Lot of changes this time around, and I figure I should talk through at least some of them. Full(ish) changelog way at the bottom.

Thanks to Ranyaki who gave me a bunch of feedback here on itch, to peppagrue who gave me some mechanics ideas I stole for the tweaked Demonic Sorcerer ability, to dozens who is running a fantastic solo game using Brighter Worlds, to my two tables of playtesters, and to other people who gave me feedback that I’m forgetting at the moment.

New Calling!

The Crystal Wizard is my attempt at a Calling for players who like to pour over spell lists and pick out ones that interest them, as well as for players that like the routine of having to pick and prepare spells each day.

Removal of Partial Success

A “tie” no longer exists for Saves, outside of when you’re Saving against another character.

This is for a few reasons. First, it just didn’t reflect the way I was running the game. Brighter Worlds is derived primarily from ITO ancestry games, which means a Save is used to avoid consequences or harm. It’s not a way to determine whether or not you could do something in the first place. This lead to a lot of situations in which a “tie” or partial success just didn’t make a ton of sense.

Second, it make the updated combat rules (explained next) a bit more awkward. The changed rules really wanted a simple binary for the success/failure of a Critical Damage Save.

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, it was extra rules baggage that wasn’t holding its weight. It wasn’t adding enough to the game to justify its own existence. Running playtests with it removed lead to the realization that removing it was barely noticable. Add to that how much easier it makes layout by not having to spell out 3 tiers of success for every roll and it makes sense to cut.

Change to Combat and Critical Damage

I had previously been sticking with the Cairn/Electric Bastionland rules for Critical Damage and incapacitation. As soon as you failed a roll, you were down for the count. This had a few issues I found in playtests that I wanted to address.

First, combat was (often) extremely “rocket tag”. The first to strike is the winner most of the time. Broadly I actually like this style of combat, it heavily emphasizes ambushes and clever thinking, and won’t drag on too long. In this case though, it was even more decisive than base ITO style combat.

Second, combat sometimes went far too long. Since passing a Save meant there were no negative consequences at all, it was possible to have a group of people attacking an enemy with zero grit for several rounds with no forward progress. It felt awkward, annoying, and although it can be “fixed” with on the spot rulings, I want the rules to start in a place that doesn’t require that.

Lastly, Attributes in Brighter Worlds are dice, and functionally they’re “usage dice”. However, in combat, a higher STR didn’t feel like it mattered a ton, and wasn’t taking advantage of the extra “steps” a higher die gives you. All you got was a slightly better chance at passing Critical Damage Saves.

I playtested several different ideas before setting on the following:

The new rule: When you take Direct Damage (past your Grit) you make a Critical Damage Save vs that amount. Fail and you take Critical Damage, which steps down your STR die. You don’t become incapacitated until you go down below a d4 to zero dice. In addition, simultaneous attacks add their Direct Damage together, and if you take damage higher than your die size, you instantly take Critical Damage and the remaining damage overflows, restarting the process.

The consequences are this: higher STR makes you significantly more durable in combat (to the point where it’s something to keep in mind while statting up monsters). Ganging up is now incredibly effective, letting the party team up to take down bigger bosses. It is both less lethal (you stay up on Critical Damage) and more lethal (one big hit can wipe out multiple steps of STR). Overall I’ve been happy with how it feels in playtesting, but it has shifted the feel of the game somewhat.

Smaller changes to note:

• Healing attributes is faster, because it’s not easier to have them reduced.
• Starting Attributes changed, to give people more flexibilty.
• Starting Equipment tables were added, based on feedback I got from playtests that people didn’t have enough “stuff” right out of the gate.
• Bestiary, Magic Items, and Cast & Crew chapters added to give people some examples to work off of. None are intended to be comprehensive.
• The “Friend Die” mechanic I use in my home game has been added, along with the procedures I use for dungeon and hex crawling.

Even smaller changes:

Too many to go through one by one, there’s a mostly complete changelog and if anyone has questions please do ask.

Changes

• Major Changes
  • Removal of Mixed Success on Saves (Ties still exist on versus Saves).
  • Large changes to combat/direct damage saves.
  • Change to starting Attributes
  • Added starting equipment tables.
  • Added Magic Items chapter
  • Added Bestiary chapter
  • Added “Cast & Crew” chapter
• Minor Changes
  • Changed attribute descriptions.
  • Spellcasting no longer requires the Grimoire to be held, but still requires both hands to be involved (to not make it awkward to use magic staves or wands). This change is more minor than it sounds.
  • Significant changes to Demonic Sorcerer core spellcasting abilities.
  • Removal of “combat maneuver” and “gang up” rules.
  • Small changes to Blessed of Water relating to damage dealt by core ability.
  • First free Advanced Talent no longer needs to be chosen at character creation and instead can be ‘banked’ until later.
  • Updated “Good Vibes” wording.
  • Slight change to description of Grit (no mechanical change).
  • Slight change to Blast tag (no mechanical change).
  • Slight change to Morale Saves description (no mechanical change).
  • Changed and expanded guidance on developing new Callings.
  • Changes to most Callings’ starting equipment due to the addition of starting equipment tables.
  • Change to “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” Devoted boon to fit with new combat rules.
  • Watercolor illustrations moved to only covers, in anticipating of riso-printing the interior.
  • “Injury & Recovery” chapter changed to “Harm & Healing” because I like the alliteration.
  • Swapped out Alchemist’s “Alchemic Distillation” advanced ability for “Dungeon Delicatessen”
  • Clarification of the Witch’s Familiar spellcasting ability.
  • Removed Cat’s Grace spell, added Lighting Bolt spell.
  • Expanded Bag of Bone’s core ability to allow remote control of detached parts.
  • Tweaked the Perfect Divination ritual.