Hello today! I want to keep polishing the experience of this game until I'm satisfied, because it's very dear to me. Since this is a tabletop, testing changes in sessions and applying them takes a lot of time. But I want to keep you guys updated and I like the idea of having almost this kind of "blog" to gather feedback, so please leave comments with suggestions if you have any! Heads up - if you're reading this, it's assumed that you know how the system works, so there will be minimal context given. With that out the way, let's get to the fun stuff...

What's new in 1.6?

Playbook Art #2 - The Tinker (by Peachy Owl)

Introducing The Tinker! A curious and smart dolphin with their adorable digital jelly companion. Obviously, Tinkers need to be visibly intelligent, so we went with a classic lab coat and with some minor twists to have it be unique, along with a number of gems to keep an option of something magical or mysterious about him. And just like a Tinker should have a Mechanism, we settled on a digital assistant. Very cute, helping, virtual jelly creature, probably keeps his records and calendar too. Please support the artist, she's doing great work. 

Clumsy Rework

The original Clumsy was a pretty cool concept - the idea to "get better now" but let GM push you over in the future. Unfortunately, it displayed a bunch of issue in playtesting. The main one was with people not wanting to use Karma in fear of being screwed over later. Also, for some reason, every single Clumsy couldn't stop ruling over 10 and never got to use their feature. What I came up with is something much more accessible. 

First of all, I changed Karma into the Luck Pool that you can burn to hard incre roll results, by Clumsy and the other people on the team, making them a pretty solid Support playbook. I also changed the way they are earned, and gave them two methods to do so - reduce a full success into a mixed and a personality type. Personality Type are basically giving you a specific way your character should create funny situations in the game, so they can ask GM for more Luck Points. They are also based on the main attributes, making them an interesting reflection on the Rogue's Method. Just like with Rogue though, I am thinking about writing some sort of extra section in the How To Play about the more... Group disturbing playbooks, because while fun, in the wrong hands Clumsy can be very chaotic, even if by design. Also, I highly suggest  checking out the moves on this playbook, I'm very proud of those.

Momentum, Rings and MacGuffin Rework

If you read my 1.5 post you know that Stage Tags were removed because I couldn't keep track of them during the game. Very similar thing happened with the MacGuffin. Forcing GMs to have a magical item that will provide mechanical benefits to the players into the story is limiting (plus the rules were a bit wonky),so more and more I found myself just forgetting to put it in! But it gives Rings! And players love getting Rings! So, after some consideration, I just cut the whole thing together and moved Rings into Momentum. You can still include any sort of MacGuffins into your stories, and there is always Guardian's Treasure, but none will be forced to have it anymore. 

Now the Momentum Update is another case of "I really liked the original idea, but the playtests shown that it's not realistic". I stand by the fact that Momentum should've been counted by individual moves, as it's meant to be your "style ranking". But what we got is a really good balance of being style ranking and it being simple for people to keep track of (better sheet UI helped too). Basically, now every attribute will give you 1 Momentum for the first use and the rest needs to be earned by working together as a team or by using specific moves (I tried picking less popular ones). It's elegant, it's easy to track and I like it. 

I also wasn't sure about Momentum being used as To Save Everyone, since it didn't flow well into anything else. This is where inspiration struck and I combined Momentum and Rings together. Kinda like in SatAM, Rings will now be your source of "temporary super state", they could also be used the same way as before as a "get out of jail free card" making them much more powerful, but, if you would like to hold on to them, they are turned into XP at the end of the stage. So it all flows together and into other systems, which is what I love to see. The final cherry on top, was limiting the Maximum of Rings to 2, so you're forced to use at least some of them. In short, I'm very happy with what this ended up being. 

Rogue Overhaul

As I said in the previous update post, I noticed at the end of the last update, that Rogues like 7/10 moves were focused on Force, when their feature is promoting different playstyles based on your main Attribute... And man, do I like how it turned out now. There should be a move to appease a good number of rivals and cool guys. We got manipulation moves, we got magic moves, we still left some of the best and ruthless fighting ones. I also worked on their Advanced and Final improvements, thinking about how a character like that would progress and what is the general final destination. I also put some work into Cannon Fodder and It's Me! Your Old Buddy, making them 2 moves for different playstyles - do you want a small squad of goons or a friend NPC. Awesome all around, enjoy!

Set Piece and Boss Aspect Streamline

The Set Piece system is probably the most strange and hard to get used to system in this game. Even now, even after all those changes, I still need stop and explain to new people what it is and how it works. Not many games (if any) ask you to create problems for your character, especially not related to your current mishap. It forces players to be the GM, even if for a minute. Same with Boss Aspects. But I will keep pushing it, because it's really good and brought a lot of good moments to the table. So what did I do? I gave people an "out". Now, you get 2 options - you can just roll the dice on a table and completely forgo the system. Hell, even GM can do it. BUT, if you're willing to spend the time, and think about it, you will be awarded with 1 XP, which is more than enough for people to at least give it a chance but not big enough where it breaks the game, especially during P&Q, since it's given to the whole team. Funny part and a tip - you can trigger and create your own Set Pieces as a player on a successful Flex Muscles and will still gain XP from it. 

Now in regards to Boss Aspects, since that one shows up more often, and I didn't want to burn too much time on it during gameplay, I did the opposite - instead of investing time into it, the player will now just pick a number from the list and the GM do the rest. A discussion might ensue but doesn't have to. That will also help games where the GM wants to have a Boss that is more secretive. 

Plan for the Future

What do I have... Unlike last time, I just have some vague ideas. The game is not "complete" yet... But this is very close to my desired state, so let me just think out loud for a minute.

I currently have the idea of making Clumsy Personality Types actually anti-Methods, where you would gain Luck Points by getting disadvantage on your rolls for specific attributes... But that will require much more testing and thinking, I might drop the idea all together. Won't change their moves either. 

I also have a vague idea of working on Teamwork and Team Assists to make it much more cooperative. My dream idea is Team Techs from Chrono Trigger or Team Attacks from Sonic Chronicles - two heroes coming together to do a thing... But that's really hard to do in voice chat. You will see that I added "mechanical benefits" to Team Assist if the players describe it properly. I like that direction and I feel like I can do better. 

Outside of that... I think the major thing I would want to focus on is the Ability and Damage. I have some sources I need to check out still (Fellowship PbtA was recommended to me) but I'm thinking about removing Damage all together from the system. Maybe making it like "regular and strong" hits. I no clue yet, but since the Boss is the only creature that actually needs Ability Damage, it feels... Useless? I donno, I'll think about it. 

But yeah, that's pretty much it. Depending on how that goes, after the 1.7 update, in 1.8 I will start working on the Game Master and How To Play sections. Unless I find something outrageous that I never noticed, you never know lol

List of 1.6 Patch Notes:

- Clumsy full rework.
- Rogue overhaul.
- Momentum overhaul.
- Set Piece streamlined.
- MacGuffin removed from the system.
- Expanded and updated sheets.
- Basic Move Summary updated.
- Playbook Summary updated.

- Added Stamina section to Hero Attributes.
- Burdens - Removed Personal.
- Rings, Momentum - Combined into Momentum and Rings and moved into Special Attributes.
- Teamwork - Added wording on the last paragraph, included moves that lose Teamwork on miss.
- Teamwork - Added wording that it starts with a +2.
- Kick Butt - Minor working clarification.
- Use Environment - Renamed Flex Muscles.
- Make it Through, Fight The Boss - no longer are excluded from Momentum.
- Team Assist - Updated to include Momentum and Mechanical Benefits.
- Help Them Up - Include Momentum.
- Peace and Quiet - Minor wording changes.
- Boss Aspects - Change the flow so it's just "pick a number".
- Boss Aspects - Add "there is a new boss now!".
- Boss Aspects - Change P&Q with new wording.
- End of Stage - Removed questions about Solo, Enter as a Team, Playbook moves and World.
- End of Stage - Replace "Did the MacGuffin or the Treasure change hands?" with "Did the GM give you a bonus based on your teamwork?"
- End of Stage - Clarification on the "Boss monologue" question.
- End of Stage - Added "Personal goal" question.
- Momentum - Now uses attributes.
- Momentum - Instead of rolling, 7 is the default, no healing.
- Momentum - Make it a bit more clear how upgraded moves work with it (appeal to better senses).
- General - Add info about how armor works.
- General - Wording on maximum Rings and Stamina.
- General - Added wording for "ask GM for X", instead of "get".
- Improvements - Updated wording text to be "when you accept a miss result of a move".
- Advanced Improvements - Now available after 3 Improvements!
- Advanced Improvements - Added a section explaining "rules" of adding (robotic) and rules about taking moves with a Feature mentioned.

- Lead - Type - Forceful wording change on Teamwork.
- Lead - Type - Guiding, Inspiring, Coordinated - update sheet wording.
- Lead - Unleashed - removed the Ability change wording.
- Lead - We Fight As One - Added Momentum.
- Lead - Hey, you Hurt? - Now give momentum to the revived hero as well.
- Lead - It's Me! Your Old Buddy! - Remade to be a more stable version of Cannon Fodder.
- Lead - Final Improvement - Calling To Save Everyone on yourself.
- Tinker - Removed MacGuffin from Hand it Over.
- Tinker - You can never be too careful - Removed "you" from name, updated to trigger on "presence".
- Tinker - Can Never Be Too Careful - "gain" momentum.
- Tinker - Advanced Improvements Updated.
- Guardian - Treasure - Revive a Companion - revives with full HP.
- Guardian - Backstory - "tough" instead of "touch".
- Guardian - Operation Big Wave - now gives Momentum.
- Guardian - Catch me if you can - wording, and now gives Momentum.
- Guardian - Removed MacGuffin from My Work is Not Finished
- Guardian - Removed MacGuffin from Did you let him trick you, again?
- Guardian - Helping Hand - removed.
- Guardian - Shift Rock Yeah - remade to be about throwing teammates.
- Guardian - Return To Us! - new revival move.
- Guardian - Operation Big Wave - replaced "Use Environment".
- Robot - Feature - Forgotten in Storage - added wording about ideals.
- Robot - Now starts with 4 Stamina like everyone else.
- Robot - Care Unit - Team Assist update.
- Robot - Urge to Maim: Rising - now has a Momentum option.
- Robot - Bravo New Boss - not robotic anymore.
- Robot - Make This Work - now marks itself as (burned).
- Robot - Adoptive Tech - Momentum clarification.
- Robot - We Go Together - wording to remove the ideal.
- Robot - New Missions Parameters - re-done.
- Robot - Final Improvement - redone.
- Destined - Your Future Depends On It - wording and Momentum.
- Destined - Right After I Have One Of These! - added Momentum.
- Destined - Victory Garden now gives Momentum.
- Destined - Advanced and Final Improvement redone.
- Changed - Special Medecine - wording on maximum Stamina, now gives Momentum.
- Changed - Full Conversion - reworded and now reduces max Rings by 1, renamed "Mechanical" to "Unnatural".
- Changed - Don't Sweat It - now gives +1 forward (swapped with Hey, you Hurt?)
- Changed - You'll Have The Honor! - removed armor, now gives Momentum and XP. Wording.
- Changed - Mine's Bettah - redone, now once per stage but is more powerful.
- Changed - General - wording sync for the path options.
- Changed - A Little Self-Improvement - redone.
- Rogue - Changed number of playbook/other moves taken to 3/3.
- Rogue - Renamed the main header "Method" to "Determination".
- Rogue - Removed "Throw It All Away", "I'll Make You Eat Those Words!", "Don't Know if I Can Restrain These Two", "Who is Gonna Save You Now?".
- Rogue - Added "Smash and Grab", "The Figurehead", "Mold This Power", "I Was Reborn".
- Rogue - Mold This Power - added Vision clarification, removed Momentum.
- Rogue - I was Reborn - now could give a passive bonus.
- Rogue - The Figurehead - wording.
- Rogue - Attention All Scrubs! - now gives Momentum.
- Rogue - It's All Part of The Game - removed "it's all" from name, made activatable and reworded, now gives Momentum.
- Rogue - It's been fun - "ask GM for XP".
- Rogue - Removed MacGuffin from Mold This Power (reworded to make it about a generic "powerful something"), also bumped to two bonuses.
- Rogue - Cannon Fodder - dropped Stamina by 1, removed the "they can help you without getting in trouble" condition, added "replacement" information.
- Rogue - Cannon Fodder - give info now how the assigned move changes.