Crossroads

As someone who has been working full time, through everything going on in the world today, I haven't had the "benefit" of a sudden, unexpected stretch of free time. Admittedly, the turnaround time from the previous post is shorter than I usually do, but aside from a brief bit of conversation, I haven't found any opportunity to even think about TNP, let alone put pen to paper on it, since that last post.

So I'm realizing that I need to take a break; I can't see things changing in the immediate future, so the current logjam will just persist, and possibly even worsen.

Before I step away, I'll kind of lay out where I'm at (aside from rehashing the previously-mentioned obstacles with subtypes.)

First off, I want to say I really like the new regime for skills. I want to test it and make sure it "feels" right, but I'm optimistic about it. That being said, with the move away from d20, the game's design is sort of fracturing into two distinct halves. Why not staple the skill system onto a different set of combat mechanics? Those are the types of questions it starts to beg of me.

In the last couple of posts, it has become clear that the mechanical, crunchy side of the combat needs to be completely overhauled. The focus is shifting towards the "damage + effect" combo-making style of gameplay (in the vein of 4th edition D&D) and the status effects and conditions need to be built around a new paradigm (starting with disadvantage on skills, as one of it's foundations.) This effectively means that every combat feature in the game needs to be reconsidered. A game largely focused on hacking through HP, I'm beginning to realize, does not lend itself to the idea of using d20 (with minimal modifiers) for its combat resolution. So either that mechanic needs to change, or the game needs to be about something other than HP attrition. Whatever the approach, the designs would need significant renovations.

What it comes down to, is I'm seeing myself not having been able to put in the level of time and energy that would entail, since I restarted blogging. And I can make no guarantee that anything will change anytime soon, meaning the amount of work the game needs put into it, is probably not a realistic possibility right now.

I think there are probably two possible paths forward:
1) Scale the game back in scope, to a manageable level, and just push out the best product I can manage.
2) Shift focus to something new.

To be clear, in either case, I won't be blogging; any work being done will be behind the scenes, until I have something meaningful to report. Likewise, in both scenarios, I'll need to sit down, talk, and think long and hard about what I want to get accomplished, and what would make the most sense for a possible new project.

Building a completely different (probably simpler) combat engine, to work in tandem with the skill system, is the first branching path that springs to mind; what shape that takes will depend entirely on what else I can figure out. One such possibility might be unifying around the skill mechanic -- migrating combat away from d20 + class dice.

Really, finishing the game instead of doing something new, boils down to an exercise in managing the scope. If subtypes, combat powers, and status effects all need to be reworked or completely rewritten (in service of a particular gameplay ethos) that's a behemoth task. It also begs the question of whether or not (for example) the skill mechanics will still make sense for the resulting product. It's not long before we're questioning if it'd be easier to start everything from scratch -- so I think if this project is to continue, it'll have to be a case of "addition by subtraction."



I'll leave it at that for now. The TNP Discord will be kept open for anyone looking to join the discussion, so hopefully I'll see you in there.