Monthly check in for my sanity and to give myself a sense of progress. As my last entry, this is probably going to be a little messy still while I try to figure out a format for presentation and sorting, but hey at least I'm doing something, right?
My bestiary has grown to 22 entries. I have a few that haven't been publicly posted since I decided to start the weekly posts sometime in February, which I believe started with #7. I do have creatures that technically were designed before that initial post, but I just haven't actually shared them and I probably won't. My reasoning is simple: because I don't want to. My goal is to end this year with 52 entries, so maybe a few weeks will get more than just a single entry. I almost did that for this week. I might actually still do that this week. The reason for that is because this week's creature is the Porcelain Seer, which has 2 variants. That would technically bring up my number, but at the same time, it might introduce confusion with so many postings of similar things. I already did a post a few weeks prior for the Coral Priestess and the Fraddam Seer. Both of those are just variants of each other, but they each got their own weekly spotlight. So I guess at this point, who knows what I will do. I do know and confirm that I will have 52 by the end of the year, no matter what. Might just be unpublished ones, which is totally fine because "secret surprises" are fun.
As for play testing, my current players have completed Adventure 0. They helped me create 2 modules and inspired the system for FoundryVTT by giving me feedback of what would make things way easier and to keep the pace decent. As a continuation from the previous Dev Log, the 2 modules I have created is a loot-table-generator (LTG) thing and a reactive-environment (RE) thing. These are currently working within my homebrew of a game system.
The LTG is essentially a module where I upload a .csv file that has a specific name. I then have the ability to apply area modifiers to it, for example the player is in a food court, so the items that they are going to find are pulling from the food court modifier in the .csv file. I can also apply more specific modifiers to what kind of loot that they can get. I mentioned previously that there are tiers for the loot. I can actually tell the LTG what tier, type, yes/no mods, etc to chuck into the RNG of the item generated. I haven't really had a chance to test this out fully, but overall it does seem to work. Also, the item generated is pinged in the chat window and automatically deposited in the player's inventory.
The RE is where I can create a tile and have it attach to so many things. I can have the tile reveal:
- a secret area
- a hidden creature
- if a player has a specific item that causes a trigger
- if the player has a certain level of ENT they can trigger something
- if the players are in combat and pass over the tile, something can happen
- if a sound is heard/played, it can trigger something
- if a tile is triggered, a sound can play and/or a message in chat is sent
This module, RE, has a bit of tweaking to do still. Each session have given me a slight problem with it. I'm not sure if I just keep forgetting to hit that "save" button or what, but I always seem to have to edit it when a player is suppose to be triggering it and nothing happens. I've got my homework to do for this one, that is for sure.
Another module that I'm planning on making is essentially one that connects a token to a compendium entry. One of my players had suggested the ability to either hover over a token (NPC or enemy or whatnot) and a small window can pop up that gives some brief information, such as name and/or type. If the players decides to then click on said window, it takes them to the compendium entry. I tried setting this up without much time and I honestly couldn't get it to work. My workaround was to have the creature be interactive, where players can click on a link which takes them to the compendium entry. Turns out, only the DM can see it. I felt a little defeated on that but it's okay. I just need to figure out why that happens.
My homework from the previous Dev Log was to work on class skills. Well, that didn't exactly happen. I did manage to get the class entries and bestiary entries entered into the compendium. So right now, my players can access their classes and bestiary entries whenever they need to. I'm not sure how to do the skill thing yet (interact on the player's sheet/token). Some things had actually come up during the play sessions that I feel should be dealt with first. So my current checklist of things I need to do:
- Double speed option if a player doesn't choose to roll for observation/perception nor loot
- Have something that locks in observation/perception rolls (apparently I've gone from a 1d20 to a 1d10 in different sessions and I just need consistency on my end). This might end up being a typed command or a button.
- Create the local Central Hub for players
- Vending NPCs
- Upgrade/crafting location
- Storage
- Quest/adventure provider
- Change the default blue image background on the compendium packs to a solid color because white lettering gets lost
- Players cannot see the creature information window (might get fixed with the new module I'm planning on making)
- Reword or revamp some part of the creature entries
- Group 1 had 0 issues with how to handle the Porcelain Seer, but Group 2 did
- Might add in the escalation part for the Threat section in the entry. I have this for a Cockatrice Effigiel (not published as of this writing) but nothing else.
- Reiterate that not everything in this game is out to kill you, even though it is a post-apocalyptic/dark fantasy/survival horror game. It all depends on how the players interact with the world (a vast majority of things are indeed hostile but my players have only encountered a Digosfrag, a Tsukikago Servitor, a Calamivox Ingratus, and now a Porcelain Seer. They didn't get really into the encounter with the Porcelain Seer because of how quickly things went, but if they stuck around for a few more turns, it was going to turn into a full blown encounter.
- Add in a secondary option for a observation check. The suggestion was if a player rolls high, they can get a possible loot generation. I believe they referenced Baulder's Gate 3 for this, so I will have to revisit that.
Check back next month for where things went right and where things went wrong. You can always check my weekly posts on my Patreon and Kofi, or follow me over on Mastodon for daily blurbs.