Far Beyond Humanity Weekly Update #3
Interesting week here in the community, lots of fun stories in Actual Play, and some excellent rules questions and discussions.
New Chapter: Species
Huzzah! Species! This has been a long time coming, and it’s been a difficult chapter in general. Adding a whole new layer to character creation was quite the balancing act. I ended up going with a cost of 1 career Skill for non-humanoid characters, because the species traits are more or less Skills in their own right. If you want to look at it another way:
Each character gets 1 Species skill, 1 Origin skill, and 2 Career skills. The Humanoid species skill is Gain a Career skill.
Still need to finish the section for Incorporeal which has been giving me a particular amount of grief (can’t quite get a grip on the subject matter).
What’s Next
Next week will be another revision/polish pass on the existing chapters. Reformatting the Characters chapter, tweaking skills, etc. I’ll also be implementing various feedback and suggestions thus-far (seriously, all of you, thank you so much for taking a look at the preview material and giving your feedback, it helps immensely).
One big thing I’ll have for next week is the new advancement/level up system. The old one was unfortunately… half baked? Not up to snuff. Entirely my fault, I’ve mostly played one-shots and short campaigns these past few years, so I really underestimated the impact of a year+ campaign. Fortunately there are a number of community members who have run year+ campaigns, so I’ll be leaning heavily on their experiences to help me make a better system.
Anywho, as always, you can find all the preview material in the folder linked in this post. I’d appreciate any comments, questions, etc.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/atd0ygpwhur5yp6/AAB140jz3usjE3imwUkkCTLia?dl=0
With my android device I actually can’t read the first line in the list of Joining, pag. 8.it reads like corrupted characters.
PS will “Incorporeal” be useful to emulate A.I. too?
Same here
Looks fine in Word for Android (although I had to resize the box to see all the options), what app are you using to read it?
Dropbox’s native client. All other text looks fine in all the documents. It’s just that one line
Probably a font issue I’ll try to fix it this evening.
Looking good! I’m very excited about this.
Andrea Parducci So that’s been a bit of an internal debate. In theory, yes, you could totally make an AI whose containment is a computer system. Or a vehicle. Or a mech. Or a humanoid Attire. Or…
You see the issue, yes? The Incorporeal species is a Robot++. It has all the advantages of a Robot and it isn’t constrained to a single form. In fact, the Incorporeal in general has been super problematic because of how utterly powerful it is, to the point of invalidating most other species. It’s basically the Wizard-conundrum in D&D 3e (why have a Rogue when you can have someone who becomes literally invisible, can pass through walls, and can kill with a touch?)
Right now I’m still weighing my options. I’m toying with a few narrative-ish penalties and limitations, something like the Grief of the Elves in Burning Wheel. I’d be interested in opinions or ideas for this particular species.
Also no one got my pun in the initial post 🙁
Of course you can’t get a grip on Incorporeal aliens. So blow them apart.
AI are either in robot shells or restricted to computers and the SectorNet, and are vulnerable to Interface attack in either case. (A Robot, by default, is usually air-gapped from attacks over the SectorNet.) Energy Beings should be a different kettle of fish entirely – I’m not quite sure how to handle them, since most such beings are usually some kind of Elder Race in the inspirations.
Is there a chapter in your outline with advice for Putting It All Together? You touch on this in the intro, but I think that newer GMs may need more than a simple blurb on not throwing everything straight into the pot.
📌
B.J. Lapham I think you may be touching on an important issue, in that most Incorporeals are not protagonist species, but rather Plot Species. While it may be a bit of a cop-out, maybe relegating characters like Kosh to “GM only” would be the most equitable solution.
Also, I hadn’t intended on it, but I can certainly go into more detail about Putting It All Together if you feel that it would be value-added. I may even consider splitting it into its own chapter, or moving the updated stats/moves/advancement to its own chapter.
I personally wouldn’t want to play an energy being, because it feels too much like a “I can do anything!” cheat.
That said, the Urban Shadows Spectre has a similar vibe (ghost that can posess people and walk through walls and shit), but the rules restrain it really well. I think it’s in the manifest move: choose 2 of (be seen, be heard, touch things) each time you manifest, which takes a few moments to change.
Sean Gomes Experienced gamers might skim over a section or chapter on Putting It All Together, but I think more rookie players or GMs would appreciate a bit of advice on how to use this particular cookbook. A little accessibility will justify the page count.
And it is not a cop-out to say that elder superspecies of any sort are not designed as player characters.
I hear ya. As for the Putting It All Together, I must pace myself and wait until I write “It All” before writing about how to put it together 😛
But I absolutely will
Typo discovered:
Species – Evolved – Fluid
Transform (Arcane)
The spices are natural shapeshifters, able to take on many different forms
It should be species not spices. Thought i’d add that now since otherwise i’d forget about seeing it.
Thanks! If I’m not mistaken, you can also highlight/add notes in the document itself if you want. Not necessary here, because you already posted, but useful for me.
Actually I should add that to my next Weekly Update.