Pre-art draft feedback

[Lorm_the_Unhappy]

[Dougansf]

[Utsukushi]

Still not too late to take my suggestion on Spell Matrices!

..No? Ah, well.

Just two quick things, then:
1) A second -- seventh? -- to the general thank you and clap-on-the-back! Especially for your guys' activity in this forum from the start! I take it Panda drew the short straw? Hehe...you've been truly, truly awesome, Panda. We very much appreciate it. Even when you've had to say, "I have the answer to this, but I can't share it right now", you've made SUCH an effort to respond to... everything.

And 2) I would also agree with just making Great Leap not available as a Skill, over making the Skill equal to the Talent. Just because the broad appearance of a Talent can be replicated by anybody doesn't make the Talent not a highly magical effect. I have long nails and can curl my fingers, but Claw Shape is still Skill: No, and I wouldn't argue to change that.

Although Telarus's comment (about making it Yes (Journeyman)) seems to suggest that there are levels of Skill-availability now? That looked unfamiliar to me, but I gather it would basically bump up the LP cost? That seems like a totally workable compromise, too... I can see it (in a fantasy context, and with, as Mataxes said, a certain degree of poetic license) working so that with a lot of devotion and training a non-Adept can learn to leap like that, but it should indeed require a *lot* of devotion and training. It feels a little more... Wuxia than I think of Earthdawn, but it works.

...It seems like a quick mention in the paragraph about how "As a Skill, the distance rolled is in feet, rather than yards," was always simple enough, too. I don't remember anyone ever complaining that that was too complicated, and it doesn't require a whole Skill Section padded out with individual descriptions most of which could, indeed, say, "See p.65."

[etherial]

[Panda]

Thank you to everyone for all of the kind words. This has been a labor of love going on nearly a year now. You will have to thank Josh for my public activity at all. It wasn't until the Earthdawn Q&A hosted in the middle of January that he named me. My plan was to stay behind the scenes and have Josh be the only public face. In retrospect, a little naive and I think having to field all of the questions would have stretched him very thin. It was less of drawing the short straw and more Josh seeing it as a good thing to encourage interaction and to take pressure off of him so he could work on actually getting the book to print.

I apologize for getting a bit grumpy at times, or coming off as brusque. We are a community and we are brought together by our love of the game and we all want it to be the best game in the end. There may be some disagreements on what achieves the goal, but it is my hope 4E has enough positive changes for groups to indicate they are playing a house-ruled version of 4E, instead of "<favorite edition> with some 4E". Though I will settle for that.

Truth be told, I do love answering questions and there are so many other things going on in my little grove which are exciting. At least, they are exciting to me. Developments for the Companion are the major part, but also some items planning for the future, including material which was cut. Spells were designed to have a lot of design space to grow, and still give room for others to have their own ball. The other areas I'm working on are going to get a similar kind of overhaul; except for thread items, they got an overhaul in a slightly different direction which has been previously discussed. Hopefully, this a good thing.

To add an amendment to etherial's response, which is mostly correct, Journeyman skills are priced as Warden talents. Skills prices are shifted one column over. Also, Journeyman skills cannot be taken with free skill ranks at character creation.

I don't know if I should be surprised or delighted (both?) over the fact the only question for the new illusion rules (Use Your Illusion 2, as I may have titled them in initial development documents) was regarding action type of Disbelief. I'm going to now pretend it is because this state is because they are so simple and clear, there is nothing more to be said on the matter. As opposed to some other inconvenient truth.

Thank you again to everyone.

[Panda]

[Panda]

[etherial]

[Panda]

I did, but it didn't seem like a question. To be explicit: there are no free spells beyond character creation. There are a few reasons for this, but they are possibly irrelevant.

[etherial]