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Are there any plans for a monster book or some kind of expanded bestiary?
Anwyn
Novus 2nd Edition
Novus 1st Edition
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Gamer's Gallery / Warlords of the Mushroom Kingdom
« on: April 17, 2014, 12:34:17 AM »
As I mentioned in the Sword and Sorcery Tweaks thread, I'm in the process of working up a sword and sorcery world that's a mix of the Hyborian Age and classic NES games (mostly Super Mario with some flavoring from Zelda, Castlevania, Kirby's Adventure, and a couple others). I figured I'd post some of the stuff I'm working on and see what other people thought of it. Here's the first two races--you can probably guess what they're based on. 
:
Amanita
:- Mental Link: The mandragora point to their ability to accept bonded servants as part of their divine right to rule. This functions as the Mental Link Talent, except that bonding anyone not an amanita or mandragora costs double.
- Sorcerous Aptitude: The mandragora are natural sorcerers, and the power of creation comes easily to their hands. Mandragora have 5 more base Spell Points and add their Magic Stat Bonus as additional Spell Points.
Amanita
- Tough Skin: The hardy flesh of the amanita gives them a natural AR 3. They do not suffer any additional penalties for wearing armor.
- Herbalist: Their fungal nature and close contact with the earth gives the amanita a natural insight into plants and their uses, granting them a +2 bonus to the Craft: Herbalism skill and all other skills dealing with herbs.
- Blending: The amanita can easily blend into the wilds, especially if they stay still. With two rounds of preparation, an amanita gains a +5 bonus to Stealth rolls as long as they spend 1 AP per round to maintain their concealment. This bonus rises to +10 if the amanita isn't moving. It only works in areas containing foliage or underground.
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Gamer's Gallery / Sword and Sorcery tweaks
« on: March 11, 2014, 01:38:47 AM »
I noticed the mention of using Novus to run a Sword and Sorcery game, and since I'm actually planning to do that--a kind of mashup of Super Mario, Conan's Hyborian Age, and Clark Ashton Smith--I figured I'd include some of the tweaks I was thinking of using in this thread!
Change the Skill Names
Rename Spellcasting to Sorcery and Magecraft to Eldritch Lore. It's minor, but it helps set the mood.
Reduce Spell Point Regeneration
Another possibility is using the Hit Point version from Libram Novus 6, but I like the idea of hacking Spell Point regeneration down to 1 + the bonus from the appropriate spell list's favored attribute (minimum 1) per day, and then allowing casters to pull extra Spell Points from sacrifices, astrological conjunctions, or places of power, and store them in staves or jewelry.
Redo the Magic Lists
Black Magic and Spirit Magic work pretty well as-is, but a lot of the other lists are much more fantasy adventure than sword-and-sorcery. I'll probably make heavy use of the rituals rules I came up with as well.
Change the Skill Names
Rename Spellcasting to Sorcery and Magecraft to Eldritch Lore. It's minor, but it helps set the mood.
Reduce Spell Point Regeneration
Another possibility is using the Hit Point version from Libram Novus 6, but I like the idea of hacking Spell Point regeneration down to 1 + the bonus from the appropriate spell list's favored attribute (minimum 1) per day, and then allowing casters to pull extra Spell Points from sacrifices, astrological conjunctions, or places of power, and store them in staves or jewelry.
Redo the Magic Lists
Black Magic and Spirit Magic work pretty well as-is, but a lot of the other lists are much more fantasy adventure than sword-and-sorcery. I'll probably make heavy use of the rituals rules I came up with as well.
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Gamer's Gallery / Tweaking the magic system to build ritual magic
« on: January 23, 2014, 02:33:48 AM »
I love the way Novus handles normal spellcasting, with small lists of thematically linked spells, but I like the idea of seeking out ancient crumbling tomes and exotic ingredients and chanting for hours under the dark of the new moon, and right now that's not really modeled other than in the summoning rules. I'd love a way to make rituals that are more powerful than normal spells, but also more risky--something like the way WFPR 2e does it.
I have Librum Novus 1, and it might just take adding some additional Universal Options to tweak the cost and prevent it from inflating so high that the spell is impossible to cast. Something like...
New Universal Consequences
Harm to the Caster
Note: All of these assume the harm only happens if the spell is failed. If the harm happens regardless of success or failure, double the reduction to the Casting Number.
Minor Harm (-2): The caster automatically takes damage equal to the spell point cost after the casting of the spell. This stacks with any damage from Snags.
Moderate Harm (-4): The caster automatically takes damage equal to double the spell point cost after the casting of the spell. This stacks with any damage from Snags.
Serious Harm (-
I have Librum Novus 1, and it might just take adding some additional Universal Options to tweak the cost and prevent it from inflating so high that the spell is impossible to cast. Something like...
New Universal Consequences
Harm to the Caster
Note: All of these assume the harm only happens if the spell is failed. If the harm happens regardless of success or failure, double the reduction to the Casting Number.
Minor Harm (-2): The caster automatically takes damage equal to the spell point cost after the casting of the spell. This stacks with any damage from Snags.
Moderate Harm (-4): The caster automatically takes damage equal to double the spell point cost after the casting of the spell. This stacks with any damage from Snags.
Serious Harm (-
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Novus RPG / Making combat an opposed roll?
« on: January 16, 2014, 02:40:23 AM »
Since it's possible to figure out both whether the attack hits and the result of the attack from one roll in Novus, it shouldn't be too difficult to have the defender roll their DEF to make things a bit more active (I've found my players like it better when they feel like they get some chance to react).
However, this does make things more swingy (which I don't have a problem with) but also effectively provide a -4 penalty, since DEF goes from 15 + mods to average of 11 + mods. It seems like an easy way to fix this might be to make DEF 11 + (speed modifier) + 1/4 combat skill instead of the 1/5 it is now, or even 1/3, though that might make DEF grow to fast, since it seems attack is designed to scale much faster than defense is.
Any thoughts?
However, this does make things more swingy (which I don't have a problem with) but also effectively provide a -4 penalty, since DEF goes from 15 + mods to average of 11 + mods. It seems like an easy way to fix this might be to make DEF 11 + (speed modifier) + 1/4 combat skill instead of the 1/5 it is now, or even 1/3, though that might make DEF grow to fast, since it seems attack is designed to scale much faster than defense is.
Any thoughts?
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Novus RPG / Social skill expansion?
« on: January 08, 2014, 03:56:52 AM »
Hello! I found Novus a few days ago, and it hits basically all the buttons for what I want in a fantasy RPG. I did a series of blog posts about how I'd edit D&D to my liking and then gave up my attempt when I realized it had basically all been done. Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance!
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