Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Benefits of Prep-Work


So I've been prepping "cheat sheets" for the magician characters for tonight's game of CDF (following a near debacle last week)...and as a result, I've ended up modifying and adjusting the magic chapter...again!

This just goes to show how much (rules) editing RPGs really do need. If you can't fit all the procedural/system info from a particular chapter on a single page or two, you've probably have too much dross. I got the whole ball o' wax...theurgy, summoning, astral projection/combat/warding...on one piece o paper INCLUDING every single spell in the game with their (brief) descriptions, and cut about a page out of the "real rules" because of it.

Nice.

ALSO...the monster stats are nearly done, which means the NPC chapter is nearly done (it doesn't take all that long to put it together). The critters ARE a bit different from standard B/X, I'm afraid (even critters from my own B/X Companion: like the phoenix, the naga, and the wendigo). Why is this bad? 'Cause it makes it a bit less compatible with Labyrinth Lord, etc. However, I don't feel too bad...after all, it IS intended to be a standalone game. The system only uses B/X as a starting point...things get a little funky round about page 3.
; )

2 comments:

  1. Finally someone else expresses my joy of editing. How exciting it is to find a word you don't actually need a snip it out, only to find that the paragraph shortened by a line and that table that went on the next page now JUST BARELY FITS!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looking forward to your A to Z posts!

    ReplyDelete