[AzureDrupe]

The Mark III Edition of Epic Roleplaying continues to hone our primary design goal of maximizing both simplicity of play and satisfying modeling of the real world. We took a good, long look under the hood, and made some significant changes. Almost all of the revisions aim directly at improving elegance, while holding on to the grit we never want to give up.

Here is a brief overview of what has been changed from the previous revision:
1. Vital Attributes: they now range from -10 to 10. VAs in the range of -2 to 2 are considered average, while -10 and 10 represent the extreme ranges of human variation. VAs now directly modify facets of play, and VA rolls have been given a more robust functionality. This change removes VA modifiers simplifying Vas and making them easier to explain to beginners. More importantly, they now scale like skills do.

2. Progression: Experience points have been removed from the game. Progression rolls for skill advancement take the place of adding and tracking experience. Characters receive progression rolls at the beginning of every session and are directly linked to important moments of play in the game: The epiphanies created by great success or failure, as indicated by critical success or failure rolls (yes, you get an opportunity to advance on crit rolls. We do learn from our miserable failures and big wins, no?). Progression rolls, are also granted in moments where characters play to their Drive. This rewards roleplaying. Advancing to higher levels requires scoring a higher difficulty level on the roll, which is modified by the VA for the skill (talent), so that progressing from 1 to 2 would be an easy task, while going from 9 to 10 would be impossible. After every two levels, the difficulty increases. We think that players will enjoy not having to do the record keeping of experience and that groups will have fun watching each other make their rolls in turn at the beginning of a gaming session.

3. Tactical Play: Attack rolls now directly determine damage and the damage roll has been removed, greatly streamlining the combat experience (some variants and other things retain damage rolls). There are several nice things about this change. First, the better the hit, the more deadly it is (there was nothing worse than scoring a huge hit and rolling 3 points of damage). It also allows for wider variation and gradation in damage among weapons because each weapon has a bonus or penalty on damage. For example, a long sword has an impact of 0, so damage is simply equal to the attack roll (and still therefore equal to 2d10), but a two-handed sword might have an impact of 6, which would just be added to the attack roll, if it was successful. This reduces the number of rolls needed to model combat, but doesn’t detract from the tactical or grittiness of the game. If you think of dice generating the underlying randomness for a given task, most tasks (skill rolls) are affected by random factors once (one set of rolling dice), but combat had 3 (order, attack, and damage). This change brings combat more in line with skills. And, it is fun now knowing that a high attack roll will be deadly.

These three major changes created a cascade of smaller adjustments across every corner the Epic rule set, and we hope you like them as much as we do. As usual, we could not have achieved the continuing evolution of the game without the contributions of our passionate players. To you we offer our everlasting thanks and appreciation!

Our online storefront will temporarily down while we finish testing and compiling the books. When we get the storefront back up everything will be available in electronic and print form.

Best wishes, Chris

[Xeelee]

I think a version III is a little 'mad'.

However, it looks even more Runequest than it did before, and I'm game. So when will this new version be available to buy?

Cheers

[AzureDrupe]

Hi Xeelee,

How so mad? Too soon after the Mark II? Of course, since we are not driven by numerous supplements, people could continue to play in M2.

And how more so like RuneQuest (haven't picked that up in a while)?

Some of these changes were made explicitly with introducing beginners in mind. Our thought was to simplify things a bit without losing any nuance or detail. I actually think the new changes simplify but also add in the process...

We are aiming for a release within the coming month.

Best, Chris

[Xeelee]

Well perhaps not so soon afterall, the 'internet' tells me that they got from RQ 1 to RQ III (the version I started playing... though not when it was released) in six years. So you are in good company - and I guess that is another similarity, though not one I'd had in mind.

Epic was already relatively Runequest-like, and things like in-game progression (rather than extra game experience allocation) seems to fit that logic pretty well. I never played some of the changes you guys made in terms of drives etc that heavily, so I suspect I might be even more pleased with what I find, the more I look into it.

I'll be watching this space.

And dreading reworking my setting entries!

[AzureDrupe]

[Renegade Paladin]

Well, kind of glad I didn't jump on the Mark II bandwagon now. (Not because I wasn't interested, you understand, but because I was having a difficult time arranging time to play Epic to begin with since my gaming group all got actual jobs.) I'll talk it over with the group and see if we want to go to Mark III.

[AzureDrupe]

Great to hear!

[AzureDrupe]

The store is back up with all updated material. We even have some new covers!

We are now making all books available as PDFs.

Best, Chris

[Xeelee]

Cool - if the other option I am lining up is too unreasonable with international postage, this will make a good alternative gift for my kids to get me on Sep 4

Pity you guys didn't have it oput a month earlier so I could have used it for the new campaign I began. Earthdawn won out by default!

[AzureDrupe]

Dang!

[Xeelee]

Well the Kids decided I needed this for Father's day - so whether or not I am playing it right now, I have it there is hardcopy for later.

[Reimdall]

Woo Hoo!

Go Kids!

[Afon y Bydysawd]

Just to clarify. On Lulu: the Bestiary, Atlas of Eslin, and the Atlas of Audhüm are all Mark III now? If they are Mark III, it might be good to indicate this prominently: on the cover, in the title, in the product description. I’m guessing that the publication date of August 2011 means they’re Mark III, but I want to be sure before buying.

Thanks

[Reimdall]

That's correct, A y B -

The Bestiary, Atlas and Atlas of Audhum are jived to the Mark III version.

Good idea re: the Now! With Mark III! signage.

Thanks!

[Afon y Bydysawd]