Anyone check out Radiance RPG yet?

Okay, sounds good.

I'm also wondering about building/converting races and classes (homebrew or from other 3.x/4e books):
~Does the Creature Creation rules on pp.246-247 include PC races?
~It's cool that race/class abilities have a point system. If I want to add more feats or spells (from other books), what's the best way to gauge how many points they are worth?

I just got to read over the Radiance Player's Guide, and I really like it! Chapter 13, in particular, is inspired, and the write ups of the gods is really well done. I almost got a Heroquest/Runequest vibe from some of the flavor.

I noticed many editing errors, small stuff like "right" instead of "ring" under Ophelia's Ring, but also some glaring mistakes like "concealment" instead of "cover" under the description of Covered.

However, I'm skeptical about these of vitality points as both hit points and activation points for special abilities...the more injured a character gets, the more likely they'll need to draw on special abilities to save their butts, but the fewer vitality points they'll have available to do so. That's the core design right? I'd need to see how it plays at the table, but I wonder if it leads to a disconnect between fiction and mechanics for some players? ("My barbarian cleaves, so now he's one step closer to unconsciousness?!?").

Overall, it's a magnificent effort, and very well put together. I may end up running my next campaign with these rules instead of 4e or D&D Next...

When does the GM's Guide come out?

Holy crap this is cool. My hat off to you sir.

Robyo said:

Okay, sounds good.

I'm also wondering about building/converting races and classes (homebrew or from other 3.x/4e books):
~Does the Creature Creation rules on pp.246-247 include PC races?
~It's cool that race/class abilities have a point system. If I want to add more feats or spells (from other books), what's the best way to gauge how many points they are worth?

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Races and classes each have their own build rules to debut in the Radiance Masters Guide. Races are fairly easy. You start with 5 points, typically 1 of which is for a +2 overall bonus on attributes. For example, +2 Con, -2 Dex, +2 Int would result in a net benefit of +2, using up 1 point of the 5. Then you spend the remaining points following the Behind the Math stuff on page 39. A basic ability such as darkvision is worth 1 point, etc. You can give 1/2 points for minor skill boosts (such as +2 Acrobatics, +2 Craft). That's pretty much it. Typically each race gets a couple of free languages, 3 multi-class options, and an average comeliness. But you can adjust some of that, such as humans getting unlimited multi-class, which actually costs a 1/2 point (if I recall). Comeliness doesn't cost or grant points. It's mainly for social role-play.

Evenglare said:

Holy crap this is cool. My hat off to you sir.

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Thank you!

AncientSpirits said:

Thank you!

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I downloaded it a couple weeks ago with no problem. Great resourse well done and worth much more than its price of "free". Once again well done.

Quickleaf said:

I just got to read over the Radiance Player's Guide, and I really like it! Chapter 13, in particular, is inspired, and the write ups of the gods is really well done. I almost got a Heroquest/Runequest vibe from some of the flavor.

I noticed many editing errors, small stuff like "right" instead of "ring" under Ophelia's Ring, but also some glaring mistakes like "concealment" instead of "cover" under the description of Covered.

However, I'm skeptical about these of vitality points as both hit points and activation points for special abilities...the more injured a character gets, the more likely they'll need to draw on special abilities to save their butts, but the fewer vitality points they'll have available to do so. That's the core design right? I'd need to see how it plays at the table, but I wonder if it leads to a disconnect between fiction and mechanics for some players? ("My barbarian cleaves, so now he's one step closer to unconsciousness?!?").

Overall, it's a magnificent effort, and very well put together. I may end up running my next campaign with these rules instead of 4e or D&D Next...

When does the GM's Guide come out?

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I really enjoyed writing chapter 13. It is meant as a blessing to GMs to reduce prep time and also more easily GM the life settlements and their cultures.

I wouldn't say there are "many" errors, but yes, they do linger here and there, and specifics as you've pointed out are truly much appreciated, especially concealment when cover was meant! Even the editor, after seeing the same text for 2 years, has developed jaded eyes.

Regarding vitality, generally, abilities have a vitality cost only if they are magical or reflect some kind of great heroic act. Actions like Cleave and Charge never require vitality. So we don't feel a disconnect. The system is balanced so that front-line characters like fighters rarely expend vitality on actions and thus can absorb hits while characters like wizards are expending vitality to cast spells, and thus should remain in the back-line, just like classic D&D. The exception is a character like the mageblade who has special defensive and movement abilities that hopefully reduce getting hit and thus allow him more magic options.

The GM's guide has been more challenging than expected to finish, mainly the last 15% has been a bear to ensure monster stats are vetted, GMs get the tools they need, and encounter templates (with maps) are still very flexible for GMs to customize and run as they like. The defacto date is Oct 15th, which isn't as soon as I wanted, but that's a challenge of publishing!

[MENTION=55778]AncientSpirits[/MENTION] Great reply, thanks!

Yeah perhaps "many" editing errors is a strong word; I've seen much worse, heck my published book had as many or more errors and that was for profit!

And I'm really pleased by what you explained about the difference between "warrior" classes and "caster" classes and their reliance on vitality to fuel abilities. That was my one hesitation.

Good luck with the finishing touches on the GM's Guide, just keep on plugging away at it; I'm sure it will be great.

I'm curious if you had anyone playtesting the 10th level+ range? How long did average fights last at this level?

I have been playing this game now for approx a month with a group of friends. We have bounced about testing different levels here and there. Levels, 2, 6, 8, 9-11 so far.

Lower level combats except against unorthodox enemies such as ghosts has takes us 10-20 minutes.

Higher level combats for our 9-11 range usually have taken 30 minutes at most, this if for a slightly hard XP encounter (So slightly more XP than the level of the party). Easy encounters take the party not even a round to complete so 5-10 minutes at that level. I'm not sure if that's the general optimisation of the party but the load out for that party is 4 PCs, Monk/Shifter, Medicant, Pathfinder and an Artificer/Ranger.

The hardest encounter I've done was a level 6 encounter with 5 PCs, the XP allotment was twice the level of the party so 60xp (three level 9 monsters, six level 3 monsters, five level 2 monsters and 10 custom made level 0 monsters. I counted those as 1/2 XP each). That took about 40 minutes due to at level 6 people didn't have as many strong powers to negate enemies.

Suffice to say I'm really enjoying how quick combats are compared to 3e and 4e without needing to edit numbers about to speed it up.

Quickleaf said:

I'm curious if you had anyone playtesting the 10th level+ range? How long did average fights last at this level?

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Like what Davachido has said for low to mid levels.

My own group often plays at level 11 to 14. It's quick and dangerous then because many higher level monsters do both vitality damage and wound damage, so PCs pull out all the stops or retreat to regroup if needed. Typically: 3 rounds, 10 minutes per round, for 4 PCs including a little time we spend doing comments or debating as part of play-testing.

Our San Diego playtest group (I'm in LA) is mostly newbie players who aren't particularly optimized and the combats still go pretty quickly for them.

Why: minimal page flipping, abilities and effects don't cascade mechanically, etc. Also, though PCs have many abilities in total at high levels, they tend to focus on the higher tier abilities right away in a combat and only have a handful of those to pick from.