DiasExMachina 4ED Update

[DiasExMachina]

As many know, Dias Ex Machina is releasing its 3.5 game, Amethyst, to 4th Edition. We have signed onto the GSL and are hard at word adapting the "clash of magic vs. science in the real world" concept.

The 3.5 version of Amethyst was recently given an Honorable Mention at the 2008 Ennie Awards for Best Setting.


Some of our concepts include a lilfepath (also recently revealed with the Forgotton Realms book). At 1st level, you choose ONE lifepath. It can never change and affects how your character lives through life. It does not force your journey, only influence it. Certain paths free up a whole group of new feats unique to that path. Some may even allow a paragon path also unique to that lifepath. What's important to note is that these are not balanced with others nor are they all the same. They are mostly regional though a few of the disciplines and supernatural lifepaths are not bound by a location. Some have a half dozen feats available while others have none. These may require some extensive playtesting to ensure some are not wholly more powerful than others. I am about half-way through them at this point.

Here is a preview of one of our races:

KODIAKS are now a playable player race. Let's show them...

RACIAL TRAITS
Average Height: 6’4” – 7’2”
Average Weight: 350 -450 lb.
Average Starting Age: 15 years.
Estimated Life Expectancy: 80 years

Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution.
Size: Medium
Speed: 6
Vision: Low Light

Languages: Common, Kodiak.
Skill Bonuses: +2 Endurance, +2 Athletics

Enraged: When bloodied, you gain a +1 bonus to hit to any enemy that strikes you with a melee attack. This is not cumulative.

Bear Charge: You have a +2 bonus to Strength when making a Bull Rush and the distance pushed and shifted is doubled. (See the DND 4E PLAYER’S HANDBOOK on “Bull Rush” and “Charge”).

Natural Runner: If you drop what you are holding and run with all four limbs, you can run at your speed +4 (See the DND 4E PLAYER’S HANDBOOK on “Run”). You are too large and clumsy to ride a mount (and you are not shaped correctly to take a rider) but you can cover 40 miles a day without tiring.

Imposing Form: As a Kodiak, your body is not shaped like other humanoids. All armor costs +25% more as it must be customed to your body. You are also clumsy with many small weapons, suffering a -1 to hit with all weapons you wield one-handed.

Natural Weapons: Your claws are powerful weapons. You have a +2 proficiency bonus to hit with them and they do 1d6 damage. At 11th level, your bonus increases to +4 and they inflict 2d6 damage. At 21st level, the bonus increases to +6 and they inflict 3d6 damage.

I'll update this often as progress continues...

[DiasExMachina]

At this rate, it should still be the weekend before emails go out for playtesters. (Still time to get onboard) I can say without a shadow that the first phase will be heroic fantasy adventuring. Just pick any old dungeon romp see if any of the lifepaths and feats break the system. Paragons can also be tested. It may be until September before techans are done.

We are STILL debating EDF rules but I think we are closing in on a final solution which will result in one initial roll, and one follow-up roll depending on the first. That's a maximum of two rolls per round, not per character.

Weapons will be made like magic items. Is that lazy? I don't think so. It is a simnple solution and allows us to skip the stress of testing out an entirety different scaling system. So in theory, the plasma pistol and a traditional firearm may not be so different. Both would do 1d6 damage though with the Plasma weapon being TL5, it would add an additional +5 to damage. We are not sure yet if we will give it a bonus to hit or offer the bonuses within the classes to balance. Said plasma pistol would also inflict additional fire damage as well. Other attributes would apply as well. After I spellcheck the playtesting package (It will have errors, folks), I'm tackling those...and honestly, they'll be a walk in the park in comparison to paragon paths.

I had this conversation with another member where we commented that DnD 4ED kinda throws sand in your face about the differences between the classes. There really isn't very many. There are just variations on themes. A good example are paragon paths. Count how many different ways there are to use an action point. Ever path has one...and there are like 30 different paths in the book...but only maybe five different ways to use an action point among them. My anxiety was to create something different for each one of ours without just photochoping their ideas. At about 15 paths, I decided to stop. That's not including another 5 or 6 techan paths to come.

Lifepaths? We're up to 35.

Oh, and the Kannos Kavalier has a paragon path called the Kaptain...then I realized that was stupid and called him a Mutaharrik Captain.

Equestrian Charge Mutaharrik Captain Utility 12
Encounter Martial, Mounted
Move Action
Effect: If your mount moves more than 4 squares, either in as an attack (charge or trample) or a move action, you can jump from your mount as a move action. You are considered running for the jump and gain a +5 bonus to the Athletics roll. Pick an unoccupied square in range to land into. You provoke no opportunity attacks as you jump or land.

[DiasExMachina]

Talking with someone on painkillers on ideas for the new DEM logo was an interesting experience which included such progressive ideas as presenting it as kanji writing, including a picture of god zotting a player with lightning bolts, or just a god-sized fist coming from one side and roflstomping a fighter's face like Neo to Agent Smith at the end of Revolutions.

I am not one to talk. Two days ago, I thought up a Laudenian martial class called the Keeper of Stones. It had such progressive ideas as making your weapon bigger and making it set on fire... Yeah I know, I deleted it and judged my paragon path making days done for now. I moved onto Equipment.

...Which is proving easier than I thought. Echan weapons are already done and techans are about 75% complete. The way it works is that weapons are built around magic items but not presented as such. If you remember tech levels from the 3.5 game, they are back. Only this time, instead of just determining rarity and disruption chance, they also denote a weapon's enhancement bonus to hit and damage. It might not make sense on the surface until you understand that a plasma pistol and an autoloader do the same damage. But an autoloader is a TL0 weapon and the plasma pistol is TL6, so right there, the plasma weapon does +6 damage. In addition, to supplement the Weapon Properties section of the 4ED PHB, we've added new ones to apply to these weapons. They include: Laser, Plasma, Gauss, etc.

Here is an example:

Laser: Lasers weapons give away their firer's location but deliver devastating damage few can resist. They can also track targets easier with subsequent impacts. There are laser pistols, rifles, and assault cannons.
Critical: 1d8 damage per tech level and the target is blinded (save ends).
Special: If you strike successfully with a laser, every subsequent round gains a +1 to hit that same target. This is not cumulative and is removed if you don’t fire at the same target or if you miss that same target the following round.

Ahh...you ask, aren't all lasers the same tech level? Nope. There are lasers that are TL 4 and TL5. The same goes for most weapons. There will be less selection than the last book, but that's because we really didn't see the reason to include 11 different calibers of firearms. From where there were 23 total pistols, now there are only 16. It just makes it easier because really, who thought that was good?

We decided to finish weapons and EDF before really diving into techan classes. They're coming soon. Oh, and I know we have not contacted playtesters yet. Soon...soon...

[DiasExMachina]

So, no Cybernetics...

In a world where technology breaks down after time or the further you walk away from where it was built, the idea of replacing a fully functional organic limb immune to the effects of disruption would seem somewhat foolish. So, no, there are no cybernetics being presented in Amethyst. High tech level bastions don't make more resistant cybernetic limbs, they make stronger organic ones. A strange decision since I put all that work in the D20 Ghost in the Shell Game I posted two years ago on Serena Dawn. It would have been easy.

I made a claim somewhere that armor was going to be finished two days ago. That ended up not occurring. This is because of a realization that struck me yesterday. Techans have a limited selection of items, weapons, and armor. Why? There are no custom items. A plasma weapon does not start at +1 enhancement and move up to +6. You have a gunpowder autoloader at 1st level and save up for the +5 plasma when you hit 21st level. This ended up balancing rather nicely. However, I can't in clean conscious make 40 different types of unique armor. As a result, there are only 23 different variations of techan armor. Of course, you can buy fantasy scale or leather. The majority of these techan suits occur at paragon and epic levels. This was not the real concern.

The concern was all the other magical items in the book. There is no technological equivalent of +6 cloak of protection or gauntlets of ogre power. Sure, we have micromachine injections that will offer some options but these also somewhat rare (at least they should be). We have infrared goggles to offer nightvision and light benders for invisibility but we can't just start making excuses for technology because it will just appear like we are redressing magic as technology (I am sure there is some philosophical point hiding here somewhere...maybe a quote from one of Arthur C. Clarke's three laws).

I wanted to make it appear plausible. Therefore, the number of items with enhancement bonuses is rather limited. Micromachines and Armor fill in the rest. Beyond what I mentioned about the MM Injections being able to replicate a few items (enhancement bonuses to Fort, Will, and Ref for example), Armor is the real balance for echa. High tech level armor combines the benefits of several items, not just armor. Our power armor, for example, not only offer bonuses to AC, but to Fort, Ref, and Will as well (Item bonuses, so they don't stack with the aforementioned MM Injections). They also offer bonuses to Acrobat rolls, Athletic rolls; many have fire and/or cold resistance. The big ones even have +1 reach. The higher Tech Level armors will appear severely over-priced. They have a price listed two levels above their expectation. This is because they are killing two birds (or occupying several slots) at once. And yes, in case you were wondering, higher level armor counts as two items if you create a character at a higher level.

Skinplate:
Defense Bonus: Gain +4 item bonus to Reflex Defense and +4 item bonus to Fortitude Defense.
Boosters: Gain a +5 item bonus to Athletics when performing a jump.
Power (daily): Minor Action. If disrupted, the machine comes back online.
Resistances: Gain resist 5 fire, resist 5 lightning, resist 5 acid and resist 10 poison.
Maneuverability: You also gain a +2 item bonus to all acrobatic rolls and a +1 item bonus to speed.
Special: The power system operates the entire suit and if it is disrupted, the suit becomes immobile until back online. Entering and powering the suit is the same as donning full plate.

[DiasExMachina]

You see, originally, we had stat boosts for techans via a nano/micromachine injections, an idea I carried over from my free Ghost in the Shell D20 RPG from Serena Dawn. Basically, it was a way for techans to up their stats without having to wear powered armor all the time. The problem with them was the fluff. By definition, they were high-tech, and thus hard to find. Technically, they would also be expensive. I stated earlier that a Tech Level is now an enhancement bonus (and also sometimes an item bonus) to various applications including hit and damage bonus (Didn't I mention that? Oh well, I did now). So in effect, the micromachine injections would be breaking the rules unless we only offer them at a +4 bonus, making techan characters underpowered in respect to a fantasy party until they got them.

To explain the rest, I need to set the "way-back" machine to last week when I was creating enhanced equipment for technology. The lazy approach (and hopeful this won't upset other companies doing it like this) to creating said gear would be to create cloned equipment that operate exactly like their fantasy counterpart....like a cloak of techno-invisibility or cyber gauntlets of robot power (I know Jibblets is going to declare that a super awesome idea...I'm waiting). I decided against it and instead created items that would logically offer said bonuses based on probable progress. So, even though we still have goggles of darkvision (Infrared nightvision headset) the majority of the other items make sense. This unfortunately opened a gap in technology. There was simply not enough technology for 30 levels of techans. I mean, when you actually add up all the fantasy magic items, we are talking over 600. There cannot be six levels of aforementioned infrared goggles. I even had to invent generic power armor with scaling costs from 175,000 to 3,000,000 to offer some variety. Therefore, this left a significant gap, specifically, with cloaks. Some powered armor offer additional enhancement bonuses to Reflex and Fortitude but they don't offer anything to Will. All techan players have a bonus to will because of their resistance to magic (until they welcome it in), but there is simply no techno-cloak to offer bonuses to Reflex, Will, and Fortitude.

So, back to injections. Initially, this became our solution. Micromachines would alter your body and instill the bonuses naturally. Since techans equipment does not work with echans and echan magic items do not work with techans, we could get away with creating a new "slot" just for techans. However, there was still an issue with availability. There is only one bastion outputting high tech in Canam and they're xenophobic. There had to be a way to make injections accessible to lower level characters.

Drugs...well, not just drugs. The lineup is as follows: TL1 and 2 = +1 and +2 bonuses = drug injections. TL3 and 4 = +3 and +4 bonuses = Viral/Gene therapy. TL5 and 6 = +5 and +6 bonuses = Micromachine injections. This offers players to access lower tech bonuses that make sense in the fluff. Naturally, this offers up an additional issue. While micromachine injections and gene therapy could be permanent, drug shots would not be. So these injections via jet hypo would be temporary and only last to the end of the encounter. They are much cheaper than the TL3+ injections, requiring players to shoot up if they really feel they need that +2 bonus to Ref or Will. I feel this angle is a wonderfully dark approach to the material, forcing techan players to make tough decisions about what they are willing to risk and sacrifice for that extra edge. These bonuses are also not exactly like cloaks, so there is not one that offers bonuses to Reflex, Will, and Fortitude. Each injection adds a bonus to one with an additional ability. You can have up to two in your system without problems and being enhancement bonuses, they do not stack with cloaks or bonuses offered by powered armor.


Agility: This booster improves overall reaction time and swiftness.
Enhancement Bonus: Gain the TL as an item bonus to Reflex Defense.
Property: Gain the TL as an item bonus to Acrobat checks.
Property: TL1&2—Power (Encounter) Minor Action, stand up from prone. TL3&4—Power (Daily) Free Action, reroll an Acrobatics roll you just made. You must use the new result. TL5&6—Gain a +1 item bonus to speed.

[DiasExMachina]

As many have read, there is an update to the GSL coming soon (most likely after GenCon) which will address certain issues 3PPs have had with the wording. They promise (or hope being a better word) to alleviate restrictions within the license. How will this impact the development of Amethyst?

Not in the slightest bit. Unless they make it MORE restrictive (which in unlikely) no additional freedom they will offer will really affect the progress we are making. We will still be renaming all our creatures; we will still be keeping the rules unchanged. Whether or not we will keep Cleric, Paladin, and Warlock from the system remains to be seen. But when it comes to the changes we instigated to follow the GSL, we are actually happier now with our new version than the last one. Don't expect a huge retroactive post based on the revisions of this new GSL.

me out.

[DiasExMachina]

Damaskans
Dealing with some of the fluff with Amethyst, I wanted to bring up Damaskans first. Damaskans are the de-facto primary non-human race of Amethyst. They are the most numerous, the most often seen, and the ones that mingle the most with other races, notably mankind. Like all the races in the setting, Damaskans are created part from boyhood fantasies, part from historical relevance, and part from philosophical metaphor.

As many know, all the civilized races in Amethyst (save for man) are members of a greater kingdom called fae. If you were to use formal nomenclature towards it, the original fae would the domain all others came from, as well as the name of the first species, now since extinct. Narros, chaparran, and laudenian would comprise of the relevant families with damaskans, tenenbri, and gimfen all falling into the category of genus. Damaskans, themselves, can be broken into both Canam and Lauropa damaskans with gimfen, puggs, and gobbs breaking off further down. Damaskans were the first species to form after the first schism. This first schism occurred slowly as the original fae turned initially into laudenians, then later into chaparrans and finally Narros—the only three races broken directly from the original stock. Damaskans came from laudenians, emerging smaller, more naïve, and shorter lived than their ancestors. Their creation also sparked the widespread fear among older fae that the ultimate path of all of them would be to alter and change into other forms, most of whom they considered to be inferior. The Laudenians were the first to encounter this but we’ll deal with how they reacted when I talk about them. The damaskans were not actually dumber but did not have the grasp of magic their parents did. They also were shorter lived but actually more agile than the slender laudenians. Damaskans don’t need more than 400 calories a day to function perfectly and weigh not much more than 60 lbs. Beyond this, they were still very reminiscent of the parents they broke from. It’s in their emotional traits did they mark their differences.

Damaskans are not paranoid like many others. As the damaskan family of fae continued branching, they became more sociable. Unfortunately, this eventually turned into violence as marauding camps of gobbs and puggs would force themselves into the societies of others. Because damaskans were “blessed” with slightly shorter lifespans, they were compensated with a fiercer reproductive cycle than the laudenians or chaparrans. This resulted in a sudden surge of damaskans worldwide, eventually surpassing all others put together. This was also amplified by the social behavior, which encouraged the mingling of foreigners. Where tribes of chaparrans or laudenians would keep to themselves, damaskan villages would often mix their populations. By the time of the Ixindar migration, damaskans were in the hundreds of thousands worldwide, yet few damaskans were turned to corruption with the arrival of Mengus. On the other hand, chaparrans and laudenians lost nearly half their numbers with chaparrans suffering the most. This could be connected to the idea that the corruption affected the oldest races first. Using that assumption, the feral lower species would be nearly immune. Damaskans, along with narros, took on the mantle of defense to protect the civil forces of good against the encroaching shadow of evil and their population dwindled in that war.

Meanwhile, damaskans continued to develop their culture. In the early days, their youth forced them to absorb traditions from their elders. These customs were rejected when the damaskans found their own voice. They possessed strength with engineering even the narros could not match. The narros knew stonework and could carve great fortresses in mountains but could not come close to the city planning of damaskans. In centuries, cities of towering spires and perfect construction dotted the globe. Their shorter lifespan also gave to their drive of knowledge. Laudenians seldom write anything down because memories don’t fade and those that remember seldom die. Damaskans embraced the concept of knowledge retention and proceeded to write everything down. At first, this emerged with scrolls, but later bookbinding would find its way.

Laudenians were not alone in the concern of species degradation and damaskans were soon breaking into gimfen, puggs, gobbs, and others. Each branch was more social and shorter lived, finally ending in the puggs whom barely live more than 10 years and could produce offspring every month (which they did often). Damaskans did nothing to offset this trend and their faith in their continued survival laid simply in the footprint they had already established in the world. Proud members of royalty like Ellenthose Telurian and Ravenar Limshau rallied masses into their kingdoms.

The exodus caused the single greatest loss of life in damaskan history. Many could not manage the journey into the world of dreams when the Hammer fell. They were still the most numerous of all the refugees but had still lost the most. Upon their arrival in the modern world of Earth, two distinctive camps emerged. Ravenar Limshau was a progressive ruler, still encouraging the mingling of foreigners and the pushing of knowledge, believing the future of the fae depended on keeping their eyes open. Telurian was a conservative that pulled her people back to their roots, embracing older ways and encouraging more isolation with proven traditions. On the exodus, by design or by accident, the two rulers emerged on two different sides of the globe. Ellenthose and her loyals found land west of the Dragons in Lauropa, and Ravenar appeared in a massive field in the center of Canam.

In the thousand years since arriving, both sets of damaskans have taken distinctive turns, which have altered their culture as well as their physical appearances. Damasia in Lauropa is an expanding city of needle-like spires where Limshau in Canam is marked by a tight organized puzzle of leveled buildings bound in by walls. Damasia had no neighbors to speak of other than the archons of Dracontia. Limshau was surrounded on nearly every side by growing human settlements. Limshau made a point to contact them and attempt diplomacy. They formed alliances with Kannos and later, Abidan. Ravenar’s descendant, Limshau III, approached the bastion of Angel and came to realize the extent of the human footprint before their own cataclysm brought them down. Limshau was an exotic—an elf with aged wisdom and strengths no human could replicate. His charisma, as well as his familiar physical characteristics which bore similarities to the Asian population in Angel, resulted in a huge following of wide-eyed and romantic supporters trailing behind as he returned to his empire. This influx encouraged more humans from struggling villages across the entire continent. Despite the encouragement to welcome outsiders, damaskans, like all fae, are skittish to bond with those they don’t understand. Despite whimsical pursuits and the nonstop of exposure to mankind, there are still very few bonds of damaskan and human. It did not change a certain influence, which altered Limshau damaskans. They now have dark hair to the Damasian blonde. They also obsess over details and organization while Damasians are more like their laudenian ancestors and handle affairs more loosely. All damaskans still possessed a lingering mistrust of newcomers. They loathe vocal outbursts, distractions, and the need to fill silence with conversations.

Humans got to calling damaskans “elves”, a term they also apply to other fae races, though not as exclusively. This is because, in Canam, the gimfen and damaskans are usually the only fae any humans ever encounter. They resemble the traditional elves nearly to a tee. They are romantic and kind and are the pursuit of many suitors, though they often encountered failure.

From a story perspective, damaskans represent the pubescent goals of adults dreaming about their youth. Because of their position in the world, and specifically Canam, they are under the crosshairs of many of dire intent. They are the focus of hate from the dark halves of humanity, symbolizing the various minorities hunted down because of their differences or positions in society. Because they are the de-facto elves, and the poster-images of all non-humans, they are the most victimized by the monsters of men. When the slavers in Baruch Malkut print posters with reward for capture, they show an image of a damaskan. Because of their progressive and alternate views of society, they have been declared infidels, demons, or generally inferior. Damaskans, like all fae, don’t fall into the feral instincts like man (because fae were never animals). They don’t have the overpowering drive to reproduce or envy what others possess. They don’t have addictive personalities and are not bound by greed or selfishness. They are comfortable with their own boundaries and don’t try to push their values on other so don’t have laws against drug use, prostitution, or homosexuality. This places them at the centre of hatred for a variety of immature and racist eyes. In that, damaskans are a surrogate for every minority in humanity that has been victimized or abused. The fact that damaskans are peaceful, wise, and beautiful (at least, in my opinion), makes such symbol even the more jarring. Other humans like all of those living in Limshau as well as the allied human lands of Abidan and Kannos do not understand this machine of hatred that is being fueled. Baruch Malkut has turned the machine into a profit by enslaving elves to serve their own needs.

Damaskans learned quickly that humans are all different. Unlike fae, where a species will share similar ideas and dispositions regardless of where they were raised, humans are bound by those around them. Damaskans despise the people of Malkut but trust those from other realms. Humans are still welcome within their walls and elves are still known to take human mates, sacrificing part of their lifespan to that of the shorter-lived spouse. Although the standard elf of the setting, damaskans are by no means simple or boring. Their obsession with knowledge and the challenge and duty of combating the evils done against them makes them one of the most interesting races to play.

[DiasExMachina]

So, here is how we set it up. We got this huge 4 foot by 8-foot table in the middle of my living room. On it is a huge 9-foot long wet-erase grid-sheet that also doubles as our dungeon and combat grid-map (yes, which is as awesome as it sounds). On that, we have written each of our four techan classes with lines for each power level (Encounter, Daily, Utility). Then we have printed up 200+ techan powers and are assigning them locations. Several (actually a quite a few) will carry over to several different classes. This is not due because of laziness but because all the techan classes share a core concept. In the world of fantasy, techans must work together. I will have more for the weekend 'cause I wanted techan classes ready for testing by Monday. We are still finalizing the names to. I have a few of my favorite powers below...

System Shock Attack
The creature has no idea how deadly your last strike was. It continues wandering about the battlefield, unaware of the level of pain it’s about to experience when the shock wears off.
Daily * Martial, Sniper, Weapon
Standard Action Ranged Weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1 [W] + Dexterity modifier damage and the creature is dazed (save ends)
Effect: The moment the target stops being dazed, it takes an additional 4 [W] damage.

Meat Shield Utility
You can see the dilated pupils of the enemy in front. Before the body slumps to the soil, you grab its shoulder and hold it up as cover.
Encounter * Martial
Free Action Melee Touch
Requirement: You must have killed a medium sized creature in an adjacent square this round.
Effect: You hold the target in place. It provides cover. Only you can gain the effects of the shield. The meat shield cannot move but you can move around it. You can only use one-handed small arms while holding onto the shield.
Sustain Minor: If you let go, the meat shield drops.

Use the Mil Dot Utility
You balance every aspect of your weapon, including compensating for range, gravity and wind.
Daily * Martial, Sniper, Weapon
Standard Action Personal
Effect: Double both the normal and the long range of your weapon until the end of your round.

Natural Healer Field Expert Utility
There’s an arrow in your head. Whatever you do, don’t laugh.
Encounter (Special) * Healing, Martial
Standard Action Melee touch
Special: You can use Natural Healer as many times during an encounter as your Wisdom modifier.
Requirement: You must be trained in Heal.
Target: You or one ally.
Effect: You or the ally can spend a healing surge and regain additional hit points equal to the total skill bonus of your Heal skill.

[DiasExMachina]

I'll get back to Techan Classes later, but for now, I wanted to repost a message I made to question on Gleemax regarding Lifepath:

When I say they are unbalanced, I don't mean that one path has, let's say, a bonus to damage with melee weapons and another has, Ohhhh, a natural talent for calligraphy. I mean they are very different in their approach. Where the Forgotten Realms Background concept deals primarily with skills and maybe the odd resistance or two, there are some lifepaths which are exquisitely (yes, I chose the word exquisitely) detailed. But they are not all the same.

Let me take three examples:

DOPPELSHIDO
Path: Discipline
Prerequisite: Narros, Strength 16
BENEFITS
Double-Form: If wielding a weapon two-handed, you are counted as wielding two weapons for the purposes of applying the benefit of two-weapon feats. Choose one of the following weapons to be used with Double-Form:
Any versatile weapon OR
Any two-handed, non-reach weapon
You must be proficient with chosen weapon. Your chosen weapon is the only type of weapon you can receive these bonuses from. You may purchase magical versions later but the specific weapon type cannot be changed.

So, this one allows the alteration of certain conditions with attack powers but really...it’s more a style issue. At the very best, it saves you on money in buying a second magic weapon later and offers a +1 to damage and AC if you select the right feats. Not a huge bonus. But you also have to be a Narros (dwarf).

KINETASSANA
Path: Discipline
Prerequisite: Tenenbri, Wisdom 14, Dexterity 14
BENEFITS
Snap-Draw: If you select the Quick-Draw feat, you gain a feat bonus to initiative checks equal to 2 + your Wisdom bonus. You can only withdraw a melee weapon if taking advantage of this alteration.
Propriocepting Posture: If you ready an action as an immediate reaction to an enemy’s move into an adjacent square, you gain a bonus to hit equal to your Wisdom bonus on your first attack roll with that strike.

With this one, you gain an additional bonus to initiative if you select the right feat and the other ability only comes into play on a very unique situation.

LIBRARIAN
Path: Regional
Prerequisites: From Limshau
BENEFITS
Branch Expertise: You gain a +1 to History (Limshau and surrounding areas). You also gain an additional +1 to either Arcana, History (pick another named location in Canam), or Religion.
Selected Lore: Choose any number of creatures from the Amethyst Bestiary or from the MONSTER MANUAL equal to your Intelligence Bonus. You are an expert on said creatures and pass all DC20 knowledge skills when recalling about their lore.

Now, this one seems the least powerful. You gain bonuses to a few skills. But the second ability has astounding role playing potential for those willing to take it on. Also, this path has more feats attached to it, which require this path as a prerequisite. Ninety percent of all our new feats are lifepath specific. With the librarian, one can increase the number of creatures, increase the DC, or even gain a bonus to hit one of those creatures.

Now, it should be noted, this is not ANY librarian, but one specifically from a city of books called Limshau.

How is that?

[DiasExMachina]

This is the Pugg

The Pugg is two feet tall and hideous. The Pugg has sex five times a day. It has four mates. You probably don’t even have one. The Pugg…is better than you.

This is the Neirryd Riverblessed.

The Neirryd is the most beautiful creature on the planet. Mortals search their whole lives looking for one. You want her to like you…but she doesn’t…because you’re dumb. The Neirryd…is better than you.

This is the Rookxs Wrathshroud

The Rookxs is a demonic creature that can suck out your life force to use it to power its necrotic abilities. You suck at math. The Rookxs Wrathshroud…is better than you.

This is the Dojenn

The Dojenn is blind. The Dojenn is ugly and mean. But it also can walk on walls. Can you walk on walls? No, you can’t. The Dojenn…is better than you.

This is the Chiggoth

The Chiggoth…Well…the Chiggoth is twenty times larger than you. It steps on you…then it eats you. The Chiggoth is better than everybody.

[DiasExMachina]

There was a question on Gleemax on the extent of Amethyst's compatability with future DND books. I thought the answer deserved to be reposted here...

There are two forms of Amethyst: Mine and yours. I can declare what is in the official Amethyst and what is not. That does not change what you do with your game. I got a guy on the playtest who has a group including a Kodiak and a Gimfen from Amethyst gaming with a Dragonborn and Tiefling, which would never happen in the real Amethyst as there are no Dragonborn and Tieflings in Amethyst. You play your game as you wish.

The 3.5 book detailed what monsters were in the official version of that game. Since we are making a lot more original monsters, the number of official DND monsters has decreased substantially for the 4ED game.

This spreads to the Player's side as well. The official Amethyst has no Clerics and no Warlocks but it won't stop a DM from allowing it in his or her game. It all depends on how much you want your game to match what's presented in the book. So for the 4ED core PHB, we said Fighters, Rangers, Rogues, Warlords, and Wizards are in. The others are out. We also said certain Rituals were out. We declared ALL PHB races were out, replaced by our own. So that answers part of what people may be asking. Unlike Eberron, which was "everything included and more", Amethyst is attempting to be a totally original fantasy setting, which means certain elements have to change.

But you asked about future books...and that is a point we discussed at length. This is why we didn't bother making a single new fantasy class. Why bother? WOTC will do it for us and we can support the DND franchise that way. There are rumours PHBII will have Barbarian, Druid, and Monk among others. A DM is can make whatever judgement calls he or she wants for their game. I can safely say that all Martial class will be welcome. Druid may be as well. Any spellcasting classes will be problematic (given our definition magic). Our setting has its own races, so any monster or races that have developed an actual civilization won't appear in the official Amethyst. As these future books are released, we'll post on our site what elements can appear in a "canon" Amethyst game. I imagine some buyers may care while others will do as they like. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, someone might just buy the game and pull out our techans classes and create a science-fiction RPG with no fantasy elements whatsoever—which is starting to look like a selling point.

If there is a weakness with Amethyst, it is because it is not designed to be a modular 100% compatible DND role-playing game (like Eberron). It is designed to be a story setting where you can have role-playing adventures within it (closer to Midnight in its application). As the game has been developed over SIX YEARS...(cough), it has been modified repeatedly to make it more original, which has resulted in many of the DND and clichéd fantasy staples being removed. The first game, as it was built in 2002, was just like Eberron. It has evolved since then to be more than a simple RPG campaign setting packed full of dungeon crawls. It’s meant to be a plausible, living, breathing setting with its own distinct voice.

So...ahem...yeah, there will be opportunities to use future DND books with Amethyst but we can't say for sure as to what extent until we read them.

That’s a page long explanation for me saying, “I dunno.”

[DiasExMachina]

Let’s talk competition.

I began working on an entry dealing the origin of Amethyst. It got to three pages and decided I would break it up for future posts.

I have often fielded comments comparing Amethyst to a variety of other fantasy/science-fiction settings including Rifts, Shadowrun, Final Fantasy, and Arcanum. I have often found it odd that my friends and I differ on what franchises we defend Amethyst against. I guess it depends on what we take personally. The first accusation (and the most prevalent) was Shadowrun, a game I never actually played. Not only that, I never even read any books on it. I was aware of the setting and knew it was a fantasy/cyberpunk. The concept is neat but it’s not Amethyst. The big difference being is the stark division between science and fantasy. Disruption is a core pillar of the Amethyst setting. The fantasy side was a true-to-book mystical world against the bastions of technology trying to survive. Like Shadowrun, it was set in the real world but Amethyst takes it to a level of detail reaching an obsession. There is a difference between a story being set on Earth and a story being set in the real world. Everything in Amethyst had to make sense and be plausible. Amethyst was not only Earth, but also our world—a world with D&D and Lord of the Rings, a world with increasing ethnic violence and greed over dwindling resources. Amethyst was going to inject a side of philosophy and symbolism in its setting readers could discover if they looked beyond the first later. I always found the Shadowrun accusation more bothering than the others did did.

Now Rifts is also set on Earth and set a long time in the future, enough time for the world to forget how it was before (same as Amethyst). My friends never liked Rifts but I always thought it was neat (though I never really ran it enough to even justify the cost of the first book). When comparing it to Rifts, my friends would often be the ones getting bent out of shape. Rifts still had a merging of technology and fantasy in some areas. There was still not the divide that Amethyst was boasting. Rifts was also a dark cyberpunk-styled world and Amethyst was promoting more of a world of wonder outside the walls of technology.

Few people ever made Final Fantasy comparisons. Even more than before, Final Fantasy always had a mixing of magic and technology where Amethyst had none. Now Arcanum….man oh man. I never even heard of this game until a few months ago. Hell, I never even played Fallout (same developer). Arcanum is a PC game that was released in 2001. It was a fantasy RPG set in a fictional world. Now this game does have fantasy and technology and actually has disruption. Here was a similar setting I am willing to admit, albeit coincidentally. Where Arcanum differs is that their setting is a fictional world where magic dominated and technology has emerged in its infancy and as it grows, magic fades. Amethyst is the mirror opposite in application. Once again, it is set in the real world and magic is returning to it after man had reached a significant level of technological development and has been fighting a losing battle ever since. Because of my obsessive compulsion about detail, Amethyst also deals with layers of philosophy, chaos theory, particle physics, racism, sexism, and various other issues being tossed around a lot these days. It actually contains sidebars where scientists try to explain the outside world and how it interacts with what they call “reality.” I am hoping people who play in the setting try to make something more out of it other than a simple dungeon crawl. The races are presented to be more than a listing of stats. As stated with a previous post on Damaskans, there are benefits and consequences to every race in the setting. Not only that, but a principle pitch of the setting is the asking of a simple question: Would you give up? Central heating? Internet? Cable TV? Automobiles? Refrigerators? You would have to if you wanted your elves, magic, and dragons. Suddenly, the setting forces people to look at the real-life consequences of their actions. On top of this, you have the world of fantasy broken into a one of chaos and one of order where the order is the corrupting force of evil and the force of chaos is the power where all magic and life stems from. You wrap that all up together; you have a setting, which, I hope, people will look to for something beyond a simple dungeon romp.

Of course, if you still want to buy it for you dungeon romp, that’s ok to.

[DiasExMachina]

THE BIG NEWS. TECHNOLOGY IS HERE IN 4ED

We’ve spent the better part of a month on nearly 100 pages of new crunch dealing with the other side of the coin—techa. This is the side of humanity that refuses to accept the new rules of fantasy and clings onto the old-world of science and normality. These rules were developed to be independent to keep the worlds of reality and fantasy separate. In Amethyst, the disruption of technology by fantasy is a core tenant of the setting. It is not placed there entirely for balance issues (although originally, it had its genesis in that reasoning). It is meant to create a setting that is different from other techno-fantasies.

Disruption only occurs one way. Magic breaks down science. This is because the setting is about the assault of one world by another. If they both broke each other down equally, eventually there would be a harmony, as a balance would eventually form. Magic is not really magic, but the invasion of ulterior rules of science. These alterations cause disruption. Disruption is not some magic wand—wait…technically, it can be. Let me try this again. Disruption is not some undefined radius of voodoo that makes machines go wacko. It is a side effect of these new and changed rules that allow effects that people can ascribe to magic. As a result, there is no way for technology to radiant some normality about it. This is part of the core idea of chaos within the setting. There is a conflict of order and chaos. For order to win, everything must be the same and perfectly organized. For chaos to win, it only needs to change…one thing. This is why technology always loses. The only way for technology to win against magic is to push out all the users of magic from the land…or wipe them out altogether.

The flow from the chaos gate of Attricana reflects off the living and not the dead; so, push out the magical creatures and the overall intensity of magic drops. If they were equal, this conflict would not seem so desperate for the side of technology. The setting makes it perfectly clear that technology has been fighting a losing battle for nearly 500 years and has only reached a stalemate by throwing up walls and keeping all the magic users out. Those inside the walls either live out their lives in ignorance or take an interest in this outside world by either joining it or plotting out its destruction. This is where the title of the book comes into play (but more on that later).

We considered reducing disruption as an annoyance but in the end, it came back to the foreground, albeit now as a single roll. It only affects technology and not fantasy and the higher the tech, the greater the chance of disruption. Disruption can cause items to not work for several rounds or an entire encounter. It may also cause an item to break down completely.

Is it required for gameplay? Technically, you don’t have to do anything in your game. Once again…my Amethyst…your Amethyst. I don’t believe the techan game is broken if you decide to forget the rules except that a pillar of the setting is their separation, meaning I would still not recommend clerics with plasma blasters or paladins with an enchanted Holy Railcannon.

Could you remove the techan section and create your own science fiction game? This is the most asked question of late. And the answer is ABSOLUTELY. Rules dealing with disruption feature only heavily in one class, but it is still only half that class. With the wonders that are available power options, simply don’t select the powers dealing with disruption. The other classes rarely mention disruption at all.

So we have created a (hopefully) 100% compatible Science Fiction 4ED plug-in for all your 4ED needs. I will say as a disclaimer (despite what some have said or read), that this is NOT 4ED Modern. It just isn’t. It’s a science fiction add-on. You cannot be a 28th level Personality or Negotiator. We have not offered a +6 .357 magnum or a +5 Flak Jacket. You also cannot create a first level character with powered armour and a plasma carbine. It deals with scaling technology, meaning Lasers are +4, +5, and +6 and traditional firearms are +zero, +1, +2 and +3. Of course, this system could be house ruled to just say a +6 .357 magnum exists…but for balance sakes, you have to explain why it also costs a million gold.

Still, as stated, it is a complete Science Fiction element that can actually stand on its own. It’s designed for Amethyst but you can insert the techan classes into ANY D&D game. We have not added any new rules to the fantasy side to make techans incompatible with other D&D games. So drop some colonial marines against some demons, throw some Mobile Infantry against some kruthik—there is no limit of what you can do.

[DiasExMachina]

TECHANS REVEALED

In total, there are four techan classes. Like D&D, they are the best of their profession and are combat orientated. They have a handful of their own feats but not as many as you might thinkg as many of the D&D feats still apply. The same goes for skills. 4ED intentionally made skills compact and streamlined rather than convoluted. So we only have 4 new skills (Demolition, Engineer, Sciences, and Vehicle Operation). On the other hand, we have 36 pages of weapons, grenades, and armour. Weapons are offered through a narrow spectrum of enhancement. Plasma weapons are not available until +5. Revolvers are available at +0. Magnetic weapons have bonuses against cover and have a high-crit. Plasma weapon can inflict additional fire damage on a critical hit. These are but some of the many weapons offered.

Tactical Body Armour is available at +2 and Power Armour starts at +3. Of course, you don’t have to have Power Armour. There are stealth suits as well. We have about a dozen vehicles but all the city transports are gone. All we have now are the lumbering, echan transports, which basically start as giant caravans that reach to sizes that would make Jawa Sandcrawlers weep.

So with no more gilding the lily and no further adieu, I present to you your techan classes.

Grounder: The grounder is your primary hitter. As a grounder, your speciality is with wearing the most powerful armour and wielding the most powerful weaponry. Everyone has firearm proficiencies but you are adept with the use of auto weapons. With auto and heavy auto weapons, you can perform ranged burst attacks and create area denial zones enemies cannot pass through without getting hit. Your utility actions are mostly ally based where you can support adjacent friends when they are hurt including moving them from combat. A group of just Grounders is not worthless as they can support themselves on the front line.

Marshal: Often the commander of a group, the marshal is the observer and controller, and often enough, the puppeteer. As a marshall, your attacks are related to the grounder’s, save for the area effect attacks from heavy auto weapons. You hit as hard with the same weapons but your strength comes with your application of combat tactics, allowing you to shuffle allies and even enemies around the battlefield (although more the former than the latter). You also have a lot of combat boosting powers to keep allies alive. The others will not complain about you pulling your weight when you use a power that allows everyone else a bonus ranged attack.

Operator: The operator is the support member of a group, though not a slouch at all in combat situations. As an Operator, you have the biggest responsibility. This is because you are not a specialist. You are a generalist. Not only can you handle yourself in combat, you are sole the one person that can keep technology functional. You know how to recover items from disruption and make quick repairs when an item breaks. That’s not all; you are also gifted with medical training and can heal nearly as well as any divine holy man. Not enough, well how about the fact you can modify your weapons to fire further with more damage. Did I mention you probably also drive the car?

Stalker: Stalker is all about the being on your own. Though still a part of a team, you are best when separate. This comes from two distinct build options. The first is fast movement and close burst attacks from small arms. You can slide through enemy lines and fire multiple shots at point-blank range. You can break up an enemy flank dramatically this way, or you can be more subtle. This comes from the second build…sniper. You can take on the role as the long range support specialist. You can fire at distance, causing debilitating effects on enemy targets before they even get in range. Further options include moving by stealth and delivering a single kill on a target before the encounter can even begin.

As you move into Paragon paths, there are thirteen available including two snipers paths, two pistol/gunslinger paths, a medic, a mechanic, an infantry support specialist, and one that simply likes breaking people’s necks.

Of the eight epic destinies we’ve offered, five of them can apply to techans including a military promotion, free company general, and my personal favourite…machine of war…

Immortality? Heck no…you’re a nihilist.

That’s 4 classes with nearly 300 powers, 13 paragon paths, 5 epic destinies, all adding up to a pretty cool techan section, and I hope worthwhile of your investment…


I’ll end this with a few of my favourite powers:
Just Got the Wind Knocked Out Grounder Utility 22
What? Nah, nah, I’m doing just fine.
Daily * Healing, Martial
Immediate Reaction Personal
Trigger: You suffer damage from any attack.
Effect: You ignore the damage and any effects from that attack for as many rounds as 2+ your Constitution modifier.
Special: After the time period expires (or at the end of the encounter), you suffer the damage and the effects from the attack.


Watch Your Back Marshal Attack 13
You call for an assist from a comrade that takes care of the enemy behind you
Encounter * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Ranged Weapon
Requirement: You must be flanked by two creatures.
Target: One creature flanking you.
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 3 [W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Special: Any ally in line of sight makes a ranged basic attack on the other creature flanking you. Ally receives a +2 bonus to attack.


Gauss Weapon Tweak Operator Attack 27
You play with the accelerator, increasing the kinetic energy of the weapon. You think it has something to do with the linear or homopolar motors powering the magnetic…honestly, you’re not exactly sure.
Encounter * Martial, Weapon
Standard Attack Ranged Weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding a rail or coil weapon.
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC. Ignore all cover penalties.
Hit: 4 [W] + Dexterity modifier damage and the target suffers 10 ongoing damage.


Clean Kill Stalker Attack 29
The first shot wasn’t intended to kill the target but just to bring its head around for the final shot.
Daily * Martial, Sniper, Weapon
Standard Action Ranged Weapon
Target: One creature up to double your weapon’s long range.
Attack: Wisdom +2 vs. AC
Hit: 2 [W] damage.
Effect: If the first attack hits, make a follow-up attack. The target is helpless for this attack and it follows the effects of a Coup de Grace.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 3 [W] + Wisdom modifier damage
Miss: Normal damage with the first strike. No secondary strike.

[DiasExMachina]

Making things more difficult...

If you open the player’s handbook, you will see two pages that represent the elvish and dwarven scripts—-the basis of their written language. Of course, what it really boils down to is just a simple substitution cipher. Twenty-six letters and 10 numbers. Why is that? Ten digits, sure, but 26 letters. Less than a half-dozen languages in the world are like that (go head, check…I’ll wait). So why would a fantasy language have to follow that form.

To that end, we are redoing ALL the languages in Amethyst. Gone are EVERY language from Players Handbook. Yup, all of them. You can make up any excuse you want for when you you include monsters from the Monster manual. Here is our list: Adonnic, Argose, Chaparra, Corrupt, Damasan, English, Englo-Lingo, Ferran, Guttoran, Ignotan, Indic, Laudenian, Narroni, Old Fae, Onsespeak, Paggin, Romanic, Semetic, Sinitic, Slavic, and Tenenbra. Each language is described, explaining if it is a pictographic language or a logographic language, whether it is stress-timed or syllable-timed. Point is, these fae languages are not English-based, another cliché I want to smash. Seriously, though English is the most widely spoken language on Earth, but it is not the one language the majority of the planet calls its mother tongue. On that list, its third. Yup, third. Guess what the other two are. Chinese? No good, specific. Mandarin. Better, guess the second. Punjabi? Wrong. Arabic? Close but no. Think about conquering empires. Spanish? There you go. Remember hundreds of years ago when Europe divided the planet? Spain got all of South America…you know, not counting that teabag part of Brazil that speaks Portugeese (my parent’s tongue). To that end, some Fae languages’ written form resemble Chinese or Japanese; the narros script is based of Korean. Laudenian is based off of Aramaic. The Tenenbri tongue is part of their echo-location. The new draconic language, Adonnic (also called Pleroma), rises from the page in three dimensions, making its natural development a virtual impossibility.

I hope this begins to shed light on how we are approaching this setting—-by taking every single cliché of fantasy, and DnD specifically, and turning it on its ear. By addressing the setting as a real-world concept, we must look at issues like this.

Oh, and did you notice there was no Common?

[DiasExMachina]

There have been a slew of 4ed products released as well as on the horizon. I kept a keen eye on these releases and wondered how they could release them so fast and be safe from the inevitable erratas on their product. Then I realized how many pages they were and are...48, 60, 105.

30,000 words. 70,000 words.

Then I felt better why we were not going to make the October minimum release date for GSL compliant products. At its current count, the Amethyst 4ED core rulebook passed 204,000 words today, which would make it larger than the DnD Player's Handbook. I can't really give a page count estimate because we have no finalized art and no layout. I mean, if you add it all up, it ends up around 235 but that's not including an index or contents or the afortmentioned artwork...and the book is still not done.

Yessss, yes, yes, yes--I know the 3.5 Amethyst had 373,000 words and 399 pages but we really don't want our readers to go blind. I think, honestly, one of the reasons we didn't score more noms for the ennies was that no one wanted to read a 400 page book in a week (keep thinking that, buddy).

So, the writing continues. Obviously, some of this is being held back. Even now, we are planning on more monsters above the budgeted ones already set aside for this book. The issue I have is that, as I said, I am still not done. Not only is there background fiction for monsters yet to come, but we also plan on an adventure to be included in the book as well. I'll keep you guys and gals informed on how this plays out...

Me out.

[DiasExMachina]

"Do you accept electrum?"
"We accept silver, copper, gold, and huge bags of sh#$, but no sir, not electrum."

Blatant clichés aside, I am here to talk money, specifically the point of currency. Now, we're not going to remove the gold piece or the copper or the famous platinum. A stamped piece of currency worth its weight in the mineral it is made from is actually a realistic approach. So in that regard, things don't change. We do have names for various coins just for giggles and fluff.
Copper/Brass/Bronze Coins (=1 CP)
Abidan / Limshau / Gimfen Penny
Baruch Malkut Copper
Kannos Kuedo
Narros Copper Tooth
Orchis Casten
Torquill Pence

Silver Coins (=1SP)
Abidan Dagot
Kannos Kroenan
Baruch Malkut Silver
Gimfen Pebble
Limshau Carmot
Orchis Noman
Narros Silver Finger
Torquill Tence

Gold Coins (=1GP)
Abidan Sovereign
Kannos Kannon
Baruch Malkut Dollar
Gimfen Gold Stone
Limshau Chryso
Narros Golden Foot
Torquill Pound

We did have an issue with techan currency and we added rules dealing with that.

It would be great to think that one could pass into the walls of a city of industry with a bag of gold and buy a laser gun. Alas, it is not that simple. Not only do bastions not accept gold, but they also do not accept tender from other bastions. Because of bastions' desperate need for resources, currency is printed on the cheapest of materials. They all commonly feature a half-plastic/half paper medium impossible to copy with more than 300 counterfeit measures including holographic imagery and computer encoding. Each has special imprinting from its home Bastion. For the sake of clarity, these moneys are given the term Universal Credits, for they represent the legal tender of all bastion currency.

Various Bastion Currencies: Angel Dollar, Mann Credit, Sierra Madre Bar, Selkirk Pound, York Dollar.

Although you cannot trade one bastion currency for another bastion currency, they are all considered equal in value in regards to echan currency. You may not convert UC to echan currency but you can convert echan currency to UC. This is because echan currency is worth the value of its mineral and since they are usable materials, bastions are always in the need for them.

The Unfortunate Side Effect of Treasure: Alas, unlike echans, techan characters will seldom (if ever) find their technology in the lair of a dragon or any other creature for that matter. This means techans must return to a bastion to re-arm and upgrade their technology. Nothing they find in field will applicable to them. If they gain a level in a dungeon, they won’t conveniently find a higher level weapon after they slay the next big monster. In long, protracted adventures, this may create problems. Vehicles are a wise base of operations as they may hold many times over the ammunition capacity a single techan character. This may solve the unfortunate issue of ammunition but not about the eventually need to upgrade technology and the lack of being able to apply found treasure immediately in the field. Alas, the echan wilderness is not called a wasteland by the techans for nothing. The DM has options to offset this. In the end, very little is more satisfying than returning to a bastion with your holds overflowing with gold.

Note: One final word. Just a shout out to Scott Rouse for his efforts with the GSL. Amazingly enough, we at DiasEx found the confines of the GSL a catalyst for a more original setting and hope he understands there are many of the silent masses thanking him for his work on the revision--an appeasement Wizards was under no obligation to offer.

[DiasExMachina]

History of a Game. Part 1:

I wanted to take a moment to talk about the history of Amethyst…in the real world, that is. Amethyst began in the shower after I had watched the film Dragonslayer. Yes, that long ago. Okay, the film was on CBC and it was probably 1994 or ‘95. I had this strange habit when I was young where I would take ideas I had seen on television that was not science fiction and skew it into science fiction. I considered a setting where dragons would rise up from the ashes of a nuclear holocaust and humans were forced into walled cities to survive. Now, this was years before the film Reign of Fire would be released. There was no real fantasy in the setting save for the dragons. All the human characters lived in the various walled cities scattered over the planet. There were no elves, no demons, and no disruption. These dragons were not just monsters but the classic fantasy iterations with heightened intelligence, shape changing, and basic magical powers. They could speak and were both benign and wicked. The story dealt with one bastion, Angel, and its constant attack from a family of evil dragons to the south. There was an Asian city within Angel where a Chinese dragon was thought to be hiding. That creature was the one called Amethyst. I honestly could not tell you why I thought of that name at the time. Maybe I thought it was just cool. I wrote a short treatment and had some ideas in mind. I shelved the idea as I was trying to be a screenwriter (and that worked out AMAZINGLY) and Amethyst was a little much for spec script.

Then Reign of Fire came out and I got annoyed and forgot about Amethyst, I thought permanently. Now, I had given up role-playing. I did not have a reliable group anymore and a girlfriend at the time that didn’t approve of it. The last game I had done was one from the late ‘90s. It was a science fiction game called Pathfinder (seeeeeee…). It ran for nearly two years and collapsed before its final plotline could be resolved. That’s a common point for many RPG campaigns (am I right, DMs of the world?). Not long after, I was forced out of my gaming group because of internal politics (It’s an old story. Gamers start dating, wackiness ensues, etc). I had attempted it again but every time, it never lasted more than a session. I figured I had outgrown it. Then 2002 came. About this time, my friend, Chris Brown, returned from the south, hoping to rehook with old friends and start gaming again. He really wanted to try the new version of D&D everyone had been playing where he lived. I was never as much a diehard fan of fantasy like I was for science fiction. I agreed to do my Alien-FUZION game for him and a few other friends. It was an enjoyable game that ran for over a year. By the end of the Campaign’s 2nd season (I had planned for four…yes, that’s how I run my games), Chris convinced me to take a short break and run a D&D game. He claimed the new 3.0 rules had resurrected the franchise. In the end, the Alien-FUZION game collapsed (as they always do, right? RIGHT?). One player lost his backbone and dropped out from spousal pressure. The others wanted to try something new. I insisted on bringing in a friend from a previous game, Brian Duffels. With Glen Waughtel, Chris Brown, and Mike Alborn, we had a group. I wanted some originality with the setting so I looked over my old story treatments for inspiration…and Amethyst was the only one. Chris quickly kyboshed the idea of creating science fiction characters because he really wanted to play a mage. So instead, the setting became Amethyst with the 3.0 D&D setting crammed into it. I didn’t even change the names. Monsters were everywhere and bastions had a real hard time surviving. We introduced Saints as a science fiction villain and gebermach as a demon armor that killed Brian’s character’s family. Straight forward enough. Fairly soon, Mike would leave, Glen would leave, replaced soon by Conan Veitch and Rene Landry. At this point, it was still a traditional techno fantasy, where wizards could wield lasers if they wanted to. One player did, and I quickly found out how broken the game could get when technology and magic was used side by side.

[Voadam]

Originally Posted by DiasExMachina

There have been a slew of 4ed products released as well as on the horizon. I kept a keen eye on these releases and wondered how they could release them so fast and be safe from the inevitable erratas on their product. Then I realized how many pages they were and are...48, 60, 105.

30,000 words. 70,000 words.

Then I felt better why we were not going to make the October minimum release date for GSL compliant products.

Is there a current anticipated release date? December or so or 2009? October but not on the 1st?

Anything like "not sure, depends on a lot of things, but definitely not before X"?

[DiasExMachina]

Originally Posted by Voadam

Is there a current anticipated release date? December or so or 2009? October but not on the 1st?

Anything like "not sure, depends on a lot of things, but definitely not before X"?

December or so or 2009 maybe? Not October.

Not sure, really. It depends on a lot of things, but definitely not before X--I-I mean...

To be perfectly honest, I cant be perfectly honest. Give me a few weeks.