[Q&A] Daniel Burrow (Tephra: The Steampunk RPG)

[19:03] <+Daniel_Burrow> Tephra is a steampunk RPG that we (Cracked Monocle) developed and released last year. It's set in the alternate heroic steampunk world of Tephra, full of unique races, mad science, and plenty of shenanigans! All you need is a single D12 to play, it uses a system we built ourselves (called the Clockwork System),
[19:03] <+Daniel_Burrow> and it's very action-oriented and player-defined. You can find out more information about it at TephraRPG.com or by talking to me here.
[19:04] <+Daniel_Burrow> I'm the creator, Daniel Burrow. I lead the majority of the process (though other people did the character sheet and art in the end), and am now the owner & executive editor of Cracked Monocle.
[19:04] <+Daniel_Burrow> Doneskis!
[19:04] <~Dan> Thanks, Daniel!
[19:04] <~Dan> Would anyone like to start us off with a question?
[19:05] <~Dan> (I'll give them a moment before offering some of my own. :) )
[19:05] <+Abstruse> How exactly can you stand wearing the steampunk clothes at Texas cons all day? I was sweating like crazy in a short sleeve shirt and slacks :p
[19:06] * ~Dan chuckles
[19:06] <+Daniel_Burrow> Practice, lots of practice! It definitely can be a struggle, though you'll find that a lot of steampunks do a "dressed down" steampunk (or at least I do). I do a shirt with rolled up sleeves, vest, and try to make that work. But it can definitely be tiring!
[19:06] <&Silverlion> Where are you from Daniel?
[19:06] <+Daniel_Burrow> Sadly, we've dressed down a lot over the last year. I'm trying to get back into my habits of dressing up, but the Texas heat definitely hurts ^_^
[19:06] <+cstayton> Daniel what do you think sets up Tephra as different from other RPGS
[19:06] <~Dan> Can you tell us a bit about the setting, and what made you decide to go with a fantasy setting rather than Victorian Earth?
[19:06] <+Daniel_Burrow> I'm from Austin, TX, born and raised
[19:07] <&Silverlion> Alright, someone told me Tephra been produced at Texh..:D
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[19:07] <&Silverlion> Tech.
[19:07] <~Dan> (Question pause)
[19:08] <+Daniel_Burrow> @CStayton - Tephra doesn't have any one thing that makes it different. I can't point at a mechanic and say "Nobody else does this." But we tried to build a better overall package. We aimed for character creation in 30 minutes or less (it can range from 10 minutes to an hour), an enormous breadth of character options, and very fast action scenes.
[19:08] <+Daniel_Burrow> I'm not saying that the action is fast in real life, but it feels faster because you're more involved during the game. That was a huge goal.
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[19:09] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - I've always been a world-builder. I like building worlds. Tephra started off as a different setting and eventually morphed into a steampunk one, because we realized the elements where there and we LOVED the newly budding genre.
[19:10] <+Daniel_Burrow> I specifically steered away from Victorian Earth because it's difficult for GMs to narrate there. When I GM a game in, say, London, I don't know London. I don't know it at all. So there's always this pressure on the GM to "get things right" and be realistic and true to the setting
[19:10] <+Daniel_Burrow> I think that's rough, so I wanted to give GMs a new setting to play with
[19:10] <+Daniel_Burrow> something that they could make as their own. Thus, Tephra.
[19:10] * ~Dan nods
[19:11] <~Dan> How would you describe the setting?
[19:11] <~Dan> In general terms, I mean.
[19:11] <+GenoFoxx> So is this solidly 'steampunk' or can it be or have bits of 'dieselpunk'?
[19:11] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Silverlion - My 2nd-in-command of sorts, Alex Whisenhunt, lived in Lubbock and attended Tech for several years while Tephra was being developed and he started the Texas Tech Steampunk Society (or whatever it was called), so that's probably where that rumor comes from.
[19:12] <&Silverlion> Ah cool.
[19:12] <&Silverlion> Makes sense. :D
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[19:12] <~Dan> (Silverlion is a Texan as well. :) )
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[19:12] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - The setting is heroic. It's part fantasy, part science fiction, very steampunk. We tried hard to make our central nation, Evangless, fit into a very Victorian British steampunk. There are dapper gentlemen, top hats, and lots of mad science.
[19:12] <&Silverlion> I was wondering because local people were trying to sell me on it. In Lubbock.
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[19:13] <+Daniel_Burrow> Then there are other nations around it ---- the highly industrial Zelhost, the more serene and "high and mighty" Dalvozzea, and magnet-tech-based and intellectual Tordryonis, and the desert-scavenging Izedans
[19:14] <~Dan> (I can certainly see the attraction of Tordryonis.)
[19:14] <+Daniel_Burrow> We have several races. Some might sound familiar --- our gnomes and satyrs, for instance. Our gnomes are very nature-oriented, in-tune with it and tend to hide in forests. Our satyrs were bio-engineered and have a good deal of empathy and speed.
[19:14] <+Sigma_Phi> (Pun intended?)
[19:14] <&Silverlion> I saw the Elves, they kind of struck me as an odd choice..?
[19:14] <~Dan> (Always. ;) )
[19:14] <+Daniel_Burrow> But then we have our elves, who long ago fell from graces and became something that looks more like trolls. Their still decently intelligent, but they are a bit tribal. About 150 years ago a scientist realized that they were deficient in something he termed "essence."
[19:15] <~Dan> (Oh, hey there, Sil! I didn't think you were going to make it tonight. :) )
[19:15] <&Silverlion> (My game is delayed by a couple players tonight?)
[19:15] <~Dan> (Ah.)
[19:15] <+Daniel_Burrow> He created synthetic essence and injected himself with it. The process transformed himself into a farishtaa --- he regained his angelic beauty, but his personality was reshuffled and rebuilt. Most people see this as a spiritual reawakening, that you become your true self. Other people see it as a form of dying.
[19:16] <+Daniel_Burrow> There's a lot of science surrounding the farishtaa conversion process, and the unusual characters that come from that are often my players' favorites.
[19:17] <~Dan> As a side note, what sort of setting was Tephra originally going to be?
[19:17] <+Daniel_Burrow> Finally we have our ayodin, who live in the oceans. About 15 years ago they declared war on the surface, termed the Hurricane Wars, and got a pretty bad reputation for it. A lot of people equate them to "sea devils." But the quiet, stoic people still occupy a neat technological and social place in teh world.
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[19:17] <+GenoFoxx> So is Tephra solidly 'steampunk' or can it be or have bits of 'dieselpunk'?
[19:17] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - The "Original Tephra" had a bit more magic influence and magnet-based technologies were a lot bigger. We had two more races (the Hauds and Izedans), but we eventually dropped the Hauds and Izedans and turned them into human nationalities.
[19:19] <+Daniel_Burrow> @GenoFoxx - I knew there was a question I missed! Yes, there are tons of dieselpunk elements. I've tried to isolate those elements into various cities. We're about to release an expansion called the "Industrial Carnage of Bael," and that city is VERY dieselpunk, including a Neon Square, roadsters, fuel-crafting, and fuel-based automatons.
[19:19] <+Sigma_Phi> ... I absolutely must have this. Any idea on a date?
[19:19] <+Daniel_Burrow> We are also developing some other themed areas, such as the Evanglessian capital, Razule, which has tons of advanced analytical engines and processes. It almost makes it a bit of a cyberpunk feel that you don't find in other cities.
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[19:20] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Sigma_Phi - Sadly, I'm not sure. We have about 80% of the writing down and about 60% of the art, but it's stalled heavily the last few months. My aim is early 2014.
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[19:20] <~Dan> (Welcome to #rpgnet, TenthWing! Here for the Q&A?)
[19:20] <+Abstruse> How much does magic play a part in the setting?
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[19:21] <+Daniel_Burrow> But if there's demand, maybe I'll see what I can do. Bael has our engine-crafting, chemical casters, and powered armors in it, so it's going to be an exciting book. ^_^
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[19:22] <+Sigma_Phi> No rush, of course. I still need to get lucky charms (or whatever they were called), so that'll keep me busy.
[19:22] <~Dan> (Welcome to #rpgnet, Tijuana_Llama! Here for the Q&A?)
[19:22] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Abstruse - It's almost non-existent. We took a pretty hard stance on "If magic could do this, so can science!" There are, however, a lot of people who breaks the normal laws of physics. They can balance on water, manipulate luck, and empathically tune in with animals. But nobody in the world of Tephra would refer to it as "magic" and there aren't any "mages"
[19:23] <+Daniel_Burrow> (Aside, of course, from street and stage magicians! Those are pretty common.)
[19:23] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Sigma_Phi Oh yes, our Mementos! Those can be a lot of fun, especially for lucky characters.
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[19:24] <+Sigma_Phi> (@Abstruse - if you're interested in magic, though, the Tephra Forum has fairly extensive homebrew material. I'm in the process of writing magic rules. Also available are bio-flux expansions, additional races, and such)
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[19:24] <+Sigma_Phi> (It's quite active)
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[19:25] <~Dan> (Welcome to #rpgnet, Tyler, and welcome back, TenthWing!)
[19:26] <+Tyler> Howdy, folks.
[19:26] <~Dan> I'm interested in discussing the various abilities available to characters, but perhaps we should cover the core system first?
[19:26] <~Dan> (Here for the Q&A, Tyler? :) )
[19:26] <+Tyler> Yes
[19:26] <~Dan> (In progress! Pull up a virtual chair and fire away with any questions. :) )
[19:27] <+Tyler> The virtual chair has been pulled, sir.
[19:27] <+TenthWing> So what would you say are the most impressive facets of the world Daniel? It's steampunk. Does it fall into any specific sub-genre? Or is it more open and accessible?
[19:27] <+Daniel_Burrow> Sure sure. Tephra's Clockwork System only needs a single d12. The system is based on d12+stat, then you can determine how well you did by comparing it to our tiers. For example, 1-9 is a tier 1, 10-19 is tier 2, et cetera. There are four tiers of success
[19:28] <+Daniel_Burrow> Character creation is largely about specialties. You choose a few specialties at first level (3) and that fills in a lot of your character. Then every time you level up, you gain a new specialty.
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[19:29] <+Daniel_Burrow> @TenthWing - I think the most impressive thing, in my mind, is how unique each region is and how everyone has their favorites. Since it's very open steampunk, you can get your "post apocalyptic desert steampunk" by going into Izeda, you can get your more fantastic forest-steampunk in Dalvozzea, that sorta thing.
[19:30] <+TenthWing> How large is the world on that note?
[19:30] <&Silverlion> (Must run, later.)
[19:31] <+Tyler> Have a good day, Silverlion
[19:31] <+Daniel_Burrow> The planet is nearly the size of earth (for one reason or another, I always say it's around 90-95% the size of Earth), but we've really only explored the first continent, Rilausia, which is a pretty hefty continent - probably about the size of Asia. Evangless, the core nation, is about the size of the USA.
[19:32] <+TenthWing> How are national lines drawn? Kingdoms, countries, etc?
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[19:34] <+Daniel_Burrow> Two questions there --- Evangless is a parliamentary monarchy that claimed most of its land within the last 100 years, but things change. Just 5 years ago, Zelhost (to Evangless's south) claimed a lot of land along Evangless's border. The nations get feisty.
[19:35] <~Dan> Are there any interesting flora or fauna?
[19:36] <+Tyler> Daniel_Burrow, would you like for me to partake in any of the answering?
[19:36] <+Daniel_Burrow> We've tried to keep a lot of things pretty earth-centric, so narrators know what to expect. We wanted everything that's not the "norm" to stand out. Izeda, for instance, has several unusual bio-engineered beasts --- their giant riding vultures and massive rhino-like beasts of burden, the rezkari, for instance.
[19:36] <+Daniel_Burrow> (Nope, I'm good Tyler.)
[19:36] <+Tyler> Cool.
[19:37] <+Daniel_Burrow> I do have two flora/fauna close to my heart though -
[19:37] <+Daniel_Burrow> The Bronze-Tailed Tamarins of Suulrai make great pets. (they're kinda like little monkeys.) But they also have a penchant for smelling harmful chemicals, so people will keep them to root out poisons.
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[19:38] <+Daniel_Burrow> The other is the Whitesaint Flower, which grows near Mount Sibrius, the capital of Siyesh. Mount Sibrius is called the Mercurial Throne because it flows with quicksilver, but that quicksilver has never been harmful to people.
[19:38] <+Daniel_Burrow> Something in the pollen of the Whitesaint Flowers counteracts the effects of the massive amounts of mercury in Mount Sibrius.
[19:39] <+Daniel_Burrow> Sadly, a couple years ago, pollution in the area started harming the whitesaints that grow around Mount Sibrius. You can imagine the negative consequences.
[19:39] <~Dan> Indeed.
[19:39] <+TenthWing> What's the prominent source of power in the world? Steampunk assumes coal and steam, are there any others?
[19:40] <+Daniel_Burrow> Steam's the big one, of course. Coal is still the primary power source through much of the continent. But they've discovered some others. Electricity is becoming more common, and some inventors favor kinetics - like clockwork.
[19:42] <+Daniel_Burrow> But there's also aether. Lumiferous aether are the particles in the air that allow light to pass through. Tephrans discovered how to gather that aether. When gathered and light applied, it causes extreme brightness that then leads to heat. Putting an aether resonator in a steam engine can lead to a good deal of efficiency.
[19:42] <+Sigma_Phi> (Clockpunk makes me happy)
[19:42] <+Daniel_Burrow> Essence (which I mentioned earlier) is a pseudo-power source that's slowly catching on in the underground market (it's very illegal). Real essence comes from living people, so that causes some certain problems.
[19:43] <+Daniel_Burrow> Of course, synthetic essence is always an option.
[19:43] <+Daniel_Burrow> I mentioned earlier that Bael is a bit more of a dieselpunk city, so you'll certainly have oils and fuels there.
[19:43] <~Dan> And do I recall correctly that essence can give people powers?
[19:43] <+Daniel_Burrow> And finally, airships --- hydrogen and helium are common among airships, but there are also graviton spheres that can, through rotation, decrease gravitational pull.
[19:45] <+Daniel_Burrow> That is true. There's an underground "essence manipulation" trade, where a scientist can alter another person's essence. That alteration can do such things as make their blood acidic, give them spurts of energy, or increase their memory potential.
[19:45] <+cstayton> I thought I heard there was magnetism as well?
[19:46] <+Daniel_Burrow> Haha, yes, very true! We haven't explored Tordryon as much as I would like, but Tordryon has recently wildly advanced magnetech (magnet-technologies). They were fighting the oceanic ayodin for many years, so they needed weapons that would work well underwater... thus they made a lot of magnet- and sound-based weaponry.
[19:47] <~Dan> One thing that stands out to me about the game is the relationship between attributes and skills. Could you comment on that?
[19:47] <+Daniel_Burrow> Certainly. Unlike many games, you choose your skills first. You allocate some points among your skills, then you add up the skills under the attribute in order to determine the attribute.
[19:48] <+Daniel_Burrow> For example, let's say you have 3 points in Marksmanship and 2 points in Agility. Both of those skills are under Dexterity, so you add them up to get a +5 in your Dexterity.
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[19:49] <+Daniel_Burrow> We decided that a person's attributes are a reflection of their training. If I am training in being faster and shooting people, I'm not going to have a whole lot of cunning or scientific knowledge - I'm going to be dextrous!
[19:49] <~Dan> How do the attributes function in play, and do skills default to anything?
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[19:50] <+Daniel_Burrow> Attributes are used for almost all of your out-of-combat rolls and all of your in-combat-resists. There are 5 attributes -- brute, cunning, dexterity, spirit, and sciences. You'll roll your attributes to determine how well you do things (using the tier system I described earlier).
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[19:51] <+Daniel_Burrow> So you might say "I lift the boulder" which'll require a brute roll or "I scan the area for hiding enemies" which would need a cunning roll.
[19:51] <+Daniel_Burrow> You *only* use your skill rolls for specialties that you've taken. Each specialty falls under a skill. So if you take a Swashbuckling specialty, you will roll your Swashbuckling skill to determine how well you do it. But for all other things, you use your attributes.
[19:52] <~Dan> Do races that are more nimble/stronger/whatever get bonuses to skills rather than attributes in your system?
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[19:52] <~Dan> (Welcome, mib_pgf6qw! You can set your name with the /nick command. :) )
[19:53] <+Alaren> So as you add skill points later those attributes increase? Can you make 'unskilled' tests to try and do things you haven't trained in? And if I read that right swashbuckling is just a skill only, not a skill+attribute?
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[19:53] <+Daniel_Burrow> On a rare occassion, that does happen. Most of the time racial traits affect attributes (like an elf might get a bonus to their brute attribute). The one rare exception is that farishtaas get a +2 to their ace skill, but that then feeds into their dexterity, granting them a +2 dex as well.
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[19:54] <+Alaren> (sorry for three questions at once...but they are related at least?)
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[19:55] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Alaren - Quite right. We don't do any "skill + attribute" combinations. I tried to avoid that pitfall of sorts. You can do almost anything "unskilled" by just rolling your attribute. Anybody can pick a lock with a cunning roll, just most people won't do it well. But an espionage-skilled character with teh Master Lockpick specialty will be phenomenal at it
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[19:55] <+Daniel_Burrow> And yes, the more skill points you have under an attribute, the higher the attribute gets.
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[19:56] <~Dan> What's the drawback to using an attribute rather than a skill?
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[19:56] <+Daniel_Burrow> This was actually done to encourage player builds to stay in one area. A lot of players like to have a ridiculously high brute or cunning or dexterity, so they put all of their skill points in the skills under those attributes. It forms "classes" in a system that otherwise has no classes.
[19:57] <+Alaren> That's what I was thinking, Dan. Wouldn't someone with lots of points in cunning skills but no lockpicking be better with their unskilled attribute roll then a guy with just a 1 in lockpicking and no other cunning skills, for instance?
[19:57] <+Daniel_Burrow> Well, you can't really "use" a skill. Skills are only there to determine how powerful your specialties are (specialties are often special abilities and very unique traits). Attributes are what you're going to be rolling most of the time.
[19:57] <~Dan> Hmm... Maybe an example is in order?
[19:58] <+Daniel_Burrow> We built that into the system --- there is not lockpicking skill. Instead, your lockpicking specialty will make you faster at picking locks, but you'll still use your cunning to do so. Since Espionage falls under Cunning, all the points you put in espionage are going to improve your Cunning (and thus lockpicking ability)
[19:58] <+Daniel_Burrow> But your specialty, Master Lockpick will make you be able to do it faster during combat
[19:59] <+Daniel_Burrow> We tried to make the specialties affect things other than the "success roll." So most of the specialties have unique effects.
[19:59] <~Dan> That's an interesting approach.
[20:00] <~Dan> Actually... mind if we kill two birds with one stone and look at how this impacts combat?
[20:00] <+Daniel_Burrow> most certainly
[20:00] <~Dan> Okay, so let's take Swashbuckling, for example.
[20:00] <+Daniel_Burrow> (haha, I need to get a book in front of me so I can make better examples)
[20:01] <~Dan> (Need a minute to grab the book?)
[20:01] <+Daniel_Burrow> (nope, there's always one within arm's reach!)
[20:01] <~Dan> (Heh. :) )
[20:02] <~Dan> So if anyone's using a rapier, they'd roll Dexterity, correct?
[20:03] <+Daniel_Burrow> To answer that, I'm going to need to backtrack a bit. In addition to skills and attributes, there are your "combat stats" which are entirely separate. Your combat stats include accuracy, evade, strike, defense, hit points, priority, et cetera
[20:03] <+Acenoid> n8
[20:03] <+Daniel_Burrow> Every time you take a specialty (3 at first level and 1 every level thereafter), the specialty will automatically give you combat stats. For example, the Swashbuckling specialty "Saluted Opponent" provides you with +1 accuracy, +! evade, and 6 hit points
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[20:04] <+Daniel_Burrow> Those combat stats determine how good you are with a rapier, "most of the time."
[20:04] <+Daniel_Burrow> However, taking specialties from Swashbuckling can improve that or give you unique bonuses and abilities. Here are some examples:
[20:05] <+Daniel_Burrow> Saluted Opponent lets you enter a stance that greatly improves your accuracy against one person but gives you an evade penalty against everyone else.
[20:05] <+Daniel_Burrow> Circle Attack gives you a neat ability that whenever an enemy uses a shield to deflect your attack, you can circle around their shield and still hit them.
[20:06] <~Dan> Can I stop you for a moment there?
[20:06] <+Daniel_Burrow> Opening gives you a very cheap attack every time an adjacent enemy rolls a 1 on their evade (so if a friend attacks an enemy and the enemy rolls 1, you get to immediately use that "opening")
[20:06] <+Daniel_Burrow> I'm done, so certainly ^_^
[20:07] <~Dan> Ah. :)  Well, I'm a bit fuzzy on the relationship of skill level to specialties.
[20:08] <+Daniel_Burrow> It's normally built into the specialty. A lot of specialties aren't affected by the skill level (for instance, 13 skill points in Swashbuckling is not going to make you any better at Opening - mentioned above - than a person with 1 skill point in Swashbuckling). But a lot of specialties also have values based on the skill.
[20:08] <+Daniel_Burrow> In Saluted Opponent (above), you get an accuracy bonus equal to your skill in Swashbuckling. So the better your swashbuckling, the better you saluted opponent specialty will perform.
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[20:09] <+Alaren> I'm really liking the concept, but it seems involved enough that I think I would need to read up on it to get a good handle on things.
[20:10] <+Daniel_Burrow> The system is simple, but it's a little alien to a lot of RPG players, I've found. We've had great success marketing Tephra to people who have never played an RPG, but old-time RPG players struggle with it more than I would expect. It's because our concepts are a little reversed.
[20:11] <~Dan> Yeah, it seems elegant in its own way.
[20:11] <+Alaren> I did have one more question though: It seems like you have a different set of combat stats for different weapons or fighting styles, right? If you had swashbuckling specialties but also used a revolver sometimes for instance, it seems like you would have an entirely different accuracy, is that correct?
[20:11] <+Daniel_Burrow> Haha, that was a bit of a "It's special in its own way" sorta comment, which I still take as high praise. ^_^
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[20:12] <+AWOLJoe> (brb everyone)
[20:13] <~Dan> Now, we touched on this in our previous conversation, you were explaining how you can have Brute governing the chance to hit and degree of success determining damage, yet allowing for a clumsy-but-powerful attacker. Do you mind walking me through that again?
[20:13] <+Alaren> (maybe switching from melee to ranged wasn't the best example. It seems like you would also have a different accuracy with a pole axe too?)
[20:13] <~Dan> (And it was defintely meant to be high praise. The game seems very well designed -- just unique. :) )
[20:13] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Alaren - It isn't, though I definitely understand why one might want that. Your character has an accuracy bonus that's flat (let's say a +4). He now gets that accuracy whether he's using a knife, a giant axe, a sniper rifle, or a whip. But if you're commonly a gun user, you'll likely have gun-related specialties that really set you apart.
[20:14] <+Alaren> (What Dan said. I like the skills determing attributes approach)
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[20:15] <~Dan> (Howdy, Aeolius! Q&A in progress. :) )
[20:15] <+Daniel_Burrow> Tephra plays funny if you take the specialties out of the equation. Weapons were built on a simple system --- there are light, medium, and heavy weapons (LMH melee, LMH firearms, LMH crossbows, et cetera). Light weapons require one hand, can be pocketed, and deal 4 damage. Heavy weapons require 2 hands, can't be stowed well, and deal 8 damage.
[20:16] <+Daniel_Burrow> If you're only looking from a combat perspective without specialties, the heavy weapon instantly wins. He deals more damage, and that's all that matters there.
[20:16] <+Daniel_Burrow> But once you add specialties and fun circumstances, the light weapon user becomes much more fun --- he can learn specialties that make him attack faster, attack unaware, sneak weapons around, the sorta thing.
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[20:17] <~Dan> (wb, Joe!)
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[20:18] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - When you play a brute character, you're likely going to be taking a lot of specialties from Brute. Specs from Brute tends to be a little lower on accuracy and WAY higher on strike (strike determines your damage tier). So the brute character might hit less often, but he will literally hit like a train.
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[20:19] <~Dan> (Howdy, Wondy!)
[20:19] <+Daniel_Burrow> Meanwhile, the espionage character is immensely accurate. He will hit every time, no fail. That said, he's not going to do a lot of damage with his puny 4-damage weapons. But his 3 attacks per turn at 4 damage can add up pretty quickly, especially against the big bruiser who only gets 1 attack per turn (but be careful, his 1 attack, if it hits,
[20:19] <~Dan> Yes, looking at some of the specialties, I was confused, because I saw Brute specialties adding to accuracy... but you're saying that they add less to accuracy?
[20:19] <+Daniel_Burrow> might deal over 20 damage)
[20:20] <+Daniel_Burrow> yep. Accuracy gets added a lot when the person attacks a lot, and it is possible to make an accurate Brute character, but it's much more rare.
[20:21] <~Dan> And you said accuracy is separate from Brute and Dexterity when it comes to attacking?
[20:21] <~Dan> (Sorry to be dense about this!)
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[20:21] <+Sigma_Phi> (Brute characters tend to get more strike and less accuracy. That said, they don't actually take accuracy penalties)
[20:21] <+Daniel_Burrow> a lot of our players take great pride in warping the system to make unique characters. One of my favorites is a guy who's 1 part Overpower (massive weapon user) and 3 parts Expertise (smart jack-of-all-trades). He uses his enormous claymore-shotgun like a surgeon and fights like a top-level tactician. He looks like a brute, but isn't really.
[20:22] <+Daniel_Burrow> It sure is. Accuracy is entirely separate from your Brute or Dexterity --- those attributes don't really affect your combat statistics at all.
[20:23] <~Dan> So how is base accuracy determined?
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[20:23] <+Daniel_Burrow> Your base accuracy comes entirely from your specialty selection. It starts at 0 then goes up depending on the specialties you take. If a specialty grants you +1 accuracy, +1 evade, and 7 hit points, then your stats just went up that way.
[20:23] <~Dan> (I really do see this all flowing together. I'm just trying to get the direction of the flow straight. :) )
[20:24] <+Daniel_Burrow> Yep, the flow is the hardest thing to describe via chat, I agree! ^_^
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[20:24] <~Dan> And what determines how many specialities you can take?
[20:25] <+Sigma_Phi> The way the character sheet is set up, you just write in the numbers and add vertically. It tells you exactly what you have
[20:25] <+Daniel_Burrow> That's all preset. You get 3 specialties at first level and 1 specialty for every level thereafter.
[20:25] <~Dan> 3 specialties, period?
[20:25] <+Daniel_Burrow> yep, 3 specs at first level.
[20:26] <~Dan> Okay. And... you only roll a skill when using a specialty?
[20:26] <+Daniel_Burrow> 80% of your character is determined by the 3 specialties that you put together. Then every level is basically just a "choose another specialty" time.
[20:26] <+Daniel_Burrow> you got it. Skills are only used for specialties.
[20:27] <~Dan> So if you have a skill but no related specialties, are the points wasted until you get a speciality that requires that skill?
[20:28] <+Daniel_Burrow> They aren't *entirely* wasted, because the skill is still added into the attribute. So if you have a +1 in Ace but no specialties in the Ace skill, you're still getting that +1 added to your Dexterity.
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[20:28] <+Daniel_Burrow> And you'll definitely use the attributes.
[20:28] <+Daniel_Burrow> We actually rather force you to have more skills allocated than you have specialties (we make you put skill points in 6 skills at first level while you only pick 3 specialties) because those skills determine your attributes.
[20:28] * ~Dan nods
[20:29] <~Dan> (Howdy, Squide!)
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[20:30] <&Le_Squide> (Q&A, I assume)
[20:30] <+Sigma_Phi> (Yep)
[20:30] <~Dan> (Yup! Tephra, a steampunk RPG. :) )
[20:30] <+Daniel_Burrow> (Hello hello ^_^)
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[20:30] <~Dan> Okay, so this may sound like a dumb question, but how would you stat, say, a bear?
[20:32] <+Daniel_Burrow> We stat them pretty much identically to a normal person. I go, "Okay, what's a bear got? Well, a bear makes me think of resilience... so I'm going to go to Resilience and get a specialty from there. Let's grab Tough Stuff (more hit points, yay!) and Thick Skin (more damage soak!). Then we'll run over to Frenzy. Maybe... adrenaline surge?
[20:32] <+Daniel_Burrow> Or we could go to agility for Battlefield Flow and make a real fast bear! That sounds fun
[20:32] <+Daniel_Burrow> But I treat almost all of my creatures and animals as tweaked humans.
[20:33] * ~Dan nods
[20:33] <~Dan> Is it hard to stat things out, having to find the right specialties?
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[20:34] <~Dan> I ask because I tend to GM on the fly a lot these days.
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[20:34] <~Dan> (Welcome to #rpgnet, Profess-... n/m.)
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[20:34] <+Daniel_Burrow> Sadly, there is currently a learning curve for new narrators that we're trying to get over. For my crew, it takes them half a second --- we all have largely memorized the book and know how to combine things.
[20:34] <~Dan> (Welcome to #rpgnet, ProfessorCatgrass!)
[20:35] <+Daniel_Burrow> But the only trick here is that a lot of narrators don't /NEED/ to stat things out. I have a page in the narrator's chapter that teaches you how to narrate in just one page. I don't think that statting out every encounter is all that necessary.
[20:35] * ~Dan nods
[20:35] <+Daniel_Burrow> And we are soon going to be releasing an expansion that will help take some of that burden off, since it'll be full of men, monsters, and automatons for dropping into any game.
[20:35] <~Dan> Excellent.
[20:36] <~Dan> So to recap a bit, specialties determine accuracy and strike, and you roll accuracy to determine if you hit?
[20:36] <+Daniel_Burrow> I wish I was a bit more like WotC and could release a monster manual the month after Tephra's playing guide released, but alas, we have a production delay :P
[20:37] <+Daniel_Burrow> bingo. Accuracy is rolled against your opponent's evade roll (you roll d12+accuracy, he rolls d12+evade, if you meet or exceed their evade, you've now hit them).
[20:38] <~Dan> And all combat-related specialties feed into accuracy, evade, etc.? So if you get +1 accuracy from a Brute specialty, it combines with a +2 accuracy from a Dexterity specialty?
[20:39] <+Daniel_Burrow> After that, you'll be rolling your strike to determine how much damage you deal, while your enemy will roll their defense to determine how much damage they soak. So if you deal 12 damage and they soak 4, they've now taken 8 points of damage.
[20:39] <+Alaren> you mentioned earlier that 10-19 was the second tier of success, so it sounds like these numbers can get a whole lot higher than the ones we've been using as examples. Is there an upward limit to how high an attribute or stat or skill can go?
[20:39] <+Daniel_Burrow> yep yep.
[20:39] <+Daniel_Burrow> Attributes can get to 25 and attributes (theoretically) can get to 51 (or 54 for Sciences)
[20:40] <+Daniel_Burrow> sorry, Skills can get to 25, attributes to 51
[20:40] <~Dan> But if you want to hit harder, you'll probably be taking Brute specialties, and if you want to hit more often, you'll be taking Dexterity specialties...?
[20:40] <+Daniel_Burrow> Combat stats don't have a limit, but they don't tend to get quite that high (exceptions definitely exist!)
[20:41] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - Yep, that's the norm.
[20:42] <~Dan> Okay. But... if you aren't using combat-related skills to roll to hit, what good are they? Do they just affect some specialties, as I think you mentioned?
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[20:43] <+Daniel_Burrow> Let's take Brawl, for instance. Brawl is a skill full of specialties that make you better at fighting unarmed, performing grabs, and breaking bones. Each time you take a Brawl specialty, you're going to get some more accuracy, strike, and maybe some evade. The lion's share will be strike since Brawl is a Brute skill. This means that a Brawler will be a bit
[20:44] <+Daniel_Burrow> higher damage than a lot of characters.
[20:44] <+Daniel_Burrow> But the actual points that you put in Brawl are going to affect two things: your overall Brute attribute (since every point that you put in Brawl will be added to get your Brute attribute) and how effective you are with your Brawl specialties.
[20:46] <~Dan> I'm not following you on the latter part, I guess, because it sounds like accuracy is totally independent from the level in Brawl, for example.
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[20:47] <+Kei> heya folks
[20:48] <~Dan> (Howdy, Kei, and wb, Tijuana_Llama!)
[20:48] <+Daniel_Burrow> it sure is. Your accuracy is determined by the specialties that you choose. If you choose 3 specialties that each give you accuracy, your accuracy will be pretty good. You could go into a skill that doesn't give you much accuracy normally (like Brawl) and take only the specialties that give you good accuracy. Now you have a high-accuracy brawler.
[20:48] <~Dan> But what are the levels in Brawl itself used for?
[20:50] <+Daniel_Burrow> Each specialty is also a special power. Hold Steady, for example, is a specialty in Brawl that says that, when you're holding somebody, all of your allies get an accuracy bonus against the person you're holding. That accuracy bonus is based on your Brawl. So the better your Brawl is, the better your specialties will be from Brawl.
[20:51] <~Dan> Ah.... Okay, I think I follow you now.
[20:51] <+Alaren> the different specialties under brawl give you different combat advantages/maneuvers/etc. But there is no raw number called "brawl" that you use as a mechanic, correct?
[20:52] <~Dan> But to clarify, combat is unique in this respect, because for non-combat specialties, you roll the attribute level?
[20:52] <+Daniel_Burrow> That's basically right. I as a GM would never say, "Hey, you're in a bar fight. Roll your Brawl to determine how well you do." Instead, your skill in Brawl specifically affects your specialties.
[20:52] <+Daniel_Burrow> bingo.
[20:53] <~Dan> Okay, I think I have it now. :)
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[20:53] <~Dan> (Welcome to #rpgnet, Tolbby!)
[20:54] <+Tolbby> Hello
[20:54] <~Dan> So how do you go about building a steampunk gadget?
[20:54] <+Tolbby> Was wondering if any expansions were on the horizen for Tephra?
[20:55] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Tolbby - Oh yes. We have a rather enormous backlog of new materials that we're working to finish and make as new expansions. In addition to some great adventures coming out soon (as well as turning our PDF "Explosives!" into a full book to be sold at retailers), we are also working on a book full of NPCs, monsters, animals, and rogue automatons.
[20:56] <+Daniel_Burrow> After that we will be releasing a book entirely focusing on the lore of Evangless (our core nation) and a lot of player options therein.
[20:57] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - To craft, you would need to hop to our Sciences skills. Let's say you want to build a gun. You would take the "Gunsmith" specialty (found within the Armsmith skill). Every item has 3 augmentable slots on it - that's how many ways you can improve an item.
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[20:58] <+Daniel_Burrow> So we might have a gun and decide to augment it with automatic reload, rotating barrels, and gnome-sized... because you're playing a gnome - the best race!
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[20:59] <~Dan> What about creating entirely new items?
[21:00] <+Daniel_Burrow> It's the same system for all the crafts. You can have a poison augmented with blinding, painful, and stunning. You could have a steam-powered automaton augmented with armored boiler, fire-absorbing, and so that it can carry a passenger.
[21:01] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - How do you mean? If you take Gunsmith, you are building the firearms from scratch, so they are entirely new. You have a score called your DIY (do-it-yourself), and that determines how freely and easily you can craft new firearms.
[21:02] <~Dan> Well, I don't know if rayguns exist in the setting, but could you build one?
[21:02] <~Dan> Or a rocketship?
[21:03] <+Daniel_Burrow> We have a TON of crafting options within the core book (we have 100 pages on just crafting). You can build a raygun (just tweak a firearm) and a rocketship (check out the engineering skill!), but we don't have a system for building things that aren't included in the system. (That sounds funny.)
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[21:04] <~Dan> Okay, gotcha. :)
[21:04] <+Daniel_Burrow> So let's say you wanted to build a pocket watch that could hack into computer systems --- that's an item that is pretty tough to build in the core book.
[21:04] <+Daniel_Burrow> And we don't really have a system for it.
[21:04] * ~Dan nods
[21:04] <+Daniel_Burrow> (But I do use that craft because it's a future expansion. ^_^ )
[21:05] <~Dan> I think you may have mentioned  this earlier, but does the setting include difference engines?
[21:05] <+Sigma_Phi> (Could you just Rp that as a sciences roll? That computer-hacking, I mean?)
[21:06] <+Daniel_Burrow> It does, though not fully developed at the moment. I tend to call them Analytical Engines, after Babbage's second attempt, and we will be delving more fully into them in a future book, "Advanced Analytics."
[21:06] <~Dan> Cool!
[21:06] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Sigma_Phi - you make a great point. It would be very easy to just roleplay through that with just a sciences roll.
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[21:07] <~Dan> Oh, Daniel, I realize that we're in "overtime" now... Are you still okay on time? No rush on my end.
[21:07] <+Daniel_Burrow> and while our system doesn't specifically say how to create items that are even *more* customized than the system allows, our trinkets can act as a pretty good guideline for things to do
[21:07] <+Daniel_Burrow> I don't mind hanging out a while longer. My roommate brought me pizza. ^_^
[21:08] <~Dan> Heh. Cool. :)
[21:08] <+Sigma_Phi> Can I ask a question?
[21:08] <~Dan> Do the rules allow for PCs creating genetically engineered monstrosities?
[21:08] <~Dan> Of course, Sigma_Phi!
[21:09] <+Sigma_Phi> (You can get his first)
[21:09] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Sigma_Phi - No. Please no. Not from you!!!!!
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[21:09] <+Daniel_Burrow> lol
[21:10] <~Dan> (brb)
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[21:10] <+Daniel_Burrow> Dan, loosely right now. Between essence manipulation and bio-zappers, you can really tweak people to be weird. We also have a PDF expansion called "Living Liquids" where you can alchemically brew unusual liquid-based pets. But we are hoping to introduce more genetically engineered monstrosities soon ^_^
[21:10] <+Daniel_Burrow> Sigma_Phi should ask a question. :P
[21:10] <+Sigma_Phi> But as you'd imagine coming from me, my question is about homebrew. You had to give us our own sub-forum recently. Were you expecting to get so much, or any?
[21:11] <+Sigma_Phi> I mean, we kinda went nuts.
[21:12] <+Daniel_Burrow> I hoped for it, and naw - you haven't gone nuts yet. Tephra started as a homebrew, in essence, much like all RPGs start as. I didn't expect everyone to play in EXACTLY the Tephra that I set up. Some people want dwarves and magic and spaceships and dragons and what-have-you. Without homebrew, that's rather hard to have.
[21:13] <+Daniel_Burrow> We build Tephra originally to be an almost lore-empty game. We wanted to introduce the system, then introduce Tephra lore later --- that's why there is so little lore in the core book. And we're doing that with our next coupel books, which will be much more lore heavy
[21:13] <+Daniel_Burrow> But Hank and I (Hank being one of my lead system guys) - we both come from world-building backgrounds. We made our own worlds, and we appreciate systems that don't force a world upon us.
[21:14] <+Daniel_Burrow> So with y'all doing homebrew, I think that's awesome. Please do it. And honestly, homebrew is one of the ways that a lot of companies scout out future supplement writers. And yes, Sigma, I'm talking about you. (I've said this to you before. Why are you not writing an official supplement for us yet?)
[21:14] <+Sigma_Phi> ...You haven't actually said that, I don't think?
[21:15] <+Sigma_Phi> Been pretty quiet about my work since Laprin
[21:15] <+Daniel_Burrow> lol, then I shall say so now ^_^
[21:15] <+Sigma_Phi> Hot dang, tell me more about this.
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[21:15] <+Sigma_Phi> Welcome back Dan
[21:16] <~Dan> Heh. #rpgnet: bringing people together. :)
[21:16] <~Dan> Thanks, Sigma_Phi!
[21:16] <+Daniel_Burrow> I get into trouble if I promote the homebrew stuff too seriously. I did kinda get into trouble with the Laprin. Because I did some finishing work on them and made them look more official, some people thought they were official. But we didn't have a place for them in the world and my lore writers got flustered with me.
[21:16] <+Sigma_Phi> Ohhh
[21:16] <+Daniel_Burrow> It's happened a couple times --- I can't show too much support for the homebrew stuff specifically because anything I touch too heavily starts to look like official company-endorsed releases.
[21:16] <+Sigma_Phi> (Now would be a bad time to point out that my races got weirder from there)
[21:16] <+Daniel_Burrow> your races got way weirder :P
[21:17] <+Daniel_Burrow> everyone's did.
[21:17] <+Sigma_Phi> I love the Alpacan to death though.
[21:17] <+Sigma_Phi> Running an Resilience/Overpower Alpacan right now, and he's doing great.
[21:17] <+Daniel_Burrow> but I did really like the laprins. And your bio-robots (I'm sorry that I'm forgetting the names) really do come very close to hitting our future race, the simulacrons, dead on the head.
[21:18] <~Dan> You mentioned that rocketships are possible... Is there anywhere interesting to go in Tephra space?
[21:18] <+Sigma_Phi> Yeah, I remember you mentioning you couldn't get too close to them because they were too similar to an existing-if-unreleased official race
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[21:18] <+Daniel_Burrow> One of the issues with homebrew forums is when they get close to official releases. I've heard a lot of complaints about people feeling like a company "stole their homebrew idea and published it." But we at CM have years of expansion stuff planned - any time anybody makes a new craft or new specialties, there is going to be cross-over.
[21:19] <~Dan> (Howdy, Catseye!)
[21:19] <+Sigma_Phi> It's hard to make truly "new" content. Everything has been said and done, so everything overlaps a little, I totally get it
[21:19] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - Not yet! We've joked about having adventures that go to the moon (I outlined one about a train that was designed to go to the moon. I called it "Loco to Luna." It's ridiculous.), but we won't be going to space for a LONG LONG time (never).
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[21:20] <+Daniel_Burrow> We had another guy propose an adventure called "That's No Moon!" We might still release that one as an April Fool's :P
[21:20] <+Sigma_Phi> "Okay, I've callibrated the graviton array. We'll be in orbit in 3... 2... 1..." -rumbe- "We did it!"
[21:20] <+Sigma_Phi> "Now how do we get  back?"
[21:21] <+BlasterKyubey210> D'oh
[21:21] <+Daniel_Burrow> lol, Sigma_Phi, we once had a short story that went SURPRISINGLY close to that. It was about a gnomish fort that figured out how to escape a Haudi invasion by going up into the atmosphere. Sadly, they never found a way down. Rumor is that it still floats up there... somewhere....
[21:22] <+Sigma_Phi> But you said something about writing official supplements (maybe as a joke, hard to tell in text) and seriously piqued my interest.
[21:23] <~Dan> What would be the equivalent year, roughly, in Earth history terms, when it comes to "mundane" technology? Has the water-cooled machinegun been invented yet, for example?
[21:23] <+Daniel_Burrow> We're always looking for adventure and supplement writers, and you definitely have a strong grasp on the system. So if you're interested, let me shoot you an email for facebook you (I love facebook and we do everything through facebook, so that's my preference) and we'll chat ^_^
[21:23] <+Daniel_Burrow> My facebook - (Link: https://www.facebook.com/daniel.alan.burrow)https://www.facebook.com/daniel.alan.burrow
[21:24] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - We fit somewhere between the late 1890s (after the Maxim gun was invented) but also up to the 1920s (as we do have some dog-fighters). But then it's mad-science all the way up
[21:24] <+Sigma_Phi> Should I go ahead and friend you, or...?
[21:24] <+Daniel_Burrow> please do. ^_^
[21:25] <+Daniel_Burrow> We allow our players to describe their weapons a lot of the time. I probably wouldn't put too many water-cooled machine guns in our Tephra literature, but they would certainly exist.
[21:27] <~Dan> On some level, I associate "steampunk" with "grim and gritty". That doesn't seem to be so much the case with Tephra, though. It sounds more akin to what I've heard called "steampulp". Thoughts?
[21:27] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Sigma_Phi - I see facebook as a tool for networking and branding. I like having a lot of friends plugged into me; it helps me spread the word about things faster and more efficiently. With Cracked Monocle, my face is just as important a branding tool as anything else, so I work to keep it up. ^_^ I like friends.
[21:28] <+Sigma_Phi> Okay, cool!
[21:28] <+Daniel_Burrow> When you first start working on a steampunk game, you have to ask the question: utopian steampunk or dystopian steampunk. I would definitely not call Tephra utopian by any stretch, but we have focused on a lot of the more utopian elements in our writings so far, and it's my personal stylistic preference.
[21:29] <+Sigma_Phi> (Water cooled machine gun: Challenge accepted)
[21:29] <+BlasterKyubey210> Then again, could be a none of the above or all of the above
[21:29] <+Daniel_Burrow> I like the big buildings, the grand experiments, the large decadent airships, the canes, the top hats, et cetera.
[21:29] <+Daniel_Burrow> That's my cup of tea.
[21:29] <+BlasterKyubey210> (As in the Steampunk fluxes between Utopian and Dystopian depending on where on the planet you are)
[21:29] * ~Dan nods
[21:29] <+Daniel_Burrow> But, as one of my devs pointed out, Tephra has recently had three apocalypses recently. It's post- post-apocalyptic.
[21:30] <+Daniel_Burrow> You're precisely right, BlasterKyubey210
[21:30] <+Daniel_Burrow> I like my capitals to be utopian and my slums to be dystopian. Give me that industrial divide!
[21:30] <+BlasterKyubey210> (Must explain the Apocalyptic mishaps)
[21:30] <~Dan> On a related note, how would you describe Tephra in terms of moral clarity vs. ambiguity?
[21:31] <~Dan> Is there a lot of good vs. evil going on?
[21:31] <+Sigma_Phi> (Water-Cooled Machine Gun: Beta super-heavy firearm, augmented with: Rotating Barrels, Horrifying, Accurate, Bipod)
[21:31] <+Daniel_Burrow> The biggest one was the Hurricane Wars that started 15 years ago when the ayodin (ocean-dwelling sea devils of sorts) invaded the surface. They had some pretty neat tech too - they had large rings that could alter the currents, which they used in order to create underwater highways. But they realized that these rings could be adjusted to alter the weather...
[21:32] <+Daniel_Burrow> and altering the weather can create hurricanes. There weren't many hurricanes during the Hurricane Wars, but there were some doozies (and they were detrimental to both sides, so they stopped soon thereafter!)
[21:32] <~Dan> (So they were good about keeping up with current events.)
[21:32] <+Daniel_Burrow> lol
[21:33] <+Daniel_Burrow> Down in Paldorus, one of our favorite nations, they created aether resonators (machines that gather aether particles) and that aether was a very effective weapon during the Hurricane Wars. But the radiators leaked radiation and destroyed their lands. They all had to escape on massive airships, now called stormships.
[21:33] <+Daniel_Burrow> And there are some more horrible disasters, but that's what the book is for ^_^
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[21:34] <~Dan> :)
[21:34] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - I don't like to differentiate between good and evil. I personally don't like that spectrum. It doesn't make a lot of sense. There are just people with varying levels of goals, and those people have varying degrees of how willing they are to be "efficient" at those goals.
[21:34] <+Daniel_Burrow> So, in a sense, I lean toward the morally more ambiguous.
[21:35] <~Dan> That said, you mentioned to me before that there are some "Big Bads" in the setting?
[21:35] <+Daniel_Burrow> I prefer my PCs to be heroes, but that doesn't make their enemies evil. They're just opposed.
[21:35] <+Daniel_Burrow> Sigma_Phi - Yep, that'd do it.
[21:36] <+Daniel_Burrow> Dan - Yes, there are without a doubt some great villains around. Jayro is our little gnome that loves to play with essence. After the radiation disaster in Paldorus, he sheltered thousands of Paldoran refugees who were fleeing into his city. Then he killed them all and harvested their essence, in effect becoming the most powerful person in the world.
[21:37] <~Dan> That'd do it.
[21:38] <+Daniel_Burrow> He's the most well-known, though we have quite a few. A lot of the Paldoran Exiles (those aboard the massive stormships) have become pirates, because that's what they need to do in order to survive.
[21:38] <~Dan> Speaking of which, does the system handle vehicular combat?
[21:38] <+Sigma_Phi> As well as I know the system, I'm quite lore-deficient. Where is that Jayro guy mentioned?
[21:38] <+Daniel_Burrow> The Bulldozer is pictured on our Tephra FB page ((Link: https://www.facebook.com/Tephra.Steampunk)https://www.facebook.com/Tephra.Steampunk) - he's an elf who's family was killed, so he grafted himself into a giant machine and is now destroying much of the city as an act of vengeance
[21:39] <+Daniel_Burrow> Jayro is talked about very briefly on the Paldoran section. He's the one that was responsible for mutating Paldorus.
[21:40] <+Daniel_Burrow> @Dan - that is a hugely resounding yes and a painfully screaming no. We avoided "large vehicles" in the core book, which we'll be handling later. In the core book, you're making a personal jetpack, small motorbike, or a walking throne.
[21:40] <+Daniel_Burrow> Most of the time, those small vehicles will just have a speed that will replace your own, sometimes with a unique movement or control type.
[21:40] <~Dan> So airship pirate attacks are currently GM fiat territory?
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[21:41] <+Daniel_Burrow> We are hoping to introduce a more thoroughly developed "large vehicle" system soon, but it's a struggle.
[21:41] * ~Dan nods
[21:41] <+Daniel_Burrow> Exactly, and that's where we struggle. A lot of us run "large vehicles" just as terrain that is more easily altered. And that seems to work pretty well.
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[21:42] <~Dan> I should probably call it a night before too much longer, although you're welcome to hang out as long as you like, Daniel. That said, for the sake of the log, is there anything we haven't covered that you'd like to mention?
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[21:43] <+Sigma_Phi> I started up a discussion for experimental rules for large vehicles on the forum ages ago, if that interests you, Daniel
[21:43] <+Daniel_Burrow> It certainly did, and I took note. ^_^
[21:43] <+Daniel_Burrow> But I'm quite happy - we hit crafting, so I'm good.
[21:44] <~Dan> Excellent. Thanks so much for coming by, Daniel! I'll have the log posted momentarily and will send you the link.
[21:44] <+Daniel_Burrow> I appreciate it, it was a good time
[21:45] <~Dan> Are you logged into FB at the moment? If so, I can just message you the link.
[21:45] <+Sigma_Phi> Yes, sorry
[21:45] <+Sigma_Phi> Getting pulled in several directinos XD
[21:45] <+Sigma_Phi> Wednesday is Minecraft Stream day.
[21:45] <+Daniel_Burrow> Yep yep ^_^
[21:46] <+Daniel_Burrow> Then I will bow out. Have a good night!
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[21:46] <+Sigma_Phi> Good night!