Seacat Update: 4.5 Heroes and Some Rules (Patreon)

Dear Heroes,

Here we are now, finally. Seacat is rolling and picking up bits and bobs of UVG along the way. This was my goal all along, but I hadn't realized quite what a task it was.

I thought to myself, "Oh, Luka, this'll be easy as pie! You'll just roll up the rules from the back of UVG, and expand them with a few more skins or skeletons or classes or whatever you decide to call the hero categories!"

I waded bravely into the fray. "This will be fun! This will be simple!"

Oh, if only.

And I wrote up the Electric Wizard, cackling all the way. And I gave it cute, quirky mechanics. And new spells. And fun abilities.

And then I cried out, "But this is 16 pages for a single class! This is far too much! This is completely muddled!"

So I pondered.

And I said to myself, "Oh, Luka, quite simple! Split this up into three books. One where you'll keep just the rules for reference. Another where you'll keep just the lore. And the third, the third will be this fun little hero generator!"

I waded bravely into the fray. "This will be easy enough. A bit of editing and done!"

Oh, if only.

I duplicated content for archiving and easier reference. I edited and wrote in three documents simultaneously. I kept them up to date with one another.

And then I cried out, "But this is completely maddening! And the hero book is still far, far too long!"

So I pondered.

And I said to myself, "Oh, Luka, well, there is a solution. Combine all the reference, rules and all, in a single book. Keep the long descriptions there. Meanwhile, for the hero book, put just art and tables there."

And so I did that. And it wasn't easy. And it's not finished yet, though I've written around 24,000 words. Egads. And it's Saturday evening on the 29th of February and I've missed patreon's billing period for February, so that's annoying. But ... I think it's a solid beginning of something good.

So, what is it?

Well, basically it's the second chunk and second draft of Seacat the RPG. First, we have  Ultraviolet Heroes. This is a book of hero skins or bundles for generating new characters and levelling them up. It includes:

• Heroes from levels 3 to 6.
• A quirky, semi-random levelling mechanic.
• A generic everyhero skin.
• The electric wizard, freehold archaeologist, barbarian destroyer, and timelost warrior skins. All of them fitting quite nicely into the moebiuesque fantasies of UVG or Red Sky.

The Ultraviolet Heroes reference the second book, Rules and Things, which has:

• Updated Seacat rules for skills, abilities, magic, and sidekicks
• Guidelines for play and improvisation
• Guidelines for making new skills, abilities, spells, and sidekicks
• Things. Lots of things. Specifically a lot of skills.
• A long list of abilities.
• A few more albums of spells.
• A list of sidekicks.
• A list of creatures and extras.

So what's left?

Uhh ... a lot.

• I want to translate the skeleton, tourist and weapon to the new format.
• Add a few more skins.
• Compile all the skills and abilities and spells from UVG and Red Sky in here.
• Finish cleaning up and updating the rules, adding chapters on XP, adventuring, and so on.
• Expand the conflict mechanics, particularly the parts on combat zones.
• Expand the diagramming rules from Red Sky
• Add the lists of items from UVG and Red Sky

Why do this instead of Red Sky?

Frankly, because I have to. It's part of Red Sky, too. See, though Ebet and the Black City might be on different worlds, they rhyme enough that ... they don't need to be. They share ideas and underpinnings about how their worlds work. The gates. The ha-ka-ba. The deep history. The looting of relics. The anti-canons.

But they also share the mechanical underpinnings (minimal though they are in the setting part), which means that since I updated seacat for UVG ... I also have to update all of Red Sky, so they are consistent.

PHEW.

And that's ... intense.

I've split out Red Sky into two books, one for reference, the other for world and ... I realized that what I needed was this Seacat reference book instead (First person to quote the legend of the Minotaur Queen gets turned into a sidekick). I needed to have a template for writing abilities and spells and items and creatures, not just go off at a trot and then have to re-do everything over and over again.

Are you saying you plan to roll Red Sky into these two books?

No, no, no. I'm planning to bundle all the "encyclopediac reference" content of UVG and Red Sky together in one place: the glossary, the lists of spells, the lists of abilities, items, things like that.

And I'm planning to bundle all the "hero" generators for the two books into one place and one system (more or less).

And I'm taking out all the rules from Red Sky and UVG and putting them into a single rule book.

Which will leave the Red Sky book as a coherent sandbox adventure setting.

Did I just say I'm now writing four books at once?

Uhhh ... actually it's five.

Five? Really?

Yeah, there's a secret project in the background, too.

Really?

Um. Yes.

Huh

Right, it's really simple! Trust me, it'll work!

Address the readers again, please

Oh, right. Well, dear heroes, so yes. By this hilariously roundabout route, I am actually writing Red Sky. In fact, the Barbarian Destroyer and the Freehold Archaeologist and the Electric Wizard all function as archetypal auxiliary mercenary liberators working with Iks to 'modernize' Ébét and transfer it's wealth to future generations!

One thing I will have to address is ... my writing problem however. I'm going to make a poll soon enough, where I will propose to adjust my posting schedule, so that I publish either coherent updates (yay!) or sections when those reach a certain word count (say 10 kilowords).

Because, unfortunately, I feel the pressure to deliver a complete thing, and sometimes when one of those wants to be longer, I feel uncomfortable posting an update, even though every time I do, I get excellent new insights from you heroes which makes my work much, much better.

But that's for another time.

Oh, and for the record ... just this post was 1,000 words.

So if you read this far and very carefully, you should be able to get a prize. I've already mentioned how. Somewhere. In that long text.

Cheers and Happy February's End!
—Luka