It’s been years since I began hte current projects. Lots of years. I lost most of that time in the fog of depression which went undiagnosed due to other medical issues. Now, I’m mostly free of the fog and have made a good deal of progress, so I figure it’s now time to begin typing out a draft for blind playtests–see if I can explain it clearly for other people to use.
The two projects have been formally separated, too. Originally, I’d planned to design a bespoke system and an accompanying system that used most of the same subsystems while using some of the most common elements of AD&D. The latter being sort of a transitionary system to the former.
At this point, though, I’ve changed the plan. The latter system is just going to be released as a series of zines that touch on specific subsytems. Folks can use what they want from those to expand on their system of choice…and I don’t have to type out an entire system at one time. Well, an entire second system.
The bespoke system is getting typed out first. I need to finish the whole thing to set it loose for testing–rules, GM aids, an adventure scenario, some beasties. The more time I spend with it, the clearer the organization becomes and now I think I’ve got it figured out. I’ll prolly get into that in a later post, as this isn’t really the place for that.
The system is, of course, built with old school sensibilities. I play classic style at my table and that’s what I’ve had in mind while designing. I suspect there will be lots of folks interested in reading it, at least, and some will want to use it at their tables. Although it involves changes of many sort, I can say that none of them arise from modern systems, as I never actually got into any of the modern systems–never advanced beyond using bits from 2e in my 1e or B/X games. The idea of builds and such in support of superhero fantasy never appealed to me. Everything that I’ve put to use has come from ideas that have been bumping around in my head for years, plus some that have caught my attention in the varied OSR systems I’ve seen.
I’ll be tossing out ideas I’m using, possibly with questions I’m still chewing on. Feel free to offer feedback. There are subsystems where I’m still chewing on possible alternatives, despite having mostly settled on one approach, already–that’s the design bug acting up.