Superliga

[Bryndon]

Weekend Update: 21/3/09
Ha! The Superliga Errata Edition has been released to the world! You can see it on the main page!

Superliga Main Rulebook
This book is 122 pages long and contains everything you need to start running a campaign set in the Superliga universe, including character creation, an extensive range of options for realising almost any character concept, a small but diverse range of monsters, a starting armoury for beginning characters and of course, a sample adventure to get you playing right away.

Future Releases
All of these are being worked on 'until they're done'. They should be ready in about a month, depending on my capricious work ethic:

Compendium of Marvellous Things
A complete list of the monsters one might encounter on their escapades in the Superliga universe. Each monster will have numerical statistics, a flavourful description, the tactics they usually employ as well as variations on the base monster to make them more challenging.

The Compendium will also include new items, including item sets for just about every conceivable character class and a couple of unique ‘legendary items’. I’ve set myself a loose target of four monsters of each type for each letter of the alphabet, and roughly 100 items (item ‘sets’ really only count for one). This will take me a while, but I’m maybe 10% of the way in already and still going fairrrrly strong.

Intrigue and Expertise
A big list of skills, any necessary errata, new character concepts and some special NPCs.
Intrigue and Expertise is 95% completed as of 21/3/09. It will be released at the same time as the Compendium because there's a certain amount of cross-fertilisation and I want to make sure I've got the system working on a 'big picture' level.

The Splinters
A description of the various worlds that make up the Superliga universe complete with plot hooks, interesting characters and at least one completed sample campaign, likely centred around the fall of Gladerest as a sort of 'prologue' to the game.

31/3/09
Captain's Log:
Food... low. Morale, weak (Pt. Johnson was discovered attempting to eat my left leg. The right he had apparently already betrayed to the commies). Ammunition... non-existent. I've fought as hard as I could, but perhaps this war was just too much for one man to fight, too much for a man without even a gun. I am a broken man. I've decided on my course of action. I know what I have to do, for the sake of the free (rpg) world.

I have the documents in my hands even now. Pt. Johnson is sleeping contentedly, gnawing on the grizzled remaind of my limbs and my patriotic fervour. In the dead of night, I will steal his legs and use my advanced knowledge of bio-engineering to attach them to my arms, allowing me to use them as crude claws and reach-extenders, allowing me to crawl all the way to the helipad by sunrise.

I feel bad for abandoning my post and my duty and a small part of me regrets that I will not be here to relish the look on Johnson's face when he realises what I've done to him.

But enough talk. I'm writing this with my own precious bodily fluids and I feel faint. I'm going to mail the mostly-complete documents to 1km1kt.net tonight and then hide somewhere until I regain my strength. Strength enough for the fight.

Strength enough for... Superliga.

[Rob Lang]

Splendid! Can't wait to see the updates.

[Bryndon]

I'm glad to hear it - although I warn you that at this rate it's likely that the final few chapters of each book (they're being written concurrently) will have to be transcribed from the finger paint I leave on the wall just before I burn out on this project :P

[Rob Lang]

[Bryndon]

Superliga Errata Edition has just been sent to our magnificent benefactor.

Patch Notes:

- The entire book now looks rather professional, even if I do say so (or heap praise on) myself. I've used a consistent convention for heading sizes, page ends and all skill trees are now summarised via judicious use of text boxes, giving you a shinier, silkier finish when washing your hair with Superliga.

- I realised I'd left some design notes in the middle of the spell list and not actually finished them! These notes have been fleshed out into the "Chaos" spell tree.

- Skills were very, very expensive in the previous edition. They have now been scaled back across the board to allow characters a chance to experience all the skills in their tree (if not excel at all of them :3 ).

- Added a new monster to the monster list. "Mana Hounds" are considered a crucial balance to the ritual spells.

- Some spelling errors were located and fixed, and the Table of Contents updated ever so slightly.

- The book did go through a picture-filled stage, but Superliga is already a very big book. The pictures were deemed to serve no useful purpose and have thus been cut. In the event that I need section dividers again, they'll make a return. Otherwise, no art until I'm working on the absolutely-final-no-more-edits version when I will retain this artist: to do up pictures wherever I need pictures.

- The first Superliga campaign has been written up, giving a sneak peek at the kingdom of Tevrash. You'll find it towards the back, there.

- Remember, your comments are like food and water to me! Feed me here or at my email address, given at the start AND finish of the Superliga rulebook.

[Rob Lang]

This thread has become too cool to leave in the promotions section! I've moved into Roleplaying Games as it is reading like a development diary - that's much more interesting that someone simply advertising stuff.

Bryndon, I'll take a quick look at the latest draft but will hold off on reviewing it until you're happy - or we think you're ready. You may never be happy, of course!

[Bryndon]

"Development Diary" Notes:

- The RPG is still missing a list of status effects: although each status is mentioned at different points, there is no quick reference for such effects as "panicked", "chilled", "diseased", "poisoned" or "stunned".
(This has been covered in Intrigue and Expertise)
- _Still to come_ I'd like to do up a quick reference sheet consisting of a guide to combat phases, the hitting->rolling damage->armour->health process and all status effects that could be used as an Overseer's screen. The system should make more sense if its displayed graphically as well as explained in the rulebook.
- Although a skill relevant to riding steeds is available in the rulebook, an actual system for steeds is still absent. I'm intent on making steeds useful for both travel and in combat but that can be handled later rather than 'right now'.
(This has been covered in Intrigue and Expertise)
- An essay on how evil characters are intended to function in Superliga as been included. Essentially, manipulative selfish characters that drive a campaign forward are in, exceptionally psychopathic and bloodthirsty characters just get put down.
- _Still to come_ An explanation of 'boss fights'. I fully intend to have a homage to the classic castlevania dracula fight as well as a couple of other 'classic boss fights' from computer games or similar that would work in Superliga.

[Bryndon]

21/3/09

I've returned from three days by the seaside and I've finished off an expansion (more skills) for Superliga and begun work on a second one (more monsters and items). I might have to split them into two different documents.

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
- To make powerful 'boss' opponents in Superliga beatable, I need to find ways of making damage-taking archetypes and healing archetypes as attractive as damage-dealing, or at least make it clear that they are necessary. This will probably end up being a small blurb in the Compendium - "warning: don't fight these monsters unless you can both take and heal damage as well as dish out a variety of damage types".

- I need some ideas for compelling 'classic' boss fights from previous games/generations/etc. I'm thinking Castlevania's Dracula would be a good starting point: the villain is recognisable without intimate knowledge of the game and for those who do know it the sight of a vampire who is only vulnerable to being hit in the head firing triple fireballs and streams of meteors before transforming into a 3m tall bat-thing should cause howls of recognition. Similarly, I've heard good things about red and green pygmies eating mushrooms, turning into giants and attempting to stomp on their opponents.

- Lastly, I have been hearing good things about healthy sleep patterns and will be attempting to apply this knowledge to my writing process.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

[Bryndon]

Thank you very much for reading it
I’m a fan of point-by-point responses, so without further ado-
- Yes, I totally agree. In the next edition I’ll be using this as the basis for my section dividers: which has the added benefit of matching the page ends.
o I’ll experiment with different fonts, but I’m apprehensive. I’m going to trawl fromoldbooks.org to find a complete set of illuminated letters that will match nicely with the rest of the book and maybe use them as the first letter of each heading.
o My editing manuscript of this book has been done in black and white. Greyscale turns out ok. I will see if I can find a colour-blind person and test it out on them, but admittedly this hasn’t been a massive concern of mine before now :S
- I have been trimming out a lot of the conversational stuff where it affects the flow of a rules explanation or causes hell with my page layouts. For example, the ‘worthless’ modifier on the penalties table once ran to three paragraphs.
- After a few late-night screaming sessions, I’ve finally reduced the opaqueness of the watermark. It should be much, much better when I make the next release

Flavour:
- The universe is fractured. Mostly, that means a couple of –light years-, as the universe is unimaginably vast and even the tiniest splinter would dwarf human comprehension. On most splinters there is a planet, maybe one or two moons/smaller planets and a sun. Rare splinters will have more than one inhabitable celestial body, others are very small demi-planes with little more than a continent or an island or a room, some have become permanently melded with the Etherium, meaning the border just peters into a grey mist that anyone can travel through without aid and a few more are man-made prisons and holding-locations.
- Travel is fairly easy, but for the average individual who doesn’t spend time adventuring and gaining unrivalled power over the cosmos it is on the order of a long-distance plane trip and thus not very popular.
- There are technical ways to travel. I’m putting off covering technology for a little while because I know next to nothing about science and it shows when I have to write about it.
- I have two splinters that I’m working on at the moment, one in a high-fantasy style (Ancoria) and the other in a steam-punk style (Cardin, although probably much-altered from the paragraph it receives in the rulebook). After that will really depend on how much feedback and support the project receives. I would love to explore the possibility of worlds where famous historical cultures or fantasy clichés collide, but I could just as easily do that in a novel, which are notoriously easier to balance and lay out :P
- The Cthonic entities will probably not be explored in any great details, although their dreams will spawn a couple of lovecraftian horrors or serve as the source of evil magic. Because I’d want them to be suitably epic, they’d be explored in a hypothetical ‘Prime Elementals’ supplement (because I would like to focus on some 'epic' encounters later on and prime elementals and lovecraftian horrors that can 'kill d6 enemies per turn' sound like fun). However, one of the themes I’d like to get back to eventually is that Superliga is not just a splintered universe – its intended to be already-doomed, but likely to become even more doomed by the continued pressure from external forces or to wink out of existence even quicker as a result of negligence and ignorance on the part of the inhabitants. Depending on the Overseer, the damage may be reversible, or it might be possible to shore up the barricades of reality at a few key locations, or the characters may live in fear that the universe will disappear out from underneath their feet at any moment...
- You can make reference to string theory, but I’m not fully conversant in the jargon. Thus, if you make a particularly brilliant pun, I may not fully get it. But if you can justify the idea of this universe in a convincing enough scientific manner, I’ll be happy to hear it.
- Lastly: I <3 half-life although I’ve never played the full game. Just reading about the noise-seeking worms in magazines and wikis blew my mind (wikis = how I absorb 90% of my pop culture knowledge). However, I’m somewhat limited by my lack of proper spatial representation in-game – I can’t simulate bouncing explosives or ricochet shots, cleverly angled attacks or the fights where you have to duck at –just- the right moment for the minotaur’s axe to miss you by a pixel without reworking a significant portion of the game. I want to remake some classic boss fights, video game characters and if possible some RPG culture, so I think it only right to have a Mario-type warrior jumping and attempting to land on their opponent’s head, or a ‘centipede’ type boss who runs at you from behind cover necessitating rapid-fire shots to stop them before they reach you (regretfully this will still bring up the problem of ‘positioning’), or the first phase of the Dracula fight in Castlevania as well as a gazebo-like monster.
- Amen to interesting actions and lateral thinking.