Upcoming Expansions

Well, it's been a while since we've had some new official material (been taking a break to work on some other projects) but I can guarantee that soon there's going to be a lot of new content released.

1) The Talent Show is going to be released... With over 40 utility talents in it.

2) The build-your-own-race (and customize it) expansion is coming up; which will break down the flavor-based racial barriers to taking your favorite utility talents. You'll have more freedom than ever when it comes to choosing your talents. Which, frankly, makes sense. After all, why can't an earth pony fly if they have a special contraption for it or a magic potion? In such a flavor-malleable system, it makes no sense to restrict talents to certain races based on flavor.

3) BRAND NEW DESTINIES. I plan to double the amount of destinies we have in the system right now at least.


EDIT - To be clear about what number 2 means...

It's clear that it's a bit confusing what we're actually talking about. So let me try to make it clear.

1) We're going to remove the racial barriers for utilities. (You no longer have to be an earth pony to take Twitchy Tail)

2) For those folks that want to play a race or half-breed that we haven't built yet, we're going to create guidelines to make it yourself that in a balanced way; subject to DM approval.

That's all.

There we go. =)

Hurray, new Destinies! We were really lacking in official options.

Yay for new destinies.

Won't spoil anything yet till things are finalized, but I can guarantee that a Shapeshifter destiny will make an appearance... As well as an archlich destiny... And a destiny that allows you to create your own private dimension.

So, I already took a look at the Talent Show expansion when you posted it on the FiD comments page, but have lost track of the link since then. Was the version you posted back then close to something finalized, or has a moderate-to-heavy amount been changed since then?

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:So, I already took a look at the Talent Show expansion when you posted it on the FiD comments page, but have lost track of the link since then. Was the version you posted back then close to something finalized, or has a moderate-to-heavy amount been changed since then?

Lots and lots has been changed/added. However, it's post elimination-of-racial-boundaries; so it's not going to be ready for Pony Tales (it's currently playtesting in Living Legends) until we get the remake of the races done. Here's the Living Legends Talent Show for a sneak peek.

I see.

Well, I don't literally see, because I haven't clicked on the document yet. But uh

*clicks*

So the race revamp is supposedly an optional expansion, but you're rewriting all the talents to fit with it and not the current system- so it's actually not optional. Is that about what you're saying?

I don't know for sure but I think the build-your-own-race is the optional expansion. The racial-barrier-removal is going to be part of the game.

Bronymous wrote:So the race revamp is supposedly an optional expansion, but you're rewriting all the talents to fit with it and not the current system- so it's actually not optional. Is that about what you're saying?

If we are both reading that correctly that is what he is saying. I supose that this is where the first move aside for the second no?

Bronymous wrote:So the race revamp is supposedly an optional expansion, but you're rewriting all the talents to fit with it and not the current system- so it's actually not optional. Is that about what you're saying?

Actually, it's a grand conspiracy to make you unhappy Bronymous.

How we're currently planning it is that we're going to make things completely open but, of course allow DMs to limit utility talents to specific races if they want to. Since it's such a subjective flavor thing, we can't possibly claim it *should* be limited universally. It's only in specific circumstances it should be limited, which is a great moment for DM discretion.

The only thing I'm a bit worried about is that the non-pony races are probably going to have to get nerfed a bit, since now they have access to fantastic utility talent options. But that's a minor thing and can also be changed with DM discretion.

Yay, Alicorns. And yes, that is what this amounts to. Every other player will jump into a game with IW and Flight. I don't care if its a flying Unicorn, a magic wielding pegasus, or an Earth Pony with a jetpack and magic necklace. Pony that can fly and use magic= Alicorn. And then that saps the fun for anyone who doesn't want to do that, because their character then becomes bland and useless next to the army of Soaring Battlemages.

I literally don't think I can have fun in a game with PC's like that- and since it seems I'm the only one concerned about this, it appears the only games where that DM discretion will come into play will be the ones I run. Now, say you allowed only the talents, not the traits that are prerequisite. That would salvage some of the playability- but I guess that defeats the purpose of the expansion in the first place.

Bronymous wrote:Yay, Alicorns. And yes, that is what this amounts to. Every other player will jump into a game with IW and Flight. I don't care if its a flying Unicorn, a magic wielding pegasus, or an Earth Pony with a jetpack and magic necklace. Pony that can fly and use magic= Alicorn. And then that saps the fun for anyone who doesn't want to do that, because their character then becomes bland and useless next to the army of Soaring Battlemages.

Um... You do know that in Living Legends we've playtested this extensively and people being able to fly and cast spells doesn't ruin anything. Seriously, just because alicorns in the cartoon are powerful (though cadence wasn't that impressive) that doesn't mean the ability to fly and cast spells is somehow unfair.

If you're fixing Destinies, I recommend looking at balance. For example, the level 10 inventor means you advanceEquestria permanently, the Healer level 10 makes you live forever and 7 lets you bring people from the dead easily. What does Explorer get? A few crits a day and some passive, restricted +5s.


Still, YaY new destinies.

The Races V2 expansion should stay just that - a seperate expansion accessed via link to make it seem less a core feature and more an advanced option for the more free-willed. And the whole thing could be regarded as a junky, minmaxfantastix mess with Derp Suparh powneeh allycurhns everywhere, making all sorts of thing redundant. There's a reason many talents are race-only - they can be abused to high heaven.O

I kind of am half and half here. while I would love to have a earth pony with pinkie-pie esque It's Witchcraft or something, there will be people who'd abuse it to high heaven. The 'optional expansion' thing might be the best idea.

Theoretically, how could you actually abuse it? I understand it's freaky to think of all the freedom you'd have - but in reality; we've had tons of players building in living legends and no one's broken anything with utility talents yet.

But seriously, take a look at the Living Legends utility talent section, which lets any race take any utility talent. If you can find a combination that entirely breaks the game - like mentioned - I'd love to know about it.

Yes, but some of the races have massivelyOP racial talents that have to be off balanced in basically every setting by ostracising the entire race. (see Changelings).

Take those abilities and splice with others and POW the base races are outdated. It's like pick the things you like, dump the bad things and replace with more good. What you are doing is saying 'here is a working system. Now let's tear out the base of the entire thing and replace it with an experimental mechanism'
It's like if WotC replaced die-rolling with squid-poking. Almost.

Appkes wrote:Yes, but some of the races have massivelyOP racial talents that have to be off balanced in basically every setting by ostracising the entire race. (see Changelings).

Actually, I've already said that we're going to re-balance the races a bit because of this.

Take those abilities and splice with others and POW the base races are outdated. It's like pick the things you like, dump the bad things and replace with more good. What you are doing is saying 'here is a working system. Now let's tear out the base of the entire thing and replace it with an experimental mechanism'. It's like if WotC replaced die-rolling with squid-poking. Almost

*laughs*

I think you might have missed a lot. First, breaking off racial restrictions on *utility talents* has already been extensively playtested. It's been playtested about half as much as the full rest of the system... And a lot more than the original system was playtested before we implemented it. We've already cut attack rolls in combat, restricting powers by classes and many other things Wizard of the Coast has had in its working system. We tore out the base of the entire thing and replaced it with experimental mechanisms. Funny how that worked out.

As for second, of course we're not goign to let people mix and match racial things as they like. Races have no bad things at present (social circumstances aren't taken into account - races are balanced without that in mind as it varies by setting; changelings are not overpowered), so that example of yours doesn't exactly work, but either way - we're going to assign a point value to racial traits of different power levels; so people don't just take the most powerful racial traits into one super-race. You can mix and match to create new races in a balanced fashion. But that is 100% optional; it's just a way for people to make balanced new races. The real thing is just opening utility talents to all races - which has indeed been extensively playtested.

Really? Squid-poking? *lol*

Mr. Felder it does appear that a rather large part of the community is opposed to the changes that you are proposing... Somethings like this at this stage could very well kill the game.

lol, How about you guys give the new stuff a chance and see how it plays before you get so dramatic about it?

Edit: I point out I've got two character currently using it and nobody has complained about them being broken or making things not fun.

Well, not everyone is against the idea I can see it working very well, as I've been playing both Ponytales and Living Legends. I'm sure there'll be some kinks. But I mean just yesterday my friend was grumbling about how there weren't any halflings, so I know he would totally be up for a create-your-own race. I look forward to this with anticipation.

Though one thing that I would like to see would be some more special moves to choose from in combat.

I personally can't wait and hey, anyone who's allowed Ramsus to join games WITH such updated rules for his characters, if you think it'll brake the game, then you shouldn't have let Ramsus join those games.

^
Exactly why I'm on the fence. Although Ramsus did simply make his Earth Pony a Pegasi that could use CCC. Not complaining.

Ah, I thought you were more negative and allowed more than I had first assumed and also assumed that more games were let in with the rule-set stuff... I was mistaken on that.

Still say, just try the stuff yourself... Don't cling to what we've got, just cause it makes it easy for you. If anyone who doesn't like the new idea of making your own race as a character. Just explain WHY such a thing is a bad idea, after all it wont change you from using the defaults. Those are still going to be in the book after all, as guidelines for the newbies, right?