March Q&A And The Future of Shattered!
about 3 years ago
– Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 03:40:56 PM
Hey Everyone!
This is going to be a long update so please keep reading! Here’s the synopsis: January Q&A summary, future March Q&A & 2e.
January Q&A
Back in January we had a sit down with several members of the community to discuss what they saw as the major road bumps in Shattered as a whole, things that are beyond simple editing mistakes. We had intended to release the audio of the session for everyone to hear, but ultimately the audio didn’t record correctly. So instead, we have summarized the notes we took into some highlights:
- More clarity is needed for certain actions or effects such as precision strike, power strike, and magic stacked (ie: when casting 2 arcane armors, does DR increase, duration increase, or does the duration reset).
- How does Primaltheurgy deal with ground conditions (ie: frost spell on lava)?
- How do you recharge the rebreather?
- Airships section is disorganized, confusing, and too complex.
- Airship sigils are not adequately explained.
- The website needs more content about the game and its concepts.
- XP progression needs to be improved and better explained for GM usage.
- Crafting is imbalanced and complicated. It’s often easier to sidestep crafting entirely.
- Psy is too complex and too close to Arkana
- Martial arts and damage progression, with or without weapons.
- Monsters, in general, are too weak, but the problem is particularly obvious with Lords & Remnants.
- Layout recommendations to make it easier to spot which chapter you’re in.
- Conviction is too utilitarian.
- The lore is good, but we need more of it. Particularly for racial and regional cultures and interactions.
Big thanks to AmishRambo, HiddenEclips3, NinjaKaze, and Petra for showing up and asking us great questions!
March Q&A
We enjoyed the Q&A so much that we’ve decided to hold another Q&A on a weekend so that those who work US nights or are in the EU have the ability to show up and give feedback, too! Please join us Sunday, March 20, 2021 at noon EST (5PM GMT) for this Q&A! We want to hear any and all feedback and questions you have about the systems and the lore either in audio or text chat. We will also try to record this one again and release it on soundcloud.
In addition, we hope to do Q&As on a quarterly basis, alternating US nights (Mondays at 8PM EST) and US weekends (Sundays at noon EST / 5PM GMT).
2nd Edition
So these Q&As bring us to our final topic: Shattered 2nd Edition. We had been hesitant to delve into 2e before giving you more content for 1e, but after the January Q&A, it became obvious to us that we were doing both ourselves and our community a disservice by perpetuating 1e when it had some glaring issues that both impeded gameplay and made it more challenging for us to create new content.
Key things to note:
- We want and need your feedback. 1st Edition was made almost entirely in a bubble. But now with a community behind us, we want to know what you want to see in Shattered, specifically the systems and how to make them easier to use.
- There may be some tweaks to existing lore, but one thing that we care deeply about is that Shattered is a “living world” which means each release advances the timeline and the story of Feneryss.
- All existing systems are on the reworking table. This many most, if not all, systems will have the chance to have a facelift or a complete rework. That said, we’re not planning on rebuilding systems for the sake of it. Our primary goal is to simplify and streamline similar systems so they use the same terms and general mechanics (i.e. using ‘grade’ consistently between crafting disciplines).
- We will be converting the existing campaign, the planned future installments of the campaign, and any previous 1e expansion materials into 2e.
What does this mean for 1st Edition?
Currently nothing. We are still committed to put out a 1.1.5 errata and answer questions in the future. 1e will still be available for those who want to play it and we will continue to support 1e for the foreseeable future.
That’s all for now! We hope to see you on Sunday, March 20, 2021 at noon EST (5PM GMT) and will send out a reminder once the date gets closer. If you have any questions before then, our Discord is always open!
Sincerely,
The INDE Team
PS: all future updates will use our blog: https://blog.neverdarkenough.com
