ThinkingSkull.com

A new version of WordPress is out, and lemme tell you now that I just spent the last week (taking an ever-so deserved break from the finishing touches of Kindling Moon’s pre-release version) upgrading MovieCrypt.com to the new system.

For readers, the layout and theme engine for WordPress 1.5 is simpler than ever. For spammers, the new system logs new signups for approval before granting unfettered access to comments (and that’s been a long time in coming!) For webmasters/bloggers, you can create embedded pages and edit them on the fly (link list, special features, terms of service, or anything), and catergory clicks only get you the first few item, not everything you’ve ever written or posted.

WordPress 1.5 is so close to being a content management system at this point that small press users who own their own websites and domain space would be hard pressed to find a better, more secure system… and the price is free! The ‘Crypt looks and works better than ever; doesn’t your site deserve the same?

Another feature (or lack thereof) of Kindling Moon is lack of class; there are no manditorily enforced skill groupings. The reasoning behind this (other than player frustration) is as follows.

In an older version of Dungeons & Dragons (back when the word “Advanced” preceded it), there was once a description of two ways a game master could look at the game. One was that player characters were somehow exceptional, that just being what they were (stats over 10, etc.) dictated who they were; all other non-adventurer non-hero types were simply not able to train up or match skills against enemies. Essentially, you were either born a vigilante or you weren’t, and everyone else was a victim you had to avenge or save from certain doom.

The second made more sense. Everyone had the potential to excell and train; all you needed was the dispostion (or the right backstory) to adventure. The world view was that everyone was different but each had something to make them special. For Kindling Moon, we decided this was a better way to go; the only real limitation is a characteristic that allows the use of magic, which is a rare and wonderous thing (kinda like having a witch secretly advising wayward Puritans, but that’s another story).

Otherwise, the only thing that limits a character’s growth and knowledge is time. Want to learn how to steal? Fine, but learn not to get caught, too. Tasks are organized into archetype groups that in no way limit what you can group you can learn from or how skilled you can become. Just remember, when you strike down your arch nemesis and spare his innocent daughter, it may be best to expect her to come knocking once she grows up and still feels raw about it (didn’t Kill Bill just rock?)

As the Preview Release of Kindling Moon draws near, it was suggested to me that we needed something to not only show that we’re serious but to firmly point the finger at our intended competition. Not that it’s any big secret, but that would be anything ‘D’ followed by the number ‘twenty’. Since our system is designed to utilize one single set of polyhedral dice (and not to just take up room in the bag), the idea grew into “You’re going to need more than just this…” followed by a picture of a twenty-sider. So we did!

This isn’t to say that role-playing games using single-die mechanics are bad, it’s just that, as a factor of randomization, isn’t that a little stagnate? The time-tested option of adding or removing modifiers to either change the target number needed to roll or change the total number rolled is okay, but the randomness is still 1 out of 20 or 5%. Other systems use a single die type (ten-sider or six-sider) or multiples of the same dice to increase this fixed randomness, but you shouldn’t have to dump a barrel over and spend fifteen minutes counting pips.

Kindling Moon’s dynamic dice pool was designed to be the best of both worlds. More dice are fun to roll when you’ve earned them, but too many take too long to count and keep track of. With just a few easy rules, one set of dice can generate randomness of 1-100, but the chance of rolling higher decreases as the total goes up. We’re still waiting for someone to roll that perfect 100 and tell us the story of what their characters were doing when it happened.

The clock is ticking, the dice are being rolled, and the gauntlet has been thrown down.