The Unchained (Real Time Combat GM Adventure) [ALPHA]

This is the Alpha release of an experimental GM adventure designed with REAL TIME combat! The entire game has been rebalanced and reworked for this. This requires the GM adventure to run.

Characters don’t enter combat and can move freely and use their skills in real time.

Skill animations are cut off very quickly, to make for snappy actions.

All skills rebalanced around cooldowns and other factors besides AP.

Non-functional talents have been removed, abilities reworked, and various statuses changed.

Loot has been reworked and includes many of my Greed modifiers reworked for real time.

Dodging isn’t a thing anymore.

Enemies use pretty much standard AI behavior except its in real time. Bosses and more powerful characters will usually be controlled by the GM directly, however.

Some characters will wander around the map, giving scenes more life.

Resurrection Scrolls will largely be replaced by "Surgery Kits", a short range "resurrection" that is intended to simulate a medical intervention in a near-death ally. You’ll have to ignore the weirdness of performing surgery on an ash pile. 😛

The city of Brightbone, a necromantic haven in the scorching desert, does not tolerate crime. It sends those convicted of various crimes to the local coliseum to fight monsters and other criminals. You and three others have been sent to the arena for crimes you may or may not have committed. Can you survive the arena? And might there be more in store for you than just survival?

You will travel to many exotic locations (including several custom designed levels), and fight many powerful beasts. And perhaps things aren’t as they seem, as they so often are…

There will be MASSIVE balance issues for now, given it has not be tested at all. But the campaign is balanced for a party of 4 of the "gold standard" composition: a tank, healer/support, damage, and "face" or other utility character.

There is a new character preset of "citizen" which grants 4 non-combat ability points, but zero combat ability points or attributes, and is intended people who want to focus more on roleplay, which can still have huge combat benefits.

For example, you were a trader, and you start with 2 points in barter and 2 in charisma, and you use that to acquire better equipment for your teammates and important knowledge about your opponents, up-front gold for quests and the like. (And don’t worry, that character can pick up some combat prowess as they level up.)

It will feel very awkward at first. There will be a "training room" for you to get a handle on things.

Use hotkeys! Default bindings will be okay initially, but I’d recommend rebinding skill keys 6-10 to something easier to access as you gain more skills.

Avoid "regular attacks," skills are much more powerful. When creating a character, make sure to take a zero-cooldown basic attack skill (such as Piercing Shot, Crippling Strike, etc.) so you always have something to do. Character presets have been reworked and I encourage you to stick with them, and use the extra skill I grant you at the start to differentiate yourself as you wish.

Every class is playable, but I’d avoid Summoner and Polymorph as the first thing you play. The summoner can create auto-attacking totems, but the incarnate must be controlled separately from the summoner, which takes some practice. Polymorph requires managing lots of skills as well. Also avoid hybrid classes until you get a handle on things, since they will have many more skills to deal with.

One turn is equivalent to 6 seconds, so any time you see turns (like for statuses), just think 6 seconds.

Remove screen shake in gameplay settings, it’s annoying.

This is how I will treat Civil Abilities for roleplay: If you do not have any points in something, you can still make a roll for it, but at -5 penalty. Each civil ability point will be worth +2 to succeed. The GM will roll a D20 and determine the success number according to the attempted action. Natural 1s and 20s always fail or succeed respectively.

Lockpicking

Locks will not require a roll if you meet the requirement, just a Thievery check. If you are below the skill required, you can roll to open it still.

Sneaking

Given the real time combat, sneaking will have a lot of potential utility, since AI characters will avoid you, but you can also make sneak rolls out of combat.

Telekinesis

There may be out of reach items you can grab either with actual use of the ability or a roll. You also may perform actions at a distance. You could pickpocket or lock a door at a distance if you have Thievery and Telekinesis (using whichever is lower as the roll bonus).

Loremaster

Identify items. You also may make an additional lore check on unique items to see if you can unlock any additional traits. Also general "lore" knowledge of various topics, including monsters.

Lucky Charm

Extra loot from containers. Also various situations will allow a luck roll. Let’s say you find an old beer barrel in a base, you could roll luck to see if the beer is still good, and if you roll well enough, it could be extra delicious and valuable.

Persuasion

Your standard fare charisma stat, use to convince people to give you more information, better rewards, etc.

Bartering

Better prices for the party. Negotiate sales or trades outside of the shop as well.

Want a custom civil ability? Alchemy, Trap Making, Survival, etc? We can make it work.