Update #40 - May Progress Updated
over 5 years ago – Wed, May 08, 2019 at 04:37:34 PM

Hello everybody!

Apologies there was no progress update last month. Things were even more hectic than normal, with everybody dealing with things like finals and taxes and everything. However, now everything has calmed back down a bit, so here's a much needed progress update!

Despite the craziness of last month, things have still been progressing. The process of translating everything from scattered notes and separate design documents into a single cohesive document is underway. Some new issues have come up during play testing and we are working to resolve them as we go, but only minor things that we overlooked and tweaks that needed to be made for balance.

As far as art goes, our cover art is the next important step, but we've had trouble getting artists to commit to such a big project. We've had several say they'd do it only to turn around and say they just don't have the time to. As lead artist, I'm likely going to have to do one of the covers myself, but I'll keep asking around. However, I'd still like to have the alternative art cover done by guest artist, so if anybody has any suggestions, please let us know, we'd be happy to take a look at some other artists!

Some bad news, is that we were unable to get in to BronyCon's market place this year, and as such, we will not be attending. For those who missed the campaign and still would like to purchase a copy of the book, we still intend to make it available online a week or two after all the backer copies have shipped.

Also, due to the confusion and chaos of so much going on the past few weeks, time has had to be dedicated to progressing the core of the project. This means that contact with those who have custom rewards from their tiers (things like NPCs and the custom Race) has been almost non-existent, and I apologize to those who are at those pledge levels. Contact will hopefully resume near the end of May.

Right now, we are still aiming for an August ship date. However, it is starting to look like a chance (and only chance at this point) that we may delay slightly in order to give us more time to provide the quality we would like to. If this delay happens, it will still be to a time that is still within the year, likely November. Again, this is only a possibility. We will let you know for sure in a future update post if we do decide to delay.

With that all said, we look forward to sharing this system with you all upon its release! We've had a blast with our playtesting, so we hope you all will have as much fun with it as we have! For now, look forward to our next update post, likely toward the beginning of June.

See ya then!

- Project Lead Spirit

Update #39 - The Goats of Goath
over 5 years ago – Thu, Mar 07, 2019 at 12:50:50 AM

Hello everybody!

Sorry this post is a bit late, something came up yesterday that kept it from getting out on time. 

Today, we'll finally be taking a long awaited look at the race known as the Goats of Goath! As usual, don't expect everything here to be 100% what it'll be in the final product.

The Goats of Goath

As always, we’ll start with the race sheet:

While not from the same planet, the Goats are essentially the counterpoint to the Lepidoquines. They are the strongest race in Galloping Stars. This has led to them having a boost to their Grit attribute that will explode on a dice roll of 11 or 12. However, they are so pragmatic and literal that their Allure suffers a double drop.

As for skill bonuses, Goats are all seasoned warriors and thus have a bonus to either their Unarmed, Melee Weapons, or Ranged Weapon skills. They are also master hunters as each has had to endure The Hunt, where even as kids they must leave their bastion to help hunt for food and resources. This experience in the wild has given them a bonus to either their Survival or Navigation skill.

Goats also have hooves and horns, and using their phenomenal Grit, they put them to good use as unarmed weapons. They not only get a bonus to their Unarmed skill to hit their target, but they also get a slight bonus to their damage dealt on successful strikes.

They also have extremely strong digestive capabilities. This is probably the quirkiest ability of any of the races, but this allows the goats to eat just about anything and gain effects such as healing and nourishment (if the campaign requires you to stay fed) from whatever object it is. The time it takes to digest these objects and the effects will be determined by the GM, based on the object. A small sample table will likely be provided in the rule book to give an idea of what effects some different objects might give.

To go along with their warrior abilities in their skill boosts and their unarmed attacks, the Goats also get an additional complex action that will allow them make a charge attack at an enemy within a distance equal to or less than that of their speed. When using this ability, Goats get an additional damage boost to unarmed and melee attacks based on the distance traveled, up to a max bonus of 10. However, as this is a complex action, they use their full turn on this attack and thus must stay engaged in melee range until their next turn.

Finally, the Goats’ extreme resilience is driven home by a once per long rest ability. This ability allows them to survive the first hit that would initially drop them unconscious. They will instead stay up with 1 Hit Point, getting a second chance to make a last ditch effort. After this ability takes effect, until the character takes a long rest, any subsequent hits will knock them out and drop hit points below 1 HP as normal.

And that concludes our look at the Goats of Goath! Thanks for joining us!

This will unfortunately be the end of the bi-weekly updates. From this point until release, updates will be at minimum once a month, and will include updates on the progress moving forward up through the final printing. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but we’re getting closer!

Also, apologies to those in the higher tiers for the lack of communication. Things have been quite hectic as of late with everything going on. I promise we’ll be back on top of that as soon as possible. Thank you all for your patience on this.

See you soon!

- Project Lead Spirit

Update #38 - The Planet of Goath
over 5 years ago – Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 01:35:25 AM

Hello everybody!

Today, it's time to take a look at the Goats of Goath' home planet of Goath!

Reminder that this might not 100% be what's in the final product.

The Planet of Goath

Goath is part of fringe system called Goath’ari in the outer ring of the galaxy. It a lush jungle planet with extremely thick vegetation. However, this isn’t vegetation you’d want to find yourself traipsing through casually or unarmed.

A mysterious radiation emanating from the planet’s core and known only as the Mother’s Song has bathed everything on the surface in its corruption. Any organic matter it touches mutates into a horrible, twisted, murderous version of itself. This means that every plant, animal, or other organic material on the planet is something that will do its best to kill you.

The only race that’s proven to be resistant to this evil radiation are the Goats. While not 100% immune to it, most of their species has been able to thrive amidst this horrific threat. In fact, they’ve made it their society’s mission to snuff out as much of the radiation’s spawn as they can.

It’s proven impossible to tame the planet itself, but their scientists have determined that bursts of the radiation, similar to a pulsar’s neutron bursts, are throwing The Song into space. Thus the threat is not contained to just their world. Through years of reverse engineering other species’ downed craft that have been unfortunate enough to make it to the planet’s surface, they have recently been able to achieve interstellar travel. This has allowed them to take their fight against the Mother’s Song to the cosmos.

Goat cities only account for about 5% of the planet’s surface, and are giant mega-cities known as Bastions. These cities are covered by a giant metallic dome, and are internally lit. Buildings constructed within these domes are very utilitarian in construction and minimalist in nature. Life within these cities is rough, but livable compared to the world outside their walls.

Food must be hunted from outside the cites as any attempt to grow new food is immediately tainted by The Song and turns hostile against its gardeners. Both edible plants and creatures are hunted in these outings. Any Goat strong enough and fit enough to do so is required to go on these hunts.

It is the most hostile world and Goats, as the most resilient species, are revered for their sheer toughness, pragmatism, and fighting spirit.

And that concludes our quick look at the planet of Goath. Our next update in two weeks will be a look at the Goats themselves!

See you then!

- Project Lead Spirit

Update #37 - The Lepidoquine Race
almost 6 years ago – Wed, Feb 06, 2019 at 12:33:18 AM

 Hello everybody!

Today, we'll be taking a look at the Lepidoquine race! As usual, don't expect everything here to be 100% what it'll be in the final product.

The Lepidoquine Race

As always, we’ll start with the race sheet:

High up in the forest canopies of Cervidas live the Lepidoquines. A moth-like equinoid race, they tend to be gentle, docile creatures, with delicate builds. They also tend to be most active at night, and drawn to strong sources of light and magic.

Their extremely delicate build has made them suffer a double decrease in their Grit attribute. However, they are very charismatic, fluffy, and some offer dazzling beauty in their camouflage schemes. Because of this, they offer a bonus in Allure, but not just any bonus. Normally dice only explode on the dice’s maximum value. However, when making Allure based checks, their dice will explode on either the max value or one lower than max (so for them, an 11 or a 12 explodes).

Their compound eyes and antennae give them the Keen Senses bonus of Low-light Vision and a bonus to their Perception.

Also, as is not unusual for races with wings, Lepidoquines are able to fly. They aren’t able to keep up with the other flying races, though, and thus receive no additional bonus to their flying skill on character creation.

They do get a slight bonus to their Arts Skill as they are overall a very artsy race, and even more importantly, they receive a bonus to either their Persuasion or their Deception. This is because of their cutesy nature making them super charismatic.

Their camouflage also provides them a powerful passive bonus to Stealth while in one environment of their choice, picked at character creation. This bonus is equivalent to their Allure Rank and is added onto the normal Stealth roll while the character is in their chosen environment.

Finally, they have a powerful once-per-session ability that allows them to Sleep one enemy who has landed a successful melee hit on them, using sleep dust generated by their wings. This will only work on non-lepidoquines as they have a natural resistance to the dust. The target is allowed a save roll using their Grit, which will negate the effects if passed. The target number for this roll is equal to half the damage dealt.

And that concludes our look at the Lepidoquines! Thanks for joining us!

Our next update in 2 weeks will be a look at the final planned race (the custom race from the Fleet Admiral Tier is still to come as well!) – the Goats of Goath!

See you then!

- Project Lead Spirit

Update #36 - The Arachnoid Race
almost 6 years ago – Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 11:21:36 PM

Hello everybody!

Today, we'll finally be taking a little deeper look at the Arachnoid race! As usual, don't expect everything here to be 100% what it'll be in the final product.

Also, apologies this post is a day late. We had a last minute correction to make to the art on the race sheet that only got wrapped up today.

The Arachnoid Race

As always, we’ll start with the race sheet:

The Arachnoids are the most agile of the ground-based races. However, their spider-based heritage has left them somewhat off-putting to most races. This is reflected in their attribute bonuses and penalties, with a boost to their Agility, but a detriment on their Allure.

Swinging from their webs requires a fair bit of acrobatic prowess. Thus, all Arachnoids are gifted with a bonus to their Acrobatics skill.

Due to their appearance, and the imposing form they present on all their legs, they can be fairly intimidating. Also, due to their sticky claw-tufted appendages, they also make good pickpockets and locksmiths. These traits are both reflected in their skill option that gives them the possibility to take a slight boost in either Intimidation or Sleight of Hoof.

The Arachnoids also have a pretty nice suite of racial abilities help cement their heritage. Due to their compound eyes, they have access to low-light vision and a slight bonus to their perception.

In the same vein, they also are able to sense slight vibrations in whatever solid surface they are standing on, up to a distance of 15 ft. This allows them to sense those who are moving near them, even invisible enemies, up to 15 ft away from them.

Both of these abilities make them extremely good at detecting things many other characters might miss.

In addition to this, they are able climb non-slick surfaces such as walls and ceilings. Their movement speed is halved while moving on these surfaces, but it does make for some interesting gameplay. They can lay ambushes from above, climb over things that would normally require wings to get over, and various other fun things.

Likewise, they can also use their natural webbing to move across an open gap that is no greater than their movement speed by passing an Acrobatics check with a target number equal to the distance to clear. During combat, this takes the same action cost as sprinting, as it is a powerful movement option.

Finally, as they are evolved from venomous spiders, they are able to make a Bite attack, which counts as an unarmed attack but inflicts Poison 1 upon dealing damage. There may be race-specific Talents one can take to upgrade this ability’s potential down the line.

And that concludes our look at the Arachnoids! Thanks for joining us!

Our next update in 2 weeks will be a look at the final race from Cervidas – the Lepidoquines (also known as the moth ponies)!

See you then!

- Project Lead Spirit