Alliance 2.0 Rulebook: Beta 2

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Polare

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Good morning Alliance players,

I'm pleased to announce the Beta 2 version of the ARB. Player feedback has been extremely useful in finding typos, rules issues, and so forth and we greatly appreciate the input. We'd appreciate another round of review to see what got missed in this version (I know of 2 items that came in late to the prior thread). All other Rules-related items that I am aware of have been incorporated where appropriate. I cannot speak to matters of content or tone as those remain up to the original author (as they should); some of those items have been updated while others have not based on individual items.

Please use this thread to note any rules issues or typos you find in this version of the ARB. A similar thread for the Beta 2 Alliance Player's Guide will be coming in a few days, so please be patient and reserve APG comments for that thread.

Thanks,
Bryan Gregory
ARC Chair

Download the Beta 2 ARB 2.0 rulebook
 
The skills table lists the requirement for Secondary High Magic as 75 Scholarly XP. It also did in the previous beta but I didn't notice it. In the .12 packet and in the CMA, Secondary needs 150 Scolarly XP. Which is right?
 
Vampire Charm is still referenced in several locations. Page 118, 122, and 136.

Edit: Sorry, was looking at the previous beta to reference something.
 
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Not sure this is actually a "Bug", but for each category of type of skills (like Martial, Stealth), all of the skills that count for that skill type are in one table. Except for scholarly skills, where spells are split in to two separate tables. This sort of implies that "Primary Spells" and "Secondary Spells" are separate categories of skills than "Scholarly Skills" in the same way that "Martial Skills" are.
 
I happened to notice that several items in the Index are completely wrong, referencing pages nowhere near where the subject is in the book.

Edit: Wait on this one, I didn't originally realize that the Index includes both the rulebook and player's guide in one Index.
 
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"Be logical in your choice. Don’t take Craftsman: Calligrapher if you haven’t purchased the skill Educated" -- this is not a clear example since in 2.0 Educated is about identifying production items. (unlike 1.x where educated was called read/write)
 
Feldor said:
"Be logical in your choice. Don’t take Craftsman: Calligrapher if you haven’t purchased the skill Educated" -- this is not a clear example since in 2.0 Educated is about identifying production items. (unlike 1.x where educated was called read/write)
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While that's the mechanical benefit of the skill, personally I think that this comment still makes role-play sense. It would be extremely odd to talk to someone and say "I'm an expert Calligrapher!" which they then follow up with "... but I'm not educated."
 
Checking up on some previous feedback...
  • Create Potion still lists the old master-level benefit instead of instant identification.
  • The special meditation rules for signature spells from the .12b packet (that they can be meditated back on a defense) is absent again. Was this cut from the rules after the packet?
  • There is also still no explicit description of Signature Spells or what makes them special anywhere in the rulebook, though the index does imply they're described in the player's guide...
  • Create Trap still doesn't mention that it can be used to identify trap globes, though it is mentioned all the way down on page 176.
  • Weapon Shield still does not have any note that it defends against physical-delivery Poison attacks. Evade appears to have been updated, though.
  • Herbal Lore still mentions mixing poisons with food and drink, but there are still no rules regarding this.
  • The names of (One/Two) Handed Master in the skill table are still inconsistent with their names in the description blocks.
  • The Selunari woman on page 19, lovely as her costuming is, appears to still have an invalid gem rep.
  • The description of Alchemical Solvent on page 119 places it in the Other group, but it should be in the Coating group. The other Coatings seem to be listed in the right group.
 
Ken said:
Checking up on some previous feedback...
  • Create Potion still lists the old master-level benefit instead of instant identification.
  • The special meditation rules for signature spells from the .12b packet (that they can be meditated back on a defense) is absent again. Was this cut from the rules after the packet?
  • There is also still no explicit description of Signature Spells or what makes them special anywhere in the rulebook, though the index does imply they're described in the player's guide...
  • Create Trap still doesn't mention that it can be used to identify trap globes, though it is mentioned all the way down on page 176.
  • Weapon Shield still does not have any note that it defends against physical-delivery Poison attacks. Evade appears to have been updated, though.
  • Herbal Lore still mentions mixing poisons with food and drink, but there are still no rules regarding this.
  • The names of (One/Two) Handed Master in the skill table are still inconsistent with their names in the description blocks.
  • The Selunari woman on page 19, lovely as her costuming is, appears to still have an invalid gem rep.
  • The description of Alchemical Solvent on page 119 places it in the Other group, but it should be in the Coating group. The other Coatings seem to be listed in the right group.
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Almost all of those were explicitly in the feedback I sent over, but I definitely see that several were not corrected. Hang on, lemme make sure we got the right version uploaded.
 
The example for "parry" implies that taking a chunk of normal damage would kill the person, when it would more accurately just drop them.
 
Under Wipe (Biata):
"The amount of time it takes to wipe a memory is equivalent to the time spent performing the wipe." while tautologically correct, is not conveying the intended rule. The example makes it clear this means "The amount of time wiped from memory is equivalent to the time spent performing the wipe."
 
Polare said:
While that's the mechanical benefit of the skill, personally I think that this comment still makes role-play sense. It would be extremely odd to talk to someone and say "I'm an expert Calligrapher!" which they then follow up with "... but I'm not educated."
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In the medieval period it was not uncommon for scribes to be illiterate and simply copying by rote. Beyond that, reading and writing is no longer gated behind Educated, so I see no reason why one's penmanship would be based on ability to create production items. :)
 
Page 35, the example for silvering arrows is incorrect.

"He fills out the Production Sheet for a set of ten Silver arrows—5 PP for the Arrows themselves, plus another 15 PP for Silvering them—and deposits a total of 5 copper for the arrows and 10 silver for their Silvering cost in the box provided for that purpose."

It should be "He fills out the Production Sheet for a set of ten Silver arrows—5 PP for the Arrows themselves, plus another 10 PP for Silvering them—and deposits a total of 5 copper for the arrows and 11 silver for their Silvering cost in the box provided for that purpose."

The original text doesn't account for the production cost of silvering the arrows, and incorrectly uses the PP value of Silvering a weapon, instead of Silvering arrows, which could be confusing to some who aren't familiar with the non standard silvering costs.
 
Polare said:
Almost all of those were explicitly in the feedback I sent over, but I definitely see that several were not corrected. Hang on, lemme make sure we got the right version uploaded.
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It looks like while a few items did get missed, the majority of updates have been made. Please keep giving additional feedback in this thread so I can collect another batch to send over (including items which got missed earlier). There are a LOT of items that have been sent over, so I'm not surprised that a couple got missed (that's why this is an iterative process!).

One note: The picture of the Selunari woman on page 19 is unlikely to change at this point. Between the description and the design around the gem, I think it conveys the idea and concept of the physrep well and is not worth trying to swap out.

Thanks,
Bryan Gregory
 
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So, as a Selunari player, I find it very frustrating that the phys-rep for the picture next to the race description is too small. I don't think that designs around the gem should count, as the rulebook specifically states that it has to be the size of a US penny. By this same logic, you can't have a cluster of small gems instead of a big gem. I don't think the picture should be removed entirely from the book, as I think her costuming is still great, but I do think that it could be switched with the Selunari picture on page 12 of the 2.0 Player's Guide. This keeps both pictures in the book, but moves a proper phys-rep to the race description.
 
I searched the document for this rule (which is in the v0.12b pre-release), but did not find it:

"When a Signature Spell is cast from memory (meaning not from a Magic Item or the Flexible Casting skill, and not used via another skill such as Magistarium Strike), if it hits a target but triggers a Guard, Return, or No Effect defense, the spell may be subsequently Meditated back as though it had missed."
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Am I missing it?

The description for Evocation Bolt explicitly lists it as the signature spell for Celestial Casters. I did not see a similar statement for the Cure Wounds effect description.
 
I believe that either the Selunari picture needs to change or the racial requirements needs to change to reflect the display.

I would inform that player that they aren’t appropriately representing the Selunari race, and would equate it to a Dryad wearing cascades of metal jewelry or a Biata player comfortably (and knowingly) receiving benefits from Celestial magic.
 
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