Patch 3.2.0 Notes: A Long Time Coming
The long-promised timeskip is finally happening. I'd like to lead off by apologizing for how this kept getting delayed. I can give you all dozens of excuses, but I'll sum it up with this: I got overwhelmed by life and change and did a poor job of managing myself and my time. Add to that the guilt which caused me to kind of keep my distance. It's not all bad change, though, and in fact some of it is quite good. I have a new job, I've got new prescriptions, I largely have my life together now. It's going to be a little bit shaky, still, getting back into writing regularly, but it's something that I've been yearning to do.
Back to the patch itself. The big thing, some or all of you may know, is that we are doing a short time-skip. Initially, the RP began in 500 P.T. and we've kept the 'current' time running mostly concurrent with real time. It's always a little nebulous, of course, since some things can take months to write and take place in an afternoon, but having that sort of base framework was helpful for most of us. Properly, it has been 8 years since the start of Post Terminus (how time flies!) but we're doing this time-skip two years ahead, to 511 P.T. (11 because we've crossed into a new year compared to when the time of year the RP started). What that entails will be detailed below.
Summary of Updates
Time Skip - Advancing to 511 P.T.
The current date in the RP, as of the posting of these patch notes, will be 13th of ORTUS, 511 P.T. -- which is two years in the future from the 'present' date. There are multiple reasons for the time-skip, but the main hope is that it can allow people to smoothly bring characters back after periods of not writing, as well as to advance plots that may have been too tedious or difficult to write. It's a way to catch breath, reset, and also consider where you started and where your plot is going.
Regarding Exa: the query that adds paychecks was intended to be an activity tracker -- so you'd receive exa while posting. However, due to misunderstanding on my part, Exa continued to accumulate even without any activity. Unfortunately, I think it would completely imbalance what economy there is to keep the inflated amounts. It's also not feasible to go through and recalculate what it should have been. Therefore, I'm capping Exa before this patch at 100,000. That hits my character as hard as and harder than most. So if you had an amount like 500,000 and wonder why you're back down to 100,000 that is why.
The corrected activity paychecks will be looking for replies in Personnel stat records (yeah, I'd like to start doing those again). I'll be looking for a better way to manage this, however.
For each PC that existed pre-skip:
- The character may be granted property in the form of a Plot of any quality and location of their choosing. This is separate from any property that may already have been purchased. You do not have to take this if it contradicts your intentions. Please submit the details here.
- The character's stats may be completely redone. How you justify this is up to you, but there are no restrictions.
- An incomplete Magnum arc or required writing for an EX Item or Feat can be considered complete. You are encouraged to still develop the story of how such things were learned or acquired, but writing as an arc is optional.
- Magnums, items, or feats can also be resubmitted.
- Exa will be reduced to 100,000 if over that amount.
For new PCs:
- To help give a leg up on starting:
- The starting Latens is increased from 1000 to 5000, and skills may be selected up to Adept tier. This is enough latens that you could begin with 4 Adept skills, another combination of Novice and Adept skills of your choosing.
- Starting Exa is increased from 500 to 2500.
- A new character may begin with 1 D-tier EX Item.
Revised Crafting Capstones
Something unrelated to the time-skip which has bothered me slightly was the inconsistency between the capstone GM abilities for the crafting schools. Alchemy and Enchanting have appropriately powerful master abilities, but Blacksmithing made little sense to write narratively, Gunsmithing was an extremely niche application, and Engineering is held back by being consumable with an extreme cost. For blacksmith and gunsmithing, they both get an ability to forge a technique into a weapon, making it particularly suited to using that melee or ranged technique. For engineering, the Contravisae idea was updated to be a permanent fixture more on the level with alchemy and enchanting capstones, but still offering the more temporary recipes in the form of a portable dampener and a deployable mine. The updated ideas are below:
Becomes
Heart of the Steel
Grandmaster Tier
Learned: Tier 5 Recipes
Material Qualification: Caelitium
Crafts per Week: Unlimited
A legendary smith is capable of finding the heart of the metal they forge, drawing out its best potential by falling back on their own. A weapon thus forged is exemplary for its given purpose, be that for turning another weapon aside or perfecting a clean thrust. Even in the hands of the untrained, it is so finely forged as to be deadlier in their hands.
A grandmaster blacksmith can forge a weapon that is perfected toward one melee technique; the blacksmith must know the technique, and must include at least one additional unit of lateris per tier of the technique being imbued; the technique must be one for which the weapon or armor could be used. A weapon so designed will allow the usage of that ability even for a wielder who has not learned it; if the wielder has learned the ability, the cost in Vigor is reduced by half and the effective magnitude is increased by one.
Becomes
Precision Tuning
Grandmaster Tier
Learned: Tier 5 Recipes
Material Qualification: Caelitium
Crafts per Week: Unlimited
Legendary gunsmiths and bowyers are capable of precision tuning a weapon toward a particular purpose. A weapon thus forged is exemplary for its given purpose, be that for ricocheting bullets or sighting in a long shot. Even in the hands of the untrained, it is so finely forged as to be deadlier in their hands.
A grandmaster gunsmith can forge a weapon that is perfected toward one ranged technique; the gunsmith must know the technique, and must include at least one additional unit of lateris per tier of the technique being imbued; the technique must be one for which the weapon could be used. A weapon so designed will allow the usage of that ability even for a wielder who has not learned it; if the wielder has learned the ability, the cost in Vigor is reduced by half and the effective magnitude is increased by one.
Becomes
Contravisae Fields
Grandmaster Tier
Learned: Tier 5 Recipes
Material Qualification: Caelitium
Crafts per Week: Unlimited
Visae, the natural yet mystical energy which fills the world, is used for everything from powering electronics to casting spells, giving life to golems and vitality to the demvir. It is omnipresent in the current society of Araevis, and even sustains otherworldly beings like familiars and daemons. And with the right devices, the greatest of engineers can manipulate the visae of others.
A grandmaster of engineering can create a Contravisae Field Generator, a large device which will disrupt visae within a 20m radius, preventing all magic, disabling all machines, and weakening any supernatural beings' defenses by three tiers of magnitude. In order to avoid being negatively impacted by his own device, the grandmaster can also create a Contravisae Field Dampener, a portable device granting protection in a 5m radius. The dampener only lasts for three rounds. Finally, it allows the creation of temporary devices, Contravisae mines, which are portable but only disrupt visae for the full round following activation in a 10y radius.
What Comes Next
I'd like to get a thread going to get a "Then and Now" comparison for people's characters. Looking at where they started ten years ago and where they are post-time-skip.
I have one side project for PT that should be finished soon. Once it is, I also have a second project to follow that. These are related to world-building and aesthetic, so hopefully I'll be able to show them soon. Following that, I'd like to see how possible it is to get a less clunky implementation of some of the gamey elements (currencies, inventory, etc).
There is overarching plot in mind that I will be putting out periodically. It will not get in the way of PC stories right away, but people can become as involved as they like. It will cover some of the geopolitical changes both in the time-skip and due to prior PMs.
For fun, I would like to potentially run some play-by-post TTRPG sessions, hybrids of writing and rolling. Using Foundry for mapping, rolling, and movement, and the forum for writing out the narrative. Jury is still out on whether they would be an unrelated setting or if we would try to do a PT-themed campaign. This would likely be in Pathfinder 2e, so it doesn't translate perfectly to PT's world -- and the PT mechanics aren't perfectly compatible for a d20 system. Although adapting it for a d20 system might be a future endeavor.