Progress on layout for the next version of the playtest document is progressing. We are still making some fluff changes as we go. Currently the fluff races chapter is in progress. As you recall we split the races chapter into a fluff and a crunch chapter.

Some other changes to the races is that we have moved the Gen-Human to a “Variation on a Theme” section of the Human, and we have moved the Tza Zen Rigeln to the “Variation on a Theme” section for Zen Rigeln.

After the races chapters are layout complete we will move on to layout for the combat chapter.

A change to the combat section is that we have created a single malfunction table. This speeds up and simplified weapon malfunctions. For those that want to keep the weapon system specific malfunction tables, we will include those free on our web site.

Another item of note is that we are close to having the long out of print Injection adventure ready. It has had extensive editing and flow changes so the story makes sense. I just need to so a final read through.

That is all for this month. Please subscribe and any comments are welcome.

An update on the progress of revised…

I have completed converting all the tables to a format suitable for layout. I have now passed this off to Mike for basic layout. This will give us a single PDF of the new core rulebook. Once Mike is done I will post the PDF to the playtesters. I will collect feedback and do another editing pass myself. I need to do a full end-to-end read.

Some more points on the changes so far…

We again tweaked full auto fire. Full auto will expend ROFx2 Q and 1/2 (ROF) shots will hit (no rolling for number of shots that hit). This simulates the reality of full auto – get a lot of lead in the air for a better chance to hit.

We have made changes to encumbrance. Instead of spending all that time adding up every little trinket you have +1 (occasionally +2 for large/bulky items) for armor, the 1st weapon you carry, +1 for the 2nd weapon, -X for heavy belt, etc. This gives you a relatively small and easy to manage relative gague on your encumbrance.

I thought I would also give you an example of one of the layout changes we have made. All the crunch in the race descriptions have been pulled out into the stat blocks. The race fluff is now all in a race chapter, and the race stat blocks now appear in the character creation chapter. This will make it easier to reference.

That is all for now. Now I can say that pretty soon we will have a new play test document to digest.

I am close to finishing the changes for the latest version of the playtest rules. This version will include the entire core book, not just the changes as the previous versions did. As such it is high time I gave you some information on the changes.

Our Philosophy + Goals

• anything that detracts form game play/enjoyment, then remove
• focus on races and settings
• tone down the military bent, offer more non-military
• write clearly and concisely
• we are not necessarily going for complete balance, some things are just not equal/fair, just like life
• reduce level of complexity (real/perceived)

More Interesting Changes

Races

• presenting race copy first, then stats, so can read race fluff without concern and easier to reference later
• height/weight moved to physiology for fluff, and ht/wt in stat block replaced with SC
• crunch has been removed from race descriptions and moved to the racial stat blocks (and these moved to the character creation section for easier reference)

Other

• rolled poison SMR into chemical SMR
• rolled acid SMR into chemical SMR
• timeline replaced with combined timeline created from timelines across all existing products
• the Battlelords megaplot story is included in the appendix
• armor SMRs use the same universal SMR mechanic

Skills

• removed starting skill level limitation – you are free to purchase any level of skill you like
• removed JA, M, JS, and BC from skill charts
• removed Secondary Skills: Persuasion/Bargaining => Persuasion skill, Terrestrial Knowledge => Terrestrial Knowledge skill, Military Leadership => Military Leadership skill
• each skill now belongs to only a single category
• skill cost replaced by straight xp value for simplification

Equipment

• Generation Armor has been replaced by Generation Friendly armor option which can be bought with any new armor/helmet
• new computer rules/section
• change AHW with fractional ROF to whole numbers
• broken AHW into AHW and ARW (Archaic Ranged Weapons)
• talking someone down from frenzy simplified – if you succeed your Persuasion/Military Leadership check then the frenzied player get another AGG check

Combat

• removed Declaration Phase: just roll initiative then take actions
• removed Burst fire: this in-between fire mode confused and complicated things
• removed Defensive Modifier
• added standard MN table for all weapons and moved the weapon system specific MN tables to the appendix as optional
• we changed critical hits from BP/4 (25%) of your REMAINING BPs to 25% of your total BP to make it a single calculation that is done once, up front
• changed Full Auto to do ROF shots instead of ROFx3 shots
• think of the ROF weapon stat not as the literal number of shots that hit, but the practical number of shots that hit on full auto; which is why you just hit with the ROF and when you full auto across multiple targets you just divide and drop the remainder
• no more rolling for the number of shots that hit – you hit with the full ROF listed (or 1 if you fire single shot) – this will compensate for the ROF change
• added new ordering a charge action
• ELE and EMP SMRs are combined into ELE
• added COR (corrosive) SMR to armor/helmets i.e. acid
• grapple is going to be simplified as this can get into a big, hairy mess real quick

Matrices

• no matrix should require both an attack (accuracy) check AND a SMR to succeed, it is only one or the other
• some matrices used to increase in effectiveness based on EB and others based on Generation skill/level, but they should all be now based on Generation skill
• converted matrix duration to rounds for duration < 30 sec
• replaced boost stat with matrix manipulation skill check
• no more of the matrix v matrix, matrix v discharge, etc. stuff, when it is your turn you generate a matrix (according to the generation time of half/full action) and it goes off immediately
• all damage causing matrices have an IR listed
• matrix accuracy is changed from RBs (i.e. 80/70/50/-) to one accuracy that applies to the entire range (i.e. 80)
• accuracy and damage have been pulled out of the matrix description into their own stats
• removed CON loss when using PPs

This is not the exhaustive list.

Other

One other idea I was toying with, but I highly doubt anyone will go for is… This is a science fiction game. There are lots of alien races, and to encourage you to NOT play a Human I was thinking of removing the Human as a race in the core book. We could put it on the web site as a free PDF. Does anyone besides me like this idea?

This month flew by. I am sorry to report that some outside issues took up much of my time this month, so I did not make a lot of progress on the revised edition. The remaining work is down to a level where I think I can power through the rest. I am very anxious to get the next version of the playtest documents into your hands. I hope to do this by next month. Thank you for the patience.

Time for another monthly update. Revised was getting out of hand. One change was bleeding into another, into another, etc. We re-evaluated where we were with revised and have constructed a specific list of changes we want to make. I am working on this now. I feel I have a better handle on it now, where previously it seemed to continuously growing, with no end in sight. I am pushing to get this out ASAP. When it is done you will have a complete book to playtest. This will be accompanied by a list of specific questions for playtesters to respond to, and a list of the major changes. This will be the last text-only playtest document. The next version will be put into rough layout.

The Battlelords Facebook game draws closer to being released, but you can also read and comment on the “What the Fott?” comic.

As always, we would greatly appreciate you liking us on Facebook and rating/comments on our products at RPG Geek.

Time for the August report. The Battelelords comic, What the Fott? is in full swing. The Battlelords Twitter game is still in beta, but getting closer to completion.

We have also created a brand new special, the Mini Special. This packages one of each of the new Battlelords miniatures:

• Eridani
• Furbl
• Jezzedai
• Orion
• Python Lizard

The revised rules are progressing. We are merging the revised rules with the current main rulebook. When this is done we will br able to provide a much more complete picture of the revised book.

See you next month.

It is July and time for another update.

Because not everyone know about our specials, I wanted to take a moment to point them out. Every product we offer has a print+PDF special which provides a 20% discount off the price of buying each individually. Another popular special, especially for new players, is the Newbie Special, which collects all our print products into one bundle, again at a 20% discount. The Newbie Special has a PDF version (all the PDF versions), and if that is not enough, you can get the mother of all specials with the Alliance Special – both the print and PDF versions of all our products!

We are still in layout stage for Injection. We are using a new NPC template so I have been getting all the NPCs in Injection into this template while Mike works on layout.

The Battlelords Twitter game is in beta. You can look at some of the art for the game here: http://battlelords23c.deviantart.com/gallery/30376913

We would greatly appreciate it if you could head over to DriveThruRPG.com and rate/review our products. Or you can like us on Facebook. This helps us get noticed.

Another month is upon us. So what do we have to report?

We have released another FREE web tool. This is for tracking armor. After selecting any helmet and any armor you will be given a nice armor diagram with the threshold, integrity, absorption, and SMRs. You can then left and right click to change individual values.

http://ssdc.com/tools/armor

This is the basics. In the future we plan to add functionality for ablative and armor options.

What else?

We recently brought Battlelords miniatures back. To help you during play we have created this minis scale tape PDF.

http://ssdc.com/store/category/minis

Another month has passed. Time for an update.

In case you did not see them, there is a new review of Lock-N-Load: Armor, Equipment, & Cybernetics posted at Roleplayers Chronicle.

SSDC was also interviewed by Game Knight Reviews.

Now, for product updates. We had a company meeting and decided we are working on too many products at once, so we are now focusing on one at a time. This will allow us to get products out quicker. The first product is the adventure Injection. This adventure has been OOP for a very long time, and was badly in need of re-organization and re-writing to make it useful. Frankly, it was very confusing. There was not an obvious flow from one encounter to the next. The good news is that the writing is complete, and we have started layout. The first chapter is complete, and the cover art is already done.

That is all for this month, and please subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog.

AVPI (http://bl23c.com) and SSDC (http://ssdc.com) are proud to announce the release of a Battlelords of the Twenty-Third Century (R) Facebook game, to be released May 2011. As part of the promotion they have produced a teaser:

AVPI and SSDC are also currently producing a Battlelords of the Twenty-Third Century (R) Twitter game.