Good Luck on New Edition

[markc]

Just wanted to wish you good luck on Novus 2e.
MDC

[Rasyr]

Just wanted to wish you good luck on Novus 2e.
MDC

Thank you

The bare bones version has been out nearly a month. The full version released this morning. 

I have enough material for about 3 more products to be released in the coming weeks, and have a Quickstart in the works, as well as a nice setting called Anwyn (you can see maps I made for  it in other locations on the website).

[markc]

That is great to hear, I will keep an eye out for the Kickstarter announcement and pass the info on to friends who I think might be interested in the product.

Is not Anwyn the setting you had in the works/play back in the 2000's-2010's?
MDC 

[Rasyr]

That is great to hear, I will keep an eye out for the Kickstarter announcement and pass the info on to friends who I think might be interested in the product.

Is not Anwyn the setting you had in the works/play back in the 2000's-2010's?
MDC

No kickstarter. I never use it, never tried it, don't plan on ever using it or anything like it.  Basically, I don't like the idea of offering something for sale that has not yet been produced. Since I am essentially a one man shop, I am not going to offer things if I am not 100% positive that I can deliver. The most I will do is put something out for sale as a beta, to earn the funds needed to purchase artwork as needed.

Setting for first version of Novus was going to be called Tylon. I may have used the name for something I had been thinking about, but most of that period was spent on Cyradon (and then on a setting called Tethys (setting my boss of the time wanted to develop) and the on Tyrlon). But one thing all those different settings had in common was that they were inspired by Skull Island (from King Kong), and the Isle of the Ape (an old D&D module, which was also inspired by Skull Island).

Cyradon was initially conceived at a stand-alone island or small continent, I didn't want it to be part of a larger world, but the final decision was not mine, and that led to having to have a world history, and my being told to pass comments along that got folks mad at me (I sure as hell was not a Tolkien Scholar like one of my bosses at the time). And I also tried proposing other settings that were essentially in a pocket dimension like Anwyn, but those suggestions were always shot down.

But Anwyn only really came into duing the last 4 or 5 years.  It is also called "The Sundered Isle" and it came from my asking myself what if our legends and historical tales had some basis in fact. So the ancient irish folk tale about the mystical island of Hy Brasil, was perhaps a icty called Hyb Rasil, the elves lived in the city of Lantis, but the syntax of their language often translated to say that they were "at Lantis", When the high elves sailed west, they named the city they founded Avel Lin (the great hall of lore).

Long and short of it -- small continent gets hit by magical meteor, knocked out of reality, to coast along the ethereal plane until found by a small group of deities. They fix it in place (in its own space) and import the various races (all of the core races in Novus 2e, including Orcs as a PC race). One region  has lots of portals to many other worlds (any other world). Another region is filled with connections to the Nether Realms (there is a portal that occassionally spits demons and devils into a river, which leads to a swamp (the river is called "Demon's Run), the rest of the region has connections t the Ocher Realms,  and tombs mausaleums and other places with connections to undead appear and disappear. and between the two is the Star Crater, where the meteor struck, it is highly magical, lots of magical herbs and mutated creatures. It is a region where the slightest magic use could cause all sorts of wild effects.

[markc]

Ok, not what I was thinking at all.
Thanks for the basic overview as it will help when people ask me about your stuff.
MDC

[Rasyr]

Ok, not what I was thinking at all.
Thanks for the basic overview as it will help when people ask me about your stuff.
MDC

You can visit this thread -- Anwyn Overview -- for a more complete overview of the setting that is in the works.

In general, I have always preferred small self-contained settings that then allowed the GM to branch out into other worlds/settings. Thus, all those wonderful setting books on the market become much much more useful for the game being played.

I am also a huge proponent of the rules being changed to match the setting, not trying to shoehorn the rules in. The core rules can be generic as you like, but they should be tweaked for a given setting.

With Novus 2e, it was developed alongside Anwyn, so the two go hand in hand and the rules don't need any tweaking since they were already "pre-tweaked" as it were.

I am also a big believer in the premise that the core rules of a game should fit into a single book and have a price point that can entice new players to check it out. D&D can get away with multiple core books because they are the 800 lb gorilla in the room, but other systems cannot do that.  Any other system out there now with multiple Core books being required is simply doomed to failure.

The path to take is a simply streamlined core that allows for expansion. If working with an established system, like I was with Novus 2e, this means that many expansions often write themselves.

For example, Novus 2e has 12 Training Paths in the core rules. However, I have 44 Training Paths in total (including those 12) which are ready to go (I include those 12 cause I have more spells for them and more Combat Moves and Combat Styles for the other, and one of those 44 could actually be divided into 4 or 5 different Training Paths (the Elemental Guard which is in the Core rules - he channels raw magic through his weapon as elemental force - he is not a spell used, he is what I call a Hybrid because he fuses magical abilities and mundane abilities, just like my Monk and Ranger (and Paladin, etc) all do.

I could have easily doubled the size of my core rules, but choose not to because I wanted the core rules to be easily obtainable and then the players can decide if they want to expand.

I am planning on releaseing all of the spell casters in a single book, and to also release them as individual PDFs as well, to make it easier for the player/GM to decide what THEY want, not have it forced on them.

[markc]

I am glad i checked my SPAM Folder yesterday, as it your message got sent there.

I have heard back from one person I sent your announcement to and he seems interested enough to buy.

I do think cost is often an issue and it can be tough for small companies to compete in spaces and thus you have to think of and do things that you said you are doing, ie release parts in smaller price points (as long as it does not kill you and or dramatically increase the over all cost) and often releasing more material for a smaller price point then the bigger companies do.

Good Luck
MDC

[Rasyr]

I have heard back from one person I sent your announcement to and he seems interested enough to buy.

Cool

I do think cost is often an issue and it can be tough for small companies to compete in spaces and thus you have to think of and do things that you said you are doing, ie release parts in smaller price points (as long as it does not kill you and or dramatically increase the over all cost) and often releasing more material for a smaller price point then the bigger companies do.

Yup, it becomes a balancing act, affordability versus covering costs.

part of why I am slowly building my art library with artwork that I can continue to use. (and I have lots that I have yet to use still). Why I purchased WonderDraft and DungeonDraft so that I can make my own maps, rather than having to spend tons on art and then tweak it forever (I have tweaked the Anwyn maps like a dozen times in the last year).

It is also why I have a Bare Bones version (no art) as well as a normal version, so that there is options for folks to choose from, and in some cases, it may even be an impulse buy..

As I said above, a balancing act.....