begins to desire its effect.  For each long rest with this effect in place, it requires an increasing number of successes to remove the effect.  Story-wise it should suppress the character’s conscience if they have one, and push them away from the party’s intent.  Mechanically, it adds a Stitch to checks to complete tasks that the party is trying to succeed at.  For each long rest it adds +1 to the Stitch, up to +5, after which the corruption has fully taken effect and cannot be removed, and the character no longer wishes to work with the party, and may even become an antagonist.

Stitch - 

The stitch represents the difficulty in completing a stitch on the fabric, and determines success and failure. The number is determined by the Dreamweaver, with guidance from the rulebook for suggestions on determining it. The number ranges from 6 to 10, though it may even go higher in the form of 10x2, 10x3 and so on. What the number means is each dice that hits that number or above counts as a success. 10x2 means the first success requires 2 10s in order to count, while 10x3 requires three 10s.  

Weaving increases the likelihood of rolling a number that counts. Unlike some similar systems, frays do not negate successes on their own, though successes may be spend in order to eliminate frays just like any other, so there may be times where a player voluntarily chooses to fail rather than suffer nasty consequences. This is one core element to player decision making, a simple strategy that they may decide when they roll.

In the end, the stitch number is the Dreamweaver's primary input to the outcome of a roll. Their end of the bargain in determining the fate of a character. Each completed stitch adds up to tell the story of an encounter, and guide the storytelling and descriptions of what happens. Both players and the Dreamweaver are highly encouraged to use these numbers to reinforce how they describe each challenge and the conclusion to the action.

Compendium: Kami

The first post on this blog introduces names without a background. The compendium series will discuss and highlight particular concepts in detail and introduce the world of the new setting.

Kami -

The word Kami comes from Japanese Shinto religion, specifically meaning spirit, a creature that may range from a tree, to the mighty god Susano-O. Not all people use the word to describe them, many cultures use different terms, though the term Kami has propagated many places around the world since the Day of Slumber, the day when the Veil broke. Kami have no physical presence, and are tied directly into Dreamtime, not able to sustain themselves within Reality on their own.

Kami take on many names, shapes and forms, and their power varies greatly. Some are little more than a stiff breeze, or the gentle warmth of a stove, while others bear the names of Gods and walked among the ancients. Their strength is tied directly into the Dreamtime, which is shaped by belief. While Kami may become very powerful, they are only as powerful as humanity believes them to be, driving a symbiotic relationship with mortals.

Kami may be bound to objects, called Dreamcatchers, created by humans forcing them into service. Their powers may be called upon by mortals, though it is rare to see anything powerful enough to bind a God. Many Dreamcatchers are little more than trinkets, baubles used to command tiny fractions of the power of the Dreamtime. And yet, some Dreamcatchers are more powerful, evoking powerful magics and affecting the destiny of those that hold them.

Kami may also possess living bodies, though all but the weakest willed should be able to resist a lesser Kami under normal circumstances. However, Kami are crafty, and inside nightmarish places called Penumbra, they may break down a mortal's defenses and crush their soul, taking the power and shaping the flesh into things now called Husks. Husks may contain tiny fractions of the person they once where, but even if the Kami where banished, their mind and soul may be far too damaged to ever return.

The lesser Kami act on instinct, little more than elemental sprites, connected to nature or an emotion that they where born from. Greater Kami, those born intelligent are crafty creatures, and may attempt to approach godhood should they be given the opportunity to collect followers, birthing new Gods. Old gods hold onto followers, clinging to stories still told of them or finding interesting ways to maintain belief despite man's fading faith in the modern age. Other, nameless Kami, latched onto the void left by the named ones, rising in the modern era without a face and yet tapping into the collective worship of modern man. All of them fighting for followers, even willing to give up a piece of themselves in exchange for followers who will act in their favor.

These gods will form Contracts with mortals. Each party agrees to the terms, and in exchange for the devout belief and following the Kami's will, the mortal gains great power. However, many Kami are crafty, and the contracts are warped in their favor, giving them a path to enact their will with little option on the mortal's end. Each contract has unique conditions for the terms ending, if either party breaks the contract they must pay the other based on the terms described, though many Kami have escape clauses that allow them to end the contract should they feel the mortal did not keep up their end.

This covers the basics of Kami, but below highlights a sample of one of the contracts, a well known Native American spirit Raven.

The following is an excerpt from the first draft of the book and both the mechanics and theme are subject to change.  It is not edited currently, so do not judge the quality of its final form based on this excerpt.

Raven - 

To many he is the wise one, and to others he is the trickster. Never as great as his brother Coyote, nonetheless he found followers in his name. He is known to bargain, taking knowledge in exchange for gifts, but his gifts are always double edged and his words are riddles. He may appear in dreams to lead, to help or just to steal, preferring to do as little work as necessary. He also likes eyeballs.

Contracts with this elusive trickster are difficult, for he rarely wishes to share his precious knowledge, preferring to award more directly, but those who manage to convince him to take them on may find it equally troublesome, for Raven appears to be a magnet for everything that goes wrong, and maybe he had a reason for taking the contract.

Signing the Contract Grants:
Trouble seems to find the character no matter what they do, increasing the likelihood of generally bad things happening to them. Most notably inside Dreamtime, Umbra tends to be more prevalent around, while outside antagonistic Kami often show up in Wilds. Worst of all, inside settlements, the character tend to draw husks of the smarter kind that find ways through the cities defenses.

At the same time Raven’s tendency to draw trouble also means he’s prepared, adding the player’s luck stat as a bonus to Initiative, and the character’s spirit is added to their maximum Avoidance.

+2 Weaving to Balance, as its hard to throw off Raven even when presented with daunting tasks and the player may choose three skills to reduce the Fraying of those skills by 1 to a minimum of 1, these skills may be adjusted by visiting Raven in the Dreamtime during a Long Rest and delivering him a tale of his own accomplishments, where he excels in the skills to be selected. This action consumes the entire downtime.

The greater bond grants:
Grants an increase equal to half the character’s Spirit to maximum Mental Fortitude, for Raven is both crafty and wise, and increases the Mental Fortitude Recharge by 1, and the player’s connection to Raven’s craftiness will help escape the most troubling situation.

Raven’s pride means that he is quick to boast, and when using deceit or storytelling to talk about the character’s deeds or raven’s the Force and Weaving of all rolls are increased by the character’s Luck. The character also gains the trait Skilled (Deceit).

Raven's black feather's tend to appear in many locations around the character's various body parts in any shape they take, and hair, scales or feathers will always be black as night.

The greatest bond grants:
May call upon Raven for a favor once per Long Rest as a Major Action, and he shall appear if it suits him and grant varying requests. His favors may include removing frayed conditions from the contract holder or their allies, accomplishing a skill requested of him. He’s quite powerful in some, but if he’s no good at the skill requested he’ll try anyway and never admit a fault. He may also answer other requests at his whim. His fickleness however means nothing may happen at all.

Raven’s obsession with shiny things means he rewards the character for collecting them. When using Sleight of Hand they get +2 Weaving and gain Focused (Sleight of Hand). May also trade stolen items of value to the original owner with Raven for more favors on summoning him. When summoned the character may trade non catcher stolen items for additional favor.

Raven's wings adorn the default shape of the character, fully feathered, or replace the arms, but they are not necessarily functional. Raven's pride means the character is equally proud of their feathers.

Joining a contract:
It starts with a dream, whether a variety of black birds, or a lone raven finding their way into the player’s subconscious. Then the tendency to see them in Reality and Wilds. A plague of black birds, or a hellish raven keep them company in Penumbra.

The character’s reaction to Raven’s presence determines whether he decides to offer a contract or a gift, a gift being his primary offer in trade for wisdom or knowledge he does not have. He plays a game of challenge with the character, which they may approach as a solo encounter and if they succeed he will offer them the choice, and if they fail his flock will abandon them. Accepting the gift grants temporary boons, but the contract may be far more valuable. Definitely, far more dangerous.

Breaking a contract:
Raven no longer wishes to help those who no longer honor his bargain, and does nothing to assist them as Raven’s tendency to draw trouble continues to plague the former contract holder. Maybe that will teach them a lesson.

Raven has also been known to flake out on his end of the bargain, simply one day not showing up when he is called. At which time the contract is broken. The character’s plumage grows in more fully, adjusting their default shape towards Raven’s, especially that stunning beak, and that plumage never seems to go away. His ego seems to transfer over, small parts of his personality infecting the former contract holder turned Raven. They now have a strong desire to collect shiny things, and if they gain one, they may grant their own boons now to their allies. When presented a shiny thing they may remove a frayed condition from an ally once per short rest, or if they acquire one through sleight of hand they may remove their own.

Terror In The Night Concepts

Two concepts for Terror In The Night, a husk that lies in wait for sometimes wary children in the safety of their bedrooms and often hiding in closets or under the bed until one comes within reach hence the elongated claws and fingers. The idea is that they can swallow a person whole, though a full grown adult is often too big for them. Both concepts come with the idea of being able to shove and then compress whatever it is going into their mouths into a much more compact mush. The one on the bottom has a muscular sac that contracts and then forces everything into the protruding gut until digested. His jaw is actually not even connected to the skull part of his head, but to the sac itself so that it can easily unhinge to take a bigger bite. The one on top, however, eats more slowly, grinding the flesh on the way in and storing it around the body, his sagging skin becoming more taunt and full. I'll probably go with the first one only I'll push the skin-sagging-on-skeletal-frame a bit more, methinks. Definitely shades of concept art from the first Silent Hill game and the Gatherers from Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Done with letraset markers, prismacolor pencils, and an ink pen on toned tan sketchbook paper.

Meet the Art Staff

Biography - 
Title: Lead Art Designer
Pen name: Teknicolor Tiger
Name: Cassandra Aponte

The artist is on board for a significant portion of the work for the book, and will help to make sure commissioned art from other artists follows a consistent thematic and fits the setting. Here is a sample of her drawing one of the Husks from the book called Momentary Glance. Other concept artwork will be posted when she begins work on it.

Introductions Ahead

Draft: 1st

Current Word Count:  134,000

This is first and foremost a tabletop role playing game with dice. Four months now have gone by with near constant progress on the first draft. Lets tally where the book currently stands by breaking down the contents that have been created thus far, and look at where progress will bring it in the future

The Setting - 

The game is set in the near future, ten years after the Veil between Dreamtime and Reality broke, the world has significantly changed. Beyond over 90% population loss, many new things have been discovered, changing the direction of humanity. Old magics were found to be true, new technology has been made even as others have been lost, and yet it is a struggle to survive. Traveling risks encountering dreamtouched Wilds and nightmarish Penumbra, or falling through the Veil into Dreamtime itself.

This setting allows for plenty of flexibility for storytelling, allowing for nearly any theme imaginable, while having consistent mechanics that keep it grounded in reality. And while it is connected to the real world giving it a basis for Dreamweavers (GM in most rulebooks) to work with. Familiar places, the real world, myth, all can be easy starting points to work with, without needing to create and define setting or use pre-generated locations. However, the rulebook contains numerous areas of the world detailed to give clear direction of its shape and even offering plot-hooks and danger for the Dreamweaver.

However, this game is focused heavily on collaborative storytelling, player input is as important to the story as the Dreamweaver's, and the book provides short stories about characters experiencing the setting first hand, as well as clearly defined but extremely flexible skills to provide them with guidelines of how they might progress through the story.

One of the key storytelling and mechanical elements in the game are Contracts, which are signed with Kami, powerful beings of the Dreamtime that we have named as Gods, or Monsters, or even just Ideas over the centuries. They've received perhaps the most polish and attention in the book thus far and provide plenty to work with from a Dreamweaver and player perspective including conflicting motivations and direction. 

The characters may be as diverse as the setting, and the rules allow for customizing characters in both a physical and mental sense to a great degree. There are no races, rather the character builds their character's shape using the traits and flaws, and stats as guidelines. There is also a Shapeshifting mechanic built into the game instead of races, and allowing for coping with the sudden physical changes that can happen when dealing with Dream. The game is skill based and classless, allowing for flexible backgrounds and design and furthermore skills themselves are designed to encourage creativity rather than provide restrictions on what players may do.  

The Mechanics - 

The game's mechanics are designed to supplement storytelling instead of restricting it. They are there to reduce conflict, and support cooperation instead of competition between the Dreamweaver and players. This is critical for creating a fun game and one of the big problems with existing rules. Only a few RPGs out there have done well in integrating the mechanics with the story, and a problem with many other systems out there is the tendency to create a game, instead of a story. The problem is, most games devolve into dungeon crawls with a majority of players, and differing skill levels of players tend to really stand out and create problems. They also often devolve into a competition between the GM and the players, which can lead to occasional hostility, arguments and encourages Rulemongers and Munckins.

This game is a little softer on the mechanics, attempting less rolling, less math than the popular rules on the market, but by no means is it simple. The game is designed around simple yet deep philosophy of modern gaming, the idea of boiling the system down to root strategies and offering a lot of them without trying to overwhelm players with optimization, numbers and math. While this book hasn't been able to avoid it entirely, and does fall into the occasional bit of it with some of the more advanced mechanics, new players and Dreamweaver's shouldn't be bogged down in them and allow them to focus on the art of storytelling and role playing instead of learning systems. This does mean the system and setting focus heavily on that aspect and it may force shy and inexperienced players to have to interact and think in ways they haven't had to in other systems.

It is the hope of the designer that the book provide a focus on the strongest aspects of tabletop games and might bring tabletop gaming to a wider and different audience than Pathfinder. While the marketplace is full of RPG settings, and even systems, this should and will stand out among them for its design focus.  Its about to start alpha playtesting on finishing the first draft, and will receive balancing, revision and initial artwork before it hits Kickstarter. Eventually, the book should be available in both hardcover and digital format.

Completed -

8 Vignettes

31 Contracts

2 Godstones, and 25 Dreamcatchers, 10 Oracle Coins

150 Traits and Flaws

30 Husks

10 Runewords

6 Penumbra

18 Metropolises

4 Pathways

6 Crossroads

Character creation

Character growth

Setting history

Skills thoroughly created, expanded, detailed

To do list - 

A few more vignettes

Revise & Redesign one Contract

Three dozen more Dreamcatchers

Guidelines for Husk creation.

Two dozen more Husks.

Wild and Dreamtime examples

More Pathway examples.

Mock Play Sessions

Pregenerated characters with stories