Update on MEST 2.x

Here's some news for people are interested in MEST 2.x.

Troubleshooting Areas

These are new areas to explore.

• Fire X - Trying out Fire. Fire is a major terrain feature and as a result becomes a big trait. Fire X works sort of like ROF X with using Fire points instead of ROF points. Seems to be deadly and fun. Basic mode does require Fire markers, and those can be upgraded to 1-inch, 2-inch, and 3-inch Fire markers. Still needs more work.
• Smoke X - Trying out Smoke. Good news; works cleanly. Bad news; these will require cotton balls and 1-inch, 2-inch, 3-inch Smoke markers. Good news; Gas of all forms use essentially the same rules.
• Web X - This is a big can of worms. There's a lot of thematic features of Web such as behaving as a glue, behaving as restraint, and behaving as a project weapon. Some of the features by themselves are traits which can be assigned to whips, retarii, and lariats. Still needs more work.
• Flight X - I think this is pretty clean. It gives 6 x X Agility. Flight status is on or off and models move at SIZ x 1-inch from the surface of the battlefield and ignore all terrain. Attack and Defend is +/- half of Agility in favor of the flying model. I'll need to try it out more with multiple flying models.
• React - I think this is just hard to write though it is simple to physically perform. There's too much text, and I want to bring it down. It might be one of those game features which is easier to illustrate than to describe in works. Still needs more work.
• Group Actions - I've clean this up a bit. It is similar to React in that it is easier to show with pictures than to describe in words. Still needs more work.

Rules Tweaks

The Basic Game is fairly solid but I've been adjusting some of the verbiage. 

• Initiative Points - Two big changes.
  
  Convert IP - I've decided that players can convert IP into Go Points (GP). This will allow forces with tactical advantage to form Groups. And so there's now four ways; Go Points by outnumbering the opposition, Initiative Points by having Tactics, Leadership which allows Group formation and membership, and Pack Mentality which also does something similar but usually limited to Pack archetypes like Dogs or Rat-folk.
  
  Recover - IP can be spent on the chance of allowing KO'd models to come back in-play. They'll have 3 Delay tokens and be marked Done. Though cascades from an Unopposed Test can be spent on removing those Delay tokens.
• Situational Modifiers - This is the bane of game designers like me; too many.
  
  Help - akin to Outnumbering, but allows bonus Wild dice for Fiddle actions.
  Focus - akin to Concentrate, but used for Unopposed Tests on-demand.
• Charge - An Active model can only come into Melee Range with Hidden Opposing model if it started the move action within LOS. Similarly, the Charge and Impetus bonuses are not awarded unless the target is in LOS at the start of the Move action.
• Using Agility with LOS - Models may "lean into" terrain elements which they are in base-contact with by using half Agility in order to trace LOS from that position. This counts as Intervening Terrain and therefore is a penalty -1 Modifier die.
• Anti-thematic KO'd Elimination -  I added an Optional Rule to prevent thematic breaking where KO'd models can be per se "coupe de grace'd" and made Eliminated. I think this is very game-y and should only be allowed if either the Attacker or the target are essentially soul-less, evil, machine, or scum-of-the-earth. So, Eliminating zombies or robots or deep ones is OK. And the reverse is also true; zombies and deep ones can kill ("eliminate") KO'd models as well.

The Game Crafter

I've been working on uploading assets to The Game Crafter (thegamecrafter.com) Web site. Once I get my proofs into place, then I'll announce whatever I've uploaded for purchase.