What to Expect...

So the Print on Demand version of the HoF Core Rules is nearing completion, and I thought I would take some time to let people know what to expect. Well, first of all, as mentioned previously all the artwork has been reconsidered and it now has several magnificent full page splashes of fantasy art courtesy of Joe J. Calkins of Cerberus Art. We’ve used a few pictures from the Wyn D’mere Art Pack from RPGNow.com and by Shield of Faith Studios / Matt Jordan and some of the artwork available from the Arcane Monthly e-magazine. A few of the original pictures made it into this iteration of the Core Rules as well. It’s not that the previous artwork weren’t good, it’s more that the pictures were just littered through the publication to fill space and break up the walls of text. Not much in the way of theme.

I’ve talked enough about artwork (did I mention that it looks brilliant?), what’s going to be different?

I’ve gone through and revised about 60% of the rules. This revision included rewrites to clear up confusions about some of the information, reordering sections within the chapters to make more sense and outright adding more goodness.

Some examples of new content:

·         Rules clarification about using Aces and Jacks to activate Talents, and Aces not able to activate Combos

·         Grammatical fixes for some entries

·         Introducing the concept of ‘0 Value Cards’ – when defending against an attack with more cards than you have, you may still apply your modifiers to Effect against those pesky low valued cards that always seem to do the damage as they’re undefended. Now you can pop that errant +1 to Effect onto an imaginary card with a value of 0, essentially defending a card with nothing more than an Effect bonus

·         Added the Dazed and Confused Conditions.

·         Reworked Enchantments – added 2 new types of Enchantment spells; Divinations and Cantrips. These new spell types introduce a new way to cast Enchantments, and offer more flavour and versatility to this magic style. Cantrips are effects that affect the physical world, such as telekinesis, rope tricks and orbs of light. Divinations allow for gypsy like fortune tellers and mind reading abilities. Several new spells!

·         Animism has a few new Spirits of the Wilds added. Some of the process of summoning and communing has been streamlined a little. More information on Diabolism, including 3 Demon Types to summon and serve…I mean befriend.

·         Games Mastery has had a fair bit of re-write done on it, to clear up the wall of text that used to be the Interactions section about NPC reactions and diplomacy or intimidation. Re-ordered the sections on Narration and Passing the Narrative. Added better information regarding weather effects.

·         Creature Features – Added several new Features; Tough – add points to tough creature’s Hand without increasing Expertise, Shapeshifter – change the creatures appearance slightly, such as facial features to appear as someone else, True Shapeshifter – change the entire body, size and shape of a creature, Heroic – Changed to remove the reference to Second Wind (oops), Acid – removed reference to Chemistry (was meant to be Alchemy) and changed the way it operates, Fleet – add movement to creatures without having to increase their POW, Plant – changed the references to include notes about movement and Immunities and Vulnerabilities, as well as discussing INT scores.

·         And more that I can’t think of right now

So, tons of new stuff, we’re pretty excited about the completion of this task, and will keep you informed of expected changes in the near future.

Stay Sharp!