Goodman Games

It's getting closer...

Granted most of us don't know what exactly is going to be in the book, but if there was one thing you could change before the book goes to press, one thing you'd like to see fixed/dropped/tweaked before it hit the shelves, what would it be?

Haha, I always love it when people use that phrase. I am a printer and you learn very quickly in this industry that you really cannot "stop the presses!" Even before ink hits paper, there is so much work and expense in producing a job (from design, to prepress work, to creating proofs and mockups, to plating the colours and ordering the stock). The actual printing is the cheapest part of the process!

One thing I would add is a referee section with all sorts of crazy toolbox tables and charts you can use (like random cultist plots, strange traits for secluded villages, random table of things that go bump in the night while the party is camping, miscellaneous oddities that players might find in a magic shop, lunar orbit adjustment tables for magic etc).

As for adjustments, the game is pretty dead on right now. Maybe rename the saves (Fort/Agi/Will smacks a little too much of 3e for me) or give an option for more or fewer saves (OD&D or Swords & Wizardry style).

Thane wrote:It's getting closer...

Granted most of us don't know what exactly is going to be in the book, but if there was one thing you could change before the book goes to press, one thing you'd like to see fixed/dropped/tweaked before it hit the shelves, what would it be?

That thud you just heard was Joesph's dead body hitting the floor after his heart attack upon reading this.

michaelcurtis wrote:

Thane wrote:It's getting closer...

Granted most of us don't know what exactly is going to be in the book, but if there was one thing you could change before the book goes to press, one thing you'd like to see fixed/dropped/tweaked before it hit the shelves, what would it be?

That thud you just heard was Joesph's dead body hitting the floor after his heart attack upon reading this.

Hope not!

Really looking forward to this one.

I'd stop the presses just as I was getting ready to e-mail the final version to the printers. I'd then send it out again to a group of good fresh eyes for one more week to look for typos (I volunteer!). Only then would I pull the trigger on it. This is because I hate typos with a vengeance.

However, from what I've seen of GG products to date, typos aren't a common phenomenon (unlike many other RPG publishers).

Stainless wrote:I'd stop the presses just as I was getting ready to e-mail the final version to the printers. I'd then send it out again to a group of good fresh eyes for one more week to look for typos (I volunteer!). Only then would I pull the trigger on it. This is because I hate typos with a vengeance.

However, from what I've seen of GG products to date, typos aren't a common phenomenon (unlike many other RPG publishers).

I agree.

Errata is unavoidable, but if it's too sloppy, it's a real turn off.

Sure, I can imagine lots of things I'd change.

• I'm sure non-d20 resolution (for attacks, saves, ability checks,etc) dice could be more prevalent in the book than they are now. Joseph introduced them for two weapon fighting and they could be so much more commonly used.
• I bet the word skills appears in the book as a special term for actions like searching and sneaking. Had this been my RPG, there would only be ability checks.
• Ironically, I'll bet the game would have been better if it had stayed at 5 levels instead of stretching to 10. Sorry for any way in which we convinced you to change your mind on that one, Joseph.
• Every class should have a class die.

Still, none of these things are really deal breakers. They are merely house rules and article fodder.

jmucchiello wrote:Ironically, I'll bet the game would have been better if it had stayed at 5 levels instead of stretching to 10. Sorry for any way in which we convinced you to change your mind on that one, Joseph.

An interesting point. Those of us who have been around for a while remember the huge deal that folks made out of how a RPG couldn't stop at level 5 and what a "deal breaker" that could be, but I think the game really would have worked just fine as originally planned by Joseph. Good catch.

Changes I would make are simply cosmetic. I like the names of my attributes to be Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity, and Charisma and tend to rename the official ones on my homebrew character sheets. Not that any of this affects play. I'm just old and absent-minded and keep forgetting that Agility isn't called Dexterity.