03/23/2022 update: Regarding Printing and Shipping
almost 3 years ago
– Fri, Mar 25, 2022 at 08:10:15 PM
Hi everyone,
I want to take a few minutes of your time to try and clear up some misconceptions regarding how printing and shipping is going to happen. As you know, I’m going to be printing and shipping the books via print on demand, as it’s too expensive for me any other way. Now, some people seem to be confused as to how this works.
I order the printed books AND ship them to you via DTRPG. IF you pledged for a physical copy of the Player’s Guide and/or the Game Master’s Guide, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR ANYTHING ELSE. Your pledge and the shipping fees you paid via Backerkit covered that expense.
The reason I send out vouchers, is so that people who pledged for just the PDFs have a chance to get the printed books at a discounted price. If you pledged for a physical copy of the books, you are under NO OBLIGATION to use those vouchers.
I send the vouchers to everyone simply because it’s easier than trying to sort out everything and create new spread sheets. I’m sorry, but I’m getting older and am prone to make mistakes when dealing with large lists. I don’t want to accidentally leave anyone out.
So let me state this one more time.
IF you pledged for a physical copy of the Player’s Guide and/or the Game Master’s Guide, you do not have to pay for anything else. Your pledge and the shipping fees you paid via Backerkit covered that expense.
I hope this clears things up.
Thanks for your time.
03/21/2022 Update: Printing and other news
almost 3 years ago
– Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 05:41:27 PM
Hi everyone,
So sorry for the lateness of the update; I’ve had a bunch of personal issues come up lately. This is going to be a somewhat lengthy update. I’ll discuss things like printing and shipping of the books, touch on some elements of the game master’s guide I’m adding to address augmentation acquisition and hacking during combat.
TLDR Version
I’m not going to be printing the books through traditional means. I’ll be sending POD copies to those of you who pledged for physical copies.
I’ve developed an easy-to use, optional “Augment Advances” system that essentially lets a player get one augment every three Advances. This means characters can expect to have gained 5 augments by the time they reach Legendary rank.
I’m addressing issues with the action economy as it pertains to hacking in combat. Pinging a system is now a Free Action, and I’m writing a “macro” Edge that reduces the Multi-Action Penalties a character incurs by 1. This Edge may be taken twice; once at seasoned, and again at Heroic.
Now for the longer version.
Printing via POD
I never wanted to have to do it this way, but the only feasible option I have right now is to send Print on Demand books to those of you who pledged for physical copies. It’s just too expensive to do it any other way. I’d be spending upwards of thirty thousand dollars just to get both books printed, and I haven’t even begun to wrap my head around shipping costs. The time it would take to print and ship is also a factor. It would take at least two months to print the books, and I honestly have no idea how long it would take for them to get to my warehouse here in the United States. I hear the global shipping crisis is getting better, but it’s still not good. By printing and shipping via DriveThruRPG and can take care of the entire process in one go.
I plan to start printing/shipping books in late April/Early May.
Augment Advances
I’ve been seeing a lot of discussion/discontent over the loose way I handle cybernetics and other augments in the Player’s Guide. Essentially, people have been complaining that it’s too easy for characters to become cyber-gods in the game, especially at low Ranks. I agree with that assessment, but IZ has always been a bit excessive/overblown when it comes to these things. Still, I understand how hard it can be on game masters who have to deal with this in their campaigns, so I’ve written Augment Advances. Here’s the text:
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Augment Advances work similar to regular Advances as outlined in the Savage Worlds rules. Every three Advances, characters may purchase an augment. The Augment Advance is in addition to the regular Advance characters normally get but does not count towards the number a character needs to rise in Rank. Characters must still purchase the augment normally and apply Strain normally as per the rules for Strain in the Players Guide to 2095. Characters can expect to get five augments before they reach Legendary Rank.
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It’s an easy way for GMs to regulate augments in game, and it also makes things easier to plan for in terms of relative power level.
I’m also writing about other cinematic elements of augment acquisition that deal with finding an augment, getting it installed, recovery times, and especially all of the potential costs involved.
Combat Hacking
Interface Zero has always treated hacking as something that happens in real-time, with hackers being able to act in combat in a support capacity. Combat hackers are able to manipulate the environment, hack into security systems, vehicles, guns, cybernetic systems, and things like that. The reason for this is that we wanted to give hacker characters a reason to stay with the group. This is why hacking is action-based.
Currently the process for Hacking is as follows:
Step 1: Ping the area for active signals
Step 2: Identify the signal the character wishes to hack
Step 3: Hack into the System
Step 4: Manipulate the system
So, that’s four regular actions, not counting logging out.
The problem is, because it’s action-based, hacking needs to follow Savage Worlds rules on Actions.
Characters can perform free actions, they can run, and generally do a single regular action. Performing more than 1 action subjects the character to a Multi-action Penalty (-2 to all actions). Using the rules in the player’s guide, this generally means that if a hacker wants to hack into a system without incurring MAP (Multi-action Penalty), it’ll take at least four rounds to even gain access to the system!
Even if the character does take the penalty, they’ll be rolling at -2, plus and penalties related to the target’s Intrusion Defense System. And they can only perform up to 3 actions per turn. This makes it incredibly difficult to do anything, and since Savage Worlds combat is fast, it’s highly likely that combat will be over with before the hacker gains access to the system.
So, in an effort to speed things up for the hacker, I’ve decided that Pinging a system is a free action. If a character can run as a free action it certainly stands to reason that a hacker should be able to press a button (digital or otherwise). I’m on the fence about Step 2, because this requires concentrating on the character’s part. Steps Three and Four are always regular actions, so we’re down to three actions. To do this in one round, characters will be taking a +4 penalty on all actions, which is really steep! It CAN be done, though, and as long as the character doesn’t log out, they won’t be subject to those penalties until they try and hack a new system.
I think a decent tradeoff is an Edge I call “Macro.” It’s rough and hasn’t been play tested, but here’s what I have thus far.
Macro
Prerequisite: Hacker, Smarts d8, Hacking (Programming) d8
You are able to program macros; short scripts that collate hacking commands and allow you to use them all at once. At Seasoned Rank, a macro reduces Multi-Action Penalties by 1 for up to two actions. At Heroic rank, a macro reduces multi-action penalties by 2 for up to three actions.
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In other news, in April I’ll be creating a play test document for elements of the Malmart Catalog, which I’ll put up on DTRPG for free. You’ll all get downloads for it as soon as it goes up.
Anyhow, this has been a long read.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
02/15/2022: Pod vouchers are being sent
almost 3 years ago
– Wed, Feb 16, 2022 at 04:39:45 PM
Good day,
I've begun sending out vouchers to get the Player's Guide to 2095 in POD if you wish to do so. You'll have the option of getting it in standard or premium if you wish.
I'm still trying to find the best price for offset printing but it may not work out.
I am very happy with the POD, and it may end up that it is easier to fulfill through DTRPG rather than going through the hell that is printing overseas, shipping to my warehouse, and then shipping to backers....especially with the slowdowns of books coming out of China.
IF you pledged for a physical copy, you will get one, and you won't have to pay anything.
I've always stated that I'd be sending pod vouchers to backers so they can get books if they wish to. This is primarily for digital backers who would have liked to get a hard copy, but couldn't afford to pledge for one.
I'm still working on the revisions to the Game Masters Guide.
January Update
about 3 years ago
– Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 03:12:14 PM
Hi everyone, I hope all of you had a happy holidays.
Nothing new to add at this point. I’m working on revisions of the books; nothing major in terms of content. I adjusted the Cyber Tolerance Edge to grant only 3 Strain instead of 4.
All of the work thus far has been adjusting margins, color profiles for all of the art and graphics, cleaning up inconsistencies with text formatting, spacing, column alignment, etc. Doesn’t seem like much, but it’s been a lot of detail-oriented work and that takes time.
The overall readability is better, and the page count has increased, mainly because of the adjustments to the margins, but also because I added some artwork. The player’s guide is almost finished, and then I’ll go through the GM’s Guide and make the necessary changes. That should go much smoother.
I’ve been doing outlines and prep for the source books in my spare time, but no real writing has been done except for the Malmart Catalog. As time permits, I’ll be releasing a few more one-sheets.
Ok, that’s all for now. Thanks for your time.
