Update: Red Ash Powers...

Just got the species powers updated and fixed a lot of the descriptions. I also improved the based damage of many powers. A few had cost changes so if you may want to go back over the cost related to any species you have made with the system.

A new addition is a detailed description of species powers and all the related values. You can find this here on the main species powers page.

Now I will move on and take one more look at equipment. I also have a a few new powers to add to the system and a new addition or two to the non-playable species list. After this I will need to review the combat rules and see what need to be touched up there. During this I may decide to build some test characters for combat testing and make adjustments as needed.

I feel that the overall project of designing the rules of the Red Ash World Engine is coming to an end. While the system still has a lot of art that needs to be done, it is a low priority for me right now. If anyone wants to offer to do some art for the core system rules just drop me a message. Unless I find something else to fix I will start to build the first free-to-play Red Ash adventure for all you tabletop rpg fans!

All the Best!
Chris J.

Class feats are here!

I have expanded the class rules to include class feats. Class feats are an optional add on to classes and are closely tied to the class skills. The feats will allow your character to develop specialties as they advance by using the same skill points that you use to buy skill levels.

Most of these feats are multilevel with a max level of 10. You can buy each level for increased benefit but only once you have met the requirements for each level. Take Arcane Battery for example. It has a requirement of 20 Arcana Levels per Arcane Battery Level you buy. Some feats will also have multiple requirements like Melee, Acid requires skill levels on any child of the Melee Skill and the Acid Weapon Skill. More melee skill is needed than Acid Weapon.

As stated above, Class Feats use Skill Points to pay for the feats. The cost of the feat will depend on if the class bought the feat making it a related feat of the class. Related feats are less expensive than those that or open feats (non related, non restricted).

A feat can also be restricted. This is done automatically when you restrict a root skill when making a class. While the class will lose access to the feats that need that root skill or once of its child skills, you do gain more more points to define you class.

Speaking of points, classes have now been increased to 100 points from the original 50 points. I also changed the cost of Ability level increase and made it very expensive to gain a +1 every 3 levels. In fact it is expensive to get a +1 every 4 levels. For this reason I added an automatic +1 per 5 levels as a free increase that you can select where it goes. This applies to non playable species too.

Read more about the class feats here and the updates class rules here.

All the Best
Chris J

Skills Updated and more

After making adjustments to the base values of the ability score I decided to have a review of the skills to make sure they are in sync. They were not....

Now the skills have been updated to reflect the changes made so far including the difficulties, saves and control rolls. I also did a bit of a rewrite of the jump skill as it was still based on the very first version of the rules published. One other area I addressed was the use of spaces has now been switched to meters.

I also added the meaning of the names difficulties and the related values on the skills main page. Below that you will find a few paragraphs describing the ideas behind skills and a break down of terms used.

Up next will be a review of powers and a new addition to the classes, the class feats (or class perks I have yet to settle on a name). The idea of this is to allow certain minor class powers to open up based on the skill level progression a character follows.


All the Best,
Chris J

New additions for Red Ash

After a great deal of work I have finally added the template system and more to Red Ash World Engine

First the templates.

Template are meant to be used on characters after they have become adventurers, or as a part of their quest. As this greatly modifies the base race they are often considered monsters by the society they are from. But since the Red Ash system is meant to be used in a world of you design, you may decide differently.

During the development of the wererat template I realized the character may be able to make use of the common rats characteristic of being a disease carrier and so I decided this would be a good time to design the pathogens (diseases) of Red Ash.

Pathogens are actually a subset of diseases that focus on some of the more deadly or dangerous real world diseases and I went to great lengths to describe the game mechanics used in Red Ash on the main pathogen page. I even altered the Unclean power defined already to include different forms of bite, touch and cloud. The cost is low on these powers as their use should have bigger story line issues, specially in a multi-species game setting.

I also realized while designing the were-creature templates I needed to add some big cats and the common rat so a base creature was present in the base rules set.

One additional power was also added called, Powerful Bite and it is a power enhancer for those with the bite power. It is also how I will handle creature like the jaguar that naturally has a very powerful bite when compared to others of its kind, like the tiger or lion.

To read more on these topics here are a few links:

Pathogens
Templates
Unclean
Powerful Bite

All the Best,
Chris J.

Coming Soon...

I have been taking a little time to figure out the next section to be included to the Red Ash World Engine...Character Templates!

The character templates is how I will address specialized creatures like the undead, were-creatures (werewolves for example) and more. Templates will modify the characters base species with new powers and abilities.

before I roll these out I need to finish off the work and test my display scripts for the site. I also must add a few more mundane creatures and some additional odds and ends so stay tuned!

All the Best,
Chris J.

Minor fix

Found that in my update of the size categories I forgot to update the equipment sizes to. Well...now it is done.

All the Best,

Chris J

New Species Added: The Sphinx

Red Ash takes the idea and legend of the Sphinx and twist it just a little. The Sphinx are manipulators of travelers. They redirect travelers to various locations for reasons all their own.

While often times a Sphinx will use indirect methods to herd a party (or person) they will also use intimidation to obtain these goals. They will even go so far as to impede their targets travel directly by asking an impossible riddle. If the party gets the riddle correct, they will allow passage but if they get it wrong they will kill any that attempt to pass.

Once a location has been visited the Sphinx will move on to other lands.

While the Sphinx are physical powerful beast their true power lies in their developed Psyche Skills with a special focus on the Life Sense skill and the Mentis Magi skill branch to aid in communication as the do not have a spoken language.

read more here.

All the Best,

Chris J