Frayed Knights Development Updates

Jay Barnson has provided us with two more development updates for his indie RPG Frayed Knights, including a brief look at the Chapel of Anarchy (screenshot included) and a heftier summary of the item-usage, combat, and spellcasting systems.

The old combat system (in the demo) didn’t actually have the concept of turns. You took an action, and then had a delay (based on the action) to when you could perform the next action, in (phases). Slower actions took more phases. That led to a nice, fluid system of actions based on character speed, action timing, and a bunch of other features. It was also pretty confusing, and made balancing kind of a pain. Especially when I had effects that lasted in terms of (turns) (which I’d defined as 10 phases. the average length of time of any action). When it became too confusing and difficult to balance for me, it was time for a change.

Combat is now broken up into distinctive turns, and most actions simply take (a turn.) However, some weapons are slightly faster, and there are spells that speed things up. So there is still something of a phase system underneath the turn-based combat, but it is mainly used to calculate whether a character gets to go twice (or three times) in a turn or not. I’m pleased with the new system. It seems to include the best of both worlds.

Next scrolls. I wanted scrolls to be a Big Deal. And now, I think they are. Scrolls are used for two things: To learn new spells, and to cast spells directly with a minimal endurance cost. Either usage (uses up) a scroll. Not all spells need to be learned from scrolls some spells are (common) and are immediately understood once a character with the correct spellcasting ability (Sorcery, Divine Magic, Nature Magic, or Profane Magic) and feats is of high enough level to cast the spell. But at least half of the spells in the game are only available via scrolls. so you have to hunt them down a bit. But once you memorize them from the scroll, they are yours forever.

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