16-Bit Adventures: More Monsters

+Erik McGrath


 This week sees very little in the way of rules changes or updates. There were a few typos but that's it. The main draw this time is that I have been working on adding more monsters to fight.

Now you can enjoy goblins, bees, soldiers, bats, ghosts, skeletons, ghouls and slimes.

Alternative Monsters

 With the addition of more monsters comes thinking about how to use them and how you can mix them up so they aren't always the same. The first rule I've come up with for that is pretty simple, you just swap out the special ability of the monster in question. So to get the first of the alternative monsters, the Bumble Bee, you take a bee of any level and swap Poison Sting for Pollen. The only restriction is bumbles always appear in the back row so there will always be some normal bees or other monsters with them.

New Sprites

Some of the monsters have also gotten a facelift. I've been digging through the game files and trying to pick the more visually interesting options for each monster. So here's the new ghost sprite.

PDFs

16-Bit Adventures V2

Inspired Updates 8/19/2013

+Erik McGrath

I've been focused on 16-Bit Adventures a lot lately, and I'm still working on it but this week I want to take some time to give some updates on the current state of everything else as well.

Battle Tank

As I have mentioned before a board game that needs as many pieces as Battle Tank is an expensive undertaking and Inspired can't afford it right now. We are considering our options on physical production but they look a ways off. 

So instead we are working on making a PNP version so that those who have expressed interest can at the very least try it out. Once we get some feedback on that front we want to work on how to improve that experience. 

Sudden Death

The game is ready, the artist is lined up, what we are missing is the time to really promote it. This is probably my favorite thing that Inspired has designed for its simplicity. We will get this made, its just a matter of getting CJ and I in the same room to do the details. 

The most important of those details I think would be videos to showcase the game and talk about why we made the decisions we have with the art and gameplay.

Drachenheim

Magnus by
+Laura Fallon Andersen 

I'll admit this one has been pushed to the back burner pretty hard. I return to it every now and again to poke it and see if any new ideas fall out. It feels almost done to me but the gameplay is just a little too clunky and there is too much reliance on dice rolls for my tastes. 

Its a boardgame where the board is defined by the cards in play rather than a pure cardgame so I'm ok with some dice rolling but I prefer the decisions of the players to be the most important piece and leave the dice to decide limited things. If I can get to a point where the dice are only thrown to decide the outcomes of battles I will be very happy.

Celestial Warriors

Our first RPG is in the midst of a fourth version and it is a long time coming. With this iteration I think its time to add some art and sharpen the formatting skills I've been working on with 16-Bit Adventures to make it look more interesting and so that it reads more easily. 

16-Bit Adventures

We didn't get a chance to play with the whole gang this week but we did come up with a solution I like to the fact that DEF could still go over 10. That answer is that separate devices give separate DEF ratings so if you have a Shield and Armor you don;t add the values together, instead you check all incoming attacks vs both values. 

We call this effect Double DEF. If an attack is under both then you only take quarter damage from that hit. If its under one but not both you take half. If its over both you take normal damage. 

Wrap up and Downloads

So that's were we stand right now. We'd love to hear your comments and feedback about any or all of our games. 

PDFs

16- Bit Adventures V2

Sudden Death

Celestial Warriors v3

16-Bit Adventures V2 Arrives

+Erik McGrath

A day early or a week late

Whichever it is is in the eye of the beholder. If you get one of the three instant death eyes, my bad. 

The document is still pretty ugly but it contains all the rules and is as proofread as I can make it on my own. No doubt someone will catch a typo (or pile of such) in the next few hours. If that person is you, then leave a comment and I will fix it.

Likewise I have tried to be clear and stick to the same keywords throughout. If something doesn't make sense, or if you simply feel it should be different, let me know and I will explain what I meant and why. 

Classes

The current PDF has 12 Job Classes: 

Fighter

Thief

Monk

Red Mage

Black Mage

White Mage

Paladin

Dark Knight

Dragoon

Ninja

Samurai

Bard

I have these ones on deck:
Blue Mage
Ranger
Beastmaster
Summoner

Each of those last four have proven challenging to say the least. Ranger is the closest to being done. Blue Mage is done, class-wise, but since its spells are all monster skills I need to finish the bestiary or at least make a better dent in it.

Beastmaster will need some more JAs and for me to work out how its animal control will actually work. I am leaning toward a JA that takes an action to command an animal. If it works the PC then decides what that animal does on its next turn. Other JAs will enhance that effect as well as adding more types of controllable enemy.

Summoner is the toughest. I haven't worked out the summons yet but I know that I don't want them to play like other mages' spells. Summons really need their own feel. I'll keep working on them.

Monsters

The enemy section of the PDF is pretty scant. 

On the one hand I have started a new format for monsters and actually included their skills so you can know what to roll for them. Specifically their Agility is listed so you know their initiative but since spells and JAs often call for a skill check the others will come up pretty often. 

On the other hand, well, there are only 4 monster families shown: Goblin, Skeleton, Ghoul, Bee. The two undead share a page and that's the format I am currently going for. The others are more open but I think in this case page count will matter more than white space. I'm not sold on my choice so if you have a preference now is the time to convince me.

16-Bit Adventures PDFs

16-Bit Adventures V2