Planning What’s in the Hardback
With the #DelvingDeeper hardback in the pipe at last, I’ve had to re-think where the line should lie between Reliquary and the Ref Rules.
It isn’t easy. Going waaay back the plan was the Ref Rules were to be a minimal, no-frills framework; Reliquary (and other products) were to be the embodiment of richer games built on that framework. Well, it hasn’t really turned out that way, but perhaps the auld plan still has merit?
Three Years On
A lot has happened in the three years since #DelvingDeeper first appeared. Ha!, a lot has happened in the last nine months since V4 appeared as the #ReferenceRulesCompendium on Lulu. The Old School circuit is now bursting at the seams with games that have collectively pushed the envelope, and DD’s place in it all seems less clear to me today than it did three years ago. I want to fix that.
To Improve is to Change (W. Churchill)
“Fixing” stuff of course means changes, but don’t panic. Reliquary will be the best DD ever!
The hardback edition will include a bunch of changes over V4 which means, eventually (after Reliquary has well and truly settled in), I will get around to updating the Ref Rules too. At that point Reliquary and the Ref Rules will be in sync but, in the meanwhile, it feels “right” to me that Reliquary should be “out in front”.
How will Reliquary Differ from V4?
1. Illustrations, examples, indexes, layout, structure.
2. A bunch of “optional interpretations” that appear in V4 will be moved to appendices.
3. Changes and additions to the remaining core.
“Changes and Additions”?
Reliquary will be more closely aligned with the source material than is V4. Some changes will be micro-details you’ll need eagle eyes to spot. Other changes will be more obvious, including:
. Inclusion of level titles for player-types,
. Inclusion of the Fighting Capability stat for player-types,
. Elves will be more dangerous with magic weapons,
. Update to attack/saving throw matrices in line with FC,
. Inclusion of “melee rounds”,
. Etc.
What will appear in the Appendices?
This isn’t set in stone yet, but some candidate appendices include:
. V4 “House Rules” capturing all the “V4-isms” that get bumped from the core text; so Reliquary will continue to “support” V4 this way,
. EGG’s House Rules,
. Arneson’s game,
. The Thief; a recreation of Wagner’s original pre-Gygax thief, and the DD V4 thief,
. Additional adventuring equipment list,
. DD V4’s “additional” spells (and possibly a couple more?),
. DD V4’s “additional” monsters,
. Discussion of “Normal” and “Rounds and Turns”,
. Etc.
So, that’s the thinking to date. I’m revising it continuously as I begin to work through the layout, so I wouldn’t say the above is final but it should give you a pretty good notion of what to expect.