vatrpg

[vatrpg]

[vatrpg]

Some idle musings for tonight.

So, Foramen, the setting for Vat, I’m realizing will be perceived by how I present it. I mean, that’s normally the case, but a lot of the nations and politics of the setting I didn’t write to be Good or Bad so much as *Interesting*. Like, one of the main world players is a semi-theocratic technocracy that committed cultural genocide on themselves on the order of Techno-Liches but they also have every industry as close to worker owned and operated as they can so who can really say if they’re good or bad. (Sarcasm)

Or the country run by math wizards trying to algorithm their way into a perfect worldwide society, secretly funding and supplying a neighboring military dictatorship purely as a societal experiment.

Basically, a small part of me worries that people will dislike Foramen for the very same reason settings like Dark Sun are disliked, being… it has some societally shunned topics at play in the world that are Just How Things Are. But the larger part of me is going “there’s an audience for this, and as long as I present things well, most problems will be averted”.

Otherwise, building NPCs is taking an angle I didn’t expect- mainly, they’re more stat-centric than item-centric largely because that’s easier to produce en-masse using the systems in place. I don’t doubt the basic NPC teams will be more fleshed out and developed as playtesting starts but rn they’re definitely pretty barebones.

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Earlier today I have officially finished making Occupations GAME PLAYABLE! This means character creation is BASICALLY DONE! Now I need to once more fuck around with NPCs. I think I have a way to make it decent enough, even if it’ll be time intensive. And, as much as I am antsy to get to play testing, I’m not in any particular rush! I am going at my own pace, nothing’s really riding on the line for this game to come to fruition.

Once NPCs are finished I’ll start to figure out playtest scenarios and run combat simulations and all that. But, that by no means means the game is *done*. Still need to write vehicles, still need to write Weirding, still need to do some item stuff, and I still need to continue writing the lore doc. This is just the game reaching a playable point!

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Rumours speak of a powerful lich stirring beneath Baltimore

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Long time no see! I think! It feels like a while since I’ve shared anything, I don’t know the exact time though. I’m still working! Entered a bout of minor depression, though nothing serious. Just lethargy and whatever. So, work has been slower than usual.

I have been chipping away at Occupations, getting them game ready. 9/16 are finished, and I’m only iffy on 1 or 2 of those. Once they’re done enough, I have a bit more to tweak and finish regarding NPCs, and then we should be playtest ready!

A big part of Vat is the fact players control multiple characters. It’s… I guess you could say it’s the main gimmick. I still plan on sticking to that (unless playtesting shows my whole system to be truly terrible), but I have gotten ideas to add a sort of rules supplement later down the line. Instead of each player controlling a group, instead each player controls one character in the party group. It would definitely be more focused on teamwork, especially on the granular scale, as every player would have to come to a consensus on what their group, and teams, do. But it’s not out of the question! I’ll experiment with it later during playtesting.

Goodbye for now! Have a fun post from the private discord to tie you over until my next post.

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So, finally decided to start work on the lore doc! I have an absolute fuck ton of notes but it’s just a matter of compiling them into a proper organized thing. It’s going well!

In other news, working on a new guy! Woo! Just need to paint him.

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Currently looking into setting up an itch.up page for Vat! The player book will be free no matter what, but especially so in these early stages. Handler’s guide will be paid, but not much. Lore book will be PWYW.

I bring this up now both as a general way of saying Yo! I Exist! And also because I’m thinking about things. The itch.io probably won’t be up super soon honestly, I still have a few kinks to work out and things to add to the player book before I deem it “good enough” for public access. Like, the difference in font size between working on it in the docs and then exporting it to pdf and looking at it then. I need to make the font smaller, turns out! Takes up too much space! Currently the book is at 80 something pages and that’ll probably go down as I decrease the font size.

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So, another doodle! This time I went in with the express purpose of drawing something in particular, instead of drawing something straight from my mind then assigning it something afterwards.

Behold, a Psychic Janissary! Iffy on the helmet, had a different image in mind so that’s probably subject to change in later drawings of one. Shoulderpads could be a bit less… long… as well. But all-in-all, I’m happy with this guy!

Also, I’m back on bluesky! Look up “Claviger” and you just might stumble upon me.

Right now I’m on the back-end of things finagling NPC equipment, which is the main hurdle right now before I can actually do playtesting sessions. Everything else is pretty much ready for it.

That’s all for now!

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the age of adventurers and magic has come to an end . we're making all the skeletons and ghouls and elves and dragons work in cubicles now

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I just saw a DNI for "evil intentions". nobody puts up a warding talisman anymore just a fucking DNI

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We got another dooble hot off the presses.

A man and his vehicle, hailing from the Lands of the Beast-Men.

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Fuck, I need to make a laser polearm.

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the new heart I've been growing in my garden is at a strange and delicate stage of development

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Fun Ancient Roman History Fact

In the 1st-3rd centuries the Romans recruited many orcs into the army utilizing them as auxiliary heavy infantry.

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So, I don't quite know if I wear my inspirations on my sleeves, but two of the massive inspirations behind Vat's aesthetics and vibes are the works of Gene Wolfe and Jack Vance. Pitting them against one another I'd side with Jack Vance's works 99% of the time as I much prefer them as actual stories. Gene Wolfe has a massive talent regarding his prose, descriptiveness of his aesthetics, and general worldbuilding, but also he doesn't write women well whatsoever and it gets in the way of... everything... However, the thing both of these authors have that have rubbed off on me, is the love of Fun and Unique Words. So, I've naturally included those into Vat! Mainly the occupations. So, here are some of those to whet your whistle during this developmental period. - Mandarin (Bureaucrat, Drone, Pencil Pusher, etc) - Supplicant (Person of faith) - Externe (Stranger in a strange land) - Epopt (Person who is well acquainted with the workings of the worlds anomalies) - Zoanthrop (You put your brain into the body of an animal or modified your body into that of an animal's) - Malefactor (Criminal) - Yeoman (Farmer) Now, these aren't all the occupations, but these are the ones with the more notable names. I had a lot of fun coming up with them, and I feel they add a certain vibe to the whole deal that is pretty important.