So reading through the excellent comments on the Deluxe W20 Changing Breeds Kickstarter and it looks like some folks aren’t aware that we’ve made the full text of W20 Changing Breeds up on Google Docs. If you want to see how we’ve handled the Lost Breeds or some of the new Gifts that Holden’s cooked up, you can. We’re hoping that being able to read the text will inspire people to back the Kickstarter.
The link to the Google Docs version is on the Kickstarter home page:
Some people had problems viewing that version, so it’s also shared on Dropbox. The link is available in Update 1:
I’ve read it trough and It looks good so far.
What Id like you guys do next is to take the book next to W20 and previous changing breeds books and make sure they’re compatible.
The lack of reading your own material was sadly almost epidemic with WW-writers back in the good old days-tm of the -90’s and increasingly frustrating for us ST’s to go through as the game got older.
The mechanics have been updated since the other Changing Breeds books, to bring them in line with W20. Holden Shearer wrote the W20 Gifts, and is back to write all the Gifts in Changing Breeds. Beyond that, I wrote a lot of the W20 mechanics, and made sure that the Changing Breeds mechanics didn’t contradict them.
I got started writing with the early Forsaken books, so I’m a strong believer in mechanical consistency.
That’s good to hear.
Since my main worry is now out of the way I can focus my attention on hunting typos. 🙂
I’m not sure if it was corrected, since I first had a look on the file, but I can’t find information on how Rage is regenerated for several Fera (especially sun related ones).
Also a “can spend Rage, as garou do” mention would be nice, in the section, that lists all the frenzy difficulties.
With most of the Fera being able to do an additional action, Gurahl Rage spending still should be revised. One-Round bonuses simply don’t help.
Turning homid-strength into auto-successes like Potence would be nice and still fit the mood, kind of. If not that, then at least the bonuses should last multiple rounds, like one round per permanent Rage + Rank or something like that.
Also, the wording about only doubling homid strength is misleading, or does it really mean, that a 2-dot strength homid character can’t boost his strength in crinos at all, since there is a cap at double his homid level, and that is already bypassed with the shapechange bonus.
So I read through the draft, and I noticed that a system for Mnesis is missing, and the Khan have a different set of crinos stats then they do in the W20 core book. Lastly I did not notice the Ratkin’s blood memory…does that mean the updated game scrapped that trait? With that missing and the Mnesis system missing I have to admit I am a little worried. Man I have a list of questions I hope someone can answer, because lastly I noticed the Zhong Lung get garou auspice gifts. Does this mean they do not get access to the solar position gifts like strike or crowned? Figured I’d ask and hope people know.
Well, after a little better reading I did find the mnesis section for mokole. One thing that always got to me was that the Zhong Lung seemed to be a bit over powered. Do they really get garou auspice gifts, and galliard gifts, then full access to the rest of the Mokole gifts? That has always come off as unfair to me because they get a larger selection of gifts (especially since garou being the main characters of the game will have more gifts). Especially since it seems generic mokole gifts and solar aupsice gifts are not exceptionally powerful in order to compensate for the archid form.
So excited to be reading the book!
I will admit I was also a little disappointed with the Mokole. I think they are a great stand-alone game because of the time-travelish and Dreamtime stuff they can do. They only have 1 rite? I just think that being a meditative, mystic kinda breed it seems like they should have more. I can imagine, though, that fans of the other breeds will probably have the same comment. There’s only so much that can go in to the menagerie book. Le sigh!
Lots of nice little tidy-ups I notice. I’m glad mnesis has a 0 rank now.
I love the stuff for the lost breeds! Just the right amount. Too much more and all the home ruled stuff many of us have made would have been a waste of time.
I do have a concern about the Gurahl Rage use though. The way it is written makes it sound as though they cannot use the strength boosting aspect of it in Crinos form. If you can only boost the rating to twice your Homid form strength, what do you do if your homid strength is 5 (since your strength would already be twice your homid rating)?
the characters names are insert in this text? i could not find the name of mine ; / And it should be there or in the WW20!