Posts tagged "atlas"

Finally complete

After sorting out some software issues with the site, we've finally managed to get the Sabre RPG online. That took a bit longer than I initially thought, as I'd planned for an early January release! Still, the extra time has served it well, for I tweaked and modified a few things while waiting for the site to get fixed. Mostly, the work has involved streamlining things, as smooth play is one of the aims for the system. 

So it's ready for public use, though I don't consider it 'finished' as such. Consider it a very advanced public beta, and based on feedback, I'll tweak and modify things as needed. But after three years of development and play, I have to say it's pretty solid. 

The core rules settled down some time ago, after a big streamlining effort in the middle of last year. During the first two years it had accrued quite a bit of system bloat, and it really benefitted from being pared down. The aim was to keep a good amount of detail, while making sure it played well. Hopefully it's straight-forward enough for beginners to use (let us know!) yet with enough depth to satisfy veteran players.


Now, a word about art - the manuals don't have a lot. Sure, it has a nice watermark, cover and little graphical flourishes, but my plan to personally create all the internal art, such as race portraits, monster portraits and such, hit a stumbling block. I'm predominatly a landscape artist, and relatively new to the field of fantasy art, so I wasn't happy with the results of some of my work. I plan to keep practicing, but that'll depend on how many people try it out, too. In an extreme case, if it garners a large following, I might just end up paying a real fantasy artist to do the work.


In its current form, the atlas depicts the primary location of the game, the Kingdom of Aielund. It should be more than enough to provide a starting place for your adventures, should you wish to run them in the campaign world of Feydwiir. I have preliminary work done on the rest of the world, it's really just a matter of formatting and checking to make sure it's all correct, so releasing expanded editions should be straight-forward. Speaking of updates...

Update Schedule

The initial plan is to provide a system update every six months, but I can step that up if demand increases. Each update will require re-purchasing a given product, but I plan to make it worth your while! I'll be sure to include a few more pictures, plus additional spells, talents and tactics for the manual, plus some more beasties, NPC templates and whole countries for the atlas. I won't be releasing errata sheets, as I plan to simply update the primary PDF to make sure any rule adjustments are fully integrated, so you won't have to chase any changes through separate files.


The likelihood of creating a hardcover print version of the manuals depends on demand, and of course the amount of art that's been added to the system - we can't have "placeholder images" dotted throughout the bestiary! But yes it's something that's being considered for the future. 

For now, check out the system and see if it's to your liking - we're quite proud of the result and we think you'll enjoy it!


As for the sci-fi version of the system, that's still in development. Converting the fantasy system over was pretty easy for the most part, but has yet to be tested. We'll get on to that in May and have an early release up in June for you to try out. I've crunched the numbers and it should work out fine but these things rarely pan out in practical tests, so we'll see.

There will be a system for space combat too, ship-to-ship, but the rules will be slightly different to ground battles so it'll come in a separate release. I'm pretty excited about what I've done so far and can't wait to try it. You'll be able to salvage, build or upgrade your own robots, vehicles and advanced weapons using a very elegant methodology. The system will be good for modern combat too, as I've been sure to categorise equipment into 'Modern' and 'Advanced' lists. So, this varient of the system should cover modern or futuristic settings very nicely.

I'm planning a campaign world that blends a medieval-style setting with 'relics' from the before-time, i.e. pistols, machine guns and other more advanced systems. Oh, and the only magic available is a Psychic skill, so it's more of a hard-science approach instead of a full blend of magic and science. Still, you could absolutely combine regular Sabre with the sci-fi system to create your own science-fantasy setting, as the core rules are exactly the same. Yes, I'm having a lot of fun putting this together!

That's all for now, peace out.