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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6268146" data-attributes="member: 20323">Thanks Mike! At some point I'll get the setting stuff organized, it's scattered across 50 pages or so right now. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid    :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" />About the name...I choose "Elderblade" for five reasons:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elderblade is meant to refer to our oldest and greatest weapon - our minds - reflected in this quote from an NPC: "In the Elder Age, 'tis neither spell nor blade, but the mind of they that wield it."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It evokes the brooding mystery of dark fantasy and magic of high fantasy, at least I hope.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It alludes to the power balance between wizards (elders) and fighters (blades), that the game's design and  setting presume.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It is my nod to the OSR which Elderblade shares some sensibilities with.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">And it's an in-game reference: the Elderblade is the setting's most powerful magic sword, an artifact forged in elven blood that has not been seen in ages.</li> </ul>Good questions:-In simultaneous initiative, the archer shoots the same time you move for cover or move to close distance, so you can still get hit. In turn-based initiative you can move to cover *before* the archer or even charge and kill them before they fire.-I've really re-tooled surprise to make it a big deal, and to offer variable surprise benefits the ambushes can choose from.-The idea behind simultaneous initiative is to encourage advance thinking, even if brief, sort of like a football huddle...and then once combat is happening there are no more tactical pow-wows.-Yes, no tracking initiative. I'm thinking that making a contested initiative check is a privilege not a right in this system. So the player has to establish some way either mechanically (thru feats or class options or a readied action) or narratively (thru context of the scene or a good idea) to earn an initiative check. It's a very different paradigm from D&D where initiative checks are assumed.I wish I had players who would do this! If you do, more power to you. The main idea behind the miss rules is to short-circuit bad luck streaks when a player rolls like 4 or 5 misses in a row. Still need to tweak it, but that's the core reasoning.Depends on the player type. Certainly that is true for some, but not true for others.On the contrary, I think it simplifies it for three reasons.First, because I knew hero point stunts were going to be a part of this game, I also realized that there were certain things it made sense for certain characters to do with them that other characters it didn't make sense for. Instead of listing Fighter Stunts, Barbarian Stunts, Paladin Stunts, and so on, I consolidate the rule into Warrior Stunts. Now if you've played a Fighter before and decide to play a Paladin next character, you already know the stunts you can perform, likewise if you're a Fighter and you're helping a younger/newer player with a Ranger.Second, because it helps make feat selection easier by separating out the feats you don't have to worry about. I want to make a Fighter, ok, so the only feat lists I need to consider are General and Warrior. Awesome that reduces the number of feats for me to look thru by maybe 30%! Saved time at character creation means simpler.Third, on the design side it means I can make fewer Legendary Paths open to more classes. So I can make a Giant Slayer path which a barbarian, fighter, paladin, or ranger could take, rather than having to duplicate that across four classes. So less design quantity of work and fewer Legendary Paths is simpler.Anyhow, that's how I've been thinking about the use of 3 archetypes.That's very much the way I'm leaning. At first I thought about getting rid of feats entity but when I realized how much they can add...I don't know, I'm torn. My current writeup has feats as you describe - though I'm tempted to add Skill Focus, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, and Lightning Reflex ...though modifying them to be more than just a bonus.... because they *are* ways of describing certain types of characters.I'll give it a look thru!</blockquote>

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