WANDERING HEROES OF OGRE GATE DEVELOPMENT AND UPDATE

Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate is quite close to completion. We have been running a new playtest campaign to work out some of the bugs and expect to have the master document with an editor by the start of Summer and will give an official release date around that time. Here are some of the things we've been working on and changing (keeping it quick because we have a lot to get done today with the manuscript). 

One important feature of the game that we simplified and improved is the Imbalance Rating. Every character has ranks in one of four Martial Disciplines that reflect the character's natural talents: Dianxue (pressure points), Wiajia (external Kung Fu), Neigong (Internal Kung Fu) and Qinggong (Lightness Kung Fu). You can have between 0-3 ranks in each one (just like you can have 0-3 ranks in each Emotion in Sertorius). Originally this produced a number that was converted to a d10 pool, which you used to recover when your Qi energy was imbalanced. That didn't come up enough to matter and it was a bit ungainly so we changed it to a static number that effects how may Imbalance Points you gain when you overuse your Kung Fu Techniques (the basic difference being this is easier to implement and it comes up a lot more). 

We are also doing a major review of all the Kung Fu Techniques, looking for problems to fix, adding techniques to Disciplines that need more, and combing through to make sure that they run consistently through Sects, NPCs, etc. 

This last point might seem a little unusual but it is important to the setting. Every Kung Fu Technique players gain they must acquire from someone or something in the setting. That could be from their Sifu, Sect, Manual or just another martial hero they meet on the road. Therefore we needed to assess all of our techniques and make the sects that are supposed to have them do, the masters of those sects also have them, etc. We also looked for potential holes in the list. This required putting together a fairly extensive chart so we could see everything in one glance. One benefit of the chart is we can include it in the appendix, which will help GMs if they need to know what master or sect has a particular technique. Improvisation is always encouraged here, but this at least profounds a good starting point so the GM can tell players where they might learn a given technique. 

One of the reasons we push for the Technique acquisition in this way is it ties characters to the world in a meaningful way. Beyond that it also serves as a great catalyst for adventure, with characters searching ancient tombs for manuals and seeking the help of reclusive masters as they look for ways to counter the Kung Fu of powerful foes.