A 20 page preview is up: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1176616619/shadows-of-esteren/posts/283065

Holy crap. PDFs of the book and GM Screen are being sent to backers today! That was quick. This is my kind of Kickstarter.

Enjoying what I am seeing so far. Any questions, fire away. It's going to take me time to digest this all.

I've got a couple of questions:

A) How's character creation? Is it simple/complex? Am I seriously gonna need that 3 paged character sheet or can I write it out on basic lined paper?

B) are there any 'monsters' in the book at all? or shall we wait for another book for that?

C) How complex is the game overall?

D) Is it a Player's/GM's book in one?

I'm sure there's some other 'dumb' questions I can ask, but that's all I have for now.

Quote from: CoffeeDave;570392I've got a couple of questions:

A) How's character creation? Is it simple/complex? Am I seriously gonna need that 3 paged character sheet or can I write it out on basic lined paper?

B) are there any 'monsters' in the book at all? or shall we wait for another book for that?

C) How complex is the game overall?

D) Is it a Player's/GM's book in one?

I'm sure there's some other 'dumb' questions I can ask, but that's all I have for now.

A) Simple. Basic lined paper.

A full PC statted out is:

Ways: Combativeness: 5. Creativity: 2. Empathy: 3. Reason: 1. Conviction: 4.
Skills: Close Combat: 10 (Discipline: Axe: 11) (+1 bonus). Craft: 3. Demorthèn Mysteries: 4. Erudition: 2. Feats: 10 (+1 bonus). Natural Environment: 6. Perception: 2. Relation: 6. Shooting and Throwing: 7 (+1 bonus). Travel: 4.
Advantages: Strong.
Sanity: Mental Resistance: 9. Orientation: Instinctive. Trauma: 2.
Combat: Attack: 11 (Axe: 12). (Axe Damage: 3. Short sword Damage: 2). Shooting and Throwing: 8 (Bow Damage: 2).  Defense: 9 (Protection: 3). Speed: 8. Potential: 2. Stamina: 10.
Survival Points: 3.
Personality: Character Traits: Upright, Impulsive. Latent Disorder: Frenzy.

B) No monsters. But you encounter monsters as regularly as you do in A Song of Fire and Ice i.e. very rarely. Most antagonists are human and can be made easily enough with the rules. There are extensive Sanity rules, which will handle most of the supernatural interactions that do happen.

C) Simple. Core rule is roll D10 + Attribute + Skill v Difficulty.

D) Both. Deep GM secrets are reserved for a later book called Secrets.

And after a small scare of some missing pages in the initial PDF release, it has been confirmed that there are no missing pages in the physical books

Would people find it useful to create a PC by forum? It may give a better idea of the system.

PC creation consists of 10 steps, being:

1. Ethnicity
2. Profession, Birthplace, and Social Class
3. The Ways
4. Age, Setbacks, and History
5. Character Traits, Sanity, and Personality
6. Experience Points, Advantages, and Disadvantages
7. Potential, Defense, Speed, and Stamina
8. Fighting Attitudes and Attack Rating
9. Survival Points, Rindath, and Exaltation
10. Description and Equipment

Let's do the first two in one hit:

1. Ethnicity

There are four human ethnicities to choose from, though none have a mechanical impact other than a second language choice.

They are Tri-Kazelian (the norm for the setting), Osag (an insular society of strong warriors), Tarish (nomadic people from far off lands), Continentals (slender and slim people, rarely seen in Tri-Kazel).

2. Profession, Birthplace, and Social Class

Profession: Choose a Profession. This will grant one skill (or Domain) at 5 and another (from a selection of 2) at 3.

Professions include: Bard, Craftsman, Demorthèn (Druid), Explorer, Fighter, Hunter, Investigator, Knight, Magientist (tech wizard), Merchant, Occultist, Peasant, Religious of the Temple, Rogue, Scholar, Spy, Varigal (messenger).

You can also choose 2 more Domains at 2, and another 2 at 1. This means that you have total starting Domains at levels 5, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1.

Birthplace: Each PC also gets +1 Close Combat Domain and +1 in either Natural Environment 1 or Relation 1 depending if they were born in a city or not.

Social Class: Last, you choose Commoner, Clergy or Nobility for social class.

- Commoners: For peasants and rural people, obtain +1 level in two Domains among Feats, Natural Environment, Perception, and Travel. For craftsmen and workers, obtain +1 in two Domains among Craft, Erudition, Relation, and Science. For middle class, obtain +1 in two Domains among Craft, Erudition, Performance, and Relation.
- Clergy: Obtain +1 in two Domains among Erudition, Prayer, Relation, and Travel.
- Nobility: Obtain +1 in two Domains among Close Combat, Erudition, Relation and Science.

Domains: There are only 16 Domains. These are rated from 1 to 5, but specialities (called Disciplines) can add another 10 to that, for a total of 15.

The Domains include: Close Combat, Craft, Demorthen Mysteries, Erudition, Feats, Magience, Natural Environment, Occultism, Perception, Performance, Prayer, Relation, Science, Shooting/Throwing, Stealth and Travel.

Anyone want to have a stab at choosing Ethnicity, Profession, Birthplace, and Social Class to get the ball rolling?

Quote from: Skywalker;570560And after a small scare of some missing pages in the initial PDF release, it has been confirmed that there are no missing pages in the physical books

Really? Did they send out an update for it or anything? I hadn't heard anything and hadn't had a chance to dig into the PDF much.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;570585Really? Did they send out an update for it or anything? I hadn't heard anything and hadn't had a chance to dig into the PDF much.

Yep.

No update yet as the team is travelling to Gencon but it shouldn't be far away. The bookmarks are also in French and are being translated to English.

No response so far, so let's push on. I will go for a pretty straight forward mercenary warrior type for this PC.

Ethnicity: Tri-Kazel
Profession: Fighter
Birthplace: Rural *
Social Class: Commoner +

So, his Domains are: Close Combat 5 (Swords 1*), Shooting/Throwing 3, Natural Evironment 3*, Feats 2, Perception 2+, Travel 2+

Note that as the PC's Close Combat Domain is at 5, which is max, he must progress thereafter in Disciplines (i.e. specialisations) and these can go up to 10.

FWIW having Close Combat at 5 allows the PC to access certain Fighting Arts including Two Weapon Fighting, Parry, Archery, Cavalry and Sneak Attack. This are a simple paragraph but allow for a few additional options for combat focussed PCs.

3. The Ways

There are 5 Ways being Combativeness, Creativity, Empathy, Reason and Conviction. These are ranked from 1 to 5. There is an optional rule for just distributing 15 points, provided that one 1 Way is at 1 or 5.

The Ways effectively act as Attributes in that each Domain has a linked Way added to the dice roll.

However, high values can cause issues for the PC as they will often encourage the PC to take certain actions. High Combativeness means the PC tends to be impassioned, high Creativity means the PC tends to be subversive, high Reason leads to doubt etc. I won't detail this all just yet but just bear in mind a high Way can be a negative thing. This is reminisicent of Exalted's virtue system.

Any thoughts?

I note that the book is very easy to follow in terms of PC creation. Not only is there the list upfront, but the mechanical parts are also noted with a Cletic symbol, indented and the text is in a different colour.

What about Combativeness 5 Creativity 4 Empathy 1 Reason 2 Conviction 3? Essentially, a tough free spirit whose dour demeanor unsettle most other people.

4. Age, Setbacks, and History

This is a simple step that sees you choose an age for your PC from 16 to 35. If you choose higher, you get more Domains but suffer a growing number of set backs, randomly rolled from 10 possibilities?

I would be tempted with the age of 22 which gives us +1 Domain but 1 Setback. I am thinking of taking Occultism 1 to reflect the weird stuff the PC may have seen on his travels.

Thoughts?

SUMMARY
Ways: Combativeness 5 Creativity 4 Empathy 1 Reason 2 Conviction 3
Domains: Close Combat 5 (Swords 1), Shooting/Throwing 3, Natural Evironment 3, Feats 2, Perception 2, Travel 2

If you're asking people to judge the build, I don't have the rules, just have what you put here to go off of.

Quote from: Skywalker;570605However, high values can cause issues for the PC as they will often encourage the PC to take certain actions. High Combativeness means the PC tends to be impassioned, high Creativity means the PC tends to be subversive, high Reason leads to doubt etc.

Sounds like in essence, you pay for mechanical benefit (higher Ways add to Skill Tests) by accepting roleplaying restrictions (High Way isn't My Way? ).

Slightly different tack then the classic newschool technique of "teaching those knuckledragging gamists to roleplay through Pavlovian mechanical rewards".  In Riddle of Steel, if you roleplay your Passions you get mechanical benefit, so even people who only care about mechanical benefit get corralled into roleplaying.  

This Way system seems like the stick, not the carrot.  Go for the crazyass skills, but prepare to have your character's decisions forced if you do (or lemme guess, it won't be "forced" but I'll have to spend some metagaming currency to go against the behavior dictated by the Way?).

Quote from: CRKrueger;570641If you're asking people to judge the build, I don't have the rules, just have what you put here to go off of.

Nope. I am putting up choices in case people want to pitch in and see how the system operates.

Quote from: CRKrueger;570641Sounds like in essence, you pay for mechanical benefit (higher Ways add to Skill Tests) by accepting roleplaying restrictions (High Way isn't My Way? ).

Possibly, except everyone has the same amount of Ways. So its more those things that you chose to be important for your PC can be good and bad.  I will highlught what Ways do more when I get to them. I am still learning this myself.

So, let's go with 22 and get +1 Occultism.

I get 1 setback due to age and randomly roll 1d10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3651210/) to get a 9. This is Poor. Essentially, the PC only owns a weapon or a tool of poor quality, as well as a few personal belongings. That certainly sits well with the free spirited mercenary.

5. Character Traits, Sanity, and Personality

This is a relatively mechanical section with little choices in it.

Traits: First, I choose two Traits. One is a Quality and one is a Flaw. They have to relate to Ways rated 1, 2, 4, or 5. Those of 1 or 2 are called Minor and those of 4 or 5 are called Major. There is a big list of Traits to chose from.

For some variety (going a little against expectations, I chose Rebellious (Flaw, Creativity, Major) and Master of One's Emotions (Quality, Empathy, Minor).

It is worth noting that these traits seem purely descriptive and have no mechanical impact.

Sanity: You have two stats that determine how the PC deals with mental stress. Consciousness deal with rational thought. Instinct deals with, well, instinct. Consciousness is Reason + Conviction and Instinct is Combativeness + Creativity. So that's Consciousness 5 and Instinct 9. You start with Trauma equal to the difference, which in this case is 4. That's one off starting with a mental disorder with madness kicking in at Trauma 15.

Mental Resistance is Conviction + 5 or 8.

Finally, you can chose a madness that is likely to afflict your PC, giving the GM and player a common idea where that aspect of the PC is heading. I don't really know this but let's chose one anyway. The book has a nice table of madnesses by Ways and whether it is Minor or Major. I chose Paranoia being a Minor Empathy Disorder. Essentially, the stoic and rebellious free spirit often cuts ties with others with his behaviour. He has started to suspect that perhaps others are purposefully trying to stop him from achieivng his goals. This was confirmed when his latest mercenary company abandoned him with nothing after he questioned the company's captain.

Next up:

6. Experience Points, Advantages, and Disadvantages

You get 100 XP (which can be saved for use later) and can spend them on:

10 - +1 to a Domain
25 - +1 to a Discipline
20/40/50 - Ally
10-50 - Financial Ease (not allowed due to Set Back)
20 - Fighting Arts (can take as Close Combat Domain is 5)
30 - Lucky
30 - Survival Instinct
20 - Well Read
20-40 - Advantages: 30 - Beautiful, 30 - Charismatic, 40 - Good Health, 30 - Good Sight, 40 - Intuitive, 20 - Keen Hearing, 40 - Nimble, 20 - Quick, 40 - Smart, 40 - Strong, 30 - Strong Mind, 30 - Sturdy

There are also Disadvantages:

20 - Addiction
20-40 - Disadvantages: 30 - Aftermath, 30 - Enemy, 20 - Fragile, 40 - Phobia, 10 - Poor, 10 - Shy, 10 - Trauma, 10 - Unlucky

Its worth noting that in many cases getting +1 to Domain or Discipline is better than Advantages. However, things like Charismatic do allow you to breach the max 5 cap for Domains.

Any thoughts?

SUMMARY
Ways: Combativeness 5, Creativity 4, Empathy 1, Reason 2, Conviction 3
Domains: Close Combat 5 (Swords 1), Shooting/Throwing 3, Natural Evironment 3, Feats 2, Perception 2, Travel 2, Occultism 1
Sanity: Mental Resistance 8, Orientation: Instinct, Trauma 4
Personality: Rebellious, Master of One's Emotions, Latent Disorder: Paranoia