Post by Shun Minamoto on Jan 15, 2018 13:35:38 GMT -5
Bleach Gotei 3.0: Part One
Introduction
Two weeks ago, Hazuki announced the barebones basics of some incoming changes for Bleach Gotei. These changes are some of the most fundamental ones that we have ever considered, enough so that I believe it is fit to call this an entirely new iteration of our game: Bleach Gotei 3.0
In many ways, Bleach Gotei 1.0 began with our move off of Forumsmotion in September 2012. Prior to this, Bleach Gotei's colorful history could be called a sort of Beta. To extend the version number analogy, you could say that these were Bleach Gotei 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and so on. The ultimate culmination of Bleach Gotei 1.0 was in late 2014 and early 2015, with an extremely heavy, cumbersome system of mechanics centered almost entirely around constant Stat Boosts and Buffs in combat, ad nauseum.
Bleach Gotei 2.0, in March 2015, changed the focus of Bleach Gotei radically: We wanted to expand our appeal, and our frequently argument-inducing, high-maintenance mechanics system was a huge hindrance to this goal. To accomplish this, we went and eliminated almost all hard mechanics, resulting in a game that had little more than Comparison Tiers and some informational skills for players to put to use as they saw fit. During this period of time, we successfully became the biggest and most active community of our Bleach-roleplaying niche on the entire internet.
Nearly three years later, in the middle of January 2018, we would like to begin Bleach Gotei 3.0.
While the changes of Bleach Gotei 2.0 brought us great popularity and activity, there were some fundamental problems with the game as it stood. First and foremost, the game ended up in a quasi-functional state where our game rules and mechanics failed to perform their stated purpose: to resolve disagreements between players. Other, quality-of-life issues arose as well: such as nothing counterbalancing the broad efficacy of Spirit, mixed ideas regarding what was acceptable for Powers, absolutely nothing encouraging anything but min-max Stat builds, the mess of Custom Skills, and countless, other mechanical issues.
The goal, then, of Bleach Gotei 3.0? Overall, we aim to resolve these mechanical issues to create a lightweight, easy-to-play game that still achieves the stated purpose of being able to resolve disputes between players as necessary. Bleach Gotei 2.0 proved that we could make the biggest, most popular Bleach community; now we want to try to make one that is indisputably the best.
On a personal level, I'm very excited for the new features that have resulted.
While Bleach Gotei 3.0 will encompass changes to our setting and game world as well, this announcement will cover our rules and game mechanics exclusively. Look for Part Two, encompassing those other changes, around February 1st, 2018. This gap in time will give players time to adjust to the new rules, re-design their Powers, adjust their Stat builds, and re-structure their Skills.
A list of changes will follow. Additional details about the changes released with Part One will have their own sections further down.
Summary
Skills
To begin any discussion about the significant changes to Skills, we have to start with the new Major and Minor Skill distinction.
Major Skills are the primary Skills used to check against each other. This includes all of the Universal Skills, the individual magic skills of the races, and a single Neutral Skill: Shunkō. These skills usually do not have effects at specific ranks, as their "effects" are the improved results you gain during Checks involving those Skills.
Minor Skills are completely different. These are more niche, esoteric abilities that do not Check against other Skills. Examples include healing, such as Kaidō, the famous Hierro, and Quincy Sklaverie. These Neutral Skills can sometimes bring entirely new abilities to the table, as Sklaverie allows you to copy Minor Skills from others. Fullbringers even have a Minor Skill that allows them to copy the unique Powers of others!
Neutral Skills are where the variety and unique effects of Minor Skills can really shine. Examples include the ability to (potentially) seal away Releases by draining their new Release Timers. There is also a Skill for all of you Zaraki Kenpachi-hopefuls called Indomitable Will, allowing you to continue fighting despite having a Fatal Wound -- and it also allows you, at Proficient, to instantly activate a Release when you take damage!
There are also three somewhat extreme, but potentially very fun Minor Skills, at the very end of the Neutral list. Whether brave, or, like me, extremely stupid, you may in fact consider using some of those as well.
Keep in mind that these Skills are not a limitless grab bag for your use. While you always have the full set of Universal Skills, you only have two slots to use for any Racial and Neutral Skills you may want. You gain a third slot at Prestige; along with your race's appropriate Prestige skill, such as Inner Hollow Resonance.
Many of these Skills, such as Blut, Art of Killing, and Teleportation, have immense ramifications when used by or against certain builds. While min-maxing will always give you optimal Blocking and Dodging Check results (usually, now, that is) you may still find yourself on the losing end when some of these new Skills are in play. Change your builds wisely.
Checks and Ranges
The very foundation of our game is the idea of Checks, comparison stats and skills (together or separately) to determine the result of an interaction between player-characters. One of the results, now shaken up by the addition of Minor Skills and their effects, was that min-max builds where two Stats were kept at maximum and two at minimum, were universally superior in all instances.
To further shake up the status quo, Checks have been changed. The first, most obvious difference is that Equivalent Combatants for Dodge and Block Checks now always results in some sort of Wound. During evenly-matched combat, the most common sort where game mechanics would be necessary to resolve a dispute, this will keep the battle progressing to a conclusion. Furthermore, it ensures that Defense is constantly being used, making those who would shirk it in order to max out any other stat choose very carefully.
The next major change is the addition of Range, and Checks to change Range during combat. This system works very simply: You're either in melee range or you're not. Moving away or close to your target successfully relies entirely on your Speed stat and Hohō skill. This means that if you shirk Speed for any other stat, you risk your opponent being able to escape, or staying out of range of you entirely.
Of course, we can't talk about this without talking about the famous issue of Strength versus Spirit. Spirit has, for the longest time, been an issue with our players as it was, for the most part, outright superior to Strength. Even with the introduction of Ranges, you may be thinking that Spirit has the advantage of working no matter the distance. You would be correct.
However, you would do well to remember that certain skills give unique advantages to melee, Strength-based checks. Furthermore, Ranges themselves provide a disadvantage to Spirit users: If you use a ranged attack while out of melee range, your target may fully dodge that attack at Equivalent. This creates the only situation in normal combat where damage may be entirely avoided at Equivalent Combatants, forcing Spirit users into melee (and therefore, at risk with melee-only fighters) to avoid this weakness. Also keep in mind that there are many situations where Strength may be used at range as well, such as with thrown weapons.
This combination of changes results in a number of hard, mechanical situations in which Spirit is not outright superior to Strength and may, in fact, put the Spirit user at a clear disadvantage. Once again, choose your new builds very wisely, as creative combinations of Stats and Skills may now overpower min-max builds with the right conditions.
NPCs and Ranks
This change has its roots in the setting and world changes to be covered in Part Two. However, in order for players to prepare their characters to qualify for certain Ranks prior to February 1st, and to introduce the idea, this section is being released now.
The core motivation behind this change is that the Bleach setting created by Tite Kubo is frequently far larger than Bleach Gotei could and would ever be. In a book, or manga, created by a single author, a large cast is no problem. In a game where player-characters will go inactive, or the right kind of player-characters for certain ranks simply may not exist at present, this sort of large, demanding setting does not mix well with a play-by-post forum roleplay. In fact, it never has, resulting in situations where there are huge gaps in our world.
Most famously, this includes the Quincy being almost entirely empty until late 2016. This also includes the current situation in Las Noches, where there are no player-characters qualified to hold higher Espada ranks let alone the position of King.
Our setting is much larger than our player-characters. In the past, Bleach Gotei took the position that our player-characters represented the best of the in-game world, resulting in the problems described above. Now, however, we will be making it official that the "scope" of our player-characters and setting does not encompass the entire game world at all times. Sometimes, there may not be a good Captain of the Third, King of Hueco Mundo, or Sternritter.
This is where NPCs come in, and the associated requirements to replace an NPC or fill a vacant Rank. NPCs represent other characters in the world that would fill in the positions that our current set of PCs does not. While some ranks will remain deliberately vacant, as they create or represent interesting in-character situations, many will be filled by NPCs. For instance, it may be much more interesting to play a Fourth Division Shinigami when there's an NPC Captain you may reference for orders, projects, and other events in the game world. It may be much more interesting to play an Arrancar when there are NPC Espada for you to strive to overcome, hide in the shadow of, and generally make reference to throughout your storytelling.
These NPCs will have a listed player who currently maintains them, and they have full and final authority over references made to the character (such as orders given by a Captain) and any threads the NPC may get involved in.
Those NPCs, and that particular aspect of this change, will be filled out with the release of Part Two.
Finally, I want to cover the requirements to replace an NPC or fill a purposefully vacant rank. These are flexible: a combination of GP, Masteries, and Releases that qualify your player-character to believably hold a rank. However, as Bleach Gotei is a player-driven game, characters holding ranks that appoint other ranks can still do so at their sole discretion, regardless of the listed requirements.
Conclusion
I encourage you to read the full details of these released changes in the Character Mechanics, Earning GP, Skill Repository, and NPCs and Ranks threads. Once again, on a personal level, I'm very excited for these changes, particularly NPCs, Ranks, Checks, Ranges, and all of the new Skills. I'm looking forward to rebuilding my characters layouts and Powers to fit these new systems and rules, and I encourage uncertain players to look to some of the things that I will be proposing (and going through approval as well) to help with your own work.
I'd also like to mention one final "change," which is in regards to Power design. As Powers are now the only mechanically-unique thing on Bleach Gotei, you may sometimes struggle to work them out. I want to make it clear that Staff is happy to provide advice via posts on the board, PMs, and particularly the Player Help channel in Discord, but Staff do not design Powers for you and their advice is not tacit approval. Staff have their own things to do, and your Powers, Stats, and Skills are ultimately your responsibility. Furthermore, they can also make mistakes, and may propose things that other Staff members deny and require changes to. In fact, I will probably propose new mechanical functions for my character's powers that are not immediately approved.
To close this major announcement out, I'd like to say that there will be no discussion within this particular thread. Instead, all discussion of this announcement and the content within will take place here.
Introduction
Two weeks ago, Hazuki announced the barebones basics of some incoming changes for Bleach Gotei. These changes are some of the most fundamental ones that we have ever considered, enough so that I believe it is fit to call this an entirely new iteration of our game: Bleach Gotei 3.0
In many ways, Bleach Gotei 1.0 began with our move off of Forumsmotion in September 2012. Prior to this, Bleach Gotei's colorful history could be called a sort of Beta. To extend the version number analogy, you could say that these were Bleach Gotei 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and so on. The ultimate culmination of Bleach Gotei 1.0 was in late 2014 and early 2015, with an extremely heavy, cumbersome system of mechanics centered almost entirely around constant Stat Boosts and Buffs in combat, ad nauseum.
Bleach Gotei 2.0, in March 2015, changed the focus of Bleach Gotei radically: We wanted to expand our appeal, and our frequently argument-inducing, high-maintenance mechanics system was a huge hindrance to this goal. To accomplish this, we went and eliminated almost all hard mechanics, resulting in a game that had little more than Comparison Tiers and some informational skills for players to put to use as they saw fit. During this period of time, we successfully became the biggest and most active community of our Bleach-roleplaying niche on the entire internet.
Nearly three years later, in the middle of January 2018, we would like to begin Bleach Gotei 3.0.
While the changes of Bleach Gotei 2.0 brought us great popularity and activity, there were some fundamental problems with the game as it stood. First and foremost, the game ended up in a quasi-functional state where our game rules and mechanics failed to perform their stated purpose: to resolve disagreements between players. Other, quality-of-life issues arose as well: such as nothing counterbalancing the broad efficacy of Spirit, mixed ideas regarding what was acceptable for Powers, absolutely nothing encouraging anything but min-max Stat builds, the mess of Custom Skills, and countless, other mechanical issues.
The goal, then, of Bleach Gotei 3.0? Overall, we aim to resolve these mechanical issues to create a lightweight, easy-to-play game that still achieves the stated purpose of being able to resolve disputes between players as necessary. Bleach Gotei 2.0 proved that we could make the biggest, most popular Bleach community; now we want to try to make one that is indisputably the best.
On a personal level, I'm very excited for the new features that have resulted.
While Bleach Gotei 3.0 will encompass changes to our setting and game world as well, this announcement will cover our rules and game mechanics exclusively. Look for Part Two, encompassing those other changes, around February 1st, 2018. This gap in time will give players time to adjust to the new rules, re-design their Powers, adjust their Stat builds, and re-structure their Skills.
A list of changes will follow. Additional details about the changes released with Part One will have their own sections further down.
Summary
- Skills have been completely re-done, adding in the distinction of Minor and Major Skills. Within some of these Skills are benefits unique to melee, Strength-based Checks, giving non-Spirit users additional options.
- Neutral Skills have been added, creating a pool of general skills that anyone can select and reflavor as they see fit. These Skills are niche, providing highly effective abilities when the opponent is of the proper build and fighting style, adding yet another dimension to choosing your layout.
- For those who are not already aware: Custom Skills have been eliminated and largely replaced by Neutral Skills.
- Powers have been entirely redefined, now reprsenting the only mechanically-customizable facet of Bleach Gotei.
- Actions have been rewritten, clarifying their use with some of our new features.
- Blocking and Dodging Checks have been changed, and are now affected by certain skills and the new Range feature.
- Range has been added, along with an associated Check to change Range. This adds entirely new value to the Speed stat and Hohō Skill, and further changes the considerations made when selecting a Stat build.
- A proper Detection Check has been defined for Reiatsu Perception, which continues to be the checking skill for things like Illusion-based Powers.
- Death GP has been expanded to 40% of a player-character's Total GP. Retirement GP has been expanded to 50% of a player-character's Total GP. This significantly reduces the gap between them. This change only applies to characters that die or retire on or after January 15th, 2018.
- Players are now able to purchase automatic approval for up to their first two Masteries using Carryover GP either from Death or Retirement.
- The concept of Site-Canon NPCs has been introduced, along with certain rules regarding Ranks held by NPCs, or simply left vacant. This will be fully expanded with Part Two.
Skills
To begin any discussion about the significant changes to Skills, we have to start with the new Major and Minor Skill distinction.
Major Skills are the primary Skills used to check against each other. This includes all of the Universal Skills, the individual magic skills of the races, and a single Neutral Skill: Shunkō. These skills usually do not have effects at specific ranks, as their "effects" are the improved results you gain during Checks involving those Skills.
Minor Skills are completely different. These are more niche, esoteric abilities that do not Check against other Skills. Examples include healing, such as Kaidō, the famous Hierro, and Quincy Sklaverie. These Neutral Skills can sometimes bring entirely new abilities to the table, as Sklaverie allows you to copy Minor Skills from others. Fullbringers even have a Minor Skill that allows them to copy the unique Powers of others!
Neutral Skills are where the variety and unique effects of Minor Skills can really shine. Examples include the ability to (potentially) seal away Releases by draining their new Release Timers. There is also a Skill for all of you Zaraki Kenpachi-hopefuls called Indomitable Will, allowing you to continue fighting despite having a Fatal Wound -- and it also allows you, at Proficient, to instantly activate a Release when you take damage!
There are also three somewhat extreme, but potentially very fun Minor Skills, at the very end of the Neutral list. Whether brave, or, like me, extremely stupid, you may in fact consider using some of those as well.
Keep in mind that these Skills are not a limitless grab bag for your use. While you always have the full set of Universal Skills, you only have two slots to use for any Racial and Neutral Skills you may want. You gain a third slot at Prestige; along with your race's appropriate Prestige skill, such as Inner Hollow Resonance.
Many of these Skills, such as Blut, Art of Killing, and Teleportation, have immense ramifications when used by or against certain builds. While min-maxing will always give you optimal Blocking and Dodging Check results (usually, now, that is) you may still find yourself on the losing end when some of these new Skills are in play. Change your builds wisely.
Checks and Ranges
The very foundation of our game is the idea of Checks, comparison stats and skills (together or separately) to determine the result of an interaction between player-characters. One of the results, now shaken up by the addition of Minor Skills and their effects, was that min-max builds where two Stats were kept at maximum and two at minimum, were universally superior in all instances.
To further shake up the status quo, Checks have been changed. The first, most obvious difference is that Equivalent Combatants for Dodge and Block Checks now always results in some sort of Wound. During evenly-matched combat, the most common sort where game mechanics would be necessary to resolve a dispute, this will keep the battle progressing to a conclusion. Furthermore, it ensures that Defense is constantly being used, making those who would shirk it in order to max out any other stat choose very carefully.
The next major change is the addition of Range, and Checks to change Range during combat. This system works very simply: You're either in melee range or you're not. Moving away or close to your target successfully relies entirely on your Speed stat and Hohō skill. This means that if you shirk Speed for any other stat, you risk your opponent being able to escape, or staying out of range of you entirely.
Of course, we can't talk about this without talking about the famous issue of Strength versus Spirit. Spirit has, for the longest time, been an issue with our players as it was, for the most part, outright superior to Strength. Even with the introduction of Ranges, you may be thinking that Spirit has the advantage of working no matter the distance. You would be correct.
However, you would do well to remember that certain skills give unique advantages to melee, Strength-based checks. Furthermore, Ranges themselves provide a disadvantage to Spirit users: If you use a ranged attack while out of melee range, your target may fully dodge that attack at Equivalent. This creates the only situation in normal combat where damage may be entirely avoided at Equivalent Combatants, forcing Spirit users into melee (and therefore, at risk with melee-only fighters) to avoid this weakness. Also keep in mind that there are many situations where Strength may be used at range as well, such as with thrown weapons.
This combination of changes results in a number of hard, mechanical situations in which Spirit is not outright superior to Strength and may, in fact, put the Spirit user at a clear disadvantage. Once again, choose your new builds very wisely, as creative combinations of Stats and Skills may now overpower min-max builds with the right conditions.
NPCs and Ranks
This change has its roots in the setting and world changes to be covered in Part Two. However, in order for players to prepare their characters to qualify for certain Ranks prior to February 1st, and to introduce the idea, this section is being released now.
The core motivation behind this change is that the Bleach setting created by Tite Kubo is frequently far larger than Bleach Gotei could and would ever be. In a book, or manga, created by a single author, a large cast is no problem. In a game where player-characters will go inactive, or the right kind of player-characters for certain ranks simply may not exist at present, this sort of large, demanding setting does not mix well with a play-by-post forum roleplay. In fact, it never has, resulting in situations where there are huge gaps in our world.
Most famously, this includes the Quincy being almost entirely empty until late 2016. This also includes the current situation in Las Noches, where there are no player-characters qualified to hold higher Espada ranks let alone the position of King.
Our setting is much larger than our player-characters. In the past, Bleach Gotei took the position that our player-characters represented the best of the in-game world, resulting in the problems described above. Now, however, we will be making it official that the "scope" of our player-characters and setting does not encompass the entire game world at all times. Sometimes, there may not be a good Captain of the Third, King of Hueco Mundo, or Sternritter.
This is where NPCs come in, and the associated requirements to replace an NPC or fill a vacant Rank. NPCs represent other characters in the world that would fill in the positions that our current set of PCs does not. While some ranks will remain deliberately vacant, as they create or represent interesting in-character situations, many will be filled by NPCs. For instance, it may be much more interesting to play a Fourth Division Shinigami when there's an NPC Captain you may reference for orders, projects, and other events in the game world. It may be much more interesting to play an Arrancar when there are NPC Espada for you to strive to overcome, hide in the shadow of, and generally make reference to throughout your storytelling.
These NPCs will have a listed player who currently maintains them, and they have full and final authority over references made to the character (such as orders given by a Captain) and any threads the NPC may get involved in.
Those NPCs, and that particular aspect of this change, will be filled out with the release of Part Two.
Finally, I want to cover the requirements to replace an NPC or fill a purposefully vacant rank. These are flexible: a combination of GP, Masteries, and Releases that qualify your player-character to believably hold a rank. However, as Bleach Gotei is a player-driven game, characters holding ranks that appoint other ranks can still do so at their sole discretion, regardless of the listed requirements.
Conclusion
I encourage you to read the full details of these released changes in the Character Mechanics, Earning GP, Skill Repository, and NPCs and Ranks threads. Once again, on a personal level, I'm very excited for these changes, particularly NPCs, Ranks, Checks, Ranges, and all of the new Skills. I'm looking forward to rebuilding my characters layouts and Powers to fit these new systems and rules, and I encourage uncertain players to look to some of the things that I will be proposing (and going through approval as well) to help with your own work.
I'd also like to mention one final "change," which is in regards to Power design. As Powers are now the only mechanically-unique thing on Bleach Gotei, you may sometimes struggle to work them out. I want to make it clear that Staff is happy to provide advice via posts on the board, PMs, and particularly the Player Help channel in Discord, but Staff do not design Powers for you and their advice is not tacit approval. Staff have their own things to do, and your Powers, Stats, and Skills are ultimately your responsibility. Furthermore, they can also make mistakes, and may propose things that other Staff members deny and require changes to. In fact, I will probably propose new mechanical functions for my character's powers that are not immediately approved.
To close this major announcement out, I'd like to say that there will be no discussion within this particular thread. Instead, all discussion of this announcement and the content within will take place here.
