DwD Studios

P/S stand for primary and secondary. It is used in the step during character creation where you determine which skill/class is your primary and secondary, and thus which gets +20 and +10 respectively. Do note that this is a separate step from distributing your first level, which grants an additional +10 but also has other effects, such as getting a spellcaster their first spell(s) and enabling you to use certain classes/Skills in the first place.

The elf question was one I asked recently in the Q&A section. It means that an elf who does not meet the str requirement of the armor he/she is wearing may still cast spells if they're a spellcaster.

The transform statement is one I read to exactly that effect. That the spell may not be used to permanently make alterations to matter, unlike how it can make permanent transformations of people.

Honestly, what vaguely irks me about the spell is the incredibly low rate at which it may affect matter at all. Weight is always a somewhat annoying measure, since it means a mage can affect several cubic feet of feathers, yet struggles to alter a handful of steel. It's also, even at it's very peak (level 6) incapable of making many practical alterations.

As regards the DP limit on ability improvements, that strikes me as somewhat unnecessary. Certain sessions might very well have weeks of downtime in the middle, while another has no pause at all between it's end and the beginning of the next. Furthermore, this makes raising high level class skills a tedious affair for the player, since they need to first amass the DP and then spend several sessions incrementally spending DP to pay for their increase, while accruing further DP they can't spend at all.

Much simpler to merely allow a GM to adjudicate expenditures as they see fit according to reason and preference.

Re: The 5 DP stuff.....remember the GM has top say is the golden rule of this game. I wouldn't enforce it at my own table, but I'm not gonna argue with a GM who uses it as his :)

Thanks for the great feedback, Ascent and mort!

Ascent - thanks for the spell-checking. We're planning an updated release next week with all the errors corrected. Although we did indeed pay for editing, some things seemed to sneak past the editors and play testers.

We will clarify the "cast spells freely" statement in the elf bullet point (that's in our notes for next week's update). And yep, transform can't make permanent transformations to matter. We thought it might be somewhat economically disasterous if a spellcaster were able to chop up carrots and turn them permanently into gold. This was a complicated spell to try to describe in brief words. During playtest nobody ever seemed limited by the transform spell, though of course now that the product is released to a broader group of players it may need more consideration. Volume... mass... hardness... density (put volume and mass together and use density? Quick - what's the density of a handful of steel? lol) There are so many factors to consider that the spell would take up a page or two if it received the attention it deserved.

If a edited release is in the works, I would happily stop submitting random questions and actually turn into the playtester for hell if you so desire ;).

As for transform, while the economic dangers of a level 6 spellcaster turning carrots into gold coins exist, I would consider it a small worry. The cost of 10 STR lost is great balance already, regardless of volume, but more importantly, consider what other things such a character could achieve.

With Charm at level 6, most spellcasters would be able to simply force shopkeepers, salesmen and the like to give them what they desire. With some skill, they could most likely achieve all of this under the veneer of friendship or generosity, leaving the victim suspecting nothing. Even if they don't, charm could conceivably be used to make them forget it ever happened as well, likewise solving the risk of retribution, or at least mitigating it.

Illusion would provide a similar solution, although with more tangible form of trickery.

Cleanse and heal would allow one to make significant coin curing the rich, possibly with the "aid" of hinder and dispel for the particularly amoral.

Telekinesis, at its peak, allows a character to lift a ton with no tools or aid. More than enough to become a veritable modern day construction or mining crew in medieval times. They could make fortunes digging mines or aiding in the construction of castles and fortifications.

Transport does not require intimate knowledge of the site. At this level, every treasury in the world of which you can discover the existence is yours to plunder, short of any magical barriers preventing entry. Even then, plenty of rich merchants in the world. Or what of the riches a king would pay for you to open a gateway inside the walls of his enemies, so that his army might march into their homes unopposed? Or for an assassin who can appear in the bedrooms of his rivals, slay them in their sleep and the vanish in the blink of an eye?

Hell, cut out the middleman and make untold fortunes by becoming a merchant king who needs no ships nor time to trade valuables across the entirety of the world.

And several of these don't have the problem transform (and charm and illusion) does, which is that somebody magically aware can spot the deception and most likely grow irate.

And these gains are not all that greater than a thief could make plying his trade, a warrior could make selling his prodigious skills in the field of war, a leader could make forging his own horde of barbarians or kingdom of the just, an enchanter could make selling his potions and magic items or a Scholar could make leveraging social skills and royal connections that know no peer.

A character with 6 levels in most skills and with the attributes to support this can make fortunes with ease, regardless of what they possess.

And that's what I like about this game, among many other things. It lacks the preoccupation many other games do of trying to artificially limit the characters to keep them desperate and hungry for gold, which strikes me as remarkably refreshing, especially for a fantasy game.

There is plenty of other things to motivate characters beyond riches, and if the gm and the players don't desire those things they can keep coin the goal of the campaign all on their own.

Excellent points, mort. And you're probably right, limiting material transformations and not living being transformations is probably not serving the core concepts well. We'll discuss this possible change. But regarding transforming matter - weight is the simplest way to manage it because not everyone is an engineer and wants to do crunchy math. Perhaps some wording could be added which allows the spell to affect more weight of material if more time is spent on the spell outside of combat?

As R.E. Davis pointed out, "GM has top say." But some limits would be appreciated. Having limits opens up rules lawyering a little, but not having limits opens up power playing. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I prefer stated limits. The GM can always adjust them as desired.

I think mass might serve a better purpose. Both for internal consistency and, indeed, simplicity. Say X cubic meters? This allows for fun displays like altering terrain and creating barricades, while creating a probably more easily visualized measuring method that doesn't require questions like "how many lbs does a longsword weigh"?. Most people have an easier time visualizing how big something is than how heavy it is.

I can also agree that a system for affecting bigger things outside of combat would be worthwhile, regardless of whether or not the above is implemented.

As for transformation limits, I agree that more should be allowed.

The problem with stable limits on DP spending is that it creates a very large logical gap, I feel. First of all, sessions are a narrative and meta measure of time, rather than a internal one. If limiting DP spending by them, one warrior could spend weeks raising his skills from 1 to 2, but the other one might do it in a day, simply because that session did not include travel.

Furthermore, I don't feel that DP spending in any way opens or enables power gaming, even without limit. DP are a finite resource already limited by how fast you can gain them. By session.

You can't overspend on them anyway, so while credulity might be stretched by a character saving up a hundred of them and spending them all at once, he will not be superior to his friends, who spent them incrementally across the game. He will merely catch up.

So how is it that you feel DP spending being free of limits somehow enables power playing? And, in this case, how does it become detrimental to the game?

Sorry, I concede on DP. I was just referring to your other post about out of control magic.

I'm going to enter engineer mode for a moment for the sake of discussion.

Cubic meters would measure volume, not mass. Expressing transform in terms of volume would present the same argument you made earlier only in inverse: why is it not easier to transform a 10 cubic meters of feathers than 10 cubic meters of steel? Shouldn't material strength play a role? etc. The argument can go on and on :-)

Okay, back to game designer mode.

Volume would work too, whatever is easier to imagine and move on with. The game should be about simplicity and fun. For a sci fi game, I'd push for more complex rules. For this game, volume might indeed offer a better solution than weight (or mass, which is commonly seen as identical when gravity doesn't much on Earth).

Keep 'em comin' lads!

Apologies to the engineer inside of you ;)

And yes, you do have a point that the volume of objects present much the same conundrum as weight of them as a limit.

I would merely contend that volume enables more fun options for it's use, is a more easily visualized system of measurement and strikes me as less likely to create feelings of frustration regarding the limits. I know that I personally find "It's too big for your to change" feel like a far more consistent barrier than "It's too heavy".

Weight means you can alter a wooden sword but not a steel one. Or a steel one but not a titanium one. Volume means the same blade can be altered, be it wood, steel or cotton candy. This "feels" more consistent even if, scientifically speaking, it isn't.

Ahh. Apologies for the confusion. As for magic, I think setting up limits that enable fun applications rather than limits them is more intriguing. And so far, I find this game is excellent in that regard. It creates enough limits that you can't simply wave your hands and get your desire, but it still has enough leeway and room for ingenuity that you feel like you are given tools to apply rather than merely solutions to very specific problems.

It's also rather good about having tools that create interesting consequences rather than merely risk-free victories. But then again, I'm a notorious fan of games like Mage the Ascension and Wild Talents, so it could very well just be my personal preference for creative freedom speaking.

But then again, I'd rather have a game that let you break it by having the more clever mind over one that lets you do it with merely the most efficient math and legalistic interpretations.

OK, LOL. I'll enter my geologist mode and say that density could really mess with this calculation. Ever play with a piece of galena (ore from which lead comes)? Let's just say it's a bit dense.

I say just let the player do what makes for a good story, within reason of not distorting the adventure or accomplishing feats that seem out of line with their rank.