The biggest problem, though, is the sheer scope of the changes. I thought I should toss out some of the changes underway to both explain why it’s such a big revision, and to see if anyone had any actual opinions on what I’m doing.

The Name

I’ve been unhappy with the name Grey Lotus for quite some time now, but it’s been a bear to change it. Not only do all of my friends refer to it that way, but it’s extremely difficult to come up with a name that is descriptive, not generic, and distinctive. It’s all well and good to call it Chronicles of the Sidhe, but nobody can pronounce that and frankly, it’s more about the war against the Kurr’d-ah.  I’ve been meaning to post a poll concerning the name here, since I do have a few choices, but… lazy The current frontrunner for a new name is Legacies.

Magic

The Magic system is one thing that I’m quite proud of, so the basic concept will be kept.  I’m attempting to streamline things a little bit so that it’s easier to understand the process of making and casting spells. I’m still keeping Aspect, but it will be an optional system for those who want it, and it won’t be quite so bookkeeping-intensive. I think the biggest change will be how Backlash is handled. New Magic won’t have a Backlash stat… instead, the spellcasters will take the Backlash as a mental strain value that gives them Fatigue. The Fatigue tracking will also be more vague, so that this way, Fatigue and spellcasting will be as imprecise as wounds… a spellcaster will never know exactly how many more fireballs can be tossed, only that it’s a bigger and bigger risk. Maintaining spells will make resisting Fatigue more difficult, rather than directly reducing from available Fatigue.

Nationalities

Advantages of being from different kingdoms or regions have been eliminated, at least as a free bonus. In some cases, similar abilities can be purchased as special abilities. This also eliminates the overpowered Valtan advantage, though the Prodigy ability will give a more limited version of this. I’ve cut down on the number of kingdoms as well, and gotten rid of the patchwork culture bit in favor of something more realistic. Each region will receive much more detail, though, and have subcultures associated with them.

Skills

The biggest change for skills is in the Rating/Dice division. Before, the Rating determined both number of dice rolled, and the base number added to the die roll. Now, Rating and Dice are purchased separately, with Rating determining experience and a raw baseline, and Dice representing how well the character applies what they’ve learned.

Weapons and Combat

AP is probably getting very simplified, as in actual play it’s hard to remember to add it in. It’s one more calculation to worry about, so a good candidate for streamlining. Weapons particularly lethal against certain armors may get a special quality to compensate, as that’s easier to remember. Reach will remain, since it’s an optional system anyway and can be tossed out without skewing game balance too much, but is nice for people who want a touch more realism.

I’m toying with the idea of a more dynamic combat system where attack and defense can be adjusted more freely by the player. It would need tested, however.

Techniques and Schools

Techniques are still around, no worries!  Schools will be less associated with nation of origin, though some will still be prevalent in those nations or named after them. Ryantran Blademastery is still Ryantran, etc. Elementalist Schools will have more distinctiveness, and Faerie Magic will have Traditions, which are effectively the same thing.

Religion

The current state of Religion is pretty dull and flat. The new setting has a much more fleshed out version. It is still largely monotheistic, but divine favors can be granted by agents of the Creator, similar to praying to an angel or saint. The religion will have two main branches, a Soluman and an Anathasian branch, with several splinter sects within each one.  In addition, ‘pagan’ religions will be covered in future releases, and the Fey will have their own versions.

Special Abilities

In the old version, some special abilities could only be purchased at character creation. These are now separate from the other advantages and flaws. Tentative names for them are ‘Legacies’ or ‘Birthrights,’ with a tending toward the former since not all of them are passed down through bloodlines. Most likely this will be how you start with Magical Aptitude as well.

EDIT: Fixed Downloads page, I think, but lost my count. I could recover it, but it’s not that important to me.

• A probable overview of some of my Origins purchases. Particularly a cute little RPG named Mouse Guard.
• Renaming Grey Lotus, finally. Along with a little preview of the next edition in the form of an excerpt. Possibly more than one.
• An in-depth review of D&D 4e, though ‘review’ isn’t quite what I’m going for. I’ll be comparing each play aspect with all the previous editions, as well.
• Fantasy Frontier hasn’t been forgotten. The next Status update should see some of those dangling tasks taken care of.

All of this depends largely on my mood and how things go at home. Disgaea 3 makes for quite a distraction.

• Articles. Actual articles on the industry and gaming… as soon as I catch up a bit on things, myself. I used to be pretty into the news, but nowadays I’m a touch behind.
• Reviews. Not sure if this will cover books, video games, or just RPGs. I don’t buy as many RPGs as I used to, so don’t expect cutting edge stuff.
• Settings. I’m working on one for HERO System 5th Edition, and a version of the same for D&D.
• Grey Lotus will be renamed and revised a fair bit. The system will remain mostly the same, other than a couple tweaks to close loopholes and fix minor problems that have popped up. The major change will be in the world itself, where I’ll be redoing the map and the nation boundaries quite a bit. I’ll be fleshing out things a lot more, and splitting the main book between a player’s guide(which will still include basic cultural and geographical info) and a campaign guide(for the bestiary and in depth information). You have to buy both to play!

You might note that the chapter PDFs and such are no longer available from links. They’re still in the directories, but I had to update that page manually, so I left them out for now.  Once I’ve altered the Downloads page to be more automation-friendly I will try to bring them back.

Previous versions of the text are not available.  Once I move into 2.0 for Grey Lotus(which will also be renamed), I’ll be putting it into my Subversion repository at home. Most of the new content will also be under Version Control, but for the time being I do not plan for this to be a public-access SVN repository.

I’m also attempting to bring some forum software into the page, but that’s a long term goal, and I’d like a bridge to link WordPress accounts with forum accounts. I know they’re out there, it’s just low priority right now.

I’m back now, and I’ll be fussing with the page layout for a few weeks while I get things set up. I’ll have some new content on the way, and repost the old content once I have sections for it. I’m using a basic WordPress theme for the time being. I’ll be tweaking it off and on for a while, but eventually replace it with one of my own. Content first, then layout.